I was striving to get to chapter
2 but this caught my attention and I thought it would be good
for you and I to dwell on this for a moment and that's found
in verse 27 of chapter 1. To whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you." And that's the title of my message,
Christ in You. Now if we were to look at this,
and that's what I want to do first of all, is look again at
the mystery that's being made manifest. And the mystery of
the gospel is this, is it not You in Christ. Is that not the mystery of the
gospel that God by sovereign mercy, by sovereign grace, put
us in Christ before the world began? That when Christ came,
we were in Christ when He lived, we were in Christ when He died,
we are in Christ when He is risen again. But this is altogether
the second part of the mystery. Christ in you. You in Christ. And Christ in you. And so if
I have a division, that would be it. That's what I'm going
to divide the message in. The mystery of you in Christ. And then the mystery of Christ
in you. And that's what Paul says here
in this verse. He says, To whom God would make
known the riches of the glory of this mystery. We know the
mystery. that he's speaking about is the gospel. The mystery is
the sovereign, eternal election of the Father before the world
began. We know this is a mystery to
men by nature. Go over to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, it's the same thing Paul is saying there as he says
here in our text. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And in verse 7, he said, But
we speak, we preach the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world began, listen,
unto our glory. Unto our glory. which none of
the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would
have not crucified the Lord of glory." So first of all, our
glory is purposed of the Father in election. And secondly, our
glory was obtained by the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider
that mystery. The Scriptures were plain, weren't
they? You can't miss that He was the Christ. Yet they did
not know. Had they known, they would not
have crucified him. But according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, he was delivered into their
hands and crucified. For what? For our glory. But as it is written, I hath
not seen nor ear heard nor entered into the heart of man the things
which God prepared For them that love Him. But God hath revealed them, revealed
them the mystery of His eternal wisdom and purpose. He revealed
this mystery to who? To us. To us. He's revealed this mystery. And how did this revelation of
the mystery come to us? We know this, that it was by
the Spirit of God. Verse 10, But God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. That's how we know the mystery
of this gospel. You see, you and I weren't there
when God chose, were we? We weren't there with Him. God
was alone. And this was something done in
the secret counsel of God from eternity. How should you know
this mystery? Well, who else could reveal it
but the Spirit of God? And so the Spirit of God reveals
this mystery. No man by nature received the
things of God. See that in verse 14. But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him. Is this gospel foolishness
to you? That's because you're just natural.
That's just natural. You see, it's supernatural to
know this mystery. Natural man receiveth not the
foolishness of them, neither can he know them, because he
is spiritually discerned, judged, dead. And now the Spirit of God
has quickened us, raised our spirits to life from the dead,
Even now is this mystery made manifest. Go back. Look back
at your text. See to whom this mystery is manifest. Verse 27. I mean, verse 26. But now is made manifest to who? His saints. It's made manifest
only to his saints. To whom God would make it known.
That is a sovereign choice. to whomsoever God would make
this mystery known. And you who know it, it's because
God did it. God gave you this mystery. And
behold the wisdom and glory of God as it is shown to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Isn't that what Moses
asked? He said, show me thy glory. You
want to know the glory of God, here it is. I will have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion, and whom I will I harden. So then, salvation is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but God that showeth
mercy. This is the glory. This is the
mystery. The mystery of God in the sovereign
dispension of His gospel. That He makes it powerful, effectual,
to the saving of whomsoever He has chosen. This is even the teaching of
Jesus. I know people, there was a book a long time ago, horrible
book I had to read in college. It separated the gospel from
the Paulinian gospel. That's just what Paul said. I'm
going to show you it's exactly what Jesus said. Go over to Luke
chapter 10. I want you to see how Jesus rejoiced
in the sovereignty of God in this matter of salvation. Luke
chapter 10 and verse 21. In that hour, notice, Jesus rejoiced. What did He rejoice in? What
was He rejoicing in? What was He so happy in spirit?
He said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, here
it is, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent
and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my Father. And no man knoweth who the Son
is, but the Father, and who the Father is, but the Son. And he to whom the Son will reveal
Him, So this matter of revelation, this matter of understanding
the gospel is in whose hands? Who hides and who reveals? Who saves? And who damns? It's God. God is sovereign in
these things. And blessed are you. who are
given freely to know that all things are delivered into the
Son's hands. That is not common knowledge.
