Well, it's wonderful as always
to be with you. I just love that verse. I want
to read that verse again. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loaded us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. What
a, what a marvelous verse. We'll continue our study in Colossians
tonight. Colossians chapter one. Let's look at verse 3 to 5. We
give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and of the love which you have to all the saints. And here's
our text in verse 5. For the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word
of the truth of the gospel? So last week, we looked at verse
4, which spoke of faith and love, faith and love, which our brethren
had at Colossus for all the saints. They loved all of God's elect,
all his people that they knew or that they heard of. And we
looked at how Christ was the object of our faith and theirs,
and how faith was a gift of God. We looked at how Christ was their
rest and their trust. And we looked at the love the
saints had for one another in Colossus and how it united them
and how, as one commentator said, it was like the cement that holds
bricks together. So just a quick comment. Several
grace preachers, I mentioned this this week, several grace
preachers before the Lord called me here, And when we came out
a couple times, but even before that, I had heard a lot about
you all here. And I had heard about the love
that you had for one another, and the love that you had for
missions, and the love that you had for other saints. And we
give God all the glory for that, but that's a fruit of the Spirit.
That's God working in you. And like I say, he gets all the
glory and honor and praise, but it's neat. It's amazing when
we see God working in our lives. We will never see it ourselves.
We'll never see God working in the fruits of the Spirit in us,
growing in grace in ourselves, but others will see it. Others
will see it. So let's look at verse five tonight.
For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven Where have
you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel? So
in the preceding verse, Paul was giving thanks for their faith
and their love. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to all the saints.
And we know that faith is a gift of God and that love springs
from faith. Love springs from faith. Love
is the fruit of the spirit. It's not something we can muster
up. Love for one another is not something we can muster up, it's
a fruit of the spirit. And so our verse tonight ties
right in with that. Look again, it says, for the
hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard
before in the word of the truth of the gospel? Now I was thinking,
I could have just made a whole message on the first part and
not on the last part, because this verse you could literally
split up into two different messages. But we're going to try to get
to it all tonight. So believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ have hope, right? We have hope. As we always like
to say, in the gospel, there's hope for the hopeless. There's
hope for the hopeless. And our hope is not in ourselves.
It's not in ourselves. It's not in our works. But it's
in Christ and him alone. We look to him. And that ties
in with him being the object of our faith, what we looked
at last week. See, this is the thing that I find amazing as
we go through these studies. Each verse just ties right in
with the other ones. It's incredible. So he's the
object of our hope. And we know that one day, that
where he is, because he's the head, and where the head is,
the body soon follows, right? Like an old preacher likes to
say, we know that he's the head and he's in heaven. And one day
we're going to be in heaven, because we're the body. One day
we'll be there with him. And he is the object of our hope.
Think of this, too. The thing that makes heaven heaven
is not that our loved ones are there, which is a blessing, no. Those are our loved ones who
were saved. Not that our brothers and sisters
who have went before us are there. That's a blessing too, right? But what makes heaven heaven
is that Christ is there. The Redeemer of his people are
there. And this brings us great joy
and hope. Great joy, and it also brings us great joy and hope
for loved ones who were saved that went to be with the Lord,
or for brethren that were saved and went to be with the Lord.
We're gonna see them again. We're gonna see them again. But the one thing we'll all be
doing together is gazing at the face of our Savior. We'll be
so enamored with Christ. Oh, so the thing that makes heaven
heaven is that Christ is there. and we will see our Redeemer
face to face. I know my Redeemer liveth. Turn
with me, if you would, to Hebrews chapter six. So the hope of every
believer is Christ, and that we will be in heaven with him
one day. Hebrews chapter six, verse 18
to 20 says this. Hebrews 6, 18 to 20, that by two immutable things
in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Our hope in Christ is an anchor
for our soul. So we don't hope in ourselves.
We did that in religion. It's not an anchor, though, when
we hope in ourselves, is it? No. It's like throwing a straw
overboard on a ship as an anchor. There's no hope. There's no foundation. But when that anchor lays hold,
and that's Christ, we have an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast. And that which entereth into
that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus made a high priest over forever after the order
of Melchizedek. So our king is in heaven, and
our hope is that one day we'll be there with him. We who have
believed have a joyful and confident anticipation of eternal salvation
in Christ, in anticipation, and our confidence is in him, in
him. And remember our trust, remember
we looked at it in Sunday school, that means confidence. Confidence,
our confidence, our trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him alone and what He did. We have a good hope through grace
of eternal glory for faith, hope, and love, the three things that
we've looked at, always go together and they always find their end
in Christ. Always faith in Christ, hope
of our eternal glory to be there with Him, and love, love for
Christ. And our hope is precious. Our
hope is precious, and look what our text says, for the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven. Our hope is in heaven. It's laid
up for us in heaven. Think of this, we have an inheritance
which is not in our hand right now, right? But one day we'll
be face to face with Christ. We'll see him. And think of this, the hope we
have in Christ, right? Was purposed by the Father. Was
purposed by the Father and purchased by the Son. and has been placed
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. Again, the whole Trinity in action
in the salvation of sinners. What matchless grace comes from
our great God. What matchless grace. Christ, who is our forerunner,
who is our mediator between God and man, He is our great high
priest and he is in heaven right now interceding for his people. And he is a king. He's not waiting
to become king. He's a king and he's ruling right
now, right while we're here. Oh, it's marvelous. He is the blessed surety. of
all his people, of all his chosen blood-bought people. He is our
surety. He has sealed our pardon with
his precious blood. He's sealed it with his precious
blood. And now he sits down right now
on the majesty on high. Oh. who be in the brightness
of his glory and express image of his person, upholding all
things by the word of his power. Hebrews 1.3, upholding all things
by the word of his power. Right now, right now. When he had by himself purged
our sins, Christ purged the sins of his
people on Calvary's cross. Purged their sins, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high. It's finished. No more
work to be done. And he's ruling. And he's reigning
right now. What a magnificent God. This
is my savior. And if you're saved, this is
your savior. He who controls all things. keeps us. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ is
a King reigning, and He is the only perfect, He is the perfect,
and He is the only mediator between God and man. He is the perfect
mediator for sinners between God, and He is the only Savior
for sinners. And again, again, He sealed the
everlasting covenant with his own precious blood, with his
blood shed on Calvary's cross to redeem his people from their
sins. And our hope and assurance is
that one day, we who believe, we who are redeemed by that precious
blood of Christ, we will see him one day. we will see our
great Redeemer. We'll see Him. And think of this,
too. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Beloved, He has the power to
save us. And He has the power to keep us. Because if it was
up to us, well, like Spurgeon said, If it was up to me, I'd
lose my salvation a thousand times a day. But oh, he's merciful. Turn with
me, if you would, to 1 Peter 1, verse 3. He is so merciful. He is so merciful. He has the
power not only to save, but he has the power to keep. First Peter 1.3, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his
abundant mercy. Oh, let us just rest there for
a minute. According to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again to a lively
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And notice
here, hath begotten us. We don't make ourselves born
again. He must do a work. He must regenerate us. Blessed
be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy, remember in Romans, I'll have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy, his abundant mercy. If you're saved, he's
showing his abundant mercy towards you. hath begotten us again into
a lively hope." Oh, what a hope we have in Christ. What a hope
we have in Him. By the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, raised for our justification. And we
looked at that on Sunday. Oh, how can a man be just before
God only by the sacrifice of Christ for our sins? And then
we're robed in the righteousness of Christ. and we're able to
stand in the presence of a holy and righteous God. Oh, it's marvelous. Think of
this. Think of His abundant mercy toward
us. Let's just think of a few things. His abundant mercy toward
us. He chose us, God the Father chose
us who believe in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Abundant mercy, beloved. There is nothing in us that would merit that? Abundant
mercy. Think of this. His abundant mercy
toward us. He forgives us what? All our
trespasses and sins. Past, present, and future. Abundant
mercy. How? By the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Abundant mercy towards his people. And think of this, we looked
at that again on Sunday. He removes our filthy rags of self-righteousness
and clothes us in the righteousness of Christ. Abundant mercy. Undeserving, but abundant, daily
loaded down with benefits, beloved. Oh my. My. And then, and then he takes
us home to glory, to be with him forever. Oh, abundant mercy. And think of
this, in heaven, our hope will become a reality. To an inheritance, take a look
again at 1 Peter, I should have kept this there. 1 Peter, we
were at 1, 3. Let's look at 4 and 5. Do you know that in heaven, our
hope will become a reality? It'll become a reality. To an
inheritance incorruptible. That means you can't mess it
up. You can't mess it up. Incorruptible. It's in heaven.
We're here on earth. You can't mess it up. Oh my. To an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. It'll never go away.
Never. That third is not a way, reserved
for you in heaven. If you're a believer, your inheritance
is reserved for you in heaven. You make reservations at a restaurant,
you go in, and there's a spot reserved for you. Isn't that
marvelous, beloved? For those who believe there's
an inheritance reserved in heaven that is incorruptible, that is
undefiled, and that will never fade away, and it's reserved
for you in heaven. And look at verse 5 of 1 Peter
1.5, who are kept by the power of God. kept by the power of God. Do
you know that's the same Greek word that's used in Romans 1.16? Where it says, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believeth to
the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, that
just shall live by faith. We're kept by the power of God,
the same power that it takes to save a sinner. So saving power of God is keeping
power of God. And it's marvelous. It's marvelous. Let's go back to our text. We
could just stay there. We could stay on the hope which
is laid up for us in heaven for the rest of the night. But let's
look at the latter part of this verse here. Because there's some
important stuff right here too. It's, where have you heard before
in the word of the truth of the gospel? Now, in the second part
of this verse, we see the importance, right here, right here, we see
the importance of gospel preaching. We see the importance of why
we need to preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace.
