In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of remembering that God created the earth and each individual. He suggests that observing a full moon on a clear night can serve as a reminder of God's creation. The speaker also discusses the approach of presenting the truth about Jesus Christ in an irresistible manner, highlighting his divine nature and glory. The sermon warns against being influenced by doctrines contrary to biblical teachings about Christ and emphasizes the need to prioritize and submit to Jesus as Lord to have true life and eternal assurance.

Let's turn together to Colossians chapter 1, and I'm going to read to you verses 14 through 20. Colossians chapter 1, verses 14 through 20, speaking of Jesus Christ, Paul says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. For it pleased the father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the of his cross. About a hundred years ago, the World's Fair came to the city of Chicago, and the city of Chicago was the home of that great evangelist D.L. Moody. D.L. Moody took advantage of this opportunity to preach the gospel. Millions and millions of people came to Chicago, and he saw this as an opportune moment to share Christ with people from all nations. And so he posted evangelists, preachers, Bible teachers all over the city in different places, putting them in churches, putting them in theaters, just as many places as he could get preachers into. He put in there so that they might declare the gospel. At the same time, there was also the beginnings of what is called the Parliament of World Religions. And the Parliament of World Religions is an event where people from all of the various religions of the world get together and try to come up with a for everyone to work together and, in essence, really just come up with a one-world religion. Those who were friends of Moody's and his supporters, they really encouraged him to take advantage of this time to really speak out against and to expose this Parliament of World Religions for what it really was. But he refused to do so. He said, I don't think that's the wisest way to do it. He said, instead, what I plan to do is to preach Christ in such a way that he is so irresistible that none of the other religions will even be an option. That's what he did, and it proved to be effective. What Moody did was simply go back to the example that was given to us in Scripture by the Apostles. That's what the Apostle Paul does right here. He presents Christ in all of his majesty and in all of his glory, and in doing so, he of necessity refutes those who are bringing false teaching into the fellowship. You see, rather than attacking it head-on, rather than going directly at the individuals involved, Paul does it in a different way, but I think in the long run, a more effective way. You see, when we attack something head-on, quite often what happens is people immediately become defensive. I have attacked many things head-on, and I've seen a lot of times that the defense mechanism kicks in, and you lose the opportunity to present your full case. I mean, you know, if you walk up to somebody who's involved in some sort of a cult or a world religion, which would amount to a false religion, and you begin with, your religion is false, your prophet is a false prophet, or your doctrine is of the devil, well, generally speaking, what you do is you immediately get their defenses up, and they don't hear you from that point on. They're set for a defense of their faith, and that's what they're going to fight to until the end. And so, even though sometimes that seems to be the thing that we ought to do, it's not necessarily the best strategy. Sometimes a better strategy is to take a more indirect approach, like Moody did, like Paul did before him, an approach where you just present the truth in such an irresistible manner that nothing else can stand against it. You see, that's what Paul did. He presented Jesus Christ as the ultimate. He is God in human flesh in all of his glory and all of his splendor. The natural conclusion would be that everything else that's said about him is wrong, or everyone else who compares themselves with him, they are wrong also. So, that's what the apostle is doing here. He's setting forth Christ in all of his glory because there were those that were influencing the fellowship with doctrines contrary to the biblical doctrines concerning Christ. They were teaching that all matter is evil, and because matter is evil, God could not possibly have any connection with the physical world. Therefore, they said there were a series of emanations that went forth from God, and they are the ones who are actually in contact with the material realm. God himself is far removed from it. Paul doesn't attack that head-on. He instead presents Jesus Christ as the only true God, and at the same time, he is the creator, showing that this whole idea of these beings emanating from God, these lesser beings that were then capable of communicating and relating to us in the material realm, just showing the absurdity of the whole thing. He does it by exalting Christ. And so, here in our text, we have one of the most glorious pictures of the person of Christ. We are given a picture of him that exalts him and gives him the place of preeminence. Now, just as in Paul's day, so in our day, there's a lot of confusion over Jesus Christ. There's all kinds of speculation. There's all kinds of theorizing. Recently, Time magazine, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, I think each one of them had an issue that was dedicated to discovering who Jesus is, and there's a whole lot of confusion out there, a whole lot of theorizing, a whole lot of speculating. Time