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[0:00] Well, that's my second mistake this morning. I didn't change that slide either. So I got the wrong song in the handout and well, all right. So three strikes and you're out.

[0:11] That's just all there is to it. We're in Colossians chapter one and we're going to look at verse 16 and 17, but I'm going to go ahead and read verse 15 and to get us in there. I love, I love preaching verse by verse, the connections that we get to see the things that we have to talk about.

[0:30] You know, if you don't preach verse by verse, you're just going to start talking about things you want to talk about instead of things you need to talk about. And when you preach verse by verse, it forces you to take and deal with subject matters that maybe you will ordinarily would like to ignore.

[0:45] This is not one of those this morning, but we get to talk about Jesus being the creator. And I think that's an awesome thing. So beginning in verse 15, Colossians chapter one, Let's pray together.

[1:25] Father, we praise you, recognizing that you are our father who is in heaven, so far removed from us, it feels at times higher than us, greater than us, glorified, exalted, beautiful, transcendent.

[1:41] And yet here we are coming to you at your feet, saying that we need you this morning. We need your power. We need your wisdom. We need your power to be able to empower us to listen to your word.

[1:56] We need your wisdom so that we understand it and we can apply it to our lives. And we just pray that you would not leave us this morning without knowledge of you.

[2:06] And as we hear and see in the pages of scripture who you are, as our God, as our triune God, may we have joy and delight and satisfaction in you.

[2:23] We pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right. One housekeeping thing. I'm hot. Can we make sure that doesn't come back on again? Because, like, I am going to melt to pieces.

[2:38] Sorry. If you're cold, rug up. I want to show you a couple of pictures. This first picture, that's a folding table that I made.

[2:53] The bottom is leftover wood I just had in my shop. And the top is some tongue and groove siding that was in our old house. We ripped it all out and I made stuff out of it.

[3:03] And this is one of the things that I made. It was a folding table at first. Now it serves as an island in our kitchen. And so, anyway, I made that. The next thing, I made this too. That's a TV stand.

[3:15] I didn't really buy anything for that except the wheels and some of the hardware and stuff. And put that together for my daughter. The first table I made for Michelle for, you know, the laundry and stuff.

[3:27] And she asked for that. Anyway, my daughter needed a TV stand. So I bought her, made her the TV stand. And the next thing is, this is like a tray of some kind.

[3:38] It's made out of walnuts. And it's got some handles that are all wrapped together. And I gave that to my son. And the reason that I gave my wife the table, and I gave my daughter the TV stand, and I gave my son the tray, is because I made it.

[3:52] And I can do what I want to with it. And that is exactly the attitude we have to keep in our minds. Jesus made us.

[4:04] He can do with us what he wants to. I mean, I want you to think about it this way. The man, Jesus, who was born about 4 B.C.

[4:14] No, it wasn't zero. It was about 4 B.C. Who lived until about 30 A.D. This man that the New Testament testifies to, that Josephus testifies to, that Tacitus testifies to, that Pliny the Younger testifies to, that people in the second century testified that he lived.

[4:36] This man created you. That's a deep thought. He was able to do so because he was not just a man.

[4:51] But he is God. And so I want us to grow in our faith this morning. Part of the reason that we preach is that Christians might increase in their joy, their delight, their satisfaction, and in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[5:11] And so I pray this morning, you grow in your trust of him, that you come to appreciate Jesus as your creator. And I want to show you three things, his relationship to creation in past, present, and future.

[5:28] Past, present, and future. Now, let's talk about his past relationship with the creation. In verse 16, it begins with this little word, this sort of for word.

[5:43] And the idea is that in verse 15, he tells us that Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. And the question is, how do you know that, Paul?

[5:53] And the answer is verse 16. How do you know that he's the rightful ruler over all creation? Because he made everything.

[6:04] That's sort of the idea of 16 through 17. But we've got to get into some details here. And one of the things about his past relationship with creation comes in verse 17, where it says that he is before all things.

[6:18] He is before all things. And that word before means exactly that. He was before creation. Which means that he could not be created since the creation happened after he is in existence.

[6:33] You understand what I'm saying? Let me say that a little bit more clearly. He pre-existed the creation. And this is what theologians call the pre-existence of Christ or of Jesus.

[6:47] And there's a little phrase that I think that we need to learn. And I don't know if I have this phrase on the next slide. Do I have it? Oh, I do. Look at that. I'm good. There has never been a time when he was not.

[6:59] There's never been a time when he was not. I want you to just say that with me. Just read it and say it with me. There has never been a time when he was not. I think we just need to do that again.

