For our Scripture reading this
morning, turn with me to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter
2. And we'll come back to this for
our message, so you can have a marker and put it there. Colossians
chapter 2, beginning with verse 1. For I would 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. What is this conflict? What's
this wrestling? What's he having problems with?
That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love,
and unto all the riches of the full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, that is, God
the Holy Ghost, and of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This I say, lest any
man should beguile you with enticing words. Though I be absent in
the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him, rooted and built up in him. established in the faith as you've
been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments or basic principles of the world,
not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him which
is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
all the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Let no man, therefore, judge
you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or
of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things
to come. But the body is of Christ. If you will, turn back with me
to Colossians chapter 2, and most of what I have to say this
morning will be taken from verse 2. The apostle Paul said to these
saints, I'm starting out at the beginning
of the book, that he was an apostle. That's the highest office in
the church. He was an apostle by the will
of God. And that is main concern in writing
these things to the saints and to the faithful brethren in Christ. It was because he had heard that
they were. He heard of their faith. He'd
heard of their works. Their pastor had brought word
to him. Paul was in prison. And so his main concern was toward
them, these saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which were
at Colossae. And for whom, he said, a hope
was laid up in heaven. Now that's a mouthful. And it's
good news to sinners. A place. A place in heaven. Think about that. Brother Barnard,
old Ralph Barnard, he preached back in the 50s. He preached
in some of the oil boom towns down in Texas years before that.
He was an evangelist. He said he had a dream that he
went to heaven. And he said when he was first sensible of
being there, he said he heard the most delightful music in
singing that he'd ever heard. Absolute perfect harmony. And he said, oh, he said, I long
to sing with them the song of redemption. And he said, when
I got close enough to see, he said, this huge valley, and it
had seats molded all through the And everybody was sitting
in those seats. And he said, I began to scramble
around and try to find me a seat to sit down. He said, I couldn't
understand it. He said, I wanted to sing with
them before they stopped. And he said, finally, I got way
up at the top. And I looked over there, and
there was one seat. And he said, I worked my way
down there. And he said, when I come to the
seat, I had my name written on it. It said, Roth Barnard. A
place. You see what Paul's talking about?
Place. A hope been laid up for you in glory. You can't lay up the place. God
has to lay it up. And that's what Paul, this was
good news to him. He'd heard of their faith, heard
of their love, heard of their... He had a good hope that these
were people of God. These were saints of God. And that was his concern in writing
these letters, that these men and women as do all the elect
of God, received his gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. They
received it with joy, and they were given the gift of faith.
And God's people are a cross section of humanity, if you will. He's chosen a people out of every
nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven. Think about it. They're not a tribe represented
anywhere in this world, not a tongue, not a people, not a nation in
which God doesn't have and elect people. They're a cross-section of humanity,
the chosen of God from all of these places, and nobody knew
this better than the apostle of God under the Gentiles. What
a revelation this must have been to Paul when he was caught up
to the third heaven Him being a strict Jew, believing all these
idolaters and all these men were cursed of God, and God tells
him, no. He said, I have a people out
there. I have a people. And I'm sending you too. I'm using you to unveil this
mystery of the Gentiles. Nobody knew this better than
the Apostle Paul. The mystery of the Gentiles was
hidden in the days of the Old Testament, though there's places
where they were plainly declared. In the book of Romans, Paul reminds
us that Moses prophesied of God, and he provoked Israel to jealousy. He talks about provoking Israel
to jealousy by people that are no people, the Gentiles. He told Moses that. And Moses
prophesied. In Isaiah 65, verse 1, he said,
I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto
them that asked not after me. Talking about Gentiles. And the saints at Colossae heard
the gospel. And in what they heard, they
were convinced that God had laid up for them a heavenly hope.
