Praise God for this another time, the Lord has given to all of us to come together for the study of God's word. As we remembered the prayer, the word of God is so vast, it's so deep. And as we spend our time together at the feet of the Lord Jesus, may the Lord help us that we may experience the freshness and also benefit from what we are considering.

Yesterday we started the study on the divine pleasure in all things. and the pleasure we saw that it was in connection with the reconciliation of all things unto himself. Last evening we were looking at verses 19 and 20 of Colossians 1. where we saw that essential for that divine pleasure to be fulfilled. that is about the Lord Jesus Christ himself will please the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.

In a mediator, the fullness of the Godhead and the fullness of manhood all dwelt in him. was the God-man, perfect God, perfect man. And he could be the mediator between God and man. It was the essential. and we also saw truths from verse 20. and we saw that he made peace through the blood of his cross and we saw the extent of it also whether they be things in earth or things in heaven or all things are going to be reconciled unto himself and that is in the time of the fullness of the dispensation and all that we had seen from Ephesians 1 and that time we the Lord refers to as the regeneration, regeneration of the whole universe itself.

In chapter 19 and verse 28 of Matthew's gospel we had seen that. And we saw that we are also a part of this great work that the Lord is doing. It's all because of his grace. Now to continue with our study we will turn to Colossians 1 and read verses 21 to 23.

Colossians 1 verses 21 to 23: "And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through the death, through death to present you holy and blameless and a bow reproach in His sight, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister."

May the Lord add His blessings upon thee.

In the verses that we considered yesterday, it was about all things. all things in heaven and earth. But see how verse 21 begins, "And you" and you. Now Paul is coming to you know the believers. He is going to tell about their reconciliation, what God has done in their life and that he explains in this passage we read just now 21 to 23.

The title that I given for these three verses is the divine pleasure and believers. Yesterday it was the divine pleasure in all things or for all things. Here it is the divine pleasure and believers. He is here specifically telling about that reconciliation that God through his son has brought in the life of the believers.

Now when you look at this passage, verses 21 and 22, there we see the account of reconciliation, or he tells what all has happened. And after that in verse 23, he tells about the proof or the evidence of reconciliation. the account and the evidence.

As I mentioned when it says and you, Paul is mentioning about the believers there in Colossae. God worked through the gospel, through his son in your life. As I mentioned in the morning, Paul had never visited this place. We don't find Colossae in the missionary journeys of Apostle Paul, but God miraculously worked in the life of these Colossians. God brought elements in place so that this gospel that went to all the earth, everywhere in the world, would reach this Lycus valley also. Colossi, Herapolis and Laodicea. God worked for them. And so Paul is telling, and you. And you.

Now this evening as we are together, what a blessed thing it is to remember that God worked in our lives also. God worked in our lives also. Just imagine, in the first century itself, in the middle of that first century itself, that gospel that got started, preached in Jerusalem, reached our nation also. And just imagine when there lot of people around, well it raised our homes, it raised our lives. And you! when you were telling about the everything, all things, it was about all the creation. But the blessed thing to remember is this, in that work of God for all creation, we are also there and you.

Now when you come to chapter 1 verses 5 and 6 there also Paul tells about these things the spread of the gospel in all the world he says "for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel which is come unto you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth." It's the same thing. and you.

Four Aspects of Reconciliation in the New Testament

Now when you come to the New Testament, we see that there are various aspects, rather four aspects in reconciliation. Number one, there is a reconciliation between man to man. In Matthew's Gospel 5.24, for 23 and 24 we see that, in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He says about a man coming to the altar to offer sacrifice, and there he remembers some problem that another brother had with him, and the Lord says what he should do, what he should do.

What you should do? Did the Lord say, okay, you come all the way here, you have paid the auto rickshaw and all that you have come here with these things. Now do one thing, you offer it this week, next week when you come, well see that it's reconciled. Is that what the Lord said? No, the Lord said, leave it there. I will take care of it till you come back. Those things are not in the Bible. Okay, we are just adding something or the other to explain. All right, so leave it there, go, reconcile and come. and offer. That's the order. Not going to explain. That's man to man.

