(Colossians) Christ in You — Brian Brodersen

Christ in You: The Hope of Glory

Morning, let's turn once again to the first chapter of Colossians. Colossians chapter 1 verse 27 and specifically the last seven words of the 27th verse. Christ in you. The hope of glory in these seven words we have teaching That is so profound That several volumes could not exhaust it today by the help of the Spirit We will Attempt to discover some of the riches Contained here in the verse.

Let's ask the Lord's help Lord. We do pray now as we consider these seven words That some of the richness that's here Lord would be poured out upon us today. That we might know More deeply this great truth Christ in you the hope of glory.

Amen. We begin with the word Christ. Christ of course is The Greek for the Hebrew word Messiah and The Word means the Anointed. One way way back in the dawn of man's history when man sinned God gave a promise to send a Redeemer and The Old Testament is a book that prepared The people for the Redeemer to come and Throughout the Old Testament.

Christ as the Promised Redeemer

There are several Glimpses of this Redeemer and it was Obvious from many passages that this Redeemer would be a man. But there were also other statements that Showed that he would be more than a man. Statements that showed that he would be none other than God and So Isaiah Prophesied he said for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and The government will be upon his shoulders and his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting Father Prince of Peace so Paul says here Christ in you the hope of glory.

He's speaking of this promised Redeemer this one that was Ordained to come before the foundation of the world this one who would be a man He would be related to us. But he would also be God. It would be God the Son.

This is one of the great glories of the Christian faith. Christ in you. The fact that this blessed Redeemer this great God who became a man. He came to earth. He lived. He died. He rose again. He ascended to heaven and he comes and takes up residence in the hearts of his people.

Christ in you. We know concerning Christ from what we've been looking at in our context here of chapter 1 in Colossians as well as many other passages in Scripture we know that He is the one who has supremacy over all things.

We know that he's the creator of all things. We know that to him belongs all power. He said all power is given to me in heaven and earth. He said all authority has been given to me over all flesh and He demonstrated in his earthly life that power.

He showed us his greatness. He showed us his might. He showed us his power over the elements his power over the natural realm dealing with The very elements themselves the the wind and the waves calming them.

He showed us his power over the elements in the multiplying of the food and so forth. He showed us this power over disease and so forth. And he showed us his power in the spiritual realm also by delivering people who were oppressed by Spiritual beings demons.

And it's this one this Christ that we Find in the pages of the Old Testament as both God and man the one that we find in the pages of the New Testament. As the great Redeemer come from heaven. Born of a virgin but yet The one who has all power.

The Meaning of “In You”

This is the one that Paul says is in you. Christ is In you. Christ in you now the second word in. You know, it's important that we sometimes take a word at a time. It's so easy to rush through our Bibles, isn't it?

It's easy to Go through a paragraph or even a chapter even a few chapters and not really Get the full Message. Because we're in such a hurry. Sometimes it's good to take a word at a time, but take this word in.

It's an incredible statement really Christ in you now it would have been glorious just to be told that Christ is watching over you. And of course, we're told in the Bible that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and The Lord sees us and so forth that and that's great to know that God is watching me to know that his eye is upon me.

That is a great truth. And even greater truth is to know that the Lord is actually with me. The Bible tells us that the Lord is with us the Lord is with those who fear him and Jesus said to his disciples that I will be with you and Those are great truths the Lord watching over us the Lord being with us but Here in this one little word We find that the Lord is not merely watching us.

He is not only with us, but he is actually in us. He is actually in us and again, this is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith that Christ the Lord of glory this God who became a man that he actually takes up his Place of residence within us he lives in us great mystery.

But this is one of the glories of the gospel Christ in you. He lives in us and in living in us, he does his work in us and It manifests itself then out Of us. You see the common idea that people have is that Christianity is a list of rules they they see it as being just another religious system where you abide by Various rules and regulations, it's all external.

You have a list of commands and you observe those commands you you read them. You understand them and then you seek to apply them, but they're outside of you. See, that's not the teaching of the New Testament.

That was the case in the Old Testament actually and The Apostle Paul contrasted the Old and the New Testaments and he used An interesting picture. He talked about the commandments that were written upon stone and He said that's not the case with us He said but rather God's commands have been written now upon the fleshly tablets of the heart.

You see when the Lord takes up residence in us. He puts his desire in us. He lives in us and So Christianity is nothing less than God living in the soul of man. What an incredible thing when you consider who God is when you consider who Christ is.

That he is the one who holds the universe in the span. He holds the universe in the span. In other words. He the universe to him is just held right within the distance between his thumb and his index finger.

God is outside of the universe, but he's inside. He's so vast that he holds the universe in his hand. But yet he's capable of indwelling us. Also. He's these things are incredible things these are as I said a moment ago, you could fill several volumes and not exhaust these thoughts here.

You could just continue to go deeper and deeper and deeper with these things, but who can ever really even comprehend them? They're beyond comprehension but there are those times that the Holy Spirit will Reveal things to us and this is one of those great things if you get a hold of it even just for a moment the realization of it Christ is in me he lives inside of me and So Paul was marveling at this.

This was the great mystery that was Continually blowing Paul's mind for lack of a better Term he was just constantly in awe of this Christ in us now Notice he said Christ in you and it's important to consider who it was that he was referring to Christ in you now Paul was writing this epistle to Believers in the city of Colossae who were outside of The covenant relationship with God and so the term Gentile.

The term Gentile means nations the Hebrew word is goyim and that that word referred to Everyone but the Jews everyone but the Jews were the goyim. They were the nation's they were the people in other words outside of a relationship with God they were the people that were not part of the covenant and So Paul says Christ is in you and he's speaking to those people who were not part of the covenant.

The Gentile Condition and the Gospel

Originally speaking to people who were outside. We have several descriptions in the New Testament of the Gentile world just general statements as to the condition of the Gentile world and let me Give you a few of these statements.

Romans chapter 1 verses 29 through 31 Paul said being filled with all unrighteousness sexual immorality wickedness covetousness Maliciousness full of envy murders strife deceit Evil-mindedness, they are whispers back biters haters of God violent proud boasters inventors of evil things disobedient to parents and discerning untrustworthy unloving unforgiving unmerciful so this is a general description of the Gentiles in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 Paul said therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world.

Having no hope and without God in the world. This was the condition of the nation's one more passage from Ephesians 4 17 through 19 this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind.

Having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Because of the hardening of their heart who being past feeling Have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

So this is a description of the Condition of the Gentile world. This is the world that Paul went into preaching. These were the people who became the recipients of the gospel. These were the ones who now Paul is writing to and He's saying Christ is in you.

You see there's been a long-standing misconception and Misconception is this that God is with the good people and of course the Jews thought that and They thought that they were the good people so God was with them and he wasn't with anybody else as far as they were concerned.

But that mentality has come down to us even today. There are those who That's their way of thinking. God is with those who are good. And God is with the religious people. God is with the people who go to church or do good deeds and he's not with anyone else.

Well, the fact of the matter is this. By nature, we're all cut off from God whether we deem ourselves to be good or not. The Bible teaches clearly that there are actually no good people. There's none good.

No, not one. But there are those who who hold on to that and those who you know think themselves better than others and assume that because they haven't done anything horribly wrong that God must be with them and When they hear a statement to this effect Christ in you they might think well, of course I can see that about myself but Again as we consider who Paul is speaking to and we consider the background of these people and this of course is a very contemporary Description of The way people behave isn't it?

So the point is this that Christ is Not for the good people. Because there are no good people. Christ is for all people and he will come into anyone's life that will receive him. Regardless of what their background is we could go through other passages that list similar things and then Paul speaks to those that he was writing to and he says now you once were like this and actually here in Ephesians we've been quoting from Ephesians 2 and he at one point he describing the condition and the behavior and he said Whom we all at one time had Our manner of life all of us at one time we're living the same way we were just like this.

We might not have been involved in every one of these things. But yet we are certainly to be found in the list that we've just looked through somewhere. Some people this is purely Biographical. For others, it's not as obvious.

But yes. These things are also true. So this is the marvelous thing about the gospel. It's Christ in you in the Gentiles the ones that the Jews thought were no way Ever to be saved impossible couldn't happen and So we find the same thing today many people Would stand in judgment and say oh these people certainly could not be accepted by God these people certainly could not be Christians because look at them and look how they lived and look what they did and So people have a real problem.

They say oh, well, you've got that easy religion over there. We're just anybody could come and Find God, you know, and and I've received criticism from people for preaching easy religion and And opening the door to all those bad people and Generally that criticism comes from religious people self-righteous people.

Salvation by Grace Rather Than Merit

I Actually had one person tell me that You know, we made it way too easy over at Calvary. He's gonna stick with his religion because it was hard over there he really had to work your way and It wasn't gonna go in for any of that That just slip in by believing in Jesus stuff no, he's gonna prove, you know that he's a good man and he's gonna keep working hard and one day gonna appear right before God and You know, of course God's gonna let him into heaven because he's worked hard for it.

Well, of course, I'm describing you a person who does not have the slightest clue about what the Bible teaches very devoutly religious individual, but doesn't understand anything of The teaching of Scripture because the teaching of Scripture teaches that None of us can work our way into God's favor.

None of us can do anything to Save ourselves all of us must come the same way because all of us are really in the same condition. Although we don't really want to admit that We want to think ourselves better than others but The fact is we're all in the same condition our hearts are all in the same condition of depravity.

The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It doesn't say if you hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It says the heart a general statement talking about the heart of man.

Generally speaking all people fall under that category on occasion. We've had opportunity to see people who Have been guilty of the vilest crimes and Have been convicted of those crimes and have had to pay the price for that capital punishment and before the execution, maybe you've Seen a news clip or something where one of these abominable Criminals would get up and Talk about the fact that they were going to die in their crimes and so forth and then they would mention Jesus and they would state something to the effect that they had received the Lord and they You know were trusting in his mercy and all and I don't know what your reaction is to that.

Some people are are angered by that. Some people are very very bothered. There's all this You know this wicked abominable horrible person, you know He's talking about Jesus as though the there could be any connection there and you know, they just can't handle that but in reality they have every right if They've truly repented to expect that Christ has had mercy upon them because the things that they did were the very things that Jesus was Being punished for upon the cross.

See God laid the sin of the world upon him and there wasn't one sin that was left out and If a person will come to Christ Regardless of their background if they will come in truth and sincerity acknowledging fully and completely their guilt and the fact that they have sinned and that they're entirely responsible for their actions and If they will come even the most vile of criminals if they will come and cast themselves upon the mercy of God God will forgive them and Christ will come into them.

See that's the gospel. That's what the New Testament teaches but again people are appalled by that they're angered by that they're upset you see the problem goes back to a misunderstanding of sin and The fact that all of us are sinners and all of us have the potential to To go totally bad.

It's just the mercy of God that keeps us from going but we all have the potential to Become as corrupt as one another because we're all made of the same stuff sin. We're all depraved. We're all Steeped in sin and if we were let go Under the right circumstances The true condition of our heart would come out.

Have you ever had an experience where? You've known a person. You've seen them Operate for years you've experienced them and they you know appeared to be a a good person and yet circumstances had come about where They had suddenly You know it seems it gone bad.

What happened. You know what what happened this person they were so good and they were so loving and so gentle and now they've become so self-centered and now they've become so focused upon their way and their will and they're striking out against everybody and the people that they You know once seemed to love now they hate them and they have no allegiance to them.

You know, have you ever seen anything like that? Well, you see here's the mistake that people make the mistake is this. Oh, they were such a good person. What went wrong? The mistake was the assumption that they were a good person.

What you're seeing now is what they really are. You see what you're seeing now is what man really is when you see people go bad. So to speak what you're actually seeing is what they truly are. But people misunderstand that they say oh, but they you know, they have such a good heart.

I don't understand how they how you know, they've they've gone in this direction. Well, the fact of the matter is they have a corrupt heart and That corruption was veiled for a time under you know. Certain convictions and morality and things like that.

