Angels, No. 5

Colossians 1:15-20

COL-123

Our subject is "Hymn in Honor of Christ," segment number 13 in Colossians 1:15-20.

The apostle Paul in Colossians 1:16 has described various categories of angelic personalities: various ranks which they possess. Angels are very real beings that God has brought into reality at the very beginning of creation. The angels of God have a significant daily impact on mankind: the holy angels for good; and, the evil angels for evil. The angels were the first of all the living creatures which were created by Jesus Christ. And then, after that was done, God proceeded with His magnificent work of the creation of the universe, and all of these angels were there observing it. Their reaction to what they saw God doing is recorded for us in Job 38:7: "When the morning stars (one of the terms which is used in reference to angels) sang together, and all the sons of God (another term referring to angels) shouted for joy."

The Lord Jesus Christ would stand up there, and He would say, "Let there be a sun." And the sun would break out into its magnificence, and all the angels would shout for joy and cheer, and would recoil with awe by what they'd seen Him do. And the same went for the moon and all the planets, and He scattered the stars across the interstellar spaces. The angels burst out in joy, and in praise, and in absolute awe of the power and the magnificence of what Jesus Christ was doing.

So, these angels were in on the power and the magnificence of our God from the very beginning. So every time they look around the universe, they remember how it happened. They never forget Him. They never forget who He is. They never lose awareness of Him. And that is the problem for all of us today – losing the awareness of God. We grovel around down here on this human plane, and we're associated with human beings who are struggling in one way or another. And pretty soon we think that that's all there is – that we're just another one struggling with the rest of them. But we have something greater in the fact that we are related to the family of God in a most direct way. And that family of God is being served by the angels. The Lord Jesus Christ is the primary object of the service. If Christ indwells us, which He does, as believers, then He is going to be served through us as they serve Christ in us. These angels also serve us.

These angels are in a class above man, and they are the ministers of God to people. Angels, good and bad, surround us every day of our lives, and they influence us to follow God or to follow Satan. They are part of the forces of the angelic conflict. This is the angelic warfare. And I guarantee you that the demon angels are always trying to distract us from God, and never more actively than right now. They will do everything they can to jerk your mind off of the Word of God. And they will do all they can to cause you to turn and disturb somebody next to you, so that they can be jerked off the Word of God.

We have to become aware of the fact that the forces of Satan are never asleep, but thank God, neither are the forces of the living God. And the more you understand the power of God and the power of the angelic host, the greater will be the sigh of relief that you have so much going for you, and so much on your side. Our problem is our own volition of how we're going to conduct ourselves in view of what we know. Angels are all subject to the Lord Jesus Christ Who created them. And He uses them for our great blessing – unless we slam the door shut, and unless we don't permit him to do what he can through these wonderful creatures that he has made.

Angels no longer appear to people to deliver communications from God, because the completed Bible contains God's message, and man has the illumination of the Holy Spirit to understand the message from God. God's Word is complete. And the book of the Revelation is the capstone of that completion. Joseph Smith was an outright liar of Mormonism when he said that God gave him a second testament to complete the Bible. The Roman Catholic pope is an outright liar when he says that when he sits upon his throne in his official capacity, God gives him new revelation to proclaim truth to people: truths like "Mary is a co-mediatrix with Jesus Christ. Nobody is saved except through the mediation of Christ and Mary together." That's an outright lie. It doesn't belong in Scripture. It's not the Word of God. And yet Satan is always creating more Scriptures. Mohamed was an outright liar when he declared that the Quran was an additional message of divine revelation from God. It is the meanderings of a mind controlled by Satan.

So again, we focus upon the Word of God. And you cannot stress enough for people the importance of knowing Scripture. That's the whole problem with what goes on in the human race. Governments try to figure out programs and ways to resolve the problems that we have in society. Nobody ever thinks: "Let's all go back to the Bible. Let's all get some Bible teachers who will teach the Word of God. Let's all find non-compromising communicators of the Word of Truth." People who know the word; people who are capable of understanding it; and, people who are capable of bringing it together in an intelligible way, and who have the gift of teaching, so that anybody who wants to get the mind of God can have it. And without the mind of God, we're absolutely nothing. And the angels are there as a wall of defense around us, enabling you to have the capacity to do the work of God. Those magnificent three teams of witnesses we listened to at the banquet – in the background of every one of those things, and some of them really made us catch our breath as we listened to the magnificence of the working of God. Behind every one of them was the circling of angels. And the people who stood and spoke are those who were aware of it. They know of the presence of God in their lives. And if you cannot find within your heart the desire to be able to stand up and say, "Here He is. I was there. And like the psalmist again and again say: "I was in a deep hole, but you were there, and you pulled me out."

