My subject this morning is, of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But here in verse 25, down through 27, is where I want
to get my subject today. Whereof I am made a minister.
God made Paul a preacher, a minister. And He gave Him an amount of
time on earth to do that ministry. And this ministry was given for
the church, to you, to the Colossians, Philippians, all believers, and
to fulfill the Word of God, to fully preach the Word of God. And then He goes on to say the
mystery, to fulfill the Word of God, to preach it fully. The
mystery. which hath been hid from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints."
His people see this. They understand this. God made
it known to them. And look who he says now, to
his saints. And this is what God said, to whom God would make
known. God's got to make it known. If you know anything at all spiritual,
God's got to make it known. He makes that plain all the way
through His Word. God's got to make it known. To
whom God would make known. Now listen to what He wants us
to know. The riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. I want to talk about
Christ in you, the hope of glory. You know the Gospel. to the average
mind is a mystery, a mystery of mystery. And Paul called it here, the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. The Jews
don't know this, and a lot of Gentiles don't, and the Gentiles,
the Jews despise Gentiles and still do. You have to go wash
themselves in the scriptures, they'd have to go wash themselves
when they got among Gentiles, go home and clean up. Go home
and work themselves. But it was hidden from ages.
Ain't that what he says? Hidden from ages. Hidden for
ages there in verse 26. Ages and ages it was hidden. And it was hidden from generations
of people. Generation after generation.
But then God said, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going
to make my saints to know this. I'm going to make my saints to
understand what I purpose from eternity. That I'm going to save
a bunch of Gentile dogs. I'm going to do something for
people that's not just Jews. And I'm going to do something
for them that nobody knew for ages and generations. They didn't
get it. And oh, what is this? The mystery of gospel. is an
open view for us to understand. Now, I want to talk about, first
of all, the mystery of the Gospel. The mystery of the Gospel. You
know, when we talk about the Gospel, there's a Bible that
people carry, and they'll even tell you what page to turn to
if they're using that, and they say they've got seven Gospels.
Seven Gospels. But the Scriptures teach us one
Gospel. And this gospel was manifested
in Christ before the world ever began and then brought into this
world and taught to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this
is the eternal gospel. And what is the essence and the
substance of the gospel? It is Christ. It is Christ. Ain't that what it says? Christ
in you. Christ in you. He's the head of the church,
the body. And the hope of our glory, the hope of glory, is
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now it says here, look at that
word, which is Christ in you, the last line in this verse,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now when you find that
word with, that means that it tells you something beforehand,
before you got down there. which is Christ in you beforehand. Now I tell you the words that
come before that's called the riches. The word before it is
called glory. And the word before it's called
mystery. If it's a mystery, then Christ
himself is that mystery. God's got to make him known.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh,
seed of angels, priesthood of the Gentiles, believed on in
the world and received up in the glory. If it's that word
glory, which is Christ in you, which is, if it's that word glory,
he's the brightness of God's glory, his fresh image of his
person. We beheld his glory. And then
if it's that word richest, if it's that word richest, which
is with Christ in you, is it Christ in you the mystery? Is
it Christ in you the glory? Is it Christ in you the richest?
Well, if it's the mystery, it's Christ. If it's the word glory,
it's the glory of Christ. And take that word richest. You
know Paul used that word richest often. He talked about the riches
of his glory. talked about the riches of His
grace in Him, and then He talked about the unsearchable riches
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How wealthy, how rich is our
blessed Lord? Huh? How rich is He? Do you need
grace? He's full of it. Do you need
mercy? He's full of it. Do you need
forgiveness? It all is in Him. Do you need
pity? He's got plenty. Do you need
compassion? He's got it. Do you need a friend? He'll be
a friend that's just as close to you as a brother. Whatever
you need, and when you need it, the Lord Jesus Christ is full
of it. He's rich, rich in it. And I'll tell you what, He is
as rich now as He was in eternity, and He's been given to a multitude
that no man can number, and He's still as wealthy as He ever was. So our Lord is the mystery. Our
Lord is the glory. Our Lord is the richest. He is
all this. And He is that to us. You go
to New York City and see all them Jews up there with their
locks hanging off the side of their head and their black hats
on and their black coats on. And you go up there and I'll
tell you what, they walk around and they wouldn't give you the
time of day unless you go buy something from them. But He is
this to us Gentile dogs who now are heirs of God and join heirs
with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So what I'm telling you is the
essence of this mystery of the gospel. This Christ in you, the
hope of glory, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now I know that
people are building churches right and left. And they're building buildings
and building churches. And they're building them without
Christ. They're building them to fill them up with people.
