Colossians Part 4

Do you remember my telling you at Winona Lake, do you remember a statement I made there? It was unbelievable. A professor had said to a student, and this student was a friend of mine. It’s from a seminary that’s located near one of the lakes. The only reason we know we have an indwelling Lord, the only way we can know we have an indwelling Lord, is because the Bible tells us so. I’m grateful that the Bible tells me so, but I don’t know what his relationship is to the Lord; I know I have an indwelling Lord. I am absolutely personally confident of that on the basis of experientiality. Otherwise, somebody better lock me up.

Now, brothers and sisters, what is the word of God? What’s the word of God? Well, we’re just going to take all of that, but you left one out. I’ll read it to you. This stewardship was given to me that I might fulfill the word of God. Let’s just stop here and consider that the word of God is to be fulfilled. Alright, last paragraph. The word of God is a mystery. That mystery has been hidden from past ages or eons and generations. And here is the odd thing about this word of God that has been hidden, and this mystery that has been hidden. It remained hidden throughout all the ages until we, us, uncircumcised heathen came along.

Now, why the Lord would want to wait until such brutish people came along, I do not know. There’s a very interesting passage in the Gospels. I wish I knew, no, I don’t. I never pay attention to chapters. I wish I could tell you which book it’s in. At least I stand with Barnabas somewhere. It says, Do you remember this incident? The Lord is going along in his ministry, and he’s just going along and just going along and going along, and one of his disciples says to him, “There are some Gentiles who want to speak to you.” And just like that, he said, “It’s time for me to be crucified.” Just instantly, it is some way the signal to him that it is all over, and the hour of fulfillment has come. I do not understand that, but there was a mystery even in that that the Lord had proclaimed the gospel to the Jews, and I suppose He knew if the Gentiles ever got a hold of it, they would absolutely overrun the Jews, and He knew that His task was first to the Jewish people and that He didn’t need to be concerned about reaching the Gentiles. And He gave Himself up to salvation, to your salvation and mine.

Now, saints, there was a mystery. It started out in creation, and there are two aspects to this mystