On go. I enjoy coming down here to preach
the gospel to you. You are an easy group to preach
to. That makes preaching easy. And that's a testimony to Rupert's
ministry here in the preaching of the gospel. Let's turn to
Colossians chapter one. I'm going to read this whole
chapter. We can never read too much of
the Word of God. 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. We
give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,
and of the love which you have to all the saints. For the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you as it
is in all the world, the same gospel, and bringeth forth fruit
as it doth also in you since the day you heard of it, and
knew the grace of God in truth, as you also learned of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease
to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with
the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that you might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all
might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and
longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet or qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.
All things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist, or are held together. And he is the head of the body
of 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 that is 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 unapprovable
in his sight. If you continue in the faith,
verse 23 will be my text this morning, 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 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 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 this, Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom
we preach. warning every man, teaching every
man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in
Christ Jesus, whereto I also labor, striving according to
his working, which worketh in me mightily. After reading all
that, I really don't need to say much. I don't know that I
need to say anything, but I'm going to. But just reading the
Word of God and if God is pleased to take His Word and by His Spirit
apply it and open my heart, open your heart, we've already had
a good morning. Just having the Word of God. Been able to stand in this pulpit
this morning and freely, freely read to you God's Word. This is not just another book.
This is God's Word. This is his word, and this is
where we go to when we can find comfort and joy and peace. We
find it in Christ, but Christ is never separated from the written
word. The living word and the written
word are never separated. Never. Now this morning I want
to speak to you about this word that came up three times. Hope. Hope. Hope of the gospel. One
of the saddest sights in the world is a person who's lost
all hope. I've seen that. I've seen that
in a person where they had absolutely no hope. They've lost all hope.
And you cannot reach that person. You can't reach it. And I've
seen in that same person get a glimmer of hope and it'll put
a snap in his step. I remember one time having a
conversation with a couple gentlemen, and this man who had just been
so hopeless. He had gotten a little bit of
hope, and he laughed, and when he left our conversation, you
could tell he was just lifted up, and the gentleman was standing
there talking to me, he said, it's amazing what a little hope
will do for you, isn't it? Just a little hope. One of the
saddest things is a person who has no hope. But one of the greatest
joys is when you see someone who's been given a real genuine
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the scripture in Psalm
27. This person who's been given
a hope in Christ, you can't defeat him. You can't defeat him. He
says this in the psalm, though an host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. When a person has that kind of
hope in God, in Christ, you can't defeat him. He says, though a
ho shouldn't camp against me, what do I have to fear? If God
be for us, who can be against us? Is that real to you? Is that real to me that God is
for me in Christ? That I have everything, everything
to hope for. Now this hope that is mentioned
here in this verse is not a wish. It's not wishful thinking. This
hope is expectation. Listen, I expect to be saved. I expect to stand before God
accepted based on God's word. Based on God's word. I take God
at his word. Scripture says, hath he said
and shall he not do it? That's what my hope is based
on, what it's based on. He says here in Colossians 123,
if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have
heard, which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. What is a gospel
hope? What is a gospel hope? Well,
first of all, it's this. A gospel hope is a hope of full
salvation. Full salvation. In Colossians
2.10, it says this, and you are complete in him. I lack nothing. I need nothing
else than what Jesus Christ has provided. I need nothing else
and no one else other than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is all my
hope. You are complete. That word means complete. I lack
nothing. Which is the head of all principalities. No one can overrule him. No one can defeat him. I am complete
in the one who is the head, who is Lord over all. Now brother, that's a hope. That's
a hope. He says in Colossians 1.22, I
read to you, in the body of his flesh through death to present
you holy. This is how we are going to be
presented to God. Holy, unblameable. Now I can blame myself for things
I've done, things that I know I shouldn't do. I've done things
just because I'm stupid. But before God, I'm unblameable. Holy, unblameable, and unreprovable. in His sight. That is the way
we are being presented by the Lord Jesus Christ before the
Father. Holy, unblamable, and unapprovable in His sight. That
is full salvation. That's what it is to be fully
saved. And then it's this, that His people, His people will persevere
to the end. John 10 28, and I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. Philippians 1 6, being confident
of this very thing, confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it, he'll not quit,
he'll not give up on me, He will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. Now that's a good hope. That's a solid hope. That's a
solid hope. It all depends on Him. And that
gives me hope. Real hope. And there's the hope
of the resurrection of the dead. Job said, if a man die, shall
he live again? Absolutely. Absolutely. Paul, in speaking in the book
of Acts, in chapter 24, he says this, and he said, and have hope
toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall
be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. I have a hope. Someday, unless
the Lord comes back right now, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. They're going to put me in a
casket. They're going to take me out to the graveyard. They're
going to lower me down into the grave. Put the dirt over me.
