Take your Bibles now and turn
with me to Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. We're looking at verses
23 through 29. Again this morning, the second
time that I've been through these verses, but I believe I had more
emphasis on the first part. Then the second, and I wanted
us to see these things again if the Lord is gracious to teach
us. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 23, Paul said, if you continue
in the faith, let's read verse 21. And you were sometimes alienating
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death. to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was preached
to every creature, which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister." who now rejoice in my suffering 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, whereof
I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God. The word dispensation means stewardship. According to the stewardship
of God, which is given to me. for you to fulfill the Word of
God, even the mystery which God hath hid from the ages and from
the generations, but now is made manifest to the saints. Now, the title of my message
this morning is The Necessity of Preaching and Preachers. The necessity, the necessity
Paul here mentions in verse 23, he said, If you continue in the
faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, which you have heard, and how did they
hear this? They heard which was preached
to every creature under heaven, and who was the one that preached
it? Paul said, whereof I am made
a minister, a preacher of the gospel. Now the apostle having
declared in this chapter, we're going to go back a little bit
and see that he declared the deity of Christ in verse 15. He declared the deity of Christ. He declared in verse 18 his preeminence. in this matter of salvation?
That God, in verse 19, said, in him should the fullness dwell. What fullness is that? Now, in
the second chapter, in verse 9, he said, in him is the fullness
of the Godhead. But this fullness that he's talking
about here is the fullness of reconciliation. That's the text
here. What's the word I'm looking for?
It escapes me. That's the context of this chapter. He's going to talk about reconciliation. So in whom is the fullness of
reconciliation? Christ is the fullness of reconciliation. And then he says in verse 21,
he reminds us of something. That this reconciliation was
not just of things in heaven and earth, but even you. This
is the purpose of God that Christ should reconcile even you who
were alienated and strangers, enemies of God in your mind by
wicked works. Have you ever considered how
far we were removed from God by sin? Have you considered the
greatness of this? How deep is the pit of our sin? How vile was our transgression? And how great is that gulf that
is fixed? You remember when Abraham talked
to the man in hell, he said, Behold, between us is a great
gulf fixed. So that no man can come either
there or go there. There's no way for man to bridge
this gulf, this divide. And I'll tell you who has fixed,
bridged this gulf is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. How great is that
gulf fixed between us? And remember with Jesus, the
Lord gave the parable of those two creditors. He said the one
owed five pence and the other 50 or 500. In other words, you could say
a man owed $5 and a man owed $5 million. But what did their master do?
He said he freely forgave them both. They both were freely forgiven. Now they both were set free from
the bond of imprisonment. They both owed their liberty
to the grace and mercy of their master, yet there was a difference,
wasn't there? There was a difference. And what
was the difference? Love. He said to that Pharisee, he
said, which of them do you suppose would love more? And he said,
well, the one that was forgiven more, he'll love more. And he said, you've rightly said,
you've rightly judged. Those who are forgiven much,
love much. If you view the gulf of your
alienation to be no great distance, then surely you will love the
Master little. If you don't think this matter
of sin is a big deal, then surely your love is very small. Your
love is very small. But for us, who were estranged
from the womb speaking lies, we who by nature were in the
pit and hole of iniquity in which every thought of the imagination
of our heart is evil continually, surely our Lord must have spanned
a great gulf in order to reconcile us. Did he not? How great was this gulf! How
great was this span that He reconciled us! Behold how low He must have
stooped down! How far He must have gone in
order to get us! How great is that gulf! How great is the whole of our
iniquity. That's what Paul's showing us.
It's why he continually elevates Christ and abases us, so that
he would show us the great gulf that God did span at Calvary. In 1 Samuel 2, verse 8, it says,
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the
beggar from the dunghill, to sit among princes, and to make
them inherit the throne of glory. And we know we who know no righteousness
are made righteous by Him who knew no sin. And seeing He was
made sin for us and suffered in His flesh, Seeing that God
was pleased by His one offering, we are made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is what reconciliation is.
