Colossians 1:24-29 - The Glory of This Mystery

Good morning, everyone. What a chipper group we've got today. You can always tell when Brother Paul can't get you in here and get you going, that you're like energetic. Some days you're just totally sleepy, today you're energetic.

That gives me an extra hour to preach. I'm excited about it. Very good. Now everybody goes, I know how to quiet you down. See, Paul, that's how you do it. Good to see everybody today. You have gotten somber all of a sudden.

This is quite uncomfortable. Oh, well. Hey, guess what? I think it was Matt reminded me that this morning is the first Sunday after the election. How about that? Oh, I forgot my phone. I was going to read a verse that Colleen talked about in Sunday school.

Where is it? You can holler it out there and I'll look it up. I actually have a real Bible, so I can actually read it from here. Thirty-eight and what? Twelve. Thirty-eight, twelve, right? Okay. Yeah, that's where I wanted to start.

Very good. Okay, listen to this. This is good. The election reminded me when she said this, she related it to the election. I thought, oh boy, that's a good interpretation. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, and caused the day spring to know his place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it.

You like that? Yeah, okay. Now, I love the King James for many, many reasons, but I like the way that it says, and caused the day spring to know his place instead of its place, because the day spring is a type or a picture of Jesus Christ.

So, it's like he took, I like the way you said it. You said he took, it's like he took the earth as a garment and just shook the wicked out of it this past week. It's really amazing to see. You get to see that maybe once or twice a lifetime.

With me, that's twice now that it's happened. Maybe three times that it's happened, and it's quite amazing. But we know God's in control, and like Matt said last Sunday, no matter how we ended up here, whether we're all smiley and giggly, or whether we're just gloomy, God is still in control, and his will is now revealed.

So, now we know his secret will. The secret will that we didn't know last Sunday, is he's given us time for our grandbabies. A little extra time, and at least most likely that's what it looks like. So, I think that's awesome.

Speaking of that, Matt, did you have something you wanted to say my son? Yes, we are. Numero 14. I can't say it in Spanish. I shouldn't have started with numero. I can't say 14. I can go to 10, but I can't do it.

Who can? Come on. Who can do it?

Say it.

Yeah, that. That's how many. All right, guys. So great to see you all and be with you. Let's turn to the book of Colossians this morning, and we're gonna finish the first chapter. Now, we recently had been going through some questions about this word if, if you remember, and speaking of which, let me get my Bible open to where I want it.

I'm gonna need that in a minute.

Who Continues in the Faith and Who Does Not

So, in Colossians chapter one, verse 23, starts out with the word if, if you continue, and we've been talking about that for quite some time. But in the midst of this study, we started asking some questions, if you remember.

Who is responsible to keep us saved? Who promised to keep us saved? And if you weren't here for these, please go back and check out the archives at parkmiddleschurch .com, because we've gone through these in detail.

Number three, whose will is it that we have eternal security? Number four, what is man's responsibility in the midst of all that? Number five, who believes and who does not believe? In other words, if the Lord is gonna put the word if in that verse, if you continue, who is it that continues and who is it that doesn't?

And to me, that was one of my favorite parts of this study. Number six, whose power and work keeps us saved? In other words, is it the sheep's responsibility to keep himself saved, or I started to say shaved, sheared, or is it the shepherd's responsibility?

And then number seven, what makes us walk right? Why do we walk right if it's all up to God to keep us saved, why do we try? We talked about that. Number eight, we talked about the intercessory work of Jesus Christ, in other words, his present work right now at the throne of God as Satan comes as our accuser, he is our intercessor and our advocate before the Father.

And then number nine, we talked about what really saved us in the first place, was it us or was it his blood? And then let's see, that was a long one there. Okay, number 10, what about the old man? Can we make ourselves reject Christ and lose our salvation?

We discussed that one. And then number 11, does God's love for us depend upon us? What does agape mean? Number 12, if God knew us, predestined us, called us, justified us and already sees us as glorified, can he change his mind?