[7:10] There has never been a time when he was not. The second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, there's never been a time when he was not.

[7:24] He has always existed. That is why he is before the creation. And he must exist before the creation.

[7:35] He must exist before the creation because if he does not, then he's a part of creation. And if he's created, then he does nothing for us.

[7:47] He can do nothing for us. He is one with us but is not powerful. His pre-existence, there was never a time when he was not, means that he has always had things like our salvation as a part of the plan.

[8:03] It means that he will outlast the creation and it means he did not create us because he was lonely and needed us but because he wanted us for his praise. So that's a part of his relationship with creation.

[8:17] Well, the next thing is that I want to talk about his relationship to creation in the past from two angles. There's two things that happen in this verse, okay? And they're kind of the big things that we see and it begins in verse 16 and it talks about that in him all things were created or by him is what the NASB says, by him all things were created.

[8:40] Now I'm going to disagree with the New American Standard here at this point and I could get into all the reasons why but I'm just going to cut to the chase and if you want to know more about the reasons why you can come ask me and I'll tell you.

[8:53] But the way we should be reading this is that all things were created in respect to Jesus Christ. So here in verse 16, this first creation is the Father creating in respect to his Son.

[9:10] It's like the table that I made for my wife. I made that table for my wife. I made that in respect to my wife. She is going to be doing something and I made this for her to do that thing.

[9:23] The Father created this world in respect to Jesus Christ. The Father in unity with, in deference to, in joy over, in respect for his Son whom he knew would be suffering upon a cross who would rise from the dead, who would rule and reign over all things.

[9:43] God the Father created the world, the universe, in respect of his Son and the work that his Son would do, this being the stage for his work and his glory.

[9:55] Jesus was in the Father's mind as the Father created. However, the second thing we see at the end of verse 16 is that it says all things were created through Jesus Christ.

[10:11] Through Jesus Christ. This word through tells us something about Jesus that he is the agent of creation. This is going to be a little confusing for a second because you're going to think into yourself, the Father created.

[10:25] Now you're telling me the Son is the agent of creation. How does all this work? Just hang with me for a second. I want you to think about Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 1 where it says and God said let there be light.

[10:39] Fill in the blank. Right? He said and he said something and then that thing came to be. Right? In verse 3, verse 6, verse 9, verse 11, verse 14, 20, 24, 26, 29 God said and it was so.

[10:54] Here's the important point of this. The book of Hebrews tells us in chapter 11 that by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared or created by the word of God.

[11:06] Now just think about that for a second. God said and so by the word of God everything came into existence that exists.

[11:19] It says that in the Old Testament in Psalm 33, verse 6 that we read at the very beginning. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made. By the breath of his mouth all their host. The Father spoke.

[11:34] Yet who is Jesus described as? The word of God. That's what John says to us. That he is the word of God.

[11:47] So in other words, the Father spoke into existence all things and the word of God, the Father, the word that he spoke was God the Son. Okay, listen.

[12:00] So what I'm trying to describe to you is something that's extremely mysterious. It's quite abstract. It's difficult to grasp but understand.

[12:11] So here's my best way to help you get this. Okay? Just going to try to bring it to something that we are familiar with. God the Father is the planner. God the Son is the executor.

[12:23] God the Spirit is the power. God the Father is the planner. God the Son is the executor. God the Spirit is the power. God the Father planned and created yet he did so by his word.

[12:36] His word is Jesus and all things come into existence because even the Spirit hovers over the face of the deep. Right? It's a triune act is what I'm trying to get to. But one of the things that we see about this triune act is that Jesus is the agent through which creation comes into existence which is why we can say Jesus is your creator.

[12:57] Now I'm being sloppy with my language here. Right? I'm saying Jesus and we all know Jesus is the human name. He didn't take on Jesus until his incarnation.

[13:10] But I just sort of use that just kind of freely. And I know it's a little bit sloppy but just you know he was not always Jesus but he's always been. He took on flesh in Jesus.

[13:21] So anyway that's for those that are going to make you know comments about that. Anyway he is the agent of creation and the last thing about this about his past relationship with creation is that there's there's specific things that he creates.

[13:34] It tells us in this passage that it's things that are in heaven and on earth. In the heavens and on earth. This is the entire cosmos. I want to introduce you to a word it's cosmology.

[13:51] Cosmology. It takes the word cosmos and ology and puts them together. It's the study of the cosmos or the universe. It's a philosophical term that basically means what I understand about the nature and structure of the universe.

