Bethlehem, Calvary All of it
tells O heart of Savior is mine Mountains and plains with his
praises shall swell. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Unto the outermost, wonderful,
glorious, O water Savior is mine. Dying for only His elect, ? Offered up as the lamb slain
before time ? ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? Oh, what a Savior ? Oh, what
a Savior Unto the uttermost, wonderful,
glorious, O what a Savior is mine! There on the cross where He stood
in my stead, Securing salvation when he rose
from the dead. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Unto the uttermost Wonderful,
glorious Oh, what a Savior is mine It is finished The battle
is over It is finished It's finished, the end of the
conflict. It's finished, and Jesus is Lord. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior is my unto the uttermost wonderful
glory of I'm thankful for our Savior this
morning. And as Greg preached the charge,
as he said, I told him he should have went second, not first,
because I had to get right up after him afterwards. And as
I was studying, I knew that would be the case anyways. And so I
began to study accordingly, thinking of what would be necessary, what
would be right to speak on. And so my intention this morning
is to not be emotional with you or tell you anything that would
be theatrical or try to stir emotion in any certain way, because
that's not the gospel, is it? I have one job and one opportunity
this morning to declare the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to you.
The Lord did give me a title for a message found in Colossians
chapter two, if you want to be turning there. Colossians chapter
two, verse one. And I titled the message Hearts
Comforted Being Knit Together in Love. Hearts Comforted Being
Knit Together in Love. Our hearts are only comforted
one way, and that is by the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are truly honored and thankful that the Lord hath
knit our heart together with so many of you, our brethren
here in Apopka and so many Kind things have been spoken to us.
Many gifts have been given and many prayers have been prayed
for us already. And we continually ask that you would continue that
for us. But our hearts are truly knit for only one reason. It
is because of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. No other reason.
The preacher has one job to do, and that is to proclaim this
gospel, his glorious gospel, and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The entire counsel of the mystery of God,
as we heard earlier already, If I fail to do that, then I
am nothing but a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. We must
preach Christ and the great salvation that he hath wrought for his
people. We must preach Christ alone. Now in this chapter of
Colossians, you'll see that Paul, he has a great conflict for the
church in Colossae and in Laodicea where he wants to go and be with
them. But we find that he's desiring that their hearts would be comforted. And we know that he's not saying
that if I was present with you, that your heart should be comforted.
That's the reason they would be comforted because he would
be bringing the gospel to them. No man can bring comfort to you
by being in your presence. It is the gospel that comforts
the hearts of the believer to drink of the fountain of living
water, to taste and see that the Lord is good. This is the
comfort, the only comfort that Christ is all. So let's read
in verse one of Colossians two, he says, for I would. that ye
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 to
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. As Greg has already mentioned
this morning, We preach mysterious things, things that are hidden,
things that must be revealed. And the Lord is the one that
reveals that by the preaching of his gospel. All we declare
is what we have been made to believe. We have the riches of
the fullness. We have the riches of the full
assurance of understanding, he says here. That's what we declare.
Well, what is that? Well, the riches is Christ. The
riches of the Father is Christ. The hidden treasures of wisdom
and knowledge that He's talking about, that's Christ also. This is what we declare. 1 Corinthians
1.30 says, But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This is what we declare. In Proverbs
9.10 it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the holy
is understanding. He reveals, the Father reveals
that he is God. Man wants to think that they're
God, but they are not God. They want to think they're in
control, but they are not. God reveals his wisdom, which
is Christ, and gives us knowledge of him. To the full assurance
of understanding that Christ is all. These are the things
that must need to be revealed. These are the things that are
hidden to man. These can only be seen through the eyes of faith.
And Christ tells us, as he's speaking to his followers in
Matthew chapter 11, he's explaining the same thing to them. And he
says in verse 25, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank
thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them
unto babes. Men, I've heard in religion often
say, they use the verse that said, you'd be in babes desire,
the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And
recently I was confronted by someone that told me, well, you're
preaching the meat and we preach the milk. Brethren, the gospel
is the milk. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the milk and the meat. It's the fullness, the fullness
of the power of the Lord unto salvation for his people. Christ
continues speaking in that chapter and says, even so father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight, all things are delivered unto
me of my father. And no man knoweth the son, but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father, save the son.