But I have a hope. Because someday, I'm coming out of that grave.
And my body is coming out of that grave. A new body. A new
body is coming out of that grave. I have an expectation of that
happening. I believe that. I believe that. And then we have a hope. A gospel
hope is this also. Forever, forever, to be forever
with the Lord. What we have here, I was telling
this to a man this past week. I said, our life on this earth
is not much more than a grain of sand on the beach. I expect, and you who believe,
you expect to be with the Lord forever. This is temporary. This
is temporary. Whatever I'm going through is
temporary. I know it is. It may seem like
a long time. It may seem like it's never going to end, but
it's temporary. Everything in this life is temporary. But someday, someday, I have
a hope of forever being with the Lord. forever being in God's
presence without sin. Without sin. Listen to this in
Revelation chapter 21. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. And he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away." It's gone. All this is gone. And I know
some, I can tell, there are some people I can tell that to and
they think I'm a nut. They think you're crazy. I do believe there's
coming a time that this earth is going to dissolve. This earth's
going to dissolve. And sin is going to be put away.
There'll be no more sin. There'll be no more sorrow. There'll
be no more tears. There'll be no more heartaches.
There'll be none of that. None of it. And he says here
that former things will pass away. But my relationship to Christ,
my presence in God's presence is forever. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. Look in verse 17. Well, look at verse 16. For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. 1 Thessalonians
4, verse 16. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Now comfort one another with
these words. Comfort one another with these words. These are the
words of God. But we will forever be with the
Lord. Now what is the foundation of
this hope? I have a hope of full salvation. I have a hope of the
resurrection. I have a hope of forever being
with the Lord. I have a hope of that. What's
the foundation of that hope? Not everyone that believes they're
going to heaven is going to be there. Many shall say to me,
Lord, Lord, priest in your name. Doesn't mean anybody works in
your name. And he's going to say, depart from me. I never
knew you. I don't want to be in that crowd. I don't want to be in that crowd. What is the foundation of my
hope? Well, first of all, and that
is not necessarily in this order, but the sovereign mercy of God. My hope is not built on this,
that I straightened up. that I'm living right, that I'm
doing this or that I'm doing that. My hope is not built on
any of my heritage. The Jews said, we be Abraham's
seed. They held on to their heritage.
We are the circumcision. Paul held on to that one time. My hope is this, that all of
my salvation in Christ is by the grace of God. I didn't earn
it. I didn't deserve it. God did
not save me or call me or give me this hope because I deserved
it. He gave it to me because He would
give it to me. It's all in Him. He saved me
because He would save me. It was His will to do so. He
loved me because He loved me. Ephesians 1. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him. When He saw that we would believe, when He saw that we accepted
Him as our personal Savior, when He looked down through time and
saw that I would... No. Before the foundation of
the world. before God created the first
thing. He settled this matter of salvation.
And it was all of grace. You know the scripture in Genesis
said God looked down from heaven to see if any did seek him. What's
it say? It says none did. The imagination of man's heart
is evil and that continually and that includes my heart. There's
none good, no, not one. And I wrote out by that verse,
even me, even me. According as he has chosen us
in him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. That's
the way we are before him. Having predestinated us into
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, not according to what he saw,
or foresaw, or foreknew, that I would do. According to the good pleasure
of his will. To the praise of the glory of what? His grace. You know what I'm looking at
this morning? Trophies of His grace. Trophies of His grace. That's
what we are. Everyone that believes the gospel
here, you are a trophy of the grace of God. Wherein He hath
made us, now I want you to notice something here. According to
the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us. Does it say He made us acceptable? He made us accepted in the beloved. Received. If you accept something,
what do you do? You receive it. You receive it. He made me acceptable in Christ. That gives me good hope. That
gives me good hope. It gives me a strong hope. And
then, here's another foundation of my hope. The work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the substitutionary work of Christ. If Jesus Christ
died on the cross for me, if He paid my sins, He paid for
my sins, I don't have any left to pay for. He's not going to
punish Christ and then punish me. He was wounded. Look over at
Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. I almost preached
from this this morning. There are so many things I wanted
to preach, places I wanted to preach Christ from this morning.