[14:05] I'll give you an example. Like when I was a kid I believed that heaven was up and hell was down. Right? But the more that I know and the more that I can see this world and we get pictures of space out there when I say heaven is up what am I saying?

[14:21] Because if I'm in Antarctica which way is up? Right? Well Texas is up. Right? I mean if you're standing in Texas that's up. Okay never mind.

[14:33] Anyway you're going to get it. The point is that this idea of up is sort of relative because we're on a globe and it's like where is up? You know what I'm saying? And then if we talk about hell being down we're talking about usually in my mind I was thinking it's in the core of the earth.

[14:49] But like we could dig and dig and dig and dig and dig and we're not going to get to hell. Right? So the modern mindset has sort of taught us that the supernatural realm and world is just so far removed from the natural realm that they're nowhere near close to one another.

[15:06] Matter of fact you can't even measure the supernatural realm. All we have before us is the natural realm. And so I had my world blown apart by being told no there's no heaven up there's no hell down because science.

[15:17] And I'm like okay. But in the Bible that is not the cosmology of the Bible. The cosmology of the Bible it's belief about the nature and structure of the universe is that the supernatural and the natural are so close.

[15:35] They're right here together. And so as he says that he created all things in heaven on earth what he's trying to say is that Jesus Christ created the supernatural world and the natural world that which is the realms if you will and there's nothing in all of existence that he did not create.

[16:00] She created all of it no matter where it is no matter how we could find it and I'm not saying how we do but then he talks about visible and invisible that which is visible is that which is material that which is matter things that are tangible things that we can touch so heavens and earth is about the realms visible invisible is about the stuff those realms are made out of right the invisible that which is spirit that which is of immaterial type of things right there's material and immaterial Paul specifically mentions the idea that thrones dominions rulers and authorities and I think Paul's talking about spiritual beings here I think he's talking about angels I think he's talking about demons I think he's talking about all the spirit beings that here is Jesus Christ the past relationship he has with the creation is that there's not a single solitary aspect of all existence that Jesus didn't make that's his point and so as a

[17:04] Christian then what am I to do with this one is that I must believe it you must believe it without believing that Jesus created all things is to not believe what the Bible says about Jesus this passage here tells us he created all things if you don't believe that and you say to yourself well maybe this process or maybe this or this then you're automatically beginning to develop a Jesus that's not the Jesus of the Bible and therefore without hope you see the Colossians the Colossians were being taught a different cosmology right if you think about it they were being taught a cosmology that said the natural world the material world was evil and only the spirit world or supernatural world is good and they were being told they've got to buy into the false teachers in order to escape the natural world and make it to the supernatural world if they had bought into that then they would have no longer been trusting

[18:10] Christ and they would have been walking away from him but some might say to me but how do we manage modern science how do we manage what we're being told about where the world came from where the universe came from in some big bang or some process of evolution or some common descent well I'll give you two answers to that number one we're covering some of that in Sunday school at 10 a.m.

[18:38] so you can come and be a part of that secondly why would you believe what men say over what God says I find it fascinating not a one of us has ever done any sort of experimental science going back in time to recreate the creation of the universe nor has any other human being on the face of the planet now there are scientists on the face of the planet who've done some experiments recreating certain things and from that they have extrapolated ideas and thoughts and theories and ideas that seem to them to test out in certain ways and they write those things in books but I would dare say it's less than 1% of the population that's done that and they have written books the rest of us read books and decide that that's right and we're going to follow that and I'm just saying I read a book too I just read a different book I read what's called the Bible

[19:40] God's word and it tells me that he did this and the way he did it will you believe will you trust in him because you can you need to trust in him because he made you and he can do with you what he wants to he can tell you where to live he can tell you who to marry he can tell you who to love he can tell you how to spend your money he can do what he wants to with you because he made you and he will be all up in your business because you're his and you can live in submission to him with a knee bowed saying that Jesus is the Lord now or you can do so as your judge later and even the lost person needs to understand that Jesus created them and yet they rebel and the only way for you to get out of the judgment that he has coming is to trust your creator so that's his past relationship with creation let's talk about his present relationship with creation and his present relationship with creation in verse 17 it says that in him all things hold together in him all things hold together in

[21:04] Christ by his power all things that have been created are being held together by Christ he is before all things he's created all things and now that he's created all things he's holding them together this means that God is active in creation he's active in this world that which he has created he's maintaining it's created design and form so that it does exactly what he's designed for it to do this is what we call the providence of God this is what we call the providence of God the providence of God has three aspects to it one God overrules all things he rules and overrules all things so he uses things to accomplish his purpose God works with all things so God works with the created order works with how he designed and created things in order to bring other things about so bees sunshine water and nitrogen

