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 who 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. 38 and what?

38 and 12.

38 and 12, right? Okay. Yeah, that's where I wanted to start.

Very good. Okay, listen to this. The election reminded me when she said this, she kind of related it to the election.

So 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.

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 and so it's like he took,

I like the way you said it, it's like he took the earth as a garment and just shook the wicked out of it this past week and it's really amazing to see.

You get to see that maybe once or twice a lifetime and with me that's twice now that it's happened.

Maybe three times that it's happened and it's quite amazing. 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 and 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 and 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 can't do it. Come on who can do it?

Say it. Yeah that. That's how many. Alright guys.

So great to see you all and be with you. Let's turn to the book of Colossians this morning and we're going to finish the first chapter.

Now we recently have been going through some questions about this word if, if you remember and speaking of which let me open to where I want it.

We'll need that in a minute. So in Colossians chapter 1 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 go back and check out the archives at parkmeadowschurch .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 going to 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 we talked about 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 ten what about the old man can we make ourselves reject

Christ and lose our salvation we discussed that one and then number eleven does

God's love for us depend upon us what does agape mean number twelve 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 thirteenth one and then this is going to 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 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 have been here for a while know the answer but so this is review but it fits so perfectly into the last few verses of this first chapter of Colossians that we're going to tie up today that I'm going to cover it briefly and that is whose faith saves us 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's 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 1 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 1 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 they are 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 2 verse 8 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 it relates to where we are in Colossians Ephesians 2 8 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 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' 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 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 3 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 then the

King James is going to say in him but it's not in the Greek the word an 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 8 but now let me get you to turn over to Philippians 3 9 while you're right there in that area of your

New Testament Philippians 3 9 the question is whose faith saves us

Philippians 3 9 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 will 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 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 ain is not going to be there and if you were going to translate it properly in English you would literally put

Christ dash 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' 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' 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 all

Catholics all of them believe you can lose your salvation cause 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 cause 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 2 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 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 obs and watch the ends 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 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 is 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 alright so Galatians 2 20

I'm crucified with Christ there is no more famous verse than this listen to it I'm crucified with Christ never the yet let nevertheless

I live now think about that you got you got two 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 to 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 live within 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 1 and we'll finish the chapter so turn with me to Colossians chapter 1 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 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 and 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 as 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 when you get to them you're going to spend weeks and weeks and weeks studying them to get it right because you got to 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 going to 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 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 let's look down there there at about verse 23 chapter 1 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 where have

I Paul and made a minister now 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 where of 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 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 Dr.

Schofield and so forth I don't think so I think Schofield 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 going to 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 God taught

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 fell out the window and died

Paul goes down 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 two thousand years we're not going to 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 going to read about that in the last verses of this chapter it's going to be the answer to who it is that continues all right so the gospel which was preached unto every creature verse 25 in Colossians one 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 save 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 going to 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 in 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 going to 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 going to 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 will 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 8 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 he already 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 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

Baptist we used to like to you know mock every other group of Baptist because they were so carnal and especially the

American Baptist up north anybody from up north I know a couple of us will you admit it anybody admit it okay up there's one okay so you may know this group is called the

American Baptist 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 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 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 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 if you just come to heart and say me 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 isn't that cool the

Bible promises he'll do that and so when that happens all of a sudden you'll find your heart wanting him rather than wanting to reject him and it'll change your whole life like it did mine when

I was in my car going to work one day when I was 24 that's how you witness to people so you let them know how it works you don't have to stop and worry about whether they're going to do it right then or not that has doesn't matter at all and they're not by the way usually going to do it right there and ask

Jesus to save them right in front of you sometimes they do and it'll blow your mind when that happens but sometimes they do sometimes they do it 20 years later you may already be in heaven when they do it but you gave them the gospel

Jesus died for you so that this could happen and you get you give them that information now this is why it says we preach this gospel this

Christ in you the hope of glory the only hope you have of glory is Jesus Christ not

Buddha not Muhammad Jesus Christ and he is your hope and if you're concerned about your soul he's tracking you the

Holy Spirit's tracking you and he sent me just to tell you how it works he died to save you you can't save yourself he died was buried rose again and he died and did that for you and once you see that and you receive him joyfully into your heart you're saved forever isn't that great news great to meet you we'll see you later you know and go on let the

