In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 1:20-23 and Paul’s reminder of the change Christ has accomplished on behalf of believers. Christians need to remember what they have been saved from to draw even more lovingly after Jesus Christ.
1. The condition in which God found us prior to the act of grace (21a)
2. The present standing of believers in grace (20, 22a)
3. The future position of believers after receiving God’s grace (22b-23)
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okay you can take your Bibles and turn to Colossians and before I begin this morning I do want to mention this time of year uh it’s a great time to get in the habit of this next year of reading through the Bible probably the one of the best habits that I um began to gain victory in as I I started fell off the wagon started again and then finally I read through the Bible every year and it’s been very beneficial so we do have some daily Bible readers uh they have a Psalm and a proverb Old Testament a new testament every day it’s got the date right there all you do is open it up to the date and read that passage of scripture and it becomes something where you want to get up and you want to read the word of God so we have a couple over there we have the MacArthur daily Bible That’s The New American Standard and then we also have the everyday Bible That’s the English Standard Version so whatever one you would like to buy and one’s like twenty dollars and the other one’s twelve dollars so I really do recommend you starting that habit if you and of course the new year is a good time to do it if you’re going to do one thing that’s that’s worth it it would be to start reading through the Bible and then uh by the end of the year either you read through the Bible halfway three quarters or all the way and believe if you get all the way through it that’s a victory right and it starts forming that big picture of the whole scripture in your mind and uh it’s amazing actually and so I would recommend you do that so I would admonish you today if you don’t have a one-year Bible to get one apart from your regular Bible that you use and start getting into that habit amen all right so let’s look at the word of God and let me have a word of Prayer I do want to also mention that next week is going to kind of like a be a different kind of Sunday uh because next Sunday what we’re going to do is we’re going to have a baptism service to people getting baptized and then we’re also going to have a deacon ordination uh covet kind of put us off track a little bit I’m doing those kind of things uh at least the ordination and so uh we’re going to have our deacons and ordain them next week and put them into uh they they get the asterisk off the bulletin and now they’re they’re full deacons we do and they do a lot of work around the church a lot of ministry Mercy Ministry and then also we are going to um license Dave Pastor Dave kaposha to the gospel Ministry uh next week and we’re going to lay hands on them and and just recognizing their gifts and the abilities God’s given them the deacons and and Dave and um and just the elders will lay your hands on them pray for them and let them know let you know that these are our elders these are our deacons and in the church and so we want to do that and it’s commanded in Scripture that we do that and we want to make that public and so we’re going to do that next week all right so just be ready for that and I’ll be using scripture that has to do with those kind of things next Sunday but right now let’s have a word of prayer and we’ll get into Colossians uh chapter 1 verse 20 to 23. Lord thank you this morning for your people thank you Lord for bringing them out thank you Lord for how you’re working in their life how you’ve been working in their life all this past year and Lord we know that you continued to when you started you will continue until the day of Christ and Lord we want to be faithful we want to put off our sin we want to be more holy this year than we were last year and Lord I pray and thank you so much for the scriptures that transforms our mind that causes us to think like you want us to think causes us to think biblically and have the mind of Christ on how to look at life how to look at ourselves and how to stand firm in the truth no matter what comes down the pike that we would not be wavering to and fro by everything that’s being thrown at us but we would stand firm in the truth and that as we do that Lord we know it produces in us a joy and a peace that nobody else could have except the children of God and so I thank you for that bless us now as we look at your word and Christ I pray amen so today I’m going to be looking at really Christ’s relationship to the redeemed before and then after conversion and I’d like you to look at the scriptures I’m going to read verse 14.
through verse 23.
