Demonstrating The Gospel

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again radio friends, how in the world are you? Doing alright? I trust so, bless your heart, glad to be back with you. Wanna come with you now immediately into the first chapter of Colossians verse 25. Paul says, “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 which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, this mystery among the gentile nations which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The last time we talked together, we talked about you having a ministry, we talked about the fact that God has trusted you with the circumstances in which you now live so that the impact of his power in your life may inspire others to trust Christ as well. The dispensation of God given to me, Paul says, for you.

Now, we go on to the next phrase in verse 25, to fulfill the Word of God. Now there’s two points of view here and I wanna use them both. First of all, the great truth that Paul the Apostle was allowed to present was brand new in the thinking of Jewish people up to that time, that is to say that the gentiles could be as Paul says in another epistle, fellow heirs and partakers of the inheritance.

In this passage, he says, this mystery among the gentile nations is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” To open up to gentile believers, the glorious truth that when you bow before the Lord Jesus and acknowledge Him as Lord and trust Him as Savior, He comes to dwell in your life by the precious indwelling Holy Spirit and becomes then a personal guarantee of all of the eternal blessedness for which we look based on the promises of God and His Word. Christ living in you, the hope of glory. We have a living person who is our living hope. Now Peter says the same thing in his epistle, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A living hope, how? Because Christ is alive, see.

Which according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A person is alive, that person lives by His Holy Spirit within me, and because that living person has taken up residence in my life, I know that the tomorrows are gonna be filled with the blessing and power of God. He’s the hope, He is, He himself is the hope of glory. Now, that was the sense in which Paul says to fulfill the Word of God. God’s promise of salvation to the gentiles was revealed principally through the ministry of the apostle Paul. And there you have it.

Now there’s another sense in which I wanna apply that phrase and it comes a little closer home to you and to me. He says the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill, it means, fill full, to fill full of meaning the Word of God, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now the fact is that the ministry God has given you is a ministry of making God’s Word meaningful in terms of dynamic everyday living.

There’s a passage that I think illustrates what we’re getting at here. Paul says, “ye are our epistle, known and read of all men.” You remember that passage? I think it’s in Corinthians, isn’t it? He says, “ye are our epistle, known and read of all men.” You are the people, you are the people who are read by others. You’re the ones that prove that what we say is real. You get that? 2 Corinthians 3:2. “Ye are our Epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men for as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, not with ink, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” That’s Paul. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

Now, what we’re talking about here then is twofold. First it was given to Paul the apostle to reveal as the principal messenger of this blessed revelation to gentile believers that the gospel door was opened to them as well and that the dynamic of Christian living is that of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling within you by his Holy Spirit. Christ in you, the hope of glory. A.B. Simpson wrote a song which has been sung around the world for many years. “Once it was the blessing. Now, it is the Lord. Once it was the feeling now it is His Word.” A person, dwelling in your heart, the certainty of it based not upon how I feel but upon the inerrant, infallible Word of God. Okay, now then that was Paul, but you and I have a ministry. “Ye are the epistle of Christ written not with ink but in fleshy tables of the heart.” You have the privilege, believer, of making God’s Word real, understandable and applicable to other people’s hearts and minds. Had you thought about that? Let’s ask it in form of the question. How much does the way I live make Christianity meaningful to other people?

Does the way I live make Christian faith meaningful and understandable to other people? When someone watches your life, are they ever apt to remark, “Now, I understand what it’s all about.” Well, that’s the norm, dear friend. That’s the way it ought to be. To fill the Word of God full of meaning and to demonstrate the truth of Christ in you. Paul the apostle said to Timothy, “let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believer in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” Every area of your life is to be a demonstration of the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hubert Mitchell grieving over the death of his wife there in the jungles of Indonesia, burying that precious body and speaking to the still unbelieving elders of the village in which he had been laboring and saying, “I want you to see what Jesus can do in the case of a broken heart.” And then as David Morken and his wife stepped out of the jungle into the clearing. They had rushed from the other end of the island when they had heard the news of the death of this loved one and as they stepped into the clearing and David went over to shake Hubert’s hand, that outstretched hand was also accompanied by a smile through the tears and Hubert said, “Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” And he looked heavenward. In that precious moment of praise through grief, the old village chieftain saw something that he didn’t have. For those people manifested their grief by cutting off the the joints of their fingers if someone died, to show how terribly they grieved they would cut off one joint of a finger.

That was the barbaric practice in that particular part of the world. So this old chieftain had seen something that he had never seen before, victory over grief, the sweetness of praise coming through, even though hearts were broken. And Hubert said that in the midnight hour, there was a rustling at the curtain of the door of the hut in which he lived. There was the old chief with some of his elders and he said, “Your God is my God, and your Savior is my Savior.” He wanted to open his heart to the Lord Jesus. These are things that stick with you in memory. These are the evidences, beloved, that Jesus is real. The ministry God has given you ought to end up with other people finding out that the Christian faith is understandable, believable and available to them to fill full the Word of God, to fill God’s Word full of meaning for people by the way you demonstrate that Jesus is alive. Well that’s a pretty big order, isn’t it? And it isn’t done by your own effort, believe me. You decide you’re going to do it on your own effort, and you’ll soon fall flat on your face.

No, the blessed Spirit of God is the one who’s given to reveal Christ and He does that as we yield to Him. He dwells within the believer and as you yield to Him and let Him fill every room in your heart house He will reveal Christ through you, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now he uses the relative pronoun, whom and we could change it to Him and say, Him, we preach warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

Now, you’ve got three everies. And three elements of ministry. What are they? To warn, to teach, and then ultimately to present to the Lord Jesus. That word perfect means grown up, and mature. To warn, to teach, and then finally to present a grown-up and mature believer, who is in Christ. Now, it’s hard to warn people, isn’t it? They take offence, and yet that’s part of the ministry. Warning every man, teaching every man, presenting every man grown-up and mature in Christ Jesus.

Would you take that to heart? Sunday school teacher and parent and pastor and missionary friend and Christian worker? All of us listening. Would you take that to heart? These are the things that you and I want to accomplish when we are seeking to make Jesus real to others. There needs to be a note of warning, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” the Bible says, “the wages of sin is death.” “It’s appointed unto men once to die but after this, the judgment.” There is a note of warning in the gospel message. Teaching every man means to make the truth so real and available that people can reach out and take hold of it for themselves. You have never really taught a person anything until he applies it to himself, and that’s part of the job, and then he says to present every man grown-up and mature, and perfected in the Lord Jesus. That’s part of the task of your ministry. Could I ask you whether anybody has grown up in Christ since you met him or her?

These are part of the things that you and I need to think and pray about to see what God really could do in our lives if we worked at it. To warn, to teach and to help people to grow up in Christ is your job as you proclaim the blessed truth that the heart of the Gospel is Christ living in me, He is my living hope. Well, that’s quite a mouthful of truth, isn’t it? And I trust that somewhere along the line, God has said something that is helpful to you my beloved friends.

Dear Father today, give us a great ministry to other people, may there be someone along the way who is inspired to trust Jesus by watching what He’s doing in our lives. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing! 
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