Thank you, Brother Paul. Appreciate that very much. Let's jump right into our study tonight. We're in the book of Colossians, chapter 1. So if you want to take your Bible and turn there, we'll get underway. And again, our heart is burdened tonight for the Piazza family, specifically little Colette. I find myself often waking up at night just whispering a prayer, Lord, just do something there. And I think one thing that God does through something as difficult as this is He kind of pulls our church together and we just kind of become focused on a need here. And so we certainly are agreeing together that God's plan and His purpose would be accomplished certainly praying for this family. So Colossians chapter 1, I'm not going to read the text tonight because we're going to work our way through the text. But let me just kind of jump into this study by just simply saying, we started a few weeks ago, this is our third message in a series through this book of Colossians on Wednesday night. And my perspective of the book of Colossians is that Paul is dealing with a church that is struggling and so he's trying to build a strong church body. We talk about a church, we talk about a local assembly of being the body of Christ. And certainly if a church is going to be effective, just like if you're going to be effective physically, your body has to be healthy. You have to have strength. You have to have stamina. You have to be able to go. And certainly the same thing is true in a church body. A church, if it's going to be effective in this world, has to have some strength. It has to be built strong. When I was a boy growing up here, and I'm giving my age away a little bit. Most of you know what my age is anyway, so it's no big deal. But when I was a kid growing up here in Cleveland, I remember there was an advertisement that would be often on television and perhaps even on billboards, but it was about Wonder Bread. How many of you remember Wonder Bread? All right. You may remember the moniker that was with that or the branding of that. Wonder Bread builds strong bodies. How? Twelve ways. That's what they used to say. Wonder Bread builds strong bodies twelve ways. And so, you know, I don't know what those twelve ways were. I just like bread. That's all there is to it. I know it helped me a little bit just to have that. But the truth of the matter is I just remember that statement that it builds strong bodies. Well, Wonder Bread may have helped. It may still be in the market. I don't know. I don't do too much in the supermarket. I don't know if it is or not. But the truth of the matter is, it may be helpful, but we're talking about a church, and this church at Colossae, it was struggling, and it was dealing with some difficulty, and there was some pressure on this church to move from doctrine that had been taught to them, that they had been instructed. Now, I remind you that Paul had not been there personally. I shared with you in our introduction that this church probably got started out of the church at Ephesus. So it's not far from Ephesus. And this church probably got started because Paul started the church at Ephesus. And that church, like all churches that are healthy, they reproduce themselves. And so probably this church at Colossae was a reproduction out of the church of Ephesus. And so Paul had not been there, but his presence was known through, obviously, the church at Ephesus. And we shared with you that the pastor of the church had made this long trip because Paul's in a Roman prison. And so he's bringing this issue before Paul. And before it's all said and done, this book of Colossians is written dealing with this particular issue. Now, what is the issue? Well, we talked about the fact that there were Jews in the area. We talked about the fact there were pagans in the area. And all those things obviously had this somewhat pulling effect on this church. But there was something else that was going on as well. There was some false or what we call faulty teaching that was being considered by some of the church in Colossae about the person of Christ. Now, that teaching is not necessarily just centered here in Colossae. In fact, we find that John addresses that in the book of 1 John. What we would come to know is Gnosticism. And for those who are not perhaps familiar with that particular term, here's what it really taught. Essentially, those who were teaching it taught that all physical matter, all things that were physical, everything that was physical was bad. And that included the human body. And all the spiritual realm was good. Now, we understand that all the physical realm is tainted. We've been cursed by sin. But we wouldn't say that everything that's physical is bad. But we certainly would not say that everything that's spiritual is good. We understand God is good. But we also know that Satan is a spiritual being. And he's not good. And his followers are not good. And they've got, obviously, a wrong perspective or a wrong desire. So when we think about that, this teaching was off base just in its central teaching. But here's what they taught. Because of that, thus through this teaching, it led them to conclude that Jesus had not come physically in a human body. In other words, the idea that God would come in the flesh