Hope of Glory

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Everything alright at your house? Well, this is your friend, Dr. Cook and I’m glad to be back with you and we wanna turn now to the first chapter of Colossians and continue our thought in verse 26 of chapter 1. “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 the riches of the glory of this mystery Christ in you.” Alright, the last time we got together, I remarked that if you don’t know all that’s going on, you don’t need to know yet. God takes His time and His timing is exquisitely beautiful always, and God takes His time to reveal His will. The second thing is be open to new concepts when God gives them. To whom God would now make known. See, “hid from ages and from other generations but now is made manifest to his saints.” Be open to what God is revealing at the time.

Now the written revelation is closed, we have the Bible, that is God’s revelation to us. But new concepts and new approaches and new methods of applying the age-old message of the Gospel are given by our blessed Lord to his people. Be open to God’s new ideas. That was the second thing we said the last time we got together. “But now is made manifest to his saints.” The expression manifest generally has the idea of a truth wrapped up in a person, a personal revelation. And of course, nowhere could this be more evident than in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants to make manifest the riches of the glory of this now revealed mystery Christ in you. See, it comes in the person, a package in a person, a package of truth. A revelation wrapped up in a wonderful person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody has said to me, “Listen, why can’t you just talk about God and not talk about Jesus all the time?” You can guess the religious background of someone who said that to me.

Why can’t you just talk about God and not talk about Jesus all the time? The answer is our Savior said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” You wanna know what God is like? Get to know the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the answer. And so the mystery that is made manifest, is manifest is shown to you in a human package, and that is a person, a beautiful, wonderful person, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul said, that’s my job to open up this mystery that has never been understood before that both Jews and Gentiles can know the presence of a savior who dwells within them by His Holy Spirit. And it seems so simple to you because you’ve been in church and Sunday school throughout all the years and these concepts are very, very familiar. I would guess however, that if you begin to apply this in daily living, it will absolutely revolutionize your life. Let me show you what I mean. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The first thing is to realize that today is part of the rest of your life and part of eternity and part therefore of God’s eternal plans for you. When you wake up oftentimes, it’s with a groan or a sigh or both, and you think, “Oh boy, I have to get up. I have to get ready and I have to go to work.” Or if you’re a homemaker, you say, “I have to fix breakfast and get the kids off and my husband off to work, and then I’ve gotta do the washing, and then I’ve gotta iron some of the clothes and then I’ve gotta shop, and then I’ve gotta make dinner.” And you just groan over the thought of all the things you have to do today, either at home or at business or at school, or wherever it may be. Now, if you take the truth we’re talking about and apply it, when you wake up, you’re gonna say, “Lord, this is part of your plan for me. This day is part of the rest of my life and part of the rest of eternity, and I wanna live it for you, and Lord Jesus, I know you live within me. And I want you then to work out your perfect will in everything I do.”

“Get me ready to meet the family, give me the right attitude, give me the right relationship, make me a blessing, even in the early morning hours when everybody is in a hurry. Jesus, make this a good day because You live within me.” That’s going to be your prayer and your attitude. You follow what I’m saying? And so then the day goes on and let’s say you go off to business and you get to the office, you find that the boss is in a surly mood. Now, bosses are human and they have their bad days, just like everybody else and so, you find that he’s in a bad mood, and the tendency would be at coffee break to gather around and grumble about the fact that the boss is such a grouch. And feel sorry for yourselves. Instead, what are you going to do when you get to work and find out that things aren’t going quite as well as they should? You’re gonna look up and say Lord Jesus, I know You dwell within me, because that’s what the Bible says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

“I know that I’m your child, and I know that today is part of your plans. Now help me to fit into what you want to do today.” Like us not, beloved, God is going to enable you to flash a friendly smile at the boss when he goes by your desk. Nobody else smiled at him, they’re afraid of him or resentful of him, or both, but you look up and you smile, say, good morning, mister… Whatever his name is, and he smiles back, surprisingly, and the gloom of the day begins to lift. Somehow Jesus got through your smile to that man. And like us not, a little later on, he’s gonna stop by your desk and say, “Smithers, come and see me for a minute in my office,” and you think, “Oh boy, now what?” But you pray and you say, “Lord Jesus, I’m yours and You’re gonna live through me and whatever it is you make me a blessing.” And so, you toddle on into his office and he looks and he says, “Sit down, Smithers.” And you sit down. He looks at you quizzically and he says, “You know there’s something different about you. Everybody else in the office today was gloomy. I myself was kinda grouchy when I got here. I guess you noticed that.”

