A Letter Of Hope

Turn with me to the book of Colossians. If you have a marker, you can put one there. I'll come back to it and preach from a passage here. But I want to read you the whole chapter of Colossians chapter 1. 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. 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 the love which you have to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is into all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it does also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God and truth. As you also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister in Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with all the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that you might walk worthy of our Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience, and longsuffering with joyfulness." You know, we would never associate those things with power, and yet that's where God's power is examined. That's where it's manifested, in our patience and long-suffering and joyfulness.

Giving 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, translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.

For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him. And he's before all things, and by him all things consist. And he's 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 in 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, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you've heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church, whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation, that word is stewardship, of God, which is given me for you to fulfill the word of God. even the mystery which has been hid from ages and 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.

What does a man have to do to be saved? He has to be perfect. He has to be perfect. Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. Now, if you will, turn back with me to Colossians chapter 1. rightly called, entitled, The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. These epistles are amazing writings. They really are. Paul begins this letter in his usual manner, giving God the glory and giving his gratitude for the salvation of the saints that are in this particular place to which he writes this letter.

And he says in verse 3, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Our relationship with God is in Christ. But he is addressed in Ephesians chapter 1, and we need to pay strict attention to that. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Father in Christ. He's not just your Father. He's not the Father of all men. He's the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's our Father through that way. And Paul's always careful to give thanks to God the Father, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As I began reading this epistle, it struck me all of a sudden What a wonderful thing it must have been to receive a letter like this. A letter from God's apostle, knowing it was divinely inspired and written to me. Wouldn't you like to open the letter this morning and find your name written in the pages? Grace and peace be unto you. from a man that you knew wasn't just making it up. He's an apostle. To read what God laid on the heart of his servant to say to you or to go out to your mailbox and find inside there a letter from God. Letter from God. Sent to his servant sending to you their greetings, assuring you of their affection and care.

Well, that's exactly how the believer is to read these epistles. They're written to me. And if you're a person of faith this morning, this epistle is written to you, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. That's who he's writing to. And it happened to be at this particular time in Colossae. Or you could insert Louisville or Danville or College Grove or Todd's Road or Shale Haven over in Australia.

And I ought to read these words knowing they're written to me. Grace be unto you. and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, the word of God is the children's bread, isn't it? That's what it is. It's the children's bread. It's the words burned into the hearts and minds of God's servants to his people. Paul wrote his second epistle to Timothy and told him this.

He said, God saved us. Wouldn't you like to do that? God saved us. Wouldn't you like somebody to put their arm around you and say, listen, God saved us. You and I, two fallen sons of Adam, two miserable sinners, two lost souls, and called us. Not everybody in the world, not some general call that goes out to the public. He called us, a private call. He called us, and oh what a calling, a holy calling. Everything in harmony with his name called us. The calling of God, sovereign, almighty, eternal, unchangeable, just and righteous God.

And it wasn't according to our works. I read this and I thought to myself, what a thought. Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more. It's not according to your works. I know people look at that and say, well, it's not based on my good works. What good works? They're none good but God. It's not of works. Ain't you glad?

Oh, my soul. Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more. but it's according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And that's my message this morning to you. This is an epistle of hope. What's the message of Colossians? Hope. Hope in Christ. You're here this morning and if you don't believe, you have no hope. Where am I gonna find it? Right here in the book of Colossians. This is an epistle of hope.

And it's written to me as if when he'd finished it, he wrote these words down. And it's like he took that letter and had a big bucket of hope. And he just stuck it down in there and just saturated every word, every letter, just saturated every word with hope. And he said it's laid up for us in heaven.

It's a living hope, a lively hope, Peter said, 1 Peter 1.3.

Which hope, he says in Hebrews 6.19, we have as an anchor of the soul.

Where did the anchor go? Within the veil. Isn't that what he says? This anchor of my soul went beyond the veil. It went right into the very presence of God. It went in there where salvation is accomplished, where righteousness is accomplished, where justification is declared. That anchor went within the veil. And it's sure and it's steadfast. And this hope leaves the person who has it clinging to it. Does it not? He clings to this. He rests in it, and he rejoices in it. Now I have three questions I want to ask.

I'm preaching down here in verses, actually verse 21 through 23. And he's telling us not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel. That's the hope I'm talking about. And I have three questions I want to ask and try to answer this morning about the hope of the gospel. And may the Lord enable you and me to, for me to say it and for you to hear it and believe it. Here are my questions.

