In reading especially verse 26
of Colossians 1, the question comes to mind, what is meant
here? In what sense is God's word a
mystery? Clearly when he speaks of the
mystery, he's referring back to the previous verse to fulfill
the word of God, even the mystery. In what sense is the gospel a
mystery? It's called the simplicity. which
is in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11 3, we stress often in the preaching
of the gospel how plain and clear the gospel is. Well, it's a mystery
which means something hidden or secret. in the sense that's
expressed in 2 Corinthians 4. If you would please turn with
me to 2 Corinthians 4, this will explain our text and why the
gospel that is so clear, it's not complicated. We say that
often and we see that often. Not when we say it, because we
see it in the scriptures. But in 2 Corinthians 4, we see
what sense It's called a mystery 2nd Corinthians 4 1 therefore
seeing we have this ministry So he's talking about the preaching
of the gospel again as we have received mercy. We faint not
but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty Those who
claim to speak for God are notoriously dishonest in that and But we've
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness
nor handling the word of God deceitfully. How many do that?
But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be
hid, that's the word mystery. I'm not sure if it's the same
Greek word there, but the word mystery in our text means a hidden
thing. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. And this word's manifestation
of the truth, you see that there, but by manifestation of the truth. We don't handle the word of God
deceitfully. We make it clear. That's what
that word is. We show forth plainly the truth of God in his word. That's why we go verse by verse
by verse in the scripture. And withhold not anything. We don't shun to declare the
whole counsel of God, the manifestation of the truth. The gospel is not
hidden from lost people because we speak in riddles or there's
some secret code that has to be cracked in the word of God
that others have not cracked. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3.12,
seeing then that we have such hope, seeing that the gospel
is the savor of life unto life to some and the savor of death,
unto death unto others, seeing that the vital nature of it,
and the glorious nature of the hope that we have in Christ,
we use great plainness of speech. We don't make it ambiguous by,
I've told you this many times, and somebody told me one time,
our preacher's so smart, I can't even tell what he's talking about.
What's the point then? You don't need a preacher like
that. The gospel is not hard to understand. It is not hard
to understand in the head. Christ is all is simple language. Only the blood of Christ can
atone for sin. And that precious blood that
he shed on Calvary actually did and does atone for the sins of
every sinner for whom he died. His blood got the job done. He shed his blood in order to
save. The son of man has come to seek
and to save. Now he either did that or he
didn't do that. He was either successful in his
offering unto God for the sins of his people or he wasn't. This is not a difficult concept
to grasp. God chose a people in eternity.
He plainly declared He did before the foundation of the world.
And He predestinated them to be with His Son and like His
Son. And Christ accomplished on His
cross all that was necessary to that end. That is amazing,
glorious truth, but it's not complicated. And yet to most
people, it is a complete mystery. It's offensive, it's scandalous. You're not gonna hear this very
many places in this world because it is a scandalous truth to most
sinners. It's hidden from them, the truth
of it's hidden. For the reason given in the passage
that we just read, Because the God of this world, you remember
the Jews said, when the Lord said to them, if the Son shall
make you free, you'll be free indeed. They said, what do you
mean? We've never been in bondage to anybody. If the gospel be hid, and it
was to them, wasn't it? They didn't know the Son of God
when he stood toe to toe with them. It's hid to those whom
the God of this world has blinded their minds. They're in bondage
to the devil and don't even know it. Now listen, but also for
these reasons, 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. As we're born into this
world, apart from a miracle of God's grace, apart from you must
be born again, which means you must be born from above, born
of the Spirit, John chapter three, The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God for two reasons, for they are
foolishness unto him. How many times have you been
made fun of for saying God is sovereign and he chose a people
before the foundation of the world and predestinated them
to be conformed to the image of his son, all of which is language
right from the scripture, by the way. Didn't make it up. How
many times have you been made fun of? Oh, well, you know, Everything's
already determined. We don't need to do anything,
man. He determined what you do just like he determined what
would be done. It's called being God. Not complicated. Not complicated. When you try
to reconcile the truth of God's sovereign free grace in Christ
with your preconceived notions of who God ought to be in your
mind, with your own sense of fairness, that gets real complicated. The truth is not complicated.
God's God. You don't choose him, he chooses
you. He said to his disciples, you have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. Is that hard to understand? No, it's just hard to reconcile
with what you think. for their foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And we're natural, we're fleshly,
we're of the earth earthy. That's why the Lord said to Nicodemus,
you must be born from above. And when Nicodemus didn't have
the slightest idea of what he was talking about, he said, the
spirit, The wind blows where it pleases. And you can hear
the sound thereof, but you can't tell where it came from or where
it'll go. So it is with everyone that's
born of the Spirit of God. The Spirit gives life to whom
he will. You must be born of the Spirit.
