The Father, and the Son, and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made of
love, mature, and fast, God, my Father, chose His own. in the person of His Son, and
ordain that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. ? The spirit heavenly dove ? ?
Promised to come down in love ? ? Bringing life and peace and
grace ? ? To the chosen church's grace ? ? He seeks the lost,
heals the lame ? ? Then he brings us to life ? This poor sinner is secure for
God's love. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed, holy, covenant God,
I am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be back in the
book of Colossians this morning. If you would like to open your
Bibles to Colossians chapter four, Colossians chapter four. I sure do like that hymn that
we just sang. Ties of grace, ties of love hold
me to my God above. No stronger tie, no stronger
tie that can give hope to the believer's heart than the ties
of grace and the ties of love. Those things cannot change. The
Lord said he's loved us with a everlasting love. here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. What great hope we have. That covenant promise is just
as sure as God's faithfulness is. Let's pray together, ask the
Lord's blessings. Our Heavenly Father, We thank
you for that covenant of grace and love established
in eternity past between the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. What great hope and what great
comfort we have in knowing that that covenant is sure and steadfast. that nothing we do can change
it, nothing we fail to do can put it away. That the fulfillment
of that covenant in the accomplished work of thy dear son, paying
the full penalty for our sin and putting them away once and
for all by the sacrifice of himself. Lord, this is our This is our
boldness in the day of judgment that as he is, so are we in this
world justified. Lord, show us again this morning
the glorious person and the finished work of our Savior. And cause us, Lord, to find our
hope and our comfort our rest and all our salvation in him. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Colossians chapter four and we'll
read from verse three down to verse six. With all praying also
for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak
the mystery of Christ. Now that's the title of this
message, Speaking the Mystery of Christ. Speaking the mystery
of Christ is not the most important thing that we have to do. Speaking,
hearing the mystery of Christ is not the most important thing
that we need to hear. It's the only thing. It's the only thing. When all
is said and done, everything else will be vanity. Vanity,
vanity, all is vanity. The mystery of Christ, the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace and the accomplished work of
his dear son, the hope of salvation that we have in the sacrifice
that he made and satisfying God's justice. establishing righteousness
and putting away our sin. It's the only thing that really
matters. This speaking the mystery of
Christ is essential. It is essential. Faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. And how faltering
our faith is, even even saving faith, how quickly we can lose
sight of Christ, how easy we can be distracted by our flesh
and by the things of this world, and how necessary it is that
we hear of the mystery of Christ. It's the world's only hope. Those
outside of Christ, the only hope they have is that they would
hear the mystery of Christ and the God who gives the hearing
ear would enable them to hear and to believe. It's the only
thing that matters. And so Paul's saying, pray, oh
pray. This is all dependent upon the
Lord to give us hearing ears, to do for us what he did for
Lydia when he opened up her heart, to enable us to speak faithfully
and truthfully from God's Word as to what this mystery really
is. And it's the only hope that a sinner has. The word mystery, as you know,
means Hidden. Hidden. The book of Revelation
begins with these words, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And that word revelation is the
word apocalypse. And the religious world has interpreted
the word apocalypse as the fire and troubles that are going to
come on this world in the end days. But the word apocalypse
means uncovering. That's what it means. It means
to reveal. So the revelation of Jesus Christ is the title
of all of God's word and every passage we go to. We're looking
for the unveiling for the revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. For
without him, we have no life. For without him, we have no hope.
And so if the Lord doesn't reveal him, we know that this revelation
comes only from God. And if that's true then prayer
is essential. I mentioned last Sunday and it's
been made more clear to me more recently and having some very
sobering, rejoicing conversations with dying believers. And to
them, the only thing that's important is prayer and preaching. And how much more precious that
becomes, our dependence upon the Lord and our need to hear
the mystery of Christ. Praying also for us that God
would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery
of Christ for which I am in bonds. Paul wrote the book of Colossians,
you remember, from a Roman prison. So he's held by chains in Rome. And he was arrested because of
preaching the mysteries of Christ, which men by nature hate. And
he said, this is the whole reason for my arrest. Verse four, that I may make it
manifest as I ought to speak, as I ought to speak, that I might
make it known as it ought to be known. Walk in wisdom towards them that
are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with
grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to
answer every man. So I have three questions to answer in this passage. What ought we to speak? To whom ought we to speak? And how ought we to speak? What, to whom, and how? This matter of speaking, preaching, Making manifest the mystery of
Christ is something that ought to be done. And there are certain
ways it ought to be done and to certain individuals that it
ought to be done. So my first question is, what
ought we to speak? And the answer is very simple.
