Again and again, the issue again
that weighs so heavily on the hearts of so many people is this
whole business of assurance. Am I saved? Am I the Lord? Paul in his letters talks about
full assurance. Three times he talks about full
assurance. In Hebrews he talks about full
assurance of hope in the Lord, hope until the end. In Hebrews
10 he talks about the full assurance of faith, as he says in 2nd Timothy chapter 1, he says,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him. And in Colossians,
the book that I would like us to spend a little bit of time
looking at today, he talks about the full assurance of understanding
in chapter 2 verse 2. the riches, all the riches of the full assurance of understanding. I'd like us to contemplate these
things today, fully assured. What does it mean? What would
it mean for you to know that you had peace with God? Be fully assured of His acceptance. Fully assured of His approval. Fully assured of His adoption
of you as His child. Fully assured of a real, a tried
and a tested hope of eternal life. and that bliss and communion
with God and His children forever. What would it mean to you to
have these assurances when you see your sin at its most vile
and see it in its most damaging effects on those you proclaim
you love? What would it mean to you to
know that the eternal, holy, righteous and just God, who sees
all things perfectly and sees all that you are, has totally
reconciled you to Himself? No wrath, no fury, no frown, Peace with God. A peace that
God gives. A peace that no man, no event,
no demons or angels can take away. The peace that the Lord
Jesus promised. My peace I give unto you. Christ our peace. As the hymn
writer said, nothing between my soul and my Saviour, so that
His blessed face may be seen, nothing preventing the least
of His favour. Jesus is mine and there is nothing
between. What would it mean to you to
have a new heart, and a new spirit and a new nature that really
does love God perfectly and completely as He loves you. What would it
mean to know that all things that we experience, all things
that we are hurt by, all these events of life, The worst of
storms that can come, what would it mean to have a refuge, a covering,
a shelter? Peace with God. Colossians is
a book that is remarkable. It was a book that was so foundational
in the life of our church, the first book that we spent our
time working through. What a remarkable book it is. I'd just like to look briefly
at Chapter 1. And Chapter 1 is a chapter about
new birth, about new beginnings. It begins with new relationships
and new fellowships. It talks of new hope and new
life. It talks of a spiritual life. It talks of an understanding
of who God is and what He has done. Particularly it speaks
amazing things about the Lord Jesus Christ, the image of the
invisible God. It gives us a new understanding
of who we are, and what we are in God. And it comes in the last
part of the chapter, it comes because a revelation ordained,
appointed and sent by God has come. which is why Chapter 2
can begin with this talk of all the riches of the full assurance
of understanding. Why don't we ask God, our great
God and Saviour, the One who enlightens the darkness, to help
us. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that You would take Your words
today, that You would shine a light on them and shine that light
into our hearts, Heavenly Father, that we might see the Lord Jesus
in His glory and in the glory of the accomplishments of His
work. and see the wonder, Heavenly
Father, the wonder of the application of that to us individually and
to us as a fellowship collectively. Heavenly Father, we do and are
caused to be reminded again and again of those words of the Lord
Jesus, and He says, without Me you can do nothing. Father, we're
not much and we're not many, But we are, by your grace, if
you will come and teach us, we will be the benefits of the recipients
of the most extraordinary things that are available to fallen
sinners in this world, to be brought into a true and saving
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as He really is, revealed in
the Gospel and revealed in these scriptures. May you reveal them
to us today, our Father, for we ask this for His sake, for
His glory and in His name. Amen. This is a remarkable chapter. Do you realise in 29 verses the
Lord is mentioned, the Triune God is mentioned in every single
one of them. 29 verses, every verse talks
about Him, Jesus Christ, God, the Spirit, who, in whom, Him,
all of this, these great, great declarations of who He is. And remarkably, There are declarations
of what we were. It's amazing. 29 verses talk
about him and just a couple talk about us. Down there in verse
