Jesus Our Lord

[0:00] Well if we could, this evening, with the Lord's help, if we could turn back to that passage that we read in Paul's letter to the Colossians chapter 1.

[0:19] Colossians chapter 1, and as I said we're going to look at verses 15 to 23, but we'll just read again at verse 15. He, that is Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

[0:35] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church.

[0:56] He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. I want to begin this evening by asking the very simple question, how do you become a disciple of Jesus?

[1:19] How do you become a disciple of Jesus Christ? Do you become a disciple by being a good person? And you know the answer is no. Do you become a disciple by praying and reading your Bible?

[1:32] No. You know the answer is no. Do you become a disciple of Jesus Christ by coming to church? You know the answer is no. Do you become a disciple by being baptized?

[1:43] You know that the answer is no. Do you become a disciple by coming to the prayer meeting? You know that the answer is no. Do you become a disciple of Jesus by sitting at the Lord's table?

[1:55] And you know that the answer is no. How do you become a disciple of Jesus Christ? And the reason I ask this question is because, as we've said before, when Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians, the false teachers there, they were claiming that these Christians, they needed to do all these things that we've just mentioned, and they had to do a lot more in order to be a proper disciple of Jesus Christ.

[2:21] But the truth is, in order to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, we must simply confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that he is Lord over every area of our lives.

[2:37] That's what we see with the Apostle Peter, don't we, in John chapter 6. You remember, Jesus had just fed the 5,000. There were many who were following him. But when Jesus started to preach, we're told that many walked with him no longer.

[2:53] And then Jesus turns to the 12, and he says to them, Will you also go away? And it's at that point that Peter makes the confession of the disciple.

[3:05] Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we know and believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter made the confession of a disciple.

[3:17] He confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. Then when we come to Calvary, that climactic moment in the Gospel, and we listen in to the conversation that was taking place at the cross.

[3:32] Jesus, as you know, he's crucified between two malefactors. One malefactor, he's criticizing Jesus, saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.

[3:43] But the other thief, he's saying something completely different. And up until that point in his life, we know that that thief had probably never been a good person. He had never read his Bible.

[3:55] He had never been to church. He had never been baptized. He had never been to a prayer meeting. He had never sat at the Lord's table. And even though he had never done any of those things, the one thing he did do is confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

[4:09] Because when that thief on the cross turned to Jesus, he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

[4:20] And that confession, Jesus Christ is Lord, that was enough for Jesus to promise the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise.

[4:31] That confession that Jesus is Lord, it was enough to make him a disciple of Jesus. He didn't need anything extra. He didn't need something more.

[4:42] He didn't have to do something. He didn't have to wear something. He didn't have to be something. All he had to do was confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And you know, that's what Paul stressed to the Romans.

[4:54] When he was, in Romans chapter 10, he's preaching about the need to preach the gospel. And he says to those who need to hear the gospel, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.

[5:13] And so how do we become a disciple of Jesus? By simply confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord over our life, and that we live in light of that confession.

[5:23] But as we said, the false teachers in Colossae, they claim that in order to be this proper Christian, this super Christian, this super disciple, you need something more.

[5:36] And these claims from all the false teachers, they left the Colossians feeling inferior as Christians. They felt that their salvation was substandard. In essence, the Colossians, they doubted their salvation, and they doubted the sufficiency of their salvation.

[5:55] But you know, what we see in this section that we're coming to this evening, is that Paul, he beautifully addresses the doubts, and the concerns, and the worries of the Colossians.

[6:06] And he does that by reminding the Colossians that their salvation, it's complete. It's sufficient. And it's a full salvation. All because Jesus Christ is Lord.

[6:19] And in these verses, verses 15 to 23, Paul reminds us about the supremacy of Christ, and the sufficiency of Christ, and the sovereignty of Christ.

[6:31] And he tells us that we are disciples of Jesus Christ when we confess that he is Lord over the creation, over the church, and over the cross.

[6:42] That's the order Paul takes it. We are disciples of Jesus Christ when we confess that he is Lord over the creation, over the church, and over the cross.

[6:55] So I'd just like us to look at these things. The creation, the church, and the cross. So first of all, the creation. Jesus Christ is Lord over the creation.

