Colossians 1 24 who now rejoice
in my sufferings for you and Fill up that which is behind
of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake
Which is the church Paul is referring to himself
here if you look at the previous verses he's saying this that
I, Paul, am made a minister of the gospel, who now rejoice in
my sufferings for you. He's saying, I rejoice. Now,
this doesn't mean that Paul was excited about being imprisoned
and beaten at times, maligned and despised for the gospel's
sake, or that he enjoyed any of the other myriad trials that
he suffered as an apostle of Jesus Christ. But it does mean
that all in all, he was glad it was the way it was. It's what he said in Acts 20,
22. Listen to this. This is the spirit of our text. And now behold, I go bound in
the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every
city. saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things
move me. That's what he's saying in our
text. I rejoice in my sufferings for
you. None of these things move me,
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might
finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received
of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God."
So the reason he said, I'm glad for the sufferings because they
accompany God calling me to preach the gospel to you, testifying
the gospel of his grace, the ministry I've received from the
Lord Jesus himself, what an honor and privilege. I'm a servant
of Jesus Christ. If that involves suffering for
his sake so be it But notice particularly How Paul refers
to his sufferings The sufferings he now endured he said are a
filling up of that which was behind Or deficient that word
is deficient it's a filling up of that which is Deficient in
the afflictions of Christ in his flesh Afflictions that he
was suffering we know that he recounts them in one place many
of them beaten with with stripes and Stoned ship shipwrecked and
Lost at sea for three nights, I believe it was and Actually
spent three nights in the water But what does it mean when he
calls it the afflictions of Christ then in his flesh he bore the
afflictions of Christ Well, first of all, it clearly means that
these sufferings were allotted to him He said I'm filling up
the deficiency of sufferings in my flesh in other words There
are sufferings allotted to me that I haven't suffered yet.
I but I'm suffering some of them now. And I'm gonna suffer all
of them eventually. There's a deficiency yet. I haven't
suffered enough or I wouldn't be suffering. He sees this clearly
as coming from the Lord, allotted to him by the Lord and that they
must be born. in his body. And this is what
makes all the difference between the sufferings of an unbeliever
and the sufferings of a believer. When an unbeliever suffers, he
says, why me? When a believer suffers, he says,
it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. An unbeliever says, my trial
is too great for me to bear. A believer says, there has no
trial taken me, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful,
who will not suffer me to be tempted above that I am able,
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that
I may be able to bear it. The Lord has allotted me these
sufferings. and I will bear them, I will
fill up the deficiency of sufferings that are yet to come, and I'll rejoice in it. Again,
not excited about suffering, nobody is, but glad, like the
disciples who said, we rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer
for his sake. An unbeliever sees affliction
as bad luck, just random bad luck. My luck is so bad. And
he curses God for it. But a believer says it is good
for me that I should be afflicted, that I might learn his statutes.
I believe with all my heart that God's grace is sufficient Do
you think I believe that? You'll find out when his grace
needs to be sufficient. When all I have is his grace.