I think those are pretty pertinent questions in this world today. And now it brings us to the 13th one and then this is gonna take us into the end of this chapter as we go, so let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for every single soul that's in the room today, thank you for bringing us all together for your purposes on this day, thank you that we can rejoice in the fact that you have done a mighty work to preserve America.

We know in many ways she doesn't always seem to us to deserve it, but yet you have her here for a purpose and part of it in part is to protect Israel and we saw that leaking away and now that's been plugged and Lord, we thank you for that.

Among many other reasons, we thank you for the election results and Lord, we pray that you would go ahead and let the House of Representatives have the Republican Party have a majority and Lord, we just thank you for guiding and orchestrating all things.

We can even look back now for the first time in four years, we can look back and see why you put Joe Biden in place and Lord, we thank you for even that and Lord, we just thank you that you've made him somewhat conciliatory here in this last week and Lord, we just ask you to guard our country until we get to the middle of January, Father, and protect our country.

Lord, watch over us here and the main work to be done is for us to hear your voice today, so we ask you to bless that in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, the 13th question I would ask and many of you who've been here for a while know the answer, so this is review, but it fits so perfectly into the last few verses of this first chapter of Colossians that we're gonna tie up today that I'm gonna cover it briefly and that is whose faith saves us?

Faith of Christ and Eternal Security

In Hebrews chapter 10, if you would turn there in verse 38, very interesting verse and there aren't but just a few verses like this in the Bible that would cause us to think this way, just a few that I can think of, a couple main ones that I can think of that talk to us about two different kinds of belief and really other than that, you wouldn't think there are two different kinds probably.

There's about three verses that make us think about it and learn it actually and teach it to us, but this is the best one. I mean, one of them might be the verse that says that the demons believe in Christ, right?

But we know they're not saved, right? So there is a type of belief that doesn't save and there's a type that does. So look at Hebrews 10, 38 and 39. It says, now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Now that kind of falls in with the if you continue to the end that we're studying here in Colossians chapter one, doesn't it? If they fall back, that's someone who didn't continue to the end and the Bible says God will have no pleasure in that person.

But look at the next verse. But we, and you have to ask yourself, who's we? It's the saints that the author, which is the Holy Spirit of Hebrews and the human penman, it's written to the saints, to the elect, right?

So the we is us Christians, we who are saved, we who are the sheep, but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition or hell, but of them who believe unto the saving of the soul.

Hallelujah.

So where you find the word if in Colossians chapter one, it does not apply to you and me. It applies to people who are unbelievers and we already discussed that in detail as we mentioned those questions, at least a couple of those questions talk about who these people are in detail.

So go back and check out the archives if you didn't hear that part. Now, turn with me to Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, one of the most famous verses in the Bible. But the reason I want you to go ahead and turn to it and see it, because I want to show you something in the context of it that relates to where we are in Colossians.

Ephesians two, eight. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So faith is a gift from time to time. I see titles on YouTube where it says, is faith a gift and they'll go in and there's a lot of confusion about that, but there shouldn't be any.

It's a very clear verse, even in the Greek, it's clear in the grammar and in the construction of the verse. I spent quite a bit of time diagramming this verse in the past and yes, obviously faith is a gift from God.

So we know that it's a gift. It's not something that we work up in order to get saved. It is a gift that is given to us upon regeneration. While we were yet in sins, hath he quickened us at the moment the Holy Spirit called us, which was at the moment God the Father told him was your spiritual birthday and mine or mine, whichever we're talking about, at that moment, the Holy Spirit came to us and awakened us and quickened us and brought us from death to life and that is the cause of your regeneration.

Everything else is an effect, but about 33 different things were done to you and that's in passive, which means someone greater than you did it to you. 33 some odd things were done to you by the Holy Spirit at the second that he saved you.

And one is he gave you Jesus's faith. Now you won't find that in any English version except the King James Version, but it truthfully follows the Greek because the Greek teaches it clearly. And I'll show you this if you haven't seen it before.

But first, before we do that, for by grace are you saved through faith and it not of yourselves is the gift of God. Now just go down one chapter in Ephesians to chapter three, just a little farther down in the context.

