Colossians chapter one. We're
going to focus this morning on the end of verse 27, which says
Christ in you is the hope of glory. That's what we're going
to, we're going to get to. I want to read what Paul is saying
right here. And then I want to see some truths
concerning verse 27. And then I want to end this by
asking this question, and I hope this will be a help and a blessing
and some assurance to all of us, but I want to end this by
asking this question. Is Christ in me? And that's what I've titled this.
Is Christ in me? Now let's start by just seeing
what Paul is saying. Look with me at verse 19. He said, for it pleased the Father
that in him, in Christ, should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile
all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated
and 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." Isn't the gospel
glorious as we read this? Isn't it so glorious? He's talking
about all of our wicked works and this is what He's done for
us. He goes on in verse 23 to say, 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, and made a minister. Verse 24, he says, who now rejoice
in my sufferings for you and fill up. That means take the
fullness of it. That which is behind of the afflictions
of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Paul suffered many afflictions
for preaching Christ. He suffered many afflictions.
He was beaten. He was persecuted. He was thrown
in prison. He suffered many things, but
he said, it's all worth it because of who the afflictions are for. Therefore the service of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the head. And therefore the service
of his church, who is the body. In verse 24 he said, 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. Whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God. And that word means the
commission, the calling, the responsibility that has been
given to me. Of God, verse 25, whereof I made
a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me
for you to fulfill the word of God. That means to fully preach
the word of God, this commission. He said, that's the commission.
That's the responsibility that has been given to me for you
to fully preach the word. And, um, that's the commission. That is the commission. We're
not to preach our opinion on the word. We're not to preach
another man's opinion on the word. We are to preach the word.
That's our commission. Verse 26, he went on to say,
even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations
but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. I believe that portion is a little
hard to follow. I read it and read it and, and,
uh, I pray the Lord will, uh, make it clear to us. But what
he's saying is I've been given the responsibility of fully preaching
the word of God, which holds the mystery of the gospel in
it. The word of God holds the mystery
of the gospel in it. And this is what the mystery
is. Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in you is the
hope of glory. Christ in his people, if the
Lord would turn the light on to this, oh, this is just a revelation. Christ in his people, Is the
hope of glory. That's their hope of glory. Them
in him. That's what the next verse goes
on to say. If you look at verse 28, it says, whom we preach warning
every man and teaching every man and all wisdom that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Them in him, him in them. God's people are in Christ Jesus. And Christ Jesus is in God's
people. That's the hope of glory. That's the hope of glory. Now,
let's dwell on a few things here in verse 27. It says, to whom
God would make known the truth. What is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. The gospel is a mystery that has to be revealed by the
Holy Spirit of God. It has to be revealed. If he
does not reveal it, men and women read the Bible cover to cover.
They do it all the time. I've read the Bible cover to
cover. That's wonderful. That's a good idea. I'm all for
that. But men and women can read and
read and read and read and study and study and study and study.
And if God's Holy Spirit does not reveal it, it'll never be
seen. It will never be understood.
This is not something that a man's intellect can just figure out
and understand on his own. It has to be revealed. In Mark
4, the Lord called it the mystery of the kingdom. In Ephesians
1, it calls it the mystery of His will. Ephesians 3 calls it
the mystery of Christ. At the end of Colossians 2, verse
2, if you look at Colossians 2, verse 2, the very end of it
says that it is the mystery of God and of the father and of
Christ. It's the mystery of the spirit,
the mystery of the father, the mystery of the son, God, the
mystery of God. First Timothy 3.16 calls it,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
So this hope of glory is a mystery that must be revealed by God's
Holy Spirit. And He will reveal it to every
single one of His people. That's important to know. That's
important to know. He will reveal it to every single
one of His chosen, particular, elect people. If He chose them,
He will reveal this mystery to them. Verse 27 says, to whom
God would make known. God makes this known to whomever
He's purposed to reveal it to. It's not generally known by the
world. It's known to those who God chose
to reveal it to. And who did He choose to reveal
it to? Look at the end of verse 26. His saints. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known, his people. Turn with
me over to John 14. John 14 verse 15 says, if you
love me, keep my commandments and I will pray the father and
he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him. for he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. He dwells with his people and
shall be in his people. Verse 25 right here says, these
things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you, but
the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you. Whatever
I've said, he will recall that to you. He'll make that known
to you. Look at chapter 15, verse 26,
John 15, verse 26 says, But when the comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the father, even the spirit of
truth, which proceeded from the father, he shall testify of me. When he comes, he will testify
of me. He will speak of me. He will teach me. He will reveal
me Christ. Look at chapter 16 verse 12. He said, I have yet many things
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. How be it when
he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth
for he shall not speak of himself. I tell you that the best way
to know when the Holy Spirit is not there. People walk out
of that place saying, boy, we had the Spirit today. The Spirit
was there. The Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit,
the Spirit, the Spirit. He will not speak of himself
as some Spirit was there, but not the Holy Spirit. So verse
13, he said, when he's come, the spirit of when he, the spirit
of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he shall
not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. And he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me where the
spirit is the glory of Christ is. Where the true revelation
of the spirit is Christ is glorified. The people walk out of there
saying Christ, Christ, isn't Christ amazing. Isn't Christ
wonderful and glorious. That's the spirit of truth. Verse
14 says. He shall glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that
the father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you. God's spirit will reveal
the hope of glory to whomever he's been pleased to reveal it
to. Now, what is the hope of glory? What is that? I've already said it, but I'm
gonna say it in this way. Substitution. Substitution. It dawns on me
as I prepare these, I don't wanna take for granted that anybody, I'm gonna say it this way, I
don't wanna take for granted that everybody knows this and is ready
to go meet God. I wanna take this as though none
of us know this and this needs to be confirmed to all of us.