Yes, it is true. Some Christians never had that awareness. They go through their whole rinky-tink Christian lives, and they can't even stand up once and say, "Here was a moment in my life. It was so defining by the fact that I knew I was walking in the presence of God Himself." And part of that is the work of these angels.

The Doctrine of Angels

1. Glorifying God

   So, continuing with our summary of the doctrine of angels this morning, point number one is that the holy angels engage in glorifying God. From the time they saw Him call the various parts of the universe and life forms into existence, the angels were there. And I suppose that one of the greatest cheers that went up from the angelic host was when he made Adam. That is because angels are very smart. They understood the intricacies of the human body.

   I heard a report this week of a very prominent scientist who has concluded that man is too undeniably complex to have evolved by chance. Some of you probably don't know that. Man is so complex, and the human body is so complex that you could not have gotten all these pieces together and had it work. You couldn't just add one piece at a time, or had them all come together at once. And this man has many degrees; he has a high IQ; and, he takes heavy doses of vitamin E, and that kicks his IQ up several points periodically. And he just says that the human body is too complex. The way everything works together, it couldn't have just happened by itself. And the angels said, "Yeah, we know. We stood there. And we saw this lump of clay stand up. And we could see all the intricacies of his body inside: all the working parts; all of the pressure systems; all the blood systems; the circulation system; the neurological system; and, all of these things clicking together in exact perfect form, we looked at one another, and we all shouted a praise of joy and of honor to God for what He had done." The angels spend their time glorifying God. It is a pity that we don't do a little more of that perhaps ourselves.

   Some of you are pretty good looking people. You should stand before a mirror and praise God for what He has done in you. Revelation 5:11-12: "And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne." This is the throne room in heaven: "And living creatures (a category of angels), and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands (angels are innumerable), saying with the loud voice, 'Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.'" The angels are so pleased to be able to constantly glorify God. They spend their time doing it.

   In Psalm 148:2, we read, "Praise Him all His angels. Praise Him all His hosts." His angels are His army; that is, His host.

   Now, this is in part because the angels are able to do something with God that we cannot do. They have a relationship that we are not privileged to have, and perhaps never will be. The angels can see God. Matthew 18:10, in connection with children: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I say to you that their angels in heaven (their guardian, caretaker angels who are in heaven) continually behold the face of My Father Who is in heaven." People do not see God, and have never seen God. But the angels look upon the face of God the Father. That alone is reason that the angels spend their time in glorifying God. But we can take a good cue from them on that score.

2. Angels Prevented Man from Re-entering the Garden of Eden

   The second point: after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the holy angels prevented sinful man from reentering the garden to be able to eat of the tree of life in order to perpetuate his existence forever in a sinful, fallen condition, separated from God. Genesis 3:24: "So He (God) drove the man out, and at the east of the Garden of Eden, He stationed the cherubim." The cherub class of angel is the strong, powerful angel who accomplishes things. The word "cherub" means "digger." He's the toiler angel: "And the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life."

3. Angels Protect Children

   Point number three: as we just read once more, in Matthew 18:10, the holy angels protect children. And anyone who has ever had children recognizes this as a marvelous divine provision, because you wonder how children ever grow up and manage to survive – some more than others. But they do have a special protection from God by the angelic host. Matthew 18:10: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father Who is in heaven." What marvelous occasions we will never be aware of, that God has sent His protective angels like a cordon around a little one at some critical point in life.

   Many years ago, we had some friends in our congregation who came from Florida. And they invited us to visit them as they were going to Florida. And we went with them to visit them down on Lake Weir in the Ocala area, right in the central part of Florida. And in those days, there was that central highway that went down through the center of Florida. Well, they had a cabin about a block away off that main road. And one morning, we got up, and our number one and number two sons were about two-and-a-half years old and one-and-a-half years old, so they were really very small little kids. And that morning, while we were at breakfast, they were out in the yard playing. They have their shovels, and their little pails. And the four adults were sitting around breakfast chatting, and for some reason, I decided to stand up and go outside and take a look at these boys. I mean, I can't even think back now why I did it. I didn't think, "I better check on the kids." It was almost like something propelled me. I went out there, and they weren't there. So, I stepped out, and I looked down the path toward the highway, which crossed over, and then went down the short path to the lake. And there they were, humping along with their little pails and shovels, and getting to the highway.