They're building them to fill them up with people with gimmicks.
And they're preaching salvation without a Savior. He can't save
unless you let Him. He can't do anything for you
unless you let Him. But I do know this, no matter
what anybody else says, whatever anybody preaches, and how many
churches are built, Christ Himself is still the gospel. Himself
is still the gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ in His
person is the gospel. Who could have thought and would
have thought of the eternal God, the infinite God, God, who inhabiteth
eternity, who would have ever thought that God, who is eternal,
should take upon Himself and come into this world and take
upon Himself a nature of a man, humiliate Himself to come to
that? But, oh, my, this is a great
mystery to our faith. I've told you this before. I
had Henry and Scott together one time, and I asked them, what's
the greatest mystery in the Bible? And they said, God in the flesh. God manifests in the flesh. God,
who inhabited eternity, come down here and inhabit it by the
Holy Ghost of God, the womb of a virgin. Huh? And that's a great mystery
to our faith. God and man in one person? No
wonder David laid out on the stars one night and he said,
what is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that
you'd come down to visit him? And that's why Isaiah said unto
us, a child is given unto us, a son is born. What are you going
to call him? Wonderful. Wonderful. How can we imagine it? Our mind
is a mystery in our faith. The Son of God Himself, who Himself
nobody ever seen until God just willed to come down and inhabit
the womb of a virgin and be born in a little old bitty place called
Bethlehem. And before He had ever suffered,
before He had ever shed any blood, or a work-worn deed of righteousness."
You know what the angel is saying? Unto us! This day is born unto
us a Savior! Who is He? Christ the Lord. And oh, when they got there,
they knew as they saw that baby laying there, They knew the incarnation
was full of the riches of God's grace and the one who came into
this world to save sinful, wretched, miserable sinners like us. He is God, able to have all power
and wisdom to do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. And He's man, bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. and can be touched with the feelings
of our eternity. Glory to God. And also that blessed
and glorious, not only is the person of Christ that mystery,
but the blessed and glorious work which He undertook and finished
Finish on our behalf. Huh? Look over here in Philippians,
right to your, no, back to your left. Excuse me. Back to your
left. Look in chapter 2 here. Philippians. Chapter 2. In verse 7. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, made Himself with no reputation. That's all
human nature wants to do, all that nature wants to do, make
itself of some type of reputation. Oh, I tell you, I want people
to know who I am, what I've done. And oh, our Lord Jesus Christ
made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And then when
he was made in the likeness of men, they found him in fashion
as a man, looked like a man, walked like a man, was touched
with infirmities of a man, tempted like as a man. But as this man,
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Well, what did God do for him
then, since he did that? that God also highly exalted
him and gave him a name, which is that name above every name,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm telling you something,
beloved. This is the gospel. I know, oh
my, the gospel never got over. Our Lord came into this world
to represent us as a man and as God. And as a perfect man, a sinless
man, a holy man, He came into this world to do for us what
we could not do for ourselves. We failed. We failed in our Father
Adam. And we failed every moment of
every day since then before God. Now, not before one another,
but I say before God, we failed. We're a failure. I got a few
Fs when I went to school. Got a few incompletes. Got a
few of them things, you know, that says not satisfied and unsatisfied. I got lots of them. Got so tired
of it, I decided I wouldn't go back. But I'm telling you what,
I'm a failure, and you are too when it comes to the things of
God. But our Lord Jesus Christ is not a failure. He shall not
fail, nor be discouraged. And oh my, He came to not only
do what we fail to do, but He came to suffer, suffer what you
and I could not endure. That's the wrath of God, the
judgment of God. And from the day he was born
and laid in that manger to the cross where he gave his life
on that blessed cross, he was a servant, a perfect servant,
Jehovah's righteous servant. And beloved, I tell you what,
he justified many by his blessed death. Christ was made a curse
for us. What for? To save us, redeem
us, buy us out from under that law. Because the shade curses
is ever one that hangeth on its brim. Let me tell you a story. A story I read. There's a farmer. He's a believer. He's a believer. I was a farmer
for a long time. There is a farmer. And he had a carpenter friend. He was a carpenter, a very good
carpenter. And this farmer was burdened over this carpenter.