And he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. The gospel is
God's gospel. and He reveals it to whomsoever
He will. We just declare it. We just declare
the fullness of it. These things are hidden. They're
past finding out. Men are ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. But the good news
is the Lord reveals His Son to His people. He delights in showing
mercy. When Moses said, Lord, show me
your glory. The Lord said, no man have seen my face and live,
but There is a place nigh unto me. There is a place nigh unto
me, the cleft of the rock that he put Moses in. And he said,
when I pass by, you'll see my hinder parts. Well, what's the
hinder parts? Well, David put it like this. Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. It's what the Lord has
already done. It's what the Lord is doing in
the hearts and lives of his people. And it's what he is going to
do in the salvation of his people. The Lord delights in revealing
his son to his elect. This morning, if you are searching
for an answer for something, the answer is very simple. Christ
is all. He is all in salvation. Christ
is all in this life and in the life to come. In 2 Timothy 1.9,
he says, who hath saved us and called us with the holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ before time, before
the world began. but is now manifest by the appearing
of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Faith is not to understand the
mystery. Faith believes God. The things
that are revealed, the Lord brings life and immortality through
the light of the gospel. He reveals this through the preaching
of the gospel. We understand some things as
believers. Paul said that they might have
the fullness of the assurance to understanding. We understand
some things, that he is absolute. And that is our confession. We
have knowledge that he is absolute in salvation by what he hath
revealed. We have knowledge that he is
sovereign by what he hath revealed. We acknowledge that He is the
successful Savior of His people and we are nothing but sin. We
understand that we had nothing to do with this great salvation,
that the Lord did it all and He gets all the glory for it.
We have understanding that God saved us and then He called us. And these are the things Paul
would be declaring unto them that would comfort their hearts.
He's done all and He is all. He saved us and then called us.
When did He do this? before the foundation of the
world, before time. Now, we don't understand all
of this and it is a mystery, but we declare it and we acknowledge
and believe that Christ is all because he hath revealed himself
to his people. In John chapter eight, the blind
man didn't understand everything that had happened to him, did
he? And the Pharisees were angry because the Lord Jesus Christ
had healed him on the Sabbath day. And they said, we know that
this man's a sinner. So they didn't want him to, they wanted
him to say what they wanted to hear. And that's all religion
everywhere, truly. But they said, give God the glory,
not this man, Jesus. Well, Jesus Christ is God, and
they couldn't see that. And that's evident that he must
be revealed. They said, give God the glory. Give God the glory. Who hath done this? Is he a sinner? We know he's a sinner because
he healed you on the Sabbath. And what did our brother say?
He said, whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. One thing
I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. We have been made
to see that we are the benefactors of God's love and mercy and grace,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but because
he hath bestowed it upon us. We have peace with God. Because
of Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. Because
of the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. A believer doesn't understand
this in order to believe it. We are made to believe it. And
then we have full understanding. We have full assurance of understanding
Christ is all. That's all we understand. We
understand God is God and that Christ is all. I can't tell you
how I became a believer or how the Lord caused me to see, but
this one thing I know I was blind, but now I see. We confess the
same as our brother did there. This is why Christ said, come
unto me, not come to an understanding. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If
men are laboring, then they are attempting to have a righteousness
of their own before God. That's what men labor to do.
Something that God's people have been made to know is they have
no righteousness outside of Christ. In Philippians 3, 9, it says,
and be found in him. That's our hope right there,
that we would be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we know
that God is sovereign and just, our only hope is to have a surety. Our only hope is to have a hiding
place that Moses had, a place, a cleft of the rock, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and be found in him, not having our own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness that which is of God by faith. This is the only way that we
can come to God. The only way without having our
own righteousness, we must come naked, bringing nothing. God's
people have been made to understand this. You remember the account
of the woman at the well? The very end of that, it says
she left her water pot behind and then went into the city and
said, come see a man that showed me all things that I ever did.
Is this not the Christ? She was mixed up in many different
things and thought that her righteousness was enough to please God. And
as soon as the Lord told her, whenever he said, go call your
husband, she said, well, I have none. I have none. He said, well, you
speak truly. You've had five and the one you have is not your
own. And she said, sir, I believe you're a prophet. As soon as
she knew that she threw her religious ace card right down in front
of him and said, well, we worship in this mountain, but you say,
Jerusalem's where we ought to worship. Now we know that the
Samaritans were half breed Jews and they, they worshiped in Mount
Gerizim, which in Deuteronomy chapter 11 is the mountain that
God told Moses and the Israelites to bless. So they believe that
they were worshiping God in his mountain, but they were worshiping
him in the form of a dog and a cat and the sun, the moon and
the donkey, five different ways. They were worshiping God and
they called him Jehovah. That's what they called him. As soon
as the Lord revealed unto her that he was Christ, she said,
well, we know when Messiah comes, he'll he'll tell us all things.