But now all of that's been removed and you're just seeing what the Bible says is true. You're just seeing what the person actually is. You see because man by nature is a sinner man by nature is prone to live for self to serve self to.

You know to put self before everything else. But yet when a person turns to Christ truly regardless of how wretched or abominable how wicked They might have been the vilest of sinners becomes The dwelling place of God.

Christ’s Indwelling Cleanses from Within

This is incredible. This is just really truly, you know, the the Holy Righteous Christ the one who was separate from sinners. The one who never thought or Said or did anything contrary to perfect holiness and righteousness.

This one comes and takes up residence in Gentiles in people like us. But you see When he does that He cleans us up that's the thing he does he cleans us up he washes us from the inside and Give you an idea of how thorough his cleansing is.

It's thorough enough to allow him to come and reside in us. Of course the Lord is not going to reside in a in a decrepit vile environment. So, what does he do. He comes in and he changes us from the inside out.

He changes us from the inside out. How many times do we say that? Can we say that enough? We need to repeat it over and over again. That's the gospel people don't understand that even today. They're still thinking in terms of externals.

Keeping a list of rules not understanding Christ is in you. Christ will come in and He will change you from the inside out he will take up residence in you he will live inside of you and He will make you the person that he wants you to be.

That's the glory of the gospel. So Christ in you and Then he says the hope of glory. Christ in you the hope of glory now. Glory is Just another way of Trying to describe the perfected state in the presence of God.

Heaven is glory. We're we're moving toward as God's people. We're moving toward glory we're moving toward the point of being glorified. In other words all that we are now in our natural condition is going to be done away with and we're going to be perfected and And So we're going to live in a perfect place.

We're going to be perfect ourselves. We're going to be in the presence of God. There's not going to be any Remnant of sin. There's not going to be any mark of sin left upon us whether it be sin in the sense of Vile practices or sin and in the sense of its impact upon Human nature.

It's destructive impact death and all those things all of that's going to be done away with Christ in you the hope of glory now the word hope in the Bible it means something quite a bit different than what a Hope means in our common usage of it, you know when we use the word hope today We use it in In a sense To describe something we desire but something that is not certain.

So, you know, we say oh, I I hope That that deal comes together now. I'm not certain it's going to but but I really hope it does. Or you know, we're going on vacation next week. I hope the weather is gonna be nice.

So you see we want it to be but we're uncertain as to whether it's going to be that's the that's the common usage of the word hope but the word hope in the Bible is Not defined in that way. The word hope in the Bible is more akin to the word faith it's similar to the word faith because what it refers to is a confidence in something yet to be.

It's not a foundationless expectation, but rather confidence in something that is yet to be. So I hope in something in the biblical sense in other words, I have confidence that this is going to be. So I have confidence That I'm going to be perfected.

I'm going to be in glory. I'm going to spend eternity with God in his kingdom. I'm going to be liberated at some point in time from this Sinful condition that I'm in. I have confidence that that's going to happen.

Based on Christ in me, so that's what Paul is saying Christ in you gives you the confidence in glory. So we can say as Christian people as people who have truly received Christ we can say with confidence that we will go to heaven a good way to find out Whether or not a person is Genuinely a believer is to ask them if they are confident that they are going to heaven.

Now I'm not saying that there aren't genuine believers who? Who lack that confidence, but if they do it's because they misunderstand the gospel a lot of times people Assume that they're Christians, but they don't understand the gospel at all.

And it's evidenced in the fact that they have no assurance of heaven. You see this is one thing that an elementary understanding of the gospel will give you an insurance of heaven because. That's the promise of Scripture.

Christ in you is the hope of glory. I know I'm going to heaven because Christ is in me. He's my confidence of heaven and you see a person who doesn't have that confidence doesn't understand the gospel they don't understand how you get to heaven and Sometimes you'll find people saying things like this if you say well, I know I'm going to heaven.

They'll say oh, well. Isn't that a bit presumptuous? I? Wish I could know that but I'm not as holy as you obviously. You know little wisecracks like that. You see that right there indicates a lack of understanding on their part.