I want this to be so confirmed to me because we are going to
go meet God. And there is only one hope of
glory. And this is what it is. It's
that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Substitution, substitution. Go with me back to Colossians
1. Colossians 1 verse, we read it
just a moment ago, verse 21 says that we by nature in our flesh,
we were alienated from God. It says we were enemies of God
and it's all because of our wicked works of sin. What must a Holy God, a Holy
God who must punish sin, what must a Holy God do to a soul
like that? He must condemn and punish that
soul. He must, the soul that sinned
it, it shall surely die. Surely. But verse 22 says that
Christ will present us to his father, holy and unblameable
and unreprovable. That means unaccusable in his
sight. How can that be? How can that
possibly be? Here's the answer. Christ in
us. and us in Christ? This is the
answer. With us being in Christ, you
think about us. Think about me. Think about you. Just think about us in everything
that we are. When God the Father looked at
Christ, he saw all the wicked works of us in him. Us in him. He saw all the alienation. He
saw all the enmity of us in Him. And God dealt to Christ everything
that was owed to us. He was dealing that to us. We're gonna look at something
tonight that even more so clearly revealed that to me, but he dealt
to us everything that we were deserving of in him. With that
being settled and done, God the Father did that. With that being
done, God the Father now looks at us and this is what he sees,
Christ in us. in all of His holiness, in all
of His purity, in all of His, there's nothing blameable about
Him, nothing accusable concerning Him. And when He sees us in Him,
He deals to Christ. Why would He do this for us?
He's dealing it to Christ. He said, He's the one I'm well-pleased
with. He deals all the glory of heaven
to Christ in us. How can we be accepted? How can
we be considered this? Holy and unblameable? Have you
seen me? Well, he deals all that to Christ
in us. Substitution, all right? That's
our hope of glory. Now, this is what I wanna know
this morning. I'm gonna, I'm not gonna take too long,
too much longer with this, but this is what I wanna know. Is
Christ in me? I'm being serious. Is Christ
in me? If my hope of glory is totally
dependent on Christ being in me, God the Father looking at
me and seeing Christ in me. If that's my acceptance, if that's
my holiness, if that's my righteousness, if that is my hope, then I have
to know this. Is Christ in me? Is there any evidence that we
can have of knowing whether or not Christ is in us? The answer
is yes. Yes, there is. Philippians two
verse five says, let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus. First Corinthians two says God's
people have the mind of Christ. First John four says, as he is,
so are we in this world. Now I know that we are still
carrying around this old man of the flesh, but I don't have
time to talk about him anymore right now. Let's take just a
minute. and think about some things and see if there's any
evidence of Christ the new man living in here too. We still
have that old man. But let's see if there's any
evidence of Christ the new man living in here too. Because if
he does live in here, that's our hope of glory. I'm not gonna
take the time to turn to scripture references to support all this.
If anybody needs references, I'll give them to you. But for
now, I'm just gonna say some things based on what the scripture
has to say about Christ, okay? If Christ is in me, and you assess
yourself, okay, if Christ is in you, I'm gonna say if Christ
is in me, I mean us. If Christ is in me, I will love
God. And I'm talking about capital
G, capital O, capital D, God. I'm talking about the true and
living God almighty. Father, Son, and Spirit, God. I'm talking about verses 16 to
18, the head of everything, God. I'm not talking about this weak,
puny, ridiculous, little G nothing. I'm not talking about that at
all. I'm talking about God. God. If Christ is in me, I will
love God. I will love his holiness. The fact that he must do what's
right. You see, people think he's gonna
sweep their sin under the rug. He cannot do that, he's holy.