And when you come to Ephesians 2.14, there the Lord, Paul says that he had made both one. And that both there is the Jews and the Gentiles. We call it as a racial reconciliation. Two races, Jews and the Gentiles. They are brought one. in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the second level or rather the second aspect.

And when you come to Colossians 1.21, the portion that we are considering, that's between man and God. And then when you come to Colossians 1.20, that's about all things, the thing that we considered yesterday. So today it is about the third thing which I mentioned, man and God. It's about you and I.

As we considered yesterday also, because of sin, we were separated from God. But now God worked through the Lord Jesus Christ and we are brought night to Him, reconciled to Him. Now let's look at this portion and see what is the account He gives about this reconciliation.

The Account of Reconciliation (Verses 21-22)

Verses 21 and 22. There are three things there about this reconciliation. Paul tells about their past, We can see our own past there. He tells about the present and then he tells about the purpose also in that reconciliation.

The Past

Look at the past, after saying, and you, he tells two things about them. Number one, you were sometimes alienated. Number two, enemies in your mind.

Alienated. Translation says, having become permanently estranged. separated. Another one has explained it like this, that word elated, transferred to another owner. We belong to God, but then we got transferred to a never owner Satan, but in reconciliation that again we are brought back to God. So in the past we were, we belong to Satan. transferred to another honor. That was our past, alienated.

When you come to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 12, we see the same word occurring. There also Paul is explaining about our past, that at that time, we were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. having no hope and without God in the world. Notice that we were aliens. Doesn't mean that we were aliens from another planet, it's not that, but it just means we are separated. Separated from God.

In chapter 4 and verse 18, there are two, we see the same word used, 4 and 18, there we read like this, having the understanding, darkened being, alienated from the life of God through ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. All this speaks about, you know, the separation that we were in, you know, in the past. We were separated, permanently estranged.

The second one, the enemies in your mind, the enemies in your mind. We were not only separated, but we were enemies. Now Paul is not telling that we were enemies only, but enemies in your mind. It means with our heart, with our inwards, we hated God. All enemies are not enemies in mind, in their minds.

I've read about these politicians. know the politicians, when they preach from the pulpit or rather from the stage, well they tell lot of things against the people in the other party. But it's told that in their personal life, what? They are all very friends, very good friends, very thick friends. Enemies outwardly but inwardly they are friends.

You remember when you come to Exodus, We see Moses when he was 40 years of age, he went outside to see how his people were faring and he saw one Egyptian and the Hebrew fighting and we know what happened. He delivered that Hebrew from the hands of that Egyptian. He killed the Egyptian and buried him. And next day when he went out, he saw two Hebrews fighting and he thought that he will reconcile both of them and he went near. And what did the man say? What did they say? Yesterday you did that and today you going to come and do the same thing with us also. He thought that they were enemies but what? When he went there, they became one. Not enemies in the heart.

But you see we were at enmity with God not just at enmity with God but with our heart we hated him because we belong to another honor. We belong to another honor. And that inimity Paul explains like this The last portion, yeah, the next part of that verse, enemies in your mind by wicked works, by wicked works. That enemies in your mind is explained in another rendering like this, enemies in the way of thinking, mind. Well, that's the faculty with which you think. So in your thought itself, you are at enmity with God and that wrong thinking. You know, it leads to wrong works. And what is the wrong works? Paul explains it as wicked works. That explains our past. We were wicked within, so what came out from us were wickedness.

When we come to Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians chapter five. There we see apostle Paul telling about our works in the past. Look at verse 11. There he tells us that, mean, he mentions about the works of darkness, works of darkness. Now the phrase that we are considering is that works of wickedness, of wicked works. Here it is the works of darkness. It's one and the same. We were in darkness.