You'll find out if I'm honest about that. So you see how that Paul rejoiced
in his sufferings for them. It was necessary that he suffer
for them. You see, the last part of the
verse is for them, for the church, for the sake of the body of Christ. And all of the sufferings of
all believers are necessary. God gives them, and he can take
them away as he's pleased to do so, and he will take away
all suffering sooner or later. But what a lesson for us when Paul says, I rejoice in
these sufferings for the sake of the church. Do you ever think
of that? What a lesson for us who have
a hard time suffering a small injustice or dismissing a petty
grudge for the sake of the church, for the sake of the family of
God. While Paul, by the grace of God, was happy to be imprisoned,
and even tortured at times for the sake of the body of Christ. Do we think about this when we are so unready to suffer anything? We preachers who are so easily
discouraged and ready to quit all the time, we must heed these
words and by God's grace, never expect to be in such a pathetic
state as to find it necessary for everything to go easy and
as we expect it to go. And the people of God's church
can't find it so easy to despise others and to let self-righteousness
raise its ugly head. We must be careful of every idle
word for the sake, think about these words of Paul, for the
sake of the body of Christ. Yeah, we're a ragtag group of
fools, but we're the body of Christ. Consider what this is that we're
a part of. And notice in this verse that
Paul assigns these sufferings to Christ. I suffer them in my
body, but they're the sufferings of Christ, the afflictions of
Christ. And there are two scriptural
understandings of this. As often is the case, you don't
have to choose one of these. Both are clearly set forth in
the word of God. First of all, they can be assigned
to Christ, the sufferings that we suffer and bear, because he's
the author of them. Just as Paul said in Philemon
one night, yet for love's sake, I rather beseech you being such
in one as Paul the aged, and now also am a prisoner of Jesus
Christ. He said, the Romans didn't jail
me, Christ did. Also, in a completely different
way, we see that the sufferings of God's people are also Christ's
sufferings. When Paul persecuted the church,
the Lord Jesus himself spoke to him and said, why persecutest
thou me? He bears all of our sufferings
as though they were done unto himself. In both a positive and a negative
sense, our Lord said, if you've done it unto the least of one
of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. He said, if
you brought a glass of cold water to one of my little ones, you've
done it unto me. But did not he also say, depart from me, ye cursed into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, for
I was hungry and you gave me nothing? I was thirsty and you gave me
no drink. And so the sufferings that we
endure, he counts them as his own. Our savior is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. And he only sends grief when
we need it, pain when we need it, heartache when we need it. As the unbeliever gnashes his
teeth at God when trouble comes, may he give us grace to say,
he dealeth with me as with his own precious child. In verse 25, he said, whereof
I am made a minister. That gospel, I'm made a minister
according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me
for you to fulfill the word of God. Paul says, I am made a minister. He didn't volunteer. We know Paul's story. He certainly
did not volunteer. A servant. I'm made a servant. And he says that twice here in
this immediate context at the end of verse 23, as well as here. Not only does he say that, I
am made a servant to give glory where it's due. And that's definitely
part of it. I am made a minister. I'm made
a servant. I'm not so humble as to assume
that role. Far from it. God had to bring
me down, like he did Paul. But not only to give glory where
it's due, but also to show how that all of this, his sufferings,
their belief of the gospel that he preached, and all the aspects
of this ministry are according to the dispensation of God. And you know what that word dispensation
means? Under the management and oversight
of God. Remember our study in 1 Corinthians
4? Listen to 1 Corinthians 4.1.
This is what we looked at, I believe, last Wednesday night. Let a man
so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful That word steward is the same
word translated dispensation in our text this morning God's
preachers are managers of his household in the sense of being
about the business of preaching the gospel to his people But
all of us are under the management of God Almighty the oversight
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at the message of verse
25 with that in mind. Whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God. God's orders given to me for
you are to fulfill the word of God. What does that mean to fulfill
the word of God? Well, there are several senses
in which it's true of Paul and all of God's preachers. Part
of it is, anyway, to all of God's preachers. This first part is
not. He says to fulfill the Word of God God's Word prophesied
the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles Old Testament prophecy
is clear on that the preaching of the gospel will come to the
Gentiles and they will be converted Which prophecy in great part
was fulfilled by Paul In his preaching in the ministry
that the Lord gave him Paul fulfilled the word of God
also, and that word has this connotation to it, in that he
held nothing back. He preached the whole counsel
of God. Acts 20, 27. That's the business
of God's ministers. That's what verse 25 says. His
orders to me as manager of the household are for you, they concern
you. And here's what they are. Fulfill
the word of God. That's our business. We don't
hold back the truth. We don't hold back what sinners
don't like. We don't hold back anything.
The religious false church says God loves everybody. They're
holding something back. They're holding something back.