21 we are described. And you were sometime alienated
and enemies in your minds by wicked works. alienated, strangers,
aliens and enemies. Enemies in our minds. Enemies in our hearts. Enemies who practice wicked works. Ephesians 2.12 describes this
with such clarity, doesn't it? At that time, you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, and the end result of that is
having no hope and without God in this world. Enemies, enemies
in our minds, enemies in our hearts. It's from our hearts
that precede all of these things. We need to be reconciled, we
need to be cleansed And for those who think that they can do it
by themselves, we need to keep being reminded that we became
sinners a long, long time ago. And the sin that we first need
to be cleansed from is the sin that we committed in our father
Adam. So much for polishing this body
of flesh that comes forth from the womb, speaking lies, that
has by nature an enmity and a hatred of God from the womb. and then practices these wicked
works. Not only that, we were alienated
and enemies. Down in verse 26, the gospel, the mystery of who
God is, the mystery of what God does, is hidden. It was hidden from ages and from
generations. God, in righteous justice, hid
the Gospel, and He does so today. He does so in so many ways today. One of the encouraging things
to be with some of the students that I taught in India was to
see some growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
And equally sad, was to see some who had, because of their alienation
and their enmity in their mind, as religious as you could possibly
imagine, but when it came to discussing the character of God,
which is just so plainly laid out here in the scriptures, they
hated them. And they have learnt over the
years, the intervening years since I've seen him, they have
learnt to justify their place. They have learnt to justify by
human wisdom and human philosophy their creation and their maintenance
of an idol in their hearts. It is refreshing, my friend on
the plane that first trip, it is so refreshing to read the
scriptures and find someone who says, I'm lost, I'm lost. If you ever get a chance, listen
to a sermon by Daniel Parks, who was a pastor, a Calvinistic
Pentecostal pastor, passionate about God. And he was listening
to a sermon in a conference and the man was speaking about what
God teaches people. And he cried out, he cried out
in this public meeting, he says, as this man explained what God
teaches about the character of God from His Word, he says, I'm
lost. And the preacher had the wisdom to say, leave him alone,
God will deal with him. And he cried out again, I'm lost,
as the preacher went on to just describe more of the character
of God. And in mercy that preacher was
saved that night. It's good to be honest with God. I met that young lady on that
plane. One day she will meet God. and faithful witnesses want to
declare Him in His glory, such as when people meet Him." They
will say, that's exactly how He was described to me. That's
exactly what they said about Him. That's exactly what those
people say. As Isaiah 51 says, they speak,
don't they? They raise the voice, they speak
as one. These preachers that we have
come here and others, if the Lord wills, in the future, they
come and they speak with one voice. We don't hear a different
sound. They speak with one voice because
they are taught of God and they see eye to eye. And they hold
up one message, don't they? Our God reigneth. He reigns. He always has reigned. He always will reign. To be God
is to be He who reigns. and He reigns in sovereign grace
and sovereign mercy and He reigns victoriously. So let's just look
at Colossians 1. Obviously I don't have time to
expound all these verses. I just want us to go through
and as it were see the pictures in it, the pictures of who our
God is and then the pictures of what our God does. It's interesting that he begins
by describing in these verses, he talks about the work that
he's doing in us. And then he describes the work
that he has done for us in the secret councils of God, in that
covenant, that triune God made in eternity. And then he applies
it to our hearts. You see, you must have that revelation
come to you personally, and then when that comes to you, you will
see who God is, and you'll see Him in His character, and His
character and His work are as one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the will of God, God, our triune God, has a will, and
by His will He makes and He appoints. By the will of God and Timotheus,
our brother, to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ,
which are at Colossae, You see, they have received grace. He says, grace unto you and peace.
Grace saves and then brings with it peace. What a description
of these people, alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked
works, saints, declared to be holy by God. declared by God to be holy. And he's put them, he gathers
them and he puts them in a family. They are holy ones and they are
faithful brethren. They are gathered together, but
they are brethren in Christ. You will bear witness,
won't you, to the fellowship that we have with our friends
when they come from afar. When you meet them again, like
I met so many this last time again after all these years,
it's almost as if nothing had happened. A year or more might
have intervened, but the relationship picks up the same, and it begins
where it left off. And it's remarkable, isn't it,
that when we get together with brothers and sisters, the one
thing that we talk about, that seems to be the topic of conversation
in Danville and it seems to be the topic of conversation in
Todd's church and in Clay's church and other places we go, there's
just one topic, isn't it? They talk about the Lord Jesus. See, they're faithful because
they've been joined together. They're saints because of that
wonderful word, in Christ. Seventy or eighty times in the
New Testament, believers are described as being in Christ. We belong to Him, we've been
bought by Him with a price. But we're actually in Him. How close is that communion? How close is that union? We'll
see. We'll see how close that is in
a little while. Just wait on. This peace comes
from being in Christ and it's a peace that comes from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul Paul is a person who
knows how to give Christian encouragement. You watch him as he prays and
join with him as he encourages people. What he encourages in
them, he encourages what he sees as the grace of God working in
their lives. He who was one of these alienated
and those who were enmity against God has been brought in and God's
people have met God and been reconciled and we never get over
giving thanks. We are people who are thankful,
but Paul is thankful for what he sees God doing in their lives. He sees God sustaining them and
sees God growing them. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you
have to all the saints. You see, they're holy ones of
God. If they're loved by God, they
will be loved by us. And they'll be loved by us despite
the things we see in their flesh that is so aggravating. But this
faith and this love brings a hope, doesn't it? For the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven And it's the hope that they heard,
and it's the hope that they know about, it's that hope that they
have that full assurance of understanding, that full assurance of faith,
that full assurance of hope. And you hear about it in the
Word of the truth of the Gospel. There is a particular word about
a particular truth, about one who is the truth, and it is declared
in this Gospel, the Gospel. See, my friend on the plane had
never heard the Gospel. She'd never heard the Gospel. I was reading from this book
to her about a Jesus that she didn't know about. It's remarkable,
isn't it? Twenty-odd years in religion,
married to an evangelist, but at least she was more remarkable
than most other people I had met. At least she was honest. Most other people that I have
dealt with will find some place to run and hide. There is no place. There is no
place of security. There is no place of safety in
this world outside of the Lord Jesus. The Gospel is a proclamation,
isn't it? It's a proclamation of a well-founded
hope of eternal life. It's not a wish. It's a grounded,
it's a confident hope. And it's a confident hope because
of something which is accomplished. You see, it's the Lord Jesus
who comes in the Gospel. It's He who is declared in the
Gospel. And see, this Gospel is a Gospel
which comes to certain individual people. You see, down in verse
26, it's come to these people in Colossae. But in verse 26,
it's now made manifest to his saints, no wonder people who
claim to know God don't know a thing about who he is in his
true character and know nothing about his Gospel because he is
the revealer and he is the hider of this Gospel. Brothers and
sisters, what a remarkable privilege it is for us to have the Gospel
come to us. It's come to us, it's come in
all the world, it comes and it brings forth fruit. As it also
in you since the day you heard of it. You see there is A hearing,
isn't there? But there is a God-given hearing,
the seeing eye and the hearing ear. Both of these are from the
Lord. So they heard something different,
didn't they? Many people hear the sound. Many people hear the words. But
see what they heard, what accompanied the hearing. They knew. They knew the grace of God in
truth. God not only gives, sends the
messenger, gives the message, but he must give life where there
is death. He must give knowledge where
there is ignorance. He must give light where there
is darkness. You see, they knew it. They knew
that they had heard a word from God. We marvel, don't we, and
we have every reason to praise God for the great things that
happened on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand souls, and then
in the next weeks, the proclamation of the Gospel, thousands heard. According to the historians,
there were often a million people in and around Jerusalem. and in the rest of Israel, millions
more. It puts a perspective on it,
doesn't it? Millions heard, thousands believed. Just thousands knew
the grace of God in truth. The grace of God, that unfathomable
truth. that reveals who we are, to be
a recipient of grace is to be someone with absolutely nothing,
nothing to commend ourselves, nothing that we have done, nothing
that we are doing, nothing that we will do commends us to God. Grace looks to what the Lord
Jesus has done. and not to what man has done."
