So if you got your Bibles, go with me to Colossians 1, and we're looking at the last three verses of the chapter. Verse number 27, 28, and 29. And again, we've got four chapters to do as a whole, and this is just the first one. So there is a lot, and honestly, we could probably pull even much more than we have and tie it to other books and other chapters, other verses, and tie the continuity of Scripture together where Paul and even others that God used to pin His Word, there's multiple places where the continuity of Scripture continues to make the point of what Paul is talking to those at Colossae and what he's saying to them, you see it being said to those at Ephesus, you see it being said to those at Corinth, you see it being said to those at Galatia, you see it being said to those in most of all the churches that are around. And I remind you, not only did Paul write letters to other churches, not only did other bodies of believers receive and have letters even from some of the other apostles as a whole, because even Peter wrote to the church. But what you find is Paul gives very specific instruction that the letters that are written are to be shared from one church to the next. Why? Because it continues the flow of continuity of truth. and the unity of Scripture. It was led by God in order to pen. It was a Holy Spirit of God that gave utterance as to what to put and what to write. And when they read from each one, they began to see, and here's the thing, we have it in Scripture. They didn't have this. I mean, think about it. It'd be the same as us being a church and a very, very special, very notable, very faithful man of God, which does not happen anymore, by the way, the canon is finished. But if we were in that time, we would have someone, and let's just say we're having church and we receive a letter that specifically read to the church, mentions a whole bunch of things been heard, been seen, been realized, or even just giving encouragement. And we'd be reading it for the first time. And that's the first we've ever seen it, first we've ever heard it. And if we were there at that time, all we would have would be the Old Testament scriptures. and what they're receiving firsthand would become the New Testament scriptures for the church age. And so when this is being written, and this is being received, Philippi, Galatia, Ephesus, Corinth, you name it, all these different places, as well as Colossae, all these different places receiving these letters, and each one of these being told, share it with the next, y'all swap. Why? Because in the end, we look at it now and say, oh, we know why. Because in swapping, they're actually receiving scripture firsthand. Imagine being the church at Colossae and receiving the first and then the second letter from Corinth. Or maybe the first and the second letter from Thessalonica. That's the Thessalonians. Okay? Imagine receiving these letters and you're saying, okay, we've been instructed to read this to the church body. Little did they know, they were reading what would one day be known as the Canon of Scripture. As God orchestrated through the Spirit of God leading men like Paul and Peter and others, as they wrote by the leading of the Holy Spirit of God and they pin down exactly what we see today. And so we find now here in Colossians chapter one, the very ending of just the first chapter, we have seen Paul's, I'll just give you a quick overview, we've seen Paul's initial opening. And we've seen that the greeting he gives, the declaration of thankfulness, the magnifying of the gospel, and the uplifting of their pastor in his opening, verse 1 through 8. Then we've seen Paul's prayer and desire presented in verse 9 through 13. We see the action of his prayer, the desire that he has through prayer, and the thanksgiving that he shows in prayer. And then in verse number 14 to verse number 20, we see the focus on and the preeminence of Christ presented to us by Paul. And in those verses, verse 14 to verse number 20, we see Paul present Christ as the one who provides salvation, the one who is God, the one who created all things, the one who is in control, the one who is the head of the church, the one who contains all fullness, and the one who reconciles. And then in verse number 21 through verse number 23, we see Paul present a doubling down or an explanation of greater excitement and consequence concerning the reconciliation and what is received through that reconciliation. He talks about being reconciled, grounded, and settled. He presented, in verse number 21, the power of reconciliation. Verse number 22, the purpose of reconciliation. And verse number 23, the product of reconciliation. It is to help us continue in the faith, being grounded and settled, and not moved away from the gospel, from the truth of what matters. and by being faithful to truth. And so that product of reconciliation to produce in us that continuance of faith. Then in the last little bit we've been looking at Paul's explanation of his ministry. This is verse 24 through verse number 29 to the end of the chapter there. And we've already seen In verse number 24 and 25 and 26, we saw his type of ministry. He was a suffering preacher, a passionate preacher, a servant preacher. We saw his call to ministry as Paul presents it. He did not appoint himself. God appointed him an apostle, a minister of the gospel, and he did not abuse the position to use it unto his own glory. Paul used the position as a minister of the gospel merely to get the gospel out to those who had never heard. But we saw also his key responsibility in the gospel, or I should say with the gospel, in verse number 26, Paul presents it, that his key responsibility is to proclaim the gospel of Christ, and that that responsibility is mainly specific in ministry to the Gentiles. And so Paul presents that clearly, not only in Colossians, but we also saw it in Ephesians chapter three, Paul also mentions his call to the Gentiles. Then, now we're at verse number 27, and to verse number 29, which is the last part of it, and we see the continuance