Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. The name of the message today
is hope. Hope. Colossians chapter one. One thing I've noticed in this
world and talking with young people, talking with my daughter
and talking with my son and other people too is there's not a lot
of hope. There's a lot of fear. Fear of
what's going to come. Fear of what's going to happen
to the planet. Fear, fear, fear. And we know that just from watching
the news that the news feeds on that, doesn't it? It just
stirs it up even more. And we are naturally prone to
fear. That's why the scripture says,
God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind. But all the flesh, right? We're all susceptible to it,
aren't we? Every single one of us. You know, we're saved, but we're
saved sinners, aren't we? You know, the flesh, we battle
that every day now, don't we? My oh my. The spirit battles with the flesh all the
time. And people will stir up fear
about various things, some things that are so outlandish. And they're
just stir up fear with it. My oh my. Aliens are going to
come. No, no, no. All this stuff, right? There's going to be a world war.
Well, God's in charge, isn't he? Let man say what they're going
to say. But God's in charge. Man disposed. and make plans,
right? Look at Germany, Italy, and Japan. They thought they were going
to take over the world, didn't they? But the Lord had other plans,
didn't he? Yeah. My, oh, my, I'll tell you what.
As I was talking to Brother Daniel, you know, men plan, but God disposes. That's why it's written in the
scriptures that if it be your will, Lord, I'm going to do that.
Lord willing! That's why we say, Lord willing. We make plans, well, Lord willing,
if the Lord wills, it'll come to pass. If not, it just wasn't
supposed to be. Again, people stir up fear about
climate. So much, so much that I recently
heard that young couples are choosing not to have children
because of fear of what might happen with the climate. My, oh my. But even there we
know if God wants them to have a kid, they're going to have
a kid, aren't they? Right? But still though, just to think
of that mentality, right? And it's all fear-based. It's
all fear-based. You know? We often think, you
know, oh, how's it going to be for our grandkids? Well, if they're
the Lord's people, he can take care of them. Right? He can take care of them. He'll
make sure they're okay. Look what we've lived through.
Look at the fears that come up in our life sometimes. Have you
ever noticed, though, that the Lord makes mountains of fears
into mohills? He just plows them down. When
I get fearful, it's usually because I'm trying to fix the situation
that I'm going through by myself. Then I just gotta release it,
don't we? We gotta just give it up to God, don't we? My oh
my. So there's many things that make
people fear. Some things that one person might
fear, another person might say, that doesn't bother me at all.
And vice versa, right? So there's things that might
make you fear, that might not make me fear, but then there's
things that might make me fear that you're like, well, that's
nothing. My oh my. Let's consider though,
in opposition to fear, let's consider the hope we have. You know, we as God's people,
we have a hope that is greater than anything in this world.
I'll tell you, and that hope is the anchor of our souls. That
hope is Christ, beloved. It's Christ. My, oh, my. And remember, as Thomas More
said, he said, we can look to Christ in any situation we're
in. It doesn't matter how big it
is to us or how small it is to us, we can look to Christ in
no matter, and we should really, right? Look to Christ in all
the situations in life. Let's read verses three to five
here in the book of Colossians. And let us remember, again, that
our Lord is sovereign over all situations, all situations that
we find ourselves in, God's sovereign over them all. Whether it's something we did
to get us into that situation, God's allowed it to happen, didn't
he? He's still sovereign. He don't change. He's still everywhere
with us, right beside us. An unchanging hope, look at this.
Colossians 1, verses 3 to 5. We give thanks to God, Paul's
writing to the Colossian believers, and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ praying always for you. This is why we're to pray for
one another, right? Lift each other up in prayer.
I love the prayer chain. The ladies' prayer chain that
you have going there, that's fantastic. You know, that's fantastic. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus, look at this, and of the love which you have
to all the saints, So a visiting preacher comes,
man, they just love him like he's one of their own. Isn't
that wonderful? For the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven, where have you heard before in the word
of the truth of the gospel? Look at that. Hope laid up in
heaven for us. Who's in heaven? Christ. What a hope we have, beloved.
What a hope we have in Christ. Where have you heard before in
the word of the truth of the gospel? See, men and women in
this world, they hear about the hope that believers have through
the preaching of the word. Through the preaching of the
word of God and by God's grace and his mercy, we believe. Right. We'd naturally, in our natural
state, we'd be opposed to it. But by God's mercy and grace, oh my, draws us with loving cords,
gives us faith to believe on Christ, and oh, we just embrace
him. He becomes, as Paul wrote, he
becomes our all in all, everything to us. And no matter what situation
you find yourself in, Just look to Christ. Look to Christ. I know sometimes it's hard. We're
going through circumstances. Norm Wells and I were talking
this week, and I said, you know, a lot of times, situations we
go through catch us by surprise, and he goes, all the time. I'm
like, yeah, you're right, brother. We scratch our heads and say,
I wonder why this is happening. One way to look at trials and
tribulations is, what are you teaching me here, Lord? What
are you teaching me? And you know, I always find that
when you go through certain things, it draws you closer to Christ.
It does. Oh my. So verse four, look at
this, brings forth the faith and love which our brethren at
Kloss had for all the saints. Now marvel at this. This faith
is a gift of God. This faith they have is a gift
of God. They were a bunch of idol worshipers. In class, they
were Greeks. Yeah, they were Gentiles. They had no interest in God. As you said, Brother Tom, one
time when we were talking, during that time, there was multiple,
thousands of different gods that people bowed to. That's the place
that we find that our brethren were in. And here comes Christianity
and says, there's only one God. Talk about flip their lives upside
down. They've been given alms to this
God of the woods and this God of the weather and this God of
this over here. And someone comes and preaches
that there's only one true living God. The truth. The truth. And look what happened. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus, they heard the gospel. And by God's grace and
mercy, by God-given faith, they embraced Christ. Think of that. No wonder they were ostracized
by their families. Some of them were probably idol
makers at one time. Some of them were probably, who
knows, they all probably offered up sacrifices to idols in the
past. And here they are. We don't need
to do that anymore. We have a hope. We have a hope. And think of the contrast this
way. With the false gods, they always had to give things. Right? With Christ, there's nothing
we give. We're the receivers of God's
grace and mercy. We don't give anything. He did
it all. What a contrast then in that
time, right? No wonder the Greeks said, that's
foolishness. Because all their lives they
had been raised up to do these things, to follow in the footsteps
of their parents. My oh my. So marvel at the gift of God's
faith to them in Christ Jesus. Marvel at their love for Christ.
Here they are, at one time they loved self, they loved the idols
that they worshiped, they loved all this other stuff in the world.
Like you said, Brother Tom, the world stuff, all the stuff in
the world, that's what natural man loves. And now they, Christ is my all. Christ is my all. He's my all
in all now. He's everything I want. What a change. No wonder family
members and friends went, what happened to him? We've heard that before, haven't
we? What happened to him? He's not the same. No, he's a
new creature in Christ. He's born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Now he's rejoicing in the hope
that he has. And so these saints that visited
Colossus would speak about the love for
the brethren that these folks had. Do you know before I came
here, that was spoken of this church too. And I've experienced
it now. It was spoken to me by several
preachers. John Claude was one of them. Said those folks, they
just love the brethren. They love the gospel. That's
true. I found that out. It's true. And I see us growing as a congregation
in the love of Christ, in the love for one another. My oh my. And that's all, you know, praise
be to God too. And be thankful to God that that's
spoken of us because that's the Holy Spirit's work. That's him
working in us and through us. Now, we don't see it, right?
We're like, oh man, I'm just still such a sinner, so, right? That's what we, you know? And then someone comes in and
they say, wow, this is wonderful. That's the Holy Spirit. He's
done that in us and through us. He gets all the glory. Again,
God gets all the glory. There's nothing we've done, beloved.
And who's the object of their faith? What we see in this verse,
in verse four, we see who the true object, the object of the
faith of God's people is Christ Jesus our Lord, it's Him. He
is the object of our faith. Look what it says in verse four,
it's so clear here. Since we heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus. So a mark of a true believer
is they're born again by the Holy Spirit of God and they have
faith in Christ and Him alone. And then look, remember I told
you that one thing Satan can't counterfeit is the love that
God's people have for Christ, for the scriptures, for each
other? He can't counterfeit that. He can counterfeit a lot of things,
but he cannot counterfeit that. And look what's spoken here.
