full of Christ, of which this book says, please
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And in Him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge, the fullness of the Godhead bodiless. A book in this book that has
more of Christ in it than Colossians, four short chapters, but so full,
so full. You remember verse 27, we looked
at Christ in you, in us, is the hope of glory and all that that
means. And then he says in verse 28, whom we preach, Colossians
1. 28 says, we preach Christ. That's what he said. Turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Whom we preach. This is not a
slogan, but this is our mission. This is our message. Our. I say
our, because as Paul said to the Corinthians, seeing we have
this ministry, I need to turn this down. We're all in this ministry, and
Christ is our message, isn't it? We are witnesses of Him.
And it says we preach Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1, look at verse
17, Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize, that is, to see
how many people I could baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, that
is, excellency of speech or persuasible words of man's wisdom, human
reasoning, lest the cross of Christ, that horrible, terrible
thing that our Lord endured for His people, the cross of Christ,
the bluntness of it, The terror of it, the fear of it, the wonder
and the glory of it, unless that should be made of no effect by
high-sounding word. The preaching of the cross, verse,
read on. Preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness, unto us which are saved. It's
the power of God. God says, I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent. Where is the wise? He challenges all so-called wisdom
in this world. Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer, the arguer of this world? Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, here's wisdom, The wisdom of God, the world by wisdom,
knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Read on. The Jews require
a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. We really do, don't we? Look
at chapter 2, he says in verse 1, When I came to you, brethren,
I came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto
you the testimony of God. That is, you know, high-sounding
words. I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, this
is not just a slogan. It's what we do. Christ, the gospel of Christ
is the power of God. If Christ is in you, the truth
is in you. Go back, hold 1 Corinthians, we'll come back in a moment.
But if Christ is in you, the truth is in you. What is the
truth? Christ said, I am the truth. Truth is not doctrine. Truth
is a person. And the scriptures talks about
the love of the truth. God puts the love of the truth. Some don't receive the love of
the truth, but God's elect receive the love of the truth. What's
that? It's a love for Him, for Christ. They love to hear Christ
pray. Never tire of hearing one you love. If you love somebody... My wife and I have been married
for a long time now. We tell the same stories about
ourselves, about our children, about our friends, over and over.
We never tire of talking about the one we love. Well, this is
the way it is with Christ. If Christ is in you, then when
I preach Christ and men preach Christ, then you don't tire of
hearing Christ, because you love Him. We never tire of hearing
the message of Him who loved us and washed us from our sins
in His own blood. If somebody literally laid down
their life for you, or you're a prisoner, you're a criminal,
worthless, no good, and some lovely person came and traded
places with you, that person would be your your
story the rest of your days, wouldn't you? And so it is with those whom
Christ is in. We preach Christ, not a slogan.
It's what we do, because this is who we love. This is the dividing line. This
is the line drawn in the sand. This is the winnowing fan that
winnows the threshing floor that separates the wheat from the
chaff. It really is. That separates the true from
the false, the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats.
Those who love Christ, they want to hear Christ. They never tire
of hearing Christ. Do you remember in Deuteronomy
8, the Lord said that He proved Israel by the manna. They ate
one thing for 40 years. Manna, bread from heaven. What's
that? Christ said, Moses didn't give
you that bread. He said, I gave you that bread.
God gave you that bread. And he said, I am the bread of
life. And when it first came, they
were all amazed by it. Wow, what is this? It's sweet
as honey. Wafers dipped in honey. They
were amazed by it. They marveled at it. They loved
it. This is wonderful. They were told to go out and
gather it. And they woke up early and gathered it. God said, I'll prove you by this
manna. Forty, thirty years later, thirty-five years later, some
of them, it says, grew tired. And they called that manna light
bread. We want something else. And God
was angry. And they didn't go in. They didn't
go in the promissory. All those that grew tired of
the manna, they didn't go in. This is how you know if Christ
is in you. You never tire of hearing Christ. And you really don't want to
hear anything else. My pastor once said, people that
don't love Christ, people that are just religious, they want
to hear messages on church history. They want to hear messages on
high-sounding doctrine. They want to hear messages that
have no heart-piercing power. But those who know and love Christ,
they want to hear Christ. Is that you? Whom we preach. The next word is warning. Whom we preach. Warning. Now
that lesson from Deuteronomy 8 was a warning to those who...