[7:07] Look at verse 15. It says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

[7:26] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And as we said last week, when Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians, he was writing to a church that he had never met before.

[7:40] Paul had never been to Colossae, and he never planted the church in Colossae. But the minister of the church in Colossae, who had planted the church, was this man called Epaphras, who we were told about in verse 7.

[7:55] And Epaphras, we believe that he was converted under Paul's ministry, when Paul was preaching 100 miles away in the city of Ephesus. And now as the pastor to the Colossians, Epaphras, he reported to Paul about the difficulties and the challenges that the Colossians were facing, because of this infiltration of false teaching.

[8:19] And as we said, the false teachers, they were emphasizing that the Colossians, they needed something more than Jesus. They needed something extra. They claimed that Epaphras' ministry, it was okay up until a point.

[8:34] They said that Epaphras, he didn't stress that something extra, that full Christian experience. They said that Epaphras preached the gospel, but not a full gospel.

[8:45] But the message which the false teachers were pushing and proclaiming was a message of Jesus plus. Jesus plus. And that message of Jesus plus, it hindered the Colossians in their faith, and it hindered their growth in grace.

[9:03] It left these young Christian Colossians feeling inferior and inadequate, and that they lacked something in their Christianity. But when Paul received this report, this report about the Colossians, he said, as we read in the passage, and as we saw last week, he said that he was praying for them.

[9:23] He was praying for them as a church. And Paul was praying that the Colossians would realize that they're already Christians, and that they're already disciples of Jesus Christ.

[9:34] They might not see it in their own lives, he says, but they might not realize yet the full extent of their salvation. But Paul is reminding us, and what he's reminding us is that what we have in Jesus Christ is an all-sufficient salvation.

[9:52] And he says that we can have confidence in Christ because in Christ we have everything. In Christ we are complete. Because Jesus Christ, as Paul says, he is supreme, he is sufficient, he is sovereign over all things.

[10:09] And you know, that's the emphasis of these verses that we were just reading, verses 15 to 17. Because when you read all these verses, Paul, he repeatedly uses the word all.

[10:23] All things. And he does that in order to emphasize that Jesus Christ is supreme, he is sufficient, and he is sovereign over all things. Look at verse 15.

[10:36] We're having prayed for the Colossians and reminded them that they've been redeemed and forgiven by the work of the beloved son. Paul says about the beloved son, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

[10:51] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

[11:02] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And Paul's point is that God's beloved son, Jesus Christ, he's supreme, he's sufficient, he's sovereign over all things, in heaven and on earth.

[11:20] And you know, by presenting to us the preeminence of Christ, Paul is saying, don't listen to all that false teaching. Don't get sucked in by all their eloquence and their apparent knowledge.

[11:34] Don't lose heart and take your eyes off Jesus for one moment. Because, as he says here, he's the only begotten son. He's the only begotten of the Father.

[11:45] He's the beloved son, who's full of grace and truth. He's the one and only son. He's unique. He's one in all of creation.

[11:55] And no one in all of creation compares to this Jesus, he's saying. Because he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

[12:06] And you know, don't you just love those words? He is the image of the invisible God. Meaning that Jesus is the full and final revelation of God.

[12:19] But you know this word image that he has in verse 15. It's meant to bring us all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Back to the beginning of creation.

[12:31] And it should remind us that when God created mankind, he created us in his image and likeness. That's what the word image is. It's image or likeness. And then we have to ask the question, well, what was the image and likeness of God?

[12:47] What does God look like? And Paul is saying to us, if you want to know what God looks like, look at Jesus. Because Jesus is the image and likeness of God.

[13:01] And as I know what Jesus said time and time again throughout the Gospels, he who has seen me has seen the Father. He says it again and again.

[13:12] I and the Father are one. This is what God looks like. He's the image and likeness of the invisible God. But more than that, Paul says he is the firstborn of all creation.

[13:26] And that doesn't mean that Jesus was created. He's the only begotten Son. He's eternally begotten. But the word firstborn, it's actually the word prototype.

[13:39] It's the word prototype. And Jesus, he's saying, is the prototype of all creation. Jesus is the original. Jesus is the one whom God the Father modelled us upon.