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, so he's the
object of their faith, and of the love which you have to all
saints, all the saints, everywhere. Someone comes in, we embrace
them like they're one of our own, don't we? Yeah. As I saw Daniel today, I was
like, good to see you, my dear brother. We have brothers and sisters
all over the world, beloved. All over the world. Oh my. So the object of the faith is
Christ and him alone. And he's the object of God-given
faith. And that faith, again, I never emphasize it enough,
that faith comes from God. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. So if you have faith in Christ,
you're very blessed, blessed man or woman, because God's given
you that. Isn't that wonderful? And this
is, see, there's been a contrast now, right? Just like there has
been in our lives. There's a time when we didn't
believe, and now He's precious. Now he's precious. Now we love
him. Now we love the brethren. Now
we love the gospel. That's a work of God. That's
a work of God. Rejoice, beloved, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a work of God. It's absolutely wonderful. The Lord Jesus Christ is their
only rest. They don't have any other rest.
Christ is their rest. They trust him and him alone
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love
which he have to all the saints. He's their only hope. They've hung their eternal salvation,
the salvation of their souls on Christ and Christ alone. Is
that not what we've done too, eh? He's everything. You take away
Christ, I don't have anything. I have no hope then. What a hope
we have. Oh, what a hope we have. We have
a strong consolations, strong hope. That's Christ. That's Christ in him alone. Oh
my. So marvel, marvel at what God's
done with these folks. They were idol worshipers. Marvel
at what he's done. Now they love Christ. They love
the gospel. They love the brethren. What a worker God. It's absolutely
incredible. And it all comes about by his
almighty power. See, we humans, we brag about
our strength, or we brag about our intellect, or we brag about
something we can do. You know we have no power to save ourselves?
And you know that the strength eventually is going to wane,
right? Our mental intellect, I forget more things than I've
ever remembered. Now, I'll tell you what, right? The older we get, the older we
get, right? So all that stuff starts to decline,
right? My oh my, here we go. My, but
we have a hope in Christ, don't we? So everything that man trusts
in is eventually going to decline. But Christ is our hope. He never
changes. He's our strength. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. And He never
changes. Oh my. See how secure we are
in Christ? It's wonderful, beloved. It's
wonderful. So hear the marvel at the love
of God which has been wrought in them by the power of the Holy
Spirit of God. God's love is shed abroad in
their hearts, just like Scripture says, right? And that's true
for all of us as believers, too. All done by His almighty power.
Oh my. And the Scriptures declare, again,
that the Here it clearly declares their faith in Christ and their
love for the brethren. Just one commentator said that
love for the brethren is like cement that holds bricks together.
And that's the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, and it
keeps us together, doesn't it? The love of God and the blood
of Christ is like cement, and we're all held together. You
know, Scripture says we're a temple being made, fitly framed by God. Right? We're a rock put in there. He's
the foundation. Oh, isn't it wonderful? It's
absolutely wonderful, beloved. My, oh, my. How wonderful it
is to know that God's working in us. Isn't that amazing? We don't see our own growth.
Others see it, but we don't see it. But isn't that amazing that
we have love for God? We have love for Christ. We have
faith in Christ and love in Christ. We have love for the brethren.
God's brought all that in us. That's amazing. When you consider
our natural state, quiet strength, temperance, moderation. Against
such, there's no law. Look at that. And they that are
Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.
If we live in the spirit, let us walk in the spirit. Let us
not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another or envying
one another. Be content. Let's just be content
where we are, where the Lord's got us. Isn't that wonderful?
And even contentness, the Lord makes us content, doesn't he?
Because sometimes we're discontent by nature. But it makes us content. So we see how verse 5 fits in
with verse 4. This hope here. This hope we
have within us. It's wrought in us by the Holy
Spirit of God. Let's read verse 5 again. For
the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard
before in the word of the truth of the gospel. What a hope we
have. We have a hope, the scripture
says. And what a hope that hope is.
Who's our hope in? Christ. Who is Christ? God incarnate in the flesh. My
Savior, my Redeemer, my Lord and my King. My everything. Is it so for you? Oh, it's wonderful. And our hope,
note that our hope's not in ourselves. Where's the hope? Laid up in
heaven. Our hope's not in ourselves.
We may have used to hope in ourselves before the Lord saved us. Our
hope's not in ourselves anymore. If we're hoping in ourselves,
that's a groundless hope. If a person's hoping in their
supposed works to get them to heaven, that's a groundless hope. As Henry said, that's a refuge
of lies. But what a hope we have in Christ.
He who is God is our hope. God is our hope, beloved. Oh, what a hope. Our hope, again,
is not in ourselves. It's not in our works. Our hope
is in Christ and what He has done in our room and place. that
He fulfilled God's law and justice in our room and place. It's He
who has done that. That which is impossible for
us, right, is possible with God. It's wonderful. This is wonderful
news for sinners. This is a hope that can't be
shaken by anything in this world because it's Christ. Now, we could go like that, can't
we? In our faith. As things come, we're up and
down. But see, He's the constant, like I always say. He's the constant.
He doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. He's the unchanging one. That's
who our hope is. My oh my. Now, He's the object
of our faith. And He's the anchor of our soul.
You know, them big ships in the ocean, they could be being tossed
to and fro, and they drop down an anchor, right? And that anchor
hits that seabed, and it just gets ground in there. And that
ship being tossed about to and fro in a storm, and the anchor's
holding. We're tossed to and fro in this
world, aren't we? But where's our anchor? In heaven. I remember hearing one commentator
say that it's like we're on a sea and the anchor's on the other
side. Anchored to the ground, that
being Christ. And we're being slowly brought
home. It's wonderful, isn't it? Our
anchor don't move. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. It's absolutely wonderful. And He's the object
of our love, and therefore we love those who love Christ, don't
we? We also love our friends and our family, but there's a
special bond between God and His people. And there's a special
bond between God's people with each other. There's a special
bond. My, oh, my. And think of this. He's the object
of our hope while we're here on this earth. And one day we're
going to see Him face to face. All because of His death on Calvary's
cross. All because He redeemed our eternal
souls with the shedding of His precious, precious blood. That's
the only reason we're going to see Him. God chose us, Christ
redeemed us, the Holy Spirit regenerated us, and they're going
to take us home, aren't they? It's wonderful. And you know
what makes heaven heaven? Not that our relatives are there,
although those who have gone before us who were believers,
it's going to be wonderful to see them. But you know what makes
heaven heaven? Christ. You could ask any believer that
we know that's there already. Well, we can't, but if you did,
they'd say Christ is everything. Unto Him who has washed us. Oh my. It's going to be amazing. And when we get there, heaven
will be heaven because of Christ. For us, too. My. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 6. I read this in Sunday school, but it's worth reading
again here in this message here. Hebrews
chapter 6. Who is the hope of all true believers? Christ and
Him alone. There's no one else. Again, we don't hope in ourselves
anymore. We don't hope in situations in this world. We hope in Christ
and Him alone. He is the constant hope for the
believer. Hebrews chapter 6, verses 18 to 20, it says, that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, that we might have strong consolation. Now that word consolation
there, that word consolation is hope. in the Greek, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. See,
in the preaching of the gospel, there's a hope set before sinners.
Christ. Christ in Christ's love. He's
our hope, isn't he? Which hope we have is what? An
anchor of the soul. He is the anchor, beloved. Now,
if we're anchored to Christ, can anything happen to us? Can
we lose our salvation? No, we're anchored to the king. And this is the fallacy of those
who say you can lose your salvation. We're in God's hands. Who's gonna
take us out of his hand? No one, hey sister, no one, amen.
No one. It's impossible. My, it's wonderful. It's absolutely. Which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both, look at this, sure and
steadfast. Now that's who Christ is. He's
sure and he's steadfast. Yes, the rock, the immovable
rock. Like I said in Sunday School
where the rock is there and the wrath of God is falling upon
that rock, which is Christ, and here we are hidden behind him.
Hidden behind him. Shelter in a time of storm. That's
what Christ is for us. both sure and steadfast, and
which entereth into that within the veil, whether the forerunner
is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest after the
order of Melchizedek. He's in glory, beloved, and where
he is, we're soon gonna be following. And we believed. We who have
believed have a joyful and a confident anticipation of eternal salvation,
don't we? We have a confident anticipation
that we're gonna be with Christ. All because of what he's done.
All because of what he's done. And our trust and our hope, our
confidence of eternal life is only found in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the anchor of our souls. And what a good hope we have.