Three Levels of Darkness

If you look at the New Testament in connection with the darkness or wickedness, we see three levels to it. In Colossians 1.13 we are told that we were in darkness. And when you come to 2nd Corinthians 4,4, are told that within us it was darkened. The God of this world darkened our eyes, inner eyes. So inside it was dark. And when you come to Ephesians 5 and verse 8, there we are told that he were sometimes what? Darkness.

The first one was we were in darkness. The second thing I said was, inside us it was darkness and now Paul is telling we were in dark, rather we were darkness. It tells about the three levels of darkness that was there in our past life, in our unconverted states. Darkness was inside us. We were in darkness. But when it says we were darkness, it's a superlative degree. It goes beyond all the other two.

Suppose there is no light here, suddenly, you the power goes off. There are a lot of things here. It will be in darkness. And within and inside it also, it will be darkness. But this pulpit and all the things will be whatever it is. We cannot say that is darkness. It is in darkness Within it is it is darkness, but this remains the same pulpit remains the same It's wood and other things isn't it? But suppose some process happens and this becomes the part of darkness around then we can say that this became darkness.

So Paul is telling we wear darkness. What it means is, well in our unconverted stage, before we came to the Lord Jesus Christ, or to choose the same terminology that we are using, before that reconciliation happened in our life, we were actually part of that darkness that was around us. We were providing for the thickness of the darkness around us. In sinful life, wicked works or works of darkness.

But what a blessed thing it is to remember that. That position, that disposition, that condition, it's past. by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, or rather by the work of God through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Present

Now come to the present. What is Paul telling about the present? Now when you look at verse 21, there we see at the last portion of it, yet now hath he reconciled. Yet now hath he reconciled. The beginning of verse 22, in the body of his flesh through death.

Now if you look at this portion, well, we see the truth that we considered yesterday also. That is about the reconciliation. I don't have to repeat that. He has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. About the means of reconciliation we had seen yesterday. Now yesterday when Paul said that, he was applying that to all things. But here it is about and you, that is the believers. About you and I.

Paul very carefully uses that word the body of his flesh. There was no need to use that phrase at all. But he carefully uses that word, the body of his flesh, that may be an attack on the false teachers that was troubling those believers, Colossian believers. Those false teachers were called as Gnostics. The teaching was called as Gnosticism. It was a mix of various things. Jewish ideas were there, Oriental philosophies were there in it. Grecian philosophies were there in it. Lot of things were there. It was a mix of all these things.

One of their important teachings was that the matter is evil. The matter is evil. That means all that you see around is evil. So they said it's not created by a holy god. And not only that, they rejected the truth of incarnation. They said a holy god cannot come. in the flesh. Flesh is matter after all. So he cannot come in a flesh, human flesh, because it is sinful. That is what they taught. All matter is sinful. So incarnation is impossible. That was their teaching. Many people went after it.

Maybe to attack them, to rebuke them, he is using this body of his flesh. Reconciliation happened through the body of his flesh. It's real. Not only here, we see in other portions also, the writers trying to, laboring to, you know, impress this truth upon the readers.

In 1st John 1,1 we read like this, that which was from the beginning, which we have, what? Heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life and it goes on like that. Why so much descriptions? Just for this purpose. What is it? There were people who rejected the humanity of Jesus Christ. They said what the disciples saw was just an illusion. It was not real. By giving this description, they are proving that it was real. We have handled it. Oh, we touched that body. We heard from him. We saw it. is for the same purpose that Paul is using this expression over here also. In the body of his flesh through death. Now he has reconciled.

When we come to Hebrew chapter two, verse 14, familiar verse. There we read like this, the writer says like this, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death. That is the devil. as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. The children here is the believers, you and I. We were partakers of flesh and blood. flesh and blood and we are told that Jesus Christ took part of the same.