Now, when born of the Spirit and you have spiritual life,
you can understand spiritual things. You can discern the spiritual,
but not until. And that's not you doing something
for God, that's God doing something for you. We're not here this morning to
see if you'll do something for God. You've done plenty for God
already. You've spit in his face, you've
mocked him, you've hated him since you were born or since
you were old enough to hate something. You've done quite enough. We're
here by God's grace this morning to see if God will do something
for you. Foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. The problem
is not with the message if you believe not on Christ, the problem
is with you. The good news is you're listening
to the gospel right now. And this is how God saves sinners.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. I'm telling you that Christ is
all and all you need. You don't need to understand
or know complicated doctrine. You need to know him. He'll teach
you everything you need to know about him once you know him.
You don't come to Christ through doctrine. You come to doctrine
through Christ. You're gonna have to find out
who he is. Did the blind man in John chapter nine find Christ
through doctrine? Or did he learn the truth from
Christ, knowing who he is? Telling you notice what Paul
said was not happening for those who are lost It's not happening
for you It's not happening for those that are lost in whom the
God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not lest This is what's not happening Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine into the
earth They are blinded in so much that the gospel light cannot
shine in their hearts. How does that light shine unto
sinners though? This is the good news now. Let's
read on from there in 2 Corinthians 4, look at verse five. The very
next verse, for we preach not ourselves. That's how the light, we preach. We don't preach ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord. And yourselves, and ourselves,
your servants for Jesus' sake. We're just serving him by doing
what he told us to do. Go and preach. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts. How did
the light shine out of darkness in the beginning? God commanded
it. You know how the gospel light's
gonna shine in your heart? Not by you deciding something.
God's gonna command it. He's gonna say, let there be
light. Is that what Paul said? He did that for me. He gave light
where there was only darkness. He caused the light to shine
right here in my heart. What do you mean light? To give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where is God's
glory seen? In the face of Jesus Christ.
That's why Paul said, we preach Christ. I'm determined to know
nothing among you, he said, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. If God shines his light in your
heart, he will do so by the preaching of the gospel of Christ. And
then you'll see the glory of God in the face of him whom we
preach. And that's salvation. When you
see who he is, the glorious, victorious, almighty savior of
sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1.19, listen to this. We
have also a more sure word of prophecy. Right here, right here. Where until you do well, I want
you to turn, please turn to 2 Peter 1. I want you to see the language
of this. 2 Peter 1.19. This is Simon Peter
writing this now, who saw the son of God and saw him transformed. Saw his face shine brighter than
the noonday sun. Saw his robes white and glistering. Saw him in his glory. He got
a glimpse of the glory of that Nazarene. But he says this, I'll tell you
what's better than that. The word, the word of God. The more sure, it's more sure
than any vision. Your eyes may deceive you, but
God's word won't. We have also a more sure word
of prophecy wherein to you do well that you take heed. Don't
dismiss this now. Take heed unto it as unto a light. Is that what we're talking about?
Unto a light that shineth in a dark place. And take heed to
it how long? Until the day dawn and the day
star arise in your hearts. Keep hearing from God. What do
I always tell you? My advice to everybody, every
time about everything, you need to hear from God and keep hearing
from God until the day dawn in your heart, until he reveals
himself in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's our
text. That word until now is key, until. Take heed to the gospel until. Don't let go of the Lord Jesus
Christ until he blesses you. Don't let go. In the language of Solomon, this
morning I say to you, my son, my son, my daughter, take heed,
apply thine heart unto wisdom. Take heed there into, with all
thy getting, get wisdom from God, the gospel. His dear son,
there's no gold or silver or treasure that could be compared
to Christ and the knowledge of him Matthew 13 44 Again, the kingdom
of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field the witch when
a man hath found he had a thin for joy thereof goeth and selleth
all that he hath and by that field It's hid in it It's hid
But the Lord reveals The treasure he reveals the light he reveals
his glory In the face of his son and as
we've seen he does that by what's happening right now The preaching
of the gospel Paul says in verse 26 of our text that this mystery
is made manifest to God's Saints and What did he say in John chapter
10? My sheep hear my voice. He doesn't
say, I sure hope they hear me. You know, I'm really trying,
I'm trying to tell them. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never
perish. Sounds like he's doing something,
doesn't it? That benefits us. That's exactly what's happening. This is the only way the mystery
can be known. It's made manifest by God. You see that? Made manifest by
God. In our text, it says that. As
we saw in 2 Corinthians, he does that by the preaching. We preach
that sinners are totally depraved before God, that everything we
do is sin. If you make a decision, religion's
saying you need to make a decision. If you make a decision, you know
what that is? It's sin. Everything, we cannot not sin. You're gonna do it selfishly.
