Good morning. It's great to be
with you all again. Your brethren in Kingsport send
their greetings. For our message, if you'll turn
with me in your Bible to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. And we're gonna do a bit of turning
So be sure to keep a bookmark here in Colossians. We'll be
turning back and forth here a lot. Colossians chapter one, let's
start reading in verse 25. Colossians 1, 25. The apostle Paul says, where
have I made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which
is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. whom we preach, warning
every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may
present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also
labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in
me mightily. The title of our message is Christ
in You. Don't you like the sound of that?
Christ in you. Now we just heard this, but I'll
say it again. This is the gospel. This is the good news. And as
we just read, this is also a great mystery. A great, great mystery. But this is all my hope. I'm counting my eternal soul
on this right here. Christ in you. The hope of glory. Now for our message, I have three
points. And I'll try to be brief. The points are Christ in you
the mystery, Christ in you the union, and Christ in you the
hope of glory. We'll pick up in verse 25. The
first thing I want us to see is that this is a great mystery. Verse 25, Paul said, where have
I made a minister according to the dispensation or will of God
which is given to me for you to fulfill or to fully preach
the word of God, even the mystery. See what it says, the mystery,
excuse me, which hath been hid from ages and from generations. The gospel is hidden to all men
and women by nature. When we're born into this world,
we do not know, we don't have an inkling. We do not know and
we cannot know the things of God 1 Corinthians 2.14 says,
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. Now let's read verse 26 again.
It says, Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from
generations, but now is made manifest. to His saints. Praise God, He has manifested
this mystery to His saints. How? How is God pleased to do
this? Look at verse 27. To whom God
would make known. What is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. In order for us to know the gospel,
in order for us to know this mystery, God must make it known
to us. We're not gonna find it out on
our own. We can read the scriptures, but unless God gives us eyes
to see Christ, we will not see Him. We will not find Him, we
will not know Him. God must make it known. Praise
God He's been pleased to make known what is the riches. You
know, Paul wrote about the unsearchable riches. There's all the riches
of heaven right there, all in Christ. To whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory. All glory is in Him. And
He's been pleased to make known this mystery among the Gentiles. I will gladly take my place as
a Gentile. A Gentile dog. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Here we'll see more clearly how
God makes this mystery known. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Verse 3, we just heard part of
this a minute ago. Paul said, If our gospel be hid,
it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. Now look at verse six. This is
how God makes his gospel known. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And again, We all love darkness
rather than light until God shines the light in our hearts, makes
himself and his gospel known to us. That's salvation. And
I rejoice to know that God does that. I love how it says, for
God who commanded. He didn't ask. He's not begging,
hoping. He commands. When God sends his
word, it shall not return void. It shall accomplish the thing
which he's pleased for it to accomplish in the place where
to he sends it. Christ is the gospel, and He
must be revealed to us and in us. Turn over a few pages to
Galatians chapter 1. If you read about it in Acts
8 and 9, you'll see that the Apostle Paul had quite the experience
in God saving him. But really, all believers share
that same experience. And here we're going to read
about it in Galatians 1, look with me at verse 11. He said,
But I certify you, I assure you, brethren, that the gospel which
was preached by me, of me, is not after man. For I neither
received it of or from man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. The only way we're gonna learn
the gospel is by revelation of Jesus Christ. Who hath believed
our report? The prophet said, to whom the
arm of the Lord Christ has been revealed. Christ must be revealed
to us. Look at verse 13. For you've
heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how
that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it, and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals,
in mine own nation being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions
of my fathers. On his own, Saul of Tarsus, he
was a zealous religious man. I'll tell you this, he was highly
esteemed in the eyes of men. And there's many today. But there
was just one problem. He was a Pharisee. Read about
it in Philippians 3. He was a Pharisee. He was religious,
but lost. God had not revealed to him what
he was. But soon, God is gonna lay him
in the dirt. And here in Galatians 1, we're
reading about that. In verse 15, but when it pleased God. Now, right there, don't we see
salvation in God's work? He said, here I was, thought
I was living for God, working the works of God, but I wasn't
believing on Christ. But when it pleased God, what
did God do for him? But when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood. Like Peter, the Lord,
He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
He told him, He said, Peter, flesh and blood did not reveal
this unto you, but my Father, which is in heaven. God must
reveal Christ to us. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Now, turn back, turn back to
our text here in Colossians 1. Verse 26 again, even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations but is now
made manifest to his saints. This is not revealed to everybody.