I want you to notice one thing there. When it says partakers of flesh and blood about the believers, about the children there, mentioned there, there the word used for partakers is different from the word used for the Lord Jesus Christ. There it says himself likewise took part. For that word took part, the word used is different.

The word used for our partaking in the flesh and blood is the word koinonia. We know the meaning of that word koinonia. What does it mean? Yeah, fellowship, fellowship. In fact, an unlimited fellowship. A fellowship without any limits. But when it comes to the matter of the Lord Jesus Christ, where it says, He also Himself likewise took part of the same. Took part of the same means took part of the flesh and blood. Flesh and blood speaks about the life in the body.

When it says that He took part of the same, the word used for took part is different. Here the word used is metacos, different from koinonia. Of course, koinayaniya is familiar to us. This word which I said now may not be familiar with us. The word metacos means fellowship only, but fellowship with limitation. Fellowship with limitation. Koinayaniya is fellowship without any limitation. Unlimited fellowship.

We were living in unlimited fellowship with a life in the body. Enjoying the life in the body. enjoying the desires of the body, going after the lust of the flesh. We referred to it earlier when we referred to that wicked works. We were in darkness, part of the darkness around us. But when the Lord Jesus Christ came, He also took part of the same, but it was not going on here, but Metacos, limited fellowship. What was the limit there? What was the limit there? When He took upon Him the flesh, it was without what? Sin, it was without sin.

And the important thing we see over there is he came in the flesh to die for us on the cross. In the earlier part of that same chapter, Hebrew chapter 2, we see that he became now lesser than the angels. In what way? Angels, their spirit beings. But Jesus took upon him the body. In what way? I for what purpose? To die without the body. Death would not have been, you know, possible. He took the human body, real body, and because of that he could die on the cross of Calvary. And through that death on the cross of Calvary, our problem, sin problem, we have seen that yesterday, is purged. sorted out soon forever.

The Purpose

Now look at the purpose. Now look at the purpose. To present you what? Holy, blameless and above reproach in His sight. Three things, holy, blameless and irreproachable. to present to you holy. What does that indicate?

When you come to the New Testament, there are four kinds of presentations, familiar to us. Number one, Romans 12.1, present your what? Bodies, present your bodies. That calls for a life of surrender. Present your bodies. And then when you come to Colossians 1.28, there we see the mention of another presentation. Paul says, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. We may present every man in Christ Jesus with all perfection. He will explain it later.

Now when you come to Ephesians 5.27 there we see the third kind of presentation, presenting the Church unto Himself, unto Himself. And then lastly, presenting the Church before the Father that you have in 1 Thessalonians 3.13. Presenting the Church before the Father. Now when Paul says that the purpose of this reconciliation is to present us holy, most probably the last two are implied. What are the last two? Now what are the last two? Presenting the church unto himself and not only that, presenting us before the father.

To present you holy. Now we'll read that Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26 and 27. There we read like this that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious search not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish. Same language we see over here also. And here it says that he is going to present us unto himself.

When shall this happen? Most probably it refers to the time after the rapture. We shall be taken up and after that we shall be brought before the what? What's going to happen after the rapture? Yeah, the bimah, the judgment seat of Christ. We shall all stand before him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall, you know, examine our works. And that is for rewarding. I don't have to go into the details of it. We know it. So we are going to stand before him. Probably this refers to that. We are going to stand before him. And after that, shall happen?

Coming to 1 Thessalonians, chapter three. verses 12 and there we read like this and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another and toward all men even as we do toward you to the end that he may establish you your hearts unblameable in holiness before God even our father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. Here Paul is taking to the time when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come with all his saints.

When shall that happen? Yeah, the glorious appearance. Yesterday also we had referred to that. So we shall be taken up, we shall stand before the Bima, the judgment seat of Christ and we shall be holy and without blame, I mean without blame and irreproachable and we shall stand before the Lord Jesus Christ. This shall happen in the mid-air and after rewarding, then the Lord shall take us where? Come on, you should know it. Yeah, to the father's house. Oh, we shall be taken to heaven.