His heart was heavy for this carpenter. And he witnessed to
him and witnessed to him and witnessed to him the gospel.
Told him about the gospel of a finished salvation, about God's
grace in Christ. Finished the work, that Christ
came here to do that work and finish it. And that Christ is
a savior and sufficient to save by himself and alone by himself. But every time that farmer would
witness to that carpenter, that carpenter would say, well, no,
no, that can't be right. We got to have some part in it.
We got to have some part. We got to do something. We must
have, got to have something to do with it. Got to have something
to do with it. Well, one day that farmer called
that carpenter and said, listen, I want you to build me a gate.
I want you to build me a gate. Took him to the place and said,
I want you to build me a gate right here. Well, that carpenter went, started
that morning, got all the material and built a gate. Built a good
gate. A fine gate. A wonderful gate. And he finished it. The farmer
said, meet me over at that gate in the morning. I want to talk
to you. Let's go over there and look
at it. Well, that carpenter arrived the next morning and there stood
that farmer with an axe. Stood that farmer there, stood
that farmer, stood there with him. And he said, what are you
going to do? He said, well, I'm going to fix
your gate. I'm going to straighten out your gate. I'm going to cut
a little here, and I'm going to cut a little there, and I'm
going to cut a little here, cut a little there. And that carpenter
said, what in the world are you thinking about doing? You're
going to ruin that gate. It's finished. It's good. There's nothing wrong with it.
Well, that farmer went to work, and he destroyed that carpenter's
gate. And, oh, that farmer took that axe
and beat him, and that carpenter said, Look what you've done!
Look what you've done! You've ruined my work! It was
finished! He said, That's exactly what
you're doing with Christ when you say you've got to add something
here. I believe he got that carpenter
to teach him. And that's what you do. You destroy
the work of Christ if you add anything to it whatsoever. You
destroy it. Huh? That's exactly what we do. We destroy it when we bring anything
to it. So it's Christ and his person
is the missionary body. Christ in His work, and in our
Lord Jesus Christ in His offices. You know, our Lord has three
glorious offices. He's a prophet to tell us of
God and to make us understand His worth. He's a priest who
offered himself as sacrifice to God without spot. And he's
our great high priest that's passed into the heavens. And
then he's a king. He's the king of kings and lord
of lords. He's a king. And then the scriptures
tells us he's our friend. Let's stick closer than a brother.
It tells us that he's not ashamed to call us brothers. And the
Bible tells us he's our husband. And we're a spouse to him. The
scriptures tells us he's the head of the body. We're the body,
he's the head. He's our mother, he's our father. He's our hope, he's our stay,
he's our comfort. David said, when my father and
mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. And bless his
name, he did that for me. He is indeed at all and in all. So beloved Christ Himself is
the mystery of this gospel, the hope of the glory of this gospel. He's the life of the gospel,
the soul of the gospel, the substance of the gospel, this mystery. And oh my! Where would our hope
be without the Lord Jesus Christ? Where would it be without the
Lord Jesus Christ? If the Lord Jesus were taken away, taken
away, where would our hope be? Huh? It's like a sick man going to
see the doctor, and the doctor ain't in. And the receptionist
and the nurse said, well, listen, he's got lots of books in there.
Go in there and look at the books. Go in there in the medicine cabinet.