An unchanging hope. Sure and steadfast. My oh my. Faith, hope, and love always
go together. And you know where they find
their end? Faith, hope, and love. Do you know where they find their
end? In Christ. Right? Our faith is in Christ,
our hope is in Christ, and our love is for Christ. It all finds
its end in Christ. My oh my. And think of this hope we have
in Christ. It was purposed by the Father.
It was purposed by the Father. It was purchased by the Son,
and it was placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. I didn't have this hope before
the Lord saved me. I had no hope before the Lord saved me. Was
it so for you? Now I've got a hope. Oh my. And it's wonderful. And we say, oh, the matchless
grace of Jesus. Let's think upon this. Let's
just think upon this. God himself became a man. God himself. Scripture says the
heavens can't contain him. In Isaiah, we have a picture
of him, and the posts are moving at his voice. God himself became a man. The
Son of God became a man. And then went and died and bled
at Calvary's Cross as our substitute. He really did this. Willingly. Willingly that we might be redeemed. that we might be saved from all
our sins, that we might be forgiven of all our sins. One of my favorite
portions of scripture, I know you guys hear me say that all
the time, but look at this over in, I went too far. Look at this in Colossians chapter
two, look at this. This is magnificent. Think of
all of our sins, right? And think of how all our sins,
the law cries out, death. Must be satisfied, must be paid,
right? All of them. Look at this, this
is absolutely magnificent. Colossians chapter two. We're
starting verse 12. Buried with him in baptism, wherein
you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God. Born again by the operation of
God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, that's us,
that's you and I, that's the Colossians, who is right to you,
being dead in your sins in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
hath he quickened together. That's made alive in the Greek.
born again. We were dead. We were completely
dead spiritually. Hath quickened together with
him, having forgiven you all trespasses. All means all there, beloved.
I love this part here. Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against So back in the day, they used
to write things on a piece of paper, ordinances that was against
the thief or whatever, and they would nail it either to the prison
door or they'd nail it to the cross. All these things that
they were accused of. Look at this. How did he blot
it out? With his blood. All those things
that were against you and I, beloved, have been blotted out. In the Greek, that means whitewashed.
There's nothing, not even a fraction of anything to see anymore. They're
gone. They're gone. Blotting out the
handwriting of the ordinance that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross. It is finished! Saved by the grace of God. So
gospel preachers, we stand up now and we proclaim a salvation
that's finished. It's already done. It was done
2,000 years ago. Isn't that wonderful? And God
the Holy Spirit applies that to our hearts. We're born again.
He died for me. Oh, and then we're joyful, aren't
we? Then we have peace, don't we? Oh my, it's wonderful. It says, in having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them. In it. Look at that. In the Roman times, you've heard
me say this, they had a triumph. The general would come in and
into Rome. And there'd be all these, they'd
bring in the legions that were involved. Usually the top legion
that distinguished itself would walk with the, and the general
would come in at the front in a golden chariot. And behind him would be the legions
marching, or choice legions, and then would come carts depicting
the battle, and behind them would come prisoners being dragged,
chained up behind them. The Lord spoiled the princes
and principalities. He crushed Satan at the cross,
beloved, crushed him. Oh my. Satan bruised his heel. That's speaking of his humanity.
But he crushed the head of the serpent. My oh my. It's wonderful. What a savior. God himself became a man and
redeemed us. And then he was raised for our
justification. It's absolutely amazing that
God would do that. And he's the surety of all his
chosen blood-bought people. He sealed our pardon, beloved.
He sealed our pardon with his blood. He ratified the covenant with
his blood. Our pardon forgiveness is stamped with the blood of
Christ. Paid in full. That's wonderful,
isn't it? What a hope we have. The blood of the one we hope
in was shed for us to purchase our souls. Oh, and then he sits
now at the right hand of God, interceding for us as our mediator,
as our mediator, who being the brightness of his glory and express
image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, He purged them,
beloved. Isn't that wonderful? What did
he do? After that, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. He's there right now. Isn't that wonderful? He's king. He's reigning right now. And
he's the perfect and only mediator between God and man. My oh my. He's wonderful. And He sealed the everlasting
covenant again with His precious, precious blood. And our hope
and our assurance is that we who believe are redeemed and
purchased by that blood. And then we'll see Him face to
face because of that blood. Do you know there's nothing that
can separate us from the love of God in Christ as believers? Nothing. You say, oh, my sinfulness. God
don't remember your sin no more. Now we repent, don't we? We come
to Christ constantly and confess our sins. Oh my,
what a merciful God. He has the power to save and
He has the power to keep. Scripture says this, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with according
to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. A lively hope, a living
hope. Our hope is a living hope. Yeah. I went to somebody's house
this week, and they had crosses on the wall. And I remember seeing
those, because I grew up a Catholic, and they got a dead Jesus. He's not there anymore. We have
a living hope. Our Lord was taken down from
the cross, buried, and He rose again. And He lives. I love that song, He lives, He
lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He
walks with me and talks with me. A long life's narrow way. He's alive. We have a living
hope, beloved. And think of His mercy. Think
of how boundless His mercy is. He's forgiven us of all our sins,
and He did it by the giving of His life. That's mercy. And He forgives all our trespasses,
as we saw there in Colossians chapter 2. All of them. Every
single one. Even the ones we can't remember.
And even the ones we weren't even conscious of doing. My. I ran into a guy one time,
he said, I'm not a sinner. I said, are you married? And he said, yeah. And I said,
do you ever get angry at your wife? He didn't know what to say. Well, there you go. My oh my. Yeah, he raises us up from our
state of deadness spiritually and makes us alive, as we saw
in Colossians 2 again. He removes the filthy rags of
our self-righteousness in which we are not fit to be in the presence
of God, and he clothes us in his perfect righteousness. So
we're fit to be in the presence of God now, beloved. Isn't that
amazing? Again, God looks at us, He doesn't
see us, He sees Christ. My. And then He takes us home to
glory, to be with Him forever. How merciful is our God. Oh, that's abundant mercy. So
our hope of eternal life is in Christ, who's in heaven. And
we're going to be with Him one day. Peter says this, that we
have an inheritance to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and
that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Well, if it's
incorruptible, that means we can't mess it up, right? If it's
undefiled, we can't mess it up. You know why? Because our inheritance
is not based upon ourselves. Our inheritance is in Christ.
That's who our inheritance is. And then it says, who are kept
by the power of God through faith. See, our hope is Christ, kept
by the power of God through faith. It's God who keeps us too. Through
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Magnificent. Magnificent. Kept by the power
of God. The same power that it takes to save a sinner, to regenerate
a sinner, same power keeps us. Same power, take us home to glory.
Isn't it wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful, isn't
it? Oh my. Turn if you would to Romans chapter
one. Romans chapter one. My oh my. Look at this. Verses 16 and 17. You know, Paul,
he wasn't ashamed of the gospel. Because Paul knew that the gospel
was the power of God unto salvation. In the Greek, it's the Dumis,
the dynamite of God. But when it says power there,
it's the dynamite of God, beloved. Boom, blows up everything we
thought. Could get us to heaven, doesn't
it? Oh my, reveals to us that we were hoping in a hopeless
ground, weren't we? Oh my, look at this. This is wonderful. For
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the dynamite
power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believe it,
look at that. To everyone that believes, the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. God's wrought this. Look at this. To the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. To all peoples. We are a people
God's elect is a people chosen out of all the tribes and kindreds
and tongues of this world. Jew means the Jewish nation.
Gentiles means all the rest of us. Because Gentiles were anyone
that was outside of the nation of Israel. So look at that. Isn't that wonderful? Now look, what's revealed in
the gospel? I love this. What's revealed
in the gospel? the righteousness of God. Who's
the righteousness of God? Christ. Who's the Lord our righteousness? Christ, right? Look at this. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. It's a revelation. See, we do
not know God outside of him revealing himself to us. That's why, what
a hope we have. We couldn't know God on our own,
and he, by his mercy and grace, chooses to reveal himself to
us. all because of his everlasting love that's been set upon us
from eternity. It's just amazing. Grace just
is more and more amazing. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Now it says there the just, right? We're only just, we're only called
that because we're in Christ. Now how will we live? By faith. Who's the object of our faith?
Christ. Who's the hope of our hearts? Hope for our salvation?
Christ. It all goes back to Him, beloved.
