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Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the Internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue to be able to receive the help of the Bibleline. continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleInemistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Anyway, we are going to continue our study in the book of Colossians. And so some of it will be similar to last Wednesday night, but it did not record. So I’ve got to do it again because it’s in a series, a lecture that we have to have for the Bibleline ministries on the internet. So you that were here Wednesday night, I would venture to say you probably did not record everything I said. And you didn’t take perfect notes on everything I said, because if you did, I should have used them today.

You know, it’s difficult to try to say the same thing twice the same way. It’s just virtually impossible. So anyway, we are in the book of Colossians in chapter 1. So turning your Bible to the book of Matthew and chapter 5, doesn’t that make a lot of sense. I’m sure it does. Matthew chapter 5 and look there in verse 17. Verse 17, this is on page 1000. That’s a good sound number. In verse 17 says, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. The mean to feel full. In the Old Testament, whatever the law said, when Christ came, He had to fulfill the law, fill it full, leave nothing that was unfulfilled. In other words, taught a picture, a train, coming down to tracks, got all these empty boxcars. In the Old Testament, It’s like, okay, there’s a prophecy, but it’s an empty box car. There’s another empty box car and another one and another one.

So as you read the Old Testament, you see all these empty box cars going down the train tracks. When I lived in Wakely, Pennsylvania, I used to always sit on the little hill and I’d watch the train go by and I’d try to count how many there were, you know, just for the the front of it, a couple hundred of them. And I was amazed at that engine could pull so much. But when Christ came, all those prophecies, those empty boxcars, He filled every one of those boxcars full to the place where it says here in verse 18, for verily I see in the you till heaven in her past one jot or one tittle shell in no wise past from the law till all be fulfilled.

Even the smallest Hebrew little jot and tittle, dotting of the eye or the crossing of a tea, the smallest mark in the Hebrew, says every little bitty thing has to be fulfilled. Not just the big things, but all the little things. He has to feel full. It means nothing left undone. So when Christ came into the world, He came right on time, right on schedule. And He perfectly fulfilled, filled full, all of those prophecies about His birth, about the way He would live, how He would rule.

While He was here, the things you would say and do so many things were recorded in the Old Testament in advance. So that when Jesus came, he killed it all. Now take your Bible and turn all the way over there to the book of Colossians, the book of Colossians. And you’ll notice in the book of Colossians in chapter one, there is a verse mentioned here in verse 19, which says, for it please the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell.

In other words, whatever there is of God dwelt in Christ. If you want to know God, you have to know Christ. And without Christ, you can’t know anything about God. That’s why Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the things that we want to know. He has all wisdom. That means he’s not lacking anything. I mean, from the greatest things to the least of things, Jesus knows it all. Currents earning power, if you’ll look there in chapter 1 and down in verse 15 and 16, and this is where Jesus Christ is the Lord over the universe.

It means everything that God has made and he was before all things, and by him all things consist. So he was before all things, he is doing all things, and he’s after all things. He is the great I am. He never had a beginning, never has an ending. He is something else. When you stop and think about it, Jesus Christ has all power and authority given to Him. And it says in the book of Matthew chapter 28 that all power is given unto Him.

So it means He has all power, nothing left. O Phil, Phil, Phil. Now you’ll notice also down there in another verse that I want you to see because it talks about in verse 25. In verse 25, where of I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God, to fill full. In other words, so that you have everything God wants you to have. The Word of God contains everything that you and I need to satisfy our hungry souls.

Whether it’s our need for salvation, there isn’t anything left to be done. He perfectly supplied our need. And whenever it comes to the Christian life, whatever it is we need, there isn’t something that God… Oh, I didn’t think of that. Oh, there’s a problem, but I can’t solve that one. That is too great for me. There isn’t anything God cannot do. He has given us everything we need. He’s given us His word and His word is perfect. It is total.

