Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's Holy Word. And now, the message. Now today I'm going to be preaching
from the book of Colossians chapter 1, and I want to talk to you
about this subject, the hope of the gospel. The hope of the
gospel. My friend, there is no greater
hope than what God gives a sinner who is saved by the grace of
God in Christ, and it is a real hope. I want you to understand
something about this hope. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse
23, the Apostle Paul speaks of continuing in the faith, grounded
and settled, and being not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
which you have heard. Hope is not just wishful thinking. And you need to understand that.
It is not just something you desire, something you wish for,
and something that you think may come or may not. Hope is
not a blind leaf in the dark. For example, a hope is an expectation. It is something a person expects
to happen. But now there is false hope.
For example, many people expect something to happen but they
have no sure foundation. They have no word from God on
which to expect such a hope. The hope of the gospel is the
hope of the good news of eternal salvation and final glory that
is all based on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks of the promises
of God. And when it's talking about that,
that's 2 Corinthians chapter 1, it's speaking of all the promises
that God has given to His people who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's all His people whom He chose,
whom Christ redeemed and justified on the cross, whom the Spirit
has called into the fold in the new birth, whom God preserves
by His grace and will bring them to glory. these promises the
Bible says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20 are yea in
him and in him amen and what that means is that all the promises
of God are sure and certain in Christ so therefore any certain
expectation of salvation and final glory in heaven That's
based on the person and the finished work of Christ. That is Christ
in him crucified, his blood, his righteousness, his power
and ability to save me, to keep me, and to bring me to glory.
That is the hope of the gospel. That's a good hope. That's a
hope that's grounded and settled in Christ. And that's not just
a pipe dream, my friend. That's based on him and his finished
work. The hope of the gospel. Now let
me say this, in Colossians chapter 1, let me show you this. The
hope of the gospel is founded upon the preeminence of Christ. Now what do I mean by that? Well
the Bible says Christ must have the preeminence. That He is all
and in all. Everything in salvation is based
upon Christ and His finished work It is centered around Christ
and His finished work and it exalts Christ and His finished
work so that He has the preeminence in all things. He is the first
and the last. He is the Alpha and the Omega. So the hope of the gospel is
founded upon the preeminence of Christ. Now Christ came to
this earth in humility. He condescended. The Bible says
that He took upon Him, not the nature of angels, but of Abraham. That is, He took in union with
Himself, His deity, sinless human nature. And He walked this earth
as God-man. And in this humiliation, He was
in the proximity of sinners. And that His humiliation even
went to the point of submission to the will of God in obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross. And He did all of
that for the glory of His Father and the salvation of His people.
He did that based on their sins charged to Him. Now based upon
His conquering death in His own death, paying their debt in full,
redeeming them by His precious blood and justifying them based
on His righteousness imputed or charged to them, He who died
and was buried was raised again the third day and He ascended
unto the Father where He now as God-man is seated at the right
hand of the Father ever-living to make intercession for His
people. And the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 7, therefore
He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by Him. So He has the preeminence. Now
let me show you in Colossians chapter 1, there's several things
here. In all of this it tells us first of all that Christ has
the preeminence in our fitness before God. He says in verse
12, he speaks of salvation and how all who are saved give thanks
unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in life. And he says, "...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." Now if you're saved
by the grace of God, you give thanks unto the Father which
hath made you meet. M-E-E-T. Now that word meet means
qualified. It means fit. It means that all
of the conditions, all of the stipulations, all of the qualifications
that you need to enter, to be saved, to be accepted before
God, a holy God, to be qualified and fit for heaven's glory has
already been met by the power of God in Christ. You see, we're
sinners. And the Bible says that God is
so pure that he cannot look upon sin. Behold, he puts no trust
in his saints. The heavens are not pure in God's
sight. In the book of Job, the question is asked, how can man
be just with God? Or how can he who is born of
woman, born in sin of Adam, how can he be clean? All this shows
us the sinfulness and the depravity of men. by nature, and it's even
to the point that our best efforts to qualify ourselves are wicked
and evil in the sight of God. They cannot glorify God. They
cannot make us fit. They cannot make us holy or righteous. There's not but one thing that
can make a sinner holy and righteous in the sight of God, and that
is the shed blood and the imputed righteousness of Christ. His
righteousness charged to a sinner's account. Christ went to the cross
and he became guilty and defiled and unrighteous based on the
sins of his people charged to him. He did not become a sinner. He never broke the law of God,
not even while he was on that cross. His thoughts, while he
was hanging on that cross, his thoughts were pure. His motives
were pure. His faith was perfect. Yet he
died under the sentence of death, really and legally, based on
sins charged to him. The father turned his back on
the son, so that the son said, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Now why did he do that? Because
he was not, 2 Corinthians 5, 19, because he was in Christ. reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. Where did he impute
them? Where did he charge them? He charged them to his Son. And
in that same transaction on the cross, the righteousness of God,
the entire merit of Christ, obedience unto death, was charged to his
people. God was enabled to be just and
justify the ungodly. And that's what he's saying here.