He said, I am. That's what he told her. He that
speaketh to you and standing in front of you right now, that's
he is. I am. As soon as she heard that, God
saved her right there. And she left her water pot. What
was that? That was her righteousness. That
was her confession before God up until that point. That was
everything that you can encase about it being what she was offering
up. She left all of that behind and said, come see a man that
showed me all things I ever did. Is this not Christ? That's how
we come to Christ. We leave our water pots behind.
You remember blind Bartimaeus. I'm sure whenever the Lord called
into him, it says he dropped his robe. He left his robe to
come turn with me to that passage, if you will, in Mark chapter
10. He came to the Lord naked. This is the only way that the
Lord receives sinners. The good news is if you have
if you see yourself as naked, needing a savior. It's because
he has made you thus. Lord came to save sinners, not
the righteous, he came to call sinners to repentance. That's
the good news of the gospel is he makes you a sinner and he
gives you the savior. In Mark chapter 10, verse 46,
and he says, and they came to Jericho and as he went out of
Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus sat by the highway side begging.
And when they heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry
out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me.
Bartimaeus understood his only hope was that God would have
mercy upon him. That's what the Lord does for
his people. He makes them realize that that is our only hope, is
that God would have mercy upon us. And verse 48 says, and many
charged him that he should hold his peace, but he cried more
a great deal. Thou son of David have mercy
on me. Now look at verse 49. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. Here is what we hope for, brethren,
that the Lord would stand still and call us unto us, that he
would fetch us. The wretched, stinky, dirty,
filthy, blind Bartimaeus had been sitting by the wayside begging.
There's no doubt that he reeked in and of himself. His clothes
were not washed. They were rags. They were filthy
rags, had to be. But our hope is that he would see us in the
same way that he saw Bartimaeus and have mercy upon us. Our hope
is that he would strip us of all of our righteousness. He
would cause us to call upon Christ right now, have mercy upon me.
He would bring us to him. The verse goes on and says, and
they call the blind man. saying unto him, be of good comfort,
rise, he calleth thee. Brethren, this is the same comfort,
the exact same comfort that Apostle Paul was talking about in our
text in Colossians chapter two. This is the assurance of understanding,
the full assurance of understanding Paul was referring to. He is
God and we are the sinner. This blind man did not offer
himself in any way, shape or form unto God. He wasn't trying
to take the first step. In religion, I heard men say
many times, if you take the first step, God will take the rest.
That's not true. God has to do it all, and it
is finished. There's the good news of the
gospel. He didn't say, I'm going to try. If you'll do your part,
I'll do my part. He knew one thing. Christ was
passing by, and he could not get to him on his own. He had
one need for Christ to heal him. Bartimaeus could not come to
Christ because he was blind. Do we understand that most of
the time when Jesus was walking around, he was enthroned by people. If Bartimaeus was trying to get
to the Lord, he would have not made it. He would have been caught
up in some other way or stumbled or cast down or pushed to the
side. They told him to be quiet as it was already. Here we are,
brethren, dead and trespasses and in sin, filthy. And Christ
is passing by right now. Many things prevented us just
as it prevented him. The law prevented us from getting
to God. Our sins separated us from the Lord. But the good news
of the gospel is Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, kept the law
perfectly. He kept the law perfectly for
his elect people. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. God plunged the sword of justice
into his son, redeeming all those for whom he lived and died. redeeming
all of those for whose sin he was bearing. As we begin to cry
out for mercy, the law no longer cries out justice. It cries out
satisfied by his sacrifice. Paul explains it like this in
Romans chapter eight. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. When is now? See, that's my hope. Now is right now. And now is
right now. And now is right now again. And
it's always going to be there is now. Therefore, no condemnation. Now, when Paul says who walked
not after the flesh. and after the spirit, walking
not after the flesh is not the condition whereby men come to
God and be saved. It is the evidence. He didn't
say, if you walk not by flesh, you'll be saved. He said, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. This is a cause
and effect men have backwards. And so many, all the religions
have it backwards. Truly, if you do this, God will
do this. No, the reason you walk not after the flesh is because
there's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Romans
chapter 10 and verse 9 says that if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart, God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Men will take
that and say, okay, all I have to do is confess the Lord Jesus. You can't confess the Lord Jesus
unless the Lord Jesus hath been revealed to you and you will
confess him if he's been revealed to you. Men take the things of
the Lord and they turn them around backwards and put the responsibility
on man. The gospel does the opposite.