here, and I'm not gonna take an extreme long time with this, but it is some exciting pieces of this of this chapter and the fact that Paul is reminding them now understand and remember Paul is preaching or should say preaching he's Well, he is preaching through letter, but he is presenting to the believers, the saved at Colossae. He is presenting to them what it is that they are to be mindful of and remember and not forget, what they are to hold to and what they're not to be moved from. And he's also presenting knowing that these individuals are, if not all, they are a majority Gentile. And so in that sense, now could there be a Jew here and there in the mix? Yes, there could, because in all that region, there were Jews spread everywhere. And so there could be of the house of Israel within the midst of the body of Christ there at that church. But for the most part, he's dealing with Gentiles. And so Paul makes great emphasis into how precious it is that what they have received of the mystery of God is not something to just disregard and move on from. that it is special, it is something unique, it is by God's grace and it is by God's compassion and mercy that the Gentiles are considered equal with the Jew in the fact that they too have equal opportunity to understand the truth of the gospel. and to receive not only the forgiveness of sins, but the power of God working in them as much as he works in any Jew. To the Jew first, but also to the Greek. To the Jew first, but to the Gentile. And the Gentile was able to have just as much of Jesus. as the Jew. And so, see I do, y'all are looking at me and I make a poor baby cry, I tell you what. I get excited next thing you know, she's not nearly excited about what I'm preaching about, all right? I woke her up from her nap, that's not happy times. Okay, so. Here we go, looking at verse number 27. Now, he just talked about his key responsibility, the proclaiming of the gospel, and the specific ministry to the Gentiles. And the mentioning in verse number 26 is dealing with the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. and that mystery made manifest to his saints is the mystery as we've seen from a book of Ephesians, but also right here being mentioned in verse number 27, the ultimate mystery as a whole is not just who the Lamb would be, that would be the final sacrifice. It's not just the fact that Christ was God's solution. The Son of God was God's solution for the forgiveness of sins. That was, to a degree, somewhat of a mystery. But it wasn't in full a mystery, whereas because Abraham, well I can't even get there right now, but there's a whole message there. If you look over in Hebrews, it talks about, I told Brother Butch about this one a little bit. I'm gonna get to it here soon. But it says that Abraham saw his day and was glad. Abraham saw. I can't even go there, I'm gonna leave it alone. But there was not just by faith in seeing and knowing that God could bring his son back, but the Bible very specifically talks about Abraham seeing the birth of Christ. I gotta leave that alone, that's another message. I wanna leave that one for an actual preaching time, all right? But as a whole, the mystery of Christ The Son of God being the Lamb of God was not the full aspect of the mystery. Some people say that's the mystery. The Old Testament people, they believed in what God said he would do, he would have an answer. They just didn't know what the answer was. Now I will say, yes, that is a part of the mystery. Most had no clue. But there is the evidence that some possibly were given a little bit of a sneak peek, okay? However, there is one aspect of the mystery, not just in who would die as the Lamb of God for all sin, the final sacrifice, but the mystery as a whole presented by Paul ultimately deals with the fact that it would not, it's a mystery that it would be allowable that the Gentile would be able to receive just as much as the Jew. The mystery that a Jew would be born, but not just for a Jew. That of the house of Israel, the answer would come, but it wouldn't be just for Israel. The mystery of God's plan for all mankind, not just the chosen people of Israel. Which for the house of Israel is a complete mystery because everything with God, with the house of Israel, has always been a separation scenario. Israel's not to mix with the Gentiles. The Gentiles not to be allowed to come into Israel. Though there were a few that were brought in, but they were brought in by faith. They rejected everything and they followed the ways of Israel. That's the only way an outsider came in. And even then, they were not pure within the house of Israel. There were some very specific things. By the way, you do realize that a Gentile was not allowed to enter into the temple. Any of the temple courts, any of the temple areas, if a Gentile, that's why Paul was actually rebuked, and they got angry because Paul, one of the young men traveling with Paul, was brought in, and Paul was bringing him in, and they went insane over that. You have desecrated the temple! Because a Gentile stepped into that which is holy to the house of Israel. Now, if there's that much separation, could you imagine how it would be a mystery? How it'd be just unfathomable? How are they gonna ever have hope? We have hope because we are chosen of the one true God. But how are they ever gonna have hope? They have nothing. But the mystery is God had a plan for them just as much as he had for Israel. And that plan was Christ. We be them. Even if you have some Jewish bloodline, if you've got Jewish bloodline, I guarantee you probably have more. I don't know of anybody in here that has pure, straight Jewish bloodline. If you don't have pure, straight Jewish bloodline and you're not 100% Jew, you're worse than a Gentile. That would make you a Samaritan. To be somewhat Jew, but somewhat Gentile, You'd be a half-blood. In Bible times, the Gentiles wouldn't accept you and the Jews wouldn't accept you. That's why the Samaritans were people unto themselves. They were outcasts, unwanted by both sides as a whole. But here