It's very clear in our text, isn't it? The mystery of Christ.
Turn with me back just a few pages to the book of Ephesians
chapter six. Ephesians chapter six. And we'll begin reading in verse
18. And here again, praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints, and for me, that utterance may be given unto me,
that I may open my mouth boldly. Now that word boldly means without
apology, without compromise, clearly. We're not, it doesn't
mean to be brash. It doesn't mean to be harsh.
It just means to be clear and that I may speak boldly as I
ought to speak. So, I'm sorry, I missed the rest
of verse 19. To make known the mystery of
the gospel. So here Paul refers to the mystery
of Christ as the mystery of the gospel. They are one and the
same. We call the mystery of Christ,
the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of gospel, the mystery
of Christ. It's the same thing. In another place, the disciples
asked the Lord, Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? And the Lord said, because it
is for you to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto
them that are without, it's not for them to know. So here he
calls it the mystery of the kingdom of God. So it's the mystery of
the gospel, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the kingdom of
God. Verse 20, for which I am an ambassador
in bonds and therein that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
So there are certain things that ought to be spoken. You're there
in the book of Ephesians. Turn back to Ephesians chapter
3, verse 3. And the Lord tells us here that
this mystery can only come by divine revelation. And child of God, you know that,
don't you? How Oftentimes you feel like you know the mystery
of Christ only by the skin of your teeth. How many times you
feel like as soon as you get a hold of it, it begins to slip
away. And the Lord shows you your need to have him make it
fresh and reveal it again and again and again. And so Certainly that's true of the
unbeliever. The unbeliever can have no understanding
of the mystery of the gospel. The natural man cannot receive
the things of God. They are spiritually discerned,
except the Spirit of God gives life to the speaking of the mystery
of Christ, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of the kingdom
of God. No one will hear. Verse three in Ephesians chapter
three, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery.
For as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you read, you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. So words are
given to reveal the mystery of Christ, to make manifest the
mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made
known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy
apostles and prophets by the Spirit." So this mystery is revealed
to the penman of scripture and they exist no longer. We have
all that we need by revelation in God's Word. These words did not come by private
interpretation. The holy men of God wrote as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit and all scripture is given by
inspiration of God and all scripture is profitable to reveal the mystery
of Christ. So we continue to look to the revelation
that God gave to the apostles and to the prophets for this
manifestation of the mystery. That the Gentiles should be fellow
heirs and of the same body and partakers of this promise in
Christ by the gospel wherein I was made a minister according
to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of his power. So Paul's saying it was the power
of God that gave me this revelation, I did not bring to you cunningly
devised fables, Peter says. Paul in another place says, I
did not come to you with something that came from man. This came
directly from God. Child of God, is there anything
in your life that you need more than to hear? the mystery of
the gospel. And to hear it in such a way
as to be able to speak it, not that you would stand and preach
or even be, well, we'll get to that when
we get to the part about how we should speak and to whom we
should speak. But what a joy it is for the believer to be
able to speak with other believers boldly the mystery of Christ,
what you've heard, what the Lord's taught you, what a blessing it's
been to you, what hope you have in Christ. So for the believer,
there's nothing else that really matters. when it's all said and
done. It doesn't matter how clear we
make the mystery of the gospel by words, if the Lord doesn't
bless it, it will have no effect. The Lord told Nicodemus, except
you be born again, born of the spirit. You cannot see the kingdom
of God. Oh, this is the truth that causes the believer to say,
oh Lord, give me your spirit. Give me your spirit. That's why
the Lord said, if you be an evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children. How much more does your heavenly father give
the spirit to them who ask him? Lord, I need your spirit. If
I'm to hear, if I'm to know, if I'm to have this mystery revealed
to me, it's gonna have to be by revelation. The Lord said in John chapter
eight, when speaking to those Pharisees that objected to the
gospel, He said, why do you not understand my speech? Why do
you not understand my speech? And then he answered that question.
