That hymn goes really well with
our subject tonight, 272. Listen to this now, we just sang
this. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That means I'm not trusting anything
else. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That second verse, when
darkness veils his lovely face, if you believed a while, you
know that happens. Can't see. He said, when that
happens, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, my anchor holds within the veil. I pointed out to you
Sunday, our hope is in Christ, the anchor of our soul. He's
entered into glory. That's what he's talking about.
My hope enters into the veil where Christ is. Then here, I
like this third verse. His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood. When all around, my soul gives
way. When you're just so weak, see
nothing good about yourself, nothing you can trust in this
world, nothing you can trust about yourself, He then is all
my hope and stay. I'm trusting his oath, his covenant,
his blood. That's what supports me. His
oath, his covenant, his blood. We're gonna be in Colossians
2. I wanted to read that passage from Isaiah 40 to show you this
is the Lord's command to his preacher to comfort his people.
In all that chapter, Isaiah 40, he declared how we're declared
All flesh is grass, and all the gulliness thereof. Your very
best that can be said about you and me is like a fading flower
in the field. And we're not talking about pretty
flowers in your yard. We're talking about those flowers
out there in the field. They just burn up when the sun
is up after a period of time. And that's anything about us.
It's fleshy, it's grass, and it's like a flower in the field.
Why does it wither, though? Isaiah 47 goes, the spirit of
the Lord blows upon it. He's not going to let his child
put confidence in our flesh. He blows upon our flesh on purpose
to cause it to wilt so that we can't trust in anything about
us. But this same one is the shepherd who's leading his people.
He's the shepherd who's gathering us up and carrying those that
are weak, the young. And then he's the same one who
created everything. He holds the waters in the hollow
of his hand. This is just showing us how big
God is. And so he ends that chapter saying, are weary, and even the
strongest are gonna be weary and faint. But those that wait
on the Lord, He will renew, and you're gonna continue. And see,
it's all Him. Now let's go to Colossians 2,
1, and let me read here why I said all that. Colossians 2, chapter
1. Verse 1, he said, that you knew what great conflict
I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many
as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might
be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all riches of
the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God, and of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest
any man should beguile you with enticing words. Let's just stop
right there for now, but we're gonna cover up some of what we
covered last Sunday, but that's part of this preaching of the
gospel is to remind you to repeat, repeat it, repeat it, repeat
it. So we're gonna see a little bit of what we saw Sunday, but
Paul knew there was some problems at Colossae. If you read the New Testament,
you're gonna find that all of the churches in the New Testament
had problems, and it's still so today. They had problems,
we still have problems today. Folks come among us and they
think that, you know, When you hear the gospel, and you hear
grace, and you hear what Christ has done, that you now found
a place where there's not be any problems. Before long, you
find out that the church still has problems. As long as we're
in this sinful body, as long as we're in this sinful earth,
there's going to be issues one or another here and there in
the church. But before we get critical or
we want to point the finger, Just remember this, let's me
and you say this to ourselves, wherever we go, whatever congregation
we're in, if me and you are there, there's at least two sinners
there. And so you're gonna have problems. And that was so here
in the church at Colossae. Now, the true church is not some
secret society of people that are perfect. That's not what
the church is. The church is a place made up of sinners. saved by grace, being saved by
grace. We're given a new heart to honor
the Lord in all that we do. And that's truly the heart we
have. But there are going to be problems today, just like
there was in these early churches in the New Testament. And that
will be the case till the Lord brings the church to glory. That's
going to be the case in the church below. But one of the issues
at Colossae was false preachers, false preachers. And there were
preachers nearby, and they were telling the brethren that there
was more to being saved, that there was more involved than
simply trusting Christ to be salvation, and that he would
save. I always point it back. that there was something they
must do. Now, this was a problem that you're going to find in
every single epistle you're going to find this issue. Somebody
being pointed back to themselves. That's our biggest problem, is
always wanting to look back to our works of our hands. And so
there's some issue in every church. But now these preachers, when
you read about these false preachers, now, Galatia, there was some
that had come in and was trying to preach and speak to the brethren.