magazine recently did an article on Franklin and Billy Graham, and I heard it was a very good article. As a matter of fact, I was asking a friend who knows both Franklin and Billy. I said, well, what do you think about the article? He said it was great. They did a wonderful job. They did a great job, he said. He said, actually, Franklin and Billy fared better than Jesus. It's true. There's still all kinds of confusion and much false teaching circulating about Jesus Christ. How do we deal with it? What do we contend with that, with? Do we take a stand and go head-on against them and challenge them? We can do that, and we can defeat them, but it seems that that is somewhat fruitless. I've had many debates with liberal people, and I don't know that I've ever gained an inch of ground with them. They just stand firm in their position, although it's wrong, although it's contrary to the facts, contrary to history and everything else. They're entrenched in it. That head-on type of approach so often just entrenches people deeper in their position. How much better to present Jesus Christ just for who he is and then let them wrestle with that. Here's what the Bible says about Jesus Christ. This is what the Scriptures have to say. This is who Jesus is according to the Word of God. You wrestle with it. You deal with it. Keeping Jesus as the focus of our evangelism is so important, and Paul is doing that right here. He said, concerning Christ, he is the image of the invisible God. He is the image of the invisible God. The word translated image is the same word that we get our English word icon from, and that word has a variety of implications behind it. There was a young soldier, a young Greek soldier who had written home to his father, and he had placed in the letter a picture of himself. It was a painting of him. It was a portrait. It was a likeness of him, and he referred to it as iconion, basically the same word that Paul uses here. So what Paul is saying is that Jesus Christ is, among other things, he is the picture of the invisible God. Jesus is the picture of the invisible God. God is invisible. We can't see God. No one's ever seen God according to John 1.18. The only way we know anything about God is through the person of Jesus Christ. Now, back in the Old Testament, we have several instances where people seem to have seen God. They did, but they didn't. The New Testament says no man has ever seen God. You say, well, what about Genesis? What about Abraham back there? We read specifically that he met with the Lord face to face. What about Jacob? He saw the Lord face to face. What about Moses? What about people like Gideon? What about people like the parents of Samson? And so on, on throughout the Old Testament history. The New Testament says no man has ever seen God, but yet we have many instances in the Old Testament where God appeared to men. What is the explanation? The explanation is this. When the New Testament says no man has ever seen God, it's speaking of God the Father. No man has ever seen God the Father. The revelation of God to mankind has always been through God the Son. Prior to the incarnation, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Jesus would appear to people in the Old Testament. He would take on bodily form. God the Son is the one who brought the revelation. And then, of course, at a point in time, he became a man. He was born of the Virgin, and he came into this world, and he lived as a human being, and he declared God to us there. So it's in the person of Jesus Christ that we have a picture of God. If you want to know what God is like, then you have to look at the picture given to us of him in the scriptures. You need to turn to the New Testament, especially to the Gospels, because that's a portrait. The Gospels are a portrait of God, if you will, in the person of his Son. Jesus is a picture of God. Philip, one of the apostles, he said to Jesus at a certain point, he said, Lord, show us the Father, and that will be sufficient. And Jesus said, Philip, have I been with you so long and you have not known me? He that has seen me has seen the Father. Philip, how can you say show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Jesus said, he that has seen me has seen God. You see, he is that picture of God. He is that portrait. Oh, there's so much confusion in the world about God. Some people think of God as a wrathful being, someone who can't wait to judge the world, someone who's sitting in heaven just longing for that moment when he can pour out his wrath on mankind. That's how some people view God. Other people view God as just more of a really easygoing, laid back, mild tempered, kind of a grandfather, someone who closes his eye to sin and is ready to just let bygones be bygones and so forth. Other people view God as mythological. God doesn't even exist. It's all part of man's imagination. They say there's all kinds of confusion. How do we know about God? Jesus Christ is the picture of the invisible God. He's the image. The word iconion or icon went all beyond a picture. It was also used in reference to the inscription on a coin. So the inscription on a coin would be the likeness of the individual. It's amazing how the inscription on a coin does bear the likeness of the person that it's representing. You know, you pull out a penny and you see Abraham Lincoln and it's an exact representation of him or George Washington on a quarter or whoever you might want to look at. The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter one that Jesus Christ is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of this person or the exact representation of his person. You see, this is who he is. He is the one who has