God has not been pleased to reveal this to everybody. Read in Matthew
11 verse 25, he hid these things from the wise and prudent. You know, he hid these things
from all of us, naturally, but he's been pleased to make it
known to reveal his gospel unto babes. unto those who can do
nothing, they know nothing, they are nothing, they have nothing,
on their own, who can't save themselves. It takes God, just
like a babe, a baby. What can a baby do? A baby can
cry. A baby needs constant attention.
That's what we are. That's who God saves. That's
the saints. Now look here in Colossians 1,
in verse, if I can find it, Colossians 1, verse 1. Contrary to to the
popular opinion of religion, not everybody's a saint. You
got sinners and you got saints. Well, I'm here to say that the
saints are the sinners. They're one and the same. Here in Colossians
1, Paul said, it says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by
the will of God and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae. Grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know what distinguishes all saints? Those two words,
in Christ. The saints and the faithful brethren,
they're the same people, and they're in Christ. That's how
they're known. Their names are written on his
forehead. Their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, the
saints. The saints are a particular, peculiar people. They are the
children of God, the elect. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1. Part of this mystery is not only
Christ in you, but how are we in Him? How could I be in Christ? Christ is God. How could I be
in Him? Well, look here in Ephesians
chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of
God, to the saints, which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus, it's the same. He wrote the same thing. Because
the saints at Colossae are no different than the saints at
Ephesus. They're saints in Christ Jesus. Verse two, grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ according as he hath chosen us in him. before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now we could
just stop right here, spend the next 20 minutes. All spiritual
blessings. are in Christ. Every blessing. You know, we think money and
other things in this world are blessings. They're not. Christ
is the blessing. He is the blessed one and we're
only blessed in Him. And we're only in Christ because
God chose us in Him. Now, He did not look through
the portals of time and see what we would do. We wouldn't want
to know. God looked down from heaven.
We see what He saw. He chose us in Him, that Christ may be praised, that
He may be glorified, that we might be to the praise of the
glory of His grace. That's why, that's why. Turn over with me to 1 Peter,
chapter two. This matter of being chosen in
Christ, It's often not received very well, and none of us receive
it well until it's revealed to us that we were chosen in Christ. Election is God reserving to
Himself a people. And if God had not reserved a
people unto Himself, there would be no elect. There would be no
saints in Christ. Look here in 1 Peter chapter
2. Here I believe we see clearly who the saints are. 1 Peter 2
verse 9. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar or purchased people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." You know
what that sounds like to me? That sounds like we were just going
along, living our life blind to the things of God, concerned
with ourself and nothing else, and then God shone Christ into
our heart. Here we are walking in darkness,
happy to walk in darkness. Here comes Christ, just like
that. God spoke to us through his word, and now everything's
different. Now we see him, now we see the
light. We walk in the light, we walk
in Christ. We were not a people, but now
we're a people. We did not obtain mercy, we didn't
need mercy. Now we find ourselves at his
feet and begging for mercy, and finding it, because he's pleased
to show it to all who need it. Does that sound mysterious to
you? Glorious that God would be pleased to do this? Oh, what
a mystery. What a mystery. Turn back to
our text. Second point, Christ in you, the union. I was thinking about how do I
explain this? What does it mean for Christ
to be in you? Well, for Him to be in us means
for us to be one with Him. And I know I can't do this justice,
but I'm gonna try. Look here in Colossians 1 verse
20. I'm sorry, let's start at verse
18. Colossians 1, 18. This is talking about Christ.
Christ is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself, by Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated,
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. The Lord Jesus
Christ has reconciled us to God. You see, we were at enmity with
God. The carnal mind, that's all of
us, is enmity with God. What Christ did, He did the impossible. He made peace between a holy
God and sinful man. Only He could do that. Because He is both God and man.