Holy Spirit do the rest and so we present now but here's what I want to show you something let's say you just went through that with someone out there on the street and by the way you should be doing that you should be witnessing everywhere you go you don't need to knock on doors just where you go the people that are there in front of you when the

Holy Spirit says say something then say something and do the gospel tell them the gospel you can do it quickly you saw how quickly

I did that but here's what's amazing as we go around doing that as the whole church goes around doing that and then people do come to Christ look at the end of verse 28

Christ whom we preach warning every man why do we warn them because we tell them

Buddha is not another way to heaven Islam is not just another way to heaven

Hinduism is not just another way to heaven Mormonism none of that is just a way to heaven there's only one way

Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes the father but by me ladies and gentlemen that is a warning that is a warning that divides everything away from biblical

Christianity it is the only truth there is and you have to warn them so we're warning every man and listen you know what's so wrong with the gospel today is they think they got a sugar coat everything and so all we're going to have you seen these new commercials that are vastly different than anything you've ever seen there on first sight you think they're pretty good

I see them sometimes when I'm watching the Cowboys play they tend to yeah Satan's sent me a fly that's lovely he'll be here the rest of the day so during the

Cowboy games they run these commercials and it's a very subtle way of talking about Jesus in a way that sounds good to everybody have you seen it who's seen it

I mean it sound good to me the first two or three times and I got then I started realize wait a minute the gospel is not even in that it's meaningless it's sugar -coated to sound good to the world system listen that is not a warning there's no warning in that so it's not giving the gospel there's a warning that has to be given and that is

Jesus is the only way but isn't it wonderful that he is the way you can put it in a positive you can say a positive warning in a positive way you should do that but you got to have the warning in there that he's the only way and here's what he did because Buddha didn't do this he did not die in your place and if he did

God didn't accept it but he didn't and neither did Muhammad a shoe salesman you should study the history of Islam it's amazing all it was was just a war like religion and it still is it hasn't changed and so the warning every man and now the teaching every man what does that mean you teach them the gospel what

Jesus did for that person and all wisdom where do you get the wisdom because you've been in the

Bible for years so you have the wisdom to tell them how it works that's you've got to study and so the whole thing is right there in verse 28 now but here's the result of it look at this very clear why do we do this so that we might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus now what is perfect to me so if if I give the gospel and the

Holy Spirit comes in five years later and awakens this person that heard the gospel for me there he is again and he gets born again when

I get to heaven I get the joy of presenting that person to God perfect here he is he's perfect he's without sin he's glorious does that sound like somebody that could have lost their salvation along the way no because he's perfect the whole reason

I give him the gospel is that I might present him perfect and you know it's interesting here

Paul says who we preach means Paul and his disciples which is us we warn every man we teach every man that we might present them perfect you get to present the people that you lead to Christ even if you didn't see it you get to present them to God does that sound fun it does to me

I mean we're going to be sitting there watching people that maybe have a hundred of them get to sit there and we've got four or six or whatever that's fine

I'd rather have four or six than none you're supposed to be fishing you don't always catch fish when you fish but if you're a true fisherman you don't care you just like fishing that's me

I care less now if I get a grandbaby with me I want to catch him so he'll learn to love fishing but I don't really care

I just like to fish so I take that approach when I'm witnessing but there's gonna if you do if you spend your life doing that when you can when the

Holy Spirit leads you to and you get the open door and you can share when you get to heaven you don't know how many people you get to present to God perfect think about it that's part of the rewards that you get this word perfect by the way is teleos it means complete which means there's no way they could lose their salvation now there you have this amazing discussion all the way down almost to the end of the book of Colossians where it's telling about the if the if word is not there for sheep it's there for the goats that are pretending to be sheep because the sheep don't fall away because they have the faith of Christ 1st

John 2 28 I'm gonna run through some scriptures you don't have to look these up 1st John 2 28 and now little children abide in him that's

Christ that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him it is coming does that sound like you're going to lose your salvation no it does not but if you abide in him through your life you live in Christ and Christ lives in you and you stay in the word and you walk that walk the best you can then when he comes you won't be ashamed the

Bible says you'll have confidence you know what I like about that word pay race sia in Greek literally it means assurance so if you want to talk about assurance of your salvation there's the word in the