That is not common knowledge. Matter of fact, there was a message,
it's hard to hear, even tune in on a radio without even hearing
this blasphemy, that somehow Jesus died for the sins of all
men and yet the contingency is on you. No, it's not. Salvation rests in the hands
of Jesus Christ alone. Alone. He alone reveals who the Father
is by His sovereign will and decree. And if you know that,
blessed are you. Isn't that what he told Peter? He said, Peter said, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And you know what Jesus
said? Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed this to thee, but my Father, which is in heaven,
hath revealed this to thee. Is that not plain words? Who
does the revealing? God does. God does. And what
does He reveal? He reveals that in Christ is
all the blessings. In Christ is all the blessings. Jesus said, All things are delivered
to me of my Father. When were all things delivered
into His hands? When? At this particular time? Well, they were, but that's not
when it began. All things were delivered into
His hands from eternity. All things were put into the
hands of the Son. All of the elect people were
given to Him. And listen, all the history of
time from the beginning has been moving toward this one purpose,
even the coming of the Son of God. Everything in history was
moving toward that one goal, that one aim, that Christ should
come into this world. Consider the deliverances of
Israel. Do you think the deliverance
of Israel was just because they were the Jews? No, it was for
His own namesake He delivered them. Told us that in Ezekiel. He said, I don't do this for
your sakes, I do it for my own name. I deliver that pathetic
little nation time and time again because my son should come from
that nation. My son should come from that
line. That's why I delivered it. And so all things were moving
toward this one time where Jesus should come and save His elect
people. All Scripture was written to
testify of Him, to reveal His work, His wisdom, His redemption,
His righteousness, His sanctification for all of His elect people. That's what everything was moving
towards. And now, now the Holy Spirit
has come to us. Babes, nobodies, Nobody's. How long will it be before you're
completely forgotten? When you die, how many people
will remember you were ever here? Nobody's. Not many, noble. Not many mighty are called. God has chosen the base things, base things of the world to confound
the things that are mighty. chose nothings, and made us to
know the mystery of the gospel by the regeneration of the Holy
Spirit to faith in Christ alone. For Christ is the riches and
treasure of this gospel mystery. Look back at your text. To whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery the riches of the glory of this mystery what's the riches
of this gospel what's the riches of it what's the treasure of
it when everything is said and done
when all things are set right when judgment is passed and Men
that God has chosen, Christ is redeemed are in glory. What is
the center then of everything? Jesus Christ. And I tell you,
right now, it's Jesus Christ is still the center of all things.
Even though men don't see it, they despise it, they hate it.
I tell you, Jesus Christ is still the center of all things. He
is the sum and substance of everything. And to us who believe, He is
the treasure. He is the treasure. He is the
riches of this mystery. Paul in Ephesians 3. testifying
of his apostleship, says he is the least among the apostles,
having tortured the church, yet in grace God called him, God
saved him, and then God called him to preach. And you know what
Paul calls this gospel he's preaching? He says it is the unsearchable
riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ.
Behold, the center, sum, fullness, and cause of all things in time
and eternity is Jesus Christ. If you want to know the whole
of this book, if you really want to know the key that opens up
every page of this holy text, it is this. Colossians 3, I believe
it's verse 12, Christ is all. Christ is all. Men make a horrendous error to
make this message about you. This message is not about you.