and a present hope. And here's the hope. Christ in
you. Christ in you. In you have. Huh? In you by faith. In you by hope. In you by the
presence of God enabling you to be meet, to be partakers of
that inheritance. He's in you. What a statement! They heard these things in the
gospel, were convinced that God had laid up for them a heavenly
hope and a present hope, which was Christ in them, the hope
of glory. Now, I have four things this
morning, if I can, if the Lord will allow me to enter into. in which I can find a godly comfort,
even in this present evil world. That's what Paul wanted him to
do. He wanted to comfort these people. You know, when he said
it's expedient, Christ did, for me to go away. If I don't go
away, the Comforter will not come. The message of the Gospel,
when revealed by the Holy Spirit, comforts. It comforts believers. And I have four things this morning
if we can enter into, I believe we can find a godly comfort even
in this present evil world. May the spirit of the living
God help us to know the grace of God as he says in truth, in
truth, as he did these precious saints. And the first thing I
see in our text is the intervention of God. That's what Paul was
so happy about. That's what he was glorifying
God. This thing that he heard about
in them, man can't produce that. Only God can produce that. And
he saw what they didn't see. He saw an intervention of God.
God intervened. God come into their lives. God said that's far enough, and
He arrested them by His grace. and brought them to know Christ.
Now somebody said one time that insanity is doing the same things
over and over but expecting different results. That's exactly what
religious folks do. That's exactly what they do.
They do the same thing over and over. It don't work, but they
expect the next time that it will. And so they keep doing
the same thing. It's the very thing that Men
do, and women all over, and never seem to learn that it's not of
God. Listen to this verse back in
Ecclesiastes 9-3. There is one event unto all. This applies to everybody. Every son of Adam, this applies
to. Yea, also the heart of the sons
of men is full of evil. And madness is in his heart while
they live, and after that, they go to the dead. Madness. It's madness to keep walking
down an aisle when it don't have anything to do with your salvation.
It's madness to follow after a so-called free will that's
not free. That's madness. That might be
a mistake to do it once, but it's madness when you do it over
and over and over. Why am I saying these things,
preacher? Because when God works, it's effectual. He just saves
once because that's all it takes. Once in the end of the world.
He put away sin by the sacrifice. He didn't take them twice. He
just took them once. He said that old high priest, he offers
the same sacrifice over and over and over and over and over. But
it couldn't take away sin. But this man offered himself
one time. By his own blood he entered into
the holy place and obtained eternal redemption. It just takes once. It just takes one time for the
Holy Spirit to open your heart, give you a new birth, give you
the ability to understand what you're hearing. It just takes
once. God's work is effectual. It's
effectual. And my friend, God has chosen
the people to salvation and the means of sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. And the result is that a preacher
sent of God, the Holy Ghost attends his preaching, and they are made
meek, given the ability to believe. They're brought to faith in Christ.
And this faith given to you, as it is to all of God's elect,
wherever they live, brings forth fruit. Faith without works is dead.
If the tree doesn't produce fruit, our Lord went over to pick some
fruit on that tree and it didn't have any. He cursed it. Leaves fell off and it died.
True saving faith produces fruit always, always. It's not a make-believe profession.
It's not just another emotional response or experience. It's,
in truth, an effectual intervention of God. And this intervention
of God is to save, to call some poor soul out of darkness. Worldly
religion is nothing in the world but darkness. Now listen to me. Here's what our Lord said to
those Pharisees. Those Pharisees thought they
knew something. They thought they knew God. They
thought they knew the doctrines. They thought they knew the means.
They were convinced that they knew God, that they knew something. And here's what our Lord told
them. He said, If the light that be in thee... What's he talking
about? All of their so-called knowledge of God. That's the
light. He said, If the light that be
in thee be darkness... Huh? If what I think and I know
about God is nothing but darkness and ignorance, then how great
is that darkness? If I know nothing of God, if
everything I think I know is darkness, then how great is that
darkness? False religion, a religion after
the working of Satan, a religion contrary to the character of
God. a religion born of deception, men and women transformed into
ministers of righteousness. What kind of righteousness? Self-righteousness. Men and women, most of which
have cleaned up the outside of the cup. That's how the Lord... You made a profession of faith. You walked down the aisle, you
joined a church, you signed up, whatever it did, and now you're
cleaning up the outside of the cup. You take a bath, you get
a different hairstyle, you wear different clothes, you clean
up your speech, you're whitewashing. That's what you're doing. You're
cleaning up the outside of the cup, but on the inside, like
those white ejepicas, on the inside, it's just dead men's
bones. Ain't nothing in there but corruption. They have a hope,
but that hope is fully dependent upon the flesh. That light that
be in you be darkness. How great is that darkness? And
there's no hope for anyone apart from an intervention of God.