He must do what's right. If Christ is in here, I will
love his justice, the judge of the earth. I will love that the
judge of the earth is going to judge all sin, even my own. David in Psalm 51 was crying,
whatever you do with me, you're just and right in it. Don't you
love the fact that God the Father was dissatisfied with you and
judged you and condemned you in Christ and dealt with it and
it's done? The flesh doesn't naturally love
that. You tell the flesh naturally, this is what you are deserving
of an eternity in hell. And the flesh will say, don't
you dare tell me that. If Christ is in here, we will
say, that's exactly what I see right here. That's exactly what
this deserves according to the just and holy law of God. If Christ is in me, I will love
God. I love his justice. I love his holiness. I will love
God's righteousness. God's righteousness. I will not
go about trying to establish my own. I will absolutely love
and look to the righteousness of God, which is Christ our savior. If Christ is in me, I will love
God's truth. I will love his word. I will
love his law, the truth of it. Everything it has to say about
him, everything it has to say about me, the truth of it. If
Christ is in me, I will love God's grace. This is what he
said. He said, I will be gracious. I will be gracious. Grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. He loves free grace. Think about this. Why did he
do that? Because that's what he wanted
to do. That's what he loved to do. He loves free grace. If he's in here, so will I. So will I. If Christ is in me,
I will delight in mercy. Every time that word mercy is
said, it'll be music to my ears. I will delight in it. I will
delight. He said he delights in mercy. And if he's in here, so will
I. Mercy provided through the blood.
If Christ is in me, I will desire Humility. Religion is one of
the most proud places I've ever seen in my life. But if Christ
is in me, I'll desire humility. I'll desire meekness. I'll desire
lowliness. He said, learn of me. This is
how I am. And this is what I've done. He
humbled himself. That's what he wanted to do.
That's what he desired to do for his people. And if he's in
me, I'll desire the same thing. John the Baptist said, I must
decrease. When Christ is in a child of
God, all of them say, amen. I want to, I must. Why? I want to. I just have to, I
want him to increase and I want me to decrease. Do you know that
honestly that's what Christ said about his people? I want them
to rise up, therefore I'm gonna come down. Spurgeon said, I love that story
of Spurgeon, he said, I have an issue with the Apostle Paul.
concerning 1 Timothy 1, 15, where Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners.
I am the chief of sinners. Persians said, I take an issue
with him. He is sitting in my seat. I would fain tap him on
the shoulder and say, sir, go up higher. That lowest seat belongs
to me. That's what all of God's people
say. If Christ is in me, I will desire being a servant of the
Father, meaning this, I will delight in His will. His will. I will also say with
absolute sincerity, not my will, but thine be done. Not my will,
but thine be done. Whatever providence he sends
to me, I will say, by his grace, by him being in me, I will say,
if this cup of providence cannot pass except I drink it, thy will
be done. It's the Lord, let him do what
seemeth him good. If Christ is in me, I will see
the salvation of God's people as being finished. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 19 30, it is finished. He said in John 17, father, I
have finished the work you gave me to do. He sat down on the
throne of his glory. Why? The work was finished. Had
it not been finished, he would have never sat down. He says
it's finished. If he's in me, I'll say it too.
I'll say it's finished. To God be the glory, great things
he has done. Period. Finished. Last page. If Christ is in me, I will love
God's people. I will love God's people. He
said, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples if
you have love one for another. Oh, he loved his people. He loved them to the end. He
laid down his life. Greater love has no man than
this. Laid down his life for him. If he is in us, so will
we. We will love union and communion
with God's people. If Christ is in me, I will go
to great lengths to make peace with God's people. That's what
he did. He went to great lengths for
that. I will go to great lengths to provide forgiveness to God's
people. That's what he did. If Christ
is in me, I will have compassion on God's people. I will be merciful,
I will be gracious. As His desire is, so will mine
be. So we can ask ourselves, we can
answer it within ourselves, do we love God? Hearing about that
true and living God, do we love God? Do we love His holiness
and His justice? Do we delight in His mercy? Do
we delight in His will? Do we delight in His gospel?
Do we delight in His worship with His people? If so, that's
Christ in us. We don't get the glory for that.
That's Christ in us. That's the Spirit of Christ groaning
in us, living in us, crying, Abba, Father. in us, and that's
our hope of glory. He is our hope of glory. Him in us, His work in us, that's
the hope. And all I have to say is thank
God for the hope. Thank God for the hope that He's
given to us. I pray He'll give all of us that
hope. All right, you're dismissed.