It was hard for me to settle down. It says in verse 4, Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our, it doesn't just say he bore
grief and carried sorrow, does it? He said our, they belong
to someone. The sins and the griefs that
he bore belonged to someone. They belonged to a people. Our
sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes
we are healed. Rather, I heard Henry say this
one time, I did the sin and God did the saving. Do you notice
that everything is on His part? The salvation? It's all Him.
It's all His doing. Salvation, as Jonah said, is
of the Lord from beginning to end. The work of Christ is the
foundation of my hope. His person, who He is, God, Think about who he is. Think
about God. And all that he is, that's who
Jesus Christ is. And he died for me. He's my hope,
he's my savior, he's my all in all. Now that's a hope, isn't
it? That's a hope. And then another foundation of
my hope is this. The gospel hope is this, the
immutability of God. It says over Malachi, I am the
Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Me not being consumed has nothing
to do with my having a good day, bad day. Right, wrong, it has
to do with this. God doesn't change. He loved
me and He'll always love me. I've loved you, He said, with
an everlasting love. Everlasting. Romans 11, for the gifts and
calling of God are without repentance. He'll not take them back. He'll
not change His mind. He's of one mind, the scripture
says. He's of one mind, and who can turn Him? If God has loved me, He's always
loved me. If He has chosen me, that'll
never change. He'll never reject me. Never. And then another foundation of
this hope is the infallibility of the Word of God. I have, listen,
I have his word on it. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And listen, he that cometh to
me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, brother, that's a hope.
When I first heard the gospel, I held on to that scripture.
I held on to that. I said, Lord, you said, you said. I think those are the best prayers.
It's when you take God's word and lay it before him. The word
you said. He that comes to me, I will know
why it's cast out. Lord, I come. I come to you. I come to you for mercy. I come
to you for forgiveness. I come to you for full salvation.
And you said, Hath he said, and shall I not do it? You said,
He that comes to me, I'll not cast him out, nor I come. That's
the foundation of my hope. His word. His word. It says in 2 Timothy 2.19, Nevertheless,
the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knoweth them that are his. He knows everyone. That's His. And coming to Him, looking to
Him, believing on Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And you know what? I take Him
at His Word. That's the foundation of my hope.
His Word. His Word. But it says something here. Would
you go back now and look in verse 23? If you continue in the faith,
in Colossians 1.23, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, be not moved
away from it, which you have heard and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, made
a minister. It has been said that the word
of God is full of promises lest we despair and full of warnings
lest we presume. I don't want to presume upon
the grace of God. Paul, in Colossians 4 and over
in Philemon chapter 1, he recommends, he commends Demas, doesn't he? He commends Demas. And then he
says in 2 Timothy 4.10, for Demas hath forsaken me. Forsaken me. I'll go over Colossians chapter
four here. Let me show you something. Look in verse, Verse 13, For
I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you, and them
that are in Laodicea, and them in Hierapolis, Luke, the beloved
physician, and Demas, Demas, Demas greet you. And then he writes, Demas hath
forsaken me. What happened? What happened? Having loved this present world. Having loved this present world.
It's like over in Matthew 22, about the seed, the sower and
the seed. He also that received seed among
the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches. Shout the word, and
he becometh unfruitful. Love, scripture tells us, you
that loves the world is an enemy of God. I don't want to, I don't want
to be fooled. I don't want to be fooled. I often pray, I often pray. Lord, the faith that I have,
I want to be real. Lord, let it be real. I don't
want to be fooled. I don't want to take it for granted. Examine yourselves, it's written
in the Word of God. Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith. Know you and I have Christ in
you, lest you be reprobate. How can one be removed from the
gospel? Love of the world? False teaching. False teaching. Be careful who you listen to. Be careful. John says try. He said try the Spirit. All those
who stand and preach, try them. How do we do that? By the Word
of God. Here's one of the things that
I remember so well when I first heard Henry preaching the gospel.
I was going to a place, I was Armenian as could be. The place
I was going was, they preached nothing. They preached a lie. I mean, they just preached a
lie. And when I heard Henry, I kept telling this particular
person, something's missing. Something's missing. I don't
know what it is, but there's just something here that's missing. And when I heard Henry, I understood
what was missing. Christ was missing. Christ wasn't
in the message. Christ was missing. Galatians 1, 6-7 says this, I
marvel, Paul said, I marvel that you are so soon removed from
Him. That wouldn't happen to me. You'd
be shocked. Peter said, Lord, I won't deny
you. I'll die for you. He said, I'll
die for you. The Lord said, before that rooster
crows in the morning, you'll deny me three times. The Lord said at the supper,
he said, one of you will deny me. You know what the disciples
said one by one? Lord, is it I? Is it I? Let him that thinketh
he stand take heed lest he fall. We never take this for granted.
I never want to presume upon the grace of God. Ever. I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
and to another gospel." Another gospel, which is not another,
he said. Which is not another. There is
no other gospel. But there are many out there
preaching another gospel. That the word of God knows nothing
about. There are many preaching this morning another Jesus. Another
Jesus. I told a man, very close to me,
He and I, we talked to each other about the gospel, as Arminian
as could be. And I told him, I said, I'm going
to tell you this. You and I don't believe the same gospel. We don't
believe the same God. We're not looking to the same
Jesus. And he was just, you should have seen the look on his face.
I said, we're not. We're not. It's not another gospel. There's
only one gospel. That's a message in itself. But
there'll be some that trouble you and will pervert, twist,
like Satan did in the garden. Take the word of God and twist
it. You know the scripture says that if it were possible that
the very elect of God would be deceived, if it were possible,
if he would allow it, you and I'd be deceived like that. Satan is so, so subtle. Another way a person can be removed
from the gospel is intellect. Intellect. It says in 2 Timothy
3, ever learning. And then what the Pharisees would
do, ever learning. The Lord said through Nicodemus, you are a
ruler? You are a ruler of Israel, you
studied the scriptures, and yet you don't know what I'm talking
about? He didn't know at all what the
Lord was talking about. What he's talking about is being
born again. He said, how can I enter in my mother's womb a
second time? And that's the man who was teaching.
That's the man who had their ear every morning. That's the
man that was standing in the pulpit. And he had no clue what he was
talking about. And he was using the Word of God. They would go
to the temple and the Word of God would be read. And those scribes and pharisees,
they'd take it and twist it. They started introducing their
traditions in place of the Word of God. This is the way it's been done
here for years. Well, you've been wrong for years.
Can we ever consider that? You tell me that all these years
I've missed it? If you've missed Christ, you've
missed it. When I was telling that lady that, I said, there's
something missing here. And then when I heard Henry,
I told Henry, I said, Henry, what you were saying and what
I was reading in the Word of God for the first time matched. It matched. It was like a puzzle that finally
came together. And the picture was Christ. Another way a person can be removed
from the gospel is persecution. But he that receiveth the seed
into stony places is the same as he that heareth the word,
and announceth joy, he receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself. He doesn't have the root of the
matter in him. He doesn't have Christ. But doeth
for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises, because
of the word, bye-bye, he's offended. He's offended at God. Why me? Why this happen? You
know, you go to Hebrews chapter 11 and the history of the saints. They lived in caves. They were
sawed asunder. Read what happened to them. because of their belief in God,
because they held to the word of God. Now last of all, I close, I want
to give you why the believer cannot be removed from the gospel. Aren't you glad to hear that?
Man don't end on that last note. I want to end on a good note.
Why the believer cannot be moved away from the hope of the gospel?
First of all, God the Father chose him. God chose me. Christ said, let's get this matter
straight. You didn't choose me. I chose you. That's how it goes. I chose you. God the Father chose
us in Christ. God the Son redeemed us. My sins
have all been paid for. They've been all paid for. They're
gone. And God the Holy Spirit has sealed
me. I'm sealed with him. I'm his
to keep. I'm his to keep. But take care of him. You are,
you believe, you are sealed with God the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is God. And He's in you. We can't grasp that,
I know, but He's in me. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not Christ in our midst. It's
Christ in me. That three-fold core cannot be
broken. It can't be broken. And then
listen, God's glory is at stake. God's glory is at stake here. Over in Isaiah, look over in
Isaiah 43, and I'll wind this down. In Isaiah 43, You read verse 5 through 7, Isaiah
43. Fear not, for I'm with thee,
I'm with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, but to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone
that is called by my name, for I have Created him, listen now,
for my glory. You see, God's glory is at stake. You who believe, you are a new
creation. You are a glorious creation in
Christ. I called, created him for my
glory. I have formed him. Yea, I've made him. He's saying,
He's mine. He's mine. And then last of all,
to whom shall we go? The Lord said, will you also
go away? They said, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I have a hope of being completely,
fully saved, body, soul, and spirit. Stand before God blameless. Blameless. And I have God's Word on it.
I have God's Word on it. And Jesus Christ is my hope.
He's all my hope. That's a gospel hope. That's
a gospel hope. Alright.