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Guest (Male): Experiencing a conflict right now? Pastor Tom Keller encourages us to give it to the Lord.

Thom Keller: Everything God touches, he touches to redeem. You know, when you and I are in a conflict, when you and I are in a situation with someone, a disagreement, and you try to redeem it yourself, you might do a good job of redeeming it for your benefit. But what about the redemption of the other person? I don't care about the other person. That's the whole problem. See, when you let God touch that, everything he touches, he brings back to life.

Guest (Male): It's time once again for Study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller. Today we're going to be continuing Tom's study of Colossians, which you if you recall has the theme of the supremacy of Christ. Last time we considered this question, how do we see God? But today we'll turn that around and reflect on how God sees us. You see, when you become a Christian, the Lord now looks at you through Christ-colored glasses. He sees Jesus when he looks at you. Here's Pastor Tom in Colossians chapter 1.

Thom Keller: You're going to get a body like Jesus's. What could his body do? Appear in and out of a room at like that, could still eat, could be seen, could be touched. Put your hands in my hands, put your hand in my side, see that it's not me. It had substance. You're going to have a body like his someday. Are you excited about that? Ready to give this one up? Yeah, if you're young, you're saying maybe not yet. You know, I've said, isn't it kind of cool that God set this whole thing up that we start out as a baby and then mature and then mature and then get older and older and older because the older we get, the more ready we are to get our new body.

Think how wild, how ugly it would be if we started old and just kept getting younger. Right? We we it's just getting better. Why would I want to go now? And then why is it set up the way it did? You know, that's why so many people when they get older, older Christians get so gracious when they get older cuz they're ready. This place no longer has an attraction to them. You see those faces on those people. This isn't their home. It's a beautiful thing. We have so much. We have so much waiting for us.

Listen, does anybody in here have anything in your calendar for 100 years from today? Is your calendar open? 100 years from today exactly. Your calendar's open? Put let's all get together 100 years from now and let's talk about how when we got our new body, it just blew us away. Can we talk about that? Let's just all get together. You in? You all in? 100 years. I'll remind you. There's some buzzer up there I can push. I'll remind you. Go ahead to verse 19. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.

This is amazing. God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ. There are two points here. Number one, God in all his fullness dwelt in Christ. FF Bruce, the commentator, says quote the totality of divine essence and power is resident in Christ and all of the attributes of God, his power, his spirit, his wisdom, his authority and glory are disclosed in Christ. Wow. And yet all that power, all the power of God resident in his body and yet at the same time he is meek and lowly. Matthew 11 tells us that Jesus speaking.

He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, learn of me. What are we to learn? I am meek and lowly in heart. I am meek and lowly in heart. In the Greek world, the word meek meant power under control. This word was used of people who had weapons like swords and had the right and ability to use them but were determined to keep them sheathed and thus remain in the correct moral position at all times. So meekness is when someone has the ability to use force but doesn't. You know, if you think about it, can you kind of get inside of Jesus's body during that 3 years and imagine what it would have been like to restrain that power, to hold that power back?

Listen, the fullness of God was in Christ. All of that power. And remember, Jesus made everything that is seen and unseen and holds it all together, all in that body. And yet in meekness, he held that power back. As an example, what about when John the Baptist when his cousin John was beheaded? Holding back that power, keeping that power sheathed. The religious leaders wanted to throw him over the cliff. Oh, the show he could have put on. When he overturned the money changers' table, you know what that could have looked like? That could have been a tornado, a whirlwind.

Worse than that. When the religious leaders accused him of doing his miracles by the power of Satan, oh, what he could have unleashed. As they put those nails up against his palms and began pounding, restraining that power. The second point to this, Colossians 1:19 says this. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ. It says God in all his fullness was pleased to live, to dwell in Christ. And this speaks to what their relationship was like, is like Jesus and God. God honors his son and his son honors God. John 17:1 says this.

After saying these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son. God to the son, glorify your son so he can give glory back to you. And then John 17:5, four verses later, now Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began. And yet Jesus restrained himself and refused to act on this fullness of God which was fully fully resident in his human body. Philippians 2:6 says this. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in a human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. So we see that it pleased God to give Jesus the fullness of all of the Father's attributes. And although Jesus had all of God's power at his command available to him, he never acted on that right. But he did acknowledge his right to this power. As he was seized in the mount of olives, he said this in Matthew chapter 26.

Don't you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us and he would send them instantly? So remember, if meekness is power under control, then no human being ever could have been as meek as Jesus because as he walked on earth those 3 years, he could have come out roaring like a lion, unsheathing that sword, but he never did. Going on, Colossians 1:20. And through him, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. Note this peace doesn't just apply to people.

No, it's much broader, much deeper than that. It says through Christ, God reconciled all things to himself. I looked up 25 translations. All 25 say either all or everything was reconciled. Now this is a fuller takeoff of this same thought and theme found in Romans 8 that all creation longs to go back to the way the world was before the fall, before Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, forbidden fruit. Romans 8:19 says this. For all creation is waiting patiently and hopefully for the future day when God will resurrect his children. For on that day, thorns and thistles, sin and death and decay, the things that overcame the world against its will at God's command will all disappear and the world around us will share in the glorious freedom from sin which God's children enjoy.