It is complete. And it is to fill full every Christian so that no Christian has to lack that which he needs. Are y’all following me? This is what the book is talking about. And that’s why he made the statement there in verse nine, where he talks about, I pray for you, since the day I heard about you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So God wants us to know his will in all things, nothing lacking.

And that’s why he also says, the reason for knowing all of these things is found in verse pin that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all please in the Lord to please the Lord in every area of your life. The big things, the little things as they refer to the teaching of the law, the fulfillment of the law, every jot, every kiddo, everything. So God wants the best out of all of us. So we have a wonderful little book of Colossians that gives us all of this.

So in verse 15, 16, it shows you that Jesus Christ is the Lord over the universe. And it says here that he made four things, the heavens and the earth. You see that’s only two, I’m not through. Visible and invisible. So whatever it is, he made it. He made all things. And you’ll notice also So there’s four other things that the Bible talks about so that if you think he’s lacking in anything and he doesn’t know everything about everything, it says also in the last part of verse 16, whether there be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers.

The things that you can’t see, the different so-called levels of intelligence that might be out there because of the people that were teaching things like, you know, there’s a mysterious knowledge out there and you’ve got to have these angels reveal things to you. And Jesus doesn’t know it all. And so he is just one of the mighty angels and there’s so much more knowledge to get you away from Christ, to get you away from the Bible as though there’s somebody’s going to come to the Bible.

along with this extra knowledge, extra wisdom to make you wiser than what the Bible can do. There’s nothing that can compare to this book. Nothing compares to Jesus Christ. There is no other God. He is God. He created the heavens and the earth, and there’s nothing we need worry about. If the one that can create that heavens and the earth can do all of these things, what are we worried about? Can God provide us with a hamburger from day to day?

I think so. So you notice that in these verses, many believe that this could have been a song, and whether or not Paul was writing to them a song. You see, when they studied the Old Testament, They didn’t have songs in our hymnals like we did. Paul could not say, let’s take and stand up in same page 198.

They didn’t have a hymnal like this. They sung hymns out of the Old Testament. But whether or not some of these could have been used as a songwriter, and I’ve looked at verse 15 up there to verse 19, I think, no, this would make a good song. The way it’s laid out, the way it’s worded, somebody ought to be able to write a beautiful song out of these verses alone. So maybe somebody’s doing, maybe I’m good. Somebody ought to write a song, because it’s beautiful.

And talk about the power of God, who he is, and what he’s done. Oh, I’d make a great one. But what I want you to see, in verse 18 down to verse 20, it also talks about how he is the Lord over the church. See, if he’s over the universe, he created all things, all things were created by him. And when you read the gospel of John in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him without him was not anything made that was made. He came into the world. He made the world, came into the world and the world received him not. But as many as received him, the them gave he the power to become the sons of God even to those that believe on his name. And the word, the word, God, word was made flesh. Means he took upon a body.

Who, God, took upon a body. And dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. I want you to see this verse. Look there with me in the book of Hebrews in chapter one. The book of Hebrews and chapter one. Hebrews chapter one, kind of gives you a wonderful little history, really. He says, how the in time passed, He spake and time pass unto our fathers, by the prophets.

Look at in verse one, God who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake and time pass unto the fathers by the prophets. Now look at these last days, given the final word, unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world. He made the world. Jesus Christ did all of that. And then look, put the Bible tells us in verse three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person means nothing left out.

A perfect impression, a perfect image of God himself. You want to know the true living God, no more about Jesus Christ. He is the express image. And get this. And he says, upholding all things by the word of his power. That’s the same as we read over there in the Colossians where he says, and all things by him are consist or held together. He is the one that holds everything together. You realize that if He would just let His hands go, everything would fly off into space.

Everything would blow up. It’s going to one of these days. But He says here in the last part of verse 3, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. So Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, came unto the world and by Himself paid for sins came back from the dead and is seated next to the majesty on high. This is the one that we read about and study about.