[13:53] From him, he's saying, we were created in his image and his likeness. And you know, that's why John opens his Gospel with that memorable statement.

[14:04] In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him, there was not anything made that was made.

[14:17] And so, my friend, we were created in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. But as we know only too well, that image and that likeness has been marred by our sin.

[14:33] We have fallen into an estate of sin and misery. we've fallen from the state wherein we were created. We're not what we once were. But you know, the glory of the Gospel tonight is that by faith in Jesus Christ, by confessing Jesus as our Lord, by the power of the Spirit, we're not what we're going to be.

[14:55] We're not yet what we're going to be. Because through the redemption of Christ, as Paul says himself, even though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed in the image and in the likeness of Jesus Christ day by day.

[15:15] And what Paul is doing here by presenting Jesus to us in this way is that he's asking us with a Christ like this, he's saying, how can you need or want anything else or any more?

[15:32] How can you feel incomplete or think that anything Jesus does in us and for us is insufficient? Because this Jesus says, Paul, he does all things.

[15:46] For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.

[16:05] Paul is emphasizing that Jesus is supreme, he's sufficient, he's sovereign over all things. He's supreme, sufficient and sovereign over all creation and over every providence.

[16:22] everything and all creation is working together for good and ultimately for his glory which means that nothing has been created nothing and nothing has been sustained without his say so.

[16:41] And so my friend, we can have confidence tonight that in Jesus Christ we can have confidence because there is nothing that happens in our lives or in the lives of others without his knowledge.

[16:53] This is the wonder of it. He knows everything about us and he sustains everything about us. There is nothing that takes place without his divine ordination and permission.

[17:05] He is ruling over all things. He is ruling over and over ruling in everything. And that's what he is saying. All things were created in heaven and earth visible invisible thrones are dominions rulers are authorities all things were created through him and for him.

[17:24] Of course this doesn't make Jesus the author of sin not at all. It actually makes him the opposite. It makes him the one who is actually working all the atrocities and all the horrors of this life he is working them all together for good and ultimately for his glory.

[17:46] And with this Paul is calling us to trust this Jesus. He is calling us to trust in his supremacy and his sufficiency and his sovereignty and he is calling us to trust him with our lives.

[18:00] Because as those who confess Jesus as Lord we are confessing that every area of our lives and every event in our lives is all in his hands.

[18:13] It's all in his hands and that we must submit to his will in all things. And I know sometimes that's hard to do but that's what we're called to do.

[18:25] We're called to trust in Jesus as our creator. And so in this passage Paul is reminding us that we're disciples of Jesus Christ when we confess that he is Lord over the creation.

[18:38] But secondly Paul says that we are disciples of Jesus Christ when we confess that he is Lord over the church. Lord over the church.

[18:50] Look at verse 18. Paul says and he is the head of the body the church. He is the beginning the first born from the dead that in everything he might be preeminent.

[19:04] God and you know this single verse it's full of theology and probably worth a sermon in itself. But just to try and unpack some of the things that Paul is trying to say here.

[19:16] As we've mentioned the false teachers in Colossae they're emphasizing that in order to be a proper Christian you need something extra. You need something more. You need something over and above your faith and obedience to Jesus Christ.

[19:30] And these false teachers they were saying to the Colossians that they could have this fullness and this perfection and this satisfaction in God by possessing a certain level of knowledge and wisdom and understanding.

[19:45] But this knowledge, this gnosis, it wasn't a knowledge of the Bible. It was an experience of mystical enlightenment. This is where we get the concept of Gnosticism from.

[19:58] The Greek word for knowledge is gnosis. That's where we get the root of Gnosticism. It's this inward knowledge, this mystical knowledge that only an elite few claimed that they could possess.

[20:14] But you know the truth is, and this is what's fascinating, a Gnostic couldn't actually prove that he had this knowledge. Because to quote one commentator, Gnosticism is based upon a mystical, intuitive, subjective, inward, emotional approach to truth.

[20:32] meaning that if you claim that you have this higher knowledge, who could question you? Because you could claim that they don't have this higher knowledge that you have. Gnosticism, it was very subjective, very inward looking, very self-centered.

[20:48] It was a self-centered heresy. But its greatest problem was that Jesus became secondary, where he should have been primary and central. and sadly, Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during its first three centuries of existence.