But probably in Colossae, that probably wasn't the case. It
wasn't that they were preaching in the church. The brethren wouldn't
have false preachers preach anymore than we would have a false preacher
preach here. Probably just like our day, where
they had false preachers in churches around them, and they would run
into them, or maybe they had known them at work or something,
and they would talk to them about, there's got to be more than just
trusting Christ. Or they had family that was in
those churches. that when they'd have a special
occasion and they'd be together with family, they'd be telling
them, our preacher says that you gotta do this, you gotta
do that, you gotta do the other. And so Paul's dealing with that.
And it's just that way today. It's that way, you know, you
run into, maybe you know somebody, I knew people in Franklin when
I lived there, I knew preachers that I didn't sit under and they
didn't preach for us, but I knew them. Family you'll have family
you know that is in a church that preaches works and and they
the whole world believes They're saved by it's Christ. They'll
say you got to believe Christ. It's all of grace, but then there's
something you have to do It's Christ plus something if it's
Christ plus something. It's nothing you're not going
to have salvation if it's Christ blessing It's got to be Christ
only Christ only Paul wanted the brethren there to have assurance
that Assurance. Assurance is something that's
in the heart. You have assurance in the heart. The assurance is
not in us. It's not from us or something
we've done. Now look what he says here, verse
2. He wanted their hearts to be comforted, being knit together
in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding. to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now, when Paul says
assurance of understanding, he means assurance of understanding
the gospel and believing the gospel as the gospel. There's only one gospel. Only
one. There's not a bunch of gospels.
There's one gospel. One gospel. And it's not the
opinion of many. It's when the Lord settles you
to where you believe this one gospel and you know Christ is
that gospel and he's everything. He's everything we need for salvation. He is salvation. Now, when the
Holy Spirit, this is what I want us to see tonight, when the Holy
Spirit calls you and quickens you, gives you faith, he gives
you assurance in the heart. You wouldn't confess Christ publicly
if you didn't have some semblance of assurance that he is salvation.
That's being persuaded. He is salvation. You have that
when the spirit of God gives you faith. But now as believers,
we don't always have assurance. Sometimes assurance waivers.
You have those when every high stormy gale that we sang about,
you have those stormy times and you don't have the assurance
you had at other times. But now get this, even though you might
not have the assurance in your heart that you've had before,
Your security as a child of God, as one truly saved of God, your
security hadn't changed at all. Though you might not have the
assurance of it, it hadn't changed, because it's not you, and it's
not what you feel. It's Christ. I love what Brother
Joe Terrell used to say. He said, you know, and he'll
say, well, I just don't have assurance I'm his, so I don't
know that I'm saved. And he said, when you were lost,
he said, and you thought you were saved, he said, it didn't
make you saved, did it? And he said, now that you're
saved, he said, if you think you're lost, that don't make
you lost. It's not what goes on. It's not whether you have
the assurance or not. Our security is Christ. And what
I want you to see here is as he keeps renewing us, when he
renews you, what he's doing is he's renewing your faith to look
out of you to him. That's how you strengthen. He's
the power of God. He's the strength. He's the life. And he's gonna cause you to look
to him. And so this assurance comes through faith, but it's
not faith in our faith. Faith is looking to the object
of faith. Faith is trusting Christ. That's
why it's through faith. It's Christ. And he gives you
a love in your heart for brethren. You'll be long-suffering, forbearing,
merciful, forgiving, because you see how how he is all those
things to you continually. But still, you're not looking
to your love for assurance, it's knowing you wouldn't have that,
you didn't have it before, and the only reason you do now is
because he did it, and he gave it to you, and he's gonna keep
you, he's gonna keep you looking to Christ, and trusting Christ. So if you're gonna have assurance,
you're gonna have it in your heart, it's not gonna be by looking
to you, it's gonna be by looking only to Christ, that's what I'm
saying. Now, first, let me give you a few scriptures here. Our
subject is Assurance Only in Christ. That's our title, Assurance
Only in Christ. That's the point. Now, let me
give you a few scriptures where the same Greek word is used,
that's used here, and our text is translated full assurance.
Now, let me show you a couple other places where it's translated
with different words, but it comes from the same word. Go
with me to Luke 1.1. We saw this when we started our
study in Luke. Luke 1.1, he says, for as much
as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration
of those things which are most surely believed among us. That word most surely believed,
that's from the same word that Paul uses in our text, full assurance. We most surely believe, that's
full assurance. See, it's not in you, it's not
trusting your work. When you most surely believe,
you're believing on Him. You're looking to Him, you're
looking to Christ. We most surely believe Christ is salvation.