He is the Lord. Go back now to the book of Colossians in chapter 1. Now, when you talk about how he made everything and he has all power, and the Bible talks about so that he has the preeminent. See the last word there in verse 18, the preeminent means there’s nothing over him. There’s nothing better than him. He is what we need to know and what we need to understand. But I wanted you to see that in verse 18 because he is also Lord.

Lord over the church. If he is creator of heaven and the earth and has all this power, can’t God do anything he wants to do? You ought to be able to do whatever he wants. He’s God. So God in his sovereignty has chosen to give man a free will. And he did this by making a payment for the sins of the whole world so that anybody who’s so ever would voluntarily choose to trust in would have everlasting life. And there’s those that will not trust them, will not believe it, will not accept it.

But God has it on a level that anybody can have it, even a little child can understand because it’s free, it’s a gift. But before we get there, understand it. These verses are going to talk about the word reconciliation. But you see, to be reconciled, there has to be a problem. I mean, usually a man and wife doesn’t, you know, wrecking style until they have a problem. You gotta have a fight, you know, knock down drag out. And then, making peace.

It can be a lot of fun. But there has to be somebody who takes the initiative to heal the womb. So as you read these scriptures, you’ll find that the Bible talks about what Christ has done for us. The body of Christ, the body of Christ, Well, this is something new, something different. But it’s dealing with the subject of God taking believing Jews and believing Gentiles and bringing them together. Naturally speaking, the Jews hated Gentiles. Gentiles hate Jews. So what God did is He broke down this middle wall of partition and He has brought them together in Christ so that we’re not talking about the nation of Israel.

We’re talking about the Gentile nations. We’re talking about individuals that believe that Christ died and paid for their sins and God takes them and puts them together into something brand new. There wasn’t talked about in the Old Testament. This is called a mystery. And a mystery in dispensation or teaching simply means that it is a truth that is now revealed for the first time. Unknown in ages past but now revealed. You know understand a little bit more about that in the book of Ephesians in chapter 3 But here’s talking about a Dispensation where it is a A period of time in which God deals with us concerning a certain responsibility and consequences to our decisions and So there’s different periods of time as in the process of time So you and I have been blessed by God to live in a period of time where

God is doing something totally new and different than what was ever done in the Old Testament. As God formed the church and the church is His body. He is the head and you study about the head in the book of Colossians, you study about the body in the book of Ephesians. So if you want to understand the church, you have understand the book of Ephesians and the book of Colossians. And these books were probably written at the same time by the Apostle Paul and sent along with the book of Philemon so that there’s things that God wants us to know and they go together and he was told to assimilate this book to the other churches also.

and especially Laodicea. In this verse 18 and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Now they had raised other people from the dead but nobody has come back from the dead by their own power. Jesus Christ came back from the dead never to die again. You see he was the first born concerning creation, which means he was the architect, the designer, the one that put it all together. He’s the same one that put the world together, and he’s the same one that designed the church.

Think about this for a moment. Here’s this little old Jewish man over there in Israel, never lived past 33 and a half years. He never wrote the book while he was here, he never traveled outside the country and think about it. How many churches are there in the world today? That’s a he founded it. The founder of the church. And look how many different denominations there are and how many churches are all from that one little, that’s a miracle in itself.

When’s the last time you did anything great like that? We can’t even get anything to last long. And this has been going on for over two thousand years. Good or bad or indifferent, but there are churches everywhere. But it all started with Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ founded the church and he says upon this rock I will build my church and the rock was the statement I am the Son of God and he that believe it in me hath everlasting life and whosoever will believe that is upon the foundation which is Christ so now he says I founded the church on the head of the church.

So if he can do all of this for the universe, and he’s also the Lord over the church, that means he’s the boss. Does he have the right to tell everyone he saves how they should live? Should the one that died on the cross and paid for all of our sins and saved us when we trust him as our Savior, does he have the right or the authority to tell you and I how to live? He is God. He is the Lord.