[21:08] And that was because it undermined the person of Jesus Christ. Gnosticism, stay with me on this, Gnosticism promoted this form of dualism, where it separated the physical from the spiritual.

[21:23] And Gnostics claimed that what is physical, this physical, they said that that's inherently evil, but what is spiritual is good.

[21:34] And from this, the conclusion that Gnostics came to was that anything that was done in the body, anything that you did physically, even if it was the most heinous of sins, it didn't matter.

[21:47] It had no meaning. It had no bearing upon God because real life only exists in the spiritual realm. Gnostics, they presented this very confusing heresy.

[21:59] And you can actually see why the Colossians were struggling with it and what was causing them to doubt their salvation. But what's more is that because Gnosticism separated the physical from the spiritual and claimed that the physical was evil and the spiritual was good, when it came to the person of Jesus Christ, Gnostics believed that Jesus' physical body, wasn't even real.

[22:26] They claimed that the body of Jesus, it couldn't have been physical because anything that was physical is evil and Jesus wasn't evil. And so the Gnostics concluded that when Jesus was upon the earth, when he walked and did his ministry, he only seemed to be physical.

[22:48] Some Gnostics even claimed that Jesus was just an ordinary man. man. And that one day God chose this man for his purposes. And Jesus, he only became the God-man when the Holy Spirit descended upon him at his baptism.

[23:06] But just before Jesus was crucified, that's when the Holy Spirit left him and he just became a man again. So as you can see, the heresy of Gnosticism, it not only destroys the person of Christ, it also destroys the work of Christ.

[23:22] And you know, that's what happens when you read the Bible any way you like. That's what happens when you interpret the Scriptures to mean what you want them to mean, when you impose your teaching on them.

[23:35] But you know, we must always read the Bible and understand the Bible within the context of the whole Bible. But what Gnosticism does or did is that it sought to destroy the humanity of Jesus and deny that salvation was accomplished by the God-man suffering upon the cross in place of sinners.

[23:57] And you know, it's clear from this that Gnosticism sought to remove Jesus and just replace him with knowledge. But in this verse, verse 18, Paul, he attacks Gnosticism and he attacks it head-on by saying that Jesus Christ is the head of the body.

[24:17] Head of the body, the church. Paul chooses his words very carefully and he uses physical terms in order to undermine this Gnostic heresy that claimed that the physical body was evil.

[24:31] Paul is saying that Jesus Christ is the head and the church is the body, meaning that Christ and his church, they're not evil. because they're both physical and they're a spiritual entity.

[24:47] But with this Paul, he also reaffirms the humanity of Christ by asserting that Jesus not only had a physical life, he also had a physical death and he had a physical resurrection.

[25:00] Which is why Paul says he is the head of the body of the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

[25:13] But you know what we also have to see is that the denial of the physical and the promotion of this gnosis, this elevated knowledge, it sought to undermine the gospel that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.

[25:30] Because Gnostics, they claim that Jesus was not the only way of salvation. salvation. People could find their way to God through this special and secret knowledge.

[25:42] Gnostics, they claimed to possess this elevated knowledge, this higher truth known to the elite few. In fact, they claimed to possess a higher knowledge that came to them, not from the Bible, but from this, I don't know, mystical higher plane of existence.

[26:02] Gnostics saw themselves as this privileged class, elevated above everyone else by this higher and deeper knowledge of God.

[26:13] But as we said, it was all subjective, it was all self-claimed, it was all self-promoted. One commentator says that Gnostics were in fact naive.

[26:25] They were scripturally uninformed because they claimed that they had this personal revelation from God in order to make them feel special and unique and even superior to others.

[26:39] And you know, such arrogance and boasting towards young Christians in Colossae, it would have inevitably made the Colossians feel inferior and inadequate in their Christianity.

[26:51] And you know, this concept of Gnosticism, whatever form you want to call it, it's not dead, because there are many people in the Christian church today who claim that they have a special knowledge, or that they've, they can speak in tongues, or that they've received these personal visions from the Lord that sometimes even contradict Scripture.

[27:12] And what they're doing is promoting themselves and claiming that they are something special, they're unique, they're superior to other Christians. Christians. But you know, I believe that the reason people are like that is not only because of a wrong understanding of Scripture, but it's also because of a lack of confidence in Christ.