Colossians chapter 1 in whom we have Redemption the Forgiveness of sins he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on Earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through him and for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together he is also ahead of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place in everything for it was the father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross through him I say whether things on earth or things in heaven and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mine engaged in evil Deeds yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and Beyond reproach if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel that you have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I Paul was made a minister so again in this book of Colossians it was written to warn against error which was in evidence in those days and it it also is in evidence in our day and so then people believed back then that between themselves and God there was a long shadowy line of beings they refer to of of course that Angels who demanded worship and of course pacification and that Jesus was one of these so taking Jesus out of his rightful place and moving him down and lowering him now whatever Satan uses from his toolbox of Tricks the enemy’s goal is always to distort biblical Doctrine and the true God pleasing way of living the Christian Life but specifically the enemy’s ultimate goal is to is designed to rob the Lord of his Central Primary place from Genesis to Revelation it’s all pointing to Christ and of course the enemy wants the cloud and distort that true Redemptive work and even the person of Christ and these distortions of Truth and heresies they want to spoil the Christian they want to cheat you they want to take you captive they want to move you away in order to cloud and distort what Christ has done on behalf of all who would believe in him that’s why we find in chapter 2 verse number eight that we are to not let anyone take us captive through philosophy and empty deceit but we are to live rather according to the doctrine of Christ and we’ve already learned in our text that Jesus Christ is the preeminent one in Salvation the salvation of Sinners no other person could redeem us forgive us transfer us out of the domain of Darkness into the kingdom of God’s son and make us fit for the Christian Life and then ultimately to be in the presence of God no one else could do that no one else has done that except Jesus Christ so we are to give thanks to the father because of so great salvation that has been given to us by the Lord because he has qualified US he’s made us fit he’s rescued us he’s transferred us and he bought us so this is the Glorious character of this salvation that the Lord has given to us as his children and God the father has delivered you who are truly Believers in Christ from that domain of Darkness the lights have been turned on and he has also brought you into the kingdom of Christ one day we’ll we will have the full benefit of that where when we’re actually there but we are there now and in that movement towards the consummation of everything God is also doing something else he’s changing your nature he is giving you a new heart he’s changing your heart so in our former condition apart from Christ we were in such a terrible spiritually dead State and we didn’t even really know it we thought of ourselves as free not realizing that we were under the control of the domain of Darkness and that we were enslaved to our own sins and so the the word of God is the only place that we can get a clear realistic picture of the tragic condition of all of us prior to receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and savior you know what even if we haven’t yet repented of our sin and receive Christ as Lord and Savior you are presently in that condition if you have received Christ as your lord and savior then you were in a new position so here is a snapshot this morning in our text of all people who were apart from Christ and those who are presently apart from Christ so it is beneficial for us to often remind ourselves of what we were before in fact when you read scripture you find out well I didn’t think I was like that but then the scriptures describe how God really saw us and how we really were and then it kind of humbles you and realizes and magnifies the gospel to see how great salvation really is and how much you didn’t deserve it and how much mercy and Grace God given you has given you in the work that was done on your behalf so you can be saved made right with God it just makes you want to be a more faithful servant of Christ so the first major point this morning I want to stress is first in verse number 21 is the condition in which God found us prior to the act of grace and the act of Grace is God giving you the free gift of eternal life in which you received that’s the act of Grace notice in verse 21 it says although you were formally alienated and hostile in mind engaged in evil Deeds now there’s a lot in that little passage of scripture because there we see the bad news about who we really were prior to Christ this is the bad news and you you need to know the bad news and even you need to go over the bad news once you’re a believer because it’s very humbling when we begin to think about what God has done now notice under this first title is that we see that apart from Christ you and I were estranged notice what it says in verse 21 and although you were formally alienated now we were that means we were estranged and just think human beings who were created in God’s image created good and innocent of evil as the word of God says in Genesis let us make man in our image according to our likeness and God created man in his own image and the image of God he created him male and female he created them and also that God created us to have fellowship with him Adam and Eve had fellowship with the Lord in