And there the Lord shall present us before the father. And this refers to that. To the end, he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, our father, even our father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. So we shall be taken up to heaven and we shall be presented by the son to the father. And then he shall receive us back from the father and come towards this earth. That's what we call as the glorious appearance. So this to present you holy includes all this. to present you wholly before Him and not only that, before the Father. See the scope of the reconciliation. See the great purpose he has in doing all these things.

To present you holy and not only that the second one is blameless, blameless. is told that it can be translated as unblemished. a word often used in connection with the sacrificial animals in the Old Testament. We know it. They should be what? Without blemish. They should be without blemish. That which is with blemish is not acceptable. So when it says that we should be blameless or we should be without blemish, well it means he is making us acceptable in a sight. not only acceptable, you know, our person, but what we do for the Lord also. Our Life and Service!

And now coming to the third one, what is the third one we have there? Above reproach. Above reproach. Irreproachable. That means the purpose of that reconciliation is, you know, that we would be in a condition where none would be able to bring any reproach against us. Irreproachable.

Now when we say that the Lord is making us irreproachable, we should remember that there is somebody who is trying to what? Bring charges against us. Let's turn to Romans, Romans chapter eight. Familiar verses, but it is good to read it. Romans chapter eight, look at verses 33 and 34. There we read like this, who shall lay anything to the charge of God select? It is God that justifies Who is he that contemneth It is Christ that died Here rather that is risen again Who is even at the right hand of God Who also maketh intercession for us.

Notice the first part rather verse 33 says Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect Paul is challenging anyone who brings any charge against the elect Against the believers Who is he that brings any charge against the elect Means they're irreproachable!

When you come to Revelation chapter 12, verse 10, there we see about a person in heaven who is always in the business of bringing charges against whom? about the believers. He is called as what? Accuser, accuser. And he brings accusers against you and I. What accusation is bringing there? What charges is bringing there against us? When we do any wrong here, any sin here, He makes it public there. He goes to God and says this is what He done. Why is He telling that? Why is he telling that why this accusation? most probably to claim you and I as, you know, his own. See what he has done. He belongs to me, not to you.

When you read the epistle of Jude, there we see that Satan even fought for what? For the body of Moses. Seymour brought some charges against Moses. He did that, he did this. How can you, God, go and bury this body? This body belongs to me. This body belongs to me, I should bury. It belongs to me. Why are you burying it? He might have brought those charges against God or rather Moses. And like that always, the charges are being brought against the elect there in the presence of God.

God is there, the sun is there, the spirit is there. They all know that sometimes we call some of the failures in our life as secret sins, but there is no sins called what? Secret sins. It's all public there, all angels know that. All the saints there knows that. All the three persons in the Trinity knows that. It's made public. Even the fallen angels also may be knowing that. He may be telling that among them also. So there is an accuser there. bringing charges against the people who belongs to God.

Now Paul is telling, who shall lay anything to the charge of God select? It is God that What is it? Next word. Justify it. Justify it. If there is a ready accuser there in the presence of God, we should remember that we have a ready advocate also there. As we see in 1st John chapter 2 verses 1 and 2, it is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He lives for us there. Justifying us.

Now notice here Paul is using this word in the present tense. It is God that Justified, not justified, but justified. Just look at verse 30, there also we see the same word, but in a different tense, verse 30, moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also, what? Justified, in past tense, justified. This happens when we are born again. We are justified.

What is justification by the way? Yeah, it's declaration that we are righteous. It's more than forgiveness. When God forgives our sins, well, that means we had sinned and we are forgiven. cleansing and putting the sin behind and all that we see. Now every other thing we had sinned. But when we look at this blessing of justification, well, heaven declares that we have never sinned at all. It's something that we cannot believe. Just think about it. It's about you and I. Heaven declares that we have never sinned at all. It's because of the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes in and says, no, I did it. He took it all upon Him and He put His righteousness upon us. And because of that, we are declared righteous. That is justified.