It put the responsibility on Christ and he successfully saved
his people from their sin. Walking after the flesh, brethren,
is attempting to come to God by our own works. It's attempting
to offer our own righteousness up before God, trying to keep
the law, just as Cain did, bringing the works of our hands to the
Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, rather than clinging to him.
Only Christ pleased God. Only Christ pleases God. His
sacrifice, not mine. His faith. We don't even have
faith. It's his faith that he bestows. His prayer, Christ is
all in salvation. Now, walking after the Spirit
is doing just that, looking unto Christ in all for salvation,
confessing that whatever he says is true and whatever he does
is right and good, that it is Christ's faith that hath been
bestowed upon us, not something that we generate or something
that we merit or something that we cause to happen. If Christ's
faith has been bestowed upon us, it cannot fail. That's why
we cannot walk according to the spirit. I'm sorry, the flesh.
We must walk according to the spirit because he's given us
the faith of Christ. If he loses one sheep, then he
is a failure, but he will not lose one sheep. He cannot deny
himself, the scripture says. He cannot deny himself and he
saved his people from their sin. Paul continues in Romans chapter
eight and says, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For
what the law could not do in that it was weak to the flesh,
God sending forth his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. This is our hope, brethren. This
is past tense. It's fulfilled. It's already
been fulfilled. Right now, there's no condemnation.
This is what knits our heart together. This is what knits
our hearts together. The preaching of the gospel.
It's not that my family is super lovable and you guys fell in
love with us because we're nice and friendly and we've done things
for each other. No, it's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the grace of God that's
been bestowed upon us. It's the love of God. that constrains
us and draws us unto him. And this love, we can't help
but love the brethren because he first loved us. We recognize
the same love in one another that he has given unto us by
his son, his love. He gets all the glory and salvation
and all the glory in all of our relationships. If it's left up
to us, I would have ruined every relationship I have with every
one of you. But he has kept me from that. He has kept me from
making a fool of myself all the time. I'm certain I've done it
several times. but he has caused us to have love one for another
because of his gospel. The reason where hearts are knit
together is because we have the same confession about who Christ
Jesus is, that he is all. We have the fullness of the understanding
that God is God and we are not. This is our assurance that Christ
redeemed, that he didn't try. And once God reveals these hidden
things, by faith, we acknowledge the mystery of God and of the
Father and of Christ, that these things are too wonderful for
me. I can't attain to it. They're too high. I don't understand
it, but I believe it. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, and without
controversy. It's not a controversial topic.
Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. You
can't explain how God was manifest in the flesh. We just believe
it, don't we? Because God said it. He was justified in the spirit,
seen of angels, preached on into the Gentiles, believed on in
the world, and received up to glory. That's our hope. We don't
understand all of that, but we believe it. This is the full
assurance of understanding and acknowledging of the mystery
at the same time. When he died, his elect died in him. When he
was resurrected, we were resurrected in him. When he was received
up into glory and sat down, all his elect were seated in him. And they are seated right now
in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. This is our one hope. We are
in him, and that's why our hearts are knit together. Our brother
Bartimaeus, he only had this one hope as well, didn't he?
The same hope that Christ would have mercy. And notice in verse
47, you still have your Bibles open there. First, it says, he
cried out. And as they hushed him, as they
begin to tell him to be quiet, he cried out the more a great
deal. He says, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me.
He had the full assurance of understanding that Christ is
the only one that could save him. We have the same assurance,
don't we? If God's gonna save us, he's
gonna have to do it all. And he did it all. He did it
all. We cry out the same thing as Bartimaeus, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy upon me. They kept telling him to hush
and be quiet. He said, you don't understand.
I have to have Christ. And that is our confession. We
have to come in here. We have to, just as our sister,
the Samaritan said, come see a man told me all things I ever
did. And just like Bartimaeus have
mercy upon me. We do the same thing by coming here each and
every service that the doors are open. That is our desire
that the Lord would pass by and have mercy upon us. If he doesn't
save me, I'm lost forever. If the Lord ever makes you a
sinner, you will flee to Christ in this regard. Forsaking all
others, counting all things as done that you may win Christ. That's what Paul said, I've counted
all things done that I may win Christ. and be found in him. You know, there's three reasons
that men will not come to Christ. There may be many more than three,
but there's three primary reasons. Their righteousness, number one,
their relationships, number two, and physical things, number three.
