All right, let's stay right there
in Colossians chapter 1. I've entitled this message from
verse 23 of this chapter. The first three words there,
if you continue, if you continue. And I want to talk about the
if statements of scripture. And basically, I was dealing
with this in our Sunday school class a little bit this morning,
because we're studying in 1 John chapter 1, where there are a
lot of these if statements. In 1 John 1, he says in 1 John
1 verse 7, he says, if we walk in the light, as Christ is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another. In the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. He says in verse
9, He says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If. A lot of if statements. And basically,
there are one of two ways that people look at these if statements
of Scripture. If, if, if. The most common way
And it's a wrong way when you apply it to believers. Sinners
saved by the grace of God. It's the most common way is to
look at these if statements as conditions that sinners must
meet in order to attain or at least maintain either salvation
or some of its blessings or some part of it. For example, here
in Colossians chapter one and verse 23, it says, if you continue,
and I know many, many people who look at a statement like
that and say, well, now we're saved by grace, but our reaching
heaven, our reaching glory is conditioned on our continuing.
So it's a condition that we must meet. And so that if we don't
continue, then we won't make it. So what you've got there
is a combination, sort of. You've got a combination of salvation
by grace and salvation by works. Now, what does the Bible say
about that when you try to combine works and grace? Well, Paul wrote
in Romans chapter 11, he said, if it's by grace, it's no more
of works. And if it's of works, it's no
more of grace. They do not mix. It's like oil
and water. They can't mix. Well, grace and
works cannot mix as to the ground of attaining or maintaining salvation. Plus the fact too, that the Bible
says that salvation and blessedness and glory is all of grace, all
of grace. Most of the perversions and heresies
that come in the name of Christianity have always had to do with people
trying to mix the two in some way. And that's why I'm very
adamant to tell you that salvation, every part of it, every degree
of it, is all of grace. It's a free gift. You don't earn
it. You don't deserve it. I don't earn it, I don't deserve
it. That's what grace is all about. The Bible says in Romans
5 and verse 21 that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Somebody asked me one time,
if you had to reduce salvation to its one main condition, what
would you say? And that's the term I would use,
righteousness. Somebody might use the term this
way, perfection. And someone said, well, nobody
can do that. And that's true. That's why it's
all grace through the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ and not the righteousness of men. Paul wrote in Romans
chapter one, verses 16 and 17. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believe it. to the Jew first and the Greek
also for therein is the righteousness of God revealed not the righteousness
of men what is the righteousness of God well that's the obedience
unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill all the conditions
all the requirements all the stipulations of the salvation
of his people, the complete salvation of his people. The Bible says
in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2 that Christ is the author and
the what? Finisher of our faith. And somebody
says, well, now you've got to believe. Yes, you do. But Christ
is even the author of that and the finisher of that. In fact,
part of the grace of salvation is the faith that God gives his
people to believe. So that we're not only saved
by grace, but we're secured by grace. So in the context of the
gospel, these if statements that apply to believers are not conditions
that we must meet of our own wills or our own goodness or
our own power in order to attain or maintain salvation. So what
are they? Well, there's another way to
see an if statement. And that's the word evidence. Mark that down. Evidence. This is not a conditional statement. It's an evidential statement.
What is he doing here? What does the New Testament do
concerning a sinner's relationship with Christ and how that relationship,
how it's proven? It's by these evidences. And
what he's saying, everything that he said about sinners saved
by grace here in Colossians chapter 1. A sinner can only say that these
blessings, these statements are true of me personally if I continue
in the faith grounded and settled. Not because I meet the condition.
Christ already did that. He met all of them. Because this
gives evidence that I'm in Him. And that's the way you need to
see them. Somebody asked me one time, said, well, how do you know that's
true? Well, think about it. First of all, look back in the
old covenant now. Here's Israel, the nation, under
the covenant of law, the covenant of Sinai, given to Moses, given
to the nation Israel. They were established as a nation
under that covenant. Now that covenant, that old covenant,
that covenant of law that Israel was under for almost 1,500 years
began at Sinai and ended at Calvary. That's where it is. whatever
time period it was, it was about 1500 years. And under that covenant,
conditions were put upon that nation. We often read in second
Chronicles chapter 7, I think it's the 14th verse during revival
times in modern religion. If my people who are called by
my name will humble themselves. And that's a conditional statement
given to the nation Israel. And God said, now God brought
them together, God delivered them from Egypt without any conditions. And He told them that. Read it
in Deuteronomy chapter 7. He said, I didn't choose you
or bring you out because you were the best or the most or
the greatest of all people. You were the least. So God choosing that nation and
bringing them out of Egypt and establishing them as a nation
and in the promised land, that was unconditional. But they're
maintaining that prosperity in that land of Canaan. Their keeping
that land was conditioned on their obedience as a nation.