Those who have been saved by the grace of God give thanks
unto the Father who hath made us meet to be partakers. That
word partaker is a fellowshipper or a sharer. Sharers of the inheritance. You see that word partaker doesn't
mean it's infused or imparted into you. The inheritance is
a wealth of blessings that we now possess in Christ. Now we
have some of those blessings are the work of the Holy Spirit
in us who turns us to Christ. That's one of the blessings.
But the inheritance is the wealth of blessings that all the saints
have in Christ. And he shows it here, verse 13,
because he delivered us from the power of darkness and translated
us in the kingdom of his dear son. When did he do this? Look
at verse 14. In whom we have redemption through
his blood. even the forgiveness of sins.
So Christ has the preeminence in our fitness, in our meekness,
in our qualification, in our holiness and righteousness before
God. Now, if you are regenerated by
the Spirit, if you've been born again from above by the Spirit,
that's what the Spirit leads you to understand and see. Look
to Christ for your fitness, for your qualification, for your
meekness and your holiness. He has the preeminence in that.
Now the second thing he brings out is the preeminence of Christ
in creation. Look at verse 15. This same Christ, God's dear
son, he says he is the image of the invisible God. Now that
word image means an exact likeness. It's not an image like a photograph.
or an idol or something that's built out of a statue. What he's
saying here by that word image as per the original language
is that Christ is God. He is the image of the invisible
God. You can't see God. God is spirit. But God made himself known by
revelation and visibly in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that the Word
was with God, that's Christ, and the Word was God. And in
verse 14 of John 1 it says, the Word was made flesh and tabernacled
or dwelt among us. So that John and the others said,
we saw Him, we touched Him, we walked with Him, we heard Him. And then Paul wrote to Timothy,
he said, great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest
in the flesh. Christ is God and man in one
person. So he is the image of the invisible
God. It says the firstborn of every
creature. Now when it says the firstborn
that doesn't mean he was the first one who was born because
he wasn't. What that's talking about it's
a reference back to the Old Testament law of the firstborn in which
the first one who was born into a family had the preeminence. He was to be the spiritual leader
of the whole family. Now sometimes in the Old Testament
we'll see an example of how God appointed another male child,
other than the first one who was born, to play the role, to
engage the role of the firstborn. For example, we see that in Jacob
and Esau, the twins. Esau was born first, he came
out of the womb first. Jacob came out second, but God
said the elder shall serve the younger. So in that case, Jacob
was considered to be the firstborn as to his role. Now Christ is
the firstborn of every creature. In other words, he is the preeminent
in creation. Somebody said, well, he wasn't
created. That's true. Christ was not created. Now his
humanity was created, but his deity was from everlasting. His
humanity was created for him in the womb of the virgin by
the Spirit of God. And he was born of the virgin.
