Alright, let's turn to the book
of Colossians. Colossians chapter 2. I just want to look at the first
four verses here of Colossians chapter 2. For I would that you knew what
great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love unto all
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words." There is a conflict of heart
in the ministers of Christ for those who are in any way
connected to His ministry or who are under His authority.
There is a conflict of heart. And this conflict is about warning
them and teaching them and striving to present them, every one of
them, perfect, in Christ Jesus. Now Paul was an apostle, and
therefore all of these churches that he wrote to, all of them,
even those not directly established by him. This church here was
not established by Paul, but Paul was an apostle, which is
the highest office in the church, and his authority extends over
all the churches. And so he had this conflict of
heart even in these churches that were not directly established
by him, but indirectly. It's my understanding that this
church came from the ministry of Ephesus. But anyway, they were his concern. They were
his concern. And he wanted to hear about them. He wanted to hear about their
spiritual condition. He wanted to know these things.
And the churches around and even the pastor of this church came
to visit Paul. Paul was in prison when he wrote
this letter. And they gave him information
concerning that church. He makes it his business to know
about them. made it his business to know
about them and to pray for them and to minister to them, in this
case, by letter. Now most of us who were not brought
up in a religious home or brought up in false religion, we know
nothing about the salvation of God's elect or how it works or
the means involved or anything else. We had a young man here,
Wednesday night, and I said some things, and he asked this question. Evidently, the church that he's
going to now has a mourner's bench up front. Same thing our
little church had, little community church, had an old-timer mourner's
bench. Some people call it an altar.
And he said, if you don't come to the mourner's bench, how do
you come to Christ? Because that's how it's been
taught. He didn't know these things. And that's what I'm saying. Most people don't. Most people
don't have a clue what I'm talking about when I'm talking about
coming to Christ or believing on Christ. You go out here in
religion and they use those phrases all the time. Believing, I believe. I believe. I believe. I trust. I trust. But they don't
know what they're talking about. Even the language of the Bible
is confusing to men and women. This young man didn't even know
predestination was a word in the Bible. He'd never heard that
word before. He didn't know that that was
actually a Bible doctrine. And so Paul writes to these men,
and Paul wanted them to know that it was for them that he
was now suffering in prison, and for them that he agonized
in prayer, and for them that he is now writing and recommending
to them a faithful pastor who would watch over their soul.
Everything in the salvation of God's elect is a mystery to this
world. It's a total mystery to this
world. The eternality of it is a mystery. They think salvation is something
that happens in time. Well, that's just a little piece
of it, what happens in time. They're totally ignorant. It's
a mystery to them, the eternality of the gospel. The fact that
the gospel was first established and then the world was created
because of that gospel. Because of God's eternal purposes
of grace, He created a world and created men and women in
it. This religious world knows nothing
of a salvation purposed and decreed before the world began. They
can't fathom such a thing. Paul wrote Timothy and said,
God hath saved us and then called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before the world began. He told those Thessalonians,
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. They knew nothing
of the eternality of it, and they knew nothing of the office,
appointments, or condescension of Christ to become a man. That
this was the God-man. This was God come into the flesh.
God come into the flesh. These were heathen idolaters.
They worshipped statues. Statues. They worshiped pigments of their
imagination. They knew nothing of his offices.
Nobody ever told me about a sovereign mediator when I was going to
church. I didn't know what it was. First time I heard somebody
use the term, I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know what
it was. No one ever told me about a priest without beginning of
days or ending of days. A priest after the order of Melchizedek. Nobody ever told me about substitution,
representation, or a federal headship. Nobody ever told me
that. Nobody ever told me that salvation
is altogether of God through the redemption accomplished in
His Son. This world is ignorant. They're
ignorant of the person and work of Jesus Christ and of all His
appointments, all His offices, and all His work. And they're
ignorant of how God calls chosen sinners to Himself. They're perhaps
more ignorant about that than they are anything else. By grace are you saved through
faith. It's a gracious faith. It's the
gift of God. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast, and boast they do. Our
Wednesday night testimony on that old church I was raised
in, that old Nazarene church, that whole Wednesday night was
nothing but men bragging on their faith. Called to the preaching of the
gospel, power and presence of the Holy Ghost. The gospel, Paul
said, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. And through the preaching of
the gospel, the Holy Ghost reveals to sinners their need of Christ,
their helplessness, their hopelessness, ruined by the fall, spiritually
dead, spiritually bankrupt, walking in darkness, walking in the vanity
of their mind, walking in ignorance, hoping in lies. The Old Testament
prophet prophesied these words Toward Israel, he said, we've
made lies our refuge, and we've hidden ourselves in falsehood. The gospel empowered by the Holy
Ghost convinces men of sin, convinces men of righteousness, and convinces
men of judgment satisfied. It convinces him of righteousness
that he don't have any. And what he thought he had is
nothing but filthy rags. Paul said, if righteousness come
by the law, Christ is dead and vain. And he convinces them of
judgment, not only that there is one, or that all men are now
under a judgment, but of the judgment satisfied in Christ
Jesus. And this world is ignorant of
the work of the Holy Spirit and ignorant of Bible language. That little church I brought
up in had all come back to me when that young boy made that
statement to Russell. That all came right back to me
just clear as a bell. I can remember my wife and I
walking down an aisle, kneeling down at that thing. We got up
and went back. She asked me, she said, what's
this all about? I said, I really don't know.
I really don't know. So I just did what I was told
to do, and that's what thousands do. They do what they're told
to do. They don't know anything at all
about the Bible language of coming to Christ. Catholics teach that
Christ received through communion, through that little wafer. That's
how Christ is received. Heard a man get on national TV
during all the championship ball games the other night and say
that on national TV. I couldn't believe what I was
hearing. Baptists teach that coming to
Christ is accepting Jesus as your personal Savior, coming
to the front. And they teach that as coming
to Christ. And actually, there's only one
way to come to Christ, and that's by faith. By faith. Here's why I'm telling you all
these things. Paul said there was a conflict in his heart. over these people because he
knew, he was a ex-Pharisee, he was a converted Pharisee, and
he knew the ways of religion, and he knew the danger of it,
and he knew something about the end of it, and he had a conflict
of heart lest they be carried away from the truth, lest they
be separated from the truth, lest somebody come in preaching
lies and draw them away. He wanted them to know the truth. He wanted them to know Christ,
to know God in truth. And that kind of faith comes
by hearing. Hearing the truth about our Redeemer. We hear about His Godhead and
His manhood and hear of His eternal appointments and we hear of His
incarnation and work and of His ascension into glory, of His
resurrection, of His reign, His victorious reign. We hear these
things. In short, God shows in our hearts. He shines in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And like Paul, we say in our
hearts, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded. How did they
get persuaded? By hearing. Both through a man
and through the Holy Ghost. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have
committed unto Him against that day." What do we commit to Him?
Everything. Lock, stock, and barrel. All
of it. We believe in Him. We believe
on Him. We rest in Him. We rejoice in
Him. We hope in Him. And we cling
to Him. We come to Christ by faith. Paul said this, he's talking
about the faith of God's elect, he said this over in Romans 10,
he said, the word is nigh thee. Even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. Nothing physical about coming
to Christ, it's a heart work. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. And these things being known
are a conflict in the heart of God's ministers who desire to
present every man perfect in Christ. The only way he can be
presented perfect is to present him in Christ. Then he's perfect. He has all he needs. And he has
all he desires. I'm not laboring for something
bigger and better here. I'm not laboring for a bigger
congregation. I'm laboring to see God do His
work in your soul. That's what I labor for. And
I have conflict over it. I have conflict over it. Verse 2. The desire of my heart is that
your hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and
under all riches of the full assurance of the understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father
and of Christ. And this is what the ministry
is all about. That's why I stand up and preach
the things that I preach. It's what preaching is all about.
It's to comfort the hearts of chosen sinners. It's to call
men and women to Christ, where they'll find fellowship one with
another, find a common bond, common ground, a common spirit. and a common union with the Lord.
And how is this achieved? By having a lot of church activities.
That's what religion teaches. That's what they teach. Have
a lot of activities. Have horseback riding and gymnasiums
and ball teams. Have activities. Have activities. That will bring them in. Have
a lot of fellowship dinners. That will bring them in. How
does he do this? By having testimonial services. No, he does it through preaching.
That's how he does it, by preaching. These things are the result of
the riches of the full assurance of understanding and by your
acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and
of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We perceive his Godhead, the
mystery of his Godhead, as we see it manifested in the person
of Christ. That's how we learn who God is
and how God is and what God will do and what God won't do. We
know God in Christ and that's it. That's it. We don't know
anything else. I might know some facts that
the scripture talks about but I don't really know. I know what
I see demonstrated. in Him. I know mercy as that
mercy is manifested in Christ. A righteous mercy, a just mercy.
I know His love, same way, it's a righteous love and a just love. We perceive the Godhead as we
see Him manifested in the person and work of Christ. And we see
Him coming to the center. I see God coming to the center. God came to the center in Christ. Did He not? Did He not come to
the woman at the well? That was God in Christ reconciling
men unto Himself. He came to the woman at the well.
He came to that beggar in Jericho. He came to him. He came to Lazarus
in the tomb. And so we see God coming to the
sinner. We see God redeeming the sinner. Justifying the sinner. arranging
all things for His good, and revealing the riches of His grace,
and the treasures of His mercy, and the riches of His wisdom,
the glory of His holiness and justice, and the glory of His
kindness and love. Showing to us that eternal union
with Christ, and how we died in Him, and was raised up together
with Him, and are even now seated with Him together in heavenly
places in Christ. And all of these heavenly treasures
of redemption are unfolded in Christ. And then He says this in verse
4, He said, This I say, lest any man should beguile you through
enticing words. What are some of these enticing
words that men use to beguile men? Huh? What are these words? It mostly has to do with works.
It mostly has to do with works. Now, let me ask you a question.
Why would any man try to beguile another man into falsehood and
deceit? Why would he do that? Why would
he do such a thing? Well, first of all, because they
are blind to the truth. Our Lord made a comment during
His ministry concerning original sin and the depravity of the
flesh, over Matthew 15, verse 11. And he told those Pharisees,
he said, it is not that which goeth into the mouth that defileth
a man, but what comes out of his heart. It is what comes out
of his heart. And then the disciples said,
do you know that you offended those Pharisees? They was offended
by that? Well, sure they was. That was
their hope. But he answered and said this.
Here's what he said to his disciples. He said, every plant that my
Heavenly Father hath not planted is going to be rooted up. Going
to be rooted up. Leave them alone. They'd be blind
leaders of the blind. They're blind. Why would a man beguile another?
Because he's blind. He can't see. If he knew better,
he wouldn't do it. But he don't know better. He's
blind. He's blind to these things that
God granted you to see that are so clear to you and so real in
your heart. They're totally blind to it.
Totally blind. And then secondly, men beguile
because of filthy lucre. That's just money, reputation,
fame, whatever you want to call it. It's filthy lucre. That's
why they do it. Not all of them do that, but
some of them are merchandisers of men's souls. They're in it
for the money. Running greedily, it says over
in the Book of Jude, after the error of Balaam for reward. And
then thirdly, why would any man attempt to beguile another? Because
of the influence and power of Satan. Ephesians chapter 2, I
don't know if you ever... I go back to this all the time
in my references to you about sin, because he has a lot to
say about it in that chapter. His statement is, you hath equickened
who were dead. And then he goes through and
tells us a little bit about that death, and here's what he says,
that we were walking, at one time walked according to the
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That's why a man will beguile
another man, because he himself has been beguiled. He's been
beguiled. Satan himself, listen to this,
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, so also
it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness. Whose ministers are they? His
ministers. And then here's another question.
Why would anybody listen to a man who's beguiling him? Why would
he listen to him? Because they make up the lion's
share of men and women in this world. That's why. Because of the multitude. I don't
know how many times I've had people say that to me. My close
relatives even have told me so. So what you're saying is, there's
a handful of you out here that are preaching the truth and all
these hundreds of thousands of churches and preachers are not. Is that what you're telling me?
Yep, that's exactly what I'm telling you. And the reason why
you're going to be beguiled is because of the numbers. I don't even remember who said
this. Might have been me. I don't know. Somebody said it. Every time Israel voted, the
majority vote was wrong. Go back and check me out. Every
single time they voted, In the New Testament, our Lord told
those disciples, He said, you go to Jerusalem and you tarry
there till you be endued with power on high. And they waited
there for a little while and they said, well, we need to do
something. We can't just sit here. That's what they were told
to do, tarry. But they couldn't tarry. They
had to vote on something. So they said, well, you know,
Judas was numbered among us. There's some reason why God wanted
12 of us so we're going to get together and we're going to pick
somebody to take Judas's place. And so they did. But that man
they appointed in Judas's place was not the man God intended
to be there. And later on he called Paul.
Called him out of season to replace old Judas. But that's how men
are. Every time they get together
and vote, they're wrong. The majority is wrong. These
things are made known by the grace of God to what appears
to be a minority in this world. These places, you look at them
and they are successful and they show it in their cathedrals and
in their ministry. And they go about doing good. They build hospitals and children's
homes and food distribution centers. They protest. They get out and
carry banners and protest pornography and drugs and all these things.
And they publicly campaign to elect moral leaders and representatives
of clean things. And they're respectable people
held in high esteem in this world. That's why men follow them. That's
why they follow them. Because they appear to be doing
good. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
He said, you make clean the outside of the cup. Like those sepulchers
over there, you whitewashed on the outside, you're beautiful
on the outside, but within you're full of dead men's bones. And
that's the way religion is. On the outside, it's beautiful. But it's what they're doing and
what they're saying that's damning men's souls. And Paul has a conflict
in his heart about these things. He knows how real it is for men
to be deceived. He knows how easy it is. For
men to be deceived. And the only way you're not going
to be deceived is to know the truth. It's to know the truth. And the only way you're going
to know the truth is to hear it. Is to hear it. Faith cometh
by hearing. Now we'll take up, Lord willing,
we'll take up with verse 5 next week.