It is bringing two parties that are opposed to one another and
reconciling them together. Our sin hath separated us from
our God, but behold what Christ hath done. He hath reconciled
us to God by His blood. Surely, this makes every believer
in Christ, everyone who has the righteous nature of Christ created
in him, we have a new nature. But I'll tell you, we still have
this old nature that we were born with. We still have this
old nature of sin that causes us to groan within ourselves. Proverbs 14 10 it says the heart
knoweth its own bitterness Do you not know your own bitterness?
There's you can walk around with a smile on your face all day
long, but in your heart, you know your bitterness and What
is the bitterness of the believer? It is his own sin That is the
bitterness of my heart is my own nature. I Every regenerated person knows
the deep experience of the soul and painful pains of the heart, which dead professors have no
acquaintance with. You know, I talk about the pains
of my nature, and man, people just look at me like a calf in
a new gate. They have no idea what I'm talking about. They're
just dumbfounded. What do you mean? What are you
so down about? Oh, my sin, my sin, my sin. I'm always down about that. See,
because I know something about that gulf that he's bridged. I know something about reconciliation. I know how far he reached. And
I tell you, the more I know about that, the more I grow to love
my master. The more I know about that, the
more I grow to love my master. John said this, if we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Scripture and experience prove
the believer is not exempt or absent from sin. And David was
a man after God's own heart, yet he committed adultery, murdered,
and lied and covered it up. Abraham was a friend of God,
and yet Abraham, to expedite the promise, went ahead of God. went to Hagar and had that son,
Ishmael. You remember Aaron, God's chosen
high priest, and what was happened to him the first chance that
Moses was away? He built a golden idol. Do you
not see that we are prone to every sin? Though Christ has
reconciled us, though He's made peace with God, yet we still
have this old nature that we are reminded of constantly in
Scripture. Remember the pit from which you
were dug. I'll tell you, sometimes people
who profess faith may be deceived in their heart. They profess
to believe in Christ, And they try to use the grace of God as
an excuse for sin. They try to use it as an excuse.
Well, God saved me by His grace. That's all right. I can just
go live this way. You can go on to hell that way. But that's
not the way of the heart of a believer. That's not one who's been reconciled.
One who's been reconciled knows the goal and hates his sin. Opposed to it. Doesn't mean he's
exempt from it, but he sure is vexed by it constantly. True believers are keenly aware
of our old nature and feel its sharp stabs and smell its stench. We who believe on Christ, we
are reconciled to God and we We know these pains, but notice
this, Paul says this, if you are reconciled, if you continue
in the faith, this is the evidence of it. The evidence of grace
is this, we will endure in the faith. We will continue in faith. The just shall live, how? By
faith. We don't begin by faith and end
by law. We begin by faith, we walk by
faith, and we end in faith. Faith in Christ Jesus alone. Therefore, we believe on Christ,
are reconciled, we continue, listen to His words, grounded
and settled. Now listen, I am grounded and
settled in Jesus Christ. He's it. He's all. My faith rests completely, solely,
and absolutely in the person and work of Christ as it is written
in Holy Scripture. That's our faith. The psalmist said those that
be planted in the house of the Lord. Those that be grounded,
settled, rooted, planted of the Lord in the house of the Lord
shall flourish in the courts of our God. Believer, we are
surely planted and rooted in Christ from eternity, but God
has appointed in time that the seed of the gospel should fall
on good ground, which was prepared of the Holy Spirit. That seed God purposed is His
Word and they purposed that that seed should fall on our hearts. And that seed should come in
and germinate and bring forth fruit. How do you know when you plant
an apple tree, a seed? How do you know it's an apple
tree? I can't tell by seed or anything
else. I'm not a farmer. I have no clue. How do I know? Well, when that thing grows and
it brings out apples, that's how I know. Well, man, that was
an apple tree. Look at that. There's some apples
on it. How do I know if you are a believer
in Christ? There's fruit. There's fruit. That's how I know the seed was
good. That's how I know the ground was good. And all of this was