But he himself is the Alpha and the Omega, having no beginning
and no end. And this glorious person who
is God and man has the preeminence in creation. It says in verse
16, for by him were all things created. He is the creator. All
things that are in heaven, All things that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones, whether they be dominions,
or principalities, or powers. He created all these things.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the
Triune God, in the beginning was God. God created the heavens
and the earth. Christ is God. But look here,
it says, all things were created by Him, Then it says all things
were created for him. Now my friend Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is the manifestation and the glory of the fullness
of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you want to know
the Father, you must look to Christ. If you want to know the
Son, The eternal Son of God, you must look to the Son of God
incarnate, the Word made flesh. If you want to know the Holy
Spirit, you must look to Christ. For the Spirit proceeds from
Him and the Spirit points to Him. If you want to honor the
Father, if you want to honor the Son, if you want to honor
the Holy Spirit, you must look to Christ and Him crucified. You can do no more, no greater
dishonor to the Father than to diminish or devalue the person
and work of Christ. You can do no more dishonor,
you can do no more blasphemy to the Son of God, the eternal
Son of God, than to diminish or devalue the person and work
of Christ. And listen to me. You can do
no more dishonor and blasphemy to the Holy Spirit than to diminish
and devalue the person and work of Christ. Now you understand
what I'm saying. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. If you want to know Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, if you want to know God, you must look to
Christ. If you want to worship the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit, the triune Godhead, you must
look to Christ and bow to Him, for without Him there is no knowledge
of God. And so all things were created
by Him and all things were created for Him. And it says in verse
17, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
Now, He is before all things in that He's eternal, But He's
also before all things in that He has the preeminence in creation.
His is the greater glory of all things. The sun has no glory. The S-U-N sun that warms this
earth in the day has no glory compared to the S-O-N, the Son
of God. This earth is a beautiful place
except for sin, but this earth has no glory compared to Christ. Christ is the glorious Son of
God and by Him all things consist. This whole world's held together.
because of him and then verse 18 it says in all of this when
it speaks of the preeminence of Christ it goes thirdly to
the preeminence of Christ in redemption in salvation in the
church look at verse 18 it says and he is the head of the body
the church Christ is the head the church is his body now that's
a common symbol for the church common allegory Or a metaphor
for the church. Paul wrote of that in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12. He spoke of the church being
made up of many members. And he compared it to the human
body. The human body has many different members. Fingers, toes,
legs, arms. All of that stuff. The inwards,
the hearts, the liver, all of that. But it is one body. One united body. And he said
Christ is the head. Now, I like to think of it this
way too. Christ is the foundation of the church. As he said upon
this rock, speaking of him and his finished work, he said, I
will build my church. Christ is the center of the church,
for we are met around him to worship him. He said, where two
or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.
And Christ is the head of the church. He is the Redeemer of
the church. He is the one by whom the Father
justifies the church. In other words, our redemption
was by the blood of Christ on the cross. Our justification
before God was by His righteousness imputed at the cross. He is the
caller of the church. He sends forth His Spirit to
give life from Him and to call His people into the fold, into
the church, And he is the preserver of the church by his spirit and
by his work, one body, and he's the head. And he says who is
the beginning? The firstborn from the dead.
Now, when it speaks of him as the firstborn from the dead,
it's not saying that he was the first one resurrected from the
dead. There were others who were resurrected before him. For example,
he himself resurrected Lazarus. But he's the firstborn from the
dead in the same sense that we spoke of him as the firstborn
of creation, speaking of the quality and the authority of
his role as head of the church. For example, Lazarus was raised
from the dead, but Lazarus had to die again, the physical dead.