He said, because you cannot hear my word. You don't hear what
I'm saying. And here's the good, here's the
other side to that. He that is of God, heareth my
words. That's what the Lord said to
Pilate, isn't he? When he said, for this cause came I into the
world to bear witness unto the truth and they that are of the
truth hear my voice and they follow me. So, Lord cause us
to be of the truth. Give us ears to hear this mystery. Why is it called a mystery? Because
it's contrary to everything that natural man thinks. A natural man cannot comprehend
the gospel because it is contradictory to what he has already settled
in his darkened mind to believe to be true. As it relates to
who God is, as it relates to who man is, and as it relates
to how it is that God is pleased to save sinners. Man has already
settled in his mind some premises concerning those three glorious
truths that causes him to be like the Pharisees, not able
to hear God's Word. Something as simple as the sovereignty
of God is contrary to the natural man. He can't believe that God
is the first cause of all things. He will attribute the cause of
things to himself or to other things, but to believe that there
is a sovereign God who controls everything is contrary. The Lord said, you thought that
I was altogether such a one as thyself. You know, we come into
this world fashioning in our darkened imagination a God that
looks like us. And so the revelation, the manifestation
of the mystery of Christ being sovereign is contrary to what
man believes and apart from the grace of God he won't bow, he
won't submit to a sovereign God. He doesn't believe that everything
that happens in time has been purposed by a sovereign God in
eternity and that God is over the armies of heaven and all
the inhabitants of the earth, and he hath done whatsoever he
wills, and no man can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? Man by nature believes that he
can control God. He has set himself up on the
throne of God. The holiness of God is contrary
to what the natural man believes, that God is not just without
sin, but that God is other than we
are in every way. Man brings God down off his lofty
throne. And the scripture says in 2 Thessalonians
2 that he sets himself up on the throne of God and he makes
God dependent upon him. So the mystery of the gospel
is contrary to what men believe about the nature of God. It's contrary to what they believe
about God being immutable. I am the Lord and I change not
and therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The Lord said
I am the same yesterday, today and forever. He's never changed. He's never learned anything.
He's never asked a question. He's never been instructed. He's
never changed his mind. He has never changed. He is immutable, and that is
contrary to the thinking of the natural man. He thinks that he
can get God to change. That's why men talk about God
having a plan. Well, if plan A doesn't work,
he'll go to plan B, or he'll go to plan C, and he'll adjust
his plans based on what I decide to do. You see? It's a mystery
to the natural man. To believe that God is sovereign,
to believe that he's holy, to believe that he's immutable,
to believe that he's omnipotent, all-powerful? This is contrary. You see, a man cannot see God
because he's already assumed that God has given man a free
will to control God. He doesn't believe that God is
able to make a man willing in the day of his power. You see? So these things are
a mystery. So how is this mystery revealed? Well, we declare. How ought we to speak? We ought
to speak from God's word. We ought to just say what God
says. That's how we ought to speak.
And those that are of the Lord will believe what God has said. They will bow to that. They will
rejoice in it. Paul said, pray that I might
speak as I ought to speak this mystery. The natural man cannot
believe that he's a sinner. He cannot. is contrary to everything
he thinks about himself. He thinks that there are some
things in his life that are worthy of reward and worthy of
praise and worthy of goodness in the sight of God. He doesn't
know that sin is what he is. If his conscience ever convicts
him of sin, It's only because he's violated his conscience. It's based on the things that
he does. Well, I have a sin here and a
sin there and a sin over here. He doesn't know that everything
about him is sinful. He can't know that. It's a mystery. It's hidden. It must be revealed. And the only way it's gonna be
revealed is if the Lord is pleased to reveal himself as holy. When Isaiah saw the Lord high
and lifted up, the first thing out of his mouth is, woe is me,
I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. When Job saw the Lord,
he came to this conclusion. Behold, I am vile. Everything about me is sinful.
The natural man can't see that. He can't understand that that
we have two natures. He doesn't comprehend what we're
talking about when we speak of our old man and our new man and
the old man being nothing but sin and the new man being perfectly
righteous in the sight of God. And that our boldness in the
day of judgment that is, as he is, so are we in this world. That God has put away our sin
And that we stand sinless before God. And we consider ourselves to
be vile at the same time. That's a contradiction, isn't
it? To the natural man, this is the mystery of the gospel.