Recently a man said about the preaching here, that he wasn't
being fed. So he went somewhere else. Now my answer to that is, you
must not love Christ. You must not know what good food
is. Right? Are you being fed? I've
been accused of many things, but that is not one of them.
That's just not true. When our Lord said to Simon Peter,
do you love me? Then what did he say? Feed my
what? What's the first thing? Lambs.
See, this person wanted to hear other things that would feed
his intellect. I'm not here to feed intellect.
I'm here to feed hearts. And Christ said, my body is meat
indeed. I am food, Christ said. I am
the food. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, he has life. He knows me. He feeds on me. And my pastor said, I fear for
those who tire of hearing of Christ, because God someday is
going to get tired of them, and they're not going to hear. Just
like the children of Israel, just like them. Whom we preach
warning, warning, warning. Hebrews 1, and we warn. How many times have we heard
this, that the scriptures are full of warnings, lest we presume,
and promises, lest we despair? Warnings and promises. Paul wrote,
he said, knowing the goodness and severity of God. Warning. He said to the Ephesians when
he was leaving them, his last words to the Ephesians, they
weren't going to see him ever again, he said, I cease not to
warn you day and night with tears, preaching repentance toward God
and faith to our Lord Jesus Christ. Two things. This is my message
to you. And to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 10, that whole
chapter is a warning about the children of Israel. Hebrews is
a summary of the whole Old Testament in it. What is the whole Old
Testament about? What's the Bible about? How does
Hebrews begin? Talking about the Son. Hebrews 1. God, in sundry times
and diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the world." Sounds like Colossians 1, doesn't it? It is. That's
the story of this book. He's the story of this book.
Who be in the brightness of his glory. Express image of His person
upholding all things. You see, Christ really is all
in. By Himself purged our sins. Well, if you're a sinner, you
never get tired of hearing that, do you? And he goes on and on
to speak of Christ. Chapter 2, then he said he warns. And Brother John Sheasley, Jr.
read this in a study last Wednesday. Chapter 1, he said, we can't
stop at Chapter 1. We've got to read Chapter 2.
And that's wise, brother, because after that, there's a warning.
Verse 1, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things
we've heard, lest at any time we let them slip. The more earnest
heed. What's that? So much more as
we see the day approaching. Can an old believer grow tired
of the gospel? That's what happened to the children
of Israel. Nobody over 20 went in. But two... I'm warning, warning, warning.
Look at chapter 2 verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation? There is no other message. Chapter
3, holy brethren, chapter 3, consider him, the apostle and
high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Look at verse 6,
Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we if, if we hold fast the confidence
and if we never cease rejoicing, if we never quit rejoicing. See,
these are the true people of God. They worship God in spirit
and they what? Rejoice in Christ Jesus. They
don't just believe doctrine. They rejoice in the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you know them. Under
the end. Firm under the end. Verse 7,
read on of chapter 3. And this is... On and on. Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost
saith, today if you'll hear His voice. When's that? What's today
mean? Today. This day. What are we doing right now?
What am I doing? Preaching Christ. Today if you'll hear His voice.
Harden not your heart. What hardens our heart? The world. Sin. How's it purged? Christ crucified. Verse 13. Verse 12. Take heed,
brethren. Take heed lest there be in any
of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God. Paul lamented. He wept. He said, Demas hath
forsaken me, having loved this present world. Verse 13, exhort
one another while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened
to the deceitfulness of sin. We're made partakers of Christ,
yes. You know how you know that Christ
is holding you, is if you just don't want to let go of Him. That's what Jacob, the Lord came
and wrestled with him, and Jacob said, I will not let you go. unless you bless me, for you
bless me." And the Lord didn't let go of him, did he? He sure
didn't. Alright, I've had so many in
Hebrews to look at, but go back to chapter 1 of Colossians. Our
text says, "...whom we preach," verse 28, "...warning every man,
and teaching every man in all wisdom." We preach Christ, we
teach Christ. Line upon line, don't we? Verse
upon verse. Types, shadows, pictures, it's
all Christ. All He is, all He said, all He
did. In all wisdom. We preach and teach in all wisdom. What is all wisdom? In Him dwelleth
all the... Look at chapter 2, verse 3. Here
it is. In whom our head sits hid from the wise and the prudent,
the worldly wise, the religious wise that want to hear all these,
want to talk about soteriology. By the way, soteriology is a
fancy name for salvation. Why would you have to put a fancy
name on it? Why would you call it that? Why would you call it
that? It's not in the Bible. Why not
say salvation? Because it sounds good and it
tickles our intellect. Not mine. My dad used to say,
don't preach, we're not preaching to giraffes. Sheep. Down here. And he first, he began with the
lambs. Lambs, little lambs. Soteriology. Infralapsarianism, superlapsarianism. You know what that is? Transubstantiation. Do you know what that is? You
don't need to know what that is. The millennial reign. Are you pre, post, or amillennial?
Are you? What are you? They've been arguing about that
for years. You know what? They don't know. None of them. Hadn't decided it. Then why argue
about it? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Much ado about nothing. All wisdom. Teaching and preaching.
We preach in all wisdom. What is all wisdom? Did you hold
1 Corinthians? Look at chapter 2. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Here's the answer. Here's the
answer. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. It says in verse 6, we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect. We're going to deal with that
in a minute. Not the wisdom of this world, verse 7, we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery. It's hidden from the wisdom,
the wise of this world. God who hath ordained for the
world, none of the princes of the world knew, they had known
they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. Now go down
to verse, You see, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, the foolishness of it,
neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned,
meaning the Spirit of God must reveal them. He that is spiritual
judgeth all things. He is not judged and understood
by no man. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord, that he may instruct him? What is the mind of the Lord?
What is the will of the Lord? What is the purpose of the Lord?
What is this understanding of all things? What is wisdom? What
is knowledge? Not of what? We have the mind of Christ. Christ is all. Where is that
found? Colossians 3, verse 11. Christ is all. And here's our
aim. Go back to the text. Colossians
1. Whom we preach, warning every
man, teaching every man in all wisdom, that is, in all things
concerning Christ. If it's a message about anything
but Christ, it's useless. Because Christ is all. He's all
we need to know. That's why science and medicine,
you know, it's foolishness. I don't care what people may
think of them and say about them, but if anyone who rejects God
is a fool. Anything that begins, so-called
wisdom begins, that there's no God is utter foolishness. How foolish can you be? Everything
must begin with God. The study of anything must begin
with God, doesn't it? Because all things begin with
God and end with God and everything in between. And Christ said,
I'm the first, I'm the last, I'm the beginning, I'm the end,
I'm all. Christ is all. So I'm not interested
in what science and what they're saying. Not interested. Religion. It's all about social programs
and humanitarian programs. It's an abomination to God. It's
useless to mankind. The purpose of the church is
one thing. It's called the pillar and ground of the truth. What's
that? Him, this Christ person. We preach
Christ. Paul said, we preach Christ.
Whom to know is to have eternal life. Be found in Him and Him
in you. Christ is all. It's a hope of
glory. It's said there in verse 27.