And He doesn’t stutter. And you and I should understand just who He is and what He wants done. So that’s why we’re to study the Word of God so that we can obey His will. But He makes this statement that we were at one time alienated from God. hold your place right here, but look there in the book of Ephesians real quick. Ephesians in chapter two. Ephesians chapter two, look there in verse two. Verse two. Verse says in verse two, wherein in time pass you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the year, the spirit that now work within the children of disobedience.

This is how God says we were. We were lost. And when he says you walked according to the course of this world means you did your own thing you wanted to go your own way you were rebalious everybody’s naturally rebellious and it says you had within you the spirit of disobedience the spirit of rebellion and you got that from the prince of the power of the year that doesn’t sound very good doesn’t and then he says there in verse 3 among whom also we all had our manner of life our behavior in time passed in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

And we’re by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. We were just like everybody else. That’s the way we are. That’s our first birth. That’s how we’re born into the world. That’s why we are enemies of God. See, God is perfect. Man is not. And because of our sins, well, we become that enemy of God. And God says in the book of James in chapter 4, any man who loves the world is an enemy of God. Why? Because God says in his word, one of the laws, thou should love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, body, soul, and strength.

And thy neighbors thyself. But everybody loves themselves. They love the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. So God says, you are my enemy. You’re for everything I’m against. So we got a problem. So how we’re going to solve this problem? Remember reconciliation is not God changing so that we can have peace.

Reconciliation is God changing us so that we can have peace. You see, we’re the ones that needs to get right. God was already right. God hadn’t done anything wrong. God’s never wronged you, never wronged me, never wronged the world. He’s perfect. Well, where’s the problem with us? We are the problem. And therefore, He came into this world to reconcile us back to Him. What He has to do is all these sins that separate us have to be paid, because He has a righteous law that must be fulfilled.

He can’t just forgive you. It has to be paid because of his righteousness, his holiness. It demands the death payment. So we’ve all sinned and therefore we are all condemned. Now go back there to the book. Well, let me just show you this first. Look there in verse four where he says, But God, that’s the way we work. But God, get this rich in mercy for his great love. Wherewith he loved us. Why would he do all of it?

Because of his great love? Because he loves us. That’s why he does what he does. Can you explain it? I don’t know if you can explain love. I mean a boy meets girl. Oh, I love you. What do you mean? I don’t know. We know you’re supposed to, you know, this down here doesn’t do anything but pump blood. I love you with all my, my organ that pumps blood just doesn’t sound romantic, does it? Maybe suppose I love you with all my mind.

I don’t even sound romantic. So that’s why we say I love you with all my heart. I guess that sounds good romantic. But anyway, as you get down here, God loves us, like God. See, we were enemies of God, alienated from God. It mentions this also in the book of Romans in chapter 5, verses 9 and 10 and so on. It says that while we were enemies of God, Christ died for us. While we’re enemies, not friends, not while we were saints.

God commended his love toward us. In the way we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, paid our sin debt so that you and I could have eternal life. And I go back to the book of Colossians in chapter 1. And you’ll notice here in verse 20, and having made peace. Well how did he make peace? get this, the blood of his cross. Buy him to reconcile all things unto himself. He did it so that he could bring all of us back to God.

This is mentioned in the book of Peter in chapter three, verse 18. How that Christ died on the cross, the pay for our sins, and he was quickened by the spirit that he might bring us to God, that he might bring us back to God. So you notice here in the verse 21, and you that were sometimes alienated, enemies in your mind by wicked words, you ought to underline this, yet now had he reconciled. You see, you didn’t do the reconciled, he did it.

He’s the one that made the payment in full, purged by himself, all of our sins. Came back again from the dead so that you and I could have peace between men, God. You see, all those bad things that I’ve done, he paid for them because God wanted us to have peace. And I’m glad that he did. Why did he do that? Because he loved me. You see, he’s the one that took the initiative. We didn’t take the initiative. He did that.

You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. Part 2 of this teaching will conclude with tomorrow’s broadcast. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach by the line and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll-free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bible and programs, just go to our home page at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the Radio Broadcast link.

If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10.30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon and just keep looking up.