We most surely believe the declaration of the gospel according to the
scriptures. Not according to our own opinion
and our own notion, but according to the scriptures. That's what
we believe, according to the scriptures. What did Paul say,
how did he say that? Let me see, I think it's 2 Corinthians
15. where he said, I won't read it because I don't want to misquote
it, 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15. We believe verse three, I delivered
unto you first of all, 1 Corinthians 15, three, I delivered unto you
first of all, of all that which I also received, that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And that He was
buried and that He rose again the third day according to the
Scriptures. That He was seen of Cephas and
of the twelve, after that He was seen of above five hundred
brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained in the
present, but some are fallen asleep. After that He was seen
of James, and then of all the apostles, and last of all He
was seen of me, as of one born out of due time. But you see
there, we believe according to the scriptures. We believe what
this book says. That's why I have you turn to
the scriptures. I'm not here trying to give you
my word. I'm just trying to help you see
what the scriptures say, because that's the word of God. So we
most surely believe, and when you believe the gospel, you know,
we're believing what these men wrote here. but they wrote as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit. This is the word of God. And
the Lord, the same spirit that gave them this word, is the spirit
that gives you faith and teaches you and reveals Christ to you,
so that we believe the same gospel that Paul believed, Peter believed,
John, James, every saint that's ever been saved. Noah believed
the same gospel we believe. Adam believed the same gospel
we believe. Abel, everybody that's ever been
saved. It's only one gospel, one gospel. Now here's another place, go
back to Romans 4, so we most surely believe, we have full
assurance, we most surely believe these things. Romans 4 now, let
me show you here. Romans 4 verse 20, this was concerning
that promise God made to Abraham that Sarah was gonna bear a child.
It says, he staggered, Romans 4 20, he staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving
glory to God. Now here's how he gave God the
glory. Being fully persuaded that what
God had promised, he was able also to perform. That word, being
fully persuaded, that's the same Greek word that we have in our
text translated full assurance. Full assurance. He was fully
persuaded. Fully persuaded. To have full
assurance of understanding is to be fully persuaded that what
God's promised, God's able to perform. What's He promised? He's promised us A to Z that
He will work all the works of salvation. That's what He's promised. He chose us. We didn't do something
to make Him look upon us with favor. He chose His people freely
by His grace. That's what the scripture says.
And Christ came and He honored the law because we couldn't do
it. He fulfilled the law for His people. He went to the cross. He bore all the justice of God
that we deserve. He died the eternal death that
we deserve. And He arose, and we arose in
Him. And we're so helpless and so
dead by nature that He even sent the gospel to us. He drew you
and brought you under the sound of the gospel because that's
where He'd have you to be at the time appointed. One says,
not only did he choose us in Christ, he predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. That means
he predestinated that he would bring you at a certain time under
the preaching of the gospel, and Christ would speak into your
heart and save you, and you'd make you to know you've been
a child of God from eternity. You just didn't know it. That's
what Paul said to the Galatians in Galatians 4. He said, because
you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
heart and made you cry, Abba, Father. That's what the Lord's
gonna do for everybody. See, so what I'm saying, what
is it we most surely believe? What are we fully persuaded of?
God's promises are, I've entered into covenant with myself to
save my people. God's promise is, I put it all
in the hand of my Son because it's my good pleasure that my
Son have all preeminence and that all the fullness of everything
you need is in Him. And he came and gave you faith,
and now here's the question. Are you fully persuaded that
what God promised he's able to perform? He said, what I've begun
in you, I'll perform it to the day of salvation. He said, I
won't lose one. He said, I will keep you. I will
teach you. He said, the wrath of man you
see around you is going to bring glory to my name, and the remainder
of it I'll restrain. He said, I'm going to save my
people. I'm going to bring you there.
