God's Word and You, Part 5

If you have your Bible, turn with me to the book of Colossians Second chapter, the book of Colossians, the second chapter Tonight, we want to continue looking at what is no longer the most significant sermon you will ever hear For now it has become the most significant series of sermons You will ever hear But we've been looking at Isaiah 66, verse number two, where the Lord said to this man, I would look, to him is, broken of a contrite heart and who trembles at my word And we've asked ourselves the question, why is it? God's people tremble at God's word

And we told you, number one, is because God's word reveals his identity We also told you that, number two, it radiates God's majesty We told you, number three, that it reiterates God's majesty. authority and number four reflects God's purity If you have not been with us, to hear any of those, I would suggest that you get the tape with a CD to be able to go back and listen to them because they are extremely important to understand because God is looking for a particular kind of man, a particular kind of woman that he can use in a mighty way

And one of the reasons the Church of Jesus Christ is not used like it used to be used, is because we don't have too many people with broken and conscious right hearts and it tremble at God's word And yet God's people need to understand that Tonight we'll look at the fifth element and that's this This is as far as we're going to go tonight Number five, because this is going to be so good It resolves God's mystery Number five, the reason we tremble at God's word is because it resolves God's mystery The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse number 29, the secret things belong to the Lord

The secret things belong to the Lord Over in Psalm 25, verse number 14, it says this, the secret of the Lord is for those who fear him The secrets of the Lord are not for those who don't fear him, but only for those who tremble at him

So God says to this man I will look through him who is broken and of a contrite heart and who trembles at my word who lives in the fear of God and God says that my secrets will be revealed to the man who fears me he goes on to say in verse number 14 of Saul 25 and he will make them know his covenant over in Proverbs chapter 3 verse number 32 it says his secret is with the righteous The righteous man knows the secrets of God Now granted, we're not going to know all the mysteries of God and all the things that God knows because that would make us God, and we're not God

But God lets us in on a few of those secrets God reveals to us some of his mysteries And the reason we tremble under the authority of God's Holy Word is because it resolves those mysteries for us And when we're able to see them, understand them, and read about them, we are the kind of people who are broken and contrite and shake uncontrollably under the authority of His Word That's why I have you in the book of Colossians We're going to begin that this evening. I want to show you just a few of those mysteries

We're not going to go through all of them this evening, but I want to show you a little bit about how God's Word resolves his mystery. the book of Colossians second chapter I'm sorry the first chapter Paul says this in verse number 25 of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God that is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations but has now been manifested to a saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

Paul says there's a mystery, and I've been made a stewardship of this mystery. I have been called to pray, preach this mystery The mystery is about Christ The mystery is about his church The mystery is about the riches of Christ based on the residence of Christ in us Paul says that's what I've been called to preach Christ in you, the hope of glory You know, we as Christians have got to stop talking to other people and ask them, are you a Christian? Because everybody thinks they're a Christian

When you stop asking questions like, do you believe in God? Because most people will say yes to that, unless, of course, they claim to be an atheist But the bottom line is, when you start asking people, is Christ in you? That's the question we need to ask them, because that's the mystery That's what Paul said. I'm compelled to preach That's what I've been designed to preach That's what I have been given to preach That is the mystery, the riches of the glory of Christ because of his residence in us Christ in you the hope of glory See, the Jews didn't understand that

They didn't understand a Messiah that would come and live in them They knew about God being with them, God with us, Emmanuel They knew that God was above them because he was God He was in the heavens He does whatever he pleases He knows that we were made in God's image, and they knew that God was going to be with them But God in them was something they could not comprehend

And Paul says, that's the mystery. that's the mystery Christ in you the hope of glory Paul would say over in the book of Ephesians the third chapter these words and by referring to this verse number four when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit to be specific that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of his power

Paul says here is the gospel The gospel is about the mystery of Christ The mystery of Christ is about how Jews and Gentiles will coexist within the same body You see the Jews not only didn't understand the fact that Christ was going to be in them, They didn't understand the fact that how the Messiah would be over the Gentiles and how Gentiles played a part in Messiah's plan Paul says that was the mystery, something that was concealed in the Old Testament and now revealed in the New Testament We are to be preachers of the mystery

We are able to resolve the mystery of God because of the Word of God And therefore, we understand the mystery. of Christ We understand the mystery of the church Why? Because it deals with the riches and the residence of Jesus Christ in the life of an individual God is rich in knowledge He's rich in mercy He's rich in love He's rich in grace And Paul would pray in Ephesians chapter 3 verse number 19 that we might be filled with all the fullness of God If you're still in Colossians, if not, Go back there with me to the second chapter

Paul says this, Colossian chapter 2 in verse 2, that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Over in verse number 9 of chapter 2, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority

Do you know that because of our relationship with Christ, because of his riches and because of his residence in us, we now have been made complete Before man is born again, he is incomplete He's incomplete spiritually He is incomplete morally He's incomplete mentally He's incomplete spiritually because he is spiritually dead He's out of fellowship with God He's out of communion with God He is deficient when it comes to his mental capacity because he doesn't understand the full knowledge of truth Because God is the God of truth And if he doesn't know God, he doesn't know truth

Man is incomplete when it comes to understanding how he is morally Because not only is he dead, not only is he deficient, but he is depraved And therefore he's corrupt

And now, when we give our lives to Christ, what happens? Now we are complete in Him Because in Christ was the fullness of deity Was the completeness of deity In the fleshly body of Jesus Christ Dwelled the fullness of God He was all God He was all man He was both 100% man 100% God And now Christ dwells in us And because He dwells in us We now can become complete Where we are incomplete Now we are complete Why? Because now we have fellowship of God Now we have communion with God We are no longer spiritually dead And so now we find ourselves complete in Him

So the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the church is the mystery of the incarnation, is the mystery of godliness If you were with us on Sunday, we talked about 1st 73, 16, about the common confession, which is the mystery of godliness Speaking about the incarnation of God, speaking about his vindication, his veneration, his commission, our redemption, all those things, his ascension, glorification, and revelation. the mystery of godiness And Paul says, I've been compelled to preach the mystery That's what I need to do Christ in you, the hope of glory

Remember back in John chapter 6? Christ said these words in verse number 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him Can you imagine hearing Christ for the very first time? And Christ, listen, if you eat my flesh, if you drink my blood, guess what? I'm going to be in you and you're going to be in me. I'll be in you and you'll be in me Wow

He says, listen, if you understand my work on the cross and appropriate my life for your life, if you understand my atoning work through my shed blood, I will know something, I will dwell in you and I will take up my residence in you Over in John chapter 14, listen to what Jesus said to his disciples John 14, we'll start picking up with verse number 16 He says, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, and he may be with you forever

That is the spirit of truth. whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you The Spirit of God will be in you Look down at verse number 23 Jesus answered and said to them, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him We will come to him We will abide in him We will live in him Who lives in us? God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit They all take up their residence in our lives You see, God lives in us That's the mystery

And Paul says, that is what I preach That's my gospel So when we go out into the highways and the byways, we are saying, listen, do you have Christ in you? Is Christ in you? Are you in Christ? If someone says, what does that mean? They're probably not saved Or they are completely ignorant as to what the scriptures teach Or maybe they're just a new believer But that's our message The riches and the residence of Jesus Christ, living and dwelling in you Number two, the mystery of the rapture The mystery of the rapture Turn with me over to 1st Corinthians chapter 15

Paul says this, Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable Behold, I tell you what? A mystery Something concealed in the Old Testament now revealed in the New Testament Here's the mystery We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable And we will be. shall be changed

Paul says, I want to talk to you about the mystery of change. I want to talk to you about how our bodies are going to be changed Paul answers the opposite way in 1st 15 as to the way he does in 1st Thessalonian chapter 4 Here he talks about the resurrection of our bodies And he answers the question, well, what about those who don't die? What's going to happen to them? How do their bodies change? In 1st, 18th, 8th, 8th,000 4, were wondering about the people who would already die

What about them? What if the Lord returns and those people that already did? What's going to happen to them? And so Paul tells us a mystery He says, something's going to happen in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet Now that doesn't mean that this is the last trumpet that's ever going to sound Why? Because we know that there are at least seven other trumpets that sound in the book of Revelation But this one is the last trumpet concerning the church age In fact, tell with me over in your Bible to 1stst Solion in Chapter 4 Then you read it to you this way

Verse number 13, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep that you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not proceed those who have fallen asleep For the Lord himself shall ascend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord therefore comfort one another with these words that phrase caught up together with them in the Lord is a very significant phrase why is that it's the word harpozo it deals with the catching away of someone it's where theologians come up with the word the rapture of the church or the translation of the church that is where the church leaves this earth those who are alive, are translated from this earth to glory

The dead in Christ writes first, we who are alive and remain, so then be caught up together with him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord Now, the argument from those who do not believe in the rapture of the church say, well, the word raptor is not in the Bible Well, that's true It's not But neither is the word Trinity

We believe that the triune nature of God, although the word Trinity is not in the Bible. we believe in the rapture of the church the catching away of the church why because of what the Bible says we know that Philip in Acts 839 was caught up same word is used he was translated from where he was as he baptized the Ethiopian eunuch to the coastal shore of Azatos automatically in a moment's time it's also used in the Bible to describe Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, where he was caught up to the third heaven

He was translated to the third heaven, and he was able to see things that he couldn't even speak about And that's what he says in 2nd, Corinthians chapter 12 We also know in Revelation chapter 12 that the male child, which refers to Christ, which we'll look at in a moment, was caught up to the throne of God Harpazzo, same word used, to catching away, to be divinely transported And what happens in 1st, Sessalians 4, Paul says, listen, at the last trumpet that he spoke about in 1st, Corinthians 15, the Lord's going to return, the dead in Christ will rise first, and there will be a shout

There will be the voice of the archangel, and there will be a trumpet sound Dead in Christ will rise first We hear alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord There is a voice of the archangel Who's that? That's Michael You know that because of Jude, verse number nine Michael's the archangel There is the trumpet sound There is the voice What voice is that? It's the voice of God

How do we know? Remember when Christ said Lazarus come forth from the grave, Lazarus came out of the grave? Remember he said Lazarus come forth? He didn't just say, come forth If he would have said, come forth, everybody who was dead would have come forth So he said, Lazarus, and Lazarus only, come forth It's a Lazarus dead The Bible says in John 10, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me

It says over in the gospel of John, the fifth chapter, the 28th verse, or we'll pick it up in verse number 25, it says, truly, truly I say to you, An hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live For just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son, also to have life in himself And he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice

It shall come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment

We know the Bible talks about those who are dead Are going to hear the voice of God And so God's going to speak a word The dead in Christ will rise first We who are alive or remain shall be cut up together with them in the Lord Because there's going to be a trumpet There's going to be the voice of the archangel Now what does the archangel say We don't know Is it a glory hallelujah? Is it an amen? Is it a yippie? is it, what is it? Turn me to Revelation chapter 12. I'll give you an idea Revelation chapter 12 And you begin to understand the significance of what's going on

Remember if you've been with us for any length of time, you know that Revelation 12 is a history of the world from its beginning to its end We have three tapes on this, on this chapter particularly, but it gives you the history of the world in one chapter And it says this in verse number seven And there was war in heaven When was there war in heaven? The war in heaven is, listen, not yet Listen, we know that the male child was caught up to God and to a throne, verse number five That's the ascension That's the glorification of Jesus Christ, our Lord

It says in verse number six, and the woman who is Israel fled into the wilderness where she had a prepared or a place prepared by God so that there she might be nourished for 1,260 days Now between the time that Israel flees to the wilderness, verse 6 and verse 5, verse 7 takes place

How do you know that? Because it says down in verse 7 13, and when the dragon that is Satan saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who was Israel, who gave birth to the male child, and the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman in order that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she was nourished for a time and times and a half a time from the presence of the serpent So we know the fulfillment of verse 6 really is in verse number 13

So, sometime after the ascension of Christ to heaven, when he's on the throne of God, and before Satan unleashes his fury against Israel, which would be the tribulation, there is a war in heaven Listen carefully Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon And the dragon and his angels waged war And they were not strong enough And there was no longer a place found for them in heaven And the great dragon was thrown down The serpent of old who was called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world He was thrown down to the earth And his angels were thrown down with him

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night And they overcame him because of the blood of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony And they did not love their life even to death For this reason, rejoice, oh heavens, and you who dwell in them, woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil, has come down to you having great wrath knowing that he is only a short time

That war in heaven, listen, the war in heaven and Satan being cast out coincides with the voice of the archangel For the church to go to heaven, Satan has to be gone. I said, wait a minute, I thought Satan was cast out a long time ago Well, that's covered earlier in chapter 12, where he took a third of the angels with him So we know it's not the same one It's a different time And so we realized that for the church to go home to glory, Satan is completely gone And that is the rapture of the church That's the mystery of the rapture

That's the mystery of the translation where we are taking into glory. I hope I haven't lost you If I have, you can get those three tapes on Revelation 12, and you'll want to get the six tapes on Revelation 17 and 18 We're not here to dissect every portion that we're talking about. talking about tonight, we just help me understand that there's something about the Word of God that resolves the mystery of God which causes man to tremble under its authority and to realize that God looks for the broken and contrite heart The broken heart Thank you.