revealed God to us. You can't know God apart from Jesus Christ. That is probably the greatest misunderstanding in all the world. There are multitudes of people who talk about God, people who talk about loving God and knowing God and even serving God, but they reject Christ. According to the Bible, it's an absolute impossibility to have any relationship with God whatsoever apart from Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said this. He said, no man knows the father except the son and no one knows the son except the father. Actually, it was the reverse. No man knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and the one to whom the son reveals him. So you see again, Jesus Christ is the revelation of God. We can't know God apart from Jesus Christ. It's a virtual impossibility. Any supposed knowledge of God apart from Jesus Christ is a knowledge of something other than God. It is not a true knowledge of God. It's a knowledge of something other than God, real or perceived. It's a knowledge of something other than God. So he is the image of the invisible God. And then Paul said he is the firstborn over all creation. Now this term here is a term that has been used by the cults quite frequently. This term firstborn has been used by the cults to support their theory that Jesus Christ is a created being. You will find this common among all the cults. They teach that Jesus Christ is a created being. He is not the eternal son according to the cults. He is rather a created being and they say, notice now it says that he is the firstborn and the King James version reads he is the firstborn of creation. So kind of a bad translation lends itself to support of their theory, but the very context here refutes that. Not to mention the context of the whole Bible. We have to look at the whole picture given to us of who Jesus is. The Bible makes it perfectly clear that he is not a created being. As a matter of fact, right here in our text, it says that he is before all things. All things are the created things. So he is before all things, all created things. He is before them, meaning that he was not created. If he was not created, then he must be eternal because there's only one person. There's only one being who is uncreated and that is God. So Jesus is before all things. Meaning that the creation was a result of him. He's not part of it. He is separate from it. He existed before it, making him equal with the father. He's eternal. There's only one eternal being and that is God. So the word firstborn does not talk about first in a sequential order. It's not talking about first in origin. The Greek word prototokos actually refers to priority of position rather than origin. It refers to the position of a person. God has given Jesus Christ the place of priority over all creation. In the New King James translation, overall creation is a more accurate rendering of what's actually being said here. Christ is not the first one of the creation. He's the firstborn. He's the one who holds priority, supremacy over all of creation. In Psalm 89 verse 27, a prophecy of the Messiah said, also, I will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. You see, that's what he's talking about when he says firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. Back in the Old Testament, Ephraim is referred to as the firstborn of the Lord. Ephraim was one of the tribes of Israel, but Ephraim certainly was not the firstborn. But Ephraim began to have that place of priority among the tribes of Israel. And so that's what's being said here, that Jesus Christ has priority. He has, as Paul went on to say, preeminence. God has given him that place of preeminence. Paul said to the Philippians that Jesus has been given the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow and every tongue should confess. That's what's being said here. He is the one who has the preeminence, the place of priority over all creation. So you see, as we start presenting Christ and all of his majesty and all of his splendor, this will naturally, this will naturally put him in that place over all others. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that Christ is above everyone else. So when you approach a person who is embracing another Christ or involved in another religion, rather than attacking them head on, present to them Jesus Christ and who he is. And in doing so, in presenting him for who he is, according to the scriptures, in doing so, you will force them to the conclusion that if the Bible is right, then they must be wrong. You see? So, so it's a deductive thing. They're going to have to deduce from what's being said about Christ that whatever they've thought about him, if it doesn't line up with what scripture says, the scripture is right. They must be wrong. You see, there are a lot of people who try to put others on the same level as Jesus. There are those who tried to place Muhammad on the same level as Jesus. But all you've got to do is look at what the biblical record says about Jesus, rather than concentrating on putting Muhammad down, just put Jesus in his right place. And it becomes obvious in just a few moments that they cannot possibly be on the same level because the Bible is presenting Jesus as God. He's the supreme one. He's the creator of all things. And if he is, then of course, everyone else has to take a subservient position to him. And so he goes on to say, for by him, all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. Now, this is the clear teaching of the New Testament. Christ is the creator. Back in Genesis chapter one, we read in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And we don't see in that statement that it was the son who actually was