They don't understand the gospel and Possibly have not been a recipient of it. Maybe they have but they still don't understand it. See because they're thinking somehow that it's your Merit that it's your holiness that it's something that you are that's going to get you to heaven, which is a total misconception.

See, I have absolute confidence. I'm going to heaven. You can have total confidence that you're going to heaven to that. You're gonna be in the glorified state. Why because Christ is in you see Christ is in me.

That's my hope of glory. It's not that I am able to work my way there. It's not that I've been such a good person such a faithful servant such a wonderful Christian that where else would I go? That's not the issue.

The issue is that Christ is in me and Because Christ is in me now. I am I'm connected with him eternally and Christ is going to take me to heaven. That's my hope of glory. It's Christ in me. So you see anyone who thinks that a person who has confidence that they're going to heaven is being presumptuous.

Probably doesn't understand the gospel. If I thought I was going to heaven because of anything other than Christ What he's done for me and the fact that he's in me then that would indeed be presumption.

It would be foolish for me to think that I Could never have any guarantee or any real hope that I am going to heaven apart from Christ. But because Christ is in me. I have that hope of glory. I have that confidence.

It's not in me or what I've done, but it's in Christ and who he is and so we rest in that. We have assurance in that, you know, I've always heard this but I kind of doubted whether or not it was true.

I Always heard that the closer you got to the Lord or the longer you walked with the Lord the more you would see yourself as A sinner and I'd heard that over and over again and I always thought well. Maybe that was just their personal opinion.

But you know I'm beginning to believe that that is absolutely true With all of us, you know, the longer I walk with the Lord the more I marvel at the fact that I walk with the Lord. That I've ever been allowed to do it.

The the more I Get to know myself the more I marvel at the fact that God even wants to have anything to do with me. That God would use me and you know, sometimes I don't know if you ever do this, but sometimes I in my mind I try to like Justify why God would use me, you know.

Because I just feel so wretched and so unworthy and and I try to come up with some reason why I shouldn't feel that way and yet the harder I search The more I find that I shouldn't only feel this way.

I need to feel even worse. Because I am worse and You know what that does in the positive sense though it gives the glory back to God. It just it just puts the glory back on him. It's just Lord. It's just you.

I Search high and low for some reason for God to love me for some reason for God to bless me and Again as I search I find that God you shouldn't love me because I don't love you like I should I Take you for granted.

I Don't give you the the praise and the honor the adoration is due to your name. There's times I get up and I don't even have a thought of God till halfway through the day. Oh The Lord yes forgot about him.

He just created me redeemed me sustains me. But I forgot even existed. I was too busy being preoccupied with my own little world and my self, you know and when I think of that I think Lord you are so good because if I had a servant that Was like that.

I'd probably just want to get rid of him and And yet God doesn't. He just Loves me and has mercy on me and continues to use me. Why does God use me? Just because he wanted to there's no reason in me. You know, I think about things that God is doing in my life and You know, I can easily disqualify myself.

I can go through it. I can put together a list of reasons why God shouldn't. And I can put that whole list together and bring it to the Lord and say Lord. These are all the reasons why you shouldn't use me says I know Tear it up.

I'm gonna use you anyway. You know, so it's God. It's just it goes back to God as Paul said when he wrote to the Ephesians he's accepted us in the Beloved to the praise of the glory of his grace and I think that it all comes down to just this one thing us just saying Lord.

You're good. Your grace is amazing and Just marveling in that rejoicing in that when you look at the statement here Christ in you the hope of glory. Christ is our hope of glory. It's not you and none of this is to encourage slothful living or You know a lack of holiness or any of that I I want to live a holy life.

I encourage you to live a holy life. We press toward that but you know what even as you're living a holy life. You just find that I'm not really holy. It's the Lord the harder I try the more wretched I see myself to be and Again, it all just finally brings you back to God and just to his grace.

You know, I find that when I when I really get holy. You know what? I get at the same time. I get proud of how holy I am and Then I realize how wicked I am. I'm proud over being holy. I'm more holy than that person.

I'm so proud. Yeah, it's just a vicious cycle. It's just pathetic. But this is our human condition and all the more do we marvel at this statement Christ in you the hope of glory is Christ in us the great the awesome.

The wonderful the majestic the Blessed Christ God's Son in In Not merely watching not only with us but in tiles Jews to who realize they are no better off than the Gentiles. But he's in us he's our hope of glory.

The Gospel Offered to All People

Now in closing this is the question how. How is it that Christ is? In you. Are you born with Christ in you? Oh, no. You might say well, wait a second. My parents were Christians. That's wonderful, but they did not impart to you a divine nature.

The only thing they can depart to you impart to you naturally is the corrupt sinful nature. You see people go on that assumption. Well, I I think you know, I I've actually asked people, you know. Well, when did you become a Christian?

I was born a Christian. No, I'm sorry, you weren't born a Christian. You're born a sinner just like everyone else. So Christ doesn't come into us because we're born into a Christian family. Christ Does not come into us because We're good people.

He's looking around for a place to live. Oh, that looks like a good place. I think they've kept that place pretty clean. No, he doesn't come in because we're good people and. And He doesn't come in because we go to church and this is where I think a lot of people really Make a false assumption.

There's this thinking that because I go to church, I'm a Christian that is that is not necessarily true and You need to be freed from that thinking. You might have gone to church all of your life and assume that because you've gone that you're a Christian that might not necessarily be the case.

It's possible to go to church and to not be a Christian at all. You're in the church. But Christ isn't in you because there's only one way that Christ comes into you and listen to what Jesus said behold I stand at the door and knock and If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.

See there's only one way the only way Christ comes into us is by personal invitation. We must ask him to come in. We must ask him and in asking him to come in what we're doing is we're acknowledging that he's not there and He's not there because we're sinners.

We're cut off from him. We're lost apart from him. We're acknowledging that and we're saying Lord. You need to come in. I want you to save me. I need a Savior. I Lord come in and take Charge of my life.

You see that's what's happening. And that's the only way that Christ is in you. He's in you by invitation. You must invite him to come in. Do not assume that he's in you unless of course you've invited him to come in.

This is sometimes a very difficult thing to admit That although you were raised in a Christian family, although you've been a good person. Although you've been to church all your life that you're not a Christian that Christ is not in you.

It's a hard thing on the pride. I remember years ago The thing that kept me back from receiving Christ was pride. I didn't want to admit that I hadn't already done that. Because I belong to the true church.

I belong to the Catholic Church, of course, and you know, I was baptized as a little baby and And I remember when an invitation was given one time and there was a person with me at an evangelistic meeting and That person turned and said I want to go.

I want to receive Christ and I said, okay. Well, you know you want me to walk you up there? Yeah, they did and So I did and so we got up and they said the prayer. I didn't and then they went to meet the person that would give him the Bible and so forth and as We were there talking, you know, the person actually looked at me and said Have you received Christ?

Oh.

Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Of course. I have. Uh-huh. Oh.

When well, you know born that way, you know, but baptized back there as a baby, you know I've got right don't talk to me. I brought this person up here now. I'm okay, you know, I don't need you. This is bothering me.

This is bothering my pride. I did not want to admit that Christ wasn't in me. No, I go to church. I'm I was part of the choir and you know, I've been around for years. I knew the priest and all I of course Christ is in me.

Where else would he be? You know, I'm I'm a pretty good guy you know, I wasn't. That's only drinking a six-pack over the weekend. Now. I wasn't drinking the case like it was. I was only. You know dating one girl a month not two or three, you know.

That was my thinking truly, I mean don't talk to me. I'm this is the person right here talk to them. I'm okay. It was my pride. I didn't want to admit. I didn't want to say that Christ isn't in me and It wasn't until I did that.

The Christ did come in. And so don't do that today if that's you don't let your pride keep you back. Don't rest in something like well, you know, my parents were Christians. My grandfather was a minister.

We went to church as you know all my life. I got baptized or or even that you go to this church. None of those things Mean that Christ is in you they can indicate Christ is in you, but that's not Necessarily the case Christ is in you by an act of your will.