That would include the leaders of the people and the majority.
And what do you know about them in the Old Testament? They failed,
didn't they? They didn't meet the conditions.
They didn't meet the conditions. They failed. Now, does that mean
we're to look down upon them and say, well, those dirty, rotten
sinners, they just weren't good enough? No. They failed because
they were sinners. You know what? If you'd have
been there, you'd have failed too. If I'd have been there,
I'd have failed too. Why? Because we're sinners. They
fail. In fact, any time you see a conditional
covenant put on a creature, there's failure. Even Adam in the garden
before the fall, he was under a conditional covenant. God said,
in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. What did
Adam do? He ate thereof. He failed. Now, in the old covenant, there's
a promise made. There's pictures and types of
a better future. There's a better future coming
though. Israel failed. But there's a better future coming.
Now why is that? What is the better future based
upon? Well, later on in the future
there's going to just be a better class of people than these Israelites.
Is that what it is? No. It's a better future because
of one person. God's going to send his son to
do for his people what we cannot do for ourselves. And it's all
conditioned on him. And God's going to do the work.
You want to be part of that? I do. You see, I'm a sinner. If God places these conditions
to be saved, to continue in salvation upon me, I'll fail. I have failed. You'll fail. And if you don't
believe that, you do not know yourself. Now that's right. You do not. What is the condition?
What does God require? Well, you can go through the
Bible and say he requires a lot of things, but let's put it this
way. What does God require in order to justify a sinner? Perfection. Well, I can't meet
that. Can anybody? One did, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, let me show you that. Look
at verse 19 of Colossians 1. Let me lead up to verse 23 here. This verse speaks of the person
of Christ. And what is this about the person
of Christ? It means who He is. It means
what distinguishes Him from everybody else. Why isn't He just on the
same plane as Buddha or Mohammed or Confucius or whoever, whatever
prophet man comes up with? Well, it's because of His person.
He's unique. There's none like Him. And it
says here, verse 19, For it pleased the Father that in Him, in Christ,
the God-man, Emmanuel, God with us, should all fullness dwell. Now what is all fullness? That's
all fullness. That's everything in Him. Down in Colossians chapter 2,
just look across the page in verse 9. It says, For in Him
dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That is in the
God-man, God in human flesh, the Word made flesh dwelling
among us, Emmanuel. In that person dwells all the
fullness of the Father and of the Son and of the Spirit. The
fullness of glory, the fullness of blessedness. There is none
like Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of His people.
He is the Redeemer. He is the Lord of glory. You
could go from Genesis to Revelation and just do nothing but talk
about the glory of this person. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6 speaks
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He is the fullness
of the Godhead. He is the fullness of salvation. He is not a part salvation. He
is not part of my salvation. He is my salvation. And not just to get me started.
He is not a set of jumper cords just to get the battery started.
He's not a leaping stone or some way to just wind me up and I
need to just keep on going. No, He's everything. He's my
all and in all. In Him dwell all fullness. That's in His person. You couldn't
say that about Buddha or about Mohammed or about anybody. except
Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth,
the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me. And then look at verse 20. Now
listen to this. It says, having made peace through
the blood of his cross, that speaks of the work of Christ
in our redemption to secure our eternal salvation and final glory. Now look at it. Look at, having
made peace through the blood of His cross. Now, this is peace
between God and men. Now, how is that peace made?
Is it by your faith? No. Is it by repentance? No. Is it by your obedience, your
perseverance or anything? No. It's by the blood of His
cross. Here's substitution right here.