No wonder he talks about, in chapter 2, the riches of the
full assurance of understanding. These people were brought to
know the grace of God in truth. That God looks on His Son for
absolutely everything that He requires of me. 100% of the time, from before my sin
in Adam to my departing this world, he looks to his son and
is satisfied. Grace. So this lady didn't know
of grace. I use the words that when people
hear with a hearing ear that comes from the Lord, they come
to know the grace of God in truth. And it comes through God's servants,
doesn't it? Epaphras is our dear fellow servant. They were, as I said earlier,
they were people in those days that spoke with one voice. They
were a unique generation in that world. when you think of it,
the Gospel went out through those 12 men. The Gospel went out through
the men appointed by those 12 men. The Gospel went out from
them as faithful witnesses to God, as faithful ministers of
Christ, that for this last 1800 years or more, The Gospel has been preserved
by God in places where He has made it manifest to His saints,
and the rest of the world has been allowed to receive a false
Gospel in God's judicial, sovereign
and good purposes. You see, that's why we are people
who are blessed to be thankful. You see, I could have talked
to that girl all day, couldn't I? I could have talked about
experiences, could have talked about works. See, what brought
her to see her state and to know her situation was just reading
this book about who He is and what He has done, not what we
do. The false gospel is like that
flood that Satan spewed out over the world, and the world accepts
it. If you read on in chapter 2 of Colossians, he's warning
these people, he's warning them again and again, you stay with
the gospel the apostles preached, and don't move from it. There
are false Jesuses and there are false gospels out there. You
see, he's a faithful minister, he's a faithful servant, and
he's a fellow servant. Paul is writing to people he
hasn't met, but he knows Epaphras, and he knows the fellowship that
they have, and he knows his faithfulness, and he knows Epaphras' report. that the Gospel that came to
Epaphras is a Gospel that He declared. And He declares in
verse 8, unto us, He declares unto us your love in the Spirit.
He bragged. He bragged about His congregation. He didn't brag about them as
people. But He boasted and declared what God had done, the fruit
of the Gospel. their love in the Spirit. And
then Paul prays, doesn't he? He prays with an encouragement,
doesn't he? He prays that they He has these seven things, doesn't
he? He prays for them without ceasing. It doesn't mean that
he never stopped praying, but when he thought about them, he
took his thoughts about these brothers and sisters in Christ,
he took them to the throne of grace. It's a great place to
go when we think of our brothers and sisters. Let heaven hear their name again. Let heaven hear their circumstances
again. He loves to hear the prayers
of his people. And his desire is a great desire,
isn't it? That he might be filled with
the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. filled with the knowledge of
His will. Our God is a sovereign God, and
He wills, and what He wills happens, and what happens always happens
for the glory of His holy name. The glory of Him being faithful
to what He has written and declared of Himself and what He will do.
That's wisdom, isn't it? Christ is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Spiritual understanding,
not just fleshly understanding. Understand who God is. that you might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing." Pleasing in Him. Walk worthy. The question that I have for
myself so often. The greatest struggle is faith,
isn't it? What does faith look like in
this situation? What does looking to the Lord
Jesus and looking to Him in these circumstances cause for me to
ponder? You see, the enmity in verse
21 is an enmity in our minds to walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing, being fruitful From Him is our fruit found,
being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge
of God." And this is not a human activity.
Where does it all come from? Strengthened with all might according
to His glorious power. When we've experienced His power,
His power in the Gospel, We will find His strengthening, His strengthening
by His power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Only Christians, only Christians
can be caused by God. to wait on Him and be caused
by God in the midst of circumstances which are beyond our understanding
and beyond our cure, to say, I will wait. I will wait and
see what the Lord will do. And all of this starts with thankfulness
and we give thanks unto the Father. And now we have this remarkable
declaration of what God will do and what God has done. I love verse 12. We give thanks unto the Father.
And this is the beginning of seven things. He now takes the
veil off. the Holy of Holies, and we see
into the eternal and purposeful counsels of God. He has. He's done it once, and He's done
it for all time, made us meet. What a lovely word that is, made
us meet. The word is a carpentry term. If you ever look at the beautiful
joints on a table or a chair, when they are perfect, they meet,
don't they? It means to be qualified. It
means to be worthy. It means to be fitted, as if
the carpenter, shaped and shaped and shaped until those dovetail
joints fit together, and you cannot imagine them being more
perfect. Fitted. That's what God did. God the Father fitted us and
made us worthy to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. How do you get to have an inheritance? You get to have an inheritance
because you're born into that family. I've often told you the
story, I think, of Lisa's grandfather, before any of his children were
married. He organised for his estate to be left to his grandchildren,
with none of his children married, but he left his estate to his
grandchildren. And so there are 10 of them.
They might get 10 cents each, it doesn't matter, the story's
not about what they get, it's about the remarkable thing is
that they inherit. They inherit, all 10 of those
children inherit. What happens if one of them's
in jail? Is his inheritance infected?
When was his inheritance written? It was written in the 1940s. One of them is a multi-millionaire
and the inheritance means nothing to him. He still inherits, doesn't
he? See, the inheritance comes because
of a belonging. The inheritance comes because
you're part of the family. qualified to be an heir, born
as a son. We get it so wrong, don't we?