All right. It says, we preach Christ, warning every man, teaching
in all wisdom, that is in Christ, that we may present every man
perfect in Christ Jesus. Perfect in Christ. Present everyone. Now go to Ephesians 4. Ephesians
chapter 4. Now, you know Paul is not saying
that he or a preacher or even an apostle can present anyone
to God. No, Jude tells us that, unto
him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you, faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy that is to the only wise God
our Savior to him be glory and majesty and dominion and power
both now and forever. Amen. And Christ one day is going
to present all his people saying behold I and the children which
thou has given me they're all here. None lost. I've kept them
all. He presents us. But here's this
perfection. Let me just say this from the
outset. This is not talking about sinless
perfection. Do you know where we get sinless
perfection? Jesus Christ. He is made under
us. Righteousness. Sanctification. Holiness. All things. He's our
hope. He's our holiness. He's our righteousness.
He's our sanctification. He's our justification. Name
something. He's it. Perpetuation. Big word. Now,
those are Bible words we need to understand. Reconciliation.
He's all. Now, but here's the, let me just
say this. The word perfect here means whole,
mature. Read on with me. Ephesians 4,
this is, he expounds on this a little more. He said, when
Christ, verse 8, led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men. Go down to verse 11. He gave
some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saint. You see that? for
the work of the ministry. This is talking about maturing
in the faith, growth. Peter's last words were these,
grow in grace and what? The knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's how you grow in grace,
by studying Him, by looking to Him. And in looking to Him, we
will see this in a moment, we become like Him. more like, verse
12, for the perfecting of the saint, for the work of the ministry,
for the edified building up of the body of Christ, till we all
come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man, whole, mature, having a mature understanding,
complete understanding. The measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ, read on here, and he compares this
perfect man to a little child. Verse 14, that we'd be no more
children tossed to and fro. That fellow I was telling you
about, he's like the Athenians, who want nothing more than the
telling and the hearing of some new thing. The Athenians were
Athens, Greece. Worldly wise men. Thought they
were something. Oh, look, did you hear this?
Oh, let's go over here and hear that. Some new thing. I don't
want to hear a new thing. And you don't either. Tell me
the old, old story. He said, stand and see and search
for the old paths where it is a good way. You need to hear
the old gospel is as old as God, that God preached in the beginning,
and He didn't change the subject. The Athenians wanted to hear
this and that and the other. Look over here, they're doing
this. Look over... I saw a big sign. We were coming back from
Martinsville yesterday on 220 or Danville, wherever it was.
This big mega place, mega church so-called. Sign out front, come
see what God is doing. That sums up religion today.
Come see these signs and wonders and miracles and all that. We
need to come hear what God has done. That's what we need. We
need to come hear the gospel of what God has done, what Christ
has done for us. Isn't that what you want to hear?
Brother Ron, isn't that what you want to hear? Nothing else. Tell me what He has done. And that's why if you hear what
He has done for you, you know what you'll do? You'll go tell
others what He has done for you. You'll tell them what good things
the Lord has done for you. He'll be your witness. He'll
be your testimony. Right? That's right. Ephesians
4, look at verse 14. Carried about with every wind
of doctrine. Middle children, you see. Little
children are easily deceived. Little children are easily influenced. Easily impressed. Wow! Not grown men. Grown men aren't
easily impressed. They're not impressed with words,
high-sounding words. Easily afraid. Little children
are easily afraid. to acquit ourselves like men.
Little children taken up with toys. Are you telling me we don't
need perfected? It even says of Christ that he
was made perfect by the things he suffered. Does that mean He
wasn't holy. That's not what that means. It
means he grew in wisdom and stature in favor with God and man. That's
what it says about Christ. Now if it says that about us,
him, what about us? Here's the illustration. Let
me finish here with Ephesians 4. It says, see there's verse
14, little children are easily influenced by the slight of men,
the cunning craftiness, they lie and wait to deceive, but
we speak the truth in love. What's that? It's Christ. The
truth that we may grow up into Him in all things and understand
of Him, faith in Him, love for Him. And it goes on to say, he's the
head with the body united to him, verse 16. The whole body
fitly joined together and compacted. That compacted, what does that
mean? Well brethren, I'm 65 years old now and I do not, this finger
is more a part of me now than it's ever been. I just don't
want to do without it. And this is the thing, the body
of Christ becomes more compacted the longer you're together. This
little finger is different than my little toe. It's different
than my ear. Well, can I say what I don't
need it? I've been having so, you know, aches and pains. I've
got bunions. Well, that's an admission of
old age then. I've got bunions. You know what I'm talking about,
don't you, Karen? Painfully hurt. Sometimes I can't
walk. It's serious. I need my little
toe to be well. The body's compacted together.
