Steele, Tommy Sr: Pre-Imminence 01 ~ Victoria Va.

One, suppose we begin reading with, uh, verse fifteen. Who, and that of course refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every, every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, by him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have these preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Shall we pray again? Our God and our Father, we come to thee again in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ with thank thee for the blessed privilege of preaching thy word, and we ask that the Holy Spirit will work in and from the pulpit this morning, and also in the pews, speaking to the hearts of thy precious children and say, this is thy word. Should there be anyone here who knows not this wonderful Savior about whom we shall call, about whom we shall speak. Oh God, we hope that we will cause them to sense their heart hunger for him and receive him as their very own. In Jesus' precious name we pray, amen. Now, my friends, let me say to you that the Holy Spirit could not give us a more important subject than the subject for this morning. The subject for this morning is Christ's preeminence. Let me remind you that he should have the preeminence in every realm of our lives. He deserves it, he has a right to it, it is his very own. There's nothing pertaining to us that we should withhold from the Lord Jesus Christ. We should turn over everything to him. Our lives, we should turn over our family, we should turn over all of our possessions, all of our talents, all of our abilities, just everything that we might be inclined to call our own, we should realize that it's really not our own, that God has only loaned it to us for, for a while, and we are the stewards of it. And may God help us to be faithful in our stewardship as we reckon upon all these things as being his, and as we surrender them to him. I love that song, I surrender all, I surrender all, all to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all. As nothing, I repeat, pertaining to us we should withhold, withhold from him. Now, certainly we can keep nothing from the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he knows all about us. He knows, uh, what we are. He knows what we do. He knows what we have and everything else. So, beloved, we ought to give him the supremacy in everything, and if we can't give him the supremacy in everything, then we ought to, whatever it is, ditch it if we can't give him the supremacy in, because if it's unbecoming to the Lord Jesus Christ, it's unbecoming to a child of God. It's unbecoming to one who claims to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and as his Lord. Now, if he is the Lord of our lives, and he ought to be, I hope you recognize him as the Lord, the Lord of your life. Beloved, if you don't, start praying about that particular matter because it's very, very important. Almost every morning of my life, I put it in words, Lord, I recognize you as my Lord and my God and as the Lord of my life. So you think about that. Now, all that we do, all that we say, all that we think are to honor the Lord Jesus. And if this is the case with you, with me, then this will give him the place of preeminence in our lives, that place which he deserves, that place which he ought to have. Now, we will need his help if we want to accomplish this, because of ourselves we can do nothing. Remember, we didn't save ourselves, and remember, without the help of God, we'd have never gotten saved. More than that, remember, if God hadn't saved us, we wouldn't be saved. So we're indebted to God for our salvation from beginning to end. Salvation is of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit of God convicted you, and the Holy Spirit of God convicted me and drew us to that one who loved us and died on the cross of Calvary to pay for our sins, so that we would no longer be under that terrible load of debt that condemned our souls. And we are here this morning redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the work of God. He did it all. Don't forget that. And so we want to give him credit, and uh, if we want to give the Lord Jesus Christ the preeminence in our lives, let's ask him to help us to do that. In John chapter fourteen twenty six— don't turn to your verse, we don't have time to wait for you. Uh, these two verses are similar, John um fourteen twenty six and John fifteen twenty six, and because I have a tendency to mix them up, I'm going to read them. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. That's fourteen twenty six. Now fifteen twenty six of John's gospel. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. He shall testify of me. And then we look to, to the next chapter, the sixteenth chapter of John, and the Lord Jesus said to his disciples just before he left them, he said, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. How be it when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall speak not of himself, literally that means not from himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he shall show you things to come. The work of the Holy Spirit of God is to speak of Jesus Christ and to make him preeminent before our eyes, or I might use the word prominent would be best, make him prominent before our eyes so that we would want to give him the preeminence with, or the preeminence in our life. My friends, we need the help of the Spirit of God, and let's ever keep that in mind and depend upon him. Now, when the Lord spoke these words to his disciples, he had just told him, remember, in the fourteenth chapter that he was about to leave them. He said, he told him he was going to leave them. He said, I, in the twenty eighth verse, I believe he said, you have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. He told him he was going to leave him, but he told him he was going to come back. He said, now, but now in the meantime, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. So Jesus said to his disciples, I'm going to leave you, but I am going to send another to help you. I'm going to send