And remember, there's no chapters and verses in the Bible, really. They were added later to help us study more easily. It's just a letter, it just flows. And so it's in the same context. And in chapter three, verse 11, it says according to the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

Now in any other version than the King James is gonna say in him, but it's not in the Greek. The word an, E-N in the Greek is not there. It is of, and it should be translated of, and it is here. So by the faith of Jesus Christ, it says we have boldness and access to God by Jesus's faith, not our faith.

But you know, I would have to ask you this. If someone gives you a gift, once it's given to you and you have it, couldn't you then claim it as yours? So the faith of Christ is yours if you're born again.

And that is what gives you confidence to the end. Now that's in the context of one of the greatest verses in the Bible, Ephesians 2, eight. But now let me get you to turn over to Philippians 3, nine, while you're right there in that area of your New Testament.

Philippians 3, nine. The question is whose faith saves us? Philippians 3, nine, and be found in him, and we know from the context that means in Christ, and to be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ.

Now circle the little word of, and if you don't have a King James, go get one, and you'll have that word in your Bible. Circle it. Because all the other translations we'll put in, and it's not in, it's of, and so it's a mistranslation.

King James is the most accurate English version in existence and so through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. So the righteousness that's imputed to us is of God, which means it's God's work, not something we did for God, but something he did for us, and it's by faith, and the verse defines what faith is.

It's Christ's faith. In the Greek, the word ein is not going to be there, and if you were gonna translate it properly in English, you would literally put Christ-faith, as if it's one compound word, Christ faith.

The faith of Christ is how you would translate it in English, and this is a proper translation. So whose faith is it that saves us? It's Jesus's faith. It's given to us as a gift. It's a faith that can move mountains.

It's a faith that can walk on water. It is not your human belief that's up, down one day, up the next, down and up and down. It's not that faith doesn't save you. It's Jesus's faith that was given to you as a gift by the Holy Spirit when he regenerated you and me, and once we know that, it's a ridiculous thought that you could lose your salvation.

I mean, everything in this archive of this huge study that we've just about to complete today, there are so many reasons that if your neighbor's Church of Christ or Pentecostal or Methodist and believes that he can lose his salvation, or part of any cult group like Jehovah's Witness or Mormons, Catholics, all of them believe you can lose your salvation, because listen, listen to me, all of those false religions and all of these incorrect Christian religions or denominations, the reason they believe they can lose it is they don't understand that they didn't gain it.

They think they achieved it by their own good works, and they will tell you, I don't believe it's good works, it's faith, but when they start talking about it, you can see they believe it's their church attendance, their water baptism, their tithing, living a good life, continuing to the end, and all of this is what they think saved them, and so of course they could lose that.

You and I could too, if that's what saved us, because the first time we have a bad day or God doesn't answer our prayer and we get mad at him, we just lost it, because our faith just went to nothing, but we're not saved by our faith.

We're saved by the faith of Jesus Christ. If you don't believe that, turn to Galatians chapter two, verse 16. Well, another one of the most famous verses in the Bible, Galatians 2 .16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, not in him, but of him.

Jesus' faith is what saves us, given to us as a gift from God. Now, it talks about human belief next. It says even we believed in Christ, but who is we? It's those who have been given Christ's faith, because once you're given Jesus' faith, your belief can come up alongside like two tuning forks, and Jesus' you hit it and it vibrates, and yours comes up and starts to vibrate with it, and that's how God made it, and that's great.

It's great for us to believe, and our belief is up and down, but it's a whole lot stronger once we're given the faith of Christ, because until then, it's nothing. Until then, it's the same faith the demons have, and they're lost as a goose.

That's the only kind of faith you can drum up, but once the Holy Spirit gives you Jesus' faith, your faith is operative. Your faith can lead to good works, and it's combined with Jesus' faith, and it operates off of his energy, and so the idea of losing one's salvation becomes ridiculous when we know this.

Now, notice how it sandwiches this in between two very clear statements that it's the faith of Christ. So let me read it and watch the ofs and watch the ins here. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ, that's what justifies us.