But Christ, who is God the Son incarnate, who died on the cross
for the sins of his people and who was buried he was raised
from the dead never to die again so in that sense he's the firstborn
from the dead and it says here that in all things he might have
the preeminence in all things in all areas he might have the
preeminence and look at verse 19 now listen to what this is
saying this is the hope of the gospel now he says for it pleased
the Father that in Him, in this One who is the Redeemer, in this
One through whose blood we have the forgiveness of sins, in this
One by whom we are justified from all things, in this One
who is the firstborn from the dead, who has the preeminence,
that in Him should all fullness dwell. In the person of Christ
we see again the fullness of the Father, the fullness of the
Son, and the fullness of the Spirit. And without Him you can't
see any of that. You cannot come to God. You can't
know God. In Colossians chapter 2 and verse
9, I quoted this earlier. It says, For in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the fullness of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And it says, and you're complete
in Him. For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness
dwell. That's the purpose of God in salvation. That we might
be conformed to the image of his Son who has the preeminence,
who is our all in all. And then verse 20 it says, and
having made peace. Now this is the foundation of
it now. Because remember what I said. The hope of the gospel
is founded upon the preeminence of Christ. And the preeminence
of Christ is founded upon the glory of his person and his finished
work. And here's what it says in verse
20. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him
to reconcile all things unto himself, by him, I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy. and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Now what is all this founded
upon? The death of Christ on the cross. That's where peace
was made between God and sinners. If you know Christ today, there
was a time you didn't know about this. And that's why the work
of the Holy Spirit in the new birth is necessary for life.
You see, it is life. You must be born again. Because
until you come to see and hear and know Christ in the gospel,
You're not reconciled to God. You're an enemy, as he says.
You that were sometime alienated. And enemies, where? In your mind. By wicked words. What were those
wicked words? Anything that kept you from looking
to Christ and Him alone. He who has the preeminence. My
friend, it could have been religion. And most of the time it is. It
could have been the immoral sins of this world. It may have been.
A lot of times it's religion. What kept the Pharisees alienated
in their minds? What were their wicked works?
It was their efforts at religion to save themselves and to make
themselves fit. But when you turn to Christ and
submit to Him and you see that you're washed in His blood and
clothed in His righteousness, then you're no longer alienated
in your mind. and you repent of your dead works
and come to Him. And all this took place in the
body of His flesh through death to present you holy. My holiness
is Christ, unblameable. Now men may blame me for a lot
of things, but God doesn't blame me for anything. He sees me through
Christ, robed in His righteousness and unreprovable in His sight. Not in yours, not in mine even,
but in God's sight. When I look at myself, I see
so many areas that I fall so way short in my own sinfulness,
but God sees me in Christ, washed in His blood and clothed in His
righteousness." Now verse 23, now, he says, "...if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel." Now, many people look at those if statements
like this, and they'll say, aha, see there? That means all of
this is conditioned on your continuing. Well, that's not what it is saying.
What it is telling us there, this if statement is not a conditional
statement. It is an evidential statement. In other words, the if here is
not a condition that sinners must meet in order to be saved. The if here is an evidence that
those who have this hope are saved. and have already been
reconciled to God. Listen to it. If you continue
where? In the faith. Now what is the
faith? The faith, he's already described
it here. It's the faith of the gospel.
It's the faith of God's elect. It's faith not in my faith, it's
faith in Christ. It's faith, I believe, I have
faith that Christ fulfilled and met all the conditions and requirements
and stipulations of my salvation. I believe, I have faith that
Christ makes me fit completely and qualified for the presence
of God. And he says grounded and settled,
grounded in the gospel, settled in the gospel and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel. Now this is a hope of what? The
hope of the gospel. Well, what is the gospel? It's
the good news of how God saved sinners, conditioned on Christ
and him alone, Christ who met and fulfilled those conditions.
It's a certainty, you see, and he says, which you have heard,
and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven,
whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Now you see, Christ has the preeminence. And that's what the hope of the
gospel is all about. Christ is my hope. And what he
accomplished according to the purpose of God from eternity,
what he accomplished in time on Calvary is the foundation
of my hope. I'm saved from sin, from Satan,
and from the curse of the law because I have the hope of the
gospel. I hope that's been helpful to
your understanding of the scripture. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, listen to the announcer and he'll give
you the details. The title of this message is
The Hope of the Gospel. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-833-9000.
or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you and may the Lord be
with you.