 Amen. Colossians chapter one, part three. We're going to get through Colossians chapter one this evening, so go ahead and take a look down at Colossians chapter one. We're going to start at verse 19. We've talked about a church witness. We talked about the blood of Christ. We talked about Jesus Christ the firstborn, how Jesus has the preeminence over everything. Jesus is the Creator. He has the preeminence over creation. Colossians is just a great testimony of the person and work of Jesus Christ. So that's why we're going through this and we're going through us. No stone unturned. I don't want to blow over four verses in the book of Colossians because so many things could be missed. Look down at verse number 19. The Bible says in Colossians one, 19, it says, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Now turn to Colossians chapter two and look at verse number nine. Colossians chapter two and verse number nine. So what the Bible here is saying is that Jesus, so we know that Jesus, the Word became flesh. The Word was God in John chapter one. And we know that Jesus is God, but here's the thing. Jesus is all God. Jesus is not part God. It's not like a pie where Jesus is cut, you know, just like one third of the Trinity pie. Jesus is all God. Colossians two, nine says something very similar. It says, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So here's the thing. This is kind of confusing for us to wrap our heads around. You say, God has three parts. You know, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. You know, I preached on the Trinity before. The God, you know, God definitely has three parts, three persons, three distinct individuals in the Godhead. But in every single one of those parts of the God, all of God is there. You say, I don't understand that. Well, here's the thing. You don't need to understand every single complicated thing in the Bible. And it's when people start to, you know, overanalyze, you know, all these super complicated things because look, there's things in the Bible that just aren't really that easy to understand. You know, how God has three parts and how, you know, Jesus was fully man and fully God and how he was all God, all the fullness of God was in Jesus. I can come up with analogies and this is where people kind of go wrong. They come up with analogies like eggs and, you know, different things. And then, you know, somebody can always take a Bible verse and prove that egg analogy wrong. But here's the thing. Just take the Bible for what it says. That's all you have to do. Okay, it's when you start, you know, trying to figure out the higher things, you know, I mean, the way I look at this is I'll ask God when I get to heaven, like, hey, how did all that whole trinity thing, you know, fit together? You know, and how did that fullness work? But it's just saying here that Jesus, as we're talking about the person and work of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is all God is what it's saying. All of God exists within him. Look at Colossians chapter one in verse number 20. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, we talked about the blood of Christ, and by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say where they be things on earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. So it says in verse 21, it's important that we understand this. It says you were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. So now we're talking about works that we're doing and Christ through his blood reconciles our works. So we have wicked works. You are always gonna have sin in your life through your flesh as long as you live, but you will be reconciled through the blood of Christ because you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 22. In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. So the Bible here is saying that he is gonna present you holy and unblameable through his death, through his blood is how you become clean, become unblameable. It's because you put on, remember the two sermons ago, you put on Jesus. The priest just like he put on the clothing to go into the holy of holies, we put on Christ and God sees his righteousness instead of our wicked works in verse 21. Now look at verse 23. If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, where have I Paul and made a minister. So now, so we're seeing, now listen to this. This is kind of confusing. We look at verse 21, verse 22 talking about us being saved through Christ by his righteousness, by his blood, by his death. And then the Bible says in verse 23, it says if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled but it doesn't say of you. It says of ye, if ye continue in the faith, grounded. I mean, you could look at verse 23 and say, whoa, that sounds like works right there that we have to, and look, some people take verse 23 and they use that to teach workspace salvation that you have to continue that you could lose your salvation because we're gonna not read verse 23 on its own. I mean, you really couldn't I'm gonna explain that to you in a second but verse 23 is talking about continuing in the faith, grounded and settled and then it's saying it's replying to verse 21 and 22 about us being saved. But look at what it says on the second word right there. First of all, reading the Bible. Reading the Bible, we always have to remember that rule number one is the Bible must not contradict itself. So if you're reading the Bible and you see something that sounds like it's talking about works and you know that the Bible says not of works in Ephesians two, you know that there must be something that you are doing wrong there. You are looking at that wrong, you're interpreting that wrong and I'm gonna show you how people interpret this wrong here. I mean, Ephesians two, eight and nine for by grace are you safe through faith and not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works. That's one of the simplest, most easy to understand verses in the entire Bible. John 10, 28 talks about how we are eternally saved and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. It is very clear that you are not saved by works in other parts of the Bible, dozens