Turn back with me this morning
to Colossians chapter 1. I don't want to re-read the whole
chapter. Only my text in verses 26 and
27. Paul said that he was appointed
of God as a minister of the great mysteries of the gospel. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known what is the richest of
the glory of this mystery. Think on that for a minute. The
riches of the glory of this mystery. And where is He going to do it? To the Gentiles of all people. These heathen idolaters. These
witch doctors. These men and women who played
religion all their lives. All their lives ignorant of the
Word of God. All their lives taken up with
ritual and ceremonialism. All their lives taken up with
a cold, dead letter of doctrine to the Gentiles. And here it
is. Here's the richness. Here is
the treasure. Here is what it is to believe.
It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. My friend, the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the gospel of God's sovereign grace always has and ever will
be a mystery to this unconverted world. And the thing that is a mystery
to them about it is the glory. The thing which they miss is
the glory. There's no glory in it for them.
There's no glory to it. It's all about them and their
decisions and their works. It's all about them and their
determination to walk and to do and to pledge and to give.
But not so with God's saints. God's saints see the glory of
the mystery. Hidden, he said, from the wise
and prudent, hidden from the proud intellectual, hidden from
the self-righteous religionist, and revealed to his saints. Growing up, I was made to attend
church as often as the doors were open. And all my life, I
heard men talk about the Bible. And they talked about it a lot.
Talked about it a lot. But after the Lord called me
and revealed to me the gospel, I realized that they totally
ignored most of it. Totally ignored it. Totally just
left it alone. So much so that the first time
I heard someone mention these things, I said, that's not in
the Bible. I was at work one day, and a young man there, a
very religious man. He's a Southern Baptist, a fundamentalist. And I was talking with another
man about the scriptures, and the scripture in 2 Corinthians
5.21 came up. Christ being made sin. And he
said, that's not in the Bible. I said, well, sure it is. He
said, no, it ain't. That's not in the Bible. The
Bible doesn't say Christ was made sin. And I said, have you
got a Bible? He said, I've got one in my truck. And I said,
well, go get it. I said, now turn over there to
2 Corinthians 5, read verse 21. And he read it. Oh, he said,
but that's the old King James version. That's the old Bible. The fact of it is, he never heard
this before. It was a mystery to him. It was
a mystery. And other than the Ten Commandments
and a few stories with moral applications, they pretty much
ignored the whole of the Old Testament Scripture. Though it's mentioned some 27
times in the New Testament, I never heard anybody ever, the whole
time I went to church, ever mention the word election. Why? Why did they ignore these
things? They're everywhere. Because they're a mystery. What
are you going to say about a mystery? No need to talk about something
you don't know anything about. We'll just ignore it. Just ignore
it. God forbid they ever mention
the word predestination in Armenian religion. That'll get you hung. Like it was evil or something. And yet, it's at the very heart
of His Gospel. This is God's eternal purpose
of grace. He hath predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of His Son. God's absolute sovereignty and
immutability and pretty much all God's attributes were totally
ignored. And they ignored these things
because they were a mystery to them. They were a closed book,
a locked door. You can't tell what you don't
know. And so they just ignored it. But when you ignore these
things that are the very heart of the gospel, what have you
done? You have extinguished the glory
of the mystery. Nobody can see it because nobody
knows about it and nobody is talking about it. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
13. The Pharisees, learned men, masters of theology,
experts on the law to the point they took the title to themselves,
doctors of the law. Men who were known and held in
high esteem for their knowledge and wisdom. And they were offended
by our Lord using simple illustrations and parables to set forth the
gospel of the kingdom. And the reason why they were
offended is because they claimed to already know these things. To already know these things.
And they were offended because His illustration exposed their
ignorance. And they were offended by them.
Paul said that they were confident over in Romans chapter 2. He said they were confident that
they were a guide to the blind and a light to them who sit in
darkness, an instructor of the foolish and a teacher of babes,
carrying with them a form of the truth in the law. And the
disciples seeing these Pharisees, these honored men offended, came
to the Lord with this question, Matthew 13, verse 10. Why speakest
thou unto them in parables? And He answered and said unto
them, because it's given unto you. In other words, I wasn't speaking
to them at all. It's given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, But to them, it's not given.
It's not given. Skip down to verse 16. But blessed
are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
And then look at this one with me also over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. I want you to see clearly from
the Scriptures that the gospel we preach and the gifts and calling
of God is a mystery. to this unconverted world. And
it tells us that in the Scriptures. And it doesn't matter if you're
religion or heathen. Paul said, we have before proved
we're all under sin. Jews and Gentiles. Listen to
this here in 1 Corinthians 2, 7. And you know about Corinth. You know that these were Greeks. These were men of renown. When we talk about wisdom, the
Lord uses Greeks. He just goes to the whole nation
and sets the word Greek out for wisdom, worldly wisdom. And then listen to this. When
He's talking to them now, He's writing a letter to them here
in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 7. He said, but we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of this world ever knew. For had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it
is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But God hath revealed them. Everybody that has that in their
heart knows what that means. God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. Now, we have not received
the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God." He won't have them.
He won't have the means. He won't have the message. He
won't have the man. He receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God. For their foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
This world debates about these things. It pretends to know these
things. It professes to rejoice in these
things. But in the reality of it, it's
a mystery. It's a mystery. You can begin
talking to my brother-in-law one day, and he looked at me
like I was from Mars. when I began to talk to him about
the gospel. Like I was from another planet.
Where are you from? Where did you come up with that?
And at the very heart of this mystery is Christ. Now, I want
to set before you as simply and plainly as I can the very heart
and soul of this divine mystery of Christ. Let me give you five
things. that if God the Holy Spirit will
reveal to you, it will unlock this mystery of the Gospel. And the first is this, the eternal
appointments and offices of Christ. He is the eternal Christ. If
you turn your radio or your TV on today and listen to what men
are talking about, They project Christ as an afterthought. There
was no need of a Christ. There was no need of a Savior. Before man fell, what need would
there be of a Savior? He was an afterthought. He is
also, they set him forth like this. He is the last and desperate
response of God to something that caught God off guard. It
caught him off guard. He thought surely if he gave
them the law, they'd follow that. Surely if he gave them the examples
and the prophets and those things, they'd follow them. But no. He's the last in desperate response
of God to something that caught him off guard. And Jesus Christ
is not the end of a long list of things which God tried and
failed. I was talking to Winston before
the service, and I said, I can remember it like it was yesterday.
A man standing in the pulpit after he'd preached, trying to
get somebody down the aisle, told us this. In these words,
God has done all he can do, and now it's all up to you. What kind of God do you got?
If God has done all He can do, what are you going to do? Now, they confess Him to be the
Creator of the universe. And they confess Him to have
power over storms and seas and all of these things. But He can't
save a single soul. And God tells us through His
prophet Isaiah, He sums up all the idolatry of this world. into this saying. He said, they worship a God who
cannot save. Who cannot save. And He's an
idol. He's an idol. If you have a God
that cannot save, you have an idol. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son
of God. His appointments as Savior, His
appointments as Lord, His appointments as the mediator, as the surety
of God's everlasting covenant, these are eternal appointments. He is the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. And salvation is not about saving
men's souls. Salvation is about the glory
of God. It is about the glory of God.
He created this world. And He allowed the fall of man.
Yea, He ordained the fall of man, if you want to get into
it. And He did this that He might demonstrate His glory in the
salvation of a people in Christ. In Christ. And here is where
we go down the wrong road. We start thinking about This
whole thing is about saving souls so I can compromise the character
of God. This whole thing is about saving
souls so it don't matter what I say. It don't matter what I
do. I can ignore these things because
after all, this is the main thing. No, that's not the main thing.
The main thing is the glory of God. God's not going to compromise
His glory to save anybody. Not to save anybody. But He's going to save some to
the glory of His name, and He's going to do it in Christ. And
Christ was set up in His offices before ever creation existed. And not only that, but God took
this one who would be salvation, this one in whom He would demonstrate
and show His glory, the brightness of His glory, and He created
all things with Him, by Him, and for Him. I read it to you
a few moments ago. He is the head of the church
who is the beginning. He's the beginning of God's counsels.
He's the beginning of God's purpose. He's the beginning of all things.
He's the beginning of creation. And He's the beginning of conversion.
He's the beginning. Everything else in time is subservient
to this great purpose, to show His glory. It tells us in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 30, But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In order that, that, He said,
according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Christ took no office in time
that was not given Him from all eternity. And before Paul said what he
said here in chapter 2, or at the end of chapter 1, he said
this. He is the firstborn of creation. He is the ruler of God's providence
who is the head of the church. It's not the history of the church
or our own history that establishes His offices. How many times have
you heard men, maybe on the radio or maybe just talking to you,
talking to men about making Jesus Lord? Huh? God said He is King
on His holy hill in Zion before there was ever a Zion. He saved us. Listen to this.
He saved us, II Timothy 1. Who did? God did. When? Past. Somewhere way back in eternity. He saved us and 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
before the world began. And I say, let the whole of this
world know that to manifest the glory of His name, our God has
set His King upon His holy hill in Zion. And everything else
in time and eternity is going to have to bow to this appointment. And then the second thing that
will help to unlock this mystery of the gospel is the incarnation
of the Son of God. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. John put it like
this. He said, In the Word, the eternal
Word, the second person of the Godhead, the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. We beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
A man, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones, a man who
must eat and sleep, who experiences pain and hurt and sorrow, yet
also have the very character and the fullness of the Godhead
in him. Tempted by Satan himself for
forty days without food or water, out in the wilderness, out in
the desert, yet without sin. Paul said, in him dwelleth. Henry
said it didn't come there and camp out for a day or two, but
in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Is there a situation in your
life that makes you wonder how God might deal with you? Something happened in time that
causes you to wonder how God is going to deal with you? My
friend, God was in Christ. Everything that you will ever
know about God, you are going to know through Him. All you
have to do is look at yourself in the apostles and in His disciples
and in these men that He met and talked to and dealt with
in their troubles, and you can find yourself in there somewhere.
And there you're going to find out how God deals with His own. How God deals with those that
He's purposed to save. You'll find Him dealing with
them in long-suffering and kindness. Not rough like He did with the
self-righteous Pharisees. Not cut off short like He dealt
with them, but in kindness and gentleness. Jesus Christ is God,
and how he dealt with his disciples and those who came to him in
need is how God deals with sinners. His criticisms of religion and
self-righteousness and pride is God's criticism. His sympathy
is how God is sympathetic. But the great mystery of his
incarnation is his representation. His office is our substitute
and representative in federal head. God cannot suffer and die,
and man cannot satisfy God. But the God-man can do both.
He can do both. And then thirdly, as a man, our
Lord was the representative and federal head of all his elect,
as Adam was of the human race. What Adam did affected all that
he represented, and what Christ did affects all he represented. Listen to this scripture here
in Romans 5, verse 19. Whereas by one man's obedience,
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. By the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. And the long and the short of
it is this. Apart from the life of Jesus Christ, we cannot have
a hope of obtaining a righteousness. We have a righteousness through
our representative. We have atonement through our
substitute. The very basis of our salvation
is not accomplished by us. It's accomplished by Him. He's
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And
then, fourthly, as a man, our Lord is the substitute of chosen
sinners. Christ did not die at the hand
of God's justice to make salvation possible for all men. He died
to put away the sins of His people. When our typical high priest,
we've been studying back in Exodus, the priesthood, when our typical
high priest, went in on the Day of Atonement to make atonement
for Israel. He didn't make atonement for
the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites, and the Canaanites. He made atonement for all those
whose names were written on His breastplate and written on His
shoulder to bow them up before the Lord. And so it is with Christ
our Lord and our High Priest. He bare our sins, Paul said,
in His own body on the tree. And the very basis and heart
of New Testament reconciliation is that God hath made Him to
be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And you can twist that and turn
that any direction you want to, and you can't make another thing
out of it except particular redemption. It said God was in Christ, reconciling
us unto himself, not imputing their trespasses. Well, now,
he can't be talking about the world there, every man, woman,
and child in the world. Because if he didn't impute their
trespasses, then there can't be a hell, and there's no need
of a judgment. soul that sinneth it shall surely
die, the scripture said, and you will, either in your substitute
or on your own. And then, fifthly, here's another
key to help unlock this great mystery of Christ, Christ on
His throne. Listen to this, 1 Corinthians
15, verse 19. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. All of our hopes based on our
own efforts and affection and motives and deeds. Based on a Christ who was nothing
more than an example, who lived a while and died. But now, verse
20, is Christ risen from the dead and became the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." What are
you saying, preacher? I'm saying our salvation is in
a person. And this person is eternal. This
person is one with God. This person was appointed for
us as God sovereignly elected us before the foundation of the
world. That's the revelation of the
mystery. God had a people, and he appointed for them a Savior.
And that Savior came and become flesh of our flesh and bone of
our bones and accomplished the will of God. In the book, he
said, it's written of me. I come to do thy will, O God. Did he do it? He said he did.
By the witch will, he has sanctified us once for all. through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ. What did He do? He did what the book commanded
Him to do. He did what the will of God was
designed for Him to do. He accomplished our salvation. And God raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand. And now at His right hand,
He is ordering all things. Ordering all things. For what? For what? to the calling out
of His elect, to the preservation of His elect. How does He do
it? I don't know. I don't know how
He does it. I don't know how He does it.
He does it because He's God. He does it because He rules over
providence. My soul, if I was sitting down
here planning, planning on how Certain, certain men are going
to be saved. I would never, not in my wildest
imagination, ever imagine that God would take a message on the
internet and call somebody in Ozark, Missouri to hear it and
open their heart to rejoice in it and bind their hearts together
in love and draw him here. Could you, can you imagine such
a thing? Or way up in New York somewhere,
speak to the hearts of a couple up there and call you up one day. I hear
what you're saying. I hear it. I hear it in my heart. I see them. I see the glory.
I understand it. I know what the hope is. And I want to come visit with
you. Maybe all the way up in Omaha. Omaha, Nebraska. Nobody up there even knows the
gospel. That's the report I got. But God was pleased to reveal
it to one couple. How many times they've been here
now? Four or five? It's in a person. And this person
has redeemed us unto God. Raised us up together. All my
life I've heard, do this and be saved. Go here and be saved.
Come down front and be saved. Obey the law and be saved. All
of these things and be saved. Learn doctrine and be saved.
The gospel is, you are saved and He saved you. Salvation is
in a person. And God awakens His saints to
see that, to see the glory of it, to see themselves. Here is
how Scripture words it, He has raised us up together with Him
and seated us with Him in heavenly places. Seated with Him on His
throne. When? Right now. Right now. You think there's something in
this world that's going to keep you from doing exactly what He's
designed for you to do and be exactly where He promised for
you to be? My soul, He reigns. He reigns. That's assurance. Assurance is
not in your assurance. Assurance is in Him. It's in
knowing Him. My soul, once you get to know
Him, you'll have assurance. Who's going to defeat Him? Who's
going to take you out of His hands? My Father which gave you
to Me, He said, He is greater in all, and you are in His hands
too. And nobody can pluck you out of My hands. That is assurance. Our salvation is in a person.
And this person hath redeemed us unto God. and raised us up
together with Him and seated us with Him at His own right
hand, victorious, accepted, glorified, and blessed. And the man who
sees that, you might as well take your stories and your religious
jargon and go somewhere, sell it to your grandma. I don't want
it. I see the difference. I see the
deceit of it. And I see the glory in Him. And
once you've seen His glory, everything else disappears. I was talking
to Joe this morning. He said, I still have bills,
and I still have a home, and I still have a family, and I
still have a job, and I still have responsibilities. But he
said, they're way down here. Christ is up here now. He's up
here. Well, don't you preach to your
people how to give? No. I just preach Christ to them.
They give what they want to. But I put their giving up against
anybody in this country. You mean you don't preach tithing?
No, I don't preach tithing. Fact is, I don't often even mention
giving unless we're dealing with it in Scripture. You mean you don't preach church
membership? Not unless I'm dealing with it in the Scripture. We'd love to have you here as
a member, but I'm not trying to get membership. I'm trying
to point you to Christ. If you find Christ, I'm rejoicing. You go join whatever church you
want to join, as long as you're joined to Him. But I'll tell
you this, once you learn the gospel, you're going to be miserable
anywhere else. You're going to be miserable. It's not Jesus our firescape,
or Jesus our personal Savior, or Jesus our inspiration, or
Jesus our example. It's Christ in you. When you
see Him, you embrace Him. You rejoice in Him. You trust
in Him. You bow to Him. You love Him. Him. And everything that's His will
fit right in. It'll fit right in. Listen to my text again. Even
the mystery, which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make
known what the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles. Christ in you. Will you let me tell you something
this morning? Where there is no glory, There is no worship. There is no worship. Where there
is no glory, there is no life. Where there is no glory, there
is no hope. And where there is no glory,
there is no service. Paul said, it's the love of God
that constrains us. The believer's hope is Christ
in him. And his hope is a glorious hope,
a hope which honors and exalts the law of God, satisfies the
character of God, and yet meets every need of the poor sinner. Brother Mayhem was fishing years
ago with his son-in-law, Bob Coffey, and their family. And
he's not much of a fisherman. He was setting up on the bank
under a tree. And he was just watching the
grandkids and relaxing. out in the woods and the river
down below. I think they were somewhere out
west. And one of the grandkids hollered for him, Pat, give me
a worm. He said, I lost my worm, Feast
got it. And Henry said, I reached over there and looked down that
can and a bunch of old slimy night crawlers were crawling
around in that can. He said, I dug down there and
got one out. And he said, I got up and I was carrying it over
to him. And he said, when I did, there was an eagle in the tree
that I was sitting under. And he said, that big old eagle
took off flying. And he said, I was standing there
at that worm looking at that eagle. And I looked at that worm
and looked at that eagle. And he said, you know, there's
a lot of difference between a worm and an eagle. That's what you'll discover if
you ever find Christ. There's a lot of difference between
this worm I'm not a eagle.