First of all, what is the hope of the gospel? And secondly, what's the basis of this hope? And then thirdly, how is this hope acquired? So let's talk about these three things and see if we can come to some conclusion concerning these answers. What is the hope of the gospel? Well, the gospel is called the God spell. That's what it is, the God spell. It's the good news of God. It is the revelation of the mystery of the Word of God. For thousands of years, who knows how many generations, holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

What did they talk about? They talked about Christ, who is our hope. That's what they talked about. They just kept saying, somebody's coming. Somebody's coming. Somebody's coming. He's a Savior. He's the Redeemer. He's our righteousness. He's all. Somebody's coming. And then you get over to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it says somebody came. This one they've been talking about came.

Validated of God through miracles, wonders, and signs, which He did by Him right in our midst, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and on and on it goes. But all these holy men of God, Moses, and Samuel, and David, and Isaiah, and Solomon, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and on and on the list goes, each one, Peter said, having the spirit of Christ, testified of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Each one writing about divine inspiration, laying the foundation for the coming redeemer. And this is the Word, Peter said, not only by which we're born, but this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. Natural intellect at its best can only glean a few stories and fables from the Word of God, practical lessons, they call them, lessons of life, out of all these mysteries.

But the Holy Ghost enables us to see the hope that God's set before us. Isn't that what he talks about over there in Romans chapter three, whom God has set forth? Where'd he do that? All through the Old Testament. Set him forth as a propitiation for our sins. And in verses 25 through 27 concerning this mystery, Paul says, it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's what he's talking about. This is real hope for real sinners, and this hope is proclaimed from Genesis to Revelation.

Somehow people have got the idea that Jesus Christ is God's last desperate hope of salvation. He tried everything else and it won't work, and now he's going to give his son. If you don't believe on him, then you're going to cause God to be a failure. I never read anything so ridiculous in my life, and that's what they're preaching. Whoever pulled it up down this road. Jesus Christ is not God's last desperate hope of salvation because everything else failed.

Every saved soul is to the praise of the glory of God who first trusted in Christ. Is that right? That's absolutely right. God trusted all things into the hands of His Son. How come? Because He knew His Son could keep those things and fulfill those things.

He stood the praise of the glory of God our Father, who first trusted in Christ, in whom we also trusted after we heard. And the Gospel's a broad term. All the various doctrines concerning Christ, how we live, how we talk, how we dress, our obedience to all the powers that be, children to their parents, wives to their husbands, and on and on it goes. And yet Paul also, over in Acts chapter 20, verse 27, that not only calls this the whole counsel of God, but he defines it in particular in Acts 20, 24, testifying the gospel, he said, of the grace of God. The grace of God. And the gospel's the message of this book.

And it's the only thing profitable for lost sinners to hear. And without a hearing, believing, and confession of this gospel, nobody's going to be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. Isn't that what it says? The gospel is the revelation of the mystery of the word of God. He said, I preach these things in a mystery. That's what Paul said.

It's a mystery. Men don't know it. People are so shocked when they hear you say something that they never heard before. Well, of course you never heard it. It's a mystery. That's what he said. When nobody else is saying it, it's a mystery. Just keep saying it. Sooner or later, it'll sink in. Somebody will hear me. It's a mystery. You're not going to sit down and reason it out. You're not going to read the book and come up with the answers. It's not going to happen.

It's given to us of God to understand these things. It's the revelation of the mystery of the Word of God. And when understood, when made known to the sinner, It's able to make him wise unto salvation. That's what Paul told him. The hope of the gospel is that which God has inspired men to write and sent men to declare and enabled men to believe.

All right? Here's the second question. What's the basis of the hope? Boy, if you don't hear anything else I say, you hear this. It is the person of Jesus Christ. I know we won't go somewhere else with it, but that's not where it is. This is it. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the basis.

When forced to make a brief definition concerning the whole counsel of God, Paul only uses two names, two names in this whole thing of salvation, Adam and Christ. You find it over and over in his writings, Adam and Christ. How come? There's a numberless multitude that live between Adam and Christ. And what about between then and now? What about our lives? Don't they even get an honorable mention? No. This whole thing rides on two people, Adam and Christ. How come? They're both federal heads.