It's about Him. It's about Him. It's all about
Him. Everything is by Him and for
Him. Everything in time and eternity
is placed into His hands and He controls everything. He is everything. He is the riches
of this message. of this mystery. God willing,
decreeing to display the glory of His grace, ordained all things
in time and eternity for that purpose, for the salvation of
His people, for His own glory. And the Father purposed that
He should display this grace by loving and choosing some of
Adam's fallen race to save. And then what did he do with
those chosen? What did God purpose to do with
them? Once He loved them, once He embraced
them, once He chosen them, what did He do with them? He put them
in Christ. That's what He did. He sealed
our fate in the fate of His own Son. so that all of the elect should
stand or fall in Him. And in a covenant oath by that
God put both His glory and the salvation of His elect into the
hands of His Son. He said all things are given
to me of my Father. What He meant was that all things
were given to him of his father now you could take all things
and you can run as far as you want to with it take that as
far as you can because all things are all things and all things
are put into his hands The Father put the elect into union with
Him, with His Son. And He was set up from eternity
to be their representative, and by Him they should be made holy
and without blame before God. That by His acceptable work and
death, these elect souls should be adopted from eternity, sons
of God, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. This was God's purpose. And you
don't realize that even your being sold into sin was God's
purpose. Remember, this isn't about you
and me. It's about Him. And for Him to
magnify His glory, He should not let us be sustained in Adam's
righteousness. Therefore, Adam fell, and to
display the grace of God, God came to fallen man and preached
his gospel mystery, revealed it to him, how that Christ, who
is the unsearchable riches of God, who is the elect of God,
the Christ of God, how he should come and redeem
his people. And now he has come in the flesh
and accomplished all that God trusted to him. I believe it was Robert Hawker
on his deathbed. He had brought this question
out of Ephesians chapter 1. It says, Who first trusted in
Christ? And he asked the question, well,
who first trusted in Christ? I'll tell you who first trusted
in Christ. God did. God first trusted in Christ with
all of us in Him. He trusted Christ and now Christ
has come. Come as a man to do the will
of God. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. And listen, did Christ perform
the will of God? In this rests our hope and our
salvation, isn't it? Isn't this all our hope? Is that
Christ fulfilled the will of God? If you are in Christ, then
all your salvation rests where? In Christ! You remember when
Noah was in the ark. All his salvation rested on that
ark. Did it not? If that ark had failed, he would
have died with the rest of them. But because he was in the ark,
he was safe. And this is what it is to be
in Christ. Safe in Christ. Because all our
salvation rests in Him. In Christ. What was the will of the father
then that he should accomplish? First of all, to honor the law
of God, to honor it, to magnify it. He said of his servant, he
said, he shall magnify the law. I do appreciate that word because
the Pharisees and all of us like to hover over the law, don't
we? We just kind of like to skim.
We like to pick out what we think we can obey and kind of skim
over the rest. No, Jesus went down to the very
core of the law, which has to do with thoughts and motives
and actions, and Jesus magnified that law. He said if a man lusts after
a woman, he's committed adultery with her already in his heart.
What'd he do? He magnified the law. He showed you that the law
was beyond just outward works. He showed you that the law must
be done inwardly. And that's what he did. He magnified
the law. And you know what he did? He
made it honorable. He was pleased. God was pleased. with Him, with
His work. And not only did He came to fulfill
the law, is that not of the unsearchable riches of Christ's righteousness? How righteous is the Son of God? Well, see, that's how righteous
everyone in Him is. Everyone in Him is as righteous
as Him. Second of all, He came to die
for the sins of His people. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him, even because He was a worthy sacrifice. Christ, the only sinless man,
was willingly, willingly laid down His life for His people.
And as He did, God made Him to bear our sins, listen, in His
own body. See how important this word in
is? I think it's important that you learn how precise the Holy
Scriptures are. In Him, in His own body, He bare
our sins on the tree. And as God poured out all the
fury of His vengeance on Him, so did He pour it out on all
that were in Him. Behold the unsearchable riches
of his death! How that he endured the vengeance
of God, and God saw the travail, the agony, the suffering of his
soul, and was... What's the result? What's the
result of his death? God was satisfied. Therefore, all that are in Christ,
God is Satisfied. Satisfied. God was pleased in Christ. And justice was satisfied. Consider this. Consider if Jesus
failed to pay for one sin. Consider that our sins were in
Him, in His own body on the tree, and as He suffered under the
justice of God, say that He failed one. He did not pay for one sin. Do you realize that He would
not be raised from the dead? And if He be not raised from
the dead, then all people, we are of all people most miserable,
aren't we? If Christ be not raised, then
you are yet in your sins and there's no hope. If one sin were left then for
us to satisfy. What if one sin was left? Say
He died for all sins but one and left that to you. Where then is the hope of that,
that you would be able to pay or satisfy God for that one sin? And don't get me wrong, this
is the religion of most men in our day, that Christ paid for
all sins but unbelief. And you pay for that sin by just
believing. That's not what the Scripture
says. Without the shedding of blood is no remission. You can't
pay for unbelief by faith. It's nowhere to be found in Scripture.