And Christ is going to present you holy and unblameable and
unapprovable in God's sight. Are you fully persuaded that
what God promised, He's able to perform? That's what faith
is. Faith is believing God is able. He's able. You know, when Abraham
went up that mountain with Isaac, The Lord said, now, I'm going
to give you... He said, the Savior is coming
through this boy Isaac. And all my people, more than
the stars in the sky, Abraham, are going to be saved through
the Son that's coming through this boy Isaac. That's where
the Savior is coming through. His generation. He said, now
you go sacrifice that boy. You go up there and offer him
to me as a burnt sacrifice. That didn't make any sense, did
it? You said, you're telling me The Savior is coming through
this boy and you tell him to go sacrifice this boy? And Abraham
believed God. You know what Hebrews says? He
believed God was able to raise him from the dead. So he went
up that mountain and in his heart, he slew that boy. In his heart,
he did it. And God was looking on his heart
and God said, that's enough. And he turned around and there
was a ram caught in the thicket, picturing Christ. I picture that
ram in those thorns. When I hear that ram caught in
a thorn thicket, I picture the Lamb of God with those thorns
on His head. And what did Abraham say? He said, Isaac said, Father,
here's the fire, where's the wood, where's the lamb? He said,
my son, God will provide Himself a lamb for Barnarvon. You look
back now, We look back to that cross. There's God providing
Himself a lamb. Was He able to do what He promised?
He did it. And is He able to do for you
and me what He promised? He's able. He's able. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. I know whom. You see there, he
said, I want you to have assurance of understanding in God our Father
and His Son Christ Jesus. I want you to be fully persuaded
in Him and by Him. That's what it is to be persuaded
by him and to trust in him. It's all going to be of him.
Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. Back not too long after they
built that new World Trade Center, there were some fellows working
on that building. And they were up near the top. I don't know
if you remember seeing this in the news, but they were up toward
the top of the World Trade Center out on a little platform washing
the windows. You'd have to pay me really good
to get up there and do that. But they're up there doing that.
And that brake on that thing broke, and it flipped that platform
on in, and they're just dangling up there. And the firefighters
came, and from the inside, they opened one of the windows there
and they took new cables and reached out there and put the
cables on the platform and put the cables on them in and had
them all anchored off so that, you know, if anything gave way,
they're not going to fall. They put harnesses on them. Now,
if those fellows out there with those harnesses on and those
cables are connected to that platform now, if those fellows
are still looking at themselves and the condition they're in,
and how far it is down, they're not going to have any assurance
in their heart that they're safe. None. Because they're looking
at themselves, they're looking at their situation, they're looking
at what could go wrong. But now, if they look at that
cable that the firefighters had just installed, and they look
at them harnesses now they got around them, and they see that
everything's anchored off. There's no possible way they
can fall. Now they can have some assurance,
but you see what I'm saying is they won't have it if they're
looking at themselves. They won't have it if they're looking at
what could happen or what the danger they're in. They're going
to have the assurance by looking at those cables that are holding
them and at those harnesses that are holding them. You and me
won't have assurance if we're looking at ourselves, if we're
looking at the situation below, if we're looking at the trouble
we're in, we won't have assurance. Assurance is gonna be looking
to that lifeline that's got us, to Christ who's holding us, who
has us firmly secure. Now here's another lesson to
learn from that little illustration. Even if those fellas were looking
down and they're looking at all those other things and they don't
have any assurance in their heart at all that they're saved, now
that they're crying like a baby, it don't change the fact that
they got a harness on and they got cables holding them, and
they're not falling. It has nothing to do with what
they feel about it. It has nothing to do with a feeling in their
heart. It doesn't have anything to do with our feeling either,
brethren. It's Christ who is our security. Now let's go with
me over to Job 19. Job 19. Here's my second thing I want
to point out to you. You see that this thing of assurance
is trusting, believing, God's able to do what he promised.
Being surely believing, he's able to do what he promised.
All right, now, in Job 19.25, now, we know it's
a reality that we don't always have full assurance. We know
that. If you believe very long, you know that. But is it possible
to have assurance at all? Well, Job did. Look here. Job
19.25, he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he
shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after
my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another, though my reins be consumed within me. Do you
see, Job? Job said, I know. I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and he'll stand at the latter day upon
the earth. And he said, and after I'm dead and gone and worms have
destroyed my flesh, I will see God and I'll see him in my flesh.
