Colossians chapter two. Being our first Sunday together,
I thought it fitting I was in Florida, our final salutation
to them in departing. This was the message that I spoke
on. I thought it was fitting to preach
it here as well. The gospel is the same no matter
where you go and whether where a man is led or whether he comes
from. The Lord's people only hear one thing, only want to
hear one thing, and that's Christ and his finished work. So it's
the same gospel here as it is in Florida, as it is in Kentucky,
wherever you go, we want to hear the gospel, the good news of
the Lord. The only thing that can knit our hearts together
in love, as he mentions here, is the gospel. That's the only
thing that is revealed that can knit the believer's heart one
to another, and he does that by the preaching of his gospel.
The preacher has this one job and this one responsibility and
that is to proclaim the finished work of Christ and the great
salvation he hath wrought. Paul is addressing the church
at Colossae and he's telling them to begin with of the conflict
that he has of wanting to be with them and also the church
of Laodicea that their hearts would be comforted. And as I've
already mentioned, the only comfort is through and by the gospel.
It wasn't Paul's presence that brought the comfort. Now, if
Greg was to come up here and be with you in the service prior,
even now, if he was to come, it would be comforting, but it's
not the man that's the comfort. It's the word of God. It's the
gospel that goes forth from the man. That's the comfort to the
Lord's people. So let's read Colossians 2 verse
1. 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 and to 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 were hit all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. We preach the gospel and the
gospel is a mysterious thing that must be revealed. The gospel
is past finding out. It must be revealed by the Lord,
sending his spirit and opening our eyes. He must give us the
eyes of faith and ears to hear. We have this full assurance of
understanding that Paul's talking about here, which are the riches
and the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which is Christ.
But we don't understand what we believe. It's a mystery. We
understand it in regards to he's caused us to believe him, but
it's past finding out. The ways of the Lord are higher
than our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. That's why
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, he says, but of him are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Christ is the one that has been
revealed to his people as all. All of the things that we don't
understand, we disbelieve because Christ has been revealed. Proverbs
chapter nine and verse 10 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. So the Lord reveals that he is
God and gives us full assurance by faith to look upon Christ
as our substitute lamb. And that is our only hope before
the father. Everything in this life that is seen is going to
pass away. The scripture says heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Everything
that is seen shall pass away. So this mystery must be revealed
just by the understanding that the Lord gives us must be revealed
through the preaching of the gospel, the faith that he gives,
and it will not pass away because it's not of this earth. We're
in this earth, but we're not of this world, the scripture
says. We're in the world, but not of the world. The Lord is
speaking in Matthew Chapter 11 in verse 25, and he says, at
that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered
unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father,
neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he and he to
whomsoever the son will reveal him. Now this gospel, and I'm
still preaching on our hearts being knit together, and it comes
through and by the preaching of the gospel. It's the heart
that the Lord gives by faith to each of us to look to him.
But this gospel is God's gospel. It's not man's gospel that they
fabricated or came up with. This is God's gospel that must
be preached and declared, and he is the one that does the choosing.
He chooses whom he will save by the preaching of the gospel.
These things are hidden. They're past finding out. The
scripture says that men are ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth. These things are revealed. The
good news is, is he delights in revealing his son to his people.
He delights in showing mercy. That's our hope this morning,
that he would reveal these hidden things to our heart. If we are searching for something,
an answer to anything, and it does not matter what that something
may be, the answer is Christ is all. If we find that, if the
Lord reveals that to us, we will rest. That is the only rest we
have in this life as believers is that Christ is all. 2 Timothy
1 verse 9 says, who hath saved us and called us with the 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, but is now made manifest by the appearing of
our savior, Jesus Christ, whom hath abolished death and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Now, faith is not Understanding
this mystery. Faith believes God. But the Lord
hath brought to light life and immortality through the preaching
of the gospel. That's a mystery. It's a mystery
how the Lord saves a sinner. It's a mystery how God would
become a man. I can't explain that to you, but I believe it
because he said it. This is why our hearts are knit together
is because we've been given the full assurance of faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The things that are understood
that he's caused us to have in common is that he's absolute
in salvation. He did not try to save anyone.