And he says, “You’re different, what makes you different?” And again, you whisper a prayer and say, “Lord Jesus, talk through me now, I know You dwell within me, now talk through me.” And you look at him and you smile and say, “Well, mister… ” What’s his name? “You see the difference is that I am a Christian and the Lord Jesus Christ is living in me and everyday I pray that His beauty and His glory will shine out of my life. If there’s any difference, it’s because of my Savior, the Lord Jesus.” “Well,” he says, “I’ve never been very religious, but you sure are different and I’m glad. That’s all Smithers, thanks a lot,” and out you go. What happened? You prayed to be part of what God was doing that day and He certainly did make you a part of it. And afterwards afternoon, the coffee break if you have an afternoon coffee break, many people do, some of the rest of the employees gather on and say, “Hey Smithers, what happened? Yeah, I saw you go in the boss’ office and it seems like he’s been happier the rest of the day. What’d you do there?”

[chuckle]

You smile and you say, “I just told him the secret of my life is that I’m trusting Jesus as my savior, and He’s living in my life.” And they look at you quizzically and one or two of them understand, because they’re believers, the rest of them shake their heads in disbelief and drift away. But that’s what God has done in your life, one particular day. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Oh, this truth has to take hold in every part of all of my life. I’m standing beside a casket and trying to console a friend, I need to pray, “Oh God, let Jesus shine out of me now.” Let the words I speak be words that God would have me say. You pray and you trust your loving Savior to talk through you. Jesus said, “it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you”. He said that to his disciples. So you can trust God to give you the right word. I have a quick tongue, it gets me in trouble now and again, but I’ve learned that if I pray before I speak, I don’t get into trouble.

God takes even the quick response of a tongue that is probably too quick. God takes even the quick response if it’s bathed in prayer and makes it something for His glory. Oh, would you trust the Savior, my dear friend, who dwells within you, Christ in you, the hope of glory? And whether you’re diapering the baby, or washing the windows, or adding up a column of figures, or making a sales pitch, or operating on a patient, or trying a case in the court room, or teaching a class, or learning in a class, or whatever you may be doing, you can pray and say, “Lord Jesus, I know you dwell within me, and I acknowledge now that Jesus is Lord of all.” And you said, “If I confessed Him with my mouth as Lord and believed in my heart that I was yours, and I am yours, and I do confess Him and I do trust Him, now, blessed God speak through me and live through me,” that kind of a prayer will never fail to receive its own beautiful answer. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Well, then what happens when you come down to the tag end of life? And whether it’s congestive heart failure or whatever it may be, you know that you’re not gonna get up out of this bed. This time, this is it. And you go through the various stages that Kübler-Ross has given, fear and anger and all the rest. Why should this happen to me and why do I have to die? You go through them all, because you’re human, and then what? Christ in you, the hope of glory. The solid consciousness that you are in possession of a kind of life that cannot die and though the house your spirit lives in is going to be laid aside, you, the real you is gonna be wonderfully alive for all eternity. Oh, this, my friend is the crowning realization that comes to every one of us when we come down to the tag end of life and it’s time to meet our blessed Lord on the other shore, you don’t have to be scared then, you don’t have to be bitter then, you don’t have to be enraged then. You don’t have to say why should this happen to me?

You can say, “Lord Jesus, I’m yours.” And like Paul you can say, “I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ,” which is very far better. My father used to sit in his old rocking chair and turned his blind eyes in my direction and say, “My boy, one of these days I’m gonna have a brand new pair of eyes, I’m gonna walk down the streets of glory, I’m gonna look up your mom and we’ll walk down the street together, and sing again together, the duet we sang 10 days before she left us. ‘I shall know Him, I shall know Him as redeemed by His side, I shall stand. I shall know Him by the print of the nails in His hand.’ My boy, I’m gonna have a brand-new pair of eyes and a new body to go with it. Hallelujah.” he’d say. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Make that hope yours today, beloved.

Dear Father, today, help us to live in the light of Thy glorious hope in Jesus, Amen.

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