We say that God's love is in Christ. God hateth all workers
of iniquity, and the only way you can be not one of those is
in Christ. Christ himself being your righteousness. So while false preachers say,
smile, God loves you, we're saying, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. It's a strange love, isn't it,
that throws sinners in hell in the end. It's not God's love. The religious freewill false
church says that Christ died for everybody, and by God's grace,
his ministers Hold not back the glorious truth that every sinner
for whom Christ died is redeemed, washed from his sin and forever
saved from the wrath of God. You've got to hold that back
if you're gonna be the sentimental, you know, conforming to the sense
of fairness that sinners have. But we're not holding that back
by the grace of God. Christ did not redeem every sinner
when he died on Calvary. He laid down his life, he said,
for his sheep, and because he did, and as a direct result of
the fact that he did, they shall never perish. The false church says that's
not fair. And our response simply to that
is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved. You'll be saved. Shut up and
believe, in other words. Do you know that's the gospel
message, shut up and believe? Let me show you that, Romans
3.19. I have it over there with me if you would. This is what's being held back
now by the false religion of our day and every day. Romans
3.19, now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith
to them who are under the law, which is all of us. But the reason
it says that, which is clearly obvious, is to remind us that
we are under that law and that it speaks to us. It says something
to say to us. And what it says, it doesn't
say it in order to get us to act right. You acting kind of right? Are
you acting mostly right? Are you acting medium right?
It's all sin. It's all sin. It doesn't say what it says to
you to get you to be more moral. It says what it says to you to
shut you up. You see what the gospel message
is? Shut up. And what else? that every mouth
may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
That doesn't mean that we become guilty when we hear the gospel.
It means that in our own estimation, we become guilty when we truly
hear the gospel. And that's why God sends it.
We're condemned already. He didn't come into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be
saved. And so that gospel comes to shut you up, to shut sinners
up, to shut his elect up, and cause us to take our place guilty
in the sight of God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, verse 20, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. You see, the point of the law
again is reiterated. It's not to alleviate your sin.
It's not given to remedy your sin. It's given to reveal your
sin and cause you to stop your mouth and take your place guilty
before God. But now, verse 21, the righteousness
of God without the law. How can there be righteousness
without law? That's what the word righteousness
means. It means obedience to the law.
So how can there be righteousness without law? There is for us,
because the obedience of the law was performed by Christ and
not us. So we have righteousness without
the law, without keeping the law, without obedience to the
law, performed by us. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, the whole word of God concerns this righteousness. The righteousness of a sinner
without that sinner keeping the law of God. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, your righteousness can't
be like Christ's. Your righteousness has got to
be Christ, who is the righteousness of God himself, which is by faith
of Jesus Christ. And that word is faithfulness.
That is, it's by the obedience of Christ, not yours. That's
why it's called righteousness without the law, for you. By the faithfulness, unto all
and upon all them that believe." There's your faith. There's the
faith that God gives you to lay hold of Christ as your righteousness
and your sin offering, which is what we're fixing to talk
about. Righteousness in which to stand holy before God and
a sin offering in which to stand sinless, to have all of your
sins washed away to stand in that white robe in the presence
before his throne of God Almighty, even the righteousness, which
is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
have faith in him, that he gave them, for there's no difference.
There's no difference in you. Jew or Gentile, it doesn't make
a lick of difference. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And so the only way to be justified,
to be righteous in the sight of God is by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. Being justified freely without
causing you because you have no righteousness. You see how
all of this is saying one thing in such an eloquent and thorough
way. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through, he's our
righteousness and what? Our sin offering. The redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God has set forth to be
a sin offering. That word propitiation, you don't
hear that a lot except in the scripture. It just means a sin
offering. through faith in his blood, whom
God has set forth to be a sin offering through faith in his
blood. That's how he's your sin offering,
through faith in his blood. He causes you to believe that
that precious blood shed on Calvary is sufficient. that I might stand without blemish
and without spot for the Holy God. Middle of verse 25, or just to
read verse 25 again. Whom God hath set forth to be
a sin offering through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past. Righteousness for the
remission of sins. What does he mean by that? Well,
he's fixing to tell you. How can it be righteous
to remit our sins? We're guilty of them. We committed
them. We're sinful in the sight of
God, and we've committed sin in the sight of God. So how can
God declare righteousness for remission? Verse 26, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. How can God be holy
and yet pronounce you holy when you're not? Through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, you are. He declares those things that
are not as though they are because they are in Christ. The whole counsel of God is not
popular. The fulfilling of the word of
God is avoided by most. But bless God by His grace, we're
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Let's pray.