He died for a people. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep in John chapter 10. What was he doing? He was taking
the sins of his people, his church, which he bought with the price
of his own blood to the cross and paying the debt owed to God's
justice. And it says, by him, look at
verse 20, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. He says,
by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven. You see, the ground of peace
with God is not your faith. It's not your repentance. It's
not your obedience. The ground of peace between God
and sinners is the blood of Jesus Christ. Look over at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. That's what this verse is teaching
here. Verse 21. He's talking about reconciliation.
God reconciling His people unto Himself. And back up in verse
18, He'd spoken of, He'd say that if anybody is in Christ,
they're a new creation. Verse 18, and all things are
of God. Look at it. 2 Corinthians 5,
18. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself. Now God's reconciled us. Who's the us there? All who are
reconciled unto God. It's not all without exception.
There are multitudes who are not reconciled. But He said He's
reconciled us unto Himself. Now how did He do it? Underscore
this. By Jesus Christ. You see that? This One in whom
all fullness dwells. That's what you need. If your
Savior is anyone less than the One in whom all fullness dwells,
you're not reconciled to God. And he says, by Jesus Christ,
look at verse 18, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Now what is that ministry? That's
a gospel ministry. What does it say? Look at verse
19. To wit, namely, he's going to describe it. That God was
in Christ. Remember it says, in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now it says God was in
Christ. Now what does that mean? That
means that everything that God purposed and planned to do in
the salvation of His people is in Christ. Not in you, not in
me, but in Christ, His glory. His glory is conditioned not
on me, it's on Christ. The righteousness He requires,
everything God requires is in Christ. And he says, he says
not, he said, he said to wit that God was reconciling the
world unto himself. Now the world there doesn't mean
everybody without exception. In fact, if you go through the
New Testament and you look at the passages that speak of the
whole world, they never mean everybody without exception.
One verse over in 1 John chapter 5 speaks, it says, we are of
God and the whole world lieth in the wicked one. Obviously
the whole world there doesn't mean all without exception. He's
making a distinction here that's by grace and he says the world
here refers to God's people all over this world, Jew and Gentile.
Who does it refer to? It's a world of people who are
reconciled to God in Christ. And he says, look here, he says,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, not charging them
with their sin. Now let me tell you something.
this is very carefully this doctrine of imputation is so important
i can't i can't overstate it you get criticized for people
don't understand it but it doesn't matter about that was what this
word said not imputing their trespasses under now think about
it this way let's say somebody charges you with a crime and
you didn't commit the crime And so they come and they arrest
you, and they set a court date, and you appear before the judge.
And the judge says, now, here are the charges brought against
you. But somebody speaks up on your behalf and says, they didn't
commit that crime. I'll tell you where they were
when the crime was committed. So the judge says, well, then
I cannot charge you with the crime. But you're going to go
to jail anyway. Now, how does that sound to you?
Does that sound unjust? If the judge says, I cannot charge
you with the crime, but I'm going to sentence you to 30 days in
jail anyway, just, yeah. And let me ask you this. Let's
say you're standing down there, and they say, well, I don't charge
you with the crime. But you look and say, well, I
don't accept that. I'm going to go to jail anyway. What kind
of a system have we got around here? What kind of people are
we talking... You see, that's the way most people think of
Christianity. God did all this for you, but you won't accept.
No, no, no. It says here that whoever he's
talking about in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, God doesn't charge
them with sin. Let me tell you something. God
is a just God. God judges according to truth.
If God doesn't charge you with sin, He will not and cannot send
you to hell. There's no charge. God's a just
judge. And He didn't ask you if you're
going to accept or not. You're free. Is there any question
that you would accept it? Well, of course not. But it says,
not imputing, not charging their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Here's the word
of reconciliation. Folks, there's a way, there's
a way in which a sinner can stand before God and not be charged
with sin. Not have sin charged to their
account. How is it? Well, he says in verse
20, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. Those sins were charged
to Christ. And He paid the penalty. He suffered unto death, the death
that I earned and the death that I deserved. That's the ministry
of reconciliation. God is just to receive me because
of Christ. And He said, as though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled
to God. What is that? That's to believe
in Christ. That's to rest in Christ. That's to plead His blood
alone for all my sins. What can wash away my sins? Huh? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's to plead His righteousness charged to me. I have no other
righteousness but Christ. And he says in verse 21, For
He, God the Father, hath made Him, God the Son incarnate, to
be sin for us. God charged His Son. with those
sins. Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now go back to
Colossians 1. You see, that's the ground of peace. By Him to
reconcile all things unto Himself. What are these all things there?
He says there in verse 20. By Him to reconcile all things.
Well, they could refer to His church. You know, He's been talking
about His church. Look back up here in Colossians
1. Look at verse 12. He's talking about giving thanks
to the Father, which hath made us meet, that means qualified,
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. What qualifies
a sinner for salvation? Well, he joins the church, gets
baptized, is that the quality? No. What qualifies a sinner? How does God make us qualify?
There's only one way, by His grace in Christ. That's the qualification
right there. And everything that comes with
it is simply an evidence that I'm qualified in Christ. Christ is my qualification. Put
it that way. He is my qualification. I'm made
me, qualified to be a partaker which is a participant or a partner
or a fellowshipper of the inheritance. Now there's an inheritance. Now
let me tell you something about an inheritance. Some of you may
have received an inheritance. I'll tell you if it's a true
inheritance, there's several things I know about. Number one,
you didn't earn it. If it's a true inheritance, right?
You didn't earn it. Somebody else earned it. And
it was bequeathed to you upon what? Upon their death. And that's
what salvation and all of its blessings are for the people
of God. It's an inheritance. Christ earned it and it's bequeathed
to us upon His death. And so it's an inheritance of
the saints. That's a believer. It's a sinner
saved by grace in light, in truth. Verse 13, look at this. Who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness. You didn't deliver
yourself. You've been delivered. and have translated us into the
kingdom of his dear son." You didn't translate yourself, transfer
yourself. He transferred you into the kingdom
of his dear son. In whom we have redemption, how?
Through his blood. You see the key there. It's his
blood. Even the forgiveness of sins. That includes the forgiveness
of sins. I heard a preacher say years ago on television, he said,
He said, you want to be forgiven? Talking to his congregation,
a mass of people. He said, you want to be forgiven
of all your sins? He said, here's the condition for forgiveness.
That's what he said. That's the term he used. I've thought about this ever
since that message I preached on, because it just struck me
right there. He said, here's the condition
for forgiveness. And you know what he said? Repentance. And boy, I just looked at myself,
wait a minute. We don't gain forgiveness conditioned on our
repentance. We repent because we realize
we've been forgiven. And what's the one condition
for forgiveness? The blood of Jesus Christ. There's
the condition for forgiveness. That's what this says. In whom
we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins. Isn't that right? And then he
talks about his person again. Is Christ qualified to do all
this? Well, he's the image of the invisible God. You know what
that means? That means he is God. He's the firstborn of every
creature. What does that mean? That means
he arose from the dead. That's what it's talking about,
firstborn. He arose from the dead. Nobody's ever done that. Oh, you say, well, Lazarus arose
from the dead. Oh no, Lazarus did not. He did
not arise from the dead. Lazarus was raised from the dead. There's a difference. You're
not going to arise from the dead. You're going to be, you're going
to be raised from the dead by somebody else. You see, and that
means a lot, doesn't it? I hope it does. He says in verse
16, for by Him were all things created that are in heaven and
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, and listen, let me tell you something, that
includes His church. Look at verse 18. He's the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, Christ the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, His resurrection, that in all things He might have
the preeminence. Now you tell me in that whole
scheme there where conditions are put up on the sinner in order
to attain or maintain any of it. It's not there. It's only
in the minds of men. They see the if, the if, the
if. See there? You've got to continue
or you'll lose salvation. That's what people say. Oh no.
If you don't continue, you know what the Bible says? You've never
been saved. Continuing, abiding, persevering
is an evidence that you've been saved by the grace of God in
Christ. You say, well, you're just splitting
hairs and split... Oh no, the difference is grace
versus works. That's it. All things in Him,
all of His people, By Christ through the redemption and reconciliation
of his church unto God, the whole creation will be made new and
brought into harmony with God. Now go back to verse 21 here
in Colossians 1. Now listen to this. He says,
And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. Now what kind of people has he
reconciled? according to this those who were
alienated what does that mean that means separated from God
and he goes even further now you want to talk about statements
of grace listen to this and you that were alienated separated
from God and what enemies in your mind now what what is an
enemy of God I'll tell you what an enemy of God is. It's any
sinner who has not bowed and submitted to the claims of Jesus
Christ, the crucified. That's an enemy of God. You say,
well, now these enemies. He's got to be talking about
the dregs of society here. The drug pushers, the whoremongers,
the robbers and the murderers and the thieves. Well, they are
enemies of God. Great enemies of God. Yes, sir. Do they deserve hell? Yes, sir.
