 I don't know if y'all still have your bulletins, but in there there's an outline and Just as kind of a preparation the title is Christ glorified in our reconciliation and perseverance And actually this is going to be split up into two parts so the second part will be a month from now So the perseverance aspect of this we won't get to tonight The plan tonight is to focus on Christ glorified in our reconciliation, which is the already In perseverance, there's the already and then there's the not yet and Those are not to be separated, but we're gonna look at one at a time Separated in our thoughts So if you if y'all just think back you don't have to look right here, but if you think back do y'all remember Well, I would like to say that I this is my first time up here and I have a different speech than a lot of people around here So please try to look beyond that and hear faithfully to God Sometimes I feel like Peter at the fire and people are like your speech betrays you, you know, but so but Okay After Adam had sinned Adam and Eve the Lord said I will put enmity between you and the woman and Then if you look in Revelation 21 This is the the furthest not yet that's coming This is the ultimate peace that God is going to bring And I wanted to call it to your memory In chapter 21 verse 1 now I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away And there was no more sea Then I John saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men And he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself will be then with them and Be their God and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death No, nor sorrow nor crying. There should be no more pain for the former things have passed away And then if you look in verse 24 and The nations of those who are saved Shall walk in its light and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it Its gates shall not be shut at all by day There shall be no night there and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it But there shall by no means enter it Enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie But only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life So the reason why I read that tonight if you'll turn to Colossians I'll read tonight's text and then we'll proceed Chapter 1 verse 21 through 23 and You who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now he is reconciled in the body of his flesh through death To present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight If indeed you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel Which you heard which was preached to every creature under heaven of which I Paul became a minister Reconciliation is the focus and the response should be assurance the salvation that God is has Ushered in for you if you are a repentant believer in Christ if you've been born again to Be bold in your assurance And If you think about it this text talks about it as a past tense and you look ahead to where we read in Revelation where we're going There's aspects of God's salvation that are finished, but there's much more to come so I Want to hopefully from this text encourage you and honor Christ By talking about the already aspect of this piece that God has brought Okay, so Colossians is Written let me get my notes here It's it was written to Do a few things there were some problems going in Colisee that were affecting their understanding of of how to live the Christian life even affecting the gospel in certain ways and Different men have a different takes on what the problem actually was you know, was it external was it internal? But The issue was I Believe it was within the church because if you look in chapter 2 verse 18 It says let no one cheat you of your reward taking delight in false humility and worship of angels and Truding into those things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. It's it's personal You when you read the problems it seems like It's a little intimate in the church and he's talking about a person or persons So based on that and there's also if people say it was narcissism, but with new understanding of narcissism, there's no Indication that one of narcissism's major tenants is in this and that is that there is no Discussion on matter being evil in this book. So So the problem what is it I think it's helps to know what the problem is It's likely a local folk belief tendency To call on angels for help and protection from evil spirits Attested by many inscriptions and ancient documents. There was one magical stone amulet that was found in that area It was and it said Michael Gabriel Oreo Raphael protect the one who wears this flee. Oh, hated one Solomon pursues you so If it is a person, it's likely a religious spiritual guide That has come up within the church and he's presenting himself that way But he's led by a sensuous mind which should be read in Verse 18 is fleshly mind And he probably claimed to have a superior insight into the spiritual realm He probably was advising Christians practice practice certain rights Taboos and rituals as a means of protection from evil spirits and deliverance from afflictions There's also a Judaistic teaching in here If you look in verse 11, you know in him You are also circumcised with a circumcision may without hands and then if you go down to 16 so let no one judge you in food or in drink regarding a festival a new moon and Sabbath. That's clearly Jewish So with these mixture of these errors And the way that it was influencing the people Epaphorus who is actually likely the founder of the church it wasn't Paul because this church was about about a hundred miles from Ephesus and It's a small town it used to be thriving got small when Paul was preaching in Ephesus and on his missionary journey he was in Ephesus and While he was there if you look in the axe He preached there for over two years and it's likely during that time Epaphorus visited of Ephesus got converted God saved him and he returned home and preached the gospel in Colisee which was actually kind of a small area small town and then many Multiple people got saved Jewish Jews Jews and Gentiles and then this problem comes up with the local folk belief in this spiritual guide so Epaphorus is Distraught you know like There's nothing more Discouraging I guess a temptation to be discouraged when you see people falling away or people being influenced by error And he being grieved or being very much concerned but unequipped to handle it went all the way to wrong where Paul was in prison Because he wanted Help or revelation on how to handle