Religion tells us again and again that you actually become children
of God by believing. The scriptures say the exact
opposite. Galatians 4 verse 6 is a wonderful,
wonderful turning upside down of what we are led to believe
by so many people. It talks about the redemption,
doesn't it? The fullness of time has come. God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
are under the law, that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And then He says of us, And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Inheritance. We receive an inheritance
of the Saints in Light. What's the inheritance of the
Saints in Light? The inheritance is all of what
God promises to bring to His people in all of time and all
of eternity. What does John say of us? Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called sons
of God. Beloved, now we are the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. As He is, so are we in this world."
What an inheritance. He then goes on to talk about
this deliverance. He delivered us from the power
of darkness. Darkness of all sorts has a shocking
power, doesn't it? We need someone more powerful
to deliver us from the power of darkness. But we need to be
more than just delivered from something, we need to be put
into something. And He's translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have, we have it right now,
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. How completely are your sins
forgiven? You turn over in chapter 2 to
verse 13. You were dead. You were dead
in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh. He has quickened, He has made
alive, He has caused them to be born again, together with
Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses." What a remarkable redemption. What a remarkable forgiveness.
Absolutely none left. God doesn't remember them. And they come up before us as
they do again and again. Are our sins bigger than the
work of the Lord Jesus on the cross? Which means the most to
God? Which brings the most glory to
God? Redemption is complete and utter
forgiveness of all sins for all times. They'll be looked for
and they will not be found. They are hidden, as with the
dark cloud. God doesn't remember them. Let's learn, brothers and sisters,
when we see the sins of our brothers and sisters. to try and treat
them as God does, as a forgiven and a forgotten and a covered
and a cleansed thing. And then in this verse 15, we
have this remarkable description of the Lord Jesus who's done
all this. As I said, every verse talks about Him, but here's the
centerpiece of it, isn't it? This is Him who is the image
of the invisible God the firstborn of every creature. He is before
all. For by Him all things were created. Think of His creative activities,
all that are in heaven, all that are in the earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or power, all things. were created by Him, all things
were created for Him. There is not a single thing that
you will ever see with your eyes on this earth that wasn't specifically
and purposely created by the Lord Jesus, sustained by Him
and is created for Him. He will get the glory. He will get the acknowledgement
for who He is and what He's done. May God give us eyes to see. Verse 17 is the centre of this
remarkable passage and it says, He is before all things. So He
is the foundation. All of creation and all of time
sits, as it were, on a foundation. He is before all things and in
Him all things consist. All things are held together.
All those various elements are all held together by Him. But there is There is a particularity
about his activities. There's a purposefulness about
them. He's before all things, he's
the creator of all things, he's the image of the invisible God,
but he has a purpose in all this. And he is the head of the body,
the church. is the head. The head that sustains,
the head that directs, the head that nourishes, the head that
sees, the head that guides, the head that controls. He is the head of the body, the
Church. Where the head goes, the body
goes with it. I love what Spurgeon said, if
you're crawling through a hedge, It's a bit prickly, and you get
your head through, you know the rest of your body will get through.
The body might get scratched and scraped, but where's our
head now? Where's the head of the body
of the church? He's sitting in heaven, on the throne, ruling
all these things. Where's the body? Ephesians 1
says, we are seated together with Him. Wherever the head goes,
the body will go. Wherever the head directs, the
body will follow. It's a purposeful creation, who
is the beginning, the false born from the dead, that in all things
He might have the preeminence. This is the heart of assurance,
isn't it? This is the heart of the Gospel,
that He has the preeminence in all things. For it pleased the
Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Just so we don't
mistake it, he tells us again in chapter 2 verse 9, for in
him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You don't
find anything else out of our God than what you will see in
the person and work of the Lord Jesus. And as he is full, that
word in verse 10 of chapter 2 is translated complete. and you are complete in Him who
is the head of all principality and power. God's children and
God's church are as fully complete in the Lord Jesus as the Lord
Jesus is fully the divine being, the image of the invisible God. He's before all things. He controls
all things. He is the fullness of God. And
all of this work is done on the cross, isn't it? Where we see
the glory of God displayed. And I'm evangelizing people now,
I just go to four words. as the four words that Paul used
in 1 Corinthians 2. He went there to that pagan nation
to know nothing among them but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's remarkable where your conversations
go if you just stay on those four things. People want to go
down little rabbit burrows everywhere and go down little blind alleys
and you just bring them back and say, I want to talk about
this. I want to talk about Him on the cross. I want to talk
about what happened on the cross. Because this is where Paul goes,
doesn't he? He talks about this new view of Christ, these blind
alienated people, they saw him, but he wants to go to the centre. You see, that's where he made
peace through the blood of his cross. And in that cross He reconciled
all things to Himself. As John 17.2 said, You have given
Him power over all flesh, that He might give eternal life to
as many as the Father has given Him. He's reconciled all things
to Himself. He is controller and ruler of
all things, whether they're things in earth or things in heaven.