All right, we heard Paul's word. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.12,
I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Look
at John, 1 John 5. He said, Verse John 5, 20, he said, we
know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that
is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Little children, keep yourself
from idols. Don't be looking at anything else. Look only to
Christ. Now, notice, each of those men
They're in situations in their lives to where if they looked
at the shape they were in, they wouldn't have any assurance.
Job has just lost everything he owns, all his children, his
health. He's sitting on an ash heap,
scraping boils off his skin. He's got three friends that's
accusing him of sin, and that's why all this has happened to
him. Anywhere he looked around him, could he find any assurance?
Where was his assurance? I know my Redeemer. That was
his assurance, my Redeemer. What he's promised me, he will
perform it. I know that. Paul, when he said,
I know whom I believe, he'd been put in prison. Most of his brethren
had rejected him. You know, oh, we can't have anything
to do with Paul. He's in jail. But just totally
ignore the scripture that said you don't believe anything without
two or three witnesses. And there was not two or three
witnesses to say Paul had done anything that he'd been accused
of. So we need to, we need to, but he had no reason. He's like,
he's in prison. He's been beat a bunch of times,
he's been shipwrecked, he's just had all these problems in his
life, and now all these brethren, he said, they all left me except
one or two. And yet, he said, I know whom
I have believed. See where his assurance was?
It wasn't in him, it wasn't in his situation, it was in Christ. I know whom I have believed. Look at 1 John 3. I'm gonna try to point this out,
and it's not easy to see, but I hope you can see it. I pray
the Lord will give us grace to understand this. In 1 John 3,
19, Paul said, I mean John said, hereby we know that we are of
the truth and shall assure our hearts before him, or persuade
our hearts before him. Now, right before that, he said,
he's talking about the emphasis on what Christ has worked, That's
the emphasis here, not on what we ourselves have done. We know
we've passed from death to life because John said, we do righteousness. And he said, and we love the
brethren. Now people hear that and they'll say, now that's how
you're going to assure your heart. If you do good works, you'll assure
your heart. That's not what John's saying. What is it to do righteousness? Christ called it doing the truth.
He said, you come to me confessing All your works have been wrought
in me, by me, in me, by me, trusting me. Look what doing righteousness
is. Just look at 1 John 3, right
down to verse 23. He says to us what it is. This
is His commandment. Here it is. Here's what it is
to do righteousness. That we should believe on the name of
His Son, Jesus Christ. You see, how's that doing righteousness?
Because it's through faith that you lay hold of Christ our righteousness,
and he fulfilled all the righteousness of the law for his people. And
God imputes to you all that righteousness because Christ has made his people
the righteousness of God. That's doing righteousness. Going
back to the law and trying to do works to come and be accepted
of God and find acceptance by your works, that's not doing
righteousness. That's worshiping an idol yourself. That's not doing righteousness.
Doing righteousness is knowing Christ is my righteousness, I
have to have Him. And then look here, and you love
one another as He gave us commandment. You didn't have that before.
Where'd that come from? John said later, the Spirit of
God. Look here, look here. And he
that keepeth His commandments, he that believes on Christ and
loves one another, here's the only reason you do it. You dwell
in Him and He dwells in you. And hereby we know that He abideth
in us. by the spirit which he hath given
us. Now listen, some people read
that as being a little S. We know that we're his because
we got this new spirit about us now. We got such a pleasant
disposition, all that. That's a capital S. We know because
the spirit, God the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Christ dwells
in you in spirit. And now he, when the love, when
him who is love dwells in you, you're gonna have love for one
another. Those that love him that begat love those that are
also begotten of him, John said. So his point here is, it's not
that you're gonna get assurance by looking at you and something
you've done and what you're doing. His point is, your heart's gonna
be assured by knowing, I didn't believe him before. I couldn't
make myself believe him before. I hated him before. And now I
can't stop believing him. I trust him. Waivers and I don't
I don't trust my faith. It's a full of unbelief. I realize
that but I'm Persuaded if I'm gonna be saved he's gonna have
to do it. I can't do it It's him and I
didn't have that before I didn't believe him before the only hope
I have is him And I didn't have a love for brethren before I
didn't want to be with God's people Being with God's people
was like being next to God people to an unbeliever. To me, that
was like, why are people uncomfortable around you that believe? You
know why? You remind them that they don't know God. That's true. And people that don't want to
hear the gospel, they don't want to be around the gospel, they
don't want to be around God's people, when they're in the vicinity
or in the presence of a believer, it makes them uncomfortable.