That's what Paul saw, an intervention of God. God's hand. God's property. It's God's gospel. God's fear. All right? Here's the second
thing I see. The change or effect The Bible said the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and temperance. That's all one fruit. That's not a bunch of fruits.
That's one fruit. That's the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. And if we live in the Spirit,
he said, let us also walk in the Spirit. And there's a vast
difference between being in the Spirit and being in the flesh.
And the problem is you cannot know the difference until you're
in the Spirit. Don't tell me I ain't saved.
Well, I can't tell you you're not saved because you wouldn't
understand the difference. Paul said, The Spirit of the
living I have not seen, ear not heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. And
he says these things that we preach, we preach as the Spirit.
These things that the Spirit reveals, He reveals it through
our preaching. But, he said, the natural man.
Are you listening? The natural man. Receiveth not,
now listen, the things of the Spirit of God. What thing? The Word of God. You can pile the Word of God
up on people till it looks like a pile of cordwood. Doesn't have
any effect on them at all. And what they'll do is they'll
go back and start talking about the aisle they walked, the hand
they shook, the church they joined, the profession they made, the
experience they had. I don't care about that. Tell
me something in the Word of God. Do you have a hope of God? Not
a part in this book you don't. Our hope is built on the Scriptures,
on the Word of God. That's one of the things of the
Spirit. Here's the second thing of the Spirit, the preaching
of the Gospel. You mean I ought to hear something there? That's
what God said. How shall you hear without preaching?
That's the Holy Ghost said that. I didn't say that. He did. And
I'm not afraid to repeat what he said. I can be sure of that. He said it. Oh, my soul, we won't proceed
with that. I'll tell you something else.
Paul said the Spirit of God forbade me to go here and forbade me
to go there. Or he opened the door for me
to go. Who did that? The Spirit of God. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the providence of God. Oh my, the providence of
God. Natural man won't have that.
He don't have that. He looks into it. Well, as luck would have it. Really? You gonna base your everlasting
soul on something called luck? You want to know how good your
luck is, go buy a lottery ticket. I have no hope for anyone apart
from an intervention of God. Alright, here's the second thing. The change or effect. We live
in the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit. And listen to this. He said to be carnally minded.
To be carnally minded is death, Romans 8, 6. But to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Well, what's that talking about?
To be carnally minded is to be left to your natural reasoning.
He leaves you alone. You came in here without God,
you sit down without God, and he just lets you here without
God. Carnal mindedness. The carnal mind is left to natural
reasoning, the mind, the understanding, the reasoning, the affections,
the thoughts. Just like you go down to shop
for groceries, and you look at this piece of chicken, you look
at that piece of chicken, and, well, this looks better to me,
so you take that. He'll leave you to your natural reasoning
for a natural man. God has to intervene. And the reason it's death is
because he said the natural man hates God, his mind is enmity
against God, not subject to the law of God. He's not just talking
about the law of Moses, he's talking about the authority of
God, everything that God commands, everything that God says. He's
not subject to it. And this natural man cannot be. Isn't that the terms he uses
after that? Natural man never will. He has to give you a new mind, a
new heart. A new man has to set up residence
in you. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians
2.14 that the natural man receives not these things. And to be carnally
minded to death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Paul
talked about what a great conflict he had for these saints over
here in Colossians. And this is a great part of that
conflict. If we desire to see that work
of God in these people that we preach to. And this is something
that only God can produce. And we have a conflict over it.
I preach sometimes. I raise my voice sometimes. Sometimes
I shout. What's the conflict? What's the
problem? I want to see this work as a reality, not just words
that I spit out. I want to see that work of God
in you, and I have a conflict for that. That's why I pray for
you. That's why I study. That's why I've come up here
and preach. This is a work of God in men
that only God can produce. So how do we discern whether
or not a person has the mind of Christ? By the love of God
and by His love for God's people. That's how I know. That's how
I know. I know because this man becomes
subject to God and subject to God's servants. They listen. You can correct him and they'll
be corrected. Did you know that? Huh? David, the prophet came
to David, boy, and he described in detail exactly what took place. David said, you bring him here
and I'll cut him in pieces. I'll put him to death. He said,
thou art the man. Did David kill the prophet? Uh-uh. No, he was corrected. He was
corrected. God's people are subject to God,
subject to his servants, subject to one another. I'll tell you something else
about it, man. These are all things that Paul wrestled over.