Bible right there abide in Christ and you'll have assurance of your salvation isn't that great 1st

John 2 24 let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from the beginning what is that that's the gospel if that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you and you keep believing that and you don't go out and start worshiping

Buddha but you're with Christ your whole life and it remains in you then you also shall continue if you continue remember that verse you'll be one of the ones that continues in the son and in the father

John 14 16 and I pray the father I ask the father Jesus said and he will give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever that's why you can abide in Christ right there because Jesus said

I'm going to send the Holy Spirit and when I save you I'm going to put him in you and I'm going to seal him in you till the day of redemption and that's going to cause you to continue and because you continue you will have assurance of your salvation and not be ashamed at his coming and also tells us he's coming so people that say they don't believe the second coming is literal how do they deal with these verses because they're usually dealing with revelation but look at this verse proves it alright so John 15 4 abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine no more can you except you abide in me

Jesus said I am the vine you are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same brings forth much fruit and without me you can do nothing and that abiding in Christ will cause you to continue all the way to the end now 2nd

Corinthians 121 this is fabulous 2nd

Corinthians 121 I'll ask again who is it that establishes us and makes us continue to the end 2nd

Corinthians 121 now he which establishes us with you in Christ and has appointed us is

God so the answer is the father God the father establishes you in Christ establish we're going to study what that word means here in a second but it's

God that does that he establishes you who also sealed us so he does two things he establishes you and he seals you who also sealed us and has given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts now this word establish is baion in greek it means to establish or confirm but it comes from a little greek root word babayo and that means to stabiliate now there's a good word how many of you might have to look that up in Webster's like I had to I've never used that word to stabiliate

I'm going to start using it I like the word but here's what the word means to make stable well what does stable mean in Webster's it means to firmly establish something it means something that is fixed in place it means something that is steadfast it means something that is unwavering it means something that is permanent and something that endures and it's

God the father that made you permanent so when you see that if word I wouldn't worry about it as long as you know you have

Christ if you don't know that you have Christ I would worry about it but if you know you have

Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior because you want him because your heart wants him then you don't need to worry about that if word

Ephesians 1 13 in whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise and grieve not that Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed into the day of redemption

Ephesians 4 30 says so here we see that God the father has made you permanent in Christ and the

Holy Spirit has been sealed in your heart till you meet Christ how are you going to lose it I don't care how hard you work you can't lose it because you're not strong as God there's even a verse that says when our heart doesn't believe that God's stronger than that I can't quote it perfectly but that's what it says so the

Holy Spirit is sealed within us and he is the dynamic and the driving force behind why and how all of the called sheep continue into the end which is the promise of the father by the way and the responsibility of the son by the way and now the

Holy Spirit proves to be the dynamic force and the power to accomplish that within us and the chapter ends with verse 29 wherein to I also labor

Paul says striving according to his working which works in me mightily

Paul didn't depend on his flesh Paul didn't depend on his good works Paul said what keeps me going is him working in me mightily it's the work of God in me mightily it's the mighty work of God that is the dynamic that keeps you saved all the way to the end until you meet him face to face and then when you see him you'll see him as he is and we'll go to a whole another level at that point let's stand and have prayer together.

Father we thank you so much for your word and how your word will interpret your word for us thank you how even the last few verses of this chapter interpret this verse that we were concerned with in verse 23 and you explain it to us right here in the same chapter but as we've seen in the last few months all over the whole bible

Lord help us to remember just enough of this to share it with our friends who are in doubt our friends who think they can lose their salvation because they have no peace in their life and Lord sometimes it's because they don't have salvation yet but help us to give them the gospel clearly but also explain the power of it

Lord go with us into our time of fellowship now bless the food we're about to have

Lord we cannot leave this service without thanking you for the results of this election for saving

America for a while longer for slowing the rot in this country for a while longer that our grandchildren might have peace a peaceful life and Lord we bless you for it we thank you for it we see it as a mighty miracle as the parting of the red sea and we're just so thankful that you protected

Donald Trump from at least three known assassination attempts just since in the last few months and protect him again protect him now and help him to get his programs initiated and bless him bless the congress bless the supreme court and bless those who didn't win