But let's take Saul of Tarsus for an example. Here's a man
who was religious, trying to establish a righteousness of
his own, trying to serve God, trying to be the best of the
best, the best he could be. He was an enemy of God. When
God saved him, where was he? He was on the road to a town
called Damascus. And he was going there for one
purpose. He wanted to gather up Christians and arrest them
and put them on trial and have them killed. And he thought in
his mind, he had it perfectly worked out in his mind that he
was doing God's work. That these Christians were heretics.
They didn't believe in the law of Moses. They didn't follow
the covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They even brought
uncircumcised Gentiles into the kingdom. Oh my, how awful. That's against God's law. You
know what? It was against God's law for
the nation Israel under the old covenant. But that had nothing to do with
salvation. That was just that temporal covenant. And here he
was, a religious man, a moral man in the eyes of the world.
He was an enemy of God. Why? Because he did not believe
in and submit to the claims of the King of Kings. He did not
submit to the righteousness of God in Christ. He sought salvation
by works. And let me tell you something,
when Paul describes this here, you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, those wicked works include
the best efforts of religious people to save themselves or
to preserve themselves by their works. That's wicked works. And you know why they're wicked?
Because they dishonor God. You know why they're wicked?
Because they exalt sinners. You know why they're wicked?
Because they deny both the person and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ to meet all the conditions for salvation.
You're saying He did His part, now I've got to fill in the blank.
That's wicked in the eyes of God. You see, God is in Christ. God has engaged His glory and
His glory is wrapped up totally in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now for me to come along and
say that I can be saved or preserved based on my efforts, that's a
denial of the glory of God in Christ. That's wicked in His
sight. But it says here, verse 21, you
that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled. Let me tell you something about
those who are alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked words.
They have nothing in themselves to qualify them to be reconciled
to God. They have no power or will in
themselves to meet any condition to be reconciled to God. And
yet God reconciles them. Now how does He do it? Look at
verse 22. in the body of his flesh through death, through
the death of Christ. That's what he's talking about.
The substitutionary work of Christ. Those who are ruined by the fall
are redeemed by the blood. And now he's saying you're going
to be regenerated by the Spirit. He said, to present you holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Now, first of all,
he speaks of our sanctification and our justification before
God by the death of Christ. What is it to be justified? Well,
he says it here. It's to be presented before God
as holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. What does that
holy mean? It means to be set apart. Set
apart. God set them apart. Look over
at Hebrews chapter 10 with me. Set apart in Christ. Sanctified. You know what a saint
is? The word literally comes from
the word sanctified. It means sanctified one. One
who's been set apart. How were we set apart? Before
the foundation of the world, God chose us in Christ. God sent Christ to die for our
sins. Set apart at the cross. That's
what he's talking about here. Look at verse 10. Talking about
the will of God performed and accomplished by Christ here.
And it says in verse 10, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And then look down at verse 14.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Sanctified in Christ. Set apart.
Made holy in him. And then he says it is to be
unblameable over here in Colossians 1. Unblameable. What does that
mean? Well, it means without blame.
It means to be literally without spot or blemish. It means to
be washed clean. Now, how can you say that of
any sinner? In the sight of God, only in Christ, only by His blood. I stand before God in Christ,
having His righteousness imputed, charged to me. And then he says
unreprovable. What does that mean? That means
you cannot be called into account. That means you cannot be charged. The record books of heaven record
no iniquity, no sin, no transgression against those who are in Christ.
That's right. Christ put them away. God said,
you know the new covenant? Here's the old covenant. It's
conditioned upon the sinner. The sinner fails. Here's the
new covenant. It's conditioned upon Christ.