It makes them very uncomfortable. Especially if you start talking,
about the gospel, that they want to change the subject or get
angry. So the point I'm trying to make
to you here is if we truly believe on Christ, it's by Him. If we
love, it's by Him. And we know the Son of God has
come, John said, and He hath given us this understanding that
we may know Him that is true. And we're in Him that's true,
even in the God's Son, the Lord Jesus. This is the true God and
eternal life. This whole book right here, John
said, I'm writing this to you that you might, because you believe
Him, and I'm writing it to you that you might know, that you
might believe and know that you're saved by Him. What about well,
I love my brethren. I love them. I love the Lord
now Yeah, but that's not the emphasis here the emphasis is
this John said in first John 419 we love him because he first
loved us The emphasis is what he's done for us That's where
you gonna find your assurance is what in him now Let's go back
to our text and I want to show that to you just real Plainly
here and the last little bit of time we have one just show
you And I'm just going to pretty much tell you what I told you
Sunday. Here it is, Colossians. Colossians 2. Now look at what
he says there, verse 2. His desire was that their hearts
might be comforted. That's where this is going to
be. It's going to be in that new heart that the Lord's given you.
That's where you're going to have assurance, comfort, knowing
that your warfare is accomplished. He puts your sin away. Confident. Being knit together in love.
When you believe Him and love Him, you're going to love others
that are begotten of Him. Think about it. We're born of
one Spirit. One Spirit. So we're taught one
Gospel. We're going to have one faith. One love. We've got one
Father. One baptism. Everything is one
now. being knit together in love unto all riches, and this is
where the riches are, of the full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father
and of Christ. Now, full assurance is through
faith in Christ because He's given us an understanding. This
is where you're going to have assurance. He's revealed the
mystery. A mystery is something that was
hidden, but now it's revealed. And the mystery that's revealed,
the mystery of God our Father and of His Son Christ Jesus,
is the Gospel. That's the mystery that's revealed.
It was hid for ages from the wise and prudent. God, for 400
years, He didn't even speak to Israel until the angel Gabriel
came to Zechariah and said, you're going to have a son. That's when,
you know, it was hidden. And then when he revealed, he
revealed to them that it wasn't just the Jews thought they were
elect just because they were born in Israel. And he revealed,
no, that has nothing to do with you being elect. It wasn't where
you were born. It's because God chose you. And
he said, not only that, I'll show you that because I got a
whole bunch of people that are Gentiles. And you and me, that's
our joy because we're Gentiles. And we wouldn't have a hope if
God didn't choose some Gentiles too. You can take the whole human
race and just break it up into these two, Jew and Gentile. God
has some elect among the Jews, He has some in the Gentiles.
He showed us that. He taught us that. And made us
see that because Christ came and worked peace for us, He made
us one with God, and He made us one with one another. Go home
tonight, read Ephesians 2. After he talks about the good
works God ordained, we'd walk in. Then he says, now you remember,
you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. He's talking to Ephesians. They were Gentiles. He said,
you were aliens from God. You didn't have life. You were
without God. And you didn't have any of the
promises of the gospel. You were just separated completely. But now, he said, we're made
nigh by the blood of Christ. Christ came. And he worked peace. How'd he do it? He said, the
enmity that was between Jew and Gentile, you know what the enmity
was? The law. The law. Because the Jew took
the law, and they tried to check off the things they thought they
were doing. They thought they were keeping the law, because
they only understood it in the letter, in the outward form.