Faith does not pay for sin. Faith is a gift of God as a result
of payment for sin. Faith is a gift of God. And so
then if we had to pay for one work or fulfill one righteousness,
one act of righteousness, there would be no salvation, the glory
of God would be forever darkened, because the decree and will of
God would not be accomplished what is the will of God this
is it thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people
from their sins now did he finish the work did he accomplish the
work you I lay my soul on it Behold the unsearchable riches
of Christ even because he did not fail nor was discouraged. The will of the Father was that
he should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day and all of them that the Father chose Christ died
for will come to faith even though it's against their very nature
to do so. It's against, consider what your
nature was and consider what God did for you. Your nature was opposed to God. Your nature was enmity against
God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And
therefore, in order to be saved, God must oppose your will. That's why he said, Thy people shall be willing. When that's going to happen,
when is that going to happen? In the day of thy power. That's when it happens. In the
day of the power of God, when the work of the Spirit upon the
objects of sovereign free grace comes, they shall be willing.
And we most definitely are willing. We are willing. Behold the riches
of His grace. God chose you in Christ. And
in union with Christ, He redeemed you. And by your union in Christ,
you have received the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. Even so, because you were in
union with Christ, God has moved all providence in time that you
should experience this grace. all friends how unknowingly right was Shakespeare
when he said the world is a stage the world is a stage and the
play is God's redemptive plan that's the play And ever since
time began, it's been working for the redemption of God's people. And you can see it in your own
experience of grace, believer. You can see it in your own life,
how that you were lost unknowingly. didn't know God, had no interest
in God, the things of God, and yet God in mercy set you in a
certain place at a certain time, and his gospel came, and you
heard, and you believed. This was God's purpose from the
beginning that you should believe. There was no chance for you to
miss it. There was no way you were going
to miss out on this. Why? You were in Christ. That's
why. And now I'm going to show you
the second mystery. Not only were you in Christ, but now Christ is in you. That's what our text says. This
is the mystery. The mystery of the glory of God
is Christ in you. What does this mean, Christ in
you? You by nature are sinners. You
were strangers to the covenant of promises. You were enemies
of God, but now through the grace and glory of God, you believe
on Jesus Christ. You know that He's reconciled
us to God and made us acceptable, holy and blameless before God.
He's purged our sins by His one offering, and now the Spirit
of God has come. And now you have a new heart. Those things you once loved,
you hate. And now your affection is set
on Christ. Your heart is set on Him. My only hope and desire is to
be found in Him. That's my heart. That's my affection. That's my hope. That's my desire,
is that I be found in Christ. Not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. That's my faith, is in His faith.
My faith is in Him. We desire to be found only in
Him. What made the difference? How
is it that we know the riches of God's grace to be found only
in Christ? This is how, because Christ is
in you. That's how. This is the purpose and work
of God the Holy Spirit to create in you what was not there before. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians
2 says we are his workmanship. That table right there was not
made on accident. It was crafted. It was crafted. Look at it. It's symmetrically
perfect. Its angles are just right. It
was crafted. And that's exactly what God means
when He tells you of that new nature. Your new nature was crafted
of God. Created of God in you. In you. By the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 4 and verse 24,
Paul says that we should put on the new man. In other words,
we should truly walk after the things of God. And that's what
we do is we put on the new man by faith, which is created. It's not made. It's not made
by you. It's not made by your works.