And Paul said, pray that I would speak the mystery of Christ,
the mystery of the kingdom of God, as I ought. Because this is the only way.
that men are gonna hear it. Man cannot comprehend a finished
salvation. The natural man does not believe
that when the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross, And he said, it is finished, that everyone that he came to
redeem was redeemed before God. The natural man, that's a mystery
to him. He thinks that God is offering
him salvation, but that he has to do something in order to make
what Jesus did on Calvary's cross work for him. Again, set himself
up on the throne of God. You see, this is a mystery. to
the child of God who has the Spirit of God and believes the
Word of God. This is our experience and this
is what we have to be reminded of often because we find ourselves
losing sight of this glorious hope. Natural man cannot believe that
he's spiritually dead. Dead. He doesn't believe that. He believes he's got a spark
of life in him that he could just make a decision when he's
ready to. He doesn't know that his throat
is an open sepulcher. He doesn't know that from the
top of his head to the bottom of his feet, he's nothing but
putrefying sores. He doesn't know and doesn't believe
and can't see that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
are only evil and that continually. He can't see that. He doesn't
believe that. It's a mystery to him. But child
of God, here's what God has said. And it's a mystery to us as well,
apart from believing God's word. We know it's true because God
said so. We don't always know it's true
by experience. We don't feel, we don't feel
the sinfulness of our hearts as we ought, but we believe it. The light
of the gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ has shined
in our hearts and revealed this mystery so that we're able to
say, according to God's word, though I don't feel as sinful
as I ought, I believe I am because God said so. God said so. That's all we need. To the natural man everything
is done by free will. You know there's no such thing
as free will with men or with God. God doesn't have free will. Not if by free we mean that one
can act contrary to his nature. The will
of God is bound to our nature. The will is just our nature animated. And so it is with God. God's
will is not, God cannot sin. God cannot lie. His will is bound
to his nature. God cannot change his mind. God's limited by his nature. He cannot act contrary to his
nature. And so in that sense, his will
is not free. And neither is our will, neither
is the man's will. It's not free. It's bound to
his nature. And men take pride. You know, if making a decision had anything
at all to do with our salvation, then we've got something to be
proud of. But if our salvation is all of God, From election
to glorification, it's all of God. Then he gets all the glory,
doesn't he? We have nothing in and of
ourselves to comprehend the success, the accomplished work
that the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. God has to
reveal that. has to come by revelation. And
even as a believer, how often we are prone to think, well,
you know, if I did this or if I didn't do that, things would
be, you know, I could somehow manipulate God. No. No. We know that this mystery and this
work of salvation is all of God. Quickly, go back with me to our
text in Colossians chapter 4. To whom ought we to speak? And the Lord answers that question
in verse 3, with all praying also for us that God would open
to us a door of utterance. I've seen preachers standing
on the street corner, a man that said he believed the gospel. He sent me a video of himself,
some downtown city, you know, people going this way and that
way and he's standing on a soapbox preaching. Well, that's not,
you know, that's pray that the Lord would be ready always to
give an answer to them that ask you for the hope that's within
you. We ask the Lord to open a door
and And most of my experiences in speaking to people about the
gospel have been more for my benefit than for theirs. It seemed like the Lord just
confirms the gospel more surely to my heart. When someone asks
me a question, I get a chance to engage in conversation with
them about the mystery of Christ. The majority of time is they
don't believe it. That's why preaching is so important.
You know that God uses the foolishness of preaching. And I assume, I'm
making an assumption that you're here today because you have a
desire to hear what God has to say about the mystery of Christ.
And so the Lord has opened a door of utterance for us here today.
And we always hope and pray that he will Does that mean that we
don't try to engage someone in conversation about the gospel
as we have opportunity to? Yes, but unless they show an
interest and unless they continue to want to dialogue with us,
there's not a door of utterance open. He said, we're not, we
don't debate the gospel. We don't argue with men over
the gospel. So unless someone has genuine questions and sincere
interest, we don't try to, we don't try to browbeat them with
the gospel. That's why, that's why the Lord
said, pray that a door of utterance will be opened that we may speak
as we ought. I love the way our Lord spoke
with that woman at the well in John chapter 4 when he began
the conversation by asking her for a drink. And she continued
the conversation, what are you, a Jew, having to do with me,
a Gentile, a Samaritan? And the Lord said, oh, if you
knew who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, you would
ask of him and he would give you living water. and you would
never thirst again. And she was interested in that. Lord, give me this living water
that I come not back here to this well. And the conversation
continued. The Lord engaged her and she
responded and he continued. And you see that contrary to
the way the Lord dealt with the Pharisees when they would want
to argue the gospel. And the disciples came to our
Lord and said, Lord, what you said offended the Pharisees.