   When I saw them, I took off on a high run after them. They heard me; they looked; and, they started running. Now, because their chassis were close to the ground, those feet would pump, and they had far more leverage than I did. And they were going just as fast as they could, heading for that busy highway with cars going back and forth – and across it they go. I never caught up to them because of the speed that they had accomplished as they got into high gear, until they were headed out on the dock, out toward the water, before I caught up to them. They didn't want to be denied playing in the sand. And here there was a gap in the traffic to allow them to go through.

   Had we had eyes to see, there would've been a cordon of angels saying, "Go boys, go, go, go boys. We'll hold the traffic back, and then stop them before they could get into harm.

   How many times does that happen, and we don't know ever know it? I have no question but that the guardian angels were there on that scene – children under the protection of the angels of God, and especially those children of godly families.

4. Angels will Gather the Jewish People to the Promised Land

   Point number four: angels will gather the Jewish people to the Promised Land at the Second Coming of Christ from all over the world. Matthew 24:31: "And He (the Lord Jesus Christ) will send forth His angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together His elect (the Jewish people – the believers) from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." It is the angels of God who will bring the Jews back to their final return to the Promised Land.

5. Angels are Present in the Worship Services of the Local Church

   Pointy number five: angels are present in the worship services of the local church. This is an interesting doctrine of the constant inquiry of angels into spiritual things. As we've already shown you, the Bible lets us know, that while the angels are wise, they're not omniscient. Therefore, they are on a constantly learning curve of information coming to them. 1 Corinthians 11:10 says, "Therefore, a woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels." The context of this passage has to do with the public meeting of believers in the local church service. And here it speaks of the fact of lines of authority. Without going into the details here, the point is that women are not in positions of spiritual leadership, and the apostle goes through various reasons for that – the order in God's creation. The fact that the man was created first, the responsibilities is placed there; and, the fact that the woman was deceived by Satan, and so on. And he goes through those details. And then the fact that the man is the glory of God, and the woman is the glory of man. And in these lines of authority that he's speaking about here, one of the signs of that authority is to have the head covered. And in both Hebrew and Greek society, it was the custom, in times of worship (at a moment of worship) for a woman to take those long gowns that she wore (the kind dress she wore), and she would pull it over her head as a covering – as a sign of her respectful recognition of divine authority over her.

   Here, the problem in the Corinthian church was that the women began running the operation. They were running amuck with talking in gibberish, and calling it "tongues." It wasn't tongues, but it was done down in the pagan temples. They did that same kind of gibberish, just like it's done in the charismatic churches today. And Paul is saying that this is not of God, and part of the reason for it is that you're not recognizing divine lines of authority, or this would not be happening.

   So, Paul says that the woman should have this authority over her head, because, in the local church, the angels are there observing. And when the angels observe this lack of propriety of covering, they are offended, and their spiritual sensitivity is deeply offended by this act.

   So, there are some groups of believers who, to this day, that demand that women must always wear a head covering in church services. They must either wear a hat, or in Catholic context, they have a little handkerchief they put on the head. This is based on this Scripture. I don't know that we can push it that far. There's also reason to believe that the woman's natural type of hair, and length of hair, is a covering upon her. But that has a limited quality because it does say that this woman who does not have her proper covering is not demonstrating respect for authority. She can't take her hair on and off, though sometimes today that is possible. But generally she doesn't take her own hair on and off. And here he is saying that it is not right for her not to recognize this sign of authority.

   In any case, whatever the custom is to recognize authority, that's the point. And that, of course, ultimately is a matter of the heart. The externals are okay, but it's a matter of the heart. And what should be done is that that attitude should be respected. But the point is that the apostle is saying, "Don't forget – when you gather for that official church service, the angels of God are right there in that room with you. They want to see God glorified. They want to see Christ honored. They want to learn from your experiences from what you have said. I'll guarantee you there were angels all over the place Friday night for those in the presence of the magnificent things we heard that night. There is no question about it.