and dozens and dozens of other verses and that you are saved once and you are saved forever. Once you have everlasting life, it's done. You can't lose it. Now look at that second word right there. Let me explain this to you. This is gonna show you why we're King James only. One of the reasons we're King James only. The Bible says if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, ye is not the same word as you. Pull out your NIV for a second and I will show you the difference between you and ye. First of all, let me read verse 23 from the NIV. The NIV says if you continue in your faith. So in the King James Bible, the word ye is used, ye is a plural word. When everybody says, oh, you know, the vows and the these and I just can't understand them and all this kind of stuff and that's why I can't read a King James Bible. But no, you must read a King James Bible because you literally lose information if you lose these words, the these and the vows and the yeas. See, thou and thy in the Bible are singular. Ye is plural in the Bible. So when he says if ye continue in the faith in the King James Bible, he's talking to a group of people. I couldn't come up to Matthew and say, you know, I couldn't come up to brother Matthew and say in proper grammar, if ye, if he was the only one I was talking to it wouldn't make sense. I'm talking to a group of people here but in the NIV it makes sense. If you continue in your faith, I could just be talking to brother Matt or I could be talking to the whole church. You see, it's a rounding error in the Bible. That's how I'd look at it. Or you could just look at it this way. You literally lose information by not using the ye because the ye can be used for many people or just one person. So you could interpret that to be like, oh, you have to continue in your faith but ye, he is talking about a group of people here. This is why you cannot get rid of the these and the vows in the Bible because it gives us literally more information. It creates rounding errors in the Bible and this is one of them. This is a perfect one. So look, he is talking in verse number 23. Go look at it again. He is talking in verse 23. He's talking to the church. He's saying, if ye, you as a church, continue in your faith. Look, we, I'm telling you, we as this church had better continue in our faith or there will be serious consequences in this church. If we're not grounded and settled in this church, there will be consequences. You say, well, what do you mean? You know, well, the church, look, the church doesn't have a salvation. But guess what? There's plenty of churches out there who started out with the right gospel and no longer have the right gospel. The repent of your sins movement is a perfect example of this. It's a perfect example where a pastor just started getting flip it with his words. Maybe he wanted to, you know, get people to do what he was wanting them to do. He's like, look, you got to turn from your sins or are you, you know, if you don't, if you don't amen to every other word I say in this sermon, are you really even saved? This is the path they're trying to get people, get control of the church. And then it turns into this, you know, well, true faith, it's not by repenting of your sins, but true faith will always show, you know, in people's lives, you know, in them turning from sin. Whoa, look, we want that. It should, should being a key word there for Romans four says, there's people that don't. We talked about this last week, but look, the point is, is that if ye as a church, if ye as a church don't continue in the faith in the proper gospel, if we don't continue following the Bible, there's gonna be serious consequences for this church. Nations are the same way. Aren't nations groups of people? Nations and churches are judged on this earth. Look, a group of people doesn't have a group salvation. You have an individual salvation and God promises that that's eternal. You've trusted in his son, you're saved. But as a group, there's consequences if this church leaves the proper gospel. If this church starts teaching workspace salvation and doesn't continue in this faith of the Bible, there's gonna be consequences. I mean, Jesus says in Revelation 2, he'll remove the candlestick. Look, Jesus will leave the church is what he's saying. And then there is no church. Look, that's 99% of churches today. They have the wrong gospel. They have no candlestick. They call themselves a church, but Jesus doesn't recognize the church because they've not continued in the faith grounded and settled. He's talking to a group of people. Nations are the same thing. How many examples do you need in the Bible of nations being judged? Nations are literally born and destroyed on this earth. It's not eternal salvation for a nation. Okay, a nation is born, and if they continue in the law of the Lord, the Lord will bless that nation. If they turn away from the Lord, the Lord will remove his protection from them. He will stop fighting for them. They will start losing. They will start having many princes over them, the Bible says. And then pretty soon, they're done. I mean, there's example after example of just the nation of Israel going through that very thing in the Bible. Because why? Because they didn't continue in the faith grounded and settled. That's why. They let go of the faith. So as a group, that's why it says if ye continue. So it makes perfect sense, but you have to have a King James Bible, folks. Otherwise, you just lose information and then people can just grab these single verses and say, see? No, you're saved by works. You have to continue in the faith. But that's why you need the proper word of God. Let's continue. He's talking about the church versus the person. And they get their, you know, churches can get their candlestick removed and nations are judged if they don't continue in the faith grounded and settled. Look at verse 24, verse 24. The Bible says, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body sakes, which is the church. Now he's just addressing the church. Where have I made a minister? Doesn't it make sense that he was talking to the church in verse 23 as he's now talking about