He is the substitute of sinners, He is the Savior. We who were
His enemies have been made to be His friends. Don't you love
that verse that refers to Christ as our friend that sticketh closer
than a brother? You know, we might get all sad and say, well,
I don't have any friends. Well, I got one friend. He sticketh
closer than a brother. Praise God for Christ, the friend
of sinners. Now, why would he do this? Why
would he do what he did? Why would he give himself for
such an unworthy people? Well, it says in verse 22, to
present them, to present us holy. to make us holy and present us
holy and unblameable, nothing to blame, no guilt, no sin to
account for, unreprovable. The law has nothing to say to
us, nothing to reprove. Christ did this to present us
perfect in the sight of God. In John 17, he was praying to
the Father. He said that they all may be
one. As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us. That they may be
made perfect in one, in Him, in Christ. Now turn with me to
Ephesians again, this time chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. The union of Christ and His church
is a marriage. It's the marriage. Ephesians 5 verse 25. Actually, let's start in verse 22. Wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For
the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head
of the church. and He is the Savior of the body.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives
be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that
He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies, he that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and
cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members
of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. This is a great mystery indeed.
We are so truly united to Christ that we're no more two. It's
not he's over here and we're over here. We're one. You know,
God is up here. We are down here. Christ has
brought us to God. He's made us one with God in
him. Is that not amazing? Amazing
grace. My soul. We are members of his
body. He's our head. Without him, we're
nothing. We can do nothing. We're nobody.
He's our head, we're members of his body, of his flesh, and
of his bones. Bone of his bone, flesh of his
flesh. And one day, there's gonna be
a marriage supper of the lamb, and you know what's gonna happen?
Christ, the lamb, is gonna present his bride to the father. And
the father's gonna be well pleased. Revelation 29 21 verse 9 says
come hither I will show thee the bride the Lamb's wife What
a mystery that we Sinners should be called the Lamb's wife the
bride of Christ. What a mystery Now as a result
of this blessed eternal union with Christ We have life He that believeth on the Son.
He that hath the Son hath life. If I have Him, I have eternal
life. And he that hath not the Son,
he that believeth not on the Son, hath not life. The wrath
of God abideth on him. Life is only in Christ. Everything
else is death. Just look around us. It's all
gonna die. We're gonna die. But not if we
believe on Christ. He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on me shall never die. And I pray God's given us faith
to believe this. To believe on Him. Life is only
in Him. Back to Colossians. And this
time, look in chapter three. Verse four says, when Christ,
who is our life, When Christ our life shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with him in glory. I can't wait. He is my life. He's given me life. He said,
I give unto them my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No man's going to pluck us out of his hand or his father's hand.
They're one. And we're one in him. And Christ is our life. He is our life. Not only is He
our life, He lives in us. Turn to Galatians chapter 2.
I love this verse. Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. Galatians 2 20, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. Again, here we see the union
that we have with Christ. I'm crucified with Him. In baptism,
what we're saying is, I was crucified with Him. I was buried with Him. When He was buried and buried,
He carried my sins far away. My sins were gone. And when he
arose, I arose in him. I'm with him. That's what he's
saying. That's what he's saying. I'm
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. Hopefully you have your finger
in Colossians still. In chapter three, look at verse three. Right
before the one we just read. It says, for ye are dead. and your
life is hid with Christ in God. We're dead, but we're alive.
We're alive in Christ. We live in Him. In Him I live
and move and have my being. In Him. Back in Galatians 2 verse 20,
read the whole verse. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. You know, it's interesting
that this says the life that I'm living, I live by the faith
of him. How do we live by his faith?