We must preach the gospel. We must preach Christ. We don't
preach, you know, I've often said it, we don't preach 25 ways
to make yourself a better Christian. We don't do that stuff. Because
that won't do us any good. Only God can convict you of sin
and change things in our lives, right? And he does do that. He corrects us by his word. You'll
be reading something and go, oh my. He gently corrects us
and he moves us. But we must, we must, we must
preach the gospel. Look in verse seven. As he learned
of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is to you a faithful
minister of Christ. So they've heard the word of
truth. Epaphras was a faithful gospel preacher of God's free
grace in Christ, and he ministered to the saints at Colossus. He
ministered to them. And what did God do? And he preached
the gospel, and what? They believed. God gave them hearing ears, beloved. They believed the report. And you know, God uses the preaching
of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
to save sinners. He uses the preaching of His
Word. And the gospel is good news for
sinners. It's good news for sinners. Good
news of how Christ, with His own precious blood, redeems sinners. how that he died and was raised
again for our justification. And this is the only way for
a sinner like me and a sinner like you to be saved, is by Christ
Jesus our Lord saving us. First we're familiar with, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy has saved us. That means not by anything you
do mentally or physically, walking the Nile, praying a prayer, not
by anything you do by works. We're only saved by His mercy,
His mercy in Christ. And look, it says, where have
you heard before in the truth of the gospel? Notice you heard,
you heard the word of the truth of the gospel. Now God's sheep
are given here in ears. There was a time when we sat
under the gospel and we didn't hear? And when he was pleased, we heard
the voice of the shepherd. And it's, oh, he's the only, turn with
me if you would to Romans chapter 10. He is the only one. He is
the only one who can give us hear and ears. And this, beloved, this is why
it is so important for us to preach the gospel, so important
for us to preach the gospel of God's free grace in Christ. Think
of this before I get to the text there. Think of this, we're delivered
from the power of darkness. If the gospel's not preached,
we wouldn't be delivered. Sinners are saved by the preaching
of the gospel, and Christ is building his church by the preaching
of the gospel. Who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, Colossians 1, 13, and 14. And it is by the preaching
of the gospel that God uses to draw his people to Christ. The
Holy Spirit uses the preaching of the word to draw his people.
Look at verse 13, starting in verse 13, and it's through the
preaching of the gospel that we hear the good news of Christ. Oh, that he give you hearing
ears. Look at Romans 10, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, verse 13.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they've not heard? Well, that destroys that old
justification by death we looked at on Sunday, doesn't it? Because the only way you'll be
saved is if you believe on Christ. The only way we believe according
to the Scripture is if we hear the Gospel. So what does that
mean to all these churches where they're telling folks what to
do? It means there's no gospel. How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? I
can't tell you about something unless I've been there myself.
God saved me. Christ redeemed me. He saved
my soul. He purchased me with his own
precious blood. And I don't deserve it, but he
had mercy upon me. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As
it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
But they that have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah saith,
Lord, who hath believed our report? And then look at verse 17, so
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
We must, we must, we must preach the free grace. We must preach
the gospel of Christ. We must. We must preach Christ
and him crucified. Oh, the preaching of the gospel
is vital, vital, beloved. And we grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ under the preach of the gospel.
Once the Lord has saved us, then we grow in grace. And we grow
by hearing the gospel preached. It's amazing. And think on this, beloved of
God, that there's no guarantee that our unsaved ones will be
regenerated by the power of God, by the Holy Spirit. if we get
them under the preaching of the gospel. There's no guarantee
of that, is there? But we know from scripture that if they don't
hear the preaching of the gospel, then none of them will be saved. How many people despise coming
to church, coming to hear the gospel of God's free grace, have
no care at all? Oh, God must save them. And beloved, he uses the preaching.