we are, the mystery of this thing that Paul is presenting. By the way, he's talking to majority Gentiles. So what does he say in verse number 27? He talks about how this mystery was made manifest to his saints. Now there's a colon there, so it's a continuing thought into verse number 27. Here's the continuing thought. So being made manifest to his saints, Here we go, to whom, who's the whom? It's the saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. Okay, so the riches of his glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. So what is the riches of his glory that comes of this mystery that is in the midst of the Gentiles? Well, you gotta see the rest of the verse. He answers it, which is Christ in you. What is the riches of God's glory? Christ in you. Where does it come? What he's teaching them is, it's of the mystery. The mystery that Christ, Christ in a life, Christ received to a life. covering the sins of that individual. The righteousness of God imputed onto that individual, being covered and seen in the eyes of a holy God as righteous, not of their own righteousness, but clothed within the righteousness of the Son of God. That is the riches of a holy God. But the mystery of that riches, mystery of that whole thought, is Christ in you, even the Gentile. It's not that unfathomable that it would be Christ in a Jew. Christ to a chosen one. But what about the Son of God to the outcast? Christ in you to those who are outside of the chosen. Now think about this. What this is is the mystery of the new covenant. The old covenant is a covenant with the chosen people of Israel. The new covenant is a covenant with the chosen people who are saints. So what makes me a chosen person? The fact that I can choose him. And when he enters, I go from an outcast to a chosen. Say, Old Testament people, We never saw that coming. Yeah, mystery. Mystery solved. Those who were not chosen in the aspect of the people of God initially, the children of Israel, a nation that he would form, those who are outside of that, there is a new covenant now that includes not only, again, doesn't exclude the children of Israel, but it doesn't include them alone. that mystery is now revealed within the Gentiles, that Christ died for all, and that all, whether of the initial house of Israel or those that were outcasts from the outside, all by choice can be labeled as chosen of God. I'm not talking about predestined. I'm talking about chosen of God. When I choose Him, I become a chosen of Him. Whether Gentile or Jew does not matter. And the riches of His glory is Christ in a life. And the mystery of those riches is Christ, even in the life of one who was outside of the chosen house of Israel, the Gentile. And by the way, this mystery and the riches that are received with Christ in you presents to us the hope of glory. So his overall purpose, verse number 27, he presents his overall purpose. We saw that responsibility of proclaiming the gospel, the specific ministry of the Gentiles, and then his overall purpose with that is sharing the riches of his glory. And by sharing the riches of his glory, he's presenting the answer to the mystery for the Gentile. And presenting Christ. the hope of glory. It is through Christ in us that brings the hope of all eternity, and no one is excluded from the opportunity to experience hope. So, Paul says, this is my ministry. This is what I do. By the way, it's not what he says, this is what I have to do. This is what I get to do. And he's trying to tell them, don't forget, it's something unique that you as a Gentile can be called a chosen of God. It is by God's grace that you weren't excluded, but the Jew and the Gentile are the same in the eyes of a God with a new covenant through Christ. And so, his main, now by the way, this is not, I am not teaching replacement theology. We've already covered that before. The church has not replaced Israel. They're two separate entities. And they both exist, and they both have a purpose. I'll just give you one little hint. I don't know if I said this before, but here's a little hint, because I had somebody come up with it recently and say, please show them. I said, here's the simplest way I can do, simplest way I can give you the understanding of why a replacement theology can never work. Because Israel is called a bride and the church is called a bride. But Israel is the father's bride. And the church is called the bride of Christ. That's the son's bride. What would the Bible be teaching if the father takes the son's bride? Something really off about that. So, The father has a bride and the son has a bride. They're two separate brides. One does not replace the other. They have two separate purposes. That's the simplest way to make it understood that replacement theology is ridiculous. Now, there's a lot more to it, but we're gonna leave it right there, all right? In verse number 28, Paul presents, give you these last two, we're done. Verse number 28, Paul presents his main priority. He says, whom we preach, who is that? Well, Christ, we preach Christ and him crucified. Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now, this is not perfect and sinless in the sense of, you know, Oh, y'all just all think you're perfect, don't you? No, okay? This is not perfect in that sense. This is one, in the sense of perfect, is the same thing you see in other passages of Scripture talking about those who are perfect. It's not saying those who are sinless, but those who are in the eyes of God, covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, those who are covered in his righteousness, in God's eyes, seen as forgiven. All right? It's not saying we're better than others because we're perfect and you're not. That's not what this is. But he's saying here that we can be, that he can present every man perfect in Jesus Christ. And therefore, it's a matter of getting the gospel so that those who are in their sin can be forgiven of their sin. and in the eyes of God be robed in the righteousness of Christ. Okay? And so presented perfect. By the way, I do believe it is also an indication that Paul's talking about a future preparation. So what you find is there's a threefold priority in his ministry. There's the warning, the teaching, and the preparing. That's what Paul's trying to do. He's warning people Watch out, eternity's coming. What's your choice gonna be? He's teaching those who have chosen Christ so they can grow in wisdom and knowledge and faith. They can grow up in the grace of God as we're encouraged and challenged to do and we're commanded to do. But at the same time, his goal is to prepare the child of God. Prepare as we present before onlooking eyes, who it is that a child of, or we should say what it is a child of God should appear to be, and what it is a child of God should live like. And so therefore, helping the child of God in growth to be a presentation to present Christ. At the same time, it's a preparation to stand before Christ himself. Presenting us and helping to guide in a way that they might, and by the way, he's encouraged them not to stray from the gospel, not to walk away from that which you have received. Don't get away from the purpose of getting the gospel out and growing in the gospel you've received. You've received Christ, now don't walk away from walking with Christ. You've received him, he's all you need. Walk with him, grow with him, learn from him, be conformed to his image. And the purpose is twofold in that, conform that in this life others may see Him instead of seeing us. But in that which is to come, when we stand before Him, we stand not ashamed of how we stood for Him in His life. So Paul is dealing with his whole main priority is to warn, to teach, and to prepare every saint. And that is what he says, we preach Christ, whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And the last thing, verse number 29, He shows his faithful passion in what he does. Paul does not live for the Lord in a haphazard way. Paul does not live for the Lord and serve the Lord and be a minister for the Lord in a nonchalant manner. Paul was passionate about what he did. We talked about that when we talked about the type of ministry. He was a suffering preacher, a passionate preacher, a servant preacher. His passion drove him. And he presents it here in verse number 29 just with a few words. He says, whereunto I also labor. So he labored through his passion. And he says, not only the laboring, but striving according to his working, the working that Christ does, what God has called me to do, what he has placed on my life to do. I'm striving, as he said, I press toward the mark. He's laboring, he's striving, but then note that he acknowledges a very important aspect to the ministry. His ministry in any area of ministry of any child of God trying to serve the Lord and be faithful with the gospel. He presents as he strives according to the work that God has given him, he says, which worketh in me mightily. that working in me mightily. You see also in Ephesians 3 verse number seven, he says, whereof I am made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. It is the work of Christ through Paul that gives Paul the ability to be passionate about what he does and burn for Christ without burning out. He labors, he suffers, he strives for the gospel. And what gives him the power to continue? What gives him the strength to press on? What helps him to get done what is typically impossible for anyone to do without saying at some point, I quit. What allows him to keep going, keep striving, keep laboring, keep serving, keep encouraging, keep pushing forward, keep pressing to the mark. What does Paul say that has allowed him? It is the working of God that worketh mightily in him. It is the power of God working in him. So he acknowledges the power to accomplish all that he is doing, all the work he is called to do is from Christ working in him mightily. By the way, in two things he does right there, he says, I don't have the strength to do it on my own and I know that. This is not, look at Paul, look what Paul has done. Look what Paul can accomplish. Wow, isn't Paul, and we do, we look at Paul and say, wow, what a missionary, what an evangelist. He is one of the ones we should look to and say, let's strive to be like Paul. But as a whole, Paul is saying, it's not me. I can't do it except for the power that worketh in me, and that's Christ. By the way, so he's saying, don't look at Paul. But he also is saying, understand the only one who can give anybody the ability because it's all about not the individual, it's about the one that worketh in the individual. It's about Christ. And that's what he keeps saying, Christ, Christ, it's Christ. Christ saved you, Christ sustains you, Christ provides for you, Christ helps you, Christ is the one that gives you strength, Christ is the one that gives you focus, Christ is the one that gives you purpose, Christ is the one that gives you hope, Christ is the one that does everything you need. We cannot make it without his power working in us mightily. Man can do some things in our own strength, but we cannot do what needs to be done without the strength that only God can provide. And so he points them back once again, even in the aspect of his ministry, what he's been called to do. He talks about his labor, talks about his striving, but he says, but there's only one way it's accomplished, and it's not Paul. It's Christ. that worketh in me mightily. By the way, we can take again that challenge for us as well. Anything that's accomplished in our lives or through our lives is not of you or of me. It will only be accomplished because Christ worked in us, and there's only one who should get the glory from it, and that is the one who has done the work in us and through us. So, Paul, closing out chapter one, presenting to them over and over and over and over again, one consistent theme, Christ, preeminent, him crucified, buried, rose again, dwelling in you and working in you for the sake of the gospel. And that's just chapter one. We'll look at others later. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, oh Lord, we thank you again.