That's what makes us as if we've never sinned in God's eyes. Even then, at that point, we have believed in Jesus Christ. Now look at the next one. That we might be justified by the faith of Christ. So it's the faith of Christ that justifies us, not our own belief.

It's the faith of Christ in us, and all of the things the Holy Spirit does to us at the moment of salvation that brings justification, and it's all based upon the blood of Jesus, not anything we did. So that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Now, if you want to get into the Greek and understand how we know this is a perfect translation, faith of Christ, it's because the word ain is missing in two of those spots. And you see that the word faith is genitive in the Greek, which means it is possessive, and it belongs to the word before it, which is Christ.

So it's Christ faith with a dash in there is a better translation. But if you want to make it read smoothly, you just put the word of, and then it's correct in English. All right, so Galatians 2 .20, I am crucified with Christ.

There is no more famous verse than this, listen to it. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Now think about that, you got two lives going on there, your life and Jesus in you. You have two spirits, you have your human spirit and the spirit of God living together in you.

And it's talking about all of this, I'm crucified with Christ. You also have two crucifixions. You have you being in him when he was crucified. So now your old man is crucified, he's dead. That's why you don't let him run your life.

You just remind him he's dead when he rears up. So I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. My real life is my new man, not my flesh. It's my new man, and that's me holding Jesus' hand as I walk.

And the life which I now live in this body, doesn't mean flesh in the bad sense there, it means the life that I now live in this body, I live by the faith of the son of God.

You see it?

Is that fascinating? You live your whole life and never see that, yet Charles Spurgeon spoke of it 150 years ago. Who loved me and gave himself for me. So now we finally come back to our text in Colossians chapter one, and we'll finish the chapter.

So turn with me to Colossians chapter one, verse 22, and we will go from there. In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. You can't get more saved than that.

It's a triune salvation. It is that he presents you before the father holy, which means different than the world, which means able to come into the presence of God. He presents you unblameable, which means in the Greek, it really says without blemish.

And the entire old Testament offering system pictures the lamb without blemish. And that lamb was a picture of Jesus Christ. And now, because you're in Christ, the Lord presents you before the father without blemish.

And then third, unreprovable in that word means you can't be judged. Man, if those three things are true, then you're saved forever. And then the very next verse says if, and that's what we've been dealing with.

A lot of people would pull that out and stop right there and not spend several months on it. And when you do, if you don't study to show yourself approved, you won't get this one right. There's not many like that.

There aren't many difficult passages in the Bible,.

But there's a few.

And when you get to them, you're gonna spend weeks and weeks and weeks studying them to get it right, because you gotta make it fit a couple of hundred verses that teach eternal security. And this one sounds like it doesn't teach that, but you're gonna see before we get to the end of this chapter today, even this one teaches that.

But obviously verse 22 teaches it. And so verse 23 cannot contradict verse 22. And so all of those questions that we just finished answering prove that it doesn't contradict verse 22. And we're not go through those again today, obviously.

But if you continue in the faith grounded and settled, then you have this trifold eternal security as part of your existence, right? So then that's why we had to ask the question, well, who is it that continues and who is it that doesn't?

The basic answer, if you remember, was unbelievers don't continue, believers do. It was that simple. Now, I hope by now that we've seen clearly what makes the true believer continue. The genuine believer does continue.

And we've seen why in all of these days and weeks we've spent on this. The true believer continues in the faith, grounded, settled, and is not moved away. And we've seen why already, but just in case you still have not seen it, the remainder of this chapter that we're in today, I think will certainly make it clear and it'll tie it all together for us.

So let's look down there at about verse 23, Colossians chapter one, verse 23.

Can't see that.

Well, the end of it, verse 23, the end of it talks about being settled, be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and been preached to every creature which is under heaven, wherever I, Paul, am made a minister now.

The Mystery Hidden from Ages and the Church Age

Look at verse 24, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the affliction of Jesus Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. He just puts a little aside in there and talks about his own ministry.

And then it picks up in verse 25 and continues the thought. So look at verse 25, whereof I am made a minister, Paul says, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God.