the paraclete, which means one who comes alongside to help, and that means the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost is the one that he sent, the Holy Spirit. Another to take his place in helping the believers to be what they ought to be and do what they ought to be. And of course, if that was to the disciples, it's to you and to me also. So we read in First Corinthians six nineteen and twenty. I think Harmon quoted those verses this morning. What know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost dwelleth in you, and you're not your own, but you've been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us for the purpose of teaching us the things concerning Jesus Christ. We just read to you. It's not my opinion, it's not my conclusion, I just read it to you. He'll take the things of mine and will make them known unto you. And so, my friends, we behold the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, but we see Jesus, as we read in Hebrews two nine, looking unto Jesus, as we read in Hebrews twelve and 2, and we ought to be constantly looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the work of the Holy Spirit. In other words, as he would, uh, teach us the things concerning Christ and make him prominent in our lives that we might give him the pre- pre- the preeminence. We have turned now back to the passage of scripture that we had. I believe we were in Colossians chapter one and want to preach to you and speak to you about the preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ and how he ought to have that preeminence. And I want to suggest some reasons why. I want to suggest some reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ should have the preeminence in your life and in my life. And what do you suppose the first reason is going to be? What do you suppose is going to be the first reason I'm going to give to you that we ought to give him the preempt? My friend, you ought to guess it. Simply because he is God. Simply because Jesus Christ is very God of very God. Simply because when he walked this earth, God incarnate was walking the earth. And beloved, God is the creator of all things. God is the source of all things. God is the one by whom all things consist. He's the one by whom all things are held together. And if God is everything, then beloved, we certainly ought to be looking to God, and we ought to give God first place in our lives and in every area of our lives, I repeat. And so we ought to give the preeminence to the Lord Jesus Christ because he is God. When he walked this earth, the sovereign Lord was walking the earth in the likeness, and I'm glad that it says the likeness of sinful flesh. He walked this earth, the sovereign Lord walked this earth as a man, and the only difference between that body he lived in and the body you and I are living in, beloved, the bodies, maybe I should say, keep it all plural, is this, that that body was sinless, but yours and mine, of course, is certainly not sinless. So we ought to give him the preeminence because he is God. Remember how we read in this same first chapter of the book of Colossians, for by him were all things created there in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or the ministry, principalities, powers, all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And in Colossians chapter three and verse eleven we read that he, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, is all and in all. Well, if he is God, and he's all and in all, and by him all things consist, by him all things are held together. If he turned loose, everything would go to smithereens. If all that be true, we ought to give him the preeminence in our lives, and he ought to be first and foremost to us. Now, in the second place, we ought to give him the preeminence in our lives and before our eyes because he had the preeminence, and he has the preeminence before the eyes of the Father. You remember when it was time for him to come to this earth, the Lord, or God the Father, let me say, did not tell many people that he was coming. Now, he told Zacharias because Zacharias was to be the father of the forerunner of the Lord. That was John the Baptist, you know very well. And then he told Mary in order to explain to her how she was going to become the mother of God. And then he told Joseph, who was betrothed, that is engaged to Mary, he was to marry her later. He explained to him that the Son of God was coming in order that he might know what had happened to Mary and that she had not been unfaithful to him. And then he told those lowly shepherds, and he told the magi. Back to the shepherds in a moment, but the boys and magi return, and they are the wise men. Now, we read in Matthew that in the day when Jesus Christ was born, but that doesn't mean the exact day, but it means that period of time when Jesus Christ was born. The wise men came from the east, saying, where is he that is born the king of the Jews? But let me remind you of something. They didn't come to the manger. They didn't come to a babe in his mother's arms. They came to the house, and they saw the young child. I don't know how long it took them to make the journey from the east, but they saw him as a young child, and he was possibly two years old by the time the wise men came. But now, back to the shepherd. Beloved, the shepherd, the lowly shepherd, God appointed to be the reception committee for his son, when his son was to come to this earth. And then, you know, I think maybe God had second thoughts about it, and he thought, well, my son ought to have a bigger welcoming committee than, uh, these few shepherds, and so, as they were praising the Lord, behold, a multitude of the heavenly host descended and joined them in praising God that unto them was born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. So the shepherds were the welcoming host for the Son of God, and the heavenly host that joined them also welcomed him to this earth. Now, he was acknowledged while he was upon this earth by his father. You remember when he was baptized, as we read in Matthew chapter