the specifics of the church? Where have I made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God? Even the mystery, I'll underline those two words right there. Even the mystery which had been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. Ooh, we're gonna solve a mystery tonight. Look at verse 27, to whom God would make known what is the riches of glory of this mystery. So this mystery has riches and glory in it. The Bible talks about this mystery. What is this mystery? It was hid. It was hid from ages. It was hid from generations, but now it's made manifest to the saints. I'm gonna tell you, the mystery is manifest to you tonight. And God would make known that what is the riches of the glory. So this mystery has riches and glory in specifically talking about among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Look at verse 28, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Jesus Christ. We're unto, I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. So what is this mystery? Let's look at what this mystery is first and then look at how it actually applies to us. Because look, this mystery is something very specific, number one, and it's something that should impact our everyday life as Christians. Look at Romans chapter 16. Let's first figure out what the mystery is. Let's take a few minutes and look at what this mystery that he's talking about is. Look at Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. We're gonna do a little bit of a Bible study here, but we need to kind of understand the context. And I need you to kind of think like an Old Testament Christian, like an Old Testament believer tonight, but look at Romans 16 before we go back in time. Look at Romans 16 verse 25. The Bible says, now to him that is the power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of what? The revelation of, here it is, the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest. What this means is that this mystery was kept secret until now, Paul is saying. So it was a secret, now it's made manifest, meaning it's known, it's being shown to everybody, okay? And by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known, that's the mystery, the mystery is being made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. To God only wise be the glory through Jesus Christ forever and ever. So the mystery, the mystery is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what the actual mystery is, but why is he saying that it was hidden and kept secret since the world began, all right? Turn to Isaiah chapter 53. Now we have to think like an Old Testament believer, pretend you don't have the New Testament, pretend you only have the Old Testament and actually pretend you read it, okay? Pretend you know what the Old Testament says. What did everyone know about the Messiah before Jesus came? Think about this for a second, have you ever thought about that? What did the Old Testament prophets, I mean the prophets I guess are a little bit special because God like revealed things to them, but what are the actual, what are the townsfolk in the nation of Israel think about the Messiah before Jesus came? Now I mean some of this is kind of my opinion and I'll let you know what those opinions are because the Bible doesn't exactly tell us the answer to what I just threw out there, but look at Isaiah 53. The Bible has some very specific chapters that talk about the type of Messiah that Jesus would be. Okay, and Isaiah 53 is probably the most specific chapter in the Bible talking about who Jesus would be and what he would do and what he would go through specifically. Look at Isaiah 53 and we're gonna just step through just these few verses here. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground for he had no form nor comeliness and we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. This is talking about Jesus and who he's gonna be and what he's gonna do and what he's gonna go through in Isaiah 53. The Bible here is saying in verse number two that he's just a plain man. You know, he does not as the Bible says Saul, he does not stand ahead in shoulders above the crowd. You know, Saul, the people looked at King Saul, the first king of Israel and they looked at him and they said that man looks like a king. He was tall, he was strong and he just, he looked the part. The Bible here is saying that this Messiah is gonna be, you know, is just kind of gonna be plain. He's not gonna be good looking. He's not gonna, you know, be someone that people would choose to desire to be a king. He is despised and moreover, he's despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The son of man of no place to lay his head. Jesus said, and it says, and we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not. I mean, isn't a king esteemed? Isn't a king held high? Surely he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But, very famous verse here, he was wounded for our transgression. Now it talks about the actual physical punishment that this Messiah will go through. You know, does an all-powerful king, you know, get wounded and beaten and killed? You know, an all-powerful king that people would have, you know, so you wanted someone to be your king over you to be this all-powerful leader. Look, you're not gonna think of him like, you think of victory. You think of winning battles. You think of strength. You don't think of him being, you know, beaten down and killed and tortured. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and his stripes were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray and we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now seeing kind of the description of why he's doing this. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and a sheep before his shears is dumb so he opened not his mouth. Look, he's shown here as being weak and just being led to be killed. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people. He was stricken saying why this is gonna happen. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich and his death because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him and he hath put him to grief and we shall make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed and he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Now this is talking about how God is gonna look upon this and the reason for this by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Again, you know, we see and there's the last verse there but again, we see the same type of thing in Psalm chapter 22. These are the main chapters that talk about the suffering and really the servant Messiah that Jesus would be. In Psalm 22, go ahead, I'll just read you a couple of verses. My God, my God, what has thou forsaken me? This is from Psalm 22. That's why Jesus said it. He was quoting Psalm chapter 22. Why aren't those so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Verse 14 of Psalm 22. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax that is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength has dried up like a potsert and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and now has brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me and the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and feet. So we do have these chapters in the Old Testament talking about Jesus and what, you know, the Messiah is going to go through but the Jews themselves really kind of focused on just the kingship part of Christ. They just didn't really focus too much on these two chapters and they kind of ignored these prophecies. I mean, and who does, how much did the average person really know about these verses and about these prophecies about Jesus? But, you know, we can't really say, I don't really know when you look at how how much people know about the Bible today, you can kind of guess, I suppose. But the point being is they were looking, the Jews themselves were looking for a worldly king. They did not know. They did not know how God was going to save the world. They believed and read the Bible and read the scriptures that they had given to them. They would have had a better idea as I just showed you. But look, they just, they just didn't. And certainly, certainly the Gentiles, the non-Jews that didn't have what the Bible calls the oracles of God, they knew nothing about this. This is the mystery that the Bible is talking about. The fact, I mean, the fact that even the Jews themselves though were looking for a worldly king, it shows that they did not, you know, turn to John chapter five. It shows that even they, because look, he was largely rejected by the Jews. He was largely rejected by the Jews. So it's not even just the Gentiles. You can't even just say this about the Gentiles. If you look at John chapter five, look at verse number 46. This is one of the reasons Jesus said this. He says, for if he had believed Moses, he would have believed me. For he wrote of me. What Jesus is saying here much more broadly, he's saying, look, if you believe the prophets, if you believe the Bible, if you believed what was written about me, you would know that it's me. That's what he's saying. But he's like, you don't believe that stuff. Not only do they not know it, they didn't believe it. They didn't believe the Bible. It was a heretical Jewish religion at that point that the Pharisees were preaching. That's why they didn't recognize Jesus. It was a what? It was a mystery. It was not known to them. It was not known. So look, turn to Exodus chapter 12. Even the Jews did not fully understand, but the Gentiles themselves, the non-Jews, the people outside the nation of Israel, they had no clue. Like what is, and they probably didn't even know what a Messiah was. What is a Messiah? What's it gonna be? What's the Messiah gonna look like? What's he gonna do? What's the purpose? How will God redeem the world through the Messiah? Most of the Jews didn't know, and certainly the Gentiles had no clue. So you say to yourself, is that fair? Why wasn't everyone included? But here's the thing, everyone was included. Turn to Exodus chapter 12. You say, was it fair that really only the Jews had this information and the Gentiles didn't? But here's the thing, look at Exodus chapter 12. It's actually very fair because everyone had a chance here. Look at Exodus chapter 12 and verse number 46. The Bible says this, it says in Exodus 12 verse 46, it says, in one house shall it be eaten, that thou shalt not carry forth out of the flesh abroad out of the house, neither shall you break the bone thereof, all the congregation of Israel shall keep it, and when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and he shall, it's talking about the Passover here, and he will keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised and let them come near and keep it, and he shall be as the one that is born in the land. You know what the Bible is saying here? It says that if somebody comes in and look by keeping the Passover and by being circumcised, it says they've converted. They've converted to Christianity. They are now one of the nation of Israel, and it says it doesn't matter if they're from Moab, wherever they are, and there's plenty of examples of this in the Bible. But if they convert and they believe the oracles of God and they believe what God says, it's like they're just one of you. That's it, it doesn't matter where they're from. It doesn't matter. So look, one wash shall be given to him that is homeborn and the stranger that sojourneth among you. So it says, but if somebody comes in and they accept all these truths of God, they're just like you, is what the Bible is saying. The Jews, the Jews were just the standard bearer. They were just the nation that God chose. I mean, look, somebody had to carry the truth. Somebody had to be that national example of what a nation should look like, but it turned to Romans chapter three. I mean, they literally carried the truth. I mean, look, they messed it up, but that's what they were, that's the job that they were given. Look at Romans chapter three and verse number one. Romans chapter three and verse number one, the Bible says, what advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? So Paul's preaching, you know, he's saying like, you know, you're saved by faith. It's like, it has nothing to do with where you were born, any of this stuff. This is the, you know, much of the part of, much of Romans. He's like, so what profit is there of the Jew then? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way he says chiefly, he says mainly because unto them were committed the oracles of God. Now look, notice those two words committed. It doesn't say they had them. You know, they had the word, it was committed to them. They were committed to keeping. Look, they had the responsibility for carrying and living the word of God, for continuing, for keeping that faith. Verse 23, that was as far as churches go, we need to keep the faith, but as far as the nations go, that's what the Jews were committed with, the oracles of God, keeping them, doing them. Look at Psalm chapter 12. Psalm chapter 12. Psalm chapter 12, look at verse number six. So look, you say, well, doesn't God preserve his word? Look at Psalm chapter 12 and look at verse number six. Look at Psalm chapter 12 and verse number six. The Bible says the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace purified seven times, thou shall keep them, oh Lord. Now he's talking singularly just to God. This is just saying that God will preserve them from this generation forever. But guess what? God promises that he'll preserve his word, but guess what? He uses people to do it. He uses people, I mean, didn't he use Paul to pen down much of the New Testament? The Holy Spirit moved Paul to write the New Testament. Didn't he use Peter? Didn't he use John? Didn't he use the apostles? Didn't he use Matthew, Mark, Luke to write these things? He used men to do God's work, is what he did. Look, it's still the words of God as he moved through these men, but God preserves his word. I mean, didn't the King James translators? Look, God worked through these men. God worked through these men. And God worked through the nation of Israel to keep the word of God. That's what he used that nation for. It was committed to them. It was their responsibility to keep God's promise in Psalm chapter 12 and verse number six. And God, you know, God keeps the promise whether the people fail or not, and they failed at many points. That's the story of the Old Testament right there. But the point is this, is that it was not known. This is the mystery. Is that it was not known by the Jews of Paul's time, of Jesus' time, how God was gonna bring this Messiah to the earth. How is God gonna redeem the world? It was not known, it was a mystery. And it was made manifest. It was made known through Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul is saying. He's like, it was made known. That's why go back to Colossians. Go back to the last part of Colossians chapter one. That's why the last part of Colossians chapter one. There's this mystery that's now manifest. This mystery that's now known is like, now what do we do? Just as he used men to keep the oracles of God, to preserve his word, just because he used men to carry it as a nation, to follow the word of God, to be the example of the standard bearer. Look at verse 28, he says, whom we preach. He's saying, so now that this mystery is known, and it's known to who? Now it's known to the Gentiles. He's like, now we're to tell everybody. There's no standard bearer anymore. The Jews, the nation of Israel completely rejected the Messiah. There's no standard bearer. He's like, we just have to go. In verse 28, he says, to whom we preach, warning every man. It's like, now we go out and we tell the mystery to everybody, the mystery being the gospel. The mystery being how God actually did it. It's one thing if I say, hey, I'm gonna come over to your house and I'm going to, I'm gonna fix your whole house for you. And you just like, I don't know how he's gonna do that. But then I bring 20 guys over and we've all got these certain type of tools. Look, that's how I actually do it. It's one thing saying it. It's one thing saying what I'm gonna do and all this, but the mystery became known through Jesus Christ, through the work of Jesus Christ. That's why Colossians is such an important book. It's because we are the people, these people in Colossians, as Paul was saying, it's now it's up to us to go tell every man about how God did this. So the question is, God preserves his word. God preserves his word, right? We see that the Jews, the nation of Israel, they carried the word. They carried the word, they demonstrated the word. They did two things, right? They carried the word of God. I mean, they lost it a couple of times, but they found it again. They carried the word of God. The prophets spoke the word of God. And then the nation of Israel, they left the word of God, they lost it. But can the word of God, as we have the word of God here, as we have the word of God here, which contains, it contains the mystery in it. The word of God contains the mystery, which is how God did it, how God did it, how he did it, and what you need to believe to get that gift. It's the whole answer right here. But guess what? Can the word speak for itself? Can the, does this Bible go and walk around and just like tell everybody what's in it? The word doesn't speak for itself. It's just as it was Paul's job. He's saying, we carry. As he says, we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. We have the Holy Spirit in us working in us mightily, and it is our job to carry this mystery to the whole world, to every, I mean, that's why he says go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's a command for us. So that's how the mystery applies to us. It's now known. It's manifest. It's known. There's no excuse. It's there. It's up to us to have God work through us and go tell everyone. That's how the mystery works. That's what the mystery is. And we, as we go out soul winning, as we come up with different ministries and people come here and we sit down with them and show them the Bible, we are making known the mystery that has made manifest to the world. And that's how it applies to us. Because now we've kind of taken that baton from Paul. And it's, you know, you can say it's not a mystery now because it's known. It's manifest. It's no longer a mystery. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.