   Ephesians 3:10 also adds to this: "In order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places." There you have it. It is even more specific – rulers and authorities. We've already learned that those are categories of ranks of angels. Here he says that they are carrying on in the local church, explaining the hidden mysteries of doctrine, in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church in those services – through angelic hosts who reside in heavenly places. That's pretty impressive stuff.

   The presence of angels is also stressed in 1 Timothy 5:21: "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in the spirit of partiality." The context of this verse is how to run the local church. He's speaking about conduct within the local church, and how Christians should comport themselves. And he says, "I solemnly charge you under that condition, in the presence of God. Yes, He's there, in your service; of Christ. Yes, He's there in that service; and, of His chosen angels, because they are there – that the principles of the Word of God be applied without bias, and you do nothing in a spirit of partiality."

   So, part of the doctrine of angels teaches us that they are present when God's people gather in their official worship services.

6. The Language of Angels

   Then point number six is concerning the language of angels. What language do angels speak? The language of angels is not gibberish that nobody understands. Whatever else you may say about the gift of languages or the gift of tongues, and people pretending to speak in tongues today, there is always this truth that you must remember about God. Every time He speaks, it's in intelligible words that you can understand. God never speaks in a way that you could not understand. Therefore, angels, whenever they carry a message, would never speak in an unintelligible way. God always speaks in a way that is intelligible. And in the case of 1 Corinthians 13:1: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have 'agape' love (mental attitude goodwill), I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol." What kind of language do angels speak in? They speak in whatever language is apropos to the people they're speaking to. Angels speak the same languages as men. And "I speak with the tongues of men or angels" does not mean that angels speak different languages. It means that whether an angel is speaking, or a man is speaking, the principle is to speak under the power and control of the Holy Spirit.

   You cannot have agape love (mental attitude goodwill love) functioning in your soul if you are not in temporal fellowship. That's what this whole passage on love is about. If you're not in temporal fellowship, then everything you do is useless – nothing. It doesn't count with God for anything in terms of eternal reward or blessing. It is very important to keep those known sins confessed, and maintain the fellowship. But in terms of what you are saying, whatever it is, whether it is an angel's tongue speaking or a human's tongue speaking, it'll be an intelligible language.

7. Angels Rejoice when a Lost Sinner is Born Again

   Point number seven: angels rejoice when a lost sinner is born again. That's a happy thought. Luke 15:10, "In the same way I tell you, there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The reason for this is that the angels, more than anyone else, knows what awaits Satan and his demons. They were there when God spoke the words that created that terrible place that the Bible refers to as the lake of fire. When unbelievers, Satan, and his demons are all placed into that lake of fire following the great white throne judgment, the intensity of the suffering will be very real. It will be the pain of fire, but the problem will be that it will be dark. It'll be utter total darkness. They have chosen to go with the blackness of Satan's doctrines, and the blackness of human viewpoint, and God will now permit them to live forever in unenlightened darkness.

   That should give you a new respect for coming to church. There will be creatures of God who will never hear a single bit of spiritual truth proclaimed ever again. Their external condition will match their internal condition of darkness. To be in the enlightenment of the Word of God – what a great thing that is. And how we trivialize it – those excuses we give while we don't show up for a morning or an evening service. There'll be a time when, for all eternity, there will be these people in the lake of fire, suffering the pain, in total darkness, and wishing they could hear a Word of Truth.

   Those of us who are saved sinners are a testimony to the justice of God. Satan impugned that justice. But God demonstrated that He has covered our sins. And those who will accept Christ and that covering will go to heaven. Those who will not, God will treat with equal justice, and place them in the lake of fire. This is the climax – the culmination of the angelic conflict.

8. Angels Carry a Saved Person into Heaven upon Death

   Point number eight: the angels carry the same person into heaven as a final expression of dying grace. Luke 16:22: "Now it came about that the poor man died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried." The contrast is very great. When Lazarus, the poor man died, he was carried by the angels of God, and was escorted into that part of Hades which was called "Abraham's Bosom" by the Jews, and "Paradise" by the Greeks, where the saved people were held until the resurrection of Christ when Jesus came, and he took everybody that was in the compartment of Abraham's Bosom, or Paradise, and took them up now into heaven. People couldn't go to heaven until Christ had died and paid for their sins, and had been resurrected. Now the only people that go to Hades are those who are unsaved. Both Lazarus and the rich man went to Hades before the resurrection. But the rich man was on the side of the unbelievers. He was in the torment and the pain already that was a preview of what he was going to experience in hell, or in the lake of fire. And you know the story of how he pled for just somebody to come across and give him one cool drop of water on his tongue, but was told: "No, there's a gulf separating them, and they cannot cross over."