He's victorious. And all of His people received
the blessings of it and God makes a statement. He said, I will
remember their sins. How long? What does He say there? I will remember their sins what?
No more. And there's all kinds of metaphors
in the Old Testament that Kind of describe that. He said, I'll
cast them behind my back. Well, God has no back. He's everywhere.
He's omnipresent. What does that mean? It means
they're gone. He said, I'll cast them into the deepest part of
the sea or I'll separate them as the east is from the west.
Do you ever notice about that? Here's a physical manifestation
of God's power to put away sin. If you started traveling north,
today, and you got up to the North Pole and kept on going,
do you know which direction you'd be going after you passed the
North Pole? What direction would you be going? You'd be going
south, wouldn't you? Well, God doesn't say that I'm
going to separate them as far as the north is from the south.
But now, if you start going east, and you keep going, keep going,
what direction are you always going to go? East. You'll never
go West, will you? God says, I'm going to separate
you from your sins as far as the East is from the West. You'll
never meet them again. If it was North and South, you'd
meet South again, you'd meet North again, but not the East.
That's a physical manifestation of God's view of His people in
Christ. I'll remember their sins no more.
That's amazing, isn't it? God will not impute sin to His
saints. He will not require satisfaction
of the law from His saints because our sins were made Christ and
justly so by imputation. Christ paid that debt in full
and our sins have been fully expunged from God's record by
the blood of Christ. David said, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord chargeth not sin, imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputeth righteousness without works. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Now look back at it. Now all
this is true. Now here's verse 23. Every bit
of this is true of me and of you if you continue in the faith. Now here's our sanctification
by the Holy Spirit. Here's the new birth. Here's
the life of perseverance being preserved by the grace of God.
It's not conditioned if you do this or that, but it's evidences
of. If you continue in the faith,
what is the faith? That's the gospel, which teaches
what? That Christ met all the conditions.
In other words, if you continue looking to Christ as your whole
salvation, If you begin to look at yourself and say, well, now
this part's on me, you're not continuing in the faith. You're
denying the faith. If you look to Christ as the
author and finisher of your faith, grounded and settled, how are
you going to be grounded and settled on any part of salvation
that's conditioned on you? How would you be grounded and
settled on that? You see, we stand upon the rock
Christ Jesus. That's grounded and settled.
I know He'll never fail. I'm going to fail. I have failed. And I'm going to fail some more
because I'm a clay pot. We have a treasure, but we have
it in earthen vessels. Christ never fails. That's grounded
and settled, isn't it? That's the assurance of salvation
in him, not in me. If it's on you, let me tell you
something. The only way you can be grounded and settled in your
mind, if it's conditioned on you, is you think too highly
of yourself. I'm telling you. You just hold
on. When you fall, your whole world
will blow up. You'll lose your salvation. No,
you won't. You've never been saved to begin
with. continue looking to Christ. That's what he's talking about.
Continued, settled and grounded in Him who is our rock, our high
tower. How many times do you read that
in the Psalms? He's my rock. He's my high tower. He's my walled
city. He's my foundation. And then
look here, verse 23. He says, and be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel. Now what is the hope of the gospel?
The hope of the gospel is not wishful thinking based upon your
meeting some conditions. Because if that's what you're
thinking, I'm going to tell you something, your wish will not
come true. The hope of the gospel is the certain assured expectation
of glory because Christ has met all the conditions. He's fulfilled
all of it, all the requirements, everything God requires of me
in order to attain and maintain salvation. I find completely
in Him, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness. And then he says, which you have
heard, how do you hear it? Through the gospel, and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven. Now there's
one of those terms, every creature. Paul's talking about what he's
doing. He's describing how the gospel has gone out from the
Jews into the whole world to the Gentiles. Every creature
under heaven hasn't heard it. He doesn't mean that. But he
said, where have I, Paul, and made a minister? If you continue. Is this true of me? Is it true of you? Well, it is,
as evidenced by this, if you continue in the faith, believing
Him, serving Him. You see, this doesn't give anybody
an excuse to sin if you continue in the faith, looking to Christ,
hoping in Christ, grounded and settled in Christ, serving Him,
not in order to attain salvation, but serving Him out of love and
grace and gratitude. That's the evidence. continuing
him as were preserved by the grace of god