was impossible. Why? Because all physical things were tainted. All physical things were bad. So therefore Jesus could not have come physically, and so therefore he must have either been a spiritual being, or if he wasn't a spiritual being, then he was a distant creation of God. In other words, he wasn't God in the flesh, but he was a creation who had been created by another spiritual being by another spiritual being. So you've got to go all the way down this line. So God is entainted by this being that he's put on this earth. So you can see this warped teaching that was really encompassing or causing a little bit of a problem here in this area of Colossae. So, here's what I want you to know tonight as we do a little bit of introduction to our text, which will begin in verse number 12. We're going to deal with verses 12 through 14, then we're going to jump down to a little bit later in the text, and we're going to deal with, I think, verses 17 through 20. And then the next message, you're going to get those verses in between. But the devil's work, think about this, part of the devil's work is to appeal to the intellect of man. I want you to think about that for just a moment. The devil loves for people to search for new things. God isn't opposed to us thinking, but here's what I want you to know. The devil, he tempts and places doubts in the minds of men, so they question the things that God has stated. So in other words, it cannot be just as simple as what God says. There's got to be more to it than that. You've got to dig into it. You've got to have this great mind to figure these things out. So we think about some men. We think about the fact that some men think of themselves as superior. And so they relish in what we call deep questions and complicated matters that they say only intelligent people can understand. Really, I would tell you that when people start to talk along that line in the realm of spiritual truth, that is the height of arrogancy and pride. It really comes down to somebody saying, you know, I'm just superior. And if you don't get a hold of this, it's just either you're ignorant or you're just not up to speed where I am. And so you've got to have this kind of badge of honor. So that's where really doctrinal errors come from. Men aren't satisfied with what the Bible clearly teaches. They have to complicate it. This is where heresy is born. It's where it's bred. Doctrinal errors, and I'm going to make this statement, doctrinal errors like Calvinism appeal to the intellect of man. In other words, when you find people who are caught up in the doctrine of Calvinism, it's all about the idea of, you know, you just gotta be superior. You just gotta be able to think deeply in this matter. It can't just be as simple as what the Bible says. There's gotta be more to it than that. Yet we find in Christianity that God's truth, listen to me, is profoundly simple. It's profoundly simple. It's so simple that a child can understand it and respond to it. Listen to the words of Jesus tonight. Luke chapter 18 and verse 17, the Bible says, Now if I understand that correctly, obviously in order to enter into God's kingdom, one has to just have simple faith. We just need to respond to what God has clearly stated. If you want to complicate, if you want to make it more complicated, then you're not going to enter in. If you're going to say, well, it can't be that simple. We've all heard that statement, haven't we? Been out soul winning, knocking on doors, and somebody says, well, you know, I'm not sure I'm saved. And then you walk through the plan of salvation, and they say, well, I've done that. Well, then why don't you have assurance? Well, because it can't be that simple. I mean, that's what they say. That's just too simple that you just have to repent of your sin, be sorry for your sin, and put your faith and trust in Christ. It can't be that easy. And yet I'm telling you that the Bible is very clear that it is profoundly simple. Listen, the Apostle Paul made the statement of Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. I'm so very grateful that as a five-year-old child, I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I've worked through some issues through my life. I've had to stop and just really clarify in my own mind what I was putting my faith and trust in as a child, but I'm here to tell you that I got saved as a five-year-old child. I've never had to be born again again, because I got born again the first time. and put my trust in Christ. Now it is true, again, people make that statement, it can't be that simple. So it is extremely profound and involved on God's part, this matter of salvation, but he's just told us just to simply repent and believe the gospel, to accept the gospel truth. That simple act of putting our trust and responding to God places us into the family of God. So it really isn't hard for humanity. God simply says, repent and believe the gospel. So when we think about that, we understand that men just sometimes stumble. And I'm going to kind of deviate right now into the text because I've got some other things I wanted to say to you, but we're not going to get there with the time we have tonight. But I just want to say to you that part of the problem in the New Testament era was that people were struggling because Christianity was so simple. You know, in the Old Testament you had that elaborate system of the temple and the priestly line and you had the incense and you had all the issues that were at play in the temple. You had the offerings and the candles and just all the things that were involved in the worship. And yet, when we look at that, what happened? Man got all tangled up in it. When we look at the law, we see that God gave it to show, man, you need a Redeemer. Even with all these things, you can't make yourself having the satisfaction. But they got satisfied in keeping the law, in fulfilling all these things, and they got all messed up in it. So we come to the New Testament, and we find in Jesus the fulfillment of all those types and shadows of the Old Testament rituals, and yet men aren't satisfied with that because it's too simple. It's too simple. I want you to know that some things of God are very, very deep. And I find that, how do I wrap my finite mind around, or ever phantom the eternality and the changelessness of God? See, I have to believe that by faith because everything I see here ages. I'm aging. I remember, I was thinking the other day about when we remodeled this auditorium, we put all this furniture in, and it still looks very, very good, so don't get me wrong, but it was brand new. You walk up and down these aisles, now you're gonna find nicks and scratches, and you're gonna find probably some paint that's scratched off the edges. Well, why does that happen? Because it's a physical thing, and physical things deteriorate, and everything that you know. You can buy a new car tomorrow, and within a year, it's probably gonna have some dings and scratches, because you go to Walmart, and to Giant Eagle, and places like that, and people aren't real careful with their cars, and aren't real careful with their car doors, and that new car of yours is gonna have some bumps and bruises on it. So everything here is physical, but I try to wrap my mind around a God who's changeless, who never ages, who's always the same. That's a deep thought, that's a profound thought. I try, how do I comprehend the love of God for sinful human beings like ourselves? As wicked and sinful and degenerate as we can be, yet the Bible says God loves us. How do we fully understand the life of the Godhead? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Not three gods, but just one God. Yet three persons in that Godhead. How can we fully grasp the great sacrifice of Christ and Calvary? The Holy God dying as a substitute for sinful men. These are all things that are deep, but yet we just, we accept them. So Paul wants this church of Colossae to be strong, and he's got to deal with this controversy. And I want you to notice, if we begin in verse number 12, and look at verses 12 and 13, because he's giving thanks for God's work and provision of salvation in these particular passages, and he's really gonna really bear down on some things here. So notice, first of all, number one, notice thanksgiving to God the Father for providing salvation. He talks about that. Verse number 12, he says, talking to this church, and by the way, he had been giving a prayer to this church, or praying for this church, telling him what he prayed for, Kind of continues that out here in verse number 12. He says, giving thanks unto the Father, but he's really kind of recommending or commending them to pray this way. Giving thanks to the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. So the first thing that Paul shares with us is that as God's people, there ought to be a sense of thanksgiving. We ought to be continually thankful to the Lord. We need to be thankful for his wonderful provision of salvation. I think part of the reason that people, and I suppose there's nobody here tonight who's not grateful for the fact that you're saved. If you're truly saved, you couldn't help but be grateful for it. But I do think sometimes we get over the wonder of it, don't we? It's almost like we get used to it. It's almost as if it gets, well, I'm just saved. Think about that. I'm just saved. How can we ever get used to just being saved? But yet we do. But the idea, I think part of the reason we do this is because we don't fully understand or realize the greatness of this provision. And I think that's what Paul is helping this church understand, the greatness of this position. Paul admonishes these believers here to be grateful for the fact that God has made them, notice the statement please, meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. See, the heretics were teaching that men could not have a direct contact with God. In other words, they were saying, you can't possibly go right into the presence of God, because you're sinful. You're in this physical being, and therefore you're wicked, and God could have no association with you. But here, the Apostle Paul says, you ought to be thankful. Because the idea here is that he's saying that God has made us, enabled us, or qualified us by giving us an inheritance in light that we can walk right into the presence of the God of gods, who is the God of all light and being. Now, look at verse number 13. How does he do this? How does he make us meet? Look at verse 13. He speaks this to