the one who was creating. We don't have a clear picture in the Old Testament of the triune nature of God. The triune nature of God is hinted at in the Old Testament, but it's not specifically declared. But the very first word in the Bible translated God is a word that indicates a plurality in the divine nature. Elohim is the word. In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. Elohim is a plural word and could literally be translated gods, but it's not translated gods because there are not many gods. There's one God. The Bible makes that clear. So from the word Elohim, we get an indication that there's a plurality within the divine nature. What we find out later in the New Testament, that there are three persons who are one God. And what we also find out in the New Testament is that the creator was actually God the son. It appears that God the father was the architect, if you will, the one who the plan originated with the father. The plan was carried out through the son by the Holy Spirit. And so there in the first few verses of Genesis, we read about God creating the spirit of God hovering over the face of the deep and God saying, let there be light. We have the father, we have the spirit, we have the word. And so we come to the New Testament, we have a statement like this in Colossians or we have a statement like we do in John chapter one. 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. And without him was nothing made that was made. A statement declaring Jesus Christ as the creator. Now, when we understand that Jesus is the one who's the creator, that'll help you to understand why the evolution creation debate is so heated. You see, because this is an essential, this is an essential doctrine of the Christian faith. It's not just an Old Testament idea. There are many Christians who want to capitulate to the evolutionists. They want to bow the knee before so-called science and they want to give up and say, well, it appears, you know, that maybe evolution was the vehicle. No, Jesus Christ. They're forgetting their New Testament. They're forgetting what Paul said in Colossians. They're forgetting what John said. They're forgetting what the author to the Hebrews said. They're going back to Genesis and saying, oh, you know, it's debatable back there. And, you know, the day age theory, and they're coming up with all these things. They're forgetting what the New Testament has to declare. That God is the creator and specifically that God, the son, is the creator. So you see why the whole issue of creation is so vehemently attacked by Satan? Because Satan's primary target is Jesus. Satan doesn't attack the concept of God. Satan could care less if the world was filled with atheists. Atheism is not his main goal. He's much more content to allow people to believe in God, but to keep them from believing in Jesus Christ. That's the goal. That's the issue right there. That's why there's such a hot attack against the whole idea of creation, because it's Jesus who is the creator. If we acknowledge a creator, then we eventually end up back at the Lord himself. And that's the one who the enemy is attacking. That's Satan's primary target. It's not God, a generic concept of God. Oh, that all the world believed in God in a generic sense. Satan could sleep well at night. That would give him great joy and peace. You see, it's Christ, because he is the image of the invisible God. You see, he is the manifestation of the true God. He is God. He's God the Son come to bring to us an understanding of God the Father. And therefore, the assault is against him. But here, Paul declares that he is the creator. All things were created, things in heaven and earth, things visible and invisible. Think of the created world that we live in. It's a marvelous thing, this world that we live in, all the various life forms. It's just fascinating. You know, you could go out in your backyard and spend the day just looking at insects and walk away just absolutely amazed. Look at these creatures. Look at the animal kingdom and look at, you know, just the vegetation around us and then look beyond earth and look up into the heavens. All that we see, all the material universe was created by Jesus Christ. But there is an immaterial world that was also created by him. And so he says all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible. There are invisible things that we don't even know anything about. We don't know everything about the visible world, let alone the invisible. You know, we've made a lot of discovery. We've made a lot of advance. We've come to know a lot of things, but there's still so many things that we don't know. There are so many things that are, you know, really finally and ultimately beyond our ability to understand them, even in the material realm. If the heavens can be searched out and the foundation of the earth thoroughly explored, the Lord said, then Israel shall pass from being a nation before me. The implication is that they can't. You know, all the speculation about the size of the universe and then the galaxies beyond our galaxies. And, you know, there's all kinds of theorizing and speculating, but that's all it is. It's just theories and speculation. No man can measure the heavens. It's impossible. It'll never happen. I don't care what kind of instrument is developed. God said it'll never happen. Likewise, no one can ever fully search out all of the facts about the earth either. You know, with our scientific advancement, we've learned a lot, and yet we think we know a lot more than we actually do. Remember a few years back, someone discovered a fish that went extinct 4 million years ago or so. You know, there was a certain fish that you could find