Good evening. If you will open
your Bibles with me back to Colossians, this time chapter one. Colossians chapter one, and look
with me at verse 25. Paul says, where have I made
a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God, 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, whom we preach, warning every man
and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus, Whereunto I also labor, striving
according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. The title
of our message is Christ in You, the Hope of Glory. The gospel
of God is a mystery. It's a great mystery. And the
mystery of the gospel is Christ in you, the hope Now, we just
read that this mystery has been hidden from ages and from generations. The things of God are hidden
from all men and women by nature. We don't know them. We don't
have the ability to know them, and we certainly don't understand
them. Look at verse 26 again. Paul said, 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.
Though this mystery is hid to all of us by nature, God has
been pleased to make it known. He has been pleased to reveal
this mystery to his saints. And I'm so glad that he has.
Otherwise, we would never know. We would never know. Turn over
with me to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9, verse 22. What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction? Now, it's no surprise
that God makes His power known. We see His power in everything,
don't we? We just wake up and look at the
sky and we see the power of God. He does make His power known,
and He makes His wrath known. But look at verse 23, here's
the good news. Isn't it a mystery that God would be pleased to
make known the riches of His glory to us Gentiles? Doesn't that make your heart
rejoice? It does me. Scripture says salvation's
of the Jews, for the Jews, for Israel. Spiritual Israel. We just read it, there's neither
Greek nor Jew. Christ is all and in all. We're one and the
same in him. One and the same. Now we do not deserve for God
to make the mystery known to us. We don't deserve it. We can't
do anything to earn this. We just read it, here's what
we are. We're vessels of mercy. Empty vessels. We have this treasure
in earthen vessels. We're nothing but clay in the
potter's hand, but praise God he made vessels unto mercy. Vessels
unto mercy. We're just sinners. That's all
we are. We're just sinners saved by grace. Don't you love that song, Only
a Sinner? Saved by grace. That's all we are. Well, how
has God been pleased to make this mystery known? How has he
been pleased to make his gospel, his good news known to sinners? Turn to Galatians chapter one. The mystery of the gospel is
Christ in you. God must make the gospel known. God must make Christ known. He must be revealed to us, who
he is and what he's done, and he must be revealed in us. You recall that Samaritan woman,
she thought that she knew God. If you just read in John chapter
four, we see that she had some religion that she was clinging
to. But when the Lord came to her, that was her hope, the Lord
came to her. He came to her and he told her,
you don't know what you worship. She thought she did. She said,
I know that Messiah, when he comes, he's gonna tell us all
things. And here's where it all changed for her. He looked her
straight in the face and said, I am. He made himself known to
her. And that's what must happen if
we are to have any hope. He must make himself known to
us. Here in Galatians chapter one, we see what Paul has to
say. In verse 11, he said, I certify
you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not
after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. For you have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion. how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews'
religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers, but when it pleased
God. who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood." The only way that we're going to
learn the gospel, the only way we can know anything concerning
God, is by revelation of Jesus Christ. He must be revealed to
us. And not only must He be revealed
to us, Paul said in verse 16 that Christ was revealed in him.
This is personal. This is personal. God must call
us by His sovereign irresistible, effectual grace. And if he does,
we are going to come to him. We are going to believe on him.
We're going to know him. If he speaks the word in power
to us and he says, I am, we're going to bow. We're going to
fall flat on our face and bow before him. The Apostle Paul
did, didn't he? Do we remember what happened
when he knocked Paul down into the ground? And he said, saw,
saw, why persecutest thou me? And I love what happened. He
said, who art thou, Lord? What's going on? And what did
he tell him? He said, I am Jesus, whom thou
persecutest. He told him who he was. He told
Saul who he was by laying him low, knocking him down, and that's
what must happen. And that's, praise God, that's
what he's pleased to do. And I love how Paul said here,
he said, immediately, I conferred not with flesh and blood. I didn't
have to. I don't have to think about this.
God makes us willing. You see, it's all His work. Turn
with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Has this been your experience? You know, the best thing God
could ever do for us is to expose us for what we are, darkness. And I thought of a very simple
illustration. You know how darkness is exposed? By the light. You walk into a dark room, you
turn the light on, the darkness is gone. It's not there anymore. Well, that's exactly what God
has done for his people. He has shined Christ the light
in our hearts. And what has that done for us?
It's revealed to us, I'm nothing but darkness. He is the light. And now we see all the glory
of God right there in the face of Jesus Christ. We see him as
all and ourselves as nothing. Turn over to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter
2. And I'll just say this, if God does
not shine the light of Christ in our hearts, we're going to
remain in darkness. Over in John chapter 3, we read
that men, all men, love darkness rather than light. Christ the
light came into the world and we didn't desire him. No man
desired, he had no beauty that we should desire him. We all
seek ourselves, we do not seek him. But praise God, look what
he's been pleased to do. 1 Peter 2 verse 9, but ye are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation,
a peculiar or purchased people, that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Praise God. Praise God, who did
he do this for? Verse 10 says, which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. What a mystery. What a wonder that God would
be pleased to do this for us who were not a people. No bodies,
just sinners. What a gospel we have. Back to
Colossians chapter one. Christ in you is a great mystery, and Christ in you is salvation. Christ in you is salvation. Look here in Colossians chapter
1 and verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ. which are at Colossae. Grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. The gospel is for a particular
people. The good news is for a chosen
people, the saints. And you know who the saints are?
We just read it. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. In Christ. The saints are all
those whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world, chosen us in Him that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. And who did God choose to save?
Sinners. Christ came to save sinners.
The sinners are the saints. The sinners are the saints of
God. Now, I was gonna skip over this,
but I thought it might be needful After he said to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae, he said,
grace be unto you. You know, all the saints of God
are going to experience grace. That's what saves us. We're gonna
experience the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. All grace
is in him. He is grace. It's who he is. It says, grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how
can saints, Sinners, how can we have peace with a holy God?
We're at enmity with God. Scriptures say so. How can we
have peace with a holy God? Look down at verse 17. Speaking
of Christ, it says, And he is before all things, and by him
all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, and having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him, by Christ,
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. How do we have peace with God?
We just read it. Christ gave himself. He sacrificed
himself. He made peace through the blood
of his cross. It took the shedding of the holy
blood of God for us to have peace with God. But now, he is our
peace. He is our peace. Christ in you is a mystery. Christ
in you is salvation. Christ in you is a union. If
someone is in you, you think of a mother and her unborn child,
that's, you don't get any closer than that. That's kinda what
it is for Christ to be in you. We're one, we're one with him.
Now the illustration I'll use is the marriage union. We're
one with Christ in several different types, but we're one with him
in marriage. The saints of Christ are the
bride of Christ. We're said to be the lamb's wife.
The Lamb's Wife. What a mystery. Isaiah 54 verse
5 says, He betrothed himself to us forever. I think of Boaz
and Ruth. He was her kinsman-redeemer.
Christ is our kinsman-redeemer. He took upon Himself the form
of a servant. He came in this world in human
flesh. He married us. Why in the world
would He marry us? I'll tell you why. So that we
might be to the praise of His glory. That's why. So that at
the great marriage supper of the Lamb, He may present us a
holy bride to His Father without spot, without blemish. That's
why. He gave Himself for us. We're
no more two, we're one. He joined Himself together for
us, with us forever. We've been bought with a price,
we're not our own. We belong to Him. Amazing. Amazing. And nothing can ever
separate us from Him. Nothing. Nothing. We're His. I am His and He is
mine. Praise His holy name. We've been
redeemed. Turn over with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Not only are we one with Him,
not only are we the bride of Christ, we're new creatures in
Him. We are His creation. Ephesians 2 verse 10 says, we
are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. We're new creatures
in Him. Here in 2 Corinthians 5, look
with me at verse 17. Says, therefore, if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. God has made us new creatures
in Christ. Old things are passed away. You know, we have the old
man, which is our flesh, everything that we do, everything that we
are, this nature, that's the old man. That's all passed away.
All that sin that is all I am, it's all gone. All things are
become new in Christ. And I love this, look at verse
21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. All our sins are
gone forever because Christ put them away. He took them upon
himself. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. He was made a curse for us. He
was made to be sin for us. He became us to make us the righteousness
of God in Him. Not only has He made us the righteousness
of God in Him, He's given us a new name. You know, in a marriage,
the bride, well, maybe not nowadays, but the bride ought to take her
husband's name. That's scriptural. I won't show
you, you probably know it. But Christ, his name is the Lord
our righteousness. And it says, this is the name
wherewith she, the bride of Christ, shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. He's given us his name. Not only
has he given us his name, he's given us a new home. You get
married, you move in together. All that He has becomes all that
you have. He's given us a new home, a building
of God, a house not made with hands. Eternal in the heavens. Remember what He said before
He went to the cross. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. We don't have to go. He already
went. He went by Himself. He tread
the winepress alone. He did this for us. He went to
prepare a place for us. And I love how he said, he said,
you can't come with me now, but you're going to come here after.
And he said, if I go again, I will receive you unto myself. He didn't
go for himself. Christ never did anything for
himself. He did everything for his bride. And soon we're going
to be with him forever. And that marriage can never end.
Never end. That's the marriage. He has given
us all things because he possesses all things. He is all things.
What more could we possibly want than Him who is everything? We just read that Christ is all.