done outside of the power of the tree that was planted. When you see an apple tree, you
walk up and say, man, you did a great job. He didn't do anything. God did that. God gave the fruit. So it is with us. Now, how are
we planted? This is important. How was the
seed planted? How did you come to faith in
Jesus Christ? How did you do it? You did it
the same way everyone else did. Through the preaching of the
gospel. Through the preaching of the
gospel. It was by the preaching of the
gospel we heard of the great person of Jesus Christ, the God-man
mediator. It was by preaching. that we
heard of His reconciliation. It was through the preaching
of the gospel that we heard of our own depravity and wickedness
and sinfulness. It was through the preaching
of the gospel that we heard of His reconciliation. But how did you believe this
gospel? Listen, I'm preaching and everyone here is listening
or you've heard. You can't help but hear me. I
know that. I know that. I've had people
come in off the street because they hear me from here and I
don't have a microphone or speakers or anything else. They may hear
me. You may hear me. But how did this gospel come
in power to your heart? It was not by the preaching or
the preacher. It was not in the power of the
preacher nor even the eloquence of the message, but only by the power of God. Yet our God was pleased to use
this means above every other means. God could have chosen
any other means. But in wisdom, in the wisdom
of God, in order to make the wisdom of man to be foolishness,
God chose preaching. Faith cometh how? By hearing. And not just hearing anything.
See, I don't just come up here to preach just anything. We preach
the Word of God. We preach the Word of God. Now
Paul says this, if you continue in the faith grounded and rooted
and be not moved away from what? The hope of the gospel. This is what we preach. No true
believer will be ever moved from this gospel seeing that he has
been planted of God. planted through the preaching
of the gospel, which was preached, Paul said, to every creature.
The people of this generation, listen, I want you to understand
why there are not many to come and hear this gospel. Because
this generation, as in all natural generations, are opposed to preaching. They love any and every other
means to convey the gospel but preaching. They'll do it anyway. They'll
find any other means. Now they may tolerate it for
a little while, but if preaching is the center and sum of the
worship service, many will not stay. These wicked men may grit
their teeth and bear it. Do you grit your teeth when you
come in here and it's just like, oh my, oh, hell, I know I got to
go, but oh, there's got to be some other way. This is, oh,
this is horrible to sit and listen to that man talk about Christ
and sin, Christ and sin, Christ and sin all the time. It just
gets so boring. Yeah? You're dead. That's why you're dead. You've
never had this gospel come in power in your heart. You may
have pretended, but you don't love this. You will hate heaven. You'll hate it. Preaching of the gospel is to
this generation foolishness. And even though men know it may
be the only means of salvation, if God don't keep you in it,
you won't stay in it. Natural man just won't stay in
it. I tell you, my parents kept me in it by force. That's just
so. And when I got away, I ran as
far as I could from it. You know who brought me back
to it? God did. God did. Paul calls these people,
those who perish, those who hate this gospel and despise the preaching
of this gospel, who call this preaching, this means foolishness. He said, those are the ones on
their way to hell. They're perishing. That's because
there's no life in it to receive it. You know, when I preach,
I preach, I know this, I preach to the living and the believer
and man, the gospel resounds in their ears so sweet. Why?
Because you got a spiritual ear to hear it. You know, you preach
to a set of bones. You lay a dead man down there,
and you can preach into his ear. Why can't he understand it? Because
he has no... You know, in that ear, when it
goes in, it hits that drum, and there's blood circulating, and
then electrical impulses go to the brain, and then you can understand. With the dead man, there's no
drum beating, there's no blood circulating, there's no electrical
current. There's no way he can receive
it. He's dead. That's why he hates
it. That's why he hates it. No, he's dead. Oh, but not us. We were living. We love it. And
they may say, they may not say preaching is foolishness out
loud. They don't dare do that. That would ruin their reputation.
Oh man, I dare not say bad things about the preacher or about this.