it in all of the books, and, you know, they had a name for it. And I can't remember the exact time, but so many millions of years ago, this fish became extinct. And, you know, just a few years ago, someone pulled one up in their net. There it was, that fish that was extinct for all those millions of years was there flopping on the deck of some little fishing boat. I don't know if that's exactly how they discovered it, but, you know, there it was. We thought they were extinct. Well, you know, we've been able to do some exploring and we've researched a lot, but there are things in the depths of the sea that we'll never find out about. We'll never find out about those things. Who in the world? Nobody can get down there to find out about them. And likewise with the earth, there are places in the world today that are still unexplored. I'm sure there are creatures and whether they be animals or insects or whatever, I'm sure there are things that, what is this? The Lord created all of those things. Jesus Christ is the creator of the visible and of the invisible. And notice it says that all things were created through him and for him. They're all made for him. All of creation begins and ends with Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the alpha and the omega. I am the beginning and the ending. He's the one who started it and everything will culminate in him. Incredible thought. Oh, how easily we forget that. Even as Christian people, we get all caught up in day-to-day living. You know, we're just going about our business. We're going off to work each day and we're in the traffic and we're fighting and, you know, angry as we're driving along and we come home and we're tired and we just want to eat and we got our little world that we live in. And, you know, we can easily lose sight of what we're doing here. We forget that this whole thing that we call planet earth is here because God placed it here because Jesus Christ created it. And I'm on this planet because Jesus Christ created me. We so easily forget those things. You know what helps me to remember though? It helps me to remember these things when I see a full moon on a clear night. When I see a full moon on a clear night, I just marvel. I look at that orb out there and I just think, look at that thing. It's just there. Why doesn't it fall? How is it that it's just suspended there in space and there's nothing holding it and it remains there in its orbit? And it doesn't change. And every time I see the moon, a full moon on a clear night, I'm reminded that I'm standing on a similar ball, just one a little bit bigger, but one that is also just hanging in space. How is it that the earth just hangs in space? How is it that the earth doesn't go out of its orbit? Well, Paul answers that. He says in him, all things consist in him. All things are held together. So he is the one who has begun this thing we call our universe. And he is the one in whom it will culminate. It all ends in him because everything was created by him and everything was created for him. The universe is God's gift to his son. The father's gift to his son is the universe. Incredible thought. But this is what the Bible teaches. And you see when it comes down to the debate between creation and evolution and all those things, you know, we can contend with people and we can argue from a scientific point of view. And I think there's validity to that. I'm not, I'm not saying that we shouldn't. I greatly appreciate those who contend on a scientific level. And I think that's good. But for us who are non-scientists, maybe don't get the opportunity to contend on that level. And even for them, for that matter, we always have to remember to bring it all back down to Jesus Christ. Because what it really comes down to is the person of Christ and who he is according to the Bible, regardless of what your theories are, the Bible says that Jesus created everything. And I have found in dealing with people, whatever the topic might be, whether it be creation, evolution, whether it be morality, whether it be other religions, if we just keep going back to Jesus and who he is, that's where the victory lies. As Moody said, presenting Christ in such an irresistible manner that there will be no ability to contend against it, presenting Christ in all of his glory. So the logical deduction is that he is the preeminent one. You see, that's the position that we hold. That's what Paul was doing here. And so he says he is before all things showing him to be eternal and in him, all things consist. Literally all things are held together. The reason why the moon is where it is and not somewhere else is because Jesus holds it there. The reason why the earth remains in its orbit is because Jesus holds it there. The reason why an atom doesn't split apart, which it ought to do, by the way, if you study physics, that's what they'll tell you. This should not remain together. All of the forces are propelling it outward, but it remains held together. You ask a scientist, how is that? They say, well, it's atomic glue. That's what does it. Okay, well, what is atomic glue? Oh, we don't know, but it's a good name for it. Glue, you know, that's sticky. This is an atom. We'll call it atomic glue, not because there's any evidence of atomic glue, but because we don't know what else to call it. There's something that's holding it together, they say. As you look at our universe, it's an orderly universe. You know, there's a revolution going on in the scientific community. It's gaining momentum. There could be a day in the not-too-distant future where some very famous men scientifically will come out and make some statements contrary to everything they've been saying for years and