the garden but we became aliens we became estranged from God and that means We Were Strangers to God separated from him and because after Adam sinned rebelled and disobeyed God mankind fell into sin and died spiritually so sin brought with it chaos it brought chaos upon all of humanity and even the whole universe because of Adam’s sin the universe was cursed we were cursed because of Adam’s sin and rebellion and that brought with the disease it brought with it murder of all kinds all kinds of social disorders earthquakes hurricanes wearing down the whole of creation was dispersed and it’s still wearing down the earth and the universe it’s kind of like falling apart like an old garment and that was all because of sin but what it really destroyed the most was the image of God in man that was shattered there it brought this curse upon our natures the and the sin nature has been passed down to every human being ever since like Paul said in Romans through one man’s sin entered into the world and death through sin so death passed or spread to all men because all have sin now we have a bad and rotten heart a rebellious nature toward God Jeremiah said the heart is more deceitful than all evil and is desperately sick even when David King David sinned against Bathsheba and committed adultery and then send her husband Uriah into the hottest part of battle knowing he was going to be killed being uh someone who actually committed murder what does he cry out after that crime Lord created me a clean heart because sin again destroys things it shatters things now why is the world in such confusion such evil such sorrow such bitterness such pain and suffering why do we see that all over the place well the answer to that question is right here in chapter one of Colossians where it says in verse number 13 for he rescued us from the domain of Darkness now what I’m pointing out there is that we were under the power of the evil one Satan himself we live in Satan’s domain where spiritual wickedness resides and after Lucifer fell from God because of his pride he has hated God ever since that Satan is in the world and the world is in his embrace the first John tells us the whole world lies in the power of the evil one and so the devil wants to keep the Lost In The Dark he wants to keep them ignorant of the Gospel of light where Paul even says the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not see the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God so the enemy also though wants to delude and trip up the Saved and Rob them of their peace and Rob them of their joy and stifle their growth and ruin their testimonies as children of light he wants to get them off a firm footing and that’s why we see in verse number 23 which is part of the conclusion of this passage notice what it says it says if here’s a conditional if if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel see this is what why Paul is writing he doesn’t want the false teachers or false Doctrine or people who bring false Communications about what the truth is to shake you and move you off your foundation believe me in the true gospel there is a firm foundation we’re standing on Solid Ground don’t let you don’t let anybody move you from there and Satan wants to move you from there he knows he can’t get your soul anymore but he should could ruin your life in the sense of ruining your testimony to get you to go back into sin so that means that Darkness is actually ungodliness it’s opposition to God it’s estrangement from God and it includes all kinds of dreadful Dreadful evils which are involved uh which involved really the evil state of the heart and the mind that the power of sin the tyranny of error the slavery of corruption these things are everywhere you look and they are characteristic of the human nature they are characteristic of human existence it’s everywhere however if the devil did nothing if he left you alone the world would still be full of evil and full of wickedness and why is that because there is evil in US now some people will say well I never thought of myself as evil that’s the point of scripture this is how God saw us we didn’t see ourselves that way but God saw us that way and so it is good for us to see who we were so we can know the change in now who we are in Christ Jesus in fact if you look just look over in verse number 9 of Chapter 3 of Colossians and notice what it says there in number nine of chapter three it says it says do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices see that’s what we did we practiced evil every day of our life but we didn’t think that we didn’t look at it that way in fact the very term alienate in this verse that we’re looking at points to people having a settled alienation from God and our living life apart from God people you and I used to live as if there was no God even though we could have been religious we could have been quote unquote good people but we lived and decided things apart from being responsible to our creator and to God the psalmist had already pointed this out in the Psalms where it says in Psalm 10 4 the wicked in the haughtiness of his counten countenance does not seek him all his thoughts are there is no God so they are living a kind of independent autonomous life and think they are free but they are not the attitude their attitude toward God is a continual state of hostility see we were all slaves to sin so the bad news is that all people are estranged from God and are under God’s judgment that’s just the first little thing it says in the text and unfortunately we are not done giving the bad news because if you look back at verse number 20 up one of chapter uh one we saw that apart from Christ we were estranged but also apart from Christ we were hostile in our mind notice what it says and although you were formally and then it says hostile in mind that you and I were hostile in our thinking in other words we were enemies in our mind toward God and toward