They didn't know it reached to the heart. So they thought they
were keeping it. But they looked at the Gentiles
that didn't have the law, and they said, those are just Gentile
dogs. a gentile dog, say, we'll have
nothing to do with them. Why? What is that like? That's
like everything you see in this world today is this. You got
everybody is mad at somebody and everybody's upset and divided
against somebody. And it's all based on fleshly
things. The color of your skin. whether
you're male or you're female, whether you're rich or poor,
whether you're religious or not religious, whether you're educated
or uneducated, all these things that are earthy, men use to try
to say I'm better than the other one. And that's what was going
on between Jew and Gentile, and that whole Ephesians 2 says,
Christ came and worked peace, and here's how he took away the
enmity between us. He fulfilled the law for his
people and took it out of the way. And He says, now when you're
in Christ, you're no more Jew or Gentile, you're no more rich
or poor, male or female, none of that is in Christ anymore. Now you're one in Christ. You're one in Christ. That's
what He's done for us. That's the mystery He reveals
to us, is what Christ has done for us. Look at Colossians 1,
26. Even the mystery which had been
hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God will make known was the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles. Look down at verse 27, or at
the end of verse 27, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,
whom we preach. You see that? Now go back over
there to Colossians 2 and look at verse 3. He talked about this,
full of understanding, God revealing in our hearts the gospel and
renewing that understanding to you through the gospel. Revealing
Christ in you, making you look to Christ. He said, and the hope
that we have, he said, it's not a what, he said it's a whom.
Look at the next word, verse three, in whom. He just talked
about Christ, in whom. Or he had all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. That doesn't leave any treasure
out, does it? All wisdom and all knowledge
is Christ. He is all wisdom and all knowledge.
To know Him is life eternal. He's the true riches. He's the
pearl of great price. You have Him, you have everything.
The unsearchable riches of Christ. He's our hope of eternal life.
And through the gospel, it's God's purpose to comfort His
people. That's why I read Isaiah 40. His purpose, and what I'm
to preach to you, is I'm to declare what Christ has accomplished.
And I'm to tell you that for all God's elect, that's who he
did it for. I don't know who the elect are. The only way that
we know we're elect is if he gives you faith to trust him,
because that's the only once he gives true faith to believe
this gospel, who will confess the glory goes to God. I can't
take credit for anything. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
There's enough vain thoughts in me right now preaching the
gospel to you to cast me out forever. I gotta be saved by
him. He makes you know you have full redemption in Christ, you
have full justification by Christ, you have full acceptance, complete
pardon of sin. That's what He commands His preacher
to preach. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
How do you have this? I'm just going to repeat what
I said to you Sunday. He says, verse 4, This I say,
lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. at the enticing
word, anything that's not after Christ, and they're trying to
trick you. And He said, for though I be
absent of the flesh, yet I'm with you in the spirit, joying
and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith
in Christ. As you therefore receive Christ
Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him,
established in the faith in Christ, as you've been taught, abounding
therein in thanksgiving in Christ. Thank in Christ. Beware lest
any spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in Him. When you have
assurance, that's your assurance right there. That's it. When
He turns you to Him and renews you in spirit to know, I'm complete
in Christ. Do you believe Christ? not plus
anything, Christ only, plus nothing, minus nothing, Christ only. If
you trust Him and God's given you that faith, it's all of God.
God did it all and you can say, all I did, all I contributed
was sin, that's it. Everything has been of God. He
did it all. If you could say that, you are complete in Christ. You're complete in Him. Now that's
when you're going to have assurance when He brings you right there
and you know, I'm complete in Him. I'm going to end right here.
We'll see next time how all this came about, but it's without
our hands. It's all of Christ, all of Him. And I pray tonight, I pray that
He would turn you from you, and I pray He would settle you on
Christ, and He would make you know in your heart by the Spirit
of God, He'd make you know that Christ is all the righteousness
we what God requires. He's the righteousness God provided.
He is our righteousness forever. And He's all our acceptance with
God. And if you believe that in your hearts, because Christ
is your holiness, He come in your heart and gave you a pure
heart, a new heart to know Him. That's the only way you know
Him. So it's all of Him. And I pray He persuades you that
He's able to do what He promised. He's able. All right, let's go
to Him. Lord, thank you for your word.
Pray that you would keep us and bless us. Make us to look only
to you and trust you. Don't let us walk out of here,
Lord, and just forget what we've heard. Lord, we pray you would
make it powerful, plant it in our hearts with power and make
us continue to look into Christ. Make us leave here thinking on
him, make us Go to bed tonight thinking on Him. Get up in the
morning thinking on Him. Think about Him all through the
day. Keep our minds and our hearts set on Christ above. Help us
to remind each other. Thank You, Lord, for grace, for
free salvation through the blood of our Redeemer. In His name
we pray. Amen. Alright, Brother Adam.