them. Who, this God that we're thankful to, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, notice please, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. So, I want you to notice two things. First of all, I want you to notice the fact that the Bible makes a statement in verse number 13. He hath delivered us. Who hath delivered us? Now I want you to notice that word hath is, in some respects, it is something that's happening now, but it has happened in the past as well. So the wording of verse 13 paints what I call a vivid or strong word picture. The idea of delivery means to rescue. So I want you to understand that God hath has rescued us. He has delivered us. Perhaps you remember, and again, going back, I often find myself reminiscing in my boyhood days. But I remember specifically when I was a kid growing up before, can you imagine, some people are gonna find this unbelievable. Many of you will not. But I lived in the days before color television. I mean, I remember when my parents got their first color television, it was an RCA. And before that, we had this blonde blob sitting in our living room with a big screen. Well, it wasn't real big. It seemed big back then. Had no remote control. If you changed the channel, you had to get up and walk to the TV. Can you imagine that? So I remember those days, on Saturday afternoon in particular, that they would show certain things, like these programs on Saturday afternoon. Some of you may remember the black and white programs, The Lone Ranger. Yeah, somebody likes that, right? And then Superman would also be on sometimes on Saturday afternoon. And I think it was in the evenings, maybe one night of the week, when gun smoke was on. My dad's mother, my grandmother, used to love gun smoke. She liked Matt Dillon and Festus. But we think about those programs, they all kind of had the same kind of plot, didn't they? I mean, in some respects, while they were different, they just still had the same kind of idea. And the idea was that in those programs, it was the evil characters in the program would capture women and children and sometimes the innocent people and they would hold them captive and they would threaten them and they would act as if they were going to kill them or perhaps at some point shoot them or destroy them and so that was the plot. And then we have this hero. Whether it's Superman or the Lone Ranger or Matt Dillon, they all, they come riding in at the last minute. And they rescue these people from those who are holding them captive. And they beat up the bad guys and, you know, put them in jail, whatever the case may be. But the folks, listen, the folks are delivered. They're delivered. So, again, we think about this idea. This, of course, is a poor or inferior picture of what God has done for us. But it does carry the idea, doesn't it? The devil had to be defeated for us to be delivered. The devil has stepped into our life and yet God didn't just put his life on the line like the Lone Ranger in that situation or that serial program or Superman or Matt Dillon. No, he didn't just put his life on the line. He literally died to deliver us. Notice the strong wording. He delivered us from the power of darkness. We are powerless to deliver ourselves. It took God to step into this picture, into our world, to rescue us. Think about the lousy decision that man made in the Garden of Eden to disregard God, and it plunged the whole world into darkness. I mean, I don't know that immediately, I think immediately Adam sensed that something terrible had gone wrong. He had to sense that inside, but I'm sure that he all of a sudden started to see his world change and darkness began to pervade into this garden. And I'm not talking about physical darkness as much as spiritual darkness. Satan is the ruler of darkness. He is, listen, he's shady. He is wicked. He loves darkness so that he can creep and murder and destroy. Yet God chose to step into our world to deliver us from that darkness. That was his decision, and that was on the part of the God who had to step in to bring us redemption. He delivered us. Then notice not only that he delivers here, but notice he also translated us, notice please, into the kingdom of his dear son. So when we think about that, we aren't just delivered, we're translated. So what does the word translate mean? Well, it means to move to a place, to move or to place something. So when I think about that, I think to myself, well, this idea of being translated, this is no small move, is it? I mean, this is not just, okay, I'm just taking a step here. No, no, this is a gigantian move here. We were living in darkness, now we're part of the kingdom of light. We were dwelling in death, now we dwell in life. We were under the dominance of our father the devil, now we're the children of God. We were headed for hell, now we are in the inheritance of heaven. I love that statement in the Bible, in the book of John, I think it's chapter 5, verse 24, where the Bible says that God has moved us, or we were in the realm of death, He has put us into the realm of life. We're no longer under condemnation. God has moved us. I used to reside in the realm of death. I was just waiting for my heart to beat one last time. My father was the devil, but Jesus Christ came into