years. But more and more among the scientists, they're beginning to acknowledge that random chance is not a good way to understand the universe. It's just not a good way intellectually. That it all just came about accidentally is really not an accurate or an intelligent answer to origins. There are many people in the scientific community, even though they're not believers in God, who are starting to draw those kinds of conclusions. And they're looking at the universe now, and they're starting to admit that it appears to be man-centered. Man-centered in the sense that it appears to have been created with man in mind. That the whole universe seems to have been created with earth as its center and life on earth as its primary purpose. Many scientists are beginning to draw those kinds of conclusions, and those are the right conclusions to draw by the evidence. You see, the sun and the earth are set in just the right position from each other. If the sun was any closer, any further from the earth, life on earth could not exist. Likewise with the moon, the various planets. All of these things that for years and years people have been saying are all just a product of random chance. It all just fell this way. They're beginning to say that's not really an intelligent way to interpret this. And so against their own desires, many of them are having to admit that it does appear that there's something out there. You certainly don't want to call it God. You know, you can call it God if you want, but you know. But it does appear that there's something out there that is responsible for this whole thing. This is happening in the scientific community right now. This is what's going on with them. Well, I'm not a scientist. Maybe there are a few here with us today. I don't know. But I could have told you a long time ago what was going on. It's right here. It's in the pages of scripture. In Him, all things consist. In Him, all things are held together. The reason why the earth stays in its orbit is because Jesus placed it here and He said stay there. And all the planets, our galaxy, it's all set up just the way He wanted it to be set up. We're told in Hebrews that He upholds all things by the word of His power. It's because of His word. It's because of His word that we live in a cosmos, not a chaos. It's because of His word. He spoke order and we have order. There's coming a day when the heavens will roll up like a scroll and the earth shall vanish in fervent heat. That's when the Lord says, OK, it's over. It began with Him. It'll culminate in Him. And one day Jesus will say, OK, it's over and He'll give the word and those atoms will all release like they ought to do already. And the earth will melt with a fervent heat, an accurate description of nuclear explosion, of a nuclear explosion, the earth melting in a fervent heat, the Lord simply giving the word and those atoms exploding. You see, He is the one. He's holding all things together. He is the image of the invisible God. He has priority over all creation. He's actually the creator of everything in heaven and earth, visible and invisible. Everything was created through Him and it's all moving toward Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things consist. Now, someone says, I hear what you're saying, but why did if He's the creator, as you say, why why did He create this mess? I mean, look at the world that we live in. That's the atheist argument, you know. That God couldn't have created the world because if He did, He must be an evil God because it's an evil world. And if He's not powerful enough to subdue the evil, then He's not all powerful, so He can't be God. And this is this is their line of argument. But what they fail to do is to take into consideration the whole picture and the whole story. Yes, Jesus Christ created all things and we read about the beginning of creation and we read about the completion and we read that the Lord said all things are good. All things are good, but we go on to read about an invasion that took place about an intruder who came in to God's creation, who drew man away from God and caused man to rebel against God and set at work in the universe the principle of sin, the principle of decay and destruction. And so we have war and so we have pain and so we have suffering, famine. We have natural catastrophe. We have death. We have all these things, not because God created it that way, but because man broke from God, rebelled against God. And this is the consequence of that activity. But it came in afterward. But you see, the rest of the story is that Jesus Christ came into the world to remedy that, to reconcile all things to himself, to reconcile man back to God. The problem is that man and God have been separated from very early on in man's history. And when man rebelled against God, sin took over as the dominant principle. And that's why we see all that we see today. That's why we have the suffering. It's because sin entered in. Of course, the Lord didn't create things this way. He created a perfect world and he gave that world over to man. He said, have dominion over it. And yet man gave it over to Satan. He became the servant of Satan. And so for the vast majority of man's history, he has been under the dominion of Satan and seeking to govern and rule himself. And what we see over and over again is just one failure after another. History is a record of man attempting to govern himself and failing on every point. Isn't it amazing? That's what's been going on throughout the history of the world. Man's been trying to govern himself. He's rejected God's authority and trying to do it on his own. And we see one failure after another. We see failure on individual level. We see