three, sixteen and seventeen, there's only enough time to go through the verses. But when he came up straightway out of the water, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And then came there a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. So you see, he was very, very pleasing in the eyes of the Father. And then the Father bore witness of him. In John five thirty seven, the Lord Jesus Christ said, Our Father also beareth witness of me. And in John five twenty two, he says he's put all judgment into my hand, and John thirteen to thirty one, he says the Father also glorifieth the Son, and then, beloved, he was also glorified when he was raised from the dead, when he was raised from the dead. You remember how that Peter declared that that one who would be delivered by Pilate, the Jews insisted that he be crucified and slain. But Peter reminds us that the Father honored him in raising him from the dead. And beloved, the Father will yet honor him even more. In Psalm one hundred and ten: one we read, sit here, sit here until I make your enemies your footstool. So God's going to make all of his enemies his footstool. Oh, by the way, I, I better not take time to do it, but I've got in my, my billfold here, uh, what Jesse Jackson doesn't believe. He does not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. He, he does not believe in God. He believes in evolution. And I wish I had time to read this list of things that Jesse Jackson believes, or I ought to say the things he doesn't believe. So be sure and vote for Jesse Jackson now, because I know you want him, uh, for president as atheist. And God have mercy on us. Uh, I think if he should become president, I think I'd shoot myself. But, uh, in all seriousness, beloved, Jesse Jackson is an atheist, an evolutionist, and he, even though he has reverend before his name and he's supposed to be a preacher, I've got it in print, documented. He does not believe in God, and he certainly does not believe in the Christ that you and I believe in, and the one that we know as our Savior and our Lord. Then you remember that precious, uh, passage in Psalms, in, uh, Philippians, rather, two, where God says that he's given him a name which is above every name, that is the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So he ought to have the preeminence because he is God. He ought to have the preeminence with us because he has the preeminence before the eyes of the Father. And then he certainly ought to be preeminent before the church because he owns the church. Jesus Christ owns the church. Acts twenty and twenty eight, the words of the Apostle Paul given to the Ephesian elders, he purchased it with his own blood. So Jesus Christ bought the church with his own blood. Now he's the founder of the church, he's the foundation of the church, he's the one who's building the church. He said, upon this rock, the truth that you be just expressed, Peter, I will build my church. And beloved, he is still working on his building. Now don't make any mistake about that. Now, as uh, Jennifer used to call him, has stopped building houses, but the Lord Jesus Christ hadn't stopped building his building. He's still working on it because he didn't say, I'm going to start it. He didn't say, I'll lay the foundation and let somebody else raise the superstructure. He said, I will build my church, and he's still working on his building, and he's going to complete his church. We see the local church in shambles today, and it breaks our heart, the status quo, but make no mistake about it, no matter what the condition of the local church, testimony-wise, the Lord Jesus Christ is still working on his building, he's still building the true church, and he will complete what he started because he said, I will build my church. And not only that, beloved, but he's in the church. He said, where two or three are gathered together, my name there am I in the mystery in Matthew eighteen and twenty. And, uh, he, as I said a while ago, is the head of it, as we noted from Colossians, who is the beginning, the first one, and he's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Then I would say to you another thing too, and early on here, that he ought to have the preeminence not only because he's God, not only because he has the preeminence in the eyes of the Father, but beloved, and not only because, uh, he should have the preeminence before the church because it is his church, uh, he purchased it with his own blood, it's his own body, he's building it, but he ought to have the peonness in the life of the believer who is a part of that church that he is building, who is a part of him, who is a part of his body. Do you ever stop to think about it? That you're just a stone? Huh? He has said that the church is being built of living stone. But brother, I heard of a couple being put into the church during the meeting here recently. I want to tell you something, you're just a stone. But thank God, you've become a living stone. A living stone. Jesus Christ is building his church of living stones, and believers become those living stones. He's building his church of believers, and so we are a part of the body. We are a part of the church, and for that reason, the Lord Jesus Christ certainly should have the preeminence in our lives. And beloved, we he ought to have the preeminence because he is our life. Do you remember how Paul says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. For ye are dead, and literally ye have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye appear also with him in glory. Colossians three one, verses one through four. Now, is Christ your life? Let me ask you that. Beloved, are you reckoning him to be your life? That's the way the question perhaps should be put, because now if you are saved, Christ is the one who has given you spiritual life. If you are saved, Christ has come in in the person of the Holy Spirit to live within you, and it's Christ in you, says Paul, Colossians one twenty seven, the hope of those. So, beloved, he ought to have the preeminence because he's in you, he is your very life. Now, whether you are reckoning upon the fact that he's your life or not, I don't know. That's a different question. That's a different question. Beloved, we need an awareness of the fact that Jesus Christ is our life. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul. I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I. I don't even live. I don't even live. But the life which I now live in the flesh, listen, I live for the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So beloved, is Christ your life? Are you recognizing him as your life? Do you commit yourself to him of the morning? Commit your works unto the Lord that your thoughts may be established, as we read in Proverbs sixteen three. And say, Lord, now you are my life, and I don't want to live my life today, but I want you to live your life through me. And the life that others observe, that they think is my life, that they think I'm living, I want you to be living that life through me. Christ is our life. Beloved, if Christ is our life, then he certainly should have the preeminence. The trouble is, so many of us, beloved, haven't done as the apostles suggested in Romans chapter six beginning with verse eleven: reckon ye yourselves therefore to be dead indeed into sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And yield not yourselves to sin that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto him. Now that's what we have to do if Christ is our life, and if Christ is living his life in and through us. We've been saved by the grace of God. We've been born again of the Spirit of God. We've become new creatures in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ living within us, the Holy Spirit living with us, and he is our life, and now he wants to live out that life that he is through you and through me. But in order for him to do that, we've got to die to self. We've got to reckon. That means to count it so, to depend upon it being so. Count ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Beloved, if I find my eyes turning in the wrong direction, I turn them back right quick. I say, what are you got doing looking that way? But other if I become aware of this appetite of mine, thinking of something I ought not to partake of, I immediately say, oh Lord, forgive me, I don't want that. We've got to stay on the feet, and we've got to consider this word that I have used several times, this word reckoning. This word reckoning, which I repeat means count it so. And beloved, it is a day by day process. Not only a day by day process, it's an hour by hour process, it's a minute by minute. We need to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed in the sin and alive at the cross through Jesus Christ our Lord, and we need to reckon upon the fact that Christ is our life, and we are not living this life that you observe, but Christ is living his life through us. Now that's the way it's got to be. It can't be any other way. If he's to have the preeminence, if he's to be honored and he's to be glorified. Beloved, it's a matter of record. We're saved, yes, praise God, we're saved. We're on our way to heaven, yes, praise God, we're on our way there, and we're going to get there. I don't care how many times we may stumble and fall, like Peter and others, we can be helped now, and we can brush the dust from our clothing and start walking again for another. Because if we're saved, now notice that word if, if we're saved, we're going to get into heaven. We're going to get to heaven. That's the destination for our soul. But what about our journey? What about the journey? What about the way? What about the way? Are we going to live our life and live for ourselves while we are on this wonderful journey to heaven? Are we going to die to self? Are we going to turn our back on those things that are dishonoring to God, and those things that do not help us to be the kind of a Christian we ought to be, to be the child of God that we ought to be, to be the disciple of Christ that we ought to be, are we going to turn our back on those things and reckon upon the fact of Christ being our life? Say, Lord, this thing is too much for me. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't live my life so that it will be your life. You'll have to live your life through me. If we are to reach the point we ought to reach in our experience as we journey toward heaven. And if you are to have to be eminence, dear Lord Jesus, you have to do the living. You have to do the doing. You have to do the thinking. You will have to do the talking. You have to do it. Christ is all and all. Oh, my friend. Go home from this meeting. Set on your face before God. If you don't know what I'm talking about, if you don't know what I've been talking about, and say, oh God, please receive it of my heart. Pray, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Find me and know my fall, to seek that be in the wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139, 23, 24. And then say, Lord, teach me what Tommy was talking about this morning. Lord, I don't know. I don't know, Lord, I get mad, I fly off, I do this, I do that, and and Lord, I I can't charge you with the responsibility that these faults are mine. And it must be that I'm not letting you live your life through me. It must be that I'm insisting on living my own life, and I'm trying to claim that I'm living for you. Ask God to reveal to your heart what Tommy was talking about this morning. And if there's anybody here, and I say you, don't go away. Just let this little picture know you'd like to talk to me, and I'll be glad to talk with you there at the door. Our God and our Father, we just give thee thanks and give thee praise for this wonderful truth that we have considered this morning. Christ as our life. And the Word of God says he is to be our life, and we want him to be our life. And we do want to turn ourselves completely over to him, that he might be exactly that, and the life we live for their sake might not be our life, but might be the life of Christ because he's living. We ask it in his name, for his sake. Amen.