It all continuously just goes back to Him. Let's go back to
our text there in Colossians chapter 1, verse 5. We'll look
at the second part of this verse now. We're almost done. It says,
for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have
you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel? Now
this here section, the second section, we see the importance
of gospel preaching. Right? Because we know faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, right? Look at this. wherever you heard
before in the word of the truth of the gospel." Now, Epaphras
was a faithful preacher of the gospel. Look at verse 6. He's
the one who told Paul about the love that the Colossian believers
had for one another and for Christ, the faith they had in Christ.
Look at this. Verse 6, "'Which has 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 of it, and knew the grace of God in
truth.'" See, before they did not know the grace of God in
truth. They didn't know Christ before. As ye also learned of
Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Now remember when the fruits
of the Spirit is love? Notice that's capitalized. That's speaking of the fruit
of the Spirit, the love. My, oh my. And Epaphras, he gave
a good report. He gave a good report of how
the saints were at Colossus. You know, each time we preachers
get together on the phone, we give each other good reports
of what's going on. You know? Need anything to pray for? Yeah,
okay, yeah. Okay, pray for that. Okay, no problem. How's it going? The Lord's good. The Lord's good. My, oh my. So Paul rejoices that
the saints in Colossae have heard the word of the truth. They've
heard it. And they've heard it. And God's given them faith and
belief. My oh my. Give them hearing ears
and seeing eyes to look to Christ. Think upon this about the preaching
of the gospel. You know we're delivered from
the power of darkness through the preaching of the gospel?
Look at verse 13 and 14 here. Same chapter. Look at this. If
the gospel was not preached, we would not be delivered. Look
at this. 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.
That's what we hear in the gospel, isn't it? That's what the gospel
declares. Every time the gospel is preached,
it declares Redemption through Christ's blood and the forgiveness
of sins. And when we're born again, you
know, when we're born again, we're taken. Look at this. We
were under the power of darkness. We're not anymore. We've been
translated into the kingdom of his dear son. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. By the preaching of the word, turn, if you would,
to Romans chapter 10. Well, look there. It'll bring forth Romans
chapter 10. It's through the preach of the gospel that we
hear of Christ. Now, someone might say, well, I was reading
the Bible and the Lord saved me. Now, some would say, well, that
can't, is not that person, is not, when we read the Bible,
is Matthew not preaching to us? You see? Is John not preaching to us?
Paul's preaching to us through Galatians, isn't he? Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, right? It's God's
Word. Now, we know the emphasis on
preaching is, we're going to see her. It's so important. But
these brethren in His words, they preach to us, beloved. My, oh, my. I remember someone
saying to me, they said, well, it's got to be by the preaching
of the Word. I said, well, I'm reading Paul, man. He's preaching to
me. Oh my! Oh my! It's wonderful, isn't it? Look
at this. Romans chapter 10, verses 13
to 17. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Right? That's a wonderful verse. How then shall they call on Him
and who they not believe? How can you call on someone you
don't believe in? How can we call on Christ as
our hope when we don't believe in Him? Right? Before we're saved. And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? See, I'd never heard of the true
Christ of the Gospel before the Lord saved me. I heard of a God
that I had in my imagination and that other people had added
stuff to, but it wasn't the Christ of the Bible. Look at this. And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Right? Well, like I said, is Paul preaching to
us when we're reading the scriptures? He sure is. He sure is. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Was Paul sent? Yeah. Was I sent? Yeah, by the
grace of God. Was other gospel preachers sent?
Yeah. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? That's in Isaiah 53. So then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That's
why it's so important to preach the gospel. That's why it's so
important to send it out into the world. God saves his saints through
the preaching of his word. It's wonderful. So gospel preaching's
vital. My oh my. Now there's no guarantee
that if we bring some of our family members to church, there's
no guarantee, right, that the Lord will save them. Right? But how can they know about Christ
if they never hear about him? Right? My oh my. My. If there's one of God's people,
they'll be regenerated under the preaching of the gospel. God must save them, and he uses
the preaching of his word. The gospel is the power of God,
as we saw in Romans, unto salvation to everyone that believes. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Again, this
is why it's so important. As Paul wrote, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation. It's dynamite
of God. How else can a sinner learn about
he who is the hope of other sinners except through the preaching
of the word? I met one guy one time when I was out in Oregon.