Because he lives in us. Our faith in Christ is a result
of His faithfulness to us. We're constrained by the love
of Christ, and I'm so glad that that's the case. We're not motivated
by law. We're not motivated by promise
of reward in heaven or threat of punishment in hell. No, we're
constrained, we're motivated, we're moved by one thing. That's
the love of Christ. And by God's grace, by His constraining
love and power, we will spend the remainder of our days looking
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.
Looking to Him, trusting in Him, believing on Him, until one day
we're gonna wake up and see Him. That'll be the day. We'll be
satisfied. He'll be satisfied, and we'll
be satisfied, one in Him. He loved us and gave himself
for us, and that's all our hope. That's all my hope. My hope is
in the Lord from this time forth and even forevermore. Lastly,
Christ in you is the hope. He is the hope. I love how, look
at it with me, Colossians 127. Christ in you, the hope of glory. If I have Christ, I have hope.
If I don't have Christ, I don't have hope. I'm hopeless. That's why my hope is in the
Lord. He is our hope. He is hope. He is hope. You see, everybody's got religion,
but that's not enough. I look this up. I remember Walter
preaching on this a while back about pure religion. Religion
is mentioned, I think, five times in the scriptures. If I'm not
mistaken, the first four times it's mentioned it's all about
false religion, and then one time it says pure religion. You
know what pure religion is? Christ. We don't need religion, we need
pure religion. We need Christ. We need Christ in us, the hope
of glory. Well, how can I know if Christ
is in me? Turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The next book over, 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13. Paul's writing to the saints
again, this time the saints at Thessalonica. In verse 13 he
says, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you've been
taught, whether by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ
himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath
given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work. Has God given you a good hope
through grace? Has God given you a good hope
through grace? Has God called you and given
you faith to look to Christ. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved all the ends of the earth. I'm God, there's none
else. There's no God beside me. Life is in his son, life is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Has God given you a good hope
through grace? Has God called you and given you faith to believe
on Christ alone? If so, then Christ is in you. And you have a good hope. Ephesians 2 verse 8, For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we're
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. We're new creatures in
Christ Jesus. He is our hope. He is our hope
from start to finish. And I'll show you one last thing
here. Back in Colossians chapter 1, Paul was writing to the saints
at Colossae. And these brethren at Colossae,
they had this hope. They had this hope. And I pray
that we also have this hope. Colossians 1 verse 3. We give
thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and of the love which ye have to all the saints for the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven. Whereof ye heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you as it
is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in
you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. Our hope is a sure hope. We have a firm foundation. On
Christ the solid rock, we stand. And our hope is laid up. That
means reserved. It's laid up reserved for us
in heaven. It can never be moved. It can
never be taken away. We that believe on Christ shall
never be confounded. We'll never be put to shame for
believing on him. Salvation's in him. Our hope is in heaven
and Christ is our hope. You know where he is? Says he
is seated on the right hand of the majesty on high. And you
know where we're seated? God hath made us to sit together
in heavenly places in Him. It's all in Christ. Verse 12 here in Colossians 1. Give thanks unto the Father which
hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness
and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins." Does that give you hope? Oh,
that gives me such hope. Christ has delivered us from
the death that we've earned. He's given us life freely in
Him. We'll never perish. redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, made
us to be the righteousness of God in Him by being made the
sin that we are, being forsaken by God to bring us to God, becoming
us that we might become Him, giving us His glory. What a hope. What a hope. Look down at Colossians
2 verse 10. This right here pretty much sums
it up. and ye are complete in him. It is finished. If that's not enough, look over
one page at Colossians 3 verse 10. And put on the new man which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in
all. Christ is all and in all. He's all to the Father. He's all to his people and he's
in all his people. May God be pleased to reveal
once again or perhaps for the very first time Christ in us
the hope of glory. Amen.