[27:38] They're insecure as a Christian. And instead of confessing Jesus as Lord and submitting to his will as a disciple, they're actually putting themselves above Jesus.

[27:51] And they claim that their knowledge or their spiritual gift is what makes them this super Christian. Or it makes them a different Christian to the normal, normal Christian.

[28:03] But Paul asserts here that being a disciple of Jesus Christ, it's all about confessing. Confessing that in all things, in all things, Christ may have the preeminence.

[28:18] That's the emphasis Paul is making here. That the testimony, our testimony as a disciple of Jesus is that in all things Christ will have the preeminence. Because if Jesus is our Lord, then he is preeminent.

[28:33] He's first in all things. He has first place in our lives and he's Lord over every area of our lives. He's preeminent in our life and witness.

[28:44] He's preeminent in our decisions, the decisions that we make. He's preeminent in our family, in our home, in our workplace, in our use of money, in our relationships, in our friendships.

[28:58] He is Lord over all. He's preeminent. My friend, when Jesus Christ is preeminent in our lives, we are resting in his supremacy, his sufficiency and his sovereignty in all things.

[29:13] When Jesus Christ is preeminent, he is supreme, he is sufficient and he is sovereign in all things.

[29:25] And so Paul is reminding us that we are disciples of Jesus Christ when we confess that he is Lord over the creation, Lord over the church and Lord over the cross.

[29:37] He's Lord over the cross. Look at verse 19. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

[29:59] And in these verses, Paul, he reaffirms to us the person of Jesus Christ because he says that in the person of Christ, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

[30:09] And although it's only a few words that make up this verse, it's a mind-blowing statement. The full, in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

[30:23] Paul is affirming here that this God who is supreme, sufficient and sovereign, this God who, as the Catechism describes it for us, who is spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

[30:41] This God who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Paul is saying it was this God who was pleased to dwell in the person of Jesus Christ.

[30:52] And Paul picks up again on this in chapter 2. We'll come to that eventually. Where he says in verse 9, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

[31:09] And you know, Paul's purpose in emphasising all this and reaffirming the person of Christ as both divine and human, it's again to attack the heresy of Gnosticism that claimed that in order to be a proper Christian you needed this higher knowledge of God and you needed a fuller Christianity and you needed a greater experience of God than than another, than all these other things that Epaphras was presenting to them.

[31:37] But as Paul has already said, Jesus is supreme. He's sovereign. He's sufficient. He's the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn over all creation.

[31:48] He's before all things. In him all things exist. They all hold together. He's the head of the body, the church, and in him all the fullness of God is pleased to dwell.

[32:01] The emphasis, my friend, that Paul is making is that how can you have a fuller experience of God outside Jesus Christ?

[32:13] That's what he's saying to us. How can you ever have a fuller experience of God outside Jesus Christ? Because if Jesus is the fullness of God, then there's no other way to know God and to experience God and to enjoy God in all his fullness except through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

[32:38] And this is where Paul is going with this. He goes from affirming the person of Jesus Christ, that he is both God and man. He's divine and human. He's spiritual and physical.

[32:48] And then Paul says that he's the only way that salvation could ever be accomplished. that if the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus Christ, then reconciliation with God could only be accomplished through Jesus Christ by the blood of his cross.

[33:08] And notice again, Paul says that reconciliation with God, it was achieved not only by a spiritual act of Christ, but also by a physical act.

[33:21] Which Jesus, he was crucified. He experienced physical pain, physical suffering. And what Paul is saying is that reconciliation, peace with God, it could only be achieved by the fullness of the Godhead bodily, shedding his blood upon the cross for sinners.

[33:45] I'll say that again. Reconciliation could only be achieved by the fullness of the Godhead bodily, shedding his blood upon the cross for sinners.

[34:00] Now, if that doesn't blow your mind, I don't know what will. But what's remarkable is that God would go to that extent in order to redeem unworthy sinners like you and me.

[34:15] The fullness of the Godhead bodily, shedding his blood upon the cross for sinners. And you know, all the time, Paul wants us to see that our salvation, it's full, it's perfect, it's complete in Jesus Christ.