this if you look in Philemon Chapter verse 23 Epaphorus my fellow prisoner so Epaphorus likely got prison imprisoned when he was there and then what Paul did wrote this letter and sent it back to Colisee along with Philemon the letter Philemon and along with Ephesians and he sent someone else with Philippians Okay, so knowing that the focus of this letter is on Christ It's focusing on him being all in all him being supreme and Him being In the believer by union This these teachings this man or this it was going on in the church was devaluing Christ So Paul writes this letter to bring them To the remembrance of who Christ is and that he is all you need Okay immediate context Have to go quicker here. I'm killing a lot of my time our time sorry If you look in chapter 1 verse 15 He is the image of the invisible God The firstborn over all creation for by him all things were created. This is talking about the son of his love That are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were Created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist and he is the head of the body The church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead That in all things he may have the preeminence So he is supreme over a creation verse 15 and he's supreme over the church almost like the recreation and it's because For the purpose that he might have the preeminence the superiority the supremacy over all things and In verse 19 for it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell That's the Godhead That's all the fullness of God should dwell in the body that Christ united to himself and By him to reconcile all things to himself by him So this is the father reconciling all things to himself by Jesus Christ Whether things on earth or things in heaven having made peace to the blood of his cross So we have this hymn and we have this attachment to the hymn that Christ is to be supreme over all that that's our purpose That's that's where we're going In in the glorification But then if for this letter for the Colossians who are having this very teachings and they're confused about how to live the Christian life they're confused about These angels that they're wondering do we call for them to get help for our problems? How are we protected? and In verse 21 Paul is reminding them That this work That Christ has done and will do has already begun with you He gets personal he says and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works Yet now he is reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy blameless and above approach in his sight So now you have a bit of the context the first point is Or I would say the main point of all this is Christ is glorified when we God's former enemies are assured of our peace with him and persevere Christ is glorified when we God's former enemies are assured of our peace with him and persevere Point one remember you were a stranger and an enemy before your conversion You can see that in verse 21 and now you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet Now he is reconciled. Well, that's not even a sentence Or an independent statement. It's it's it's actually linked to the main verb, which is reconciled And the point is is it's the it's the object of The subject God reconciles you so in English that will come at the end of a sentence But Paul's putting it at the beginning so that you will remember so that we will remember That we were once wicked and strangers If You will look if you remember in Ezekiel 36 God said in the new covenant that in the many promises that he was going to fulfill one of those is that he said you will remember your wicked ways and You will loathe yourselves in your own sight And I don't do this for your sake alone. It's for God's glory and The emphasis isn't on our wickedness here or even even though that's brought out in the text This is like kind of like a black canvas where you can see the bright star of God It's giving a background to Show the contrast of the glory of God in our reconciliation look who he reconciled Look who it is that God is reconciling to himself and if you will look in Psalm 58 Actually, I'm sorry. We don't have time so if you go to just Matthew 5 since the original sin sin that Has come to us through by nature and since the the guilt of Adam sin that has been imputed or credited to us all We are born Godless we're born idolaters and we're born strangers of God. We're born Aliens We don't belong with God. We don't want to have anything to do with God and If I want to demonstrate something If you look in Matthew 5 verse 23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you Leave your gift there before the altar and go your way first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift So we have reconciliation here, but what's the point of why why am I going here? Well? Think about this case if I'm at the altar and I'm gonna go pray and God says if you remember That Your brother has something against you You don't just change your attitude and keep giving your gift There's something between you you need to go deal with that be reconciled to him then give your gift and what that what that teaches is With the the offense there's a wall There's a ground for this separation that has occurred and it's the same way with us with God There is something between us and God. We're separated and We're aliens because of that separation We're also enemies Actually, the estrangement is because we're at enmity The problem between us and God is the hatred and then enmity is not just from us God is righteous and just and his enmity was towards us and Also something that's not brought out if you go back to Colossians in the in the in the English is the fact that Paul says Really I should say the spirit of God says about us That you were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works Well, what's not brought out there is the continuous aspect of this I Notice that when we asked the way I used to think I remember being lost I just thought I had done some bad things and I needed to do a little bit better And you know that when you evangelize to people They'll think that oh, yeah, there's some bad things and I hope I get to heaven Our thinking about our sin and about who God is is Completely deceived We continuously Continuously lived in our sin. We went we didn't have a break In Proverbs 21 it says even the plowing of the wicked even the plowing is sin So you're at work you remember this when you're lost and you're sinning You your motivations for work You're grumbling You have no desire to honor