Oh, I'll just say, good message. Oh, it's a great message. They
don't dare speak out. But listen, if they have no love
to hear this gospel among the saints of God, if you have no
desire to be here, if they will not forsake all that they have
and attend to the preaching of the gospel, They by their actions
are saying foolishness. Preaching is not necessary. Isn't
that what you're saying? If you willfully absent yourself
from the hearing of the gospel, you are saying it is not necessary. There's got to be some other
way. No. Not according to this book. God says by the foolishness of
preaching, He has chosen to save them that believe. If men will not support the preaching
of the gospel, they are saying it's a foolish waste of money.
Surely we can do better by feeding the hungry, building houses for
the poor, building wells in the desert. Well, those things are
good. But I'll tell you this, building
a house for a poor man will not save his soul. You can build all the wells you
want, but unless you get the water of this Word through the
preaching of the gospel, it will profit a man nothing. Lost men seek outward things. They seek miracles, carnivals,
feasts, and festivals. They seek after knowledge and
learning, but we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. which is the power of God unto
salvation. I'll show you a couple places
real quick. Go to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 verse 16, Paul
says this. Let's read verse 15. So as much
as in me I am ready, to preach the gospel to you that are at
Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it, the gospel of Christ,
is the power of God unto salvation to every one believeth, to the
Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, in the gospel of
Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall
live, how? By faith. In 1 Corinthians, look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. See what importance Paul puts
on this preaching of the gospel. Baptism's important, isn't it?
Isn't that an important ordinance? If you believe on Christ, you
should be baptized. That's the only means of confessing
before men that we are believers in Christ. Not coming to the
front, not shaking the preacher's hand. None of that's scriptural. The only confession of faith
is this pool, the baptismal pool. That is a confession. And it's
important. But look what Paul says about
it. In verse 17, he said, For Christ sent me not to baptize. But to preach the gospel, not
with the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made of
none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved it
is the power of God. Verse 21, for the wisdom. For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. Listen, this is why it's necessary. You want to know
why preaching is necessary? Here it is in verse 21 in the
middle. It pleased God. That's all you need to know.
Shouldn't that cause all strife to cease? All contention about
this matter of preaching? That should stop everything.
It pleased God. That by the foolishness of preaching, by the foolishness of preaching
to save them That belief. For the Jews require a sign,
the Greeks seek after wisdom. That's that outward thing. Men
want outward things. But we preach Christ crucified. The Jews a stumbling block, Greeks
foolishness. But unto them which are called
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. So why are we doing this? Because
there's a power of God and the wisdom of God. Because it's the
will of God. And all who hear this gospel
in the power of the Holy Spirit, they are planted of the Lord
and they shall flourish and grow by this word that is preached.
Why should you attend to the preaching of the gospel? Because
this is how you grow. This is how you grow. Some of you have been in the
faith a long time. Some of you have been around
for a long time believing the gospel. Have you reached a point
of maturity to where you're sufficient? Is there a point where you say,
okay, I've attained this, and I need no more? No. No. Peter says, as newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. He said, lay off all malice and
envy and strife. Put off the carnal wisdom of
the flesh. and become as helpless babies
resting in the arms of their mother. That's how we're to come
to this word every time it's preached, as a helpless babe
leaning on Jesus Christ. Now you heard, there's obviously
a newborn babe and somebody visited. You've heard that baby cry. There is nothing like a newborn
cry. It is a shriek and a shrill that
you cannot ignore, you can't put it away, you can't... It
will not stop until it is satisfied with milk. That's how believers come to
this gospel. Crying and shrieking and they will not be satisfied
with anything else. If I were to come up here this
morning and start preaching on self-esteem, would you be satisfied with that? You should rightly throw me out
on my ear if that's what I've come to preach to you. I've come
to preach that garbage. If I've come to lift you up,
you should throw me out. I'm no good. And you would. I remember when
my daughter was a baby, and I'm telling you, that shriek, I won't
forget it. If she could have thrown Cheryl to the ground and
taken the milk, she would have. That's how the believer comes.