Now, their righteousness is them with their power. They have their
own power in salvation. It's their righteousness. They
will not renounce their own power just like Cain wouldn't. That's
one reason men will not come to God. The other one is the
relationships. They're afraid of losing family
members. They're afraid of losing friends
or losing their position with whoever it may be. When my family
moved down here, we forsook many different things, but the relationships
that I've had in my family, my own parents, we forsook a lot
of that because of the gospel. We don't have fellowship in the
things of God because there is no fellowship outside the gospel.
It's not possible for me to fellowship with someone that doesn't believe
the gospel. There is no common ground, brethren.
I don't speak that pridefully or arrogantly. I speak that truthfully. Christ is all. And if we don't
have that in common, our hearts are not knit together. Amen. Men will not come to him because
of relationships. They're afraid of losing their
family. They're afraid of losing physical things, the things of
pleasure of this life. The Lord said this in Matthew
chapter 10, verse 35, for I am come to set man at variance.
That means sever, to cut asunder, to cut in two against his father
and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes be they of his
own house. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. The good news of
the gospel is this, Christ said, He that has forsaken father and
mother and sister and brother and lands, houses and lands for
the gospel's sake, for my sake and the gospel's, in this life,
he'll receive a hundredfold. That's exactly what my confession
is to you. We moved to New Smyrna Beach
and attended this church in Apopka and we've received a hundredfold
that which we left behind. There's no, I know for a good
example, many times people's offered up our house to us when
we're trying to go through this move already. You want to come
stay with us? What I have is yours, brother. I see that, that
the Lord's knit our heart together unto that. I understand what
the Lord's saying there, but then he goes on to say, and in the
world to come, eternal life. The reason that we forsake these
things, don't take that as we are to forsake all these things
to have eternal life. We forsake the things of this
world because we've been shut up to Christ. He has caused us
to forsake that which was prior and cleave unto him. The Lord
tells us why men won't come in John chapter five and verse 40.
You will not come to me that you might have life. Why is that? In John 10, he tells them, you
are not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. As soon as the Lord was done
speaking in John chapter 10, told him I and my father are
one at the very end of that, they took up stones to stone
him. They did not want Christ. They said away with this man.
They were threatened by his authority. As Greg mentioned this morning,
the authority that he had, they were going to lose their popularity
with people. They were going to lose the pleasures of this
life. They were going to lose the power they had with the people.
John 12, 43 says, for they love the praise of men more than the
praise of God. And we know what the praise of
men, all the praise of man is, it's adoration, it's admiration,
it's gratification, and so on. People love to hear, well, he's
a good man. The believer doesn't want to hear that. The believer
wants to hear of Christ, and he wants to be reminded that
he's a sinner, as Greg mentioned already this morning. That's
what the believer wants to hear. Tell them they're crass, Isaiah
40. Greg, you already said that this
morning. That's the praise of man, isn't it? That tell people
they're a good man. He's just a there's kind people go to hell
all the time. Greg would preach that to us
Wednesday night. Kind people, according to man's standards,
good people go to hell all the time. There's none good. No,
not one. So what is the praise of God? They love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. What is the praise of God? And do you love the praise of
God is my question to you. What is the praise of God? He
hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Confessing what God hath said
is the praise of God. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. That is the praise of God. If
we are made sinners, we desire the praise of God, which all
glory goes to Christ. All the praise goes to Christ.
Nothing comes to us. If the Lord makes us a sinner,
we will come confessing that. Why? In Acts chapter 20 and verse
21, he says, because he hath given us repentance towards God
and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. God has caused us to
understand who God is by changing our mind about who he is. And
he has given us faith toward God to believe in him. Now, faith
just looks to Christ and nothing else. Faith comes from Christ
and it just looks to Christ always. It is not that we understand
doctrine and it is not that we have come to an understanding
of anything other than Christ is all. Paul said, I know whom
I have believed. In 2 Timothy 1.12, not what I
believed. Faith looks to the God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as all. This is how he has knit our hearts
together in love. He's given us the same focal
point, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 50. And he, casting away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. He left his righteousness. He left everything that he was
prior. He was stinky. He was dirty. The scripture says our righteousness
are as filthy rags. He knew that. He knew he had
to know that because he left it behind. He did not want to
bring that. He dropped his robe and came to Christ naked. This
is the only way you can come to Christ. Naked. Empty. destitute, understanding
you're polluted, full of putrefying sores. And then you know what
happens once he gives you repentance and you see that he gives you
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and he fills you up with him.