He saved his people from their sin. He's absolutely sovereign
in all things. The earth is the Lord and the
fullness thereof. He owns, the scripture says,
he owns the cattle of a thousand hills. And if you'll forgive
my East Tennessee background just for a moment, we used to
say he owns the taters in the hills as well. Everything is
the Lord's. The earth is the Lord's in the
fullness thereof. He can do whatsoever he will, and who shall reply
against him? We believe this because we've
been made to believe this, and we have full assurance that God
is God, that Jesus Christ is God. That's why our hearts are
knit together. We've been made to understand that God saved
us first and then he called us. A lot of men have it backwards.
They believe that you get called and then you get saved based
upon your calling. But God saved us and then he just let us know
that he saved us. That's how he does it in the fullness of time.
He reveals his son. We don't understand the mysteries.
We acknowledge them and believe Christ is all we believe. Believers
just believe. That's why we have our hearts
knit together, because we cannot not believe we must believe that
Christ is all in salvation. John, chapter eight, you remember
the story of the blind man blind from birth and Christ healed
him on the Sabbath day and the Pharisees became angry because
he was defiling their Sabbath, in their opinion, that's what
they thought. And they came to the blind man, and they said,
well, we know that Jesus is a sinner, so you need to give God the glory.
Don't tell us that Jesus of Nazareth is the one that healed you. Tell
us God healed you. We know that Christ is a sinner.
That's what they told this blind man. And he said these words.
He said, whether he be a sinner or no, I know not. I know not. This one thing I know, one thing
we know as believers, whereas I was blind, but now I see. That is the reason our hearts
are knit together, because he's given us eyes to see him. We
have the same confession. Christ is all. He's all in salvation. He's all to his people. We've
been made to see the love that he's bestowed upon us and shed
abroad in our hearts. We've been made to see that it's
by grace you're saved through faith and that not of yourself,
but it's the gift of God. We've been made to see that Everything
that the Lord has done, that Christ Jesus did successfully
saved his people. We've been given peace with God.
We've been given true peace with God. We don't have to be fearful
of coming into his presence, but we can come boldly to the
throne of grace. If we're pleading the blood of Christ alone, we
can come boldly to the throne of grace. We can approach God
because of what Christ has done for his people. A believer doesn't
understand all of this in order to believe it. We are made to
believe. That's why Christ didn't say
come into an understanding. He said, come unto me. He didn't
say come to a knowledge. Come unto me, all you that are
labored and are heavy laden. What does it mean to labor? Well,
that means that we're trying to do something to have self-righteousness
before the Lord, or we're laboring in this life because of our unbelief,
or we're laboring to accomplish something that's By nature, contrary. But the elect doesn't do this.
We come to Christ begging mercy beggars. We come into him and
this is not a one time. We were not saved just one time.
We're saved daily now. As far as God's concerned, we
were saved in the covenant eternity past. It's already finished everything,
but we cry out for mercy every day, don't we? Lord saved me
and then just a few minutes later, Lord saved me in every situation
we find ourself in. We're mercy beggars and it's
because we see ourself as the center and him as the Savior.
Philippians 3-9 says, and be found in him. That's our hope.
That is our hope, to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. The only way that you can come
to Christ is naked. The only way that you can come
to Christ is desolate, destitute, bringing nothing in your hands,
offering nothing, begging for Christ alone for your salvation. Remember the woman at the well,
the Lord said, I must needs go through Samaria. I believe I
preached that the last time I was here. So I won't elaborate too
much. She, she's sitting at the well
and the Lord needed to go through Samaria. That's our sister. The
Lord saved her. And we know that by evident of the scripture,
a certain woman, And the Lord comes up to her and he asked
for a drink. And she says, how is it you being
a Jew asked me a Samaritan to give you water? He said, well,
if you knew who was the asked you for water, you have asked
of him and he would give you, he would give you living water.
And she said, sir, give me this water that I may drink. He said,
go call your husband. She said, sir, I have no husband.
He said, Dallas, well-spoken. You've had five husbands and
the one that you have right now is not your husband. She said,
sir, I perceive you're a prophet. Isn't it amazing that every time
you talk to someone, as soon as something about church is
brought up or the gospel is brought up or any cop type of religion,
they find out you have any religious affiliation. They immediately
want to bring their religion into the situation. Well, this
is my righteousness. And they want to try to compare
and they want to try to find a common ground. I'm sure that's other
people's experience beside my own. There is no common ground
in the gospel except the gospel. That's it. There is no leeway. It is a straight way. It is a
straight path that leads right into Christ. And there is no
compromise with it. And as she began to confess her
righteousness, she said, I perceive you're a prophet. We worship
in this mountain. And that, that particular mountain
is Mount Gerizim. Gerizim was the one you remember
that, that during the time of Moses and Deuteronomy chapter
11, he told him, he said, uh, the Lord told Moses, he said,
I want you to bless this mountain. And I want you to curse this
mountain. That was Mount Gerizim. And she said, we worship in Mount
Gerizim because Moses was told to bless it. She said, you worship
in Jerusalem. You say that's where men ought
to worship as Jews. That's what she was telling him. He said,
you worship, you know, not what, and you know, the rest of the
story is she, he began to talk to her. The Lord revealed the
gospel to this woman. He would, the Lord said, I, she
said, well, we know when Messiah comes, he's going to set everything
straight. He says, I am he, I am. She left her water pot behind.
What did that represent? That was her righteousness, wasn't
it? She left her righteousness right there beside the well that
she was trying to drink from because she tasted of the fountain
of living water. That's how we must come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We leave all that religion behind. We leave everything that we thought
of who God is and what he's done, and we simply cling to Christ
and cry out for mercy. When blind Bartimaeus was called
unto the Lord, you know the story of blind Bartimaeus. Turn with
me to Mark chapter 10. Let's look at that together. Scripture says when blind Bartimaeus
was called, He left. He left his robe behind and came
to the Lord. He was naked when he came to
the Lord. Now, stay in Mark, Chapter 10, because we're going
to for probably a majority of the remainder of the message,
we're going to stay right here. Mark chapter 10 and verse 46,
and it says, and they came to Jericho. And as he went out of
Jerusalem with his disciples and a great number of people,
blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus sat by the highway side
begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David have mercy upon me. Now he understood that this
was his only hope that God would have mercy upon him. He understood. that he recognized that he was
blind and he recognized that God was the only one that could
do something for him. And he began to cry out. And
verse 48 says, and many charged him that he should hold his peace.
But he cried the more a great deal. Thou son of David have
mercy on me. Now look at this. It says, and
Jesus stood still. and commanded him to be called.
Now here is what we hope for. The Lord is passing by this morning.
Our hope is that he stops at this place and reveals himself
to us. That's our hope. And he says, and they call the
blind man saying to him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth
thee. This is the same comfort that
Paul refers to in Colossians chapter two. This is the full
assurance of understanding that God is God and we are not, we
are the sinner. And the only hope that we have
is that he would do the work in our heart, that he would call
us, that he would save us, that he would open up our blind eyes.
It's the same comfort, be of good comfort, he calleth thee.
That's what he does for his people. He call it the that's why we're
here this morning. That's the reason that you're
sitting where you're sitting and I'm standing where I'm standing is
because we're hoping our hope is that the Lord would pass by,
stand still, give us eyes to see, call us unto himself, Lord,
turn us and we shall be turned. Let us see your face one more
time. That's why we have to be here. The blind man didn't offer himself
up unto God, and we certainly do not either. He didn't come
bearing anything unto the Lord. He couldn't even come to the
Lord. Think about the throng of people that surrounded the
Lord at this time. Many places that the Lord went, many people
were coming to him, asking him, Lord, heal our loved ones or
do this for us or do that for us. And so he was blind and there
was no way he could see where God was. God's passing by before
this man. There's no way he can get to
God. There's no hope that he has that he can press through
the crowd. He doesn't even know which direction to go to get
to God. That's us. Dead in trespasses and in sin. We have no way of
getting to God. We don't even know which way to go. We're dead.
We need God to call us. We need God to draw us. We need
God to do all the work in salvation. And he did successfully for his
people. The people in front of him, I
think, are often, in my mind, represented as the law. The law
stood in between us and the Lord because our sin separated us
from God. The law was given so that we
know what kind of creatures we are by nature. God's law is holy
and we love it, but we cannot be saved by keeping the law. He could not get past the law
in order to get to Christ. Do we see what I'm saying there?
All he could do is cry out louder and they kept saying hush and
the law demanded justice and everything around us was contrary.
But the Lord gives us the heart that cries out louder and louder
unto him and Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
for his people. He fulfilled this law. He satisfied God's
justice. He satisfied the demands of the
law and he saved his people from their sin. Paul explains it like
this in Romans chapter eight. He says, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. I want to ask us
a question this morning. When is now? Well, now is right
now. And now is right now. And now
is right now, and it's never not now. That's our hope. There
is now, therefore, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
It's never not now. If you're in Christ Jesus, there
is no condemnation unto you, because you're in Christ Jesus.
Now, he continues at the end of that, it says, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit. He's not saying if you
walk after the Spirit, not after the flesh, there's no condemnation.
To walk after the flesh means that you're offering up your
own righteousness before God, and a believer cannot do that.
He's been given the faith of Christ, and Christ's faith cannot
fail. If I can produce something, it's
mine, correct? So it's not my faith that I produce,
it's the faith that's bestowed upon us, the faith of Christ. Now, to walk after the Spirit
is quite the opposite. It is literally come begging,
pleading, Christ is all. That's walking after the Spirit,
coming unto Christ, not bringing anything, not trying to offer
up anything unto him, but simply confessing that Christ is all.
That's why he said, who walked not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. We can't walk after the flesh, brethren, because
we've been made to see Christ is all. That's our hope. Paul
continues in that chapter of Romans 8 and says, for the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending forth
his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
What a blessed hope we have to know we are not going to be left
to ourself to walk after the flesh, that we must seek the
Lord's face because it's his faith that's been given to us.
And God cannot deny himself. He cannot deny himself. This
is the full assurance of understanding that Paul is talking about in
our text in Colossians 2. We understand that all things
have been accomplished that was necessary for our salvation.
Even the faith necessary, Christ kept perfectly and bestows it
upon us. That is our hope this morning.
We have the full assurance that Christ did not try to do anything.
He successfully redeemed his people. He successfully offered
himself up as the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world and saved his people from their sins. Once the Lord reveals
these hidden things by faith, we acknowledge that it's a mystery.
It's a mystery, but we believe Christ is all we know. We have full assurance that Christ
is all and we cling to him. Such things are just too wonderful.
That's the way David put it. Too wonderful for me. They're
high. I can't attain it to them. We acknowledge the mystery. It's
just too wonderful. The Lord is so full of wonder
and in all a lot of men use the term awesome and I do too. But
awesome is something that's been kind of diluted over time just
because it's been used so many times something that you stand
in all of. it's a it's amazing it's magnificent
it's full of wonder it's wonderful awesome it's. Timothy puts it like this in
1 Timothy 3.16, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed in the world, and received up into glory. Now,
I don't understand how all of that took place, but I believe
it because God said it and he's made me to believe it. It wasn't
that I decided to believe this and you didn't decide to believe
it either. God caused us to see that this entire Bible rewrote
itself if I can say it that way. The Lord caused it to be rewritten
before me. I was in religion for a long
time, and one day when the Lord opened up my eyes to the preaching
of the gospel, I read this, and then I read this, and I said,
well, there's Christ right there. Well, there's Christ right there,
and he's never been preached in these chapters to me before. Some of
you understand what I'm talking about. Even the Old Testament
prophets, we looked at Jonah Wednesday night. I never knew
that the gospel was in Jonah chapter four. I had no idea.
But there it is, plain and simple. The Lord's gospel's on every
page of his blessed word, and it all speaks of him. We have full assurance of this
understanding and we have acknowledgement of the mystery at the same exact
time. When he died, his elect died in him. When he was resurrected,
we were resurrected in him. When he was received up into
glory and sat down at the right hand of God, all those whom he
lived and died for. We're seated in him. We are seated
in Christ right now. We are eternally in Christ. And
we always see eternity doesn't mean that it took place once
upon a time. That's not what it means. It's
everlasting. It never had a beginning. It
never had an end. We have always been in Christ. That's why the
faith of Christ will not fail. I mean, that's why our faith
will not fail because it's the faith of Christ that's been given to
us. We are already in him. We are already in him and he
cannot deny himself. What a hope. That's why our hearts
are knit together. You're still in Mark chapter
10. Our brother Bartimaeus, he had this one hope, the same as
we do, didn't he? Christ would have mercy upon him. In verse
47 says, first he says he cries out, and as they hushed him,
he cried out the great deal more. He kept saying, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. He acknowledged the humanity
of Christ, but also his deity by calling him the son of David.
That's where the Messiah's lineage was to come through. He knew
this. He knew this. And he was confessing Christ
is all. He was fully persuaded that Christ was his only hope.
He was made a sinner and he cried out. And that's what we do as
well. If the Lord ever makes you a sinner, if the Lord ever
makes us sinners, we will flee to Christ. Paul said that he
counted everything as dung. Now we're talking about the most
religiously educated man maybe that has ever lived. Paul literally
knew the Old Testament inside, outside, back ways, every way
about it. And when he found out that everything that he knew
about who God was, when the Lord saved him, he counted all that,
that humanitarian knowledge, that historical fact knowledge,
everything that was his righteousness, he counted it but done because
he saw Christ from Genesis all the way through Malachi. He saw
Christ on every page at that point. It rewrote itself for
Paul the same as I was describing before. Paul counted it all but
done that he may win Christ. Now that doesn't imply at all
to me or to you that if we count everything but done, we'll win
Christ. No, the Lord had saved him and
then called him and showed him that everything else did not
matter, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Men by nature will not count
everything as done. They will not come to Christ.
Did you know there's three reasons? Me and Robert were talking about
this the other day. There's three reasons. I may have talked to
Steve about this, too. I've talked to several of you
about it. I probably I can't help it. But there's three reasons
that men will not come to Christ. There's several reasons, I'm
certain. But these three are the primary and rest of them, I believe,
stem from this. Number one, they have a righteousness. They have
their own righteousness, whether it's by the keeping of the law,
whether it's by justifying themselves based upon other people around
them, whether it's by their moral standards or whatever it may
be, they have their own righteousness. This is one reason men will not
come to God. They don't want to relinquish that power of their
own righteousness. That's their power. The second
one is their relationships. Men don't want to lose their
position with whether it be their family or their friends. Whenever
I came to the knowledge of the gospel, my family and I no longer
had communication. We have communication now and
things are a little bit different, but we do not talk about the
Bible because they know that I do not believe in the same
God that they believe in. Just because men use the term
Jesus does not mean it's Jesus Christ, the son of God that they're
referring to. There's a lot of lowercase J Jesus's in the world. And we know the spirit of Antichrist
is alive and well. What is the spirit of Antichrist?
Anything other than the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is Antichrist.
It's that simple. If Christ is not sufficient in
salvation and the message is preached, that's Antichrist.
But men will not relinquish their popularity, their relationships
with other men. They desire that relationship
more than they desire Christ. The third thing is physical things.
Men by nature desire pleasure. Men by nature like comfort. Christ
told his disciples, that I am come to set a man at
variance, that means sever, against father and daughter, against
her mother and daughter-in-law, against her mother-in-law, and
the man's foes, they shall be of his own house. Then he goes
on to say, but he that forsakes mother, father, forsakes sister,
brother, forsakes land, forsakes houses for my sake and the gospel,
shall in this life have a hundredfold and in the life to come eternal
life. Now, again, don't get the cause and effect backwards there,
brethren, because men will do that. The Lord leaves enough
rope in his gospel for men to hang themselves with. Men will
say by that, OK, I need to forsake my land. I need to forsake my
house. I need to forsake my parents and my brothers and sisters.
Then I'll have Christ. No, you'll forsake those things
only when Christ shuts you up to him and causes you to see
that he is all. But in this life, we'll have
a hundred fold. He said, well, what does that mean? Well, I've stayed
at Rob's house a couple of times and I've stayed at Steve's house
a couple of times and several I've stayed at. Jeremy and I
have been together a long time and stayed at other people's
houses that are in the gospel multiple times. And you've opened
up your houses to me. There are houses unto the Lord.
That's what he's saying. I have brothers and sisters right
here. I've forsaken many, but I have you all, according to
the spirit. and our hearts are knit together
unto Christ. Do we see that? It's more blessed
in the gospel because we have the same confession that Christ
is all. We have a fellowship in this room and in the other
gospel churches, we have a fellowship that you cannot have physically
speaking only. There must, if the Lord's given
you eyes of faith to see, there's always something missing in relationships
outside of the gospel. That's what I want to talk about
more than anything is the finished work of Christ. I'm thankful
that each time I've spoken to you, we may have been talking
about humanitarian things in some ways. We may have been talking
about work in some ways, but it always seems like and I know
you experienced the same. We always end up talking about
Christ. We always come to that tip. That's where we get to every
single time. That's what we want to hear about as our substitute,
our savior. Men do not want to forsake these
things. Christ said it this way in John chapter five, verse 40.
He says, you will not come to me that you will have life. He's
talking to the Pharisees. He's talking to the most religious
people in the world at that time. He's talking about the ones that
dotted every I and crossed every T according to the law in their
mind. He tells them, you will not come to me. Men by nature
will not come to Christ. And he tells us why in John chapter
10, he said, you are not my sheep. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and I know them. And they follow me and I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave them
me is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. So if you want, you want a visual
for that, you take us in Christ. And then you take the father,
Christ in the father. There's no one who shall lay
charge to the Lord's elect. No man, no man can say anything
against the Lord's elect because they're perfectly righteous in
his eye. Perfectly righteous. The Lord's sheep made perfectly
righteous in Christ. The reason men will not come
to Christ and the reason our hearts are not knit to them until
the Lord reveals himself to them is because they love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. What is the praise of man? Well, it's adoration. It's admiration. It's self-worship. It's worshiping
another man. Well, what's the praise of God?
Well, it's exactly the opposite of that. The praise of God is
mentioned in the scripture as this. He hath highly exalted
him and given him a name above every name, that at the name
of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
That is the praise of God, and that's what we confess. Christ
is all. He's exalted. He's high and lifted
up. We say in agreement with the
Lord, he said, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased.
That is our confession. We are pleased with Christ and
his finished word. Acts chapter 20 and verse 21
calls it repentance towards God and faith toward the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord's changed our mind. He's completely changed
our mind about who God is. And he's given us that repentance,
but simultaneously instantly gives us faith in Christ to believe
that Christ is all at the same time. We see ourself the center
and we see Christ as the savior at the same time under the sound
of the preaching of the gospel. That's how the Lord has elected
to save his people. It's not that we understand doctrine.
It's not that we come to a knowledge of something, it's that it has
been revealed that Christ is all. We believe in a person.
We believe in a person as our salvation. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. We don't believe
in a what we believe in a who we believe in the God man, the
Lord Jesus Christ is all. This is how he's knit our hearts
together in love. This is how he's done it. He's given us Christ
as our portion, each of us. He's given his people the same
confession. He has knit our hearts together. He's given us the same
focal point, Christ. We look through a glass darkly,
don't we, brethren? But he's given us the same focal point.
He's given us the same hope. He's given us the same heartbeat.
He's given us the same heart, the heart that looks into him.
He's taken out our heart of flesh. He's taken out our heart of stone
and he's given us a heart of flesh. One that can only look
to Him. Now look at verse 50. It says,
He, casting away His garment, rose and came to Jesus. Do we see that that's His righteousness? His robe was His righteousness.
Can you imagine how stinky? and how dirty and how repulsive
this man would have been in society, how his character would have
been viewed by everyone that was around him. There was nothing
about this man that had any merit in society of being good or being
pleasing to the eye in any way. This garment had to be tattered.
It had to be worn. He was a beggar. It had to be
discolored. It had to have holes in it. The
Scripture calls our righteousness as filthy rags, doesn't it? And
he knew if he was going to come to Christ, he had to come to
Christ naked, claiming nothing but clinging unto the righteousness
of the Lord and confessing that is all. The Lord causes us, his
people, to become empty before him. He causes us to become naked. He causes us to become destitute.
He causes us to see that we are polluted, that we are polluted. Our blood is polluted. He causes
us to see that we are full of putrefying sores, that there
is nothing about us, nothing about us that's good. And as
soon as he does that, at the same time, he fills us up. He
covers us. In His righteousness, He robes
us. He makes us pure in His sight. He closes up those sores with
the balm of Gilead. By His own blood, He washes us
and makes us white as snow. He has presented us already unto
His Father as perfectly righteous. Now in closing, I want to look
at these two verses here, and then I want us to go back to
our text real quick. It says in v. 51, And Jesus answered
and said unto him, What will thou that I should do unto thee?
The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my
sight. And Jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy faith hath made
thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now, I mentioned this to
you before, but men talk about their faith. Put your faith in
Christ in the second, the second hour, Lord willing, I'm going
to be preaching on faith, so I don't want to elaborate too much or
preach to two messages at the same time. But we don't produce
this faith, as I've already said, if we produce it, then it's sin.
It's sinful. Do we see that everything we
produce in the eyes of God is sin? It's false. It's not good,
but it's the faith of Christ that's been given to us that
cannot fail. That's perfect. His faith is
perfect. This singular faith comes from
God and is given to his people. And by faith, we immediately
believe that Christ is all. Now go back with me to Colossians
chapter two. And I want to read this to us
one more time. This is how he's did our hearts together. This
is why there is fellowship among the brethren. This is why it's
precious assembling together because we have the same confession.
Colossians 2, look at verse 2, says that their hearts might
be comforted being knit together in love and into 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. Our hearts are comforted. Because we have been made to
understand Jesus Christ saved his people from their sin. Our
hearts are comforted because we have been made to understand
it is finished. This is what knits our hearts
together, brethren, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for
his elect people. We acknowledge that it is a mystery. We acknowledge
that it's past finding out the ways of the Lord are, but we
believe it because we've been made to believe it. We've been
given, He, Christ is the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Do we
see that? We've been given Christ, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Philippians chapter four, verse one, chapter one, verse four
says, being confident of this very thing that He, which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. You believe that? You believe
that He will perform it under the day of Jesus Christ? If you
believe that, our hearts have been knit together. Amen. Father,
we pray that you would bless your word cause us to look unto
you for everything in salvation. Leave us not to ourself. It's
in Christ and we pray, Amen.