He said, I've never heard the gospel. And I looked at him and
I said, really? He was like 23 years old. I said,
you've never, ever, ever heard it? He goes, no. No one's ever
told me about it. Well, he heard it. He heard it
that day. But he was raised in an agnostic
family, said he had no interest in hearing nothing. That day he was ordained to hear
the gospel of Christ. So there are people out there
who've never heard the gospel. My, oh, my. Think of it. Before
we were saved, we may have been sitting in a church. We may have
heard the gospel of God's grace being preached, and it went right
over our heads. But then one day, we heard something, didn't
we? Oh, my. We heard something. And God gave us faith to believe.
My, oh, my. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. The gospel of God's grace is
all truth. Scripture says this, in whom
you have trusted after that you heard the word of truth. Again,
after you trusted, you believe, the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation. See, for each believer, the gospel
is the gospel of our salvation, right? In whom also after that
you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
That means you're marked. People talk about this mark of the beast
and all this. I'm already marked. That's what that means. That's
over in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13. Sealed there means you're
marked. God's people were sealed. We're marked. You're God's. And
it goes back to when they used to do shipping and all that.
And each person who had the property would stamp it with their own
stamp. We're stamped. Somebody starts
going off about the mark of the beast, they say, oh, sorry, I'm
already marked. I'm sealed by God. That's what that means. Sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession and to the praise of His glory. Now the word, the word in our
text here, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
where have you heard that word heard there? You know what it means in the
Greek? to be endowed with a faculty of hearing, to be given ears
to hear. That is wonderful, isn't it?
So let's read verse five with that in our minds again. For
the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, wherever ye heard
or you were given, endowed with the faculties to hear, right? before in the word of the truth
of the gospel. That's magnificent. Those who at one time didn't
hear anything, us in our natural state, now we hear something,
don't we? It's wonderful. I'll tell you
what, it doesn't get any better than that. It's just amazing. My oh my. So rejoice. If you're
a believer, rejoice. God's given you ears to hear.
He's given you ears to hear. And the gospel is the word of
truth. The word of truth. I'm going to close with this. Think upon this. The gospel of
God is timeless. It's absolutely timeless. We've seen cultures change since
the time of Christ, right? or even think of since the world
began. We've seen cultures change. We've
seen civilizations raised up, right? And empires fall, right? We've seen the rise of technology. We've seen where we are now,
where we basically carry things we used to see in Star Trek in
our pockets now, communicators. And we have access to anything
we want on the internet, right? Information-wise, you want to
find out about something? You can find out about it. Never
had anything like that when I was a kid. You know what we used
to have to do? Go to the library. Pull the books
out. Travis is smiling. Pull the books
out and read up about it. Now you just go on YouTube. And you can find anything on
YouTube. It's amazing. And books that
we preachers use that we couldn't even find that are out of print,
you can find them. They've been scanned, some of
them, on Google Books. It's amazing. But you know what? Centuries have gone by. Humanity's
changed with gadgets and governments and cultures. But you know what's
remained unchanged? The gospel, the word of God. We're the philosophers that spoke
against this word. They're gone. They're dead. We're the people that shook their
fist at God. In the times of the Romans, they're
all dead. We're the persecutors of the
brethren. They're all dead. My oh my, this gospel contains
nothing but truth. Nothing but truth, beloved. All
truth is found in the scriptures. And think of this, the brethren
of that class were being bombarded by philosophers, by false teachers, by all the
idols that they lived amongst. They were all being bombarded
by all those things. Their family members saying,
what happened to you? Oh my. Angel worshipers, Judaizers,
lies. But this gospel has never changed. It speaks of one who gave his
life for sinners. of one who is God in the flesh,
of one who shed his blood, gave his life to redeem his people. And there he, he was the hope
of these folks. These saints at Colossus had
the same hope you and I have in Christ. Isn't that amazing? And this gospel proclaims Christ
is the great substitute, the sinner substitute, and it proclaims that God is
satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. Isn't that wonderful? So remember, when fear comes,
and it will, when it rears its head on our lives, remember the
hope we have. Remember the unchanging hope
we have. Remember He who is the anchor of our soul, and His name
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Same yesterday, today, and forever. And remember, He's sovereign
in every situation we find ourselves in. Every single one of us.