   Now the angels know what's going to happen and it's terrible on both sides. But when the believer dies, those angels step in, and they carry him (carry that believer) into God's presence. For the rich man, it was just to be buried like he was some dog, because he had no future beyond an eternity of suffering. So, sometimes people almost do things near their moments of death, like their eyes have become open and illumined, and aware that someone is out there. I read recently of someone who said, of a dying parent, who suddenly put their hands out, like they were suddenly seeing the angels, and in that moment, the person died. And the angels come in, and they take that soul and spirit of the believer, and they escort them instantly into the Lord's presence. That's a final expression of dying grace, and the angels do that.

9. The Holy Angels are at War with the Demon Angels

   The holy angels are at war with the demon angels. This war is on now. It is demonstrating that God is just. It is a battle over the justice (the fairness) of God. And the climactic battle that finishes all this off will be in the middle of the seven-year tribulation period. We have it recorded for us in Revelation 12:7: "And there was war in heaven. Michael, the archangel, and his angels, wage war with the former archangel, the dragon Satan, and his angels. It is at this point that the climactic battle will take place. Satan will be defeated, and he will be cast down to earth, never again to be able to enter heaven to accuse the saints or come into God's presence.

   However, you and I, while this battle rages now, are in a very midst of it. Once the Lord Jesus Christ ascended, Satan could no longer strike at Him. Therefore, the only way that the devil can strike at Christ is by hitting His body, the believers. Ephesians 6:12: "For our struggle (as Christians) is not against flesh and blood (not against other people), but against (and here we have categories of angelic ranks – these are demon ranks) the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." You and I are in a daily warfare spiritually. Satan uses people in that warfare. But you would make a big mistake if you get yourself focused on fighting with people, because the battle is not with people. The battle is with the forces behind those people, which are Satan and the demonic world. Those are the angelic creatures which are very powerful, where we need God's supernatural capacity to be able to survive.

   So, whatever people may do to you; whatever undeserved suffering you may have at their hands; whatever misrepresentation; or, whatever abuse you may find yourself taking, remember that it isn't that individual. It's unbelievable what people will do. Always go behind to the person of the demonic world – the demon angel which is dispatched by Satan to be the source of opposition to you.

   The holy angels are going to one day actually bind Satan, and they will then cast him into the pit of the abyss, to be imprisoned during the millennium, until Satan is released for a little while (one more rebelling against God), and then he will be placed into the lake of fire. But for the millennium, there'll be no devil running around tempting people or disrupting things.

   Revelation 20:1-3: "And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain in his hand." The abyss is probably somewhere in the middle of the earth. "And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer until the 1,000 years were completed. After these things, he must be released for a short time." And, as you know, when he is released for a short time, the result is that people born during the millennium who have not accepted Christ who is ruling from Jerusalem during that 1,000 year period (have not accepted Him as Savior) – they will rally to Satan. They will rally to join Satan in a final rebellion against Jesus Christ.

   The sad thing is that, even with the best of life; the best of environment; and, the best of conditions, people will still reject Jesus Christ, and go for Satan. And once he is released, he has but a short time, and then God will finally finish him off once and for all. In the meantime, he is a great deceiver of nations today, and he will seek to deceive to the very end. Ultimately, God is going to be victorious. There is no question about that.

   That is the doctrine summary of angels.

Now if we go back to Colossians 1:16, let's finish the second part of the 16th verse: "For by Him (that is, 'in Him') all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth;" that is, the visible and the invisible. Whether these categories of angels, thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him.

Now, at this point, all things have been created. The word "created" is a significant word. It looks like this. It is the Greek word "ktizo" (ktid'-zo), K I T Z O. This word, as we learned before, means to bring into existence. Notice in Colossians 1:16: "All things were created both in heaven and earth," and so on. And I pointed out to you that the word "created" there was in the Greek aorist tense that means a point action once for all (no evolution). He spoke it, and it was done.

