I invite you to turn with me
to the book of Colossians. My subject tonight is the hope
of the gospel. Gave me hope. Gave me hope. Whosoever shall call upon Him,
shall be saved. If you call on his name, he'll
save you. But how are you going to call
on him in whom you have not believed? Well, you say everybody believes
in Jesus. Yeah, that's that other Jesus
he talked about last night. How are you going to call on
him in whom you have not believed? And how are you going to believe
on him in whom you have not heard? Don't come tell me you heard
it out there. You didn't hear it out there. You didn't read it in the local
newspaper. It didn't come to you out in
your boat on the lake. A bubble didn't suddenly pop
up in a daydream and tell you about it. How are you going to
believe on Him in whom you have not heard? Listen, how are you
going to hear without a preacher? I didn't ask those questions.
The Holy Ghost asked those questions. And how on earth is that man
going to preach if God don't send him? Let me read just a few verses
here in Colossians chapter 1. that will lead up to my text
in verse 23. Let's begin back here in verse
20. 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. There's issues here and
there's issues there. There has to be a reconciliation
there before there can be a reconciliation here. But Paul said, by Him,
whether they be things in heaven or things in earth. I don't have
to go one place to resolve the things that are here in the earth
and then go to another to resolve the issues in heaven. I'd just
go to one. Just go to one. The Lord Jesus
Christ. And you, He said, that were sometime
alienated. Aliens. That's what we were.
Alienated. and the enemies in your mind
by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." How'd he do it? "...in the body of his flesh
through death." Now he's still talking about
these enemies in their mind by wicked works and alienation. to present you. It don't surprise me that he
was presented before God the way he describes, but it's amazing
grace to me. You, Hathi, oh my soul, You that was sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now is He reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death to present you. Holy! You can't look yourself in the
mirror and even say the word. Holy! Holy! Listen to this. I know you can't
look in the mirror and say this. unblameable everything I do is my fault but
not for God not in Christ I'm unblameable isn't that amazing? that's amazing grace I know why
he's saying that son but he didn't stop there and unreprovable If I'm one for whom He died,
for whom He lived and clothed in His righteousness, whom He
sanctified through the offering of His body on the cross once
for all, if I'm one of them, God Almighty can look at me and
look at me with eyes that can search deeper than you can even
have words to describe. and he can't find any reason
to reprove me. I'm as good as God. Is that right? That's what he's
saying. Listen to this. To present you
holy and unblameable and unreprovable, now listen, in His sight. Now that's saying something. If, uh oh, if, he's not talking about everybody. If you continue in the faith, grounded, and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel, John said some of them did. They
went out from us. Well, they sang those hymns. They quoted scripture, and they
led in prayer. But they went out from us. Why
would they do that? Because they were not of us.
Isn't that what he said? How'd he know that? Well, if
they were of us, he said, they'd no doubt continue with us. Isn't
that what he said? That's exactly what he said.
And that's exactly what he's talking about here. 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, were of thy Paul and
made a minister. The hope of the gospel. Salvation,
my friend, is a hope. It's a hope. In Romans chapter
8, verse 24, the Holy Ghost tells us we're saved by hope. I think we can rest on that.
I don't think the Holy Ghost would lie to you. And the Holy
Ghost said, We're saved by hope, but hope that's seen. Hope that's seen is not hope. It's not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not. Then do we with patience wait
for it. I'm going to use that word I,
and I hope I'm using it in the proper context. Paul said, I
preached unto you that which I also received. And so I'm using
that word I in that context. I believe on. I believe in. And I believe God's
testimony concerning His Son. That's my hope. That's my hope. I believe everything that God
has written about Him. I believe that in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You believe that? Do you believe
Jesus of Nazareth is God Almighty, that He existed and His name
properly was the Word? He's the Word. What's that mean?
He's the revelation. Everything God's got to say,
He's going to say in Him. That's why He's the wisdom. You
know Him, you know it all. He's the revelation of the mystery. To know Him is to know God, and
to know God is eternal life. I believe everything God has
written about Him, and I believe that in the beginning was the
Word. He was in the beginning. I believe in His eternal appointments. I believe that God, before the
foundation of the world, gave Him appointments. appointed him the mediatorial
Lord over all things. Everything God intends to do
is going to be mediated by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going
to do it all. That's what Paul said. He's all.
Well, what did he do? He's all. I believe that he appointed him
before the foundation of the world, the prophet Priest and
King. I taught our Sunday School class
not too long ago about Melchizedek. And I said, he's not just a type
of Christ. I've heard people talk about
that. He's Christ. Well, how can you say that? Well,
who else could be King of Righteousness? Huh? Who else? could be king of peace. Who else
could you talk about? What priest could you possibly
imagine who had neither beginning of days or end of time? Who had
neither father nor mother? Huh? That's Christ. And this Melchizedek, this one
to whom Abraham bowed and gave a tenth of everything he had,
and Abraham was a rich man, he wouldn't take any of it. It
was the spoils of Sodom, but he gave it to him, a tenth of
it. Here it is. And that priest is my priest. He's a priest forever, God said.
Oh, Aaron, he was just a type. But Christ is a priest forever.
Did you know that there was no oath involved? When Levi took
the priesthood, he just took the priesthood. There was no
oath. But there was an oath when Melchizedek
took the priesthood. And he swore by an oath. He's
a priest forever. He's never going to change. He's
never going to die. His life, his priesthood, ain't
never going to end. Therefore, God's able to save
to the uttermost those who come unto God by him. I believe in Christ, the prophet. My soul, to him, gave all the
prophets witness. All the prophets did was prophesy
about the prophet. Christ is the prophet. He's the
word. He's the good news. Take Christ
out of it. There ain't no good news. OK,
what you talk about? I believe he's the head, the
federal head of the body, the church, the appointed representative
of his people. I believe he's been chosen of
the Father to have preeminence in everything that is. Now, there's
a sense in which the Father created the world. There's a sense in
which the Holy Ghost created the world. But Christ has the
preeminence. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. You say, how can that be? It
pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. I believe that. I believe that
in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son. And he was made of a woman and
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law
that we might receive the adoption of sons. I was thinking about that this
afternoon. And I picture this old building,
dilapidated, at the end of the alley. Everything else is out
in front. This old building was back there,
and they got it for a song. And they went in and swept it
out a little bit and put some cardboard over the windows, and
they put a bunch of orphans in that building. It was full. It was wall to wall, first, second,
third story, and these little old wooden homemade beds. And
they were there, all of these unwanted children, all of these
children whose parents had died or parents had abused them Some
of them just left them on the doorstep, and there they were.
And this place is just full. It's full. Orphans, unwanted,
dirty, filthy, depended on the state, depended on the mercy
of the state. And here they sit. And one day,
this man, this rich man, he goes back there and he says, where's
the manager? And they bring him up. And he
said, could we go on a tour? And he said, you're going to
need to bring a little tablet along. And so he does. And he comes along. And he begins
to introduce him around to the children. And he's over here
doing this. And when they'd finished, they
went back to the office. And he gave them the list. And
he said, I want to adopt every one of these. I want to adopt
every one of them. That's a lot of children. All
right, I'm wealthy. I can afford it. I want to adopt
every one of them. He said, OK. So he went
out and told the kids, Johnny, He said, I want that little dirty
faced boy back in the corner. I want him. And he picked them
all out. And he said, get your stuff together.
You've been adopted. Pack it up. You've been adopted. And so they did. And they come
out there. And when they came out that front door, they looked.
And here's the biggest limousine they'd ever seen in their life. And he said, I know you're wondering
who I am and what's going on. He said, from now on, you can
call me father. You can call me father, and I'll
call you my children. And he said, you go get in that
limo over there. Sit wherever you want to sit.
Go get in that limo. I'm going to take you to a mansion
like you've never seen. Huh? Made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Poor little beggars, dressed
in rags, filthy from head to toe, no belongings, nothing that
really belongs to me. You brought nothing into the
world, you can take nothing out of it. We're bankrupt beggars. Not anymore. He said, you're
my son. And oh, he sent his spirit into
your heart, and wouldn't you cry? Abba, father. He said, call
me father. And that's what you're going
to call him. Why? Because he adopted you, and you're
his son. I believe that. You believe that?
I believe that. Follow me. Follow me. I've adopted you. You belong
to me. And listen, I belong to you. He's my father. He said, you pray like this,
our father. Not father. I've heard men pray
like this, Father God. And I just look at them. I don't
even know what to tell them. That's not how he said pray.
He said, you pray, our father. I believe in the incarnation
of the Son of God who came down to this world, was made of a
woman, taking to Himself the seed of Abraham, joining Himself
for all eternity in a fleshly union with His people. Oh, I
remember down in Winston-Salem years ago, I can't remember the
preacher's name, And I've been trying to recall it all afternoon,
but it was one of the greatest messages I ever heard. There's
a man in glory. Oh, listen. And if there's one, could be there'll be another.
Could be. I believe in the incarnation
of Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ humbled
himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross, fully redeemed his people, entered into heaven itself by
his own blood, and obtained eternal redemption for us, took possession
of it, took it in his hands, and sat down to secure it. I believe that being raised from
the dead and showing himself to his people for many that right
out in the presence of his apostles, he stepped onto a cloud. People
say, well, how did a man step onto a cloud? If you're a son
of God, you can step on anything you want to. I know one thing,
at the end of time, he's going to put one foot in the water
and one foot on the land, and it ain't going to sink. And he's
going to say, time shall be no more. And that'll wind her up. Oh, I believe he stayed here
for nearly a month, and he revealed himself to his apostles, and
he revealed himself to many of his friends and followers and
disciples, and to over 500 people at one time. Well, I just don't know if Jesus
raised... Well, sure he did. It's a matter
of history. You're a moron if you don't believe in the resurrection
of Christ. It's a matter of history. And then he stepped on that cloud.
And the apostles, doesn't it seem surreal to you sometimes
when the Spirit of God is blessing you and you're preaching and
you just feel like the Lord is just picking you up and you can
see His body there talking, but it don't feel like it's you?
Well, that's the way these apostles were. Standing out on the brink
of this hill, they felt natural enough when they walked out there
with him. But when he stepped on that cloud and began to send
up the glory, they just stood there with their mouth open.
And the angel said, what are you looking at? The same Jesus
that's taken up from you, He's going to come in the same way. But when He comes back, He's
coming back with all the glory of His Father's house. And He's
coming back to receive you unto Himself. Oh, I can just almost hear the
Father. When the Son stepped off that
cloud in heaven, wherever heaven is, and He stepped off that cloud,
and the Father said, Well done, Son. Sit thou here at my right
hand, and I'll make of your enemies your footstool. You sit right
here. Old Pharaoh put Joseph in the,
the only chariot in front of Joseph was Pharaoh. And Joseph
was back there. And he had soldiers following
Joseph. And he said, if anybody out there
don't bow the knee to Joseph, you're a goner. You're a goner. You're gonna bow to him. You're
gonna honor him. And he put his ring on his finger. Oh, I believe that in heaven,
seated at the right hand of God, in full favor with the Father,
one that He appointed is present and intercedes for me. Do you
believe that? Surely, goodness, you don't believe
any little prayers you pray are going to intercede for you. Paul
said in Romans 8, we don't even know what to pray for. We don't
know how to pray. Not like we ought to. But the Holy Ghost,
he makes intercession for us. We're groanings that cannot be
uttered. But Christ intercedes. He sits
at the right hand of the Father. And somebody had him. I was listening
to a preacher the other day, and he was talking about him
up there pleading with the Father. I said, wait a minute. His being there is what pleads
your cause. That's right. He don't have to
say a word. All the Father has to do is just look at the Son
and smile and chat. He don't have to say a word.
His presence, the justified Redeemer, the sanctified One, the Holy
One of Israel, is seated at the right hand of God in perfect
acceptance. And everything in Him is accepted
in Him. Do you believe that? Oh, I believe
that with all my heart. I believe in a person, an eternal,
all-glorious person, one whose very appearance and work was
manifested, the very character of God. He is the God-man. To see Him is to see God. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son. and He to whom the Son will reveal
Him. I believe that His life and death
and resurrection was for a people given to Him in divine election
before the world was. That everyone for whom He was
appointed and everyone for whom He lived and died and everyone
whom He justified in His resurrection shall be saved. There's no doubt
about it. There's nothing iffy in salvation. Salvation is as sure as the one
who sits next to God who accomplished it. Ain't nothing iffy about
salvation. The if, I love that message Henry
preached years ago. He said where the if lies, it
lies right here. If you. There ain't no if about
him. all the promises of god and he
and he and i mean it's here or listen to this crash prayed
to the bar he said bother i'm no more in the world he went
out of the world yet right but you don't he said i'm no more
in the world i'm not out there walking with them i'm not out
there teaching them. I'm not out there pulling them
back. I'm not out there instructing them. I'm no more in the world.
But they're still in the world. And I come to Thee, Holy Father,
keep through Thine own name those which Thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. Oh, let me tell you something.
You think having purposed eternity around the Lord Jesus Christ
and His salvation, that having subjected His Son to such humiliation,
suffering, and death, and having sworn by His own name and guaranteed
those promises with the blood of our Savior, that He would
be willing to let even the least of His elect perish. He'd have
to cease to be God. That's the Christ I believe in.
And that's the Christ Paul's talking about that has reconciled
us and presented us before God. He reconciled us through the
body of His flesh through death. And now He presents us before
the Father, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight. All that the Father hath given
me, Christ said, shall come to me. Why? Because I come not to do
my own will. I come to do the will of Him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which is sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing. But I'll raise it up again at
the last day. You believe that? Is that the gospel that stirs
your heart? Is that the gospel when the world
comes crashing in? Is that the gospel that comforts
your heart? Oh, my soul. There's no gospel
apart from Christ. You can talk about redemption
and sanctification. You can talk about faith and
effectual calling. You can talk and talk and talk
from now on. There is nothing to cheer a believer's heart until
they start talking to him about a Savior. Oh, now sanctification
has got a meaning. I am sanctified in Him. How long are you going to be
sanctified? As long as He lives. Oh my. I have a hope and it's established
on the highest credentials. It's established on the Word
of God. It's established on the Son of
God. My hope's seated at the right hand of God. and
my hope is sealed in his blood and sealed in my heart by the
spirit of the living God. Now listen to me, beloved. You
that were sometime alienated. You that were sometime enemies
in your mind by wicked works. What's he talking about? He's
talking about imagining a God that was like to yourself. That's
what he's talking about. In your mind by wicked works.
He's talking about this God you used to imagine who could change. He just changed his mind in a
heartbeat. He's talking about a mind that
would conceive of a God who got taken by surprise, got blindsided. He's talking about a God subject
to principalities and powers. A God whose work needed your
vote. God voted for you, Satan voted
against you, now you cast the deciding vote. Hogwarts. And that ain't the word I wanted
to use. Enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled, brought us in, presented us before
God the Father in full favor. Unblameable. and unreprovable
in his sight. Up in Washington, D.C., I went
up to visit my son, who lives up there. And he was taking us
to all these things, you know, over there where all the plants
are. And we'd go over there and go in that. And then he'd take
us over to Smithsonian, and we went in that. And we rested a
little bit. And one afternoon, I'd never
been in an art gallery. I wanted to go to the National
Art Gallery. And so we did, and we went in
there and we looked, and there was Picassos and Rembrandts and
stuff all around in this thing. And we come into this big circular
room. Oh, it's way bigger than this
church, big old circular room. And there was huge paintings
on the wall. I mean, they were probably, I'm
just guessing, about seven foot long and about three feet high.
And I went back and looked up on the door, they got categories
there, and it said the Dutch Masters. Don said he thought
that was cigars. The Dutch Masters? I've never
seen anything like it. And about six feet, five or six
feet away from the wall, there's little benches like this, and
you can sit down on that bench and just study those paintings.
And so I sit there with my wife in front of this door, and we
just kept saying, look at this thing. It's like a photograph,
but it's not a photograph. Everything in it, all the depth,
everything in that painting was perfect. And we was sitting there,
and I looked over there on one end, and there's this big old
guy standing over there like this. And I looked over on the
other side of the room, and there's another guy, one on one end,
one on the other. I said, honey, look over there. She said, what do they do? I
said, get your ink pen out of your purse and go up there and
touch up that painting, and you'll see what they're there for. Them paintings don't need touch-up.
And I'm going to tell you something. You've got a Savior in glory
that's God's masterpiece. And he ain't going to let you
touch him up. I'll tell you what you do with
a masterpiece. You sit on the bench and you
admire it. And you stand in awe of it. And
you just love it. And cherish it. And you talk
about it. And you praise it. That's what
you do with a masterpiece. That's what you do with Christ.
If you ever see Him, that's exactly what you'll do. You'll spend
the rest of your life And then when this life's over, you'll
go right on into eternity and you'll keep right on marveling
at Him. And now you're going to see Him
with unhindered eyes. Oh, I didn't even think about
Christ doing that for me back then. Look what He did for me.
He did so many things in His providence for me that I was
totally ignorant of. I didn't even know He did it. The Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished
a perfect salvation. He's a perfect Savior. That's
what it says. He's a perfect Savior. He presented His people perfect.
We were all reconciled by a perfect reconciliation. There's not a
flaw in it anyway. Oh, the Father ain't going to
tolerate anybody touching it up. And I feel sorry for you if you
think you can. And Paul said, you'll be a partaker
of this if, if you continue in the faith. You know what faith does? It
does just like I'm doing Larry, except at Christ. You just keep
looking at it. Keep looking at it. If you continue in the faith
grounded, how you gonna get grounded? You gonna get grounded by hearing
what you're hearing tonight, and hearing what you heard last
night, and hearing what you heard the night before that. Hearing
what you hear here every Sunday. You're going to be grounded.
That's why he said he gave these prophets and apostles and evangelists
and pastor teachers to ground his people. Well, I just go out
here in the woods and live by myself. You will never be grounded. Might wind up getting buried,
but you ain't going to get grounded. Not in the gospel. God has means,
and he uses them. Don't be like Naaman. God said,
you go down there and dip in Jordan seven times. Naaman said,
well, man, well, don't muddy stinky rivers. We got clean rivers
where I come from. His servant said, you know, if
he'd asked you to do some great thing, stand on your head, juggle
beach balls or something, you'd have done it in a heartbeat. And you are, after all, a leper. Maybe you'll do what God said.
Huh? I tell you, I'm telling you the
truth. You better not take off on your own. Don't take off on
your own. God may leave you out there.
You don't want that? You stay within the revealed
Word of God. A preacher, what is the hope
of the gospel? What is the hope of the gospel?
Well, Paul said it's an eternal mystery. You read on down this
chapter, he'll tell you. It's an eternal mystery. He tells
us over in 1 Corinthians Chapter 2, he said, I hath not seen nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
that God hath prepared for us. They love Him. But God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. Paul said in verse 25, Whereof
I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God. That word means stewardship. He made Paul a steward of the
gospel of His grace, a steward of the grace of God, which is
given me for you, he said, to fulfill the Word of God. That's where I started. Even the mystery, which has been
hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to His
saints, God would make known what is the riches of His glory,
the glory of this mystery, among the Gentiles, among those idol-worshipping
heathens. Are you listening? Which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory. What's your hope? Be ready always. Be ready in an instant. If somebody
asked you to give them a reason for the hope that life, wouldn't
you, here's my reason, Christ. Christ. It's not your concept of Christ, but
the Christ whom God has set forth. It's the Christ set before men
by his prophets and his holy apostles. Christ in you. In him, Paul said, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him.
Now listen, who's the head of all principalities and powers?
Ain't nothing gonna defeat Him. Ain't nothing gonna turn Him. I'm gonna tell you something.
You've heard more Christ preached since Sunday than most people
here in a lifetime. I'm telling you the truth. I've
been out there. I know what's out there. Junk, garbage, a bunch
of dancing around and going through ceremonies and lighting candles
and altar boys and putting flowers and incense around and stained
glass windows and oohs and aahs and professional musicians and
entertaining preachers. There's nothing out there but
junk. But you've heard more gospel. this way and most people i'm
not saying that you heard but i'm saying that most people have
heard a lot what you don't know what you don't know you can't find a hope in this
crash and i hope for you and i hope for you so we don't know You had a privilege that not
even the angels in glory have been given. Did you know that
even the elect angels gather to hear the gospel? There's not
a doubt in my mind that they're not gathered tonight listening
to what I'm telling you and what Larry told you. Things which
the angels desire to look into. Will you cherish it? Would you put your hope in Christ
or is this just going to church? Well, I'm going to tell you this,
it'll be everything to you or nothing and nothing in between. It'll fill every empty space
in your heart or it'll leave you just like it found you, empty. for all you that are here who
has embraced the one that I'm attempting to preach. This is
something I penned down years ago. Imagine this. Imagine this. Just close your
eyes and listen to what I'm saying and try to imagine this. Imagine
an authority so irresistible, so powerful, so complete that
none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? Imagine
a wisdom so great, so all-seeing, so all-knowing that He could
declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I'll
do all my pleasure. Imagine a will so sure, so absolute,
so unchangeable, so determined Everything that he was pleased
to do, he did. Imagine a love so pure, so self-sacrificing,
so inseparably fixed in his heart that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor life, nor death, nor any other creature
could separate you from the love of God which is in him. Imagine a grace so free, so sovereign,
so undeserved, so effectual that he could reach into the very
dregs of society and bring salvation to the chief of sinners. Paul
said, that's why God saved me, to give you an example. He went
down to the bottom of the barrel and scraped up that old Pharisee
and saved his soul. Imagine a mercy so tender, so
full of goodness and compassion, so immutable that God said it
would endure forever. You ever had mercy on somebody
and a few minutes later get mad at them? Not God. His mercy endures forever. Imagine a justice so infinite,
so exacting that it could by no means clear the guilt Imagine
a righteousness so perfect that even God couldn't find fault
with it and not even God could reprove it. Now imagine this. Imagine this authority and this
wisdom and this will and this love and this mercy and this
grace and this justice and this righteousness all in a person
engaged to save your soul. Can you fix that in your head?
Huh? That's the image of his son.
He said he is the brightness of my glory and the express image
of me. Huh? Imagine that.