He covers you in his righteousness. He gives you life. He makes you
pure. To the believer, to the ones
the Lord hath chosen before the foundation of the world, he closes
up their sores with the balm of Gilead. By his own blood he
washes us, robes us in his righteousness, and he presented us, already
has presented us, to the Father as perfectly righteous. In verse 51, he says, Jesus answered
and said unto him, What will that I should do unto thee? And
the blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my
sight. Jesus said unto him, Go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now, men talk about faith,
and I've already touched on this this morning, but men talk about
faith as if it's something that we're capable of producing, as
if it's something that we can come into the understanding of
and we can grow it. We can, I've heard the expression
many times, exercise your faith and religion. Like you're going
to the gym every time you go to the church and your faith gets bigger. That's
not true. That is not true. If I produce
it, then it's mine. If I produce faith, then it's
mine. But that would be, that would mean that in Ephesians
chapter two, Ephesians chapter four is not true. There's one
faith. There is one Lord. there is one
baptism. If there's one faith, that means
that we are saved by the faith of Christ and he bestows his
faith upon his people. The Lord does not give opportunity
to everyone on the face of the earth for salvation. There is
a gospel declaration that goes forth generally, but he never
reveals his son to anyone in vain. He only reveals his son
to those who were placed in him before time ever began. This singular faith that he gives
the believer always looks to Christ. It comes from God. When he gives this faith immediately,
we just believe God. A believer must believe or the
faith of Christ would fail. Do we see that? That's impossible. Christ's faith will endure. A believer cannot not believe. Greg said that many times. I
repeat a lot of things Greg say, because it's true, but it's also
wonderful to my soul. A believer cannot not believe.
Well, that gives me great comfort in knowing I can't mess it up,
because if I'm left to myself, I will mess it up. I know myself.
I'll go right back to the robes and pick them right back up.
I know myself. So our prayer is, Lord, knit our hearts together
unto the gospel and leave us not to ourself. That's our prayer. Now, in closing, go back to our
text in Colossians chapter two. How do I know if my heart's been
knit together unto his and knit together unto one another as
well? In Colossians two, verse two,
let's read it again. Their hearts might be comforted being knit
together in love and into all riches of the full assurance
of understanding and 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. Our hearts are comforted and
knit together because we have understanding that Jesus Christ
saved his people, that it is finished. That is why we're comforted. That is how we know our hearts
have been knit together. Our confession is the gospel
of God's sovereign electing grace. We acknowledge that it is a mystery
and we bow to Christ. We believe it with every bit
of the faith that the Lord has given us to believe it. The Lord
causes us to believe it. We acknowledge that he is the
treasure of wisdom and knowledge. We're not looking for any other
wisdom. We're not looking for any other knowledge. He is the
wisdom of God. We just want Christ because Christ
is all. He reveals his hidden treasure,
Christ, to his people. This is our comfort. Philippians
chapter one, verse four, being confident. I'm fully persuaded. That's what he's saying, being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it, will perform it. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that if he begun the work, he will perform
it? Truth, Lord, I do. And my hope is that he begun
it in me. My hope is he begun it in you. And we know that he
will save his, he has saved his people from their sin. If he
has done that, if he has begun the good work in you, he will
perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. If you believe that,
he has knit your hearts together. He has knit our hearts together
because he has made us, he has caused us to believe that. And
he gets all the glory. Amen. Father, bless your word. Cause our hearts to be knit unto
you and knit together in love, the love of your gospel. Reveal
yourself unto our hearts and leave us not to ourself. Pray
that thy will would be done in all things. In Christ's name,
amen. And verse six says, as you received
Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. Received him as a
little child, received him as a sinner. And we continue to
walk the same walk of faith, completely dependent upon him.
I love it when I'm able to enter into a message, Caleb, I could
identify with blind Bartimaeus and That verse you brought out,
the Lord told him to go his way, and then he said he followed
him in the way. His way was Christ's way. Ah,
what a hope. That woman at the well, such
a blessing. He told her everything she ever
did. Lord saves you, you'll know that everything you ever did
on your own was sin. and everything you ever did in
Christ was perfect righteousness. There's our hope. We're going to observe the Lord's
table and pray the Lord will bless that to our hearts. Tom,
you're gonna sing? 18, let's stand together, number
18.