They even enable that. They said, don't you wanna go
to heaven when you die? That's not being saved. Being
saved is knowing God's Son and falling in love with Him and
worshiping Him and wanting to be with Him forever. Paul didn't
say, I have a desire to go to my mansion on a hilltop and walk
streets of gold, which is far better. He said, I have a desire
to depart here and be with Christ, which is far better. That's salvation,
that heart. Even our righteousnesses, the
scripture says, are as filthy rags in the sight of God. We are helpless to do anything
about our sin. The disciples asked the Lord,
who then can be saved? And he said, with men it's impossible,
but with God, all things are possible. What can a sinner do about sin?
Whatever you do about sin is gonna be sin. It simply adds to the problem. That's why the scripture says
not of works, lest any man should boast. When you see that, when you know
that, when that truth is revealed to you, you will look to Christ
for righteousness. When the woman with the issue
of blood had spent all that she had on doctors and only grew
worse, She tried everything. She did everything that she could
to be healed, that man could do. And now she's bankrupt and
she's worse than she was when she started. So what did she
say? What did she do? If I can just touch the hem of
his garment, I'll be made whole. Why didn't she say that from
the start? Why didn't she do that before she spent all her
money? Because it was hid. But then the Lord revealed Himself
to her and she knew in her heart, that's the one, there's the Lamb
of God that takes sin away. Like it says of Lydia, the seller
of purple, the Lord opened her heart. And she knew that Christ was
her only hope. because we also preach that Christ
himself is the righteousness of God. He lived and died as
a holy, righteous substitute for sinners. In other words,
he is our righteousness and he is our sin offering before God. That's how God accepts us. Religion's
talking about, well, you need to accept Jesus. No, he needs
to accept you. And the only way he can do that
is by the blood and righteousness of the Lamb of God. God requires perfect righteousness,
and only Christ is perfectly righteous. By faith in Christ,
Righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner for whom Christ
died God also requires satisfaction for sin committed The only thing
that will satisfy the justice of God for our sin is the blood
the sacrifice the offering of Christ on Calvary When we see
that When we know that We're not gonna dare come to God except
by Jesus Christ, through faith in him. We renounce all of our
own works and confess that Christ crucified is our salvation. Not an offering of salvation
to us, but an offering to God that saved us. When we see and know that Christ
redeemed us on Calvary and didn't just make redemption up to us.
We'll glorify him alone. And that's salvation. By God's
grace, we're not unclear about any of this. He's made it manifest,
hasn't he? We rejoice in God's sovereign
grace, the only kind of grace there is. Grace bestowed by the
one who said, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. You
don't hear that quoted a lot in most so-called churches. That don't fit. It don't fit
with what they're saying. and he's had mercy on us in Christ,
we rejoice in that sovereign grace, we rejoice in the precious
blood that cleanseth us from all sin because just as the names
of the tribes of Israel were on that Old Testament high priest's
breastplate, my name and the names of all
of God's elect was on the heart of Christ when he gave himself
for me, not for mankind, Just as he did not intercede for the
world in his high priestly prayer in John 17, he did not atone
for the world as high priest when he offered his precious
blood. But for those the father had
given him, as our text says to his saints, it's made clear to
his saints, the ones that he sanctified with that precious
blood. When we see that, when we know
that by God shining in our hearts through the gospel, we'll see
that all of God's glory, all of it shines in the face of Jesus
Christ. And we'll say with Paul, I know
whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him. against that
day. As I said a while ago, good news
that you're hearing this gospel. It's good that you're hearing
it this morning. God doesn't leave anything up to you. He
saves sinners by the preaching of this gospel. Look at verse
28 in our text. Whom we preach, not what we preach,
whom. warning every man and teaching
every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus. I plan, Lord, willing to preach
another message on verse 27 primarily, but I want us to notice that
salvation is described in verses 27 and 28, how Christ in you,
the hope of glory, and in verse 28, you in Christ. And that'll be the subject of
Lord Will in our next lesson. But to that end, that Christ
might be in you and you in Christ, Paul said, we preach whom? To that end. We'll look at Lord Will in at
verse 28 more closely later as well, but notice that preaching
whom is a warning, and a teaching process. It's a warning, it's grave, it's
imperative, it's urgent, and it is the knowledge of a person. But understand this in closing,
we teach, but not just so you'll know more. Nothing wrong with
that. But look at all of this now,
the context of this. It is a knowledge that does not
just result in you being smarter and you being more informed about
facts. It is a warning and a knowledge
that results in you being in Christ and Christ in you. Salvation is a miracle of God's
grace. It's a supernatural miracle. You must be born again. How can
that happen? How much did you have to do with your first birth?
That's about how much you have to do with your second birth
if you have a second birth. It's a miracle of God. It's a
miracle. Not just an increase of information.
God does and will increase your knowledge of him if he saves
you. But the hope of glory is Christ in you. And you in Christ. Lord willing, we'll have more
to say about that next time. Let's go from here rejoicing.
What have we seen this morning? Same thing we see every morning,
Christ is all. Let's pray.