For we know that even the things of nature like animals and plants suffer in sickness and death as they await this great event. And what will that day look like? There are many photographs in the Bible. We'll show just one one picture found in Isaiah chapter 11. In that day, the wolf and the lamb will will live together. The leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion and the little child shall lead them all. The cow will graze near the bear. The cub and the calf will lie down together and the lion will eat hay like a cow.

When does that occur? At the end of the 7 years of tribulation, when Christ comes down to earth to rule and reign over the entire world out of his new temple in Jerusalem. And we will be with him. You will be coming back with him to rule and reign with him for that 1,000 years. Exciting things ahead. But this only includes things that are redeemable. Fallen angels and those who die apart from Christ are exempted by their choice. But for us, exciting times ahead. And in verse 20, we see that Jesus made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross, including those who had been far away from him.

Through him, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemy, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he is reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence. Listen, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. It says here that as a result, three things.

Number one, Jesus has brought you into the very presence of God. Number two, Jesus has made you holy and blameless, blameless. And number three, as a result, you now stand before God without a single fault. And the Bible says you are his friend. NIV says without blemish and free from accusation. King James says unblamable and unreprovable. You know, to reprove means to correct. You're unreprovable because you're faultless, you're blameless. But this you say but I'm not blameless. I 'm not without fault. You say I sin every day. Yes, of course. So do I. So do all of us.

But this is how God sees us positionally in light of Jesus paying for all of your sins on the cross. Your sins were forgiven the day you accepted him. Your sins were forgiven, past, present and future. And as a result, positionally he sees you faultless, perfected in Christ. And there's one verse. If you ever get sideways on this and say Tom, give me just one verse I can go to when I get sideways on this that will just bring clarity to me. Here it is. Hebrews 10:14 cuz it's all in one sentence. For by that one offering, by Christ dying on the cross, by that one offering, he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

Do you get that? That's not a logical statement. That's not logical. How can you be made forever perfect by God and yet at the same time he's making you holy? If you're perfect, you don't need to be made holy. Positionally, you are perfect. He sees you perfect. In reality, he's still cleaning me up. But the way he sees me is without any sin. I love that sentence. For by one offering, he forever made perfect those whom he is making holy. And one last thing on verse 20 says this. And through God reconciled everything to himself, he made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

You know, I believe this one verse all by itself strikes a death blow to hyper-calvinism and its teaching that God elected some to be sent to hell and created them for that very purpose. These are John Calvin's words himself. He said quote God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once and for all for those whom it was his pleasure to one day admit to salvation. And those listen, and those on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction. It was his pleasure to create some to doom to destruction. Listen, verse 20 says that Jesus made peace with everything in heaven and earth by means of his blood.

That means everything and everyone. Now does that mean everyone will, that everyone will be saved? No. Because God would need to violate man's free will in order to ensure that all will be saved and he won't do that. But what it does prove, what that verse proves is that the availability of being reconciled to God is available to all people. Listen again, chapter 1 verse 20. And through him, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. Contrary to that thought of hyper-calvinism, Barnes says this.

He says quote now this declaration must be understood with some limitation. It relates only to those things which are in heaven and earth for nothing is said of the inhabitants of hell, whether fallen spirits or angels or the wicked men who are there. Secondly, it cannot mean that all things actually result in being reconciled for that never has been true. Multitudes of people on earth have remained alienated from God and have lived and died as God's enemies. And as a result, it can only mean then that God had executed a plan that if fairly and properly applied, the blood of the cross was fitted, was adequate, was proper to secure the entire reconciliation between heaven and earth.

He ends by saying therefore there is no enemy which it was not fitted to to be reconciled to God. There was no guilt producing alienation which the blood of Christ could not wash away. So how does today's lesson apply to me? Number one, always remember everything God touches, he touches to redeem. Colossians 1:20. Through him, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. Everything God touches, he touches to redeem. You know, when you and I are in a conflict, when you and I are in a situation with someone, a disagreement, and you try to redeem it yourself, you might do a good job of redeeming it for your benefit.

But what about the redemption of the other person? I don't care about the other person. That's the whole problem. See, when you let God touch that, everything he touches, he brings back to life. So when you're in those situations and you say, you know what God, I want to see the situation redeemed, but for everyone, give it to God cuz man, he can redeem it for everyone involved in that situation. I 've seen it. I 've seen it. So if you have that conflict, give it to the Lord. Listen to this. Only God can turn a mess into a message, a test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph, a victim into a victory.

That's beautiful. Second application, verse 19. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ. In the future, if I may recommend, when you picture Jesus on the cross, try to picture Jesus pushing his arms back toward the cross. Picture Jesus pushing his feet back toward the cross because he had all of the power, all of the fullness in him. He said no one takes my life from me. I give my life voluntarily. With all that power in a human body, can you imagine the temptation to pull those arms away? I don't think he was tugging on them or neutral to them.