my life. I got saved, and the moment I put my faith and trust in Him, God moved me from this position in death, and He puts me over here into the position of life, and I'm no longer under the dominance of the devil. Now I have the Father, a Father who's my heavenly Father, who has given me eternal life, and I can now dwell in light. Whew, that's good stuff. That's wonderful stuff that Paul gives to us here in this particular passage. Now, let's jump down here, and look if you would at the second thing I pointed out to you very quickly tonight. We need to have thanks for what Christ has done for us. Look at verse 14. So, he talks about what he's done. Now he's speaking about Christ. In whom, speaking of Christ, we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Can I time out for just a moment? Spirits don't have blood. Jesus had a body. Jesus had blood. and our redemption is through His blood. Notice, if you would, verse 20 to 22. And having made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight. So, let me point out a few things to you. First of all, notice, first of all, we have been redeemed. That's what he says here in verse 14. He says, in whom we have redemption. Now, when the Bible uses the word redeem, it really is the overarching idea of salvation. That's redemption. So, to redeem something means you buy it back. You purchase it. Specifically, the idea of redemption in the Bible term is to redeem something, to free it. To set it free. So when we think about that, the idea is it speaks to the idea of the emancipation of a slave. So there was a time, a dark time in our world when slavery was very much rampant in our country and in England. You maybe remember the name Wilberforce. He was a man in England who really fought to free the slaves and to do away and outlaw slavery in the United Kingdom, specifically in England. And certainly the battle that was fought here in the United States of America. But can you imagine you were owned by someone and maybe someone would say, okay, slavery's still in auction or it's still in place and I'm gonna go to the auction and I'm gonna buy somebody. They're owned by someone. I'm going to pay a price. I'm going to buy them. But I'm not going to buy them for me. I'm going to buy them to turn them loose. And that's the idea of redemption. That's exactly what God did for us. He buys us back to set us free. Man belonged to God in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. And the devil, think about this, stepped into the garden and through his lies and deceit, man listened to the devil. His decision meant that man was now dominated by sin, by sinful nature. He could be controlled by sinful lust and the devil. And sin would reign and the devil would be the god of this world. And he controls men and the elements of this world that we can imagine how bleak and how hopeless our world would be, except God. God's desire to redeem us. God's love for man is so great that he made the choice to redeem. The cost of our redemption is mentioned. Look at it, verse 14. In whom we have redemption? Through his blood. It wasn't like God had to pay a million dollars for us. He had to shed his blood for us. He had to pay redemption's price. It means that Christ, the God, the Son, would have to live on this planet, face tests of temptation, defeat sin, and finally freely die to pay for our sin. That death, think about this, isn't just sufficient to purchase our freedom from the kingdom of darkness, but it also makes us meet to be inheritance to the saints in light. It means we have forgiveness of sin. Now verses 15 and 19, again I don't have time to touch on that tonight, but look if you would in verse number 20 and 21. Notice that He has reconciled us with God, having made peace by His blood. Now our sin makes us enemies of a holy God. Again, I don't have time to really elaborate, our time is getting away tonight, but I just want you to think about this, okay? Sin, obviously sin entering the picture. When you're full of sin, you have no desire to be in the presence of holiness. You look at holiness, you look at a righteous God just through a sinful mind without God helping us to understand truth. We would look at him as being, I can't be in your presence. That's what happened in the life of Adam. Remember what happened? When Adam sinned, before that, God and man were fellowship, but as soon as Adam steps over that line and invites sin into his life, when God comes, what does he do? He runs and hides. I can't fellowship with God because I know I'm sinful. And we understand the idea here is that sin makes us this enemy. And that's the emphasis of verse 21. Look at it, it says, and you that were sometimes alienated, enemies in your mind. He goes on to say, by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. So the idea is that God was at work. Now think about how many people in our world, because of the secular mindset tonight, look at what God states in this, in our Bible as being utterly ridiculous. I mean, there's many people today that think that this book is nothing but a joke, that it's not really the Word of God. They have been educated to think that way. And part of the whole mindset here is that you can't accept this because if you do, then it means you have to change