He uses the preaching of his word. He uses the preaching of
Christ and him crucified because the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It's the power of God unto salvation. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter one, verse 16 and 17. And this is why it's so important
to be in a gospel preaching church and for the gospel to be proclaimed. Now we can, you know, if you get a chance to speak
of Christ to someone, speak of it if the Lord opens the door,
if he does, if he does. Look at this, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God. It's
the dynamite of God. Unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. See, the gospel is good news
for sinners. To the Jew first and to the Greek,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What we looked
at, what we looked at this weekend, the perfect, spotless righteousness
of God in Christ. The only righteousness that God
is satisfied with. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. We continuously trust and rest
in our Savior. I like what one old preacher
said. He said, we're saved, we're being
saved, and we will be saved. And all he meant there is that
our walk with Christ is a constant relying upon. a constant trusting
in Him, a constant having confidence in Him. We repent, and we continue to
repent, don't we? Folks get all hung up on repentance,
and it's like, it's not a one-time thing, folks. We continue to
do that. Oh, God have mercy. I don't know
how many times I pray in a week, God have mercy to me. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. Here in the preaching of the
gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. Revealed. And only by being clothed in
the righteousness of Christ and only by believing on Christ and
resting and trusting our eternal souls in Him are we saved. Think of before we were saved.
Did we have any interest in the gospel at all? When we were religious and sitting
in the pew and not really, thinking, you know, I remember to my shame
thinking, well, that guy needs this message more than I do.
Self-righteous to the core. Horrible. I need the gospel message
more than anyone. Oh, my. And look, it says that where have
you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, in
the word of the truth of the gospel? Think of this. This gospel comes from the God
of all truth. This good news, this gospel comes
from the God of all truth. And it's good news for all six
centers like me. Because I need Christ. I need
Him desperately. Turn with me, if you would, to
Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14. The gospel is the word of truth.
And in our text it says, in the word of the truth of the gospel.
In Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 it says this, in whom ye, it's personal,
it's personal, in whom ye also trusted, trusted, after that
ye heard the word of truth. Faith cometh by hearing, remember
we looked at that? And hearing by the word of God.
God must open our ears. and open our eyes to Christ,
oh, we'll never hear him, we'll never hear the shepherd's voice,
or we'll never see him. But oh, if he opens your eyes,
if you hear the shepherd's voice. After that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of, I love this, look how personal this
is, the gospel of your salvation. Yours, it's yours, brother, it's
your salvation in Christ. It's marvelous. The gospel of
your salvation, in whom also, after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of
His glory. See, we give Him all the glory.
We give Him all the honor. And here again is the connection.
in Ephesians 1.13 is heard, and that connects to our verse in
Colossians 1.5. In the word of the truth of the
gospel, look at Colossians 1.5, wherever you heard before in
the word of the truth of the gospel, you heard it. The Lord
unstopped your ears. I know he did for me, it's marvelous. And in the Greek, the funny thing
about this word heard in the Greek, that I didn't realize
until I looked at this, it means to be endowed with the faculty
of hearing. It's given to you. To be endowed with that. You
don't have it normally. It's a gift. It's a gift. And faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. James 1.18 says this, Of his
own will begot he us with the word of truth, which connects
in to our text, which it says in the word of truth of the gospel.
Of his own will, of his own will. Where's man's free will in there?
James 1.18. Of his own will begot he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. And think of this. The truth
of the gospel is timeless. It's timeless. It does not change as our God doesn't change. This
was all planned and purposed in eternity. I was texting back and forth
with Brother Matt today and he brought out that centuries go
by. Centuries go by. And humanity changes, he said,
with gadgets and such. Governments change and cultures.
But the word remains unchanged. And he brought out the point
of, what does that show us? That God is a sovereign God.
Amen. I run back, amen. Amen. Oh, beloved, is this not proof
of God's sovereignty? The truth is timeless. Timeless. And it proceeds from the God
of all truth. And think of this. John 14 says
this. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So our God is the God of all
truth. And our salvation is bought by the very one who is called
truth. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And also, the Holy Spirit of
God is called the Spirit of Truth. John 5.26, but when the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father,
he shall testify of me. So beloved, this gospel, the
gospel of God's free grace in Christ, is nothing but truth. Because it's found in the scriptures,
which are very truth. This is truth. And the gospel of truth is proclaimed. whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel. It proclaims, the gospel proclaims,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the great sinner's substitute. It proclaims that God's law and
justice, which is unbending, and must be satisfied has been
satisfied in Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and this is truth. This gospel proclaims that God
is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. He's satisfied with
the sacrifice of Christ in the place of his people. And this is great truth, and
it also It proclaims that He was raised for our justification. To prove that God was satisfied. And this is precious truth. It
proclaims that He is in heaven right now. And we'll be with
Him one day. And what precious truth that
is to us. Oh, sinner friend, may you flee
to Christ. May you flee to Christ. May God
make you willing. May God make you willing. May
he grant your faith the belief. Because in Scripture declares,
if he does this, thou shalt be saved. And may we saints of God
leave this place tonight rejoicing. Rejoicing. that God has given us ears to
hear and eyes to see this precious truth. And he's given us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. To God be all the glory. We'll see you when it's time.