Now there's this big battle in Christianity between what they would call dispensationalists and those who believe in all the promises or conditional and unconditional. I just forgot the word, huh? Covenant, sorry.

So there's this big fight between covenant theology and dispensationalism. And there are some people that say dispensationalism is modern. It was made up and contrived by people like Scofield, Dr. Scofield and so forth.

I don't think so. I think Scofield was a lot like John Calvin in the sense, he's just a great teacher. So all he did was point out things that were in the Bible that people had not really outlined in a simple way where it's easy for people to learn.

And that's what he did. I don't think he invented it. And it's clear that he didn't because if you just look at it, the dispensations are there. In fact, here's your word right here in our verse. Paul said, according to the dispensation of God.

So what dispensation is Paul talking about here? He's about to talk about the church age, all right? He's gonna talk about this great mystery that the Old Testament saints and prophets looked into but could not see clearly.

Even in the time Jesus was on the earth and the apostles walked with him, they did not see this clearly yet. And it wasn't revealed to us. It was a great mystery. And that means something that wasn't revealed in the Old Testament that gets revealed to us now.

It was a great mystery until Jesus Christ met with Paul in the wilderness for maybe three years and taught him face to face in the flesh. And then Paul wrote his epistles. At that point, God revealed a mystery to us that no man had ever seen before.

And so it's a new dispensation. And what that means is dispensation, not so much about time segments. It sounds like it is, but it's not really about that. It's about different. It's where God has a way that he deals with man in a slightly different way than he did prior to that or in a way that he never did before.

That's the start of a new dispensation. All right, so the church age obviously was a new dispensation. Why do you think that God had to give the apostles and the New Testament prophets sign gifts? By that, I mean things other people couldn't do.

Like Paul, the little boy that fell out because he preached maybe three hours and he fell asleep and fell out the window and died. Paul goes down and lays on his body and the life comes back into that boy.

That happened because Paul was an apostle. You cannot do this. You're not an apostle. There are denominations that say they still have apostles. They're sadly confused or else if they're one of the teachers, they're actually deceivers.

But there are no apostles because the Bible gives the qualifications of an apostle. And one of them is you had to have walked with Jesus on this earth and they hadn't done that. They are not apostles.

Besides that, it says the apostles are the foundation of the church. We're way up here now. He's been adding blocks and bricks to it for 2000 years. We're not gonna put another foundation up here. That's not how you build a building.

So it's wrong, okay? But it is true that these New Testament apostles and prophets could do these wonderful sign gifts. And Paul was an apostle that Jesus Christ called. He was the last apostle. And he gave Jesus, Jesus gave Paul a mystery, a solution to a mystery that every other prophet before him had looked into and been unable to solve.

We're gonna read about that in the last verses.

Of this chapter.

It's gonna be the answer to who it is that continues. All right, so the gospel which was preached unto every creature, verse 25 in Colossians 1 says, whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, for the church to have this enlightenment, to fulfill the word of God.

It not only enlightens the church, but it fulfills all the things the Old Testament prophets taught about the Messiah and about the coming age. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages all through the Old Testament time from Genesis all the way through and from generations after generation after generation who could not answer this question or see this mystery, but now is made manifest to God's saints, not to the world.

The world will not understand this. Lost people can't see this. Saved people can see it. It's a mystery. It's clouded to other people and it's opened up for the saints. So Paul is about to tell us the secret to why we are not saved by works as the Jews thought they were because they were under the law.

And he's gonna tell us the secret to how we are saved once and for all by regeneration of the Holy Spirit when we are called to come to Jesus. It gives the why and the how to eternal security basically.

So the 14th point in this little study is the dynamic and the seal of eternal security. Look at verse 27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is, and here it is.

Look at it.

This is it.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of you having any glory at all. Without Christ, you have none. But with Christ in you, you have the hope of glory. Now remember the word hope in the Bible is different than the modern English word.

It's lost its meaning. Satan changes languages. He didn't change Hebrew and Greek because they're frozen. That's why the Holy Spirit used those to write the Bible. But in English, hope means something totally different.

