I invite you this morning to
turn with me to Colossians chapter 1. I want to say some things and
then I want to kind of focus on verses 20 through 23. Three of our young men came and
talked to me the last time I preached, asked me to write down some scriptures
for them to read. And I said, well, the ones that
I preached from this morning in Ephesians 1 and 2 and Colossians
1 and 2 is the clearest statements that I know of, of the gospel
in the scriptures. My message to you this morning
is hope for the hopeless, for the hopeless. The man who has
a hope, there's no hope for him. But there's hope for the hopeless. Paul begins this letter to the
saints at Colossae by declaring the grace and peace from God
which had been shown to them through the person and work of
Christ in which they had heard in the word of the truth of the
gospel. That's how you hear it. That's
where it comes from. It's heard in the word of the
truth of the gospel. His gospel came unto them as
it did to all believing saints in all the world. That's what
he says here in these verses. In the word of the truth of the
gospel. That's how it's heard everywhere,
not just at Colossae. But all the believing saints
in all the world, and it comes in power and in the Holy Ghost
and brought forth the fruit of repentance and faith as they saw and believed in the
grace of God that was manifested in Jesus Christ. He goes on to give thanks to
God who had made them meet, given them the ability to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light, enlightened saints,
men who had received the revelation of God. In 1 Corinthians chapter
2, Paul said he declared the gospel, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the gospel in a mystery. Nobody could preach the gospel
any clearer than the Apostle Paul did, but he said when he
preached it, it came across as a mystery. Hidden. Eye hath not seen. He quoted that scripture there
in chapter 2. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man. Natural man. The things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him, but God hath revealed them unto us. All things, yea, even the deep
things of God. It's a revelation. And that revelation
is being preached to you this morning as it has been for years.
that I've been here teaching you. This is the revelation.
The Gospel is the revelation, but only the Spirit of God can
cause you to see the glory of it and cause you to embrace it
and to hope in it and continue in it and be not
moved away from it. And that's what He's talking
about here. He's made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of these enlightened saints. Then he goes on to tell us something
of the glory of the Son of God, our Savior, and the glory of
God manifested in our Redeemer and the work that He accomplished
for us. Now, I want to, as I said, concentrate
our attention this morning on verses 20 through 23. And I want to begin with this,
our experience. We're not saved by an experience.
We're saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But that
faith is an experience. Is it not? It is. It's an experience. It's an experience of grace which
begins with the knowledge of sin. Begins with the knowledge of
sin. Paul summarized our conversion this way. He said, Who delivered
us from the power of darkness. Right there in Colossians chapter
1, I read to you, He hath made us meet to be partakers of the
saints and light, and hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Actually, the word us doesn't
appear in the original. It reads this way, and hath translated
into the kingdom of his dear son. The word translate means
rendered into another language. I sometimes come home and tell
my wife I was talking to this one or that one, and it was like
I was speaking in a foreign language to him. Well, it's like that
to any natural man until the Lord gives him the revelation
of Christ, and then he translates. Does he not? He speaks to us
in these last days, not by the Son, but literally in Son. That's how that verse over in
Hebrews chapter 1 reads. spoken unto us in these last
days by son, by that language of son. And he translates these
great mysteries. He translates what we could never
possibly understand. He translates it to us. Also, that word translate means
to move from one place to another and certainly it has its, but
you're not going to be moved anywhere until he translates
what he's saying to your heart. Then you'll be moved. You'll
be moved. To be saved then is for God to
command His light to shine into our hearts and to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be saved.
Unregenerate men live in darkness. They live in the darkness of
a depraved nature and influenced by the religion of this world,
which is even more darkness, so that the light which they
think they have is actually darkness. Our Lord spoke about that to
His disciples. He said, if the light that be
in thee be darkness, what in the world are you talking about?
Well, you take a house that has one window. We have three here. You look over here and, man,
that light just streams in through them windows. But what if that light were actually
darkness? What if the one window into our
soul was darkness? He said, if the light that be
in thee be darkness, then how great is that darkness? If everything
that comes through that window is darkness, how great is that
darkness? Unregenerate men live in the
darkness of a depraved nature, and they're influenced by the
religion of this world, which is even more darkness, so that
the light that they think they have is actually darkness. Our Lord said this. This is condemnation. You know, men like to argue,
well, I just don't believe what you're saying about this whole
world being under the curse of God. Well, here's what our Lord
said about it. He said, this is condemnation.