It can't do without one another. This is maturity. That's what
we're about. Not about me and my little finger
never says, what about me? Read on, verse 16. The effectual
working and the measure of every part maketh increase of the body,
maketh increase. Edify. What's that? Building
up. Where's all this come from? Love. Love. And he went on to say it's the
bond of perfectness. Maturity. It's the bond of perfectness. Maturity. Hopefully, the older we get,
the more compassionate we'll be, the more understanding we'll
be, the more long-suffering we'll be, the more gracious we'll be,
the kinder we'll be. Why? We learn something of ourselves. We ought to know something of
other people's frame. If we love one another, we ought
to love them more than when we first began. It's the bond of
perfectness. Perfect love casts out fear. Do we need perfecting? In this
sense, we sure do. We're complete in Christ. Go
back to the text. It says that in chapter 2, verse
10. There's a new man that's whole,
that's perfect. New man. The youngest child in
this congregation is Josh Montgomery, okay? Does he look like his dad
or what? What a beautiful boy. Oh man,
he's beautiful. But when he was born, he's obviously
got all his fingers and toes, his legs and arms, we see that,
his hair and eyes and ears. He's a complete little man. Complete. He's not going to grow another
ear, not going to grow another toe, but he himself is going to grow.
Hopefully he'll grow like his dad. I love that man. He'll grow up to be the measure
of the stature of the fullness of his father. Does that make you plan? We need that. How does that happen? Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. And then Paul talks about meat,
milk and meat and bread and water and honey. What's that? What?
It's all cry. And let me just, in closing,
and I did not even finish Colossians 1. Just one verse left. Verse 29,
he said, I labor striving. One place he said, I travail
in birth till what? Christ be formed in you. According
to his working, Paul says, it's not me at all. Though I preach
the gospel, I have nothing to glory in. Well, woe is unto me
if I preach nothing. The working of him in me mightily. I want you to read this with
me. I wrote it down. 2 Corinthians 3. This tells it
better than I can. 2 Corinthians 3. Here it is. And this talks about
the types, and the symbols, and the shadows, and the reading
of the Old Testament, and the veil that's on people's faces,
and the reading of the Old Testament. And verse 16, when that person
is turned to the Lord, the veil is removed, you begin to see
clearly. Now verse 17, the Lord is that
Spirit, Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of the Lord is His liberty.
Oh my. But we all, verse 18, Here it
is. We all with open face, beholding
as in a glass. That's this word here. As we
look at, read, and hear read, and hear preached the glory of
the Lord. The gospel of the glory of Christ.
In the face of Christ. Here it is. We're changed into
the same image. From glory The gospel ought to
get more glorious to us, until finally we leave His place and
end up in glory. It's by the Spirit of the Lord,
it's by the Spirit, not by preachers, not by preaching, it's not by
anything a man can do, it's the Spirit of God. He takes the things
of Christ, the Holy Spirit, here's what He does, He takes all the
things of Christ, And she begins to show him, and you become like
him. You love him so much, you want
to walk like him, be like him. Those people in the Bunyan's
book, Holy War, when Emmanuel came and busted the ear gate
and the eye gate down, led captivity, Diabolus, chained him up and
paraded him down through the street. And Emmanuel set up on
the throne in the heart of man. It says when he was walking down
the street, when Emmanuel, the Son of God, was walking down
the street and all the citizens were so happy that he delivered
them, it says they all got behind him. And they wanted to put their
feet where he walks. walk just like him. So thankful,
so enamored with, so amazed by the Son of God. That'll make
you like him. Okay.