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take
it by force. We must have it. I must have
it or I die. I gotta have this word. I must
be fed. Give it to me. That's how believers
come. Desiring the sincere milk. You
know what? God is sincere in giving it to
you. It's like a mother giving milk
to her babe. Is she gonna trick the child
and not give it? How many times you come here expecting nothing and walk away full? That's because
he's sincere about giving this word to you. He's sincere. And we should be sincere about
getting it. We must have it. Oh, the sincerity of the Father
to provide the word to every hungry child. But oh, how painful
it is for a believer who neglects to drink. They, like Lot, have set their
tent toward Sodom, and it will surely vex their righteous souls.
They are like David, pursued by Saul, who flees to Ziglag. But they will suffer the loss
as David did. Believers may be rebellious as
Jonah to forsake God's revealed will and use providence to do
it. All right, now, who among us
has not been guilty of such evils? To use providence as a means
not to feed on the gospel. Didn't Jonah do that? He said
this, he said, well, I know God said go to Nineveh, but look,
man, there's a ship. And man, it's pointed in the
direction I want to go. Look at that. It's going over
there to Tarsus. Now, that's where I wanted to
go, so obviously, providence is for me. Well, look at that. I got just enough to pay the
fare. Oh, God is blessing me. Look
how God's blessing me. He gave me this, so obviously,
He really doesn't want me to go over here, because He gave
me the money to go this way. And Jonah said, look at all these
people, they're going this way. So I must be going in the right
direction since everybody else is going in that direction. And
look, I got all these sailors, all these sailors, these mighty
sailors. Obviously, God provided their skill and their wisdom
so they can get me to Tarsus. And look, the weather's great.
Everything's working fine. So obviously, God's not told
me not, you know, I must have been mistaken. God said go to
Nineveh, but I think He means go to Tarsus. Sometimes we like Jonah fall
asleep in the middle of that ship in the middle of our rebellion
Instead of just simply listening to the Word of God listen Forsake
not the assembling of yourselves together As the manner of some is why
the days approaching The day is approaching. You need to be
fed. You must be fed. And I'll tell you this, if you
are God's preaching, he will not allow you to live long in
that way. Remember the bride as she was
asleep. And the Lord knocked on the door
and he said, open to me my love, my dove, my undefiled. My hair
is wet with the locks, with the dew of the night. Let me come
in. And she says, I'm asleep. How can I put on my shoes again? How can I do this? How can I?
It's too much trouble. What do you do? He put his hand
to the hole of the door and the smell permeated her room. And her bowels were moved within
her and she rushed to the door only to find what? He was gone! You not see? And then this being
gone causes her to rush out into the streets, and she is beat
by the night watchman. She's hit by them. Why? That's the preacher just preaching
the gospel. And of course, you know, we're
not here, I'm not here to beat you. I'm just here to tell you
God's word. But I'll tell you, when the word
of God comes in conviction, it feels like it, doesn't it? But he only does that to draw
you back to himself. You remember Lot, he was delivered
from Sodom. David was delivered from Ziglag. And every believer will be delivered
from his backsliding. Therefore, child of God, forsake
all things. for the preaching of this gospel. Why? Because God ordained it
and you need it. That's why. Because without it, you'll suffer
poverty. Poverty of soul. There's something, if there's
something or someone that is causing you to forsake to hear
the gospel, then forsake them. And lastly, who is to preach
this gospel? Paul said, I am made a minister. Paul who preached the gospel,
as do all preachers of the gospel, knows something of this, that
we were made ministers. And being made a minister, I
never knew it until I was made one. It is a life full of suffering. I know you don't think that.
I didn't. I thought the preacher had a
good day every day. I thought the preacher had a
day where he just studied the Word of God and the Word of God
just bloomed before him and he had all wisdom just delivered
to him on a silver platter. I thought that everything was
well with him. No. Paul said this in verse 24,
"...who now rejoice in my suffering for you." We who are called are
made to be ministers. Our calling is not a result of
men calling us. We're not made ministers by schools
or anything else. We're made ministers by God,
and I tell you, we're made ministers to suffer. The result of our
calling is suffering. And I tell you, I've not suffered
like Paul, but I tell you, every man who
is a minister has suffered. And why do we do it? Why do we
suffer? I do it for you. Do you suppose that I left everything,
rooted up my family, and came here for money? Did I come here for the paycheck?