And now, having reconciled all things, it becomes personal,
verse 21, and you, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind. Do you remember that time of
alienation? Do you remember that time of
enmity? The very Gospel declaring the
absolute sovereignty of God and His electing predestinating love
is a Gospel that stirs up enmity. Think of the Lord Jesus. In almost
all of His Gospel declarations there was a stirring up and there
was a division. He stirs up that enmity and He
makes us to realise by His Spirit's presence in our lives how great
our enmity is and then we see how much His reconciliation is
big in all of this world and particular and personal to His
people. Reconciled in the body of His
flesh. Reconciled by His blood. Reconciled by His body. That body that was dead. And
He has a purpose, doesn't He? Just read verse 22 with me. To
present you. His work, His promised work,
His finished work is to present you wholly and unblameable and
unreprovable in His sight. In my flesh, no doubt like you,
I don't see myself as holy. I see myself as blameable and
reprovable in so much of what transpires in my life and in
my mind. But Christ Jesus has undertaken
from eternity to present you personally wholly unblameable,
unapprovable, in His sight, in the sight of Him who is of two
pure eyes and to behold iniquity, wholly unblameable." Then he
encourages, Paul encourages these people to stay settled. to be grounded, to be fixed,
to be settled and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.
And Paul declares himself to have been made a minister twice.
And he rejoices in that ministry. He even rejoices in the sufferings
he has in that ministry. And he rejoices in the fact that
as he goes preaching, he's directed by the Holy Spirit where to go.
He's not allowed in Acts 16, twice he's not allowed to go
to places in western Turkey. And God says you go over here
to Asia, you go over here to Greece. God directs. And this mystery that we talked
about earlier, this mystery of who God is and who the Lord is,
it's a mystery to the world. Converted people are mysteries. They're mysteries to their friends.
They're mysteries to this world. They're mysteries to the religious
people. And they're a mystery to themselves. But this is a mystery that's
made manifest. made manifest to the saints and
it's made manifest in the Gospel. And God purposed to make known,
look how He describes it, make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. What a remarkable thing. The riches of the glory of this
mystery that we've been talking about. It's Christ in you, the
hope of glory. So he begins with talking about
these people being saints and faithful brothers and sisters,
faithful brethren in Christ. And now at the end, it's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. And verse 28 is a simple declaration
of the Gospel, whom we preach. We preach Christ Jesus, warning
and teaching every man that we may present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus. And that work, even that work
of warning and teaching, is a work that comes from God. See, God
works in him. God works in him mightily. He labours, but God works in
them. New relationships, new hope,
new life, a new spirit-directed life, a new understanding of
who God is, a new view of Christ, a new understanding of who we
are and what we are in him, a new revelation. and a new assurance,
verse 2 of chapter 2, unto all the riches of the full assurance
of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, the acceptance,
the confession of it, and of the Father and of Christ. We are a blessed people, brothers
and sisters. We are blessed to have the Gospel
come to us. We are blessed to have God bring
it with power to our hearts. We are blessed to see and witness
God bringing it to our brothers and sisters around the world.
But most of all, we are blessed by being in Him and blessed by
Him being in us. That's how the gathering comes,
isn't it? Christ in you, the hope of glory. As we come to communion, we read
of both the blood and the body in verses 20 and 21. Having made
peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all
things to himself, And now He has reconciled you in the body
of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in His sight. As we have the Lord's Supper. We are reminded of a broken body
and we are reminded of shed blood. Shed purposefully. Shed individually. Shed successfully. Shed gloriously. Let's pray.