[22:05] God created all of these things they're necessary for a plant to grow and they do exactly what they were designed to do by God because God works with them in their design to accomplish his will he works with the creation and the final part of his providence is that God preserves all things that he's created he preserves all things that he created he keeps things functioning just as he designed and created them at large now this is not to deny the fall the fall has brought in sickness and other things and we look at that and we kind of go well it's sort of working the way it was designed right the fall is there we have that and God overrules that as well and works with that and preserves the things but here's on a large scale what this means a rock is a rock and it's always going to be a rock it's not going to turn and attack you it also means that cows are going to eat grass the way cows eat grass and not suddenly are they going to start flying and eat like vultures they're going to be cows and they're going to eat grass that's just the way of it he created this world and he's keeping things and holding them together in exactly the way that he's designed so give another illustration what happened just right now is that he's holding together the atoms the protons the electrons of the oxygen molecule that you just breathe into your lungs he's holding together the atoms and the molecules of the alveoli in your lungs making sure that that alveoli takes in that oxygen and does with it exactly what it's supposed to do getting into your bloodstream so that you can stay alive he just held all of that together while my mouth is flapping and holding me together he holds all things together he's even holding together that immaterial that makes up the angels and the demonic horde he created them their existence and their continued existence is completely and entirely dependent upon him holding all things together there's nothing in all the cosmos in the heavens or on the earth that

[24:26] Jesus is not holding together he's holding the atheist together he's holding terrorists together he's holding your doctor together he holds your car together he holds your fork together he holds your smartphones together he holds our navy submarines together he holds the flu virus together he holds bats and vultures and mosquitoes together and all of it owes its continued existence to him he is provident over all things and this ought to be a comfort to us it ought to be a comfort to us because when you look at the world around you and you begin to feel hopeless uneasy begin to feel weak looks like everything is meaningless Jesus Christ who died on the cross for you Jesus Christ who rose from the dead for you is holding together the creation sometimes it attacks you sometimes it brings sickness sometimes it brings starvation sometimes it brings trials and persecutions but it is all being held together and has its existence in this moment due to Jesus

[25:40] Christ holding it together so if your faith is lagging you find yourself struggling to trust God in moments of sickness moments of trial moments of difficulty one of the things we can do to increase our faith is look at the world around us and examine every little thing I know it seemed maybe a little bit ridiculous for me to talk about oxygen and alveoli but the truth is everything is being held together so as you face the difficulties I mean think about this how are we going to withstand the trials that our kids put us through they are being held together by Jesus I can't I can't hold them together how can we withstand the doubt and fear that creeps in when my loved one is sick

[26:42] Jesus is holding them together my doctors are not saving them Jesus is nothing happens apart from his hand holding it all together even the bad things he holds it all together so we have that past relationship this present relationship with the creation but there is a future relationship that's pointed out in this passage and I want you to look at the passage again verse 16 for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and visible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through him and for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together now I don't know if you caught it but it's two little words that I haven't referred to yet in the whole thing right there in verse 16 two little tiny words for him that points to a purpose and if you think about the flow of this text what you have if you put this in sort of chronological order you've got Jesus before the creation

[28:00] Jesus being the agent through which creation comes into existence you got the present reality of him holding all things together to what end to what goal for him this word for it's a little Greek word that that means to or toward an end to or toward a goal it's for the purpose of this so all things were created for Jesus he's the agent of creation and he created everything for himself he created all things we would say theologians would say he created all things for his glory what does it mean to be created for his glory he did it to make much of himself he did it to make much of his name he did it that he might be magnified and think about magnification there's two kinds like there's a microscope that takes something small and makes it bigger but then there's the telescope that takes something far away and brings it closer that's the kind of magnification we're talking about

[29:15] God who is big and huge and far away he wants to magnify himself that is bring himself closer so that we might see him in other words God is God centered God is uppermost in his own thoughts God loves himself more than he loves anything else God does all things for his own glory he saved us not because there was something about us to be made much of but he saved us because there's something about him to be made much of and if you doubt what I'm saying I'm going to show you two things number one I want you to think the very first commandment of the ten commandments you shall have no other god before me perfect righteousness demands that you worship no other if God has us uppermost in his thoughts that he's worshiping us he cannot break that commandment but let me show you through scripture there's several places throughout scripture and

[30:28] I'm just going to read you a list of sort of the title and then the passage and it'll be on the screen it might it might go by too fast it might be too small to read I tried to make it easy and accessible I'm not going to read all these passages you can go read these passages!