Here's judgment. You want to see the judgment
of God on your race? Here it is. Light came into the
world and men loved darkness rather than light. You can find a thousand reasons
for not liking me. You couldn't find any solid reason
for not liking Christ. Huh? Except darkness. Darkness. Paul said that the heathen walk
in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that's in them because of the blindness of their heart. And then Peter said this, that
converted saints show forth the praises of him who called them
out of darkness into his marvelous light. No saint has ever become
a saint who does not experience this knowledge of darkness and
no light. He'll sit there and he'll hear
what you have to say, but it doesn't make sense to him. It
doesn't grab his heart. It doesn't affect his walk. It
doesn't move him. He hears what you're saying,
just like it would if I stand up here teaching science this
morning. You hear what I'm saying, but it doesn't affect your heart. When God speaks, it affects your
heart. Men and women do not evolve into
Christians. They're born again. Born again. They're a new creation. And that which they were once
convinced to be the truth is now translated by the power and
light of the kingdom of God's dear Son. I know some intellectual
theologians are going to point out that the word translate also
means to convey from one place to the other. It does. But like I said earlier, He's
not going to convey you from here into His kingdom without
translating this Gospel to your heart. And that's what will move
you. Paul said, we have the mind of
Christ. I saw the mind of Christ. That's something we never thought
with before. We now think with the mind of Christ. You talk
about righteousness. Oh, I don't have any. All my
righteousness, as Isaiah said, are as filthy rags. We are together
become unprofitable. We're all together as an unclean
thing. What are you trying to say, Preacher?
I'm not trying to say it. I'm telling you. I'm saying it. If God Himself does not intervene
in your life, if He doesn't move in you, you have no hope. No hope. Why would you say such a thing?
Because there's none that understandeth and none that seeketh after God.
Is that right? Isn't that what it says? You mean I'm totally dependent
on a sovereign God? That's exactly what I'm saying. I heard a fellow get up one time
and he said, God's only obligated to call you one time. Let me
tell you something. He's not obligated to call you
at all. Any obligation that he has, he
took to himself. He obligated himself. You don't
obligate God to do anything. And where God intervenes, He
sends His preacher and the Spirit of the living God, and He shines
that light of gospel truth into your hearts, into the hearts
of chosen sinners. That's how it is. That's how
it happens. It does not say he translates
to them, but it said he translates them. Men and women, boys and girls
who once saw themselves in darkness now see themselves as they're
seen in the kingdom of God, righteous, holy. You have a hard time seeing
yourself holy? You will if you look at yourself.
You look in that black box, you won't find no holiness there.
But if you could view yourself as God views you in Christ, you'll
see yourself holy. Let me show you that in Scripture.
Look over here at Romans chapter 5. Verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Death. Death passed. Sin entered and death passed.
Judgment. Condemnation. Even so, By the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to justification
of life. All those represented in Adam
and by his sin died. All those represented in Christ, that free gift should come upon
them under justification of life. In the light of my father Adam,
I am twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Even so, in the light
of Christ, my appointed representative, the free gift of faith and repentance
and eternal life is given to me. The first thing I ask myself
when the Lord begins to reveal some things in my heart is, why
me? That's how you know it's an experience
of grace when you say, why me? Why me? Why would He choose me? Huh? Now let me read this text to
you again. And you, huh? You. You. that were sometime alienated. No connection to the promises
of God. That's what that's talking about.
Not a citizen. No connection whatsoever. You
that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in Christ. If you knew your sinnerhood,
if God the Holy Spirit would convict you of sin and show you
what a God-hating rebel you really are, then you'd listen. Say,
that's what happens. You say, well, God gave him ears
to hear. How'd he do that? He convinced him of sin. God
ever convinces you of sin and you see yourself helpless and
hopeless before God, know nothing, everything that God requires
of you, you can't produce it. Have nothing to obligate God. I know what religion teaches.
Religion teaches an insurance policy. And if you think you're
going to die and you get diagnosed with something, you can run and
grab it off the shelf and use it. Like a get-out-of-jail-free
card. I've got judgment to face, but
I'm dying, so I run and get my get-out-of-jail-free card and
I present it to him. That's not how it is. Men and women are saved by sovereign
grace. You're not saved by your will,
you're saved by his will. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Whose will? His will. You know
why you're sitting in here this morning, you three boys, you
know why you're sitting here in this place this morning? Because
of His will. His providence brought you here
this morning. And His providence can take you
out just that quick. There's no way. Somebody heard
me preaching a few weeks ago, and they said, those are the
most self-righteous people in the world. It's not self-righteousness
to glory in the righteousness, the free gift of God in Christ. That's not self-righteousness.
It's not self-righteousness to preach an election of grace.
That's not self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is when you
try to earn favor with God by your own works. That's self-righteousness. And if we knew our sinnerhood,
if God would convict us of sin, then you listen. I'm telling
you my own experience of grace. I wanted to hear. I was ready
to hear something about mercy. And I went to the service. I
knew where this gospel was preached. And I went down to the service.
And all the pastor was preaching, cursed are them who continue
it not, and all things written in the book of the law to do
them. And my heart just sunk. Just sunk. This is condemnation. Light came
into the world. How often had I had light and
it had no effect on me? Love darkness rather than light. Oh, I tell you, one day I went
and a man started talking about that prodigal son coming to the
father. Had no reason on this in this
world to believe that the father would ever treat him as a son. But even the hired servants were
better off there than the children of men. He said, that's what
I'm going to do. I'm going to go talk to my father
and see if he'll just let me have a place as a servant. A
little nothing over here in the corner. That's not what he found
when he got there. The father come running out to
him. Smothered that boy with kisses.
Just kissed him and kissed him and held him and hugged him.
This is my son. And the son just stood there.
He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. His little sayings just went
out the window. All this prepared speech he had went out the window.
His father said, now you go get that calf. What calf? That calf
I told you to put up. And you prepare the meal. And
you, you go get the ring. He put it on his finger. And
you go get his rope. If the Holy Spirit would convict
you of sin this morning, your ears would be open. You'd be hanging on every word. You mean He saved sinners? He came into the world for that
reason? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Paul said, of whom I'm chief.
I'm the bottom of the barrel. If you save me, you save anybody.
I was a Pharisee. I was a false prophet. I was
a blind leader of the blind. I held the coats of them that
stoned Stephen. I'm the chief of sinners. And
God saved me first that it might be an example to you of how far
down in that barrel he'll go to save his elect. I preach to helpless sinners,
hopeless sinners, people who cannot. They cannot come. No man can
come unto me except my Father draw him. And I preach to people
who cannot manifest itself and will not. You search the Scriptures,
our Lord said, but you will not come unto me that you might have
life. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
for they are spiritually discerned." God tells him he's a sinner,
but he won't have it. God tells him he's dead, but
he won't believe it. God tells him that salvation
is by sovereign grace, but he continues to hope in his works.
God tells him that faith is the fruit of hearing, but he goes
somewhere else to look for it. God tells him that faith is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, but he
keeps looking to men to produce it. Won't you take that first step?
Oh, my soul, if you could take the
first step, you could take all of them. Every natural man, young or old,
male or female, religious or heathen, educated or uneducated,
has fallen in their father Adam and spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. It takes a miracle of God's sovereign
grace to save you. It takes the eternal appointment
of God to provide you with a Savior, to send Him here of His sovereign
will. It takes the condescension of
the Son of God in human flesh to save a soul. It takes the
lifelong obedient suffering and death of Christ to save your
soul. It takes the raising up and ascension
of Christ to the throne of glory to save your soul. It takes the
presence and power of the Holy Ghost in the preaching of the
gospel to save you. And it takes the power of God's
Spirit moving in you to make you willing, make you receptive,
make you meet to be partakers of this inheritance. That's what
it takes. What is it that holds you back?
Let me ask you that. What is it that holds you back
this morning Is the love of God manifested in His death not enough
evidence for you? Is His person and work not sufficient? You can't find sufficiency enough
in that for the salvation of your soul. Is His work of redemption
not glorifying to the character of God? Is His present intercession
not adequate? Is His sovereign rule not effectual
enough to override every obstacle that blocks your way? What holds
you back? What is it that stands in your
way this morning from embracing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? What stands in your way? It's nothing more or less. than
your utter hatred for God. That's what it is. Oh, but preacher, you don't know
my thoughts. You don't know what I've done.
You don't know how vile I am in the secret chambers of my
heart. Oh, I think I've got a pretty good idea. I think I've got a pretty good
idea. But I know for sure that God
does. All things are naked and open
unto him, unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. We had a, I was working on my
boss' house and he, he was a fairly rich man. He had a, what they
call a carriage house out back. And one day the sewer system
stopped up and I had this little fellow helping me and he was
one of these guys willing to run and do, but he don't know
what he's doing. And before I could stop him, he ran over to the
septic system, jerked open that lid, and just stuck his head
down in there to see what was going on. And he just, it looked
like somebody shot him right between the eyes. He flipped
over backwards and just laid there on the ground holding his
face. He said, why didn't you tell me all that was in there? That's what happens when God
pulls the veil off his heart and you look in there. It's a
verbal cesspool of iniquity. That's what it is. Out of the
heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
murders, blasphemies. Where'd it come from? Right here.
Right here. And here in our text, he mentions
a few of these things. You that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Isn't that what we're
talking about? Enemies in our mind by wicked
works. Sins of the mind and heart. And
you, he said again in Ephesians 2.1, hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. walking the course of this fallen
world, walking according to the prince of the power of the air,
living out our days in the lust of the flesh. And then listen to this scripture.
Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall
inherit the kingdom of God." Oh, but brother, listen to this.
And such were some of you. Such were some of you. Such were
all of you. Some in thought only. But ye are washed, ye are sanctified,
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
by the Spirit of our God." That's 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. And then once again, back in
our text, you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now has He reconciled. Who reconciled? Jesus Christ. I'm going to tell
you something. When you realize what you are
by nature, that little thing in the back of your head that
says, well, when I pray enough and when I get determined enough
and when I, out the window that goes, you have nothing. Nothing to bring to God. No excuse. Mouth's been stopped. You stand
guilty before God. And then you discover. Then you
discover. Who reconciled? Jesus Christ
reconciled. How did He do it? Verse 22, "...in
the body of His flesh through death." To present you holy. Unblameable. Unreprovable in His sight. God can't find a flaw. Huh? Every man, woman, boy and girl
given to Christ in electing grace, He redeemed, sanctified, made
spotless before the presence of His glory by the person and
work of Jesus Christ. Now that's who and that's how
But how can one know his election of God? I understand what you're
saying, preacher, about election. I understand what you're saying
about redemption and that redemption in Christ. But how can this poor
sinner know if he's one of God's elect? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. That's the only way you can know
it. You come to him. You come to him. Like this? Come down. What'd he do? Huh? He didn't
go home and think about it. He just come down. You fishermen? Come on. Hey. You publican. Get out there. Come over here. He blessed everybody that came
to Him. Isn't that what they say? All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. But no man can come
except my Father draw him and teach him. and bring Him. And
when He's taught, He'll come to me. He'll come to me. That's
how you know your election. You believe on Him. There's no
other way to know it. You believe on Him. Now let me tell you something.
You don't have to hear the Gospel or read a Bible to be judged
either now or in that last day. Millions should live out their
days under this condition and go to hell, having never heard
the gospel. They have a conscience in God's
creation. As God's witness and according
to Romans 1, they are without excuse. There's a creation out here you
can go out and look at that declares the eternal Godhead. And your conscience tells you
that God punishes sin, tells you that God's holy. But you must hear to be saved.
Does that make sense? You don't have to hear to be
judged, but you have to hear to be saved. Faith cometh by
hearing, hearing by the Word of God. How are we going to escape
if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first begin to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him,
God also bearing them witness." Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1, verse 21. We've read this so many times,
but I want to read it one more time. Before he gets this verse, Paul
makes this statement, for the preaching of the cross to them
who are perishing is foolishness. But unto us which are being saved,
it is the power of God. Verse 19, for it's written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where are the Pharaohs and the
Gamaliels, the Uzziahs, the Korahs, the Dathan's and Abiram's? Where
are they? Where are the wives of this world? Where is the wife? Where is the
scribe? Those men whose hope was in their
diligent search and labor in the Scriptures, where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Those who cannot
be taught. Those who want to argue, they
live to argue. Argue, argue, argue, argue. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Alright, now look here in verse
21, 1 Corinthians 1. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God." Huh? You mean that's according
to God's purpose? That's according to God's purpose.
After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's who ordained it. That's
why and how chosen sinners are called to Christ. Men and women
are given faith, and that faith preserved and grounded in the
hope of the gospel which they heard. It's not something different
here and there and somewhere else. Not some isolated revelation,
but that which was preached by the Lord, preached by His disciples,
preached by the churches established under His disciples all the way
up to this day. There's no other way for you
to discern your election of God than to believe on and embrace
and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where you find
help for hopeless sinners. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for, huh? Waiting
for a feeling? Brother Barnard said, you want
a good warm feeling? Go put a little honey on the
stove and pour it down your back. Get a warm feeling. What are you waiting for? For
a feeling? Nowhere in the scripture told
to wait for a feeling or experience. Does the Bible said, whosoever
has an experience shall be saved? I can't find it. It doesn't say
that. No, it says those who hear the
gospel and believe and are baptized shall be saved. My question to
you this morning is just this, do you believe? Do you believe? Can you believe? May the Lord Himself enable you,
as He did these saints at Colossae, and make you meet to be an inheritance
of this gospel revelation.