I use this example every fall in particular because I'm gonna go home after we get done and watch the Cowboys get beaten. But I hope they'll win, right? That's what hope means now. It means I hope they'll win, but they probably won't.

It's a negative word. But in 1611, when the King James was written, hope didn't mean that. Hope meant what it means in Greek today because it's frozen in Greek. And what it means is the joyful expectation of a certain future event.

So when you see the word hope, put that in there and it'll read true to the scripture. So in this particular verse that we're in, I'm gonna add some glasses here. It's taking me too long to see it. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the future certain event of you being glorified because of Christ in you.

It is the expectation of the certain future event of the day you meet Jesus at the rapture. Or if you die before that, you'll meet him on that day and you will see yourself differently than you were. All of the sinful nature will fall off.

It won't be there. There will be nothing that pulls against God. There'll be nothing that pulls against your new man. The old man is crucified already and he just falls off. And that is the moment of your glorification.

And you know what? In Roman chapter eight says, God, the father sees you there already. In the present tense, the same people he foreknew with love and predestinated before time began. In time, he called you.

In the same people he called, he justified, made you just as if you'd never sin in God's eyes. In the same people that he justified, he glorified, which means it's past tense in the English and in the Greek.

It just means he already sees you this way. But you didn't know it necessarily till you read that verse. But you know it now and Christ in you, the hope of glory is the entire reason why you cannot lose your salvation.

The father already sees you there. In fact, he's already with you there. He's not bound by time. He's with you in heaven as much as he's with you here. You've been his since before he made anything. You were secure there.

You just didn't know it yet. I used to complain about this in the old days when we were fundamental independent Baptists. We used to like to, you know, mock every other group of Baptists because they were so carnal.

And especially the American Baptists up north. Anybody from up north? I know a couple of us. Will you admit it? Anybody admit it?

Okay.

Oh, there's one. Okay, so you may know this group. It's called the American Baptists. And when I was independent Baptist, and I have no clue if this is even true. All I know is we told everybody it was true.

Kind of like Kamala would do. Like she'd tell you if something's true that she doesn't even know if it's true or not. It doesn't matter because it's just a lie probably. But here's what we were told is that when they went out soul winning, all they did was they would walk up to people and tell them that, guess what?

You're saved. They would just notify them that they're saved. Now they probably never did that, but that's what we said they did, which was awful, right? And anyway, but you know, there is some truth to that.

Not the way that if they did teach it that way, not in the way they taught it. But here's the truth of it. Is that the father knew you before he made anything as his own child. And the same group that he knew, which included you, he predestinated to in time become his child and then when time started, he sent his Holy Spirit on your spiritual birthday, which God the father knew because he's the parent who birthed you.

And he said, wake him up. While you were yet in your sins, he quickened you and then gave you all these gifts, including the faith of Jesus Christ. And so he knew you all along. And like brother Otis, he used to sit right there, right down from Kenner, right there, probably with Kenner right next to him.

He said, brother David, actually what happened on your spiritual birthday was God just notified you that you were his because he always knew it. He let you know it. A lot of truth to that. That is exactly what happened.

I hope no one takes that out of context out there though, but that is what happened. And so here we see that Christ in us is the hope of our own glorification and it's based on him in us and it's based on his life in us and it's not based on us doing anything good or bad.

It's based on him in us and that's why we can't lose it. Now look, it's not, it doesn't stop there. It says Christ, look at verse 28, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom.

This gospel that I preached this morning, this is what we're supposed to be telling people. It's not like repeat after me, your duty is to come to my heart and say amen. That is not the gospel, okay? What it is is, listen, there's a good chance, like, let me ask you, do you worry about where you might go when you die?

Yeah, I think about it sometimes. Well, like, so like you care about your soul? Yeah, I do. Are you saved?

No.

Well, if you care about your soul, in all likelihood, you're a lost sheep. And what that means is God knew you before the foundation of the world, he's always known you as his. And in time, in your lifetime, he will send the Holy Spirit to waken you up where you can hear his words and understand them better and where you'll have a desire for Jesus.