[30:45] but I just want you to notice all the things that God has done for his own glory and this is the whole point of the scriptures it says in Isaiah 43 6-7 that God created us for his glory Jeremiah 13-11 God called Israel for his glory Psalm 106 God rescued Israel out of Egypt for his glory Romans 9-17 God raised Pharaoh up to show his power and glorify!

[31:12] name! Exodus 14-4 God defeated Pharaoh at the Red Sea to show his glory Ezekiel 20-14 God spared Israel in the wilderness for the glory of his name 2- Samuel 7-23 God gave Israel victory in Cana for his glory of his name in 1- Samuel chapter 12 God did not cast away his people for the glory of his name God saved Jerusalem from the attack for the glory of his name God restored Israel from exile for the glory of his name Ezekiel 36 God sent Jesus so that the nations might glorify God for his mercy Romans 15 Jesus sought the glory of his father in all the things that he did John chapter 7 Jesus told us to do good work so that God gets the glory Matthew 5 16 Jesus warned!

[32:11] Jesus said that he answers prayer that God would be glorified John 14 13 Jesus endured his final hours of suffering for God's glory John 12 God gave his son to vindicate the glory of his righteousness Romans 3 God forgives sins for his own sake Isaiah 43 Jesus receives us into fellowship for the glory of God Romans 15 the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son of God John 16 God instructs us to do everything for his glory 1 Corinthians 10 31 God tells us to serve in a way that will glorify him 1 Peter 4 11 Jesus will fill us with the fruits of righteousness for God's glory Philippians chapter 1 all are under judgment for dishonoring God's glory Romans 3 23 Jesus is coming again for the glory of God 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and enjoy his glory John chapter 17 even in wrath

[33:12] God's aim is to make known the wealth of his glory Romans chapter 9 God God God's plan is to fill the earth with the knowledge of his glory Habakkuk chapter 2 everything that happens will redound will be proclaimed to God's glory Romans 11 in the new Jerusalem the glory of God replaces the sun revelation 21 God does everything for his own glory for his own praise for his own exaltation and that is our hope if he doesn't he ceases to be God Jesus relationship to the creation in the future is that it all is for his glory then that affects how we view creation we need to see this as his world and it should stir our hearts to give him glory that ought to affect how we treat the creation how we treat other human beings what we think about abortion what we think about human trafficking what we think about sexual sin what we think about the waiters and waitresses that help us the cashiers if he's done all things for his glory and this creation is to redound and to be for his praise and honor then it ought to affect the way

[35:00] I treat the other image bearers of God it ought to affect the way I use my time my time ought to be done and used for the praise of his name it ought to affect the way I do my mundane tasks like eating and drinking you know Sunday night at the Thanksgiving thing I God thank you that food is not just little gray cubes tasteless blandless gray cubes you know God could have made food that way there could be a tree that you just like a six pack of soda pull out the bottom one eat it that's all you need for the day and then there's nothing else and that's all the nutrients we get that's all the nutrients we could have blandless tasteless gray cubes he could have done it that way I probably would have because

[36:01] I couldn't have think of another way to do it but look at what he's given to us look at all the taste the flavors the colors the smells the sights that he gives us and just one little plate of food the creativity of that that doesn't speak about how great we are that speaks about how great he is you don't go stand at Niagara Falls listening to the deafening sound of the water and think to yourself God must think a lot of me you stand there and you go God is great you don't watch a hurricane roll in off the coast seeing its powerful wind destroying things and think to yourself God must think much of me now you think God is powerful glorious beyond all things and yet the wonder of all of this is that he sent his one and only son into this world because the way we lived as sinners is that we couldn't see the glory we didn't want the glory we didn't want the joy that came from looking at him we didn't love him above all things and so he sent his son into this world not only to save us from his wrath but so that we might enjoy and have eyes to see the glory and the splendor and the majesty of

[37:39] God himself in other words he is the best of gifts He's the most joy filled! gift! we could ever have and he sent his son into this world so that we could have that gift so that we could be satisfied in him being without Christ is thinking that it's all about me being saved by Christ is realizing that it's not about me at all he's the creator he's the creator he's the one who gets all the praise all the glory all the honor and we get all the joy and all the satisfaction and all the happiness because we get the best gift of all

[38:44]  God himself I pray that the Lord would increase your faith in this let's pray together