[34:32] We don't lack anything. Because when we confess that Jesus is our Lord, we lack nothing. We lack nothing. And you know, was that not David's testimony in Psalm 23?

[34:48] The Lord is my shepherd. Then what does he say? I shall not be in want. The Lord is my shepherd.

[35:00] I shall not be in want. When we confess that Jesus is first and foremost in our lives, we lack nothing. And you know, Paul, he affirms and he applies this to us.

[35:16] He applies it all to us so personally in verses 21 to 23. He makes it so personal and so direct. Just listen as if he's speaking to you.

[35:28] And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

[35:46] If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

[36:03] You know, Paul, he applies his teaching on the supremacy and the sufficiency and the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. And he calls us to see what we've been taken out of.

[36:14] He calls us to see what we've been brought into. And then he reminds us what we've been called to do as disciples of Jesus Christ. We were once alienated and hostile, doing evil deeds.

[36:27] We've been called out of that. We've been brought into the reconciliation through his body of flesh by his death. We've been presented holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

[36:39] We're righteous in Christ. But now this is what we've been called to be. We're called to do. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

[37:01] And so I just want to conclude with a question we began this evening. How do you become a disciple of Jesus Christ? You become a disciple of Jesus Christ when you confess that Jesus is Lord.

[37:18] Lord over your life. He's Lord over the creation, over the church, and over the cross. That's how you become a disciple of Jesus.

[37:28] You become a disciple of Jesus Christ when you confess that he's Lord over every area of your life. And as a disciple, none of us know everything.

[37:41] But that's why you're a disciple of Jesus. You're a learner. We all have a learner sticker on because we're all learning. That's what it means to be a disciple.

[37:52] And we're learning, we're growing, we're developing, we're following in the footsteps of Jesus. Because as his disciple, you know that he must be preeminent in all things.

[38:12] So may the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray. O Lord, our gracious God, we give thanks to thee that we have come to know thee as our Lord, that we are those who have bowed the knee before thee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord over all.

[38:35] And help us, we pray each and every day, that we are disciples in this world, that we might give Jesus the preeminence that he deserves, that he would be first and foremost in our lives, that he would be Lord over every area of our lives.

[38:51] And Lord, we confess that how often we want to Lord it over certain areas of our own lives. But help us, we pray, to submit to his will. Help us, Lord, to bow the knee again.

[39:04] Help us to give everything into his hand, knowing that he is one who is supreme. He is sufficient in all things. He is sovereign over every aspect of our lives.

[39:16] And help us then to trust him. Help us to follow him. Help us to keep walking with him. To know that he is the one who promises never to leave us and never to forsake us.

[39:28] All that our testimony would be, as the apostle was saying, that in all things that he might have the preeminence. Lord, bless us then, we pray. Help us, Lord, to learn from thee.

[39:41] Help us to be teachable, to have a teachable spirit, and to learn from our great teacher, our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us then, we ask.

[39:52] Go before us. Remember those who are not with us this evening, for whatever reason it may be, that thou wouldst meet them at their point of need, that they would know thy presence and thy blessing.

[40:03] Do us good, then, we ask, for we ask it in Jesus' name, and for his sake. Amen. We shall conclude by singing the words of Psalm 62.

[40:22] Psalm 62, we're singing from verse 5 down to the verse marked 8. Psalm 62 from verse 5 down to the verse marked 8, and I was just thinking, well, these words, they present to us the preeminence of Christ.

[40:44] They remind us that he is first and foremost, and that we are to place our confidence in him alone. My soul, wait thou with patience upon thy God alone, on him dependeth all my hope and expectation.

[40:59] He only my salvation is, and my strong rock is he. He only is my sure defence. I shall not move thee. Down to the verse marked 8, to God's praise.

[41:11] my soul, wait thou with patience upon my God alone, on him dependeth on my hope and expectation.

[41:45] He only is my sure defence, I shall not move thee.

[42:04] He only is my sure defence, I shall not move thee.

[42:20] In God my glory blessed is, and my salvation sure.

[42:38] In God the rock is, his honor and strength, my refuge rose secure.

[42:54] Give me the grace, your confidence, and help for take your leave.

[43:12] before him, Lord, he and your love, for desire, your triumph.

[43:30] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen.