I invite you to turn back with
me now to Colossians chapter 1. Paul begins his letter to the
church at Colossae giving thanks to God and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He gives thanks to the Father
for his eternal blessings in Christ as he is the source and
wellspring of everything that comes to God's saints in time. It comes from the Father. Was there a promise of a coming
Redeemer given at the fall of man? It was given because God the
Father purposed that it should be. You see, He rested. When the world was created by
the hands of His Son, God the Father rested. He rested. Well, didn't He know man was
going to fall? Yeah. But He made provision for fallen
men. His Son. Yes, sir. God purposed. He purposed to
come to Adam in the cool of the day and expose him in his fig
leaf apron and set before him the promise of a coming Redeemer. Was there a means given to preserve
mankind concerning the universal destruction of the world? Yes. Because God the Father made provision
for His elect and was not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. And if you care to read 2 Peter
chapter 3, you'll find out that the salvation of Noah and those
eight souls He likens unto the salvation of his elect yet to
be. And he said, God's not willing
for any to perish. I've heard people use that in
a universal sense, and that's just totally ridiculous. But
toward his elect, not one of them is going to fall. Not one. Not one of them. The flood is
not going to get on them. God's got an ark, and he's going
to put them in it. And Christ is our ark. In the
darkness and depravity of a fallen world, did God choose and ordain
and inspire men to write a book to fill it with the light of
His redemptive purpose and glory? Yes, He did. Yes, He did. Peter said, we have also a more
sure word of prophecy. Whereunto you do well to take
heed is unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. When mankind had settled in false
religion and immorality, become this commonplace among men, did
God leave us to ourselves or so-called evolution to dig our
way out of the pit? Is that what happened? No. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. And because he
did, we have a sweet gospel that can be preached unto us. When
Christ was judged and nailed to a cross and died, was sealed
in that tomb, did the father throw away his book of life or
cast it into the fire? Did He stomp the ground as angry
and mad and ready to devour the whole world? No. He raised His Son up the third
day and showed His resurrected Son to a multitude and then carried
Him away into glory and seated Him at His own right hand. Having gone to be with the Father,
and men still abiding in a fallen nature and dwelling in an ungodly
world, did the Father leave us to our own understanding and
will? Did he leave us there to try
to figure out what Christ had done and what Christ had accomplished?
That's what I hear from the pulpit. I think, you know those two words
don't even belong in the pulpit, do they? Just tell me what God
said, don't tell me what you think. No, that's not what God did.
He that ascended up far above the heavens to fill all things
gave to his people apostles and prophets and evangelists and
pastor-teachers. Didn't leave us to our own understanding.
But men being dead in trespasses and sins and walking according
to the prince of the power of the air, walking in a vanity
of their minds and being children of darkness and a child of wrath
even as others, did God leave men to convince men on their
own of these things? No, sir. No, sir, he didn't. This Jesus, Luke wrote, hath
God the Father raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. And being
at the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father
the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which
you now see and hear." Boy, if he didn't, you wouldn't hear
it. You wouldn't hear it. That's what Paul said. You beware,
lest what the prophet said don't happen to you. That you won't
believe the truth even though a man declare it to you. You
will if the Holy Spirit accompanies him, you'll hear it. You'll hear
it just as though God spoke it to you. He that heareth you,
heareth me, our Lord said. And you can say that of any man
that God has sent. But having acquired the Holy
Ghost and experienced the new birth, am I now left to myself
to perfect that which God has begun in me and preserve these
precious gifts? No, sir, we're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last
day. Job said he put his no trust
in his saints. Boy, I'm glad he don't. I'm so
glad he don't. But what of the believer in that day when he breathes
his last breath and they take him out and they
put him in that box and they put him in the ground? What then? What then? Is that his home forever? What happens then? Paul said,
and we know if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in heavens. Why are you telling us this,
preacher? Because every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above and cometh down from the Father, the Father of lights,
all light. Do you have any light? It's because
God the Father chose you and purposed that you should have
it. That's right. He said, don't murmur, Christ
said. Ain't no need to murmur. No man
can come to me except my Father draw him. He has the light. And then later on, I read to
you here where he said he thanked God the Father who made us meet. to be partakers of the enlightened
saints. He's the father of lights. You
have any light, it came down from him. And I'll tell you how
you know if it come down from him. It's a perfect light. That's how you know. People talking about God's work
as though it fails and can be thwarted and can be changed and
all of these things. You won't say that if God ever
convinces you of the truth. You won't do that. Of his own
will, James said, begat he us with the word of truth. Whose
will was it? It wasn't yours. You was willing
all right, but you was willing in the day of his power. Of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. Now what I want
to preach to you about this morning, having said these things, is
the hope laid up for us. That's what Paul said. He was
so happy. He was praising God. He was thanking
the Father for these saints at Ephesus for the hope that is
laid up for them in heaven. Boy, just think about it. It's
not in your hands to lose. It's in heaven, it's preserved
in heaven. And if time will permit it, I've
got four things I want you to see about this blessed hope.
First of all, I want you to understand that this hope is, that those
for whom this hope is laid up have a qualifying word here.
They have an identifying world. We're not just left to ourselves
in this matter. God tells us for whom this hope
is laid up. My wife and brother Larry Brown
have been trying to teach me how to use a computer. Been trying
for years. And one of the first things I
had to learn, and I still don't like it, Everything has a password. Don't
you hate that, because I can't remember my middle name half
the time. Everything has to have a password. If you don't have
the password, you can't access the information. And it better
be right. Every part of it, it won't take
you. If you don't have the password, you can't access the information. You can't get into the program.
You can't connect to another to communicate with them. You
have to have the password. Paul tells them in these opening
verses of Colossians that he gave thanks unto the heavenly
Father for the hope which is laid up in heaven for all the
saints. Now watch this, verse four. Since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you
have to all the saints. There are two things which identify
an individual as an elect son or daughter of Christ. Faith
and love. Not just faith and not just love. Faith and love. Where these two things are not
present, you have no right, no right whatsoever to lay claim
to the promises of God. This is how it comes. This is
how it comes. Now the hard shell would have
men and women lay all their confidence in election. You put all your confidence in
election. I'm elect no matter what. Oh,
I beg your pardon. You can't find that in the scriptures.
It's not in there. The scriptures tell us that God
hath chosen us from the beginning to salvation. That election is true, but that's
not the end of the story. He hath from the beginning chosen
us to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. You have no right to say God
has chosen me if he don't sanctify you and fill you with This is what identifies the children
of God. Peter says, we are elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, now listen, through sanctification
of the spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus, or the applying of that blood, if you will, through
the gospel to your conscience. And our Lord states this in John
6, 37, as well as it can be said, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. They come to me. Well, I walked
down an aisle, so what? So did I, more than once. Didn't do me a bit of good. Here's what do you good, come
to Christ. All that the Father giveth me,
every one of them gonna come to me. What about that old ignorant
child? Oh, I'm gonna give him understanding. You're looking at him. Oh. I can't tell you how ignorant
I was. Thief in religion without any
understanding of God whatsoever. I was talking to a preacher one
time and started talking to him about the 12 sons of Abraham.
He said, now wait a minute. Abraham didn't have 12 sons. Ignorant. Ignorant. Religious phraseology sticks
on us like flies on flypaper. It does. But I tell you, when
God saves a man, he gives him an understanding. He makes him
to know the truth. The same truth as he does all
believers. One faith. Isn't that how Paul
described it? One faith. One baptism. One God and Father. One Spirit. And without this coming to Christ,
there's no election, there's no eternal provision, and no
internal working of God. This is how God's elect are known.
Knowing, brethren beloved, Paul said, your election of God. For
our gospel came not unto you in word only. It come in power. Power. Power to make you to understand. Power to make you partakers of
the enlightened saints. To know what they know and see
what they see and praise whom they praise. It came in power and it came in
the Holy Ghost. And it came in much assurance,
O my soul. How can you not have assurance
when you see salvation in Christ? What could you possibly see in
Christ that could fail? Huh? It comes with much assurance. What strips us of our assurance
is ignorant men talking about men's works, men's feelings,
men's experiences. Get man out of the picture and
go to Christ. When the Holy Ghost reveals Christ
to a man, he has much assurance because Christ is God. He's God
come into the flesh. What could you possibly see in
him that could fail? And he has your life. Our life
is hid with God in Christ. That's where it's at. It ain't
in your hands, it's in his. Now the question is, can he save
you or not? That's the question. Is he able
to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him? Scripture
said he can. What's my confidence? My confidence
is this is God my Savior. God can't fail. He can't fail. And even though you believe not,
listen to me. You have times of doubt, don't
you? All of us do. even though you believe not,
yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself." Huh? That's assurance. My assurance
is in Him. My soul, if I had anything to
do with it, I'd just fall apart. I mean, I just couldn't have
any hope. I'd be walking the floor. I couldn't sleep a wink. I just couldn't believe it the
first time I asked. You mean that all my salvation is accomplished
In Him, well, that's what it says. You
are complete in Him, who's the head of all principality and
power. And here in this first chapter, I just read to you this
one in whom we have redemption. He is the beginning. He's the
creator of all things. He's God. He's God our Savior. All things were created by him
and for him and without him was not anything made that was made. How can you talk about Christ
failing? Well, God's done all he can do.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. If God's done what he's done
in Christ, it's successful. It's effectual. You're all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. And then the second identifying
factor is love. Now listen to these verses. This
is over in 1 John. I'm gonna quote several to you.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God. and knoweth God. He that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now that's not talking
about a passion. I'm talking about an understanding.
And it's talking about such an understanding that enlightens
the heart. Had I known God loved me, he
spared not his own son. You want to know something about
God's love? You'll find it at the cross. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. That's how He manifests His love. And then listen to this. John
goes on. He says, And we have known and believed the love that
God hath to us. How did he do that? He saw that
love manifested in the Son. I'll tell you. Now watch this.
We've known and believed the love that God hath to us. God
is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God
in him. That's how you know. Knowing, believing, loving. These are the identifying marks
of those who have a hope laid up for them in heaven. Now I
want to take just a minute on this second point and talk about
the hope itself. This hope that's laid up for
us. And I suppose if you boil it all down, you might say that
our hope is in our God. It's in our God. We don't have
any hope apart from God, do we? Peter said, we are redeemed.
He said, you know you weren't redeemed with those old silver
and gold that your father's tried to shove down your throat in
our old traditions and stuff and give you that tradition.
That's not where it is. He said, but you're redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who barely was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
now watch this, who by him do believe in God, that raised him
up from the dead and gave him glory, now watch this, that your
faith and hope might be in God. Why is Christ on that cross?
He's fulfilling the will of the Father. They all gathered together to
do what God's hand and God's counsel determined before to
be done. God who made provision for us
in His Son, and it was God who manifested Himself through the
glorious person and work of Christ. It was God who caused the miracles
to be done by Him in our midst. I don't know if you ever thought
about that, but Christ being a man was enabled by God the
Father. And this is how it's stated in
the book of Acts, that God did by Him those miracles and wonders
and signs which He did in your midst. It was God who accepted us into
beloved, and it was our Heavenly Father who drew us to Christ,
and without whose drawing we'd never come. So our hope is in
God. It's in God. But it's laid up
for us, sealed and preserved for us in the person of our Savior. God put this hope where none
could take it away, in His Son. Put it in Son. And He preserved it for us in
the person of our Savior. Therefore it is Christ in you,
He said, that is the hope of glory. Christ in you. That's our hope of glory. Our
life is hid with God in Christ, and when Christ who is our life
shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory. He's called the blessed hope.
because all spiritual blessings come to the center through Him.
Those who have the Son are blessed of God and complete in Him. Well, how is Christ my hope?
Well, first, He's my one and only hope of righteousness. Boy,
I hope nobody in here has the idea that they can produce a
righteousness that God will approve of. After that Sunday school
lesson this morning, I hope every time you think about righteousness,
you think about filthy rags, because that's all our righteousnesses
are. Filthy rags. Of Adam's race, both righteous
and lost, we are told that there's none righteous. No, not one. And he tells us in Romans 3.20
that by the deeds of the law there should no flesh be justified
in his sight. He tells us in Isaiah 64.6, we
are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. God demands a perfect righteousness
and all I can produce is filthy rags. So where's my hope of righteousness? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And listen to
this, Romans 3.21. Heaven told us this. No man is
going to be justified by the deeds of the law. Now watch this. But now, verse 21, Romans 3.21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is being witnessed by the law. It was witnessed by the law.
and witnessed by the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
that believe." Well, there's no difference. No difference. And Paul tells us in Romans 10,
4 that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. I've got
no other hope of righteousness before God other than the righteousness
of Christ. And then secondly, he's my only
hope of justification. I hope nobody in here is foolish
enough to think that you're going to go up before God and God's
going to say, OK, he's innocent. Huh? I've watched him. I've watched him. He got up on
Sunday mornings. He comes to church. I've watched
him. He was honest. He worked a full
day for a full day's pay. I've watched him. And now I'm
going to say to him, well done, thy good and faithful servant,
enter thou in. I hope nobody in here thinks
that's going to happen, because it's not. Christ is our justification.
He was delivered, Paul said, for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. He's my only hope of justification. When God raised him, he raised
me. If he didn't, I'm a goner. All religion in the world ain't
gonna help me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who did he justify? Whom he did
predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called, then he also
justified. Justified. We have no other hope before
just and righteous God than the substitutionary death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this, Romans 3, 24.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. That's it. Whom God has set forth
to be the propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness for the remission of our sins. Christ is my righteousness,
and he's my free and gracious justification. But, oh, preacher,
what about the rulers of the darkness? What about Satan and
his powerful working in men and in the world? What about everyday
trials and troubles and temptations? I'm completing him who is the
head of all principality and power. He took the strong man
down and he can keep him down. And I'm going to tell you something,
you can't keep him down. You ain't no match for him. When
the angels stood before Satan, they didn't say, we command you
to do, you hear them idiots on TV, we command this and we You
ain't no match for him. The angels were no match for
him. They said the Lord rebuked them. They met their match in him. All right, well let's talk a
little bit about our confidence. What makes you so sure that you
will be among God's saints in that great day? What is your
confidence? My confidence is in my Savior. That's my confidence. I'm persuaded
that neither life, nor death, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor life, nor death,
nor any other creature could separate me from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's my confidence. I'm persuaded, Paul said, that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him. against
that day. He's my confidence. And if his son has already taken
possession of our inheritance, then our confidence ought to
be in him and bring joy to our hearts. He has it in his hand. He has possession of it. And then listen to this. Paul
said this over in Romans 8. He said to whom he did For no,
he also did predestinate. Whom he did predestinate, then
he also called. And whom he called, then he also
justified. And whom he justified, then he
also glorified. What are we going to say to these
things? Paul tells you what you can say to these things if you
believe them. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Huh? That's a lot better than keep
on keeping on, ain't it? Huh? If God be for us, well,
he must be for you. He wouldn't reveal the gospel
to you. He'd just leave you to yourself.
He'd just let you wander around out here in the world until you
found something that appealed to you, and you'd join up and
die. Die in a false religion and go
out and meet God. We had a black man come to visit
the old church down there. And I'm not going to say who
said this, but they're dead now. But they stomped out the door
and said, we ain't going no nigger church. That's what they said. And the very next Sunday, I told
everybody in the congregation, that door swung both ways. But
you're not bringing that in here. And I still mean it. I still
mean it. That person went out and met
God. They're dead now. Went out and met God. That's
still on their mind, still in their heart. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's will? Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Both love and faith find their
object in Christ our Lord, and as we learn of Him, both our
love and faith grow in confidence in Him. And as it grows in love
for Him, it grows in love for one another because we're all
in Him. And we all have the same hope.
We have all things in common. I tell you, the early church
believed that so much in their heart that they sewed everything
down and divided it up equally. Huh? What if I told you to do
that this morning? You'd get up and walk out here
and say, that man's nuts. Well, he didn't tell them to
do that. They went out and did that. because they saw that unity
of heart in one another and in Christ, and they went out and
did it on their own, sold everything they had. And then your confidence is here.
Paul said to the Philippians, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That's my confidence. If God
has begun this work, he'll finish it. And those who walk out, whatever
the reason, those who walk out that door, they go out from us
because they're not of us. For had they been of us, they
no doubt would have continued with us. Isn't that what the
Bible says? That's exactly what it says.