Colossians chapter one, and we'll
read from verse one. 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 of the love which
he 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 ye heard of it, and knew the grace of
God in truth. As ye also learned of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of 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 ye might be filled with
the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
that ye might walk worthy of the 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, and to all patience and long-suffering
with joyfulness. Giving thanks unto God 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. Who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature? For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and 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 is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he 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. If ye continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which ye have 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 of God, which is given to me
for you, to fulfil 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
labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in
me mightily. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. Last week, we ended our thoughts
remarking upon the wonderful promise of the Church's reconciliation
by the death and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We reminded
ourselves that because of the Lord's death, because of his
sacrifice on the cross, there has been a powerful change made
in the lives of his people and that we have been translated
from death into life, from that place of being under condemnation
to the experience of God's goodness and love. And we saw that there
was that successful power in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
to remove the outstanding offence of sin in our lives, to satisfy
the demands of the law, and to recover that people that had
been separated and alienated from God. We sometimes use the
word efficacious when we talk about the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, or effectual, which is the same word, but we are recognising
there that it is in the cross of Jesus Christ, it is in the
sacrifice of our Saviour, it is in the shedding of His blood
that the accomplishment of this great change has been effected. And we noted the end or the objective,
the aim of this reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ was
to bring sinners to God, bring sinners into a new experience,
to recover, if you like, to reconcile that people that had been separated
back into this communion with God. And the Apostle Paul made
reference to that when he says in verse 22 that in the body
of his flesh, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, in the body of
his flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ through death has made us holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. These are amazing
terms that the Apostle uses. Can you imagine him writing to
these Gentiles, perhaps that he had never met, and speaking
to them about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, by his death,
that event which had happened sometime before by now, yet that
event in itself has made many, many people holy. without blame
and without guilt before the one true God. And these verses
ought to be a thrill and a delight to us. Verses that speak to us
of this completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the way
in which we benefit from it ought to be a source of gladness to
our hearts. And I'm thrilled and delighted
to be able to say this evening that having glimpsed these perfect
promises, or this promise of perfection in Christ, that the
Apostle Paul is directing the attention of the Colossians to,
and not only the Colossians, but all who are the saints and
faithful in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we shall not be moving far
tonight from thinking about this great privilege that the Lord
Jesus Christ's death has effected. because this promise of perfection
that we have is something that the Apostle Paul seems delighted
to dwell upon. And if the Apostle delights to
dwell upon it, so shall we. We're going to be, as it were,
like little birds tonight, because we've discovered a wonderful
food source. We've discovered somewhere that
we can keep coming back to in the knowledge that there will
be something there to comfort our spirits, to nourish our souls,
and to delight our hearts, to keep us, as it were, well-sustained
in gospel truth. And so we return to these great
gospel themes of what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished
for us on the cross. You know, the old man that still
dwells in the heart and in the breast and in the mind of the
child of God, he delights to keep his secret sins close to
him. he will go to any length to hide
those sins and to keep them safe and to keep them warm and to
keep them alive and breathing because he enjoys to go back
to them time and time again. And the new man should keep the
blessings of grace and the goodness of God near our hearts and thoughts
also. Why would we want to venture
too far away? Let me make a quick point with
respect to this before we go to our verses tonight. I want
to just remind us all that the gospel that we are considering
here this evening, the gospel of the efficacious work of the
Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, the accomplishments of the blood
of Jesus Christ, is not to do with a particular church, whether
that church is in Great Falls or anywhere else. It's not to
do with a particular congregation or indeed denomination or group
of churches or a movement. This is the message of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his gospel. This is the message of the blood
of Christ. And when we preach the gospel,
when the gospel is lifted up, when the truth of the gospel
is set before us and explained to us, then our hearts are warmed
and blessed and encouraged. And it is as if we hear the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to us in the gospel. and to change
the animal metaphor and use a biblical example, the Lord says, my sheep
hear my voice and they follow me. And I trust that we never
get into that dangerous place of playing at going to church,
that we never become consumed by the activity to the point
that we forget the reality of the gospel and the power of the
gospel. I would go so far as to say that
if you know anywhere else If you know anyone else, if you
know another way to get comfort for your soul, if you can find
another advocate in this world, if you can get another method
by which you will be able to get holy, to make yourself holy,
to find a way of rendering you blameless and to present you
unreprovable before the omniscient God, then by all means, Exercise
your free will ability and follow that path. Go after it with all
the energy that you can. But if you know the truth like
Peter knew the truth, if you know the truth like Paul knew
the truth, if you can say, where else shall we go? but to the
Lord Jesus Christ and to the gospel of Christ and to the cross
of Christ and to the blood of Christ. If you can say to Christ
himself, you have the words of eternal life, why would we ever
want to leave this gospel? Why would we ever want to forgo
these promises? Why would we ever relinquish
this glorious hope that you have given to us? We're not in business to recruit
people. We're not in business to convince
one another in some sort of man-made idea or some man-made notion.
God knows I can't convert you. But I believe, as the Apostle
Paul believed, that a minister of the gospel need only spread
before those hearers the bread of life, to scatter it around
as it were, And like little birds, we will find that precious gospel
seed and we won't go far from it. We will know what is good
for us. We will know what helps us. We
will know what gets us through our days and gets us through
our nights. We will know that when the devil
comes and the world challenges and the temptations rise in our
own soul, that it's to the blood of Christ that we go. and it's
to that righteousness which God gives as a free gift. All I need to do is to minister. That word minister means to serve,
and there's a nice little picture there of being a servant or a
waiter at a table, to serve up. the food which blesses our souls,
the gospel of hope to a needy soul, the message of peace and
reconciliation by the Lord Jesus Christ. To declare Christ, to
declare his accomplishments, to declare the promises that
he has made of salvation to sinners like you and me. And if you like
the sound of being holy before God, of being unblameable before
God and unreprovable in His sight, then stick around because tonight
we are going to hear about being perfect in Christ. and that's
the spiritual food that I like. Like the little birds, that's
where I'm going to stay, where I can find the seed to feed my
stomach, where I can find the seed and the bread of life to
feed my soul. Just before we go to that, and
that's really the last couple of verses in this chapter, I
want to just deal with a little point in verse 24 that you might
be wondering what the apostle is meaning. What does he mean,
the apostle, when he says that he rejoices in his sufferings
because it allows him to fill up that which is behind of the
afflictions of Christ? He's talking there about the
afflictions of Christ and he's talking about it in the present
tense. But is not the Lord Jesus Christ risen and ascended into
glory and seated at the right hand of God? Is not his sufferings
done? Yes, absolutely. The suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ is done. It's completed, the Lord Jesus
Christ's death and that penal suffering and the agonies that
he endured for our sin is over. Our representative and our substitute,
he died in our place. There was a vicarious atonement,
an effectual atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ as he hung
and suffered on the cross. And that suffering is finished
because he declared it to be so by his own lips. and that
suffering is no more. The price has been paid, the
redemption accomplished, the atonement has been effected. In what sense then is the Apostle
Paul talking about the afflictions of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is
it possible that the Lord Jesus Christ has suffering and afflictions
in heaven? Is that what the Apostle Paul
is saying? Well, I think he is. I think
he is. And I think he is saying it in
this sense. And I think it's very precious
and blessed for the people of God to dwell upon this sense. The Lord Jesus Christ has such
a closeness and an intimacy and a tender immediacy with his people
in that union that has been forged together between him in his humanity
and us in our need, that we have become his body here upon earth. The Lord Jesus Christ in heaven
is our head and we are his body here upon earth. And while the
Lord Jesus Christ in heaven as our head is beyond that suffering
of the cross, yet he tastes and feels and senses the afflictions
that his people have here upon earth. He knows of the trials
that we face in this world and those afflictions that we endure
here in our own lives, He takes them and adopts them and owns
them and shares in them with us. I wonder if you've ever thought
about that. I wonder if you've ever thought
about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ feels our pain. That the Lord Jesus Christ hurts
with our affliction. That he is touched with the feeling
of our infirmities in that high priestly office that he satisfies
as our intercessor in the presence of his Father. That he can say
to the proud oppressor of his dear people, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? See, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
say to Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my people? Why are
you persecuting my church? Why are you harassing my flock? Why are you going after my saints? He said, why are you persecuting
me? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
testified to his disciples, lo, I am with you always. And don't
ask me to explain how the risen Christ fuels our pain, because
I can't do it, but I believe that he does. I believe that
when we weep, the Lord Jesus Christ is with us. When we are
in the company of someone who is grieving, do we not grieve
with them? When we are in the company of
someone who has pain, do we not agonise as we look into their
faces and see how that pain is wreaking so much sorrow in their
body? When we encounter someone who
is going through that slough of despond, that valley of despair,
Do we not in some way enter into that experience with them and
feel it with them? Do we not weep with those who
weep? And the Lord Jesus Christ has
promised that he will be with us always. He is with us at our
side. He is with us at our shoulder.
His arm is on our shoulder. He holds up our heads in the
midst of our trials. He knows these things and He
enters these things with us. I am with you always. I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. Lo, I will come to thee. Believing friend, you are never
alone in your heart. when the Lord Jesus Christ is
with us. The elect of God are never alone
in their pain. And the Apostle Paul saw this. And whether he took this from
that simple statement that had been made to him on the Damascus
Road, and as he learned more of the Lord and understood more
of the experience of grace in his own life. He understood that
the Lord Jesus Christ knew about the sufferings of his people,
that the Lord had been there when the apostle Paul in that
earlier day when he was Saul of Tarsus took and put Stephen
to death. He knew that Stephen had had
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with him. And he knew
that as he now suffered, in turn, for the sake of the gospel, for
the sake of the body of Christ, and for the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, that it was his privilege to be sharing that suffering. with the Lord Jesus Christ. It
was his privilege to be engaged together with Christ in that
burden for the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul had been shown
by the Lord all the things that he would suffer. And we know
from the reading of scripture that he did indeed suffer much.
We were thinking just last Sunday about how at Lystra he had been
stoned and left for dead, dragged out of the city, his body dumped
in the outskirts of the town and left for dead. He knew what
it was to suffer. Here he is in prison all these
years later, perhaps facing death for all he knows, about to be
judged and his enemies gathering around him in order to make their
cases against him. But he understood that he was,
as it were, taking upon himself that yoke of the burden of the
well-being of the Church of Jesus Christ. And as Christ engaged
and carried that burden for his people, so the Apostle Paul delighted
to share that burden with his Saviour. It's a lovely thought. He says he rejoices in his sufferings
and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ
in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. And he goes on to speak about
the fact that he counts it a privilege to be a minister of the gospel
and able to do that. Because we find that those who
minister the gospel, those who serve the body of Christ, those
who labour, and that may be in the capacity of preaching or
it may be ministering many other ways. But we find that we bear
one another's burdens. We take one another's needs upon
ourselves. And sometimes those needs are
great. Sometimes they ebb and flow at particular times of the
individual's experience. But as one body, we share them
together. And the suffering of one becomes
the suffering of many, as the joy of one becomes the joy of
many. And Christ is good. to his church
and people, and he blesses his church and people. And one of
the blessings that he has given us is this fellowship together
in labouring together and ministering to one another in the bonds of
love which we have. And the minister, he, for the
good of the church, for the praise of the gospel, spends himself. He is willing to forgo his reputation,
his family, his friends, his freedom, his own health, his
blood, even life itself as the apostle was, and counted it a
privilege to do so for the sake of the body of Christ. And the
apostle says that this has been given to him, dispensed, by God
to him. It's a privilege that he believes
he has been given, given to Paul on behalf of the Colossians,
on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ. And there's a special
union, I think, and identification which we ought to take with the
apostle here because surely as we look back in the history of
the church we can see that none of us arrived here by ourselves. We are here, we stand upon this
ground, we stand upon these truths, we believe this gospel because
there have been people who have gone before us who laboured for
our souls' well-being, who gave their time and their energy,
perhaps their own health and perhaps their own freedom, for
our sakes, that they had received, like Paul had received, a dispensation
of God to serve and minister to the body of Christ, and they
served that. And now it falls to us to serve
one another for the sake of those who will come after us in a day
that is yet to come. And see, here we have that long ribbon of the movement of grace
in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can track back
even to that point of saying to the Apostle Paul, Thank you
dear brother for your labours on our behalf because we only
stand where we do today because of faithful men like you and
faithful men and women who down through the ages of the church
have laboured and served the body of Christ even at the expense
of taking on the affliction of that body in their own bodies. This message that the Apostle
Paul preaches is a declaration, and he speaks of it here in verse
26 as the revelation of a mystery. It had been given to him to suffer
for the sake of Christ by being a preacher of this mystery revealed,
the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the purpose is explained
to us because here we see that there is a mystery that has been
revealed, it has been divinely communicated, and that the Colossians
are the recipients and the beneficiaries of God's purpose of revelation. Sometimes I like to ask these
free will universalists that we encounter from time to time,
how does your doctrine explain the fact that God hid the gospel
from ages and generations. That the Apostle Paul expressly
states that it is now his privilege to preach this mystery, which
has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now, in
this day, is made manifest to his saints. And so it was that
for all of those ages before, there were very, very few who
had this revelation given to them. We talk about the church
in the Old Testament. We talk about the elect from
amongst the Jews. And well, we recognize that there
were those amongst the Jews and there were those even out with
the Jews who, by the grace of God, were caused to see these
gospel truths. But it is only at the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ that the fullness of this mystery
has been revealed. And we are the blessed beneficiaries
and recipients of this mystery revealed. The gospel of grace
was never for everyone. It's not for everyone today. It is to be preached as indiscriminately
and as promiscuously as possible. But there always will be those
who will never be brought the gospel. They will live and die
in this world and never have heard the gospel preached. And
yet all that the Lord God is calling to himself will hear
this gospel preached to them. This is our privilege. The gospel
of grace is for the saints to whom God would and will make
known the riches of his glory that have been laid up for them
in eternal purpose. And its nature, the nature of
the gospel, its composition, and its end has all been set
aside for the well-being and for the blessing of these saints. And what is that? What is that
that the Apostle Paul is revealing here? 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. Christ in you, Christ among you,
Christ with you. That union that we have with
the Lord Jesus Christ, that is what has been revealed. That
is the gospel message that has been given to the church. That
as men and women who are sinners by nature, rebels in their heart,
are called by the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching
of the gospel into this union with the Lord Jesus Christ or
the experience of this union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So
here we see the hand of God at work in bringing this glorious
promise into a revelation and into view for the church, that
all heaven opens before us, that the eternal glory that has been
provided by God for his people is all due to his sovereign grace
purpose and the love that he had for us from all eternity. This was the purpose of Christ's
death, to bring his people to himself, to bring us into a knowledge
of that union that we have with Christ now and evermore. And so the Apostle Paul says
in verse 28, whom we preach, this Jesus, we preach him. We preach his gospel, that Jesus
who is the fullness of the revelation of God, that Jesus in whom all
the preeminence is placed, whom God has set apart as the redeemer
of his people. This Jesus is to be declared
and is declared by the Apostle and by the Church of Jesus Christ,
whom we declare amid all the suffering and the striving and
the labour and the affliction which is part and parcel of the
ministry of the Church, we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You know, the apostle is being
clear here to the Colossians and he's saying that there is
a price for standing for the truth of the gospel. There is
a price which must be paid for standing up for the truth. And
every one of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will pay
a price for testifying to the truth. Maybe it will be the attacks of those people around
about us who don't understand why we are lifting up the Lord
Jesus Christ in the way that we do. Maybe it will be a breach
in fellowship because people will say, you don't believe what
we believe. Maybe it will be that we will
be called to be the sole bearers of the truth in a particular
town or a particular community and have to stand alone for these
truths. So whether it's in Rome or whether
it's in Colossae, whether it's in Great Falls or whether it's
in Seattle, whether it's in Missouri or whether it's in Florida, whether
it's in Australia or wherever it might be, wherever the Lord's
people are placed, we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and we pay the price for doing so. The message of free grace repulses
the natural man. It repulses the natural man in
us and it repulses the natural men and women around about us. And there will be opposition
from without and there will be opposition from within to this
gospel of free grace that we seek to uphold and maintain. So the Apostle Paul says in verse
28, whom we preach, Jesus Christ, even though there is a price
to pay. We preach him by warning every
man. So we warn. What do we warn? We warn this world that judgment
is coming. We warn this world that there
is a day of reckoning. We warn men and women that there
will be an accountability for their sins. Sin cannot go unpunished. It will not go unpunished. God
is holy. The Lord Jesus Christ is a righteous
judge and holiness will be vindicated. Outside of Christ there is death,
there is separation and there is eternal condemnation. We declare the Gospel as the
only way of salvation. In the midst of a dark, sinful
and wicked world, there is a light, there is a door, there is a way
of salvation. and it is by the blood of Jesus
Christ. Christ and Christ alone is all
our salvation. Christ and Christ alone is the
one who serves God's demands. We ask, we ask the question of
men and women around about us in the words of our Saviour,
what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose
his own soul. What must it be like to be a
lost soul in hell? What must it be like to be under
God's righteous condemnation? For a day, for a year, for a
thousand years, for an eternity. Judgment is coming and we preach
the gospel because the gospel is a warning to every man. The fact that we can testify
that there will be a day of reckoning yet to come is a declaration
of the forbearance, patience and mercy of God. For this day
of grace yet is extended. In the preaching of the gospel,
the day of grace yet remains. It is possible to find grace
before this day of accountability and the punishment of sin falls
upon us. We have said it several times,
the Gospel is not a general offer to all men, but it is the powerful
means by which God gathers his elect to himself. And there is
mercy in this warning that we preach to men and women. There
is forgiveness to be found in Christ by faith. There is cleansing
to be found in the blood of Christ. There is an atonement to be made
in the death of the Saviour and in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Apostle Paul could say, we're not ashamed
to preach that cross. We're not ashamed to preach the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that it is that powerful
means by which men and women are enabled to flee from that
wrath which is to come. The Lord Jesus Christ could say
in John's gospel, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but
he that believeth not is condemned already. because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And so we
lift up the Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner's only hope, teaching
every man, everyone who will hear, and teaching every man
in all wisdom. Who is it that will learn? Who
is it that will learn these spiritual truths? Who is it that will learn
This wisdom, it is those who are given eyes to see. Spiritual
wisdom is God's gift. It is a Holy Spirit illumination. It is the product of the new
birth, the work of regeneration in the soul of an individual.
Spiritual wisdom seeks God's righteousness for justification,
knowing that we cannot justify ourselves, that our works condemn
us. Spiritual wisdom, the gift of
God, the Holy Spirit enlightening, teaches us to go to God for our
justification, knowing that we have no righteousness of our
own. Spiritual wisdom pleads Christ's blood for pardon, recognizing
that we are sinners before a holy God. It knows that there has
to be that pardon. There has to be that forgiveness. And where else are we going to
find that forgiveness but in the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
way of escape, God's way of salvation. Spiritual wisdom looks to Christ
and the sacrifice of Christ for the atonement of our sins. Spiritual
wisdom rests on the free grace of our sovereign God and the
promises that he has made to his people, never to leave them,
but to hold them. And spiritual wisdom rests on
those promises. For we know that we struggle
in our own hearts and we have every manner of temptation in
our own hearts and in our own minds. and we feel our souls
to be frail and weak, but we rest on the free grace of God,
and we rest in His promises. What enables us to do that? Spiritual
wisdom. We teach in the preaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ, in the preaching of the gospel, we preach,
we teach every man in all wisdom to rest in the free grace of
God. Spiritual wisdom desires to follow
Christ. And that's what we long to do.
Not by some code of conduct, by some legal imposition, by
some standard of man that is laid on our shoulders as a new
yoke. nor indeed that condemning yoke
of the Law of Moses, but to follow Christ, to follow Christ and
take His yoke upon us. and his yoke is light and his
yoke is easy. To live for Christ, to live according
to the pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ, to live with those graces
of Christ, that goodness of Christ, that gentleness of Christ in
our hearts and our souls, to seek to emulate him, to live
soberly, to live righteously to the glory of God, to live
godly, in this world before him with that love which he imparts
into our life's experience. This is what spiritual wisdom
is. The Lord Jesus Christ has chosen
us, or God the Father, I'm sorry, has chosen us in the Lord Jesus
Christ before the foundation of the world that we should have
the spiritual wisdom and live a holy and blameless life before
him. And so we're back to our holiness
and our unblameability and our unreprovability in the sight
of God. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
has gained for us. The Apostle Paul says, the reason
why we preach this gospel of Christ, the reason why we warn
men and women, the reason why we teach every man in all wisdom
and spiritual wisdom, that we may present every man perfect
in Christ Jesus. That's not every man without
exception, that is every man who has this wisdom, every man
who has ears to hear, every man who comes to Christ and finds
in Christ that atonement and that righteousness and that forgiveness
and reconciliation. The Apostle Paul seeks to present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Is that not an amazing phrase?
Perfect in Christ. Perfect in Christ Jesus. And let me be clear about this.
No person in this life, in this flesh, is holy or perfect in
himself. That is just never going to happen. In this flesh dwelleth no good
thing. There is no way that we can in
this flesh be perfect in and of ourselves. But here is the testimony of
Scripture, and we will not deny this, that every blood-bought
child of God That is, every man who has the spiritual impartation
of grace to our souls, who is in Christ Jesus, is holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in his sight. Every blood-bought child of God
is perfect in Christ Jesus. Is there not sweet comfort in
that statement for a troubled heart? This is a theme of the
apostles. We've repeatedly come across
this theme even in this opening chapter to the Colossians and
it's as if the apostle wants to emphasize it to the Colossians
and to all the saints and faithful in Christ, because he knows this
is the comfort for our souls. He knows this is what will give
us joy in the midst of our trials, peace in the midst of our pain,
the presence of Christ when it seems we have been abandoned
by all else. And the Apostle Paul wants to
keep this truth before our eyes. Amen. And women in the name of religion
will always try to impose duties, apply laws, do this, do that,
do something else, and you'll find peace with God. That's not
the gospel. The gospel is that every sin
is forgiven in Christ. All our past sins are forgiven
in Christ. All our present sins, the sins
of this day, the sins of this hour, the sins of this moment,
the sins of this flesh, the very fact that this is sinful flesh,
that's forgiven. All our sins for the future will
not detract from this new man. Every obligation is satisfied
in Christ. Nothing remains outstanding or
undone. And though we fight the old man
in the flesh, though we suffer the accusations of the devil,
though we fall frequently in our thoughts and our words and
our deeds, to the glee of our enemies and
to the hurt of our own conscience, Yet we return to the blood of
Christ. We return to the blood that cleanses. We turn to the righteousness
that justifies. We return to the atonement that
reconciles. We return to the gospel that
brings peace. We return to the Lord Jesus Christ
and the perfection that we have in him. And that's the gospel. The gospel is that we are complete
in Christ, that we are perfect in Christ. Now this is the gospel I preach
because I believe this is Paul's gospel. I believe this is the
gospel of God. This is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this is the gospel that has
been preached by faithful men down through the ages. We read
some of their hymns together. This is the testimony, this is
the experience of these men. That's why I love to go back
to some of these old hymns and read about the experiences of
the Lord that these men had. It's the testimony of Paul to
the Colossians. It's the testimony that he wrote
to all the churches to whom his epistles went. And we gather
that testimony in these passages, in these letters, and we preach
that gospel with all the faithfulness that we can muster. But it is a distinct gospel,
and it is a different gospel from what passes for Christianity
in the vast majority of churches today. This is what it is to be perfect
in Christ. This is what it is to have Christ
in us, the hope of glory. This is Paul's gospel to Colossae. And we desire that that be our
gospel experience also. May it bless our hearts. It undoubtedly
blessed the hearts of those to whom it was written in the first
instance. It has blessed the hearts of God's people down through
the ages. The Apostle Paul, in taking up
this sufferings of Christ into his own body, he served the church
and ministered to the church well for countless generations. And it is our blessing today
to trust in this Christ, this sacrifice, this blood, and to
know that there is a holiness to be found in it, a blamelessness
before God and an unreprovability. and that there is a very perfection
in Christ to those who trust in him. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us and encourage our hearts in them. Amen.