Christ you have no thankfulness That's the way we were in our minds we always like a picture a guy wakes up and he's just Somewhat bitter because he has to get up early He thinks because he's proud with his sinful nature that he shouldn't have to Get up so early I can't wait for Friday so that I can get up late on Saturday Everything we did in our mind and and it's proven by our works In other words remember Remember who you once were Remember how dark and how continuously dark you were how much you loved sin remember who it was that that Came to save you Remember that you and I we would never have turned to Christ never We would have never turned from those things. We were in ensnare to an Honor God now and honor Christ now by being thankful and rejoice Rejoice with full assurance. God has reconciled you by his son's death Remember Christ is glorified when we God's former enemies are assured of our peace with him and perseverance So if you move on to 22 I'm sorry 21 be yet now He is reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight if you'll notice it says once and now in verse 21 once so he's pointing out the past and And the be yet now he is reconciled With the amount of time we have left I want to talk about reconciliation It's a change of status with God and The only way that status can change is if You Have the enmity dealt with that wall that was between you and God It must have been dealt with and it's been dealt with in Christ Actually this word reconciled as the strongest form of it. It's a compound It's actually focuses on you have been reconciled from it's emphasizing from that to this In everywhere in the Bible you see reconciled it's always past tense This is one of those things there's salvation that we're saved now, but yet we're yet to be saved we're We're actually have to receive more forgiveness You know we have to if for me to say that I'm forgiven and I don't have to ask for forgiveness anymore is Means I'm still in my darkness still in darkness But reconciliation is so close to justification. It's one of those things the Bible talks about is done because of Christ The the status with God has gone from enemy to friend and he's done it It says he reconciled you this is to his glory He is doing this so that he might have the preeminence so that he might be supreme over you so that he might have his glory and Having you serve and be with him as we saw in Revelation 21 If you'll turn to Isaiah 53 How was this reconciliation come about in the body of his flesh through death In verse 4 there's so many aspects to salvation to talk about to explain reconciliation Accurately, but we only have time to focus on this aspect the fact that Christ was the one that that came voluntarily this though out of the Beloved son of God Voluntarily came It was the will of the father that he come and he came voluntarily to take upon that that sin and to suffer That we might be made peace with God verse 4 When he was on the cross that it says surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet We esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted We didn't even we didn't even understand why he was on the cross till God revealed that to us We thought that he was like Paul. We thought he was a curse Because of his own sin That's the way the people that's the way Paul thought But in verse 5, but that's not true Jesus Christ is God and man and he was on the cross not for his own sins for he'd never sinned But he was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes We are healed all we like sheep have gone astray estrangement From birth you went astray and the only way that you could have peace is with his Chastisement we turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all the reason why you should rejoice and have full assurance is Because of the person of Christ he is God and When God stood that day and took your judgment upon himself, it was worthy it was satisfactory and The application of this work of Christ comes in time for each believer By the work of God's spirit And if you're sitting here tonight, and you know that you were a former enemy And you're not the same way that you were You're not his enemy anymore That you're reconciled if you know that about yourself and you should be rejoicing You should be praising God and you should have full assurance you should be bold in your prayer because of the reconciliation that God has Paid for that he has dealt with You look at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 therefore brethren Having boldness to enter the holiness holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh and Having a high priest over the house of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith believe continue to believe Remember the cross remember Isaiah 53 let that go through your mind that you were the chastisement for your peace Was laid on him Let us draw near with a true heart full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and her bodies washed with pure water That came from the work of the spirit to the gospel So take the exhortation tonight take the encouragement God doesn't want or desire that you persevere with doubt God doesn't want you to live under doubtful fears in order to persevere God wants you to be fully assured and bold no and faith Not in your own strength, but in faith in Christ Knowing that his work is worthy of your assurance his work is worthy of your Your boldness Rejoice with full assurance. God has reconciled you by a son's death. Let's pray. Oh Lord God Father in heaven We praise you and thank you Lord Our lives Lord knowing how weak we are are yours We know that we are in union with you and you have Reconciled us to yourself that no longer are we who believe Lord who have been born again our enemies You call us friends Not because of who we are or what we've done, but because of your son Because of your will your election and and sending him that we might be saved by his blood And we praise you Lord and I pray for this congregation Lord I pray for our brothers and sisters that we each would be bold this week to preach your gospel That we would have full assurance of the the peace that you have bought and that we would be bold in our prayers and Be assured of your salvation bringing glory to your name like Abraham when people see us Lord in our Trials and being bold they will Be forced to look at you Because because of the faith you've given us they'll be forced to say that That boldness doesn't come from man It it comes from you old Lord. I pray this Lord for your glory. Amen