Adam's the federal head of all men. Every natural man born into this world is a son of Adam. You don't need to go home and sit in your living room and try to figure out who's your father. Adam's your father. Well, who's Christ the head of? He's the head of his people. He's the head of the body, his church. That's what it says. He's not the head of all mankind, not the federal head of them. He's the federal head of God's elect. Adam's the federal head of all men. Christ is the head of the body, his church.

In Adam, it says all die. How come? Because by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and death passed upon all men, for they all sinned. They all sinned. They sinned in their daddy Adam. Well, shouldn't God wait until they sinned to condemn them? No, they sinned in Adam.

All Adam can produce is after his kind. They're the same as he is by nature, the same as he is in his reasoning, they're the same as him. Same as Adam. And that's what he says at the end for all that sinned. Now I'm going to tell you something. God doesn't condemn you because you sinned in Adam. He condemns you for your own sin, but the reason you sinned is because you were in Adam. Does that make sense? Now, he goes on in Romans 5 with a long explanation, many verses here. You'll see them in parenthesis. But when he gets down to verse 18, he said, therefore, therefore, By the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation.

Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification of life. For if by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. The basis of our ruin is in Adam, and the evidence of it is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The basis of our hope in God is the accomplished redemption of representative righteousness and reconciliation of Jesus Christ. How can this be? Well, it's on the basis of the message I preached to you last week by the ordination of God and the substitution of Christ and our union with Christ and by imputation.

In 1 John 4.9 it says, in this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. That's the love of God. Who's he manifesting this love to? His people. His people. How are they going to know who they are? God's going to reveal it to them.

Peter said, we're not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish, who barely was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him from the dead.

You did this that your faith and hope might be in God. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying God foreordained His Son to save sinners. It's a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation. Christ came into this world to save sinners. He died the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God, made a curse for us, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. Union with Him, we're crucified with Him, buried with Him, raised together with Him, seated together with Him, risen with Him by the faith of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. And how is this hope acquired?

Verse 25, Colossians 1. were of I made a minister according to the stewardship of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Hope, strictly speaking, comes by faith. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. How can you hear, he said, without a preacher? Hope, now I hope you'll hear me. Hope in a well-lived life is not the hope of God's elect. I did the best I could do. That's my hope. Well, you don't have a hope. Not according to the Word of God.

Hope in a hardworking, generous, sacrificial life is not the hope of God's elect. But what is the hope? Hope is a well-based expectation of salvation based on the person and work of Christ. Of God are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

My hope, I'm talking about my hope. I'm not talking about the effect it has on my life. I'm talking about my hope. Everything I do in life is tainted by my sin. I can't hope in that. It's an evidence of salvation, but it's not my hope. My hope's in Christ. Though you believe not, yet he about is faithful. He cannot deny himself. He saved me in Christ, and I'm saved.

Why are you telling us this? Because you're going to look at your works and look at your sacrificial giving. You're going to look at these things, and you're going to doubt. And you're going to say, oh, would somebody who really knows God act like this? Could I actually know God and come in here and not weep when I'm worshiping God? Yes, you can.

And ain't you glad you're saved by grace and saved in the person of Jesus Christ? Every now and then, I need to be reminded where my hope is. My hope's in Christ. Is it secure? He's seated at the right hand of God. I don't know how much more secure you could get than that. Boy, I hope I can do what he sent me to do. You won't. You'll be disappointed. And I'm not trying to tear down your works. I'm not trying to put works aside.

I'm trying to tell you where your hope is. Your hope's in Christ. And everybody that has this hope in him, you know what he does? He purifies himself even as he purifies. He wants to do what God wills him to do. That's what he wants to do. But you're still a sinner, too. Oh, I need reminded. How often do I need reminded?

Christ in you, the hope of glory. He's my hope no matter what I do, what I say, where I go. He's my hope. He's my hope. May the Lord bless you. calls us to look at these things. You know, this work, I hope I can get my sins forgiven. Your sins are either forgiven or they're not. That work's already accomplished. And that's why I don't like that phrase, get saved. I'm going to try to get my children saved. They're saved or they're not. I'm going to try to get them to Christ. Get them to Christ. He's salvation.

You see what I'm saying? There's such a difference between the gospel and this hope and what this world sets before men as hope. It's like night and day. Used to, I didn't see the difference. Boy, I see it now. I see it now. May the Lord use this message for His name's honor and glory. Amen.

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