truth everyone born in the world is by nature an enemy of God a hater of God even again Paul says in Romans 5 10 for if you were enemies see we didn’t think of ourselves as enemies of God either we didn’t think ourselves as Ephesians says futiled in our mind darkened in our understanding ignorant of the ways of God hard of heart towards God and yet that’s exactly who we were that’s why we needed to be saved even way back in Genesis right before the flood why did God bring the flood the worldwide flood upon the world because God saw the wickedness of man was great on the Earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually now you can’t say that’s the other guy that’s me that’s you that’s who I was that’s why we need to be saved and that’s why God has to do a work on our heart to be saved because there’s nothing we can do to rescue ourselves from that condition you know I believe it was one mall evangelism uh a young girl came up and and uh right out of high school I think she just graduated and I asked her the two diagnostic questions you know what they are the first question being that have your comfortable place in your spiritual life that you know for sure if you die today you go to heaven or is that something you’re still working on and the second question would be if you were to die and stand before God and God would say to you why should I let you into my heaven would you what would you ask uh what would you tell them uh those are the questions and so she kind of gave a workspace answered and then she said to me I always believed in God and I said to her uh are you sure about that because the Bible says that can’t be the case because we’re all Sinners dead in sin alienated from God well that’s about as far as I got and she was highly offended and by uh by my response and she stormed off with her boyfriend pulling him along the way but people you meet people who say I always believed in God and I would have to say honestly you know you haven’t you believed in a god but it wasn’t the god of the Bible it was a God God you formulated in your own mind because see that’s all the natural mind could do it cannot do anything but formulate Idols in their mind so someone who says I’ve always believed in God must explain themselves as to what they mean by that statement according to the Bible that can’t be without qualification without a testimony that’s why when you say if you believe those things well then give me your story how did that happen how did you get right with God and usually when a person has a confused look on their face when you say that they have no testimony because they don’t understand the gospel now that’s a sad State and uh you and I could have been there at one time in our life but thank the Lord he doesn’t leave us alone The Book of Romans States emphatically it says because the mind is set on set on the flesh is hostile towards God and does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so so that is our mind that can it doesn’t matter how smart a person is how much education they have how much they experience they have in life their mind is unable to formulate thoughts correct thoughts about who God is and what God has done God has to do something so people who think God is this or God is that with their own thoughts apart from the authority of God’s word informing their understanding will make a God for themselves out of their own contemplations the word for that in in theologically is and scripturally is idolatry right we like to make idols and we do so and we make an idol and we make a God that will conform to what we like and what we don’t like right that’s what we’ll do and you could even call that God Jesus all right and yet it’s not the Jesus of the Bible now according to scripture that’s a violation of the first commandment you shall have no other gods before me the first in this first commandment the absolute sovereignty and preeminency of the Creator is this insistent upon since God is who he is he will tolerate No competitor or rival his claims on us are Paramount they are absolute so if people if the people were not worshiping the true and living God alone then they were worshiping some other God there are other gods besides Idols of wood and stone there’s money there’s pleasure there’s power there’s Fame there’s fashion there’s gluttony and the score of other things could be an idol which really makes self-supreme and usurps the rightful place of God in our affections and in our thoughts so that means that the natural person apart from Christ and the word of God does not seek God and does not live for God’s glory and is always ready to blame God and criticize him for everything everything evil they’ll criticize God for according if anything goes wrong if anything goes wrong God is at fault and they feel that God is unjust unfair and aloof to their life and this really this outside of Christ gets the mind gets God all wrong and why is that because the Bible tells us so that this is who we were in First Corinthians 2 14 the natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God why because their foolishness to him he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised so the bad news is all people are estranged from God all people are hostile in their thinking toward God and again our text in Colossians chapter 1 is still not done assessing our further bankruptcy apart from Christ because a third thing it says under this first point is that our condition prior to the act of Grace is that we were Wicked in our actions in verse number 21 it says engaged in evil Deeds that you and me were not passive in our wickedness we were engaged in our evil Deeds we were into them we love darkness and hiding what was below the surface in our hearts isn’t that what the gospel John tells us that this is the Judgment that light has come into the world and Men loved Darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed it says that all over scripture