We come now to the same identical Greek word at the end of this verse, and this is in a tense which is called a perfect tense. And what this one means is that it starts here at a point in time, and then it goes on forever. What a magnificent statement this is here in the Greek grammar, because what this is telling us is that where, in the first part of the verse, at a moment of the spoken word of Christ, He brought creation into existence, then He maintained it from then on. He keeps His creation work intact. And it says that it was created by Him (which means "through Him"). He was the agent. He spoke it. He brought it into existence. We had this pointed out before in Hebrews 1:2. It is important to stress that Christ was the Creator. That was a problem in the early church when Arius tried to say that Jesus was one of the persons that God had created. Hebrews 1:2: "In these last days, has spoken to us in His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, through Whom He also made the world."

John 1:3 stresses again that point that Christ is the Creator: "All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being." So, here in Colossians, we have stressed again that all things have been created by Him; that is, "through Him). And how did He do it? He spoke the idea, and a thing came into existence. That was the technique.

Psalms 33:6: "By the Word of the Lord, the heavens were made; and, by the breath of His mouth, all their host (all the angels)." Jesus Christ, in other words, was the on-site builder. He is the one who spoke it instantly into existence, but now He is the one who maintains it. He keeps it going. That's the other tense. And then it says, "And for Him." He did it "through Him," using this Greek preposition "eis" (ice), E I S. And that means "for Him." Creation proclaims the power (the divine power) and the preeminence of Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe. Creation proclaims the glory of Jesus Christ, and it serves His purpose as God.

In Romans 11:36, we read, "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, so to Him be the glory forever. Amen."

As human beings learn about the marvels of the universe, a person will humbly recognize, if he understands that Jesus Christ is the Designer, he will very humbly recognize Jesus Christ for the Magnificent Preeminent One that He is in the universe. Creation then establishes the deity of Jesus Christ, and it establishes the preeminence of Christ in creation as the One who now sustains what He made. He makes the rules, and He executes judgment on all evil doers.

This is then summarized, to close this little section, in Colossians 1:17. It summarizes what has been said in Colossians 1:15-16. It reiterates the teaching: "And He is before all things." Sometimes in the Greek Bible, the pronoun "He" will be a separate word. Sometimes it'll be indicated by the ending of a word. If you want to emphasize the "He," you make it a separate word. And that's what it is here. Therefore, the idea is "He Himself;" that is, Christ, and no one else; no human being; no angel; and, no other force – He himself is before all things. And the word "before" refers to time. Jesus Christ existed before all things. At the beginning of time, Christ already was, because He is the eternal God. We have seen the eternality of Jesus Christ proclaimed in John 1:1-3, Hebrews 1:1-3, and 1 John 1:1-2. Because Jesus Christ is eternal, He is the source of everything created. It is because He is the eternal God that He is the source of everything.

Bishop Arius (best known for the doctrine of Arianism) that we told you about a few Sundays ago in the fourth century was wrong, therefore, when he said of Jesus Christ: "There was once when He was not." You were wrong, Arius. There never was a time when He was not. He is eternal God. He had no beginning, and no end. And everything owes its existence to Jesus Christ.

Then the end of Colossians 1:17 says, "And all things hold together in Him. This demonstrates the preeminence of Jesus Christ. The first part of verse 17 indicates the preexistence of Christ. The second part demonstrates His preeminence in all the universe. The Greek word here is a very important word about how the universe functions now. The Greek word is "sunistemi." This word "sun" means "together." The word "Sunistemi" means to consist; to endure; or, to hold together. This is why the molecular structure of material things do not fly apart. It is because Jesus Christ is permanently maintaining everything He made. Jesus Christ holds creation together. And this word, again (the word "holds together"), is also this same perfect tense. He made it, and it consistently hangs together. He keeps it together.

So, the Lord Jesus Christ made the universe a cosmos instead of a chaos. If it wasn't for this, the cosmos would be a chaos. He keeps it straight. Creation on the one side; and, preservation on the other side go together. No created being is independent or superior to Jesus Christ.

So, the next time you hear somebody utter a curse word, or the next time you hear somebody say, "Jesus Christ was a great prophet, but Mohamed was the main one," or anything else that denigrates Him, remember doctrine. And the doctrine says that He was before all things, and He is God of God, and He is the source of all creation, and He is the maintainer of what He has created. Therefore, it is only the point of wisdom that we subject ourselves to Him, and we recognize Him as our Lord, as well as our Savior.

Our Father, we thank You for the revelation of Scripture.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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