See if you can find anything that'll help you out. No, no, no. I can't read the
books. I don't know what medicine I
need. I need to see the doctor himself. What would we do If our great
physician were taken away, could we heal
our sins? If he didn't finish the work,
could we finish it? Could you imagine the prodigal
coming to himself and starting home? And then when he got there,
willing to be a servant, not a son, when he got there, the
father wasn't there. We wouldn't have a gospel of
free grace without Christ. We wouldn't have a gospel of
free forgiveness of sin without our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved,
we don't need something without Christ. We don't need something
just that belongs to Christ. We don't need something procured
by Christ. We don't need somebody who has
known the Lord Jesus Christ or some truths that extol the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know what we need and who
we need? We need Christ Himself. We've got to have Himself. That's who we need. We have to
have Him. And he's the mystery of the gospel. Now listen to
this. Oh my, bless his name. Then it
says here back over in our text over here. To whom God, verse
27, to whom God would make known the riches. That's Christ, the
richest. How wealthy is He? The mystery. Oh, He is that. Perfect work. All the same. And then Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Oh my. When we talk about Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you. Christ in you. Christ is in all His people. And these are hope of glory.
Now I tell you, I'm going to tell you first of all what it
doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that you have great gifts and
abilities. It doesn't mean that. Christ
gives you the hope of God. It doesn't mean that you lead
a perfect, sinless life. All of us know that we don't
do that. My mother-in-law used to say
all the time, well I'm not perfect. That goes without saying, you
know. Somebody, you know, heard me say something to you,
somebody said, well I'm not perfect. Now listen, that's why we got
a perfect Savior, because we're imperfect. Huh? Oh my. And it doesn't mean that
everything in life is going to be perfect. Oh, preachers, preachers,
preachers. Oh, they tell people all the
time, if you've done this, if you've done that, and you've
done the other thing, didn't you, you'll end up being perfect.
Listen, we start out being perfect. But God have mercy on the butcher
of souls that deceive people with this, that tell Jesus is
the answer to every question, every problem you've got. They
give every problem that there is known to man except one that
they don't mention, and that's sin. He's the answer to a marriage. He's the answer to your wealth.
He's the answer to your health. He's the answer to every problem
you've got except sin. Huh? And oh my, and I'm telling
you something. We never started having real
trouble until we became believers. A war started the day you became
a believer. Didn't it? Where'd it start at? Did it start with your wife?
Did it start with your husband? Did it start with your kids?
It started in your heart and soul. There's a fight started
right then and there. Between God, the Holy Ghost in
you, and the Spirit of Christ in you, and your flesh. Ain't
that right? And I'll tell you something else
it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean you're going to be a spiritual
giant. Oh, I used to hear preachers talk about, boy, I'll tell you
what, quit being little spiritual midgets. That's what they'd tell
us. They'd say, quit being spiritual midgets, you know. You're not
good enough to grow up. I don't know why anybody would
say something stupid like that. But they did. They'd tell that. And that doesn't mean you're
going to be a spiritual giant. Understand all mysteries and
have the answers for every question. My, my. And I'll tell you something else
that means Christ in you, the hope of glory. It doesn't mean
that you have the strongest faith. You know, if you had the faith
of a grain of mustard seed, our Lord says you can look at a mountain.
When He talks about mountains, He's talking about obstacles
before us. If you had the faith of a mustard
seed, you could tell that mountain, get out of my way. I'm looking
to Christ. I'm looking to God. But let me
tell you what it does mean, Christ giving you the hope of glory.
It does mean this, that you have faith. It may be minuscule. It may be just smoking flax.
But let me ask you, would you part with your faith? Would you
swap it for anybody in this building? Oh, no, no. You know why you
won't do it? It's a faith that Christ gave
you. Somebody else didn't give it to you. And it makes you look
to Him, run to Him, embrace Him, and it makes you need Him and
causes you to commit yourself to Him. You know without Him
you could do nothing. He's the vine and we're nothing
but the branches. Huh? Oh my. And I'll tell you
something else it means, that you have life. Christ in you
means you have the life of Christ in you. You have life. We're
new creatures in Christ. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I what? I live.