Ephesians says it like this that we have become callous and given ourselves over to sensuality and the practice of every kind of impurity and greediness with greediness so the Bible just describes us and you know why when it begins to describes us we have to say that was me that was you that’s where we were heading yes that’s where we’re heading so we were if you look in Colossians chapter 3 verse number five I want you to notice something we’re going to get there uh but I want you to notice what he says here I I want to kind of like highlight the sins people the Colossians were involved with in their culture in chapter 3 verse number five it says therefore consider the members of your Earthly body as dead to what immorality impurity passion evil desire greed which amounts to idolatry and then notice in verse number seven and in them you also once walked and you were living in them see we loved our sin we cannot deny that we loved what we were doing whatever Mage gave you pleasure would ever gave you fun whatever gave you something that delighted your soul that’s what you did and usually it was something you did in the dark you didn’t want anybody to know you were trying to hide it keep it down let’s not talk about that but the Bible says no that’s who you were why because your mind was darkened that you were dead in your sin so that’s what our lifestyle was just if I can give an example of how the dark and hostile mind in opposition to God and Truth goes against God’s design like as it works in our even present-day Society so if I were to you ask you a question would you agree that according to scripture that God has created human beings as male and female and has given parents the mandate to raise their children what would you say of course right matter of fact you would say that’s a lot of people in the world they would say of course that’s that’s a given yet that very principle is under attack in a huge way in our culture that today the question is who owns the child the choices between the parents who have taken the trouble to have and raise the child or the educational bureaucracy which is more likely than the parent to look upon the child as an asset or in other words a social engineering project to rearrange government and Society the child is a commodity see the the Fallen darkened mind thinks it knows best in relationship to a child’s orientation sexually what the direction of their life should be like that the parent should know best to that whereas children are now being taught that sexuality is fluid and can take them anywhere they want to go anywhere their desires would go anywhere the culture would want them to go and may I add being done usually without any input or approval of parents that the parents often find out later that their gender gender fluid book was already ready in the class to their children and they find out after the fact again this is the the darkened mind and where it usually goes and where it uh what it produces so as you are aware of today there’s all kinds of sexual sins all kinds of perverted Lifestyles that are being presented as alternative normal Lifestyles this is normal and that’s how they want to present it they are often packaged with a new vocabulary so as to soften the perverted connection that it has to it and the horror of these promoters of such things has a target audience in mind and usually Their audience are preschoolers ages six three to six that’s to Target the Young Minds while they’re still being developed so they can get them when they get older and many school boards are approving of books promoting the LGB T TQ Lifestyles to the innocent minds of children without the parents knowledge or approval in fact one such book that has been approved of by many school boards is already being read into classrooms across the country which is titled Julian is a mermaid authored by Jessica love it is a book about transgenderism a young boy who sees men lavishly dressed as women on a subway that he’s writing and he goes home and he thinks about dressing up just like the three ladies into a mermaid costume and to to be involved with the mermaid or the parade that’s coming up and so this is how the book is set up it’s a book that is praised as a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant expression of individuality it also received a award and yet this is offering up children on the altar of demons this is the age-old LIE has God said it see doubt is cast by a way of a question did God strictly create human beings as male and female or can we mess with that in the darkened mind and its hostility against God’s design they feel they have the right to disregard the normal design for their perverted design see this is where the Fallen darkened mind sets itself up against God showing its hatred of God’s design showing its hatred of what that which is is good and innocent and so I say that for this reason that’s just one example on where a darkened mind that is in Rebellion against God actually heads in a culture and we’re living in it right now but before we blame too many people you and I were the ones who helped that and the reason why I say that is because this is who we were people with filthy Minds people with Twisted selfish desires creatures with darkened Hearts engaged in Wiccan Wicked actions that’s who we were and remember remember this before anyone can receive the good news of the Gospel one must understand the bad news and we need to continue to understand the bad news about ourselves and in turn it makes the good news so much more clear and so much more glorious that it would cause us to praise God for what he’s done knowing that we really had nothing to do with it it was all God doing it so this is where the Marvel of the Gospel comes in what Christ came to do while we’re in this condition while we’re in this condition Christ did something now I want you to look back at Colossians chapter number one look at verse number 22.