But when it comes to verse 33, it is not justified in past tense, but is using the present tense. The work, the same work is being, you know, is continuing in the presence of God even now. We are being justified! That means when we do some wrong here, well the accuser is there, but the Lord Jesus Christ comes in as a ready advocate and pleads for us. On what basis that is what we see there in verse 34, who is that condemneth, it is Christ that died, here rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Notice that there is a reference to his death there, his resurrection there. and this incessant reward there. He lives there for us. So we are irreprosible.

When we come to Secularity Chapter 3, familiar things to us. There's a good example there. The High Priest Joshua we see there. And he had filthy garments. High Priest Joshua there stands for, you know, the representation of God's people. And that filthy garments tells about their unholy lives. Wickedness or rather wicked words as we saw here. Don't have to go into the details of that. But then Satan there also accuses him. But then what it gonna do? removed that filthy garments, made him holy. It is the same thing we find over here also. God is making us irreproachable. When the enemy comes with the charges, he finds solution for that in the work that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary.

Presenting us holy, that's number one. And secondly, unblemished, without blemish. And thirdly, about reproach that's about you and I what a blessed thing it is for us. all included in that work of reconciliation, in the work of reconciliation. That's the account of reconciliation we have over here. Our past, our present and the purpose. The past, alienated. enemies with our minds. The present, he has reconciled. That word used there for reconciled is not the ordinary word used, but a strengthened word. More powerful word, same, but with some additions. Not going to explain that. He has reconciled us by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we saw the purpose, three things, to make us holy, blameless, and devour reproach.

When we consider this, we should remember that it's about us. It's about us. We are in this blessings. They should not remain like some abstract things in our mind. It's about us.

Now when I say about the justification, the present aspect of the justification, I should say one more thing and that is this. When we speak about, you know, the eternal security of our salvation and this justifying work of God in the presence of the Father and all that we may think that then if that's going on there, then why should I very much worry about the what? holy life and sin that happens in my life and all. I can live anyhow. Such thoughts should not come in our mind at all. It's not a license to live loose life.

I often give this explanation. Just think about a little boy. He goes out to play and comes back with all dirt in his body, you know, playing in the mud and slush and all. And when he comes back, he gets a scolding from his mother. But then she lovingly take him to the washroom, gives him a good bath. And every day this happens. What the child should learn from that? Should he think like that? Okay. My mummy likes to wash me, to bath me. That's why she is doing this every day. When I come unclean, well, she removes. She takes me to washroom and gives me a good bath and all that. She is very loving. She likes to clean me. So I should every day go and what? What? Play in the mud. Come dirty. Is that what the child should understand?

No, the child should understand like this. my mummy doesn't like even a what? Even a spot of dirt on my body. She wants me to live what? Clean. That's the same idea we should have here also. He lives for us there. He is justifying us. And the blood that... That shed of the cross of Calvary, is sufficient for the cleansing of all our present cleansing holiness. It's true. Provision is there. That doesn't mean that we can live anyhow. That work of the Lord should encourage us to live holily. If such desire for holiness is not happening within your heart, in your mind, just sit and think whether you are really what. Tell me.

The Proof of Reconciliation (Verse 23)

Let's move forward to verse 23, the proof, the proof of reconciliation. We saw the account now coming to the proof. What is the proof? if we continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister.

Notice that we should continue in the faith. We should continue in the faith. That's how we prove that we are reconciled. That's how we prove that we are saved.

What is "The Faith"?

What is the faith? the new testament we come across this word faith quite often but at least four ideas four meanings are there for that word faith. Number one, speaks of trusting God. When we speak about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, means trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Their faith means trusting God.

In some places the word faith is used for faithfulness also. especially in first Timothy chapter 6 verse 12 I think when it says that we should follow faith that means we should follow faithfulness or have faithfulness in our life. So there are places where that word is used in that sense also, faithfulness.