It's not made by your faith. Matter of fact, you've got faith
because you have this nature created in you. which is after
God in what? True holiness. True holiness. That righteousness which Christ
obtained for us was imputed to us. It was charged to our account
in the eyes and purpose of God before the world began. But now
it is not just imputed to you, it is imparted in you. It's righteousness. Now, stop me if you got this
down and it's not really a mystery at all to you. Just go ahead
and stop me if this is not a mystery at all. Oh, mystery, mysteries. How can this be? How can this
be? Listen to what John says of this.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. 4. Because his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Now, does
this mean believers live a sinless life? Well, that's just foolishness. We know that's not so, because
John, before that, said, if we say we have no sin, we make God
a liar, and the truth is not in us. So, we know we have sin
in this mortal body, in this flesh. We know that. And we confess that, and you
know what? He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
isn't he? So what does he mean? What does John mean that says,
he that is born of God doth not commit sin? It is the same as
Jesus said, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which
is born of spirit is spirit. He also said in John 6, 63, it
is the Spirit that quickeneth. Listen, the flesh profiteth what? Nothing. Nothing. So what happened
to your flesh when God saved you? Nothing. It profited nothing. Matter of
fact, it took a downward turn, the flesh did, because it was
put under the new nature. It no longer reigns supreme. Thank God this flesh no longer
reigns supreme. It has been put down and its
rule is now subservient to Jesus Christ who has set His throne
in my heart. Now it must bow. Now does it bow willingly? No! It kicks, and it spits, and it
hates just as much as it did before. And so we confess with Job, Behold,
I am vile. Paul said, In my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. O wretched man that I am! But that which is born of God
is not fleshly, but spiritual. And according to the will of
God, it is the very nature of Christ in you. The very nature
of Christ in you. Romans 8. Romans 8, 29. is speaking of the purpose of
God. He says, "...for whom He did foreknow," not what, but
whom, "...whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren." God predestinated us to be in the image of His
only perfect Son, complete and righteous. Yet we know that we
must, who have His Spirit, have His image, that we must grow
spiritually. Is that not right? Is that not
according to God's Word? You that have the nature of Christ
in you, is it not that we should grow in this nature? In this
grace? But what does that mean? Well, this growth does not come
by carnal or fleshly works or fleshly religion. We don't grow
in holiness, and we don't grow in righteousness. And my son, when we came here,
I saw a picture of him in my study, and he was up to about
my stomach when we came. Now, if you look at him now, he's
not there anymore. He's grown. He's grown. And so when I say my son has
grown, do you suppose I mean my son has grown another limb? Would that be what I mean? Look at my son's hand, how it's
grown. Would I suppose you to think
he grew another hand? No. When he was born, he had
all of this already in him. It was genetically altered. It was genetically already created
in him, and this is just the experience of it. He's just experiencing
what was already there to begin with. And this is what it is
with us. We have the image of the very Son of God in our hearts,
in our souls. And what does this image do?
It grows in knowledge and in grace. It grows in the experience
of this grace. But it never gets more holy or
righteous. This is why a newborn babe in
Christ is just as sure of the glory of heaven as a mature believer. Because they both possess the
same nature. They both possess the same righteousness. That mature believer didn't earn
any more righteousness, though they live a hundred years. They
could never earn any more righteousness, nor do they want to! Because
Christ is all! Christ is all! And, you know,
the more we grow, isn't that what we see more? That Christ
is all? Matter of fact, that's what it
is to mature. You want to see a true mature believer, it's
one who is completely dependent upon Jesus Christ. And the more
I grow, the more I know I'm dependent on Him. I'm dependent, completely
dependent, on His righteousness. And we grow in understanding
and grace, and these things become richer. More valuable. Now give a diamond
to a baby and see how valuable it is. I mean, he could pick
that up or he could pick up a cardboard box. Sometimes you'd buy presents
for your kids on Christmas. They'd open the present and play
with the box. Okay, they just really don't
know anything about value. But as you grow, you begin to
learn about value. You begin to learn what's rare,
what's important, what's firm and what's shaky. And the more
we grow, the more we depend and see the value of Jesus Christ. the more we see there's Christ
in you. And this is not how religious
people make it. They say, oh, you should let
people see Jesus in you. No. No. That's not what he's
talking about. Matter of fact, that's somebody
trying to grow another arm. That's somebody trying to add
to the righteousness of Christ. No. No, we don't do that. Our hope is in Him. And our hope
is that He is in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. What's your assurance of glory?
My assurance is that I'm in Christ. I was in Christ in election.
I was in Christ in redemption. And now I'm in Christ by the
experience of grace in my heart. Well, how do you know you're
in Christ? Is Christ in you? In Romans 8, it says, If any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Is Christ in you? The apostle
goes on to say, If you are a son of God, you will be led by the
Spirit. Are you led by the Spirit of
God? What does the Spirit of God do? What is He here to do?
Jesus said He'll testify of me, not of Himself. These people
running around, jumping around and thinking that the Spirit
is testifying of Himself by all these works and miracles and
things, that's not the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God testifies
of Christ. Does that Spirit in you testify
of Him, that you must be in Him, that you must have Him, that
He is all for all your salvation? You are in Him and He is in you. You can have all the assurance
you want. Hope of glory. The assurance of glory. The rock-solid,
steadfast hope you may have. Because Christ is in you. And
because He's in you, you know you are in Him. Which is the
mystery of the gospel. only revealed to the Saints,
only revealed to the elect. If you are one, you have great
cause to rejoice in Christ. I pray God blesses you.