it says yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you now this is what the Lord’s done and so this second major point is that this is our present standing as a believer in Grace that the believer in Christ is reconciled with God you know what that means it means that word reconcile means to change from a hostile position to a friendly disposition so God changes his position towards us and now we’re friends of God because of what Christ has done this means there’s no more estrangement there’s no more alienation there’s we’re no more enemies of God see you don’t have to reconcile friends but you surely do have to reconcile enemies and we had to be reconciled to God so Jesus will reconcile all things that exist once for all permanently we saw that we saw see that in verse number 20 though through him to reconcile all things to himself so that means that we have a restored relationship with God because of Jesus the second thing in our passage is that as Believers in Christ we’re at peace with God up to verse number 20 it says and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross that it will be a restoration not only of the universe but of relationships that God makes peace with us because of Christ no longer hostile towards God but at peace with God and we know it now see sin has ruined everything in heaven and earth and yet Jesus death on the cross changed everything for those who believe see corruptable things like silver and gold are the kind of things that do not procure Redemption these things are by Nature perishable subject to Decay and destruction you cannot buy and earn salvation but the Bible tells us that we have been bought and we have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ that Jesus blood is pure according to First Peter it says knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers but with Precious Blood as a lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ the blood of Christ is also also cleanses Us in first John chapter 1 verse 7 it says and the blood of Christ his son cleanses us from all sin that God does more than forgive he erases the stain of sin and he presents us as being cleansed before him also the blood of Christ Jesus you unites us where it tells us in Ephesians but now in Christ Jesus you were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ that the blood takes Godless Sinners who are far away from God and makes them righteous and brings them near to him and also the blood of Christ overcomes it says in Revelation 12 and they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb so we are at peace with God because of Jesus Christ and his death and death and the shedding of blood are both the same thing in scripture even though it may not mention blood death represents his the way he died and so he died for what reason so we could have peace with God but also the believer in Christ is forgiven by God back up to verse number 14 it says this in whom we have Redemption the Forgiveness of sins at the end of this verse it shows us that redemption and forgiveness go hand in hand and this word translated forgiveness means to send away to cancel the death that the heavenly father through Christ not only set us free and transferred us to his kingdom the kingdom of his son but he also canceled every sin dead so that we cannot be enslaved again or condemned by them and neither Satan can condemn us Satan can’t even make an indictment stick anymore because we are at peace with God we are forgiven by God we are reconciled to God and that is the beauty of the Gospel but what is the result of all that where does the all that lead what does the bad news that leads to the good news actually lead and becomes very practical for us well look at verse number 22 of chapter one and here’s the third major point that the future position of Believers after receiving God’s grace is this it says in verse 22 yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order what to present you before him holy and blameless and Beyond reproach that’s where it leads that’s the result and here’s this is the great and eternal result of Christ’s relationship to the church and the body of Believers he’s done this so he can present you and I before the father that’s why he’s done it and this word present could be used really in uh as a word that indicates one uh that one is placed before a court of justice or it could be used in a sacrificial metaphor I believe that the sacrificial metaphor fits the context because in it is an Old Testament picture to use animals which were qualified to be brought before God as a presentable sacrifice if the animal was not qualified it could not be presented before God in other words animals which were without flaw and worthy to be offered to God was the Old Testament way of doing it so only in our uh in our context here it is redeemed people who are presented before God not for sacrifice for the sacrifice has already been offered and accepted by the father in Christ Jesus see Jesus is not going to present us to the father as a heap of filthy rags but he will present his church his children the Sheep of his pasture as what it says in verse 22 first as holy before God all right holy means your your cleansed from all sin and you’re separated now to God also secondly the believer in Christ is presented before God is unblameable that means without fault without blemish absence of anything amiss in a sacrifice that would render it unworthy to be offered we are worthy sacrifices that God is going to offer Jesus is going to offer to the father and then thirdly it shows us here that we are believers are in Christ is that we’re free of all charges before God it says that we’re going to be Beyond reproach in verse 22.
that means unchargeable on unexcused free from all accusation that’s who we are going to be before God and if we think of it like that what a glorious gospel it is that God while we were yet sinners died for us and expressed and demonstrated his love toward us should we not live worthy of that High Calling should we not live in a way in which we learn to hate sin and to love Christ and serve him with all our heart all our mind all our soul and all our strength so Christ must be the object of our faith and we must remain stable and steadfast not letting anything or anyone move us away from the hope of the gospel and that means friends family co-workers culture whatever it may be believe me when you come to Christ there’s going to be plenty of opposition for you to give it up to get over the phase to throw in the towel right but don’t do it because this is a great salvation and this is what the Lord has rescued us from and you could have never done that yourself no one else could have done it only Christ could have done it done it and that’s why that’s why you and I no precious gifts before the father by Christ and that’s we ought to that’s the way we ought to think of ourselves that we’re no longer what we used to be we are something brand spanking new and God made us that let’s pray Lord thank you this morning Lord that the word of God is convicting deeply convicting and the word of God lord is is also deeply it’s uh the word of God is deeply freeing it frees us from bad and wrong thinking it frees us from looking at life wrongly it frees us from seeing you in a way that we should not but properly in the way we should it frees us from guilt of sin it frees us from anything that could hold us down and it makes us humble under your Mighty hand and Lord we thank you for the truth of scripture that you’ve taken us from a position that was tragic to a position that is glorious and you offer us Lord Jesus you will offer us before the father someday as sacrifices that are blameless pure and holy that no one can bring a charge against and for this we give you all the honor and the praise and I ask it and prayed in Christ’s name amen