And what did the Lord say? Leave them alone. Just leave
them alone. They're blind men leading the
blind. They're all going to fall into
the ditch. Don't engage in conversation with somebody who just wants
to argue with you or doesn't believe. But if they are interested,
pray that the Lord would open a door of utterance, that we
might speak as we ought. And pray that the Lord would
open your heart and my heart to hear as we ought. Thirdly, third question, how
ought we to speak? How ought we to speak? And the
Lord answers that. that I might make, verse four,
that I may make manifest as I ought to speak, walk in wisdom towards
them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be
always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you
ought to speak to every man, how you ought to answer every
man. We might speak with grace. The
Lord said, Galatians chapter six, if a brother be overtaken
in a fault, You that are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit
of grace, in a spirit of grace. Considering thyself, lest you
also be tempted. And when we speak to those that
are without, be ready always to give an answer to them that
ask you for the hope that's within you, but do it with meekness
and with fear. This matter of meekness is so
necessary in terms of how we ought to speak, considering ourselves,
knowing that we're not speaking down to anyone. We're needing
grace more than anyone and so we speak from grace. Look at
Colossians chapter 3 verse 12. My Bible is the same
page, Colossians 3 verse 12. Put on therefore as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness
of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye them. And above
all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And
let the peace of God rule in your heart, to which also you
are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing
one another. in Psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. Grace
in your heart. Oh, we speak. We're not speaking
as a know-it-all. We're not speaking as a judge. We're speaking as one who needs
grace themselves. Even when the apostle Paul, in
the authority of an apostle, was rebuking the church at Corinth,
he said, I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I beseech you by the meekness
and gentleness of Christ. That's how we ought to speak.
Speak as we ought. Seasoned with salt. I wanna bring
a message on this subject of salt. But just to touch on it
quickly in closing, when the Lord gave the Levitical law for
the burnt offering, he said, don't ever bring a meat sacrifice
without salt. Put salt on it. And when Elisha
was with the disciples of Elijah, In Jericho, the disciples of
Elijah came to him and said, this city is pleasant, but the
water's not. The water's foul, we can't drink
it. And the Lord told Elisha, take
a new cruise of salt and pour it in the well. And he did. And
the water was made clean, the water was good. What is this
seasoned your sacrifice with salt? and the salt being put
into the water. That salt is Christ. That's who it is. You remember when the Lord said,
you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its
saltiness, of what value is it? It's to be cast out into the
roadway and trampled under the feet of men. I had an experience. We have a, we have a, a water
softener at our house that we have to use salt in. You know how that works. And
our brine tank had been used for years, I mean 20 years. I
hadn't cleaned it out. 20 years. And it had a crystallized
cake of salt on the bottom of that brine tank that had collected
over 20 years. And so I took it out and broke
it up and I thought, I've got a couple things around my yard
I need to kill. Some little trees coming up and
different stuff. I'll just put that salt on those
things. It had absolutely no effect on
them whatsoever. There was no salt left in that
crystallized material that was in the bottom of my brine tank.
It was all gone. The salt was gone. It was just
a rock. It was good for nothing but to
throw out into the street to be trampled under the foot of
men. So when the Lord said, you are the salt of the earth, but
if the salt has lost its saltiness, in other words, if you don't
have Christ, if you don't have Christ, Christ is the one who
makes the offering savory. Salt is the one that retards
corruption. Salt is the Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who anoints his word and makes it living and effectual
to our hearts, the water of the word. And if we're without Christ,
we're just a rock to be thrown out into the street, trampled
underfoot. So when the Lord says, when you
speak, speak with grace, seasoned with salt. When we speak the mystery of
the gospel, let us be mindful, let us have an eye toward, let
us have hope in and dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we're just speaking
in the power of our own flesh and it'll be of non effect. What ought we to speak? The mystery
of the gospel. To whom ought we to speak? Those
to whom the Lord opens the door of utterance. And how ought we
to speak? Meekness, grace, always seasoned
with salt. All right, let's take a break.