Every minister of sin of God wrestles over. Faithfulness to
worship. It pains my heart when you're
not here. I know you get sick and I know, you know, you plan
a trip somewhere. I get that. But I'm talking about
when you're not here on a regular basis. Oh, it causes conflict
with me. I wrestle over it. I pray for
you. Faithfulness to worship, support, a willingness to hear,
to be taught, to be comforted in Christ. When I see that out
of a people, the conflict's gone. Conflict's gone. And I have good
hope. All right? Here's the third thing
I want us to see, the way of comfort. In our text in Colossians
2.2, Paul sets comfort and love coming to the saints by way of
the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God. This gospel we preach is a mystery. Men don't know this. I was talking about this with
one of the brethren just before our second service this morning.
We went to church all of our lives and we didn't know anything.
I didn't know any of these things that I'm telling you this morning.
None of them. And they don't out there either. These things come for the richest. These are treasures. The full
assurance of understanding. And you know that a man has it.
because of his acknowledgement of the mystery of God. God the Holy Spirit, God the
Father. He cries Abba Father. When that spirit of adoption
comes in him, he cries Abba Father. Why? Because he knows. He knows
now about the Father. He knows now what being a father
is all about. I know the Father and the Christ
And in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. Now, beloved, there cannot be
any lasting comfort apart from Christ. You're not going to find a lasting
comfort in memorizing the doctrines of grace. Comfort comes from
Christ. It's a living hope. I have a
living Savior. He's seated at the right hand
of God. He makes intercession for me all the time. His presence
there makes intercession for me. He's my guarantor. I can't have assurance apart
from looking to Him. He's the guarantor. He's the
covenant surety. In Him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Would you know anything of God?
Not apart from Christ you won't. They're hidden in him, not to
keep folks from understanding, but to keep them safe. They're hidden in him to make
them sure. If I go put money in the bank, it's not... You see what I'm saying? I'm
putting it in there to keep it safe. Although that don't mean a whole
lot today. They're placed in his care. because
he's the only one sufficient to reveal them to men. What's he reveal? He reveals
to us that God is holy. Now without going through a long
dissertation on the holiness of God, let me just say that
it has to do with the wholeness of God. Everything that makes
God, God. His whole character. That's God's
holiness. Well, if it don't have to do
with how I dress and all the things that men call holiness,
if it has to do with the wholeness of God, how in the world can
He say, be ye holy? For I'm holy. Well, I'm holy
by faith in Christ. And in Christ, that character
of God, that holiness, is there. It's there. All the attributes, love, mercy,
goodness, justice, righteousness, wrath, grace, and so on, all
of his attributes working in him equally, continually, in
perfect harmony. And Paul gives a short explanation
of this over in Romans 3, saying that Christ is both just and
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. That's part of that
harmony right there. no compromise of God's justice
and his justification of believers. Zechariah said he's just and
having salvation, talking about the coming redemption. Our God
is holy, and no matter what he does, it's holy. His words are
holy, his tabernacle is holy, his temple is holy, because his
prophets are holy prophets. His apostles are holy. All of
his elect chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world that
they should be holy. First thing he said. Now if what I believe in and
hope for and preach to others is not according to God's holiness,
it cannot be of God. And Paul said the gospel that
he was called to preach was concerning the Son of God. Now I want you
to listen to this. I never saw this before. who
was declared to be so by the spirit of holiness by his resurrection
from the dead. God resurrected his son and justified
his saints through a righteous death on the cross and in so
doing he declared his holiness in his son. Now you think about
that. The spirit is called the Holy
Spirit or sometimes the Holy Ghost, and everything He teaches
and does is holy. And that's why we preach Christ
crucified, because there's no other way for God to save sinners
without compromising His holiness. He saves them in Christ. A few
verses down from our text, in verse 4, Paul writes, And this
I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Now
listen to me. I said all that to say this.
