The CHURCH the HOPE of GLORY

Colossians 1:22-29 (KJV)  “In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sigh: 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; whereof I Paul am made a minister; Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of GOD which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 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 hope of glory: Whom 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 labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” 

This would be a good time to look at the word that the Apostle Paul used here, RECONCILE: which means “restoration to DIVINE FAVOR” because when ADAM and EVE decided to choose to believe satan, the serpent, and disobey GOD, all of mankind was plunged into sin and death that comes along with it, and because of that we have also chosen not to obey GOD, because the bible in the Book of Romans says: “…ALL HAVE SINNED and COME SHORT of the GLORY of GOD” and also that the WAGES of that SIN is DEATH, then GLORY to GOD the Bible also says BUT!!!! BUT!!!! THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE “THROUGH” JESUS THE CHRIST OUR LORD. (Romans 6:23) (KJV)  Listen folks you won’t get there by “being good” or with “righteous living”, if you’ll remember the Word of GOD in Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquites, like the wind, have taken us away.” NO!! Your righteousness will not get you to heaven or get you to becoming “BORN AGAIN”, the only way that can happen is by your “HEART FELT BELIEF” or “FAITH” in the shed blood of the SAVIOR JESUS. The Apostle Paul started out that 6th Chapter of Romans with these verses, let me read Romans 6:1-6 (KJV)  “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dad to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucifiec with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” I surely know and I am aware that there or those that preach different and present a different gospel, but please read along with me, to what GOD’s holy scriptures say in Romans 3:22-28 (KJV)  “Even the righteousness of GOD which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”

The Bible talks about the “latter days” that will come, that men and women will want to heap to themselves, or to continually pile up PREACHERS and TEACHERS that will tell them what they want to hear, to TICKLE their ears with LIES and PROMISES that will make them feel good, and feel that they are OK because GOD loves them, but listen to me please, GOD loves us all and always will, but we do not become saved and “BORN AGAIN” till we call upon the name of the LORD with saving FAITH, always remember this that the abundance of LIES and FALSEHOODS will never equal the truth, you can continue to pile up a huge stack of good sounding stories and tales, but the truth, and GOD’s WORD is the TRUTH, one word about JESUS will extinguish all of the LIES you can pile up. Listen to what Paul says in verses 21 and 22 of our text. “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now HE has reconciled in the body of HIS flesh through death, to present you HOLY, and BLAMELESS, and ABOVE REPROACH in HIS sight.” Do you feel HOLY? Do you feel BLAMELESS? Are you ABOVE REPROACH? The answer of course is NO! NO! A thousand times NO! We ARE NOT, but because of JESUS’s  sacrifice upon the cross, and the shedding of HIS precious BLOOD we are SEEN that way, we are SEEN as righteous when we accept HIS  SACRIFICE and BELIEVE IN HIM. There is an old song from the 1960’s, don’t know whether you have heard it or not, but that makes no difference, it was not a GOSPEL song nor a church HYMN, it was titled “TELL IT LIKE IT IS”. And I hope that when I preach or when I teach, that you can KNOW, beyond a shadow of doubt, that I don’t beat around the bush, but I “TELL IT LIKE IT IS” I am no one’s toy or puppet on a string, but I have been “CHARGED” by ALMIGHTY GOD HIMSELF to preach HIS MESSAGE. I have been “Charged” or commanded to be “IN SEASON” or “OUT OF SEASON” in other words, to preach HIS WORD whether it’s popular or not, whether people like it or not. I think we as preachers and teachers of the BIBLE have to preach and teach that HELL is REAL and is HOT, and that HEAVEN is REAL and is SWEET. That GOD does not send us to HELL or HEAVEN but has provided everything we need to escape that damnation, but we must make that choice, HE will not force it on us. We must choose JESUS of NAZZERTH and HIS SACRIFICE for the atonement of our sin, and we must also choose to follow HIS example and HIS directions to LIVE for HIM.

In verses 26 and 27 of our text, Paul talks about the “MYSTERY” that has been hidden since the beginning of time. Please listen as I read those 2 verses “The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to HIS saints. To them GOD willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is “CHRIST IN YOU, the HOPE OF GLORY.” My brothers and sisters in  CHRIST, we have no HOPE except that HOPE that we have placed in JESUS’ “BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS”

The JEWs thought HEAVEN and SALVATION was just for them, but that was the MYSTERY that was HIDDEN from the beginning of time, but the CHURCH is made up of JEWS and GENTILES alike, just as JESUS said in John 3:16 (KJV) “…WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH…” those that have trusted in the SAVIOR, JESUS, JESUS of NAZZERTH, who was sent to be the SAVIOR of WORLD. I am going to read you a couple of last verses and if you remember last Sunday I ask you to look at one of those verses because I would use it this Sunday Morning.

Ephesians 5:32 (KJV) which goes right along with the 26th verse in our TEXT and it says: “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning CHRIST and the CHURCH.” 

My hope is that you have trusted in this JESUS as the sacrifice for your sin, and believe that GOD hath raised HIM from the dead. For the Bible says in Ephesians 2:8 (KJV) “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of GOD:” My hope is that you would respond to the HOLY GHOST, if you have never been saved, call upon HIM and HE will save you. Place your “HEARTFELT” FAITH in JESUS’ atonement and you will receive all of HIS promises.

Maybe this is the day you would like to step back on the right path and follow JESUS.

Maybe this is the day you would want to follow Jesus in Baptism.

HE is waiting for you, waiting for you to decide!