I think he had to push them back. I'm surprised the cross didn't break from him pushing back. And another thought on that, if he holds everything together by his power, if matter is held back together by Jesus, if it is, then as Jesus hung in that cross and those nails were holding him, he was holding the nails together. Simultaneous to that, he was holding the nails together. He was holding the matter that constituted those Roman soldiers together. Everything that he could see out of his human eyes that day, he was simultaneously holding together. Not only did he not resist the temptation to let loose that whole time he's holding, not God, Jesus did this.

He's holding all of that together. What a scene. And then finally, verse 22 says this. And yet now he is reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ and his physical body. And as a result, he has brought you in his own presence and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. Listen, folks, this is a big takeaway today. God sees you as holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. He sees you in the same way he sees Jesus. Listen, he sees you in the same way he sees Jesus.

Is that fair? Of course it's not fair, but it is just. Jesus died so you could be seen that way so he could see you like he sees Jesus. Every morning in our house, almost every morning, we have a drill. I'm downstairs in my office reading and studying and praying and Ted gets up a little later and he'll come down, brings me a cup of coffee, another cup of coffee, and uh and he walks in, he knocks on my door, hides from me, and I said, Ted, is that you get in here? Cuz I've been waiting for you.

Get in here. And he comes in and I hug he goes, oh, Tom. He comes in and I hug him and I kiss him 5 times in his head because he says I want you to kiss me more than you you kiss your wife. So so I kiss him 5 times and he goes upstairs I got 5. But that morning he came in and he was in all white. Had a white sweatshirt on, white pants, white socks. I said, Ted, you look just like an angel. He said, oh, Tom, thanks, he said. So he goes upstairs and I hear him I hear him say this to Sue.

He said, Sue, Tom told me that I look like Jesus. And I came up later and I said, you know, he had that more right than I did. Because God does see him like Jesus. God sees you like Jesus. You know what you should say to somebody when you greet them, a believer, a friend, a loved one? Wow, you know what? You look like Jesus. Cuz that's what God sees. You want to see things like God sees? You want to see things the way God sees them? You look like Jesus. Boy, would that be a good reminder to me.

Someone says you look like Jesus. I want to I'm not sure I did today, but I want to Listen, folks, that's the reality. That's how God sees you. Holy, blameless without a single fault. Let's close in prayer. Father, how can it be that you, my God, would die for me? How can it be that the just dies for the unjust? That one who has never sinned took on the sin of all of mankind and willingly hung on a cross that we could be forgiven, that we could have eternal life. Father, we we don't understand that.

The more we dig into the Bible, the more we research it, the more we look, the less it makes sense. The creator dying for the created when you could have just snapped your fingers and just washed it all away and started over with a more obedient version of man. But there was something about us that you couldn't do that. There was something about us that won't let you end it, that required you to redeem us, to bring us back. And we are so grateful for the people you've brought into our lives that guided us to Jesus.

And listen, if you hear this morning, you're watching on the on the internet or you're listening on the radio and you've never accepted Christ as your Lord and savior, why would you put this off? He loves you so much. And everyone of us who is in Christ can affirm the fact that our life really never began until we came to Christ. It only began. Your life hasn't even begun yet if you haven't accepted Christ. If you'd like to do that, this is a leap of faith, but you will never be disappointed. David says I once was young and now I'm old and all my years I have never seen the Lord forsake a man who loves him.

He said you'll never find a man disappointed who put their faith in Christ. You won't find that person. You won't. If you'd like to do that this morning, I encourage you to pray this prayer. Just pray this quietly in your heart. Father, I acknowledge that I sinned. I ask you to forgive me and I do receive Jesus Christ as my personal savior and Lord, him dying on that cross that my sins could be forgiven, him dying on that cross that I could have eternal life. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me that much. Now, Lord, all of us pray this prayer.

Help us, Lord, to live a life that honors you, that pleases you as a way of saying thank you for this incredible free unmerited gift. And we pray this in Christ's name and all of God's people said

Guest (Male): Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen.

Guest (Male): Today on Study the Word, Pastor Tom Keller has been teaching us from the book of Colossians. You can hear this message again online at ccleb.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. If you'd rather have a CD copy, call us at 717 273 5633. Have you been helped by the ministry? Let us know that. It would be so encouraging to Pastor Tom and the team. Give us a call at 717 273 5633 or write to Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. You can also email us through the website at ccleb.com.

Study the Word is made possible through the generous support of listeners just like you. And thank you for helping us reach out with the love and truth of Jesus Christ at a time in human history where people really need biblical encouragement. You can give online at ccleb.com or call 717 273 5633. We hope you'll visit us sometime here at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. For our service times and more information, go to ccleb.com on the web. You can also watch our live stream there at ccleb.com or on our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

May God richly bless you as you study the Word.