What more could we possibly want? We have all in Him. John 17 verse
22, Christ said, In the glory which thou gavest me, I have
given them. He's given us His glory, that
they may be one, even as we are one. Christ in you is a mystery. What a mystery. Christ in you
is salvation. And Christ in you is all my hope.
All my hope. Turn to Galatians chapter two. As a result of God's grace bestowed
upon us, we no longer live this life by sight. We live by faith. We are hoping for something that
we cannot physically see. Christ is my hope right now in
this life. Day by day I live hoping in Him. I'm hoping in Him. Now look here
in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. When Christ died, we died in
him. When Christ arose, we arose in
him. In him, I live and move and have
my being. It's all in him. My life is in
him. He is my life. In the life that
we're now living, we live by the faith of Him who loved us
and gave Himself for us. We're not saved by our strong
faith. It's His faith. Our faith in
Him is a result of His faith and faithfulness to His people. We're not saved by our faithfulness,
but His. We look unto Him. We don't look to our faith. I
saw when Brother Bruce wrote an article, you know, his wife is going through
a great trial. They are going through a great trial. And their
doctor said something about, well, at least you have your
faith. People have their faith that they can trust in. We're
not trusting in our faith. My faith looks up to Thee. We
look unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our
faith. We look to Him. If we're not looking to Him,
we don't have faith. We must look to Him and Him alone as
all our hope. Christ alone, Christ in me, is
my only hope of glory. He is my only hope of eternal
life. He said in John chapter 10 concerning
His sheep, He said, I give unto them. eternal life, and they
shall never perish." If He gives us something, we have it. He said, I give unto them eternal
life, we have eternal life. That's not hard to interpret.
That's not hard for us to understand. It should be very comforting.
We shall never perish. Why? Because He gave it to us. If I give it to you, well, it
may not mean anything, but when it comes from Him, He's the giver
and the gift. He is the gift of God. Eternal
life is the gift of God and it's only in Him. 1 John 5 verse 12
says, There's only life in one place. So often I feel I'm so guilty
of this. We think that this is it. We think this is my life.
I heard a message this morning. Our life is Christ. We don't fear death. Death is really the beginning
of our life. If we're in Christ, we'll see it in a minute, but
Christ is our life. Christ is our life. Turn to Galatians
chapter, not Galatians, Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. Now this right here, what we're
about to read, this is for those whom God the Father chose in
Christ. This is for those in whom Christ dwells, Christ in
you, okay? Colossians 3 verse 3 says, for
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. We're dead, yet we live, because
Christ lives in us. Verse 4, when Christ, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him
in glory." Not only has Christ given us life, He is our life.
He is our life. And He's coming back. He's coming
back. He's going to appear a second
time without sin unto salvation. Unto our salvation. He's gonna
come and He's gonna call us up into the air to be with, to forever
be with Him. That's life. That's life. Being with Christ is our life. Turn with me over just a book
to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The hope that God has given us
in Christ. Christ in us the hope of glory.
This is a good hope. This is the only good hope. 2
Thessalonians 2 verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, brethren, Stand fast and hold the traditions
which you've been taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now our
Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath
loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word
and work. You know why our hope is a good
hope? Because it's a God-given hope. I can't give myself hope
for anything. Just take anything. I'm hopeless. I'm hopeless, especially spiritually. We have no hope in ourselves.
The only good hope is the hope that God gives, and He's given
us a good hope through grace, a sure hope that cannot and will
not ever fail. We won't read it, but in Colossians
1, we're told that this hope is laid up for us in heaven,
reserved in heaven for us. Is that good news to you? This
hope that God's given us can never be taken away. That's the
kind of hope I need. That's the only kind of hope
that's gonna last. That's the only kind of hope that's gonna
save us. Christ in us, the hope of glory. And we'll close with
this. Look, Colossians three again. Verse nine. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the
image of him that created him. And let's just be sure we get
this. This matter of putting off the old man, I can't do it.
I struggle with myself every single day. But God is able. God is able. God is, never forget
that. God is able. That new man that
is Christ in us, that's God's work. He is able to perform that
which he hath begun, is he not? We're his work. Verse 11, where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all. And in all, he's all my salvation. David said, this is all my salvation,
all my desire, although he make it not to grow. Christ is all. If there's one thing we ever
learn, I pray it's this, Christ is all. Oh, I pray that I might
learn that. I really mean that. I pray that
I might learn that. He's all our salvation. He's all our hope. Salvation's in Christ alone.
in Christ alone. There's no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. There's salvation in
no other. There's not another Jesus. There's the Lord Jesus
Christ and salvation in Him. There's no other light. There's
no other life. Christ is all and in all. May God be pleased to reveal
Christ, the hope of glory in us. Amen.