failure on the level of nations. We see failure on the level of civilizations. It's just, it's history. This is it. And it's doomed to remain that way until Christ has given his rightful place of priority, preeminence over all creation. Boy, I remember as the eighties were wrapping up, I don't know if you remember or not, but there was so much talk about peace. Oh, we were on the verge of a new day of peace. I remember they were having peace marches all over Europe, big peace movement. We left the eighties and we went into the nineties with the Gulf war, with the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Croatian Serbian battle, the Bosnian Serbian battle. We've seen attempted genocide in African nations during this decade. And all that peace that was just around the corner, you remember the Berlin wall was broken down and it was like, Oh yes. And communism was dissolving and the Soviet union was opening up and the Eastern block countries were free. And Oh, it's a new day, a new day of peace at dawn. They said, but where's that peace today? Remember just a year ago, remember talking about the middle East? Oh, we're on our way to peace. It's getting closer and closer every day. The PLO making peace with the Israelis and all of that that was going on there. But look at the things that have happened in the last month. Boy, if this is peace, we're in trouble. It's as bad as it ever was. It might be worse than it's ever been. But you know, this is the history of man. You go back to the beginning of this century and this is what they were saying. The beginning of this century, we were on the verge of a whole new, a whole new era. Britain had succeeded in civilizing most of the world. The British empire had expanded to all parts of the world. I mean, it was just, you know, civilization, education, you know, everything was just on an upswing. It was all looking so good. And the slogan of the day was each and every day, things get better and better every day. Things are just getting better and better scientific discovery. Oh, all the wonderful things that were going on. And, and they really did believe that this present century was going to, uh, usher in a whole new, a whole new, um, experience for mankind. You know, after all, Darwin, 1850s, he had discovered this, this whole new thing and no longer was God really a factor, but, but man had evolved from these lower life forms. And if we'd come this far, we can certainly, you know, reach our highest potential. And that was all envisioned for the 20th century. And then 1914 hit and the greatest war of all of history struck. And Oh, what a setback. Oh, what a humiliating experience. And they came out of world war one with that exact thought. We got a little prideful and the powers that be natural selection put us in our place, but we can move on from here. We'll never make that mistake again, but just 20 years later, the late thirties, what happened? Hitler came to power. And there we saw the greatest battle of all time, millions and millions and millions of people dying in world war two. So you see, we could just keep going back all the way to the beginning of time. And you find the same thing repeated over and over and over and over again in human history and know this, it'll never change. As long as man is seeking to govern himself and rejecting the firstborn over all creation, mankind is doomed to failure. It's not until Jesus is made Lord that mankind will then know true peace. But thank God, it's not up to us to bring that about. It's not through our evangelistic efforts. We're supposed to evangelize, but not to get Jesus to come back. Jesus is going to come back at God's appointed time, which appears to be soon. Jesus is going to come back and he's going to be established for who he is, the firstborn over all creation, the preeminent one, the one who has priority and supremacy. And when that happens, oh, what a glorious day it will be. What a blessed day when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, when the government shall be upon his shoulders. You see, that's the problem. The government has been on the shoulders. That's when the world will be the place that God intended it to be. And he sent Jesus. He died for our sins and he rose again from the dead to prove to us that all these things are reality. So in closing today, this is my question to you. Does Jesus Christ have priority in your life? All things were made through him and made for him. The reason you're on this planet is because he made you. He made this planet called Earth and he put you here on the Earth to glorify him. Are you doing that? Does he have the place of preeminence in your life? He's supposed to. And if he doesn't and you're claiming to be a Christian, you're actually a contradiction. You need to get right with him. Maybe you're not claiming to be a Christian at all and you're quite open about the fact that he does not hold any priority in your life. Well, he needs to. He has to because everything is going to culminate in him. And one day, know it or not, believe it or not, like it or not, you're going to arrive in his presence. And it's at that moment that you'll understand that the only reason you had a life here on Earth is because he gave it to you, but you abused it. You used it for your purposes instead of his, and that will cause you to be separated from him then then forever. But you don't want that to happen, and that doesn't have to happen. Give him the place of priority, bow before him, confess that he is Lord. And give him the place of preeminence, the place that God has given him. Give him that place in your life and you will know life and you will have an assurance of eternal life. Let's pray.