Comfort and true assurance come by way of understanding. Huh? There, you've been coming here
a while. Have I ever said anything that you didn't understand before?
Isn't that something? It comes by way of understanding. And God confirms it in the heart
to be so. Comfort and true assurance come
by way of understanding. It's called in our text the full
assurance of understanding. Understanding what? Understanding
the purpose of God in Christ who created all things for the
glory of his name. God created this world to manifest
his glory and the salvation of a people through his Son. I never
understood that before, did you, growing up? I never heard that
in school. I never heard it in church. I
didn't hear it out in the community. I never heard it until I heard
the gospel. The earnest expectation of creation
waited. For what? For the manifestation
of the sons of God. That's why it was created. That's the reason for its being.
That's the reason for its preservation. And that's why it has an environment
conducive of life and nowhere else does. No life anywhere except on earth,
and that for the glory of God. Here's another thing. Understanding
how God can maintain his glory and save the chief of sinners.
How can that be? How can that be? Understanding
the love of God, the infinite, unchangeable, eternal love of
God. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Understanding how God, through
a sacrifice of His Son, satisfied divine justice and put away our
sins. You see what I'm talking about?
This assurance comes through understanding. And this understanding
comes through hearing the gospel. And the gospel, what it does
is just declare, and in a lot of cases, define the Word of
God. This is what Paul said. And Paul
said that's what old Zechariah was saying. That's what Moses
was saying. That's what all these men were
saying. To him, give all the prophets with. It's understanding
God's righteousness. Christ is the highest goal of
the law for righteousness. And he's the end of the law to
everyone that believeth, all of them. Let me ask you something. Is anybody here today who expects
someday to enter into heaven and be welcomed by a holy God
based on his personal righteousness? The word of reconciliation is
that God hath made him to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. That's my hope. Listen
to this verse, 1 Corinthians 1.30. But of him, that is, of
God, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness. Beloved, we cannot have any lasting
comfort and be ignorant of these things. This comfort comes from
assurance, and this assurance comes from understanding. You
see where Paul's coming from? And knowing what he knew, he
adds the word riches. Riches. He often did that over
in, let's see, 2 Corinthians 4. He said, but we have this treasure.
in earthen vessels. He says it again over in Ephesians
chapter 2 about the riches of God's grace. All right, fourthly, let's look
at the reason for the cover. Verse 3, talking about Christ. In whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Verse 9, For in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in him which is the head of all principality and power. He is
the source of all wisdom, being the wisdom of God incarnate.
And this wisdom reveals to poor ignorant sinners how they are
saved by a sovereign Savior. Nothing can bring comfort to
a troubled soul like knowing that we are complete in him.
All my soul, what a relief it was to me. For the first time
in my life, it was not being laid out to me all these things
that I have to do to be saved. Believe on Him. Believing on
Him, you're complete in Him. Now, if something's complete,
you don't add anything to it. It's complete. Everything else
that men call works, And what they try to do to gain a righteousness
or gain an entry into heaven, that's fruit. That's fruit. It's produced in the man who
truly believes. It's produced. He'll love, he'll
be merciful, he'll be kind, and that's what Paul struggled with.
That was his conflict. Oh, he wanted to see that so
bad. Nothing can bring comfort to
a troubled soul like knowing that we're complete in Him. If
you want to talk about sins, what about our sins? That's a
trouble to us, isn't it? Our sins. He bore our sins in
His own body on the tree. The curse of the law. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us, for it's written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. Righteousness. He's the end of
the law for righteousness. Justification. Being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
Promises. All the promises of God in Him
are yea and amen. To Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He said, Not to seeds as of many,
but as of one unto thy seed, which is Christ. And what about
the believer's walk? As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in Him. Rooted and build
up in Him. And hope Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Why bring a message like this? Of everything there is in here
to say, why bring a message like this? Because this is the kind
of message that opens that door, opens that window, allows you
to see. allows you to know, shows you
how these things are done. May the Lord himself guide each
of us this morning to find this blessed assurance in the conflict
that comes through no reason. I have no conflict. We pray for
one another, don't we? What are we praying for? We want
to see that We want to see that knowledge. We want to see that
assurance. We want to see that joy. That joy that comes from
hearing the gospel.