Did I come here for the benefits? Is that it? One lady asked me,
what did they give you as a package deal? Nothing! That's okay. I didn't come for that. You know
what I came for? For you. I came to preach this word for
you. And all the suffering that entails
that For you. For you. All things we suffer for the
elect's sake, that they may obtain salvation which is in Jesus Christ
with eternal glory. Therefore, we gladly, freely
leave all for the elect's sake, we preach the gospel to all men,
we preach to every creature the same gospel, But I tell you,
only the elect will hear it. And I know this, I am to you
a saver of life unto life. And to you who do not believe,
I will be a saver of death unto death. The very word I preach
that God uses to save men, I tell you this same word will damn
men. It'll condemn them. But yet I want you to understand
this, what keeps me going, what keeps me in this ministry is
to know this, that whatever happens when this word goes out, it is
a success. Success is not measured by numbers.
It's not measured by outward observances. It is measured by
this. God says, I send my word out
and it will accomplish what I send it to do. Therefore, Paul says,
we are triumphant in our message every time. Every time. Do you realize that
I am a saver a sweet savor in the nostrils of Jesus Christ? We are a savor and we are sure
of this gospel message that it's always victorious because it
is the Word of God. Paul said, Thanks be to God,
which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest
the savour of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are
unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved, and in
them that perish. Do you not get that? Both, if
you're saved or if you're lost, I'm still a sweet savour in the
nostrils of Christ. I still am victorious. Why? Because the Word of God
is used by the Spirit of God either to save or to harden.
And therefore, it's successful. Whatever it's doing this morning,
it is successful. It is. And now in Christ, I do
preach to you outside of Christ. Come to Christ. This is our message,
isn't it? Isn't it? You who have come to
Christ, is that not still the message you need? Come to Christ.
Yes. Just shall live, how? By faith.
If you continue, how? In the faith, rooted and grounded
in this gospel which we preach to you. You continually need
it. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. We say, if you tarry till you're
better, you will never come at all. And all who believe on Jesus
Christ alone, listen, they shall be saved. That's our message. Do you realize this, that if
you reject Christ, you're responsible? But if you receive Christ, God
is responsible. He gets all the glory if you
do. If you get hell, you get exactly what you deserve. If
you get heaven, it is because of His mercy, not because of
your choice. See, this is all the glory of
God. It is the message we preach,
the gospel of free salvation in Christ. And listen, our gospel is this,
it's done. It's done. Don't you love to
hear that? It's done. It's done. It's finished. Salvation's full and complete
and all and every aspect, it's done. I need to hear that over
and over and over and over again. And you know what? When I get
to heaven, I'm going to hear the same thing. It's done. It's finished. And this message, Paul said,
will only is a mystery. He said that even in mystery
in verse 26, which has been hid from the ages and generations,
but is now made manifest to the saints. You not get this. Why do you enjoy it? Why do you understand it? How can you enter into it while
others don't? It's a mystery to them, isn't
it? You are a mystery to them. Tell them where you're going
and see if you're not a mystery. My goodness, how do you stand
it? That man can't talk. That man
just doesn't have any ability. He's just not a, man, there's
no fun there. There's nothing to do for my
kids. Oh man, this is, it's horrible. How do you bear it? Obviously,
it's a mystery to you. It's not to me. I know why you're
here. Because you have to have it.
You must hear of Christ again. And that's what he said, this
mystery is to who? To the saints. That's the only
one who's ever gonna hear it. It's the only one who's gonna
believe it. I pray that God would even show
you the necessity of preaching. And preachers. that we are here
for you and that you should avail yourself to it and forsake everything
else. Is that wise? Would it be wise for you to give
up everything to hear this gospel? Or would it be wise for you to
keep everything and not hear this gospel? Judge. You that are believers,
I know the judgment. Because you see the great gulf
that he has reconciled. Therefore, you what? Love much.
You love this message. May God bless this to your hearts.