Turn with me now to Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. I've been
looking at this and writing it over and over and over this past
week and discussing it with different ones. And I haven't begun to
even scratch the surface of what this verse of Scripture means
down here in verse 27. The last part of that verse.
He says, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, I'm appointed in this office
as your pastor and as a representative of the living God, as a preacher.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. If you have an argument with
that, your argument is with God. But as a preacher, there are
three things that are pressed on my heart continually when
I sit down in my study and open up the Word of God. Now, we are
going to come back here to Colossians in just a second, but let me
go over these three things with you. The first thing is this. I am to warn people. He set his
prophet up on the wall and he said, Son of man, I have made
thee a watchman. A watchman. And he said, if I
send somebody to you and you warn him not, you know what's
going on. You had my word. You had my will. You're my spokesman. You had
my voice. And you stand before this people,
and you see the wrong, and you don't warn them. He said, I'm going to judge them,
but I'm going to require their blood at your hands. But if you warn them, and they
go on anyway, then I'm going to judge them, but you'll be
free from their blood. So this is pressed on my heart
heavy as I stand up here to preach to you. And I say some things
that I know cut you to the quick. I know they do. I've been cut
myself. And I know this, that the Word of God is sharper than
any two-edged sword. It cuts to the dividing of thunder
of soul and spirit. I know that. I know that. And I have compassion in that
direction. I understand that. But if I don't
warn you, your blood's on my hands. And I don't want that. And I'm going to warn you. I'm
going to warn you when it makes you mad. I'm still going to warn
you. I'm still going to warn you.
And then secondly, as your pastor and God's representative here
in this place in Arkansas, I'm aware that the gospel I preached
is the ordained means of God to call dead sinners out of their
darkness into His light. I can't explain that, and I know
that's total foolishness to this world. They have their doctrines. They have their concepts. They
have whatever it is they have. All these churches are different.
They all have something different. But it's always something that
they can do, so it's between them and you, them and you. And
God doesn't even have a part in it. This whole thing is of
God. God has to do the work. But it
pleads God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And as a preacher, I understand
that. I understand that this is God's
ordained means. Now, God can do anything He wants
to. He said of these stones, that's what John the Baptist
told them, He said He can raise up children of Abraham out of
these rocks. He's God. But it didn't please God to raise
up rocks, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. And I'm telling you and I'm warning
you, it's with God that we have to do, not with men. It's with
God. We're worried about what the
church thinks. Fully on the church. What does God think? What does
he think? That's who I have to stand before.
It's appointed on the man who wants to die and after that the
judgment. You're going to stand before
God in judgment. Ain't you even vaguely interested
to know who God is and to know how you might be able to stand
in that day of judgment? And I'll tell you this, it's
His means. This whole thing is of God. It's of Him. We're the
creature, He's the Creator. We're just little peanut people
running around. He said over in the book of Isaiah,
He said, I sit on the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants
thereof, He said, are grasshoppers. You've been out in the summertime
or springtime or whenever it is and they congregate, or at
least they do up north, and they're in everything. They'll fly in
your mouth if you have it open. They're just grasshoppers. That's
what he sees. He looks down with this bunch
of grasshoppers. Think we're somebody, but we're
not. We're just grasshoppers. I know this is foolishness to
natural men. But it's not foolishness to God.
The preaching of the cross is the wisdom of God. Did you know
that? That's where the wisdom of God
is heard, is in the preaching of the cross. That's where you'll
discover it, if you ever discover it. The preaching of the cross
is the only means by which you can be accepted to God. Faith
has to lay hold of the redeemed. But it can't call on him. It
can't call on that name that it's never heard. And how are
you going to hear without a preacher? Ain't that what he is? You can't
find acceptance with God apart from hearing the gospel. And
then the preaching of the cross is the only satisfaction. If
you're going to find satisfaction to the law, that's where you're
going to find it. If God allows you to discover
your sins before His holy law. He'll shut your mouth. He'll
eliminate every excuse you've got, and He'll leave you naked
and guilty before that law. Every mouth may be shut, and
the whole world become guilty before God. And there you sit. There you sit. And I tell you,
in that day, you're going to want to know something about
satisfaction. And the only place you're going
to find it is in the gospel. It's in the gospel. And in the
preaching of the cross, that's where you discover the means
of redemption. And he said, to them that are
perishing, that's how it actually reads over there in 1 Corinthians
1, it says to them that perish. It's actually, the language is
this, unto them that are perishing, it's foolishness. But unto us
which are being saved, it's the power of God unto salvation.
That's the gospel. And you can read all that over
in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And the end of this
preaching is stated over here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. And I was listening to some messages
this week on this very thing over here in 1 Corinthians 1.
And he goes through all these things about the wisdom of the
world and the wisdom of God and the preaching of the gospel and
how it appears And to the Greeks, it's foolishness. And the Jews,
they seek after a sign. He goes through all these things.
He talks about who we were in the experience of our calling.
He said, if you look at your own calling, you was nothing.
You were just base things. How that God used all these things
that no flesh should glory in His presence. And then he comes
down here to this 30th verse. And the old writers made this
statement, Whitefield and them, they made this statement. This
is the most comprehensive verse of Scripture in the Bible. Now,
you listen to it as I read it. But of him, talking about God,
no flesh gone glory in his sight, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God, is made unto us, now listen, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. That's pretty comprehensive,
isn't it? That pretty much takes care of the whole nine yards
right there. And this is the message of the
gospel. And this message he reveals to us and in us by his Holy Spirit
in chapter 2, verses 10 through 12. It's still in 1 Corinthians
now. And then down in verse 13, which
things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. What on earth does that mean?
Well, there's a new creation within you. How did the Lord
compare that? He compared it to a birth, didn't
He? You must be born again. Nicodemus didn't understand what
he was talking about. But that's how the Spirit of
the living God conveys to you the message and reality of this
work of redemption. He takes worldly things. He just
takes common things, things that were created for this very purpose. He didn't create marriage so
we can all run around and decide what love is and write books
on love. Paul said this is a great mystery.
He said a man will leave his father and mother and go be joined
to a woman And they, too, should be one flesh. He said, this is
a great mystery. But he said, I speak concerning
Christ and his church, because that's what marriage is all about.
He has a bride, and he takes her into union with himself and
gives her his name, gives her all that she has. You see what
I'm saying? Well, I can understand that because
I know something about marriage. And he told Nicodemus, you've
got to be born again. Nicodemus just scratched his
head and started crawling back in his mother's womb being born
again. And the Lord said, if I'd have told you heavenly things,
he said, you couldn't understand. But he said, I told you earthly
things. I gave you earthly relationships to communicate this truth to.
And he said, you won't hear my testimony. You won't hear my
testimony. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. Eternal union compared to that
of a father and his sons. The father plans his birth. He
makes provision for the young man. He lays up an inheritance
for him. He gives him his name. A union
of faith compared to a husband and his bride. And holy auction
in the Scripture compared to a bondservant and the master
he loves. A sinner reconciled. compared
to a wayward son called the prodigal. That's how we enter into this
thing. We compare these spiritual truths that God declares. Who
in the world can conceive of an eternal covenant? I can't
even conceive of eternity, let alone anything done in eternity. You see what I'm saying? But
He breaks these things down. He speaks on our lips. He talks
about God changing His mind in the Scripture and it repented
the Lord. God doesn't change. He's unchangeable. But He uses that language so
He can communicate to you and so we can understand. These earthly
relationships of husband and wife, they're over after death. This whole thing's over. They
asked the Lord about that, didn't they? And what did He tell them?
He said, here is where you err. There is no marrying and giving
in marriage in heaven. We will be like the angels. He
just gives us these things that we enter into these gospel things. He gives them to us, and we compare
by the Spirit of God. We compare spiritual things with
spiritual. He said, I speak that I know
and testify what I have seen, and you receive not my witness.
The Gospel takes these unexplainable, incomprehensible truths, and
then in pictures and illustrations and stories and allegories and
relationships, He communicates to us the glory of the Gospel. I remember John came to me here
about a month ago or after the Sunday school lesson. I don't
even remember what we were studying then. It might have been a little
bit longer than that, but he came up front and I remember his comment.
Pasture, he said, that's profound. Everything God has to say is
profound, isn't it? One of the fellows that visited
the church here one time was talking to me about a particular
verse of Scripture, and I quoted him another one. I said, you
going to handle that? He said, uh-uh. I said, that's what we
forget. We forget who God is and who
we are. We're just little peanut grasshoppers.
We don't have any understanding of anything. And he comes down
on our level. What if God come and spoke to
you? His voice was heard on the mountain. It trembled and smoked and ran
down into liquid. It just perished at His presence
and shook. And they said, You go up there,
Moses. We don't want to go up there.
We don't want to communicate with Him. So God comes down on
your level and He sends people like me. He takes the base and
the low. He takes somebody you can understand
and somebody you can enter into what they're saying. Gospel preaching. Paul said, I've begotten you,
he said, through the gospel. And then the third thing that's
on my mind and my heart when I sit down in my study is this. He said, feed my sheep. I want
to come in here and give you those things that feed faith. I'm not interested in anything
else. See, believers don't walk like other men walk. Believers
walk by faith. I don't walk in my righteousness,
Russell. If I did, I'd run hide in a corner.
I walk in His righteousness. He's my righteousness. He's the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now
seeing that righteousness, I desire it, and I want to adorn it, but
I don't attempt to do it. I walk in His. I'm satisfied
with His. God's satisfied with His. His
righteousness. And out there in the future,
somewhere, I'm going to stand before Him in a body that has
no doubts, has no sins, has no ignorance, and can know as it
was known. In that day, think about it.
But I want to feed this faith. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. And it keeps on coming. It keeps
on walking. It keeps on seeing. It keeps
on hearing. It keeps on living in this world.
And it's daily sustained by the Word of God. So I'm the warned
man of eternal matters. There's a judgment. We've got
a life to live, a death to die, and a judgment to face. That's
certain. I'm telling you, it's certain.
That's not speculation. That's not my idea. That's the
Word of God. Paul met Daryl Mars Hill and
he told those philosophers in all their wisdom. He said, the
Lord hath appointed a day in the which He'll judge this world
in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained. And it's
going to be. It's going to be. And I know
that God calls out His elect and He feeds His sheep. Well,
I think I found a message this morning that will do all three.
So turn back with me now to Colossians 1. I titled the message this
morning, What God Would Make Known. Ain't that what he talks
about down here in verse 27? He says in verse 26, The mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is made manifest to his saints. The whole world doesn't see this,
just the saints, to whom God would make known. You see that? God would make
known. Only God can make His gospel
known. I can preach it. I can declare
it. I can read it to you. I can write
articles about it. But I can't make it known. Only
God can make it known. Only God. Paul, he never thanked
men for their faith, did he? You read these epistles, the
first thing he says is, I thank the Father without ceasing for
you. Isn't that what he says? Huh? The Father? Yeah, that's
where it started. That's where it started. That's
how come you're here and not somewhere else. That's how come
you've got a knowledge, because God would make this thing known.
Why would God make it known? Because he purposed to do it
before the world was. That's what he told the Thessalonians. Listen to this, John 6, verse
44. If words mean anything, listen
to the Word of God. This is our Lord talking. He's
talking to these Pharisees, these inquisitive Pharisees. And he
says, No man can come unto me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. Listen to this, John 6, verse
38. He said, I come down from heaven
not to do my will, but the will of whom? Him who sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me. You see, this thing
is of God. It's of God. James said, Every
good gift, every perfect gift, cometh down from above, cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning, of his own will." Whose will? The
Father's will. Begat he us with the word of
truth. God's will. God's will. And then listen to
this, Ephesians chapter 1. You're all familiar with these
scriptures. He said, The Father hath blessed us in heavenly places
with all spiritual blessings. Verse 4, election. Verse 5, predestination. Verse 6, acceptance in the blood. Verse 7, redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins. Verse 8, wisdom and prudence
to understand the mystery. Verse 11, seeing a great inheritance
laid up for you, adoption. Verse 13, the gift of faith,
the firstfruits of the Spirit, sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. Where did all that come from?
The Father. Of God. Do you see what Paul
is saying? Of God are you in Christ Jesus. Now you can get
into religion by yourself. You can get there all by yourself. You don't need God to get in.
I've been in our religion all my life. It's easy. You just
go down and join up. You don't need God. Just pick
one and join up. Pick the one that meets on Saturday
and the one that meets on Sunday. You can pick the one that meets
early or the one that meets late. And some of them meet early and
late. Just whichever you want. You can pick the one that majors
on fundamentalism or ceremonialism. Pick the one that sits quietly
in the mystique of religion, or pick the one that throws songbooks
and runs around the room. Just pick the one you want and
join up. You don't need God. You don't
need God to join up in religion. You can pick a little community
church or a metropolitan tabernacle. It doesn't make any difference.
Pick out a formal church or an informal church. You just find
the religion that suits your personality and sign up. You
don't need God. But the only way you can get
in His church is if He puts you in it. Of God are you in Christ
Jesus. Oh, that He lets you know right
in your heart that you can't get in. You can't get in. Oh, God stands at the door and
knocks, and if you just let Him in, He won't see, and He'll kick
the door down, bolt, bar, and jam, and come in, and take over,
and kick the strong man out. It's His house. It's not you
putting Him and letting Him. It's Him putting you. Of God
are you in Christ Jesus. You see what Paul is talking
about? Of God. It's of God. Oh, he said, and you hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Who quickened them?
God did. God did. Here is where I found
you walking after the course of this world, after the prince
of the power of the air. You were by nature the children
of disobedience, even as others. But I quickened you with Christ. I put you in Christ. Oh God,
are you in Christ Jesus. And all these things, purpose
to do, listen for the heathen. Ain't that what they're talking
about down there in verse 27? Look back at that again. Let's read back up just a little
bit here. Colossians chapter 1. Look up
here in verse 25. He said, I made a minister according
to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill
the word of God. That's why I'm here, because
God testified that this was going to be his means, that he was
going to appoint such men to represent him and put him out
here for you. And he said, that's why I'm here.
That's why I'm suffering these things, and that's why I'm out
here as a missionary and an evangelist and an apostle, to fulfill the
Word of God toward you. Now, remember where he's at.
He's talking to heathens. He's talking to Gentiles. 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 riches of his glory, of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory." Thousands and thousands of years,
God wasn't even associated with anybody but Israel when they
knew him. Didn't even consider. Told Israel,
go into Canaan. Get rid of the Hittites. Don't
save any of them. Get rid of the Canaanites. They've
all got to go. Tear down their idols. Don't take in the women.
Go in here. This is your land. I'm going
to give it to you. You can't find in the Old Testament
hardly anywhere where the Lord begins to deal with the heathen.
He's always dealing with Israel. Israel. Israel. It was never
God's intention to save the nation of Israel. But God had a spiritual
Israel within Israel, and they were heathens. They were born
in sin, heathen Gentiles. He called Israel out in a man
called Abraham. What was he? He was from Mesopotamia,
and he was a heathen Gentile. And God called him out, and out
of that one man formed the nation of Israel. And Paul was a Jew. He believed in this nation. He
believed in the whole religious concept that God was going to
save this whole nation of Israel. He believed that until God saved
him. When the Lord gave him a new heart and a new mind and taught
him the gospel, he said, He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.
Huh? What happened to his idea of
the Jew? It went out the window. with his ideas of righteousness
and religion and everything else. It all went out the back door.
He said, I can't just dung now because I know who Christ is.
It's always been God's intention to save the Gentiles, to take
out of every nation, tribe, kindred, tongue, and people unto heaven
a people for His glory. He just formed the nation of
Israel, like I said a while ago, so we could understand what these
things are talking about. The whole nation and the law
and the ceremonies and the tabernacle and all those things were just
types and pictures. And when Christ came and fulfilled
them, He just took them out of the way. That's what He said,
isn't it? He just took them out of the
way. So now you can understand. Oh, Paul said, you who sometime
were afar off. You didn't know anything about
Christ. You go over here, I guarantee you, I don't care what church
it is. I don't care if it's Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, I don't care
what it is. You go over here and sit down and begin to ask
them some questions about the Jews. And they'll start telling
you a story you just won't hardly believe about the Jews and all
this speculation about the Jews. God's got a spiritual Israel.
Always has had. His bride. I hear men talk about
an Old Testament church and a New Testament church. And some don't
even talk about a church in the Old Testament. It wasn't even
a church until then. God's always had a people there,
eternal as He is. And He put them in Christ. That's
how they got there. He put them there. He made provision
for them. And in due time, He sent His
Son to die for them, and redeem them, and pay their price, and
give them a righteousness, and then ascend into heaven where
He intercedes for them. And then he sends his gospel
and gospel ministers out here to call them out of darkness.
And he sends his angels to protect them. You say, boy, that was
a close call. I sure was lucky, were you? Or did God have angels sitting
on your bumper? He sent his angels to minister
to those who shall be heirs of salvation. That's what he said.
They didn't even know it. Thousands and thousands died
in Israel under the judgment of God. And they in the eyes
of men were very religious. But here stood an apostle, an
evangelist, a missionary suffering all sorts of torments and pains
and suffering on their account to go and preach to them. Well,
if God had a people, He chose a people, I just wouldn't even
preach. That's what men say who don't know the Gospel. Don't
know Christ. But I tell you, when you find
out He's got a people and He's going to save them and what kind
of condition they're in, you'll rest the whole thing in His hand
and you'll do everything in your power to support somebody that
will or go yourself and preach. That's just so. That's just so. God has an Israel. God told Israel. He said, you're like a baby cast
into the sand, unwanted. Nobody cared for you. You weren't
swaddled at all. Nobody cleaned you up. Your navel
wasn't cut. You were just an unwanted birth.
And they kicked you out in the sand. You laid out there in the
sand all over you and in your eyes and everything. And he said,
when I passed by, he said, I saw you and it was a time of love.
That's God's Israel. God has an Israel, a spiritual
Israel. She's a harlot. And she runs
off with her lovers and spends her whole life out there thinking
she's after their money and their sustenance and all these things,
all the benefits that they give her. But in reality, they didn't
give her anything. It was her husband that gave
it to her. Left the wine and the cheese and the meat by the
door. Left the silver there at the door. It was him that kept
her. And finally, when she's used
up down on the auction block, he goes down and buys her. He
said, that's my Israel. He knows who you are. He knows
what you are. He knows where you are. And he
bought you. You belong to him. God has an
Israel, a spiritual Israel, left in poverty by the death of her
husband. One time she was somebody. Ruth the Moabitess was somebody
at one time. So was Naomi. They was somebody. But when her husband died, they
lost the whole thing. And she come back and now she's
out here in the field just gleaning the leftovers. Just getting whatever
God left her there in the field. She was picking it up. Until
Boaz saw her. Moas saw her, and he loved her. And he made provision to marry
her. And he redeemed all that she lost, he redeemed. And he gave her his name, the
Kinsman Redeemer. You read it sometimes in the
book of Ruth. He said, that's my Israel. That's spiritual Israel. They're in a bad shape. They've
always been heathen, Russell. They didn't do something and
then God turned his back on them. They were always heathens. Always
were. They've always been heathen.
And he finds them scattered abroad. That's what Peter said to the
strangers. He said scattered abroad. Ain't that how he started
his epistle? Strangers. That's God's history. Scattered
out abroad among men. And you, listen to this, Colossians
1.21, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. That is where he found you. Ephesians
2.11, In time past Gentiles in the flesh, caught uncircumcision
by the religious folk, being without Christ, aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. And you, that's
what he said, walking according to the course of this world.
And you just go on and on and on. And you, sometimes foolish
and disobedient, deceived, slaves to our own lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Isn't
that what he said over in Titus chapter 3? That's where God found
you. That's his Israel. They're sinners.
And God comes to sinners. And, oh God, He puts you in Christ. That's how you get there. That's
how you get there. And He puts you in there before
the foundation of the world. But in His own time and in His
designated place, He sends His Spirit and He sends His gospel
and He quickens that dead soul. And that soul comes to rest on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we're here for
today. That's why I preach this gospel, because I know it so.
The songwriter said, you ask me how I know he lives? He lives
within my heart. That's how I know. What the gospel
makes known is the riches of the mystery of the glory to the
Gentiles. To the Gentiles. Heathen, I don't. And what it makes known is Christ
in you. Now, I just want to give you
a couple of things. The first thing is this. In this statement
he makes, Christ in you, the hope of glory, Christ is the
essence of this mystery, isn't he? He is the essence. You read
back to the book of Colossians. I don't even know how many times
he says he and his and him and Christ, and talking about all
these things. He translated you out of this
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of hope, His dear Son.
Now, I challenge you, you look up that word kingdom, it means
rule. He brought you out of the ruler
of darkness and established the rule of His Son in your heart.
That's the kingdom of God. And when He did, you come to
know that this Christ whose rule you're under, God put everything
in His hands. He put creation in His hands.
He's before all things, and by Him all things consist, and He
goes all down through here. Christ is the essence of it.
But what I want you to see is the sweetness of it. The essence
of it is Christ in you. That's the sweetness of it. When
you see who Christ is and you lay hold of Christ by faith,
He becomes the love of your life. He becomes the rule of your life. He becomes the object of your
worship, the theme of your message. He becomes all. He is all in
all. Paul said, as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in Him. Rooted, build up in
Him. Don't let these vain philosophers
drag you off into religion. Walk in Him. Walk in Him. There is no other hope in you
but Christ when Christ comes in. He comes in and everything
else has got to go. It's got to go. Read these books. Read these letters these apostles
and these preachers of God wrote. It's the riches of the glory
of the mystery of Christ in you. The hope of glory. That's the
end of it. It's the hope. That's what we
have. You know, we want to look for
this and that. It's a hope. It's hope. I see His person.
His person in me is that hope, and it's in me by faith. Let me give you this, and I'll
quit. Just try to imagine for a second
an authority so irresistible, so powerful, so strong, But none
can stay his hand or say unto him, What dost thou? Just try
to imagine that, John. Nothing. Nothing in time, nothing
in eternity, nothing in this world, no kind of principality
or power, no will of man, no will of the beast, no will of
anything or anybody can resist this power. Not Satan himself
can't resist this power. If he's going to enter into Job,
Or Peter, and sift him like wheat, God has to give him permission. Imagine that. Imagine a will
so set, so determined, so immutable, that it declares the end from
the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done say, and my counsel is going to stand.
Can you even imagine such a thing? Imagine a wisdom so great, so
comprehensive, so all-inclusive that it could say from eternity,
my counsel is going to stand. Imagine a justice so infinite,
so exacting that it could by no means clear a guilty soul. Imagine a righteousness so untainted
as to be equal with God. Imagine a love so pure, so unselfish,
so self-sacrificing as to manifest its affection on enemies and
rebels. Imagine a grace so free, so undeserving
that it could reach into the very pit of the damned and freely
give to the chief of sinners. Imagine a mercy so tender, so
full of goodness and compassion that they said to endure forever. Now imagine all these things
in a man engaged of God, ordained of God for the salvation of your
soul. That's what Paul's talking about,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Every attribute of God engaged
all at the same time inequality without compromise to save your
soul. That's grace.