your behavior. And so they see a God who promotes biblical morality and who makes definite statements about men who do such thing. And they look upon that person as their enemy. And by the way, when you believe that, you're their enemy too. And so we have this idea. And so that being said, God loves us. And the Bible uses the word reconciliation. And what that means is that God takes down the barriers that would enable us then to return to him. And that's what he does here, is he gives us reconciliation. Listen to Romans chapter 5 and verse number 10. So the idea here is that God did something so that you and I could be reconciled to him. We who are at odds with God, we're enemies. God, we can now be reconciled. Then I want you to notice one other thing. Notice he made us part of himself. We see that in verse 21 and 22. He talks about where we were. Look at verse number 20. He does this. I don't know, I can't remember what song we sang tonight, but I was thinking that that song just hit the nail on the head with this verse this evening. And God did this work for us through the body of his Son, Jesus Christ. And again, Paul is putting an emphasis on a physical body here. And that's because the teaching of the Gnostics was that Jesus, if he was, he couldn't be God in the flesh. And yet Paul is hammering this thing down. He did this through his body. So there's a theological truth here as well. So here's what we need to understand. When we repent and we believe, and we put our trust in Jesus Christ, God sees us in his Son, Jesus. Did you know that? When I put my faith and trust in Christ, in some respects the Bible says I'm seated now in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. The Bible indicates that on the cross of Calvary, when I put my faith and trust in Christ, in the cross of Calvary, when Christ said, I died. So the point is tonight is that God does that through his body. So because of what he's done, now because I'm a believer, God no longer sees me in my sinfulness. He no longer sees me as an enemy, or as a radical, or as a sinner. He sees me now as a saint. He sees me as his beloved, because I'm in Christ. One of these days my redemption will be complete when God completely changes me and I drop this robe of flesh and at the day of resurrection He gives me a new complete body. We will be like Jesus. I'm going to tell you what a day that will be when all of redemption is complete. Right now we're in partial redemption. I'm not saying you're not saved and I'm just simply saying the work isn't complete yet. All His work is complete, but we need to see the completion of this salvation. That includes our death, but it also includes the second coming of Jesus when He resurrects us, and it includes the remaking of this world. And what a moment that will be. And it's all because of God and what He's done, and His desire to help us to become something in Jesus Christ. If you're here tonight and you don't know Christ as your Savior, it's our prayer that you'll understand He loves you tonight. He died so that you could be reconciled and redeemed. He died so that your sins could be forgiven, so you could meet to be part of the family of light and to fellowship with God. And if you're saved tonight and perhaps maybe not necessarily appreciating all that God has done for you, understand He has delivered you. and He's translated you into the kingdom of His dear Son. You have a great standing tonight because of Jesus Christ. Don't ever get over the joy and the gladness of your salvation. Be thankful tonight. I can't, honestly, I can't think of having a better blessing than to know Jesus Christ and my sins forgiven. You know, you see these people sometimes, you know, and they win the lottery. And they go out and they buy this big house. And they buy this huge car. And they got all the money in the world, and they still aren't any better than they were before they had all that stuff. In fact, they're probably more miserable. They have probably more people asking them for money, and so their life is probably more miserable in that regard. You read of people who win the lottery, and you read about these people who get instantly rich in those kind of things, and how many of their lives are just basically destroyed. Their marriages are over, their kids, they're fighting and fussing within the family. But man, you get Jesus Christ. You may never live in a mansion here, but you got one waiting on the other side. We're part of the family of God tonight. We've been translated, we've been delivered from the power of sin and darkness and we're part of the kingdom of God tonight. We've been placed into his family. Man, I just wanna do a little dance across this platform tonight. It's a wonderful, wonderful truth. I won't do it for your sake, all right? But the truth of the matter is, we are blessed. We are blessed in Jesus Christ. Don't ever, ever get beyond that. Don't let anybody take your joy away because they want to make things complicated. Keep it simple. Believe God's truth. Just believe what God has said. Man, if we'll do that, we'll be happy people. If we start messing it up, We have nobody to blame but ourselves because God has given us His word and we can respond to that. Let's bow our heads together in prayer.