But in some places we see it being in our use for the Word of God, the Word of God. Specially in English when it comes with that article, the faith, it refers to the Word of God, the Word of God. For example, coming to Jude, verse 3, there are many portions, we'll just read that verse which is very easy to understand. Jude, verse 3, beloved, When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was need for me to write unto you and to exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for what? The faith, the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. There the word speaks about the word of God, the doctrines.

So here also it is the word the faith, faith with the article, the faith. It refers to the word of God. It refers to the gospel. It refers to the teachings that were given to the believers. And as I said earlier, Colossians were drifting away from it. They were not standing firm.

Now notice that Paul is telling, if we continue in the faith grounded and settled. grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Notice that grounded and settled and be not moved away that itself implies that there are many forces around us to unsettle us. Among the Colossians, it was false teachings. As I mentioned in the morning also, there are a lot of false teachings among us. Even among the assemblies in India, there are people who deny the truth of Trinity also. Maybe surprising to us.

And there are people among us who deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know an elder who doesn't believe in the inspiration of the scriptures. He says that Paul was a human being, he wrote it. How can you say that? It is perfect. Because Paul was imperfect. He is an elder of an assembly. Let me tell you that. And these things were not there in the past. It is in this generation that we see all this. Young people are confused. We're not making stories. is very much essential to continue in the faith.

We often say like this, continuance is the what? Proof of reality. We prove that we are real by continuing. Continuing in what? Continuing in the faith. As I said, there are lot of things that tries to unsettle us. That's why he is telling grounded and settled and be not moved away. Just think about yourself sitting on a chair and somebody coming and trying to push you and make you fall down. Spiritually these are happening. And here Paul is telling, well there are things around you, forces around you, but stay put. Don't have anything to push you down! So that is the proof of reconciliation.

The proof of reconciliation that is to continuing in the faith. May the Lord help us that we may continue in the word of God and to continue in the word of God. You should know what is the word of God, what is in it. You should know the doctrines. You should study it. You should be sure about it. Nobody is asking us to have these things blindly in our life. No, we have to study it and make sure about the truths that we are holding. Why we hold certain things? These things we should understand. In the local assemblies such teachings ought to be there. In many assemblies it is not there.

May the Lord help us that we may understand these truths. Yes, we were looking at the divine pleasure and the believers. As I mentioned, they are in verse 20, 21 he says and you and you what was there in the verses about that all things all things now 21 to 23 it's about the believers and you we saw the account of the reconciliation and we saw the proof of the reconciliation what is the account of the reconciliation Paul tells about their past and secondly Paul tells about their what present and Paul tells about the purpose of the reconciliation also and Then we saw the proof of it.

What is the proof of it? What is the proof of it? Comment down Just trying to understand that you understood. How? How do we prove? If you don't give the answer, next hour also I will take the same thing. Yeah, continuance is the proof of reality. We have to continue in the faith. We have to continue in the faith. If we don't continue in the faith, what? We will lose our salvation? Is that the meaning of it? If you don't continue in faith, does it mean that your salvation will be lost?

Now, if you discontinue, you're proving that you are not what? Born again at all. Once saved, you're saved forever. But that is only if you are truly saved. Salvation that God has given us is permanent. None can take it away. Satan or the world or self or nothing can take it away. The Lord has secured it, no doubt about that. But what we are saying is, we prove that we are real by continuing. If discontinuance is there, well, that proves that we were never part of these blessings. We were never reconciled.

May the Lord help us that we may understand these truths and also let us prove by our life that we are reconciled. Continue in the faith. As I said, there are a lot of, you know, waves and winds around us to unsettle us, but let us stay put. Let's continue steadily, consistently as we saw in the morning also. That is what is expected from us. May the Lord help that these truths that we consider would be an encouragement to Continue and prove that we are the saved ones. May the Lord bless these words into our lives.