I live. When God passed by that infant
cast out in the field, polluted in its blood, cast out, God passed
by. And he loved it. You know what
he said to that infant? I say unto thee, live. Yea, I
say live. That's what he did. We're made
partakers of the divine nature. Oh my, it's the very life of
God in us. Christ the hope of glory. Look
over in chapter 3 and verse 3. Oh, we have life? That's Christ
in you means we have life. Life. The life of God in our
soul. New creatures in Christ. And
oh my, look what he says here. Verse 3. For you are dead. Watch this now. What did we die at in Christ?
Died to sin. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ in you. What a hiding place. Rock of
Ages is hiding. Cleft for me, let me hide myself
in thee. Paul said, I'm hidden in Christ. And then look what he says. That's
when we're hidden with Christ in God. So when Christ, our life,
talking about living, shall appear, He, we know He's going to do
that. You know what? We're going to
appear with Him. How is glory? Do we have life? Let me tell
you something else. We have motion. What do I mean
by that we have motion? Faith. Faith in us is a living
principle. It's not an isolated act. I believe
back 35 years ago. I believe 25 years ago. You don't
go back. Faith is the living principle
that's in us. That's in us. And that causes
us to have motions in our soul. It makes us desire God, and so
we go after Him. It says, you that desire the
sincere miracle of the Word, You that are baped desire to
send still milk of the word that you may grow thereby When we
talk about this motion, we're talking about you're hungry.
You've got you get hungry Who's our food you get thirsty? You
walk you run you labor you rest So we have motion And I tell you that this also
it means Christ in you means you've been accepted of God.
God Himself accepts you. You've been reconciled with Him.
And this right here, these next things brought tears to my eyes
and joy to my heart. It says, Christ in me, the hope
of God. Talk about our hope of God. Huh?
I'll tell you something, He's the only hope of God. Only hope
of God. Look in John 17. John 17 and
verse 24. Look here with me. That's what our Lord says about
it. John 17, 20, 24. Father, now He's praying for
us in John 17, getting ready to finish His prayer. And He says, Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. That's heaven, wherever it's
at. That they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And oh my, we're
going to get to do that one of these days. Our hope of glory. When we talk about a hope of
glory, we're talking about glory for us. Glory for you. Glory for me. Glory for us, who are nothing
but creatures of shame and wretchedness. Yet, glory is going to be our
dwelling place. Huh? Glory is going to be our
sight. Glory is going to be our crown. Glory and grace is going to be
our soul. When we talk about glory, you
know what we're going to have? Because this hope of glory, we're
going to have glorified bodies. Fashioned like under the glorious
rocket of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what else we're going
to have? We're going to have glorious sights. We're going to see things. Faith will not need to be anymore. We'll see. We'll see for ourselves. We'll have a sight. Oh, what
sights we'll see. And then we'll be in glorious
company. We'll be with the church of the
firstborn, the spirit of just men made perfect. God said we're
set down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. And then, oh my, we're going
to have a glorious reward. What would that be? The same
one Abraham had. He said, Abraham, I'm excited
and great reward. And then, oh my, We're going
to have a glorious rest. A glorious rest. They shall rest
from their labors. Rest from their labors. A bunch of preachers got together
and was talking. One of them said, well, what
persuasion are you? You know, man, what are you,
a Baptist, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, what are you? He said, I tell
you, I'm going to tell you what my persuasion is. I am persuasive. If whatsoever I've committed
unto Him against that day, He's able to keep it. That I've committed unto Him.
I'm persuaded that neither lie, nor tantrum, nor anger, nor principality
shall be able to separate us from beloved God which is in
Christ Jesus." Oh, now. Is that a good hope? That's a
hope of God. How do you know you got Him?
Christ in you. Huh? Christ in you. Oh, Lord Jesus, blessed Master. Oh, Your precious Word, how blessed,
how wonderful, how precious. Oh, what it does for our hearts
and what it does for our souls, only You know. What it does for
our understanding, for our science, the spiritual science. We thank
You for it. Bless you for it, and pray that you would make
the gospel as effective as only you can,
for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed through me. Hold the snares. I have already come, His grace
that brought me safe. And grace will safely lead us
home. Let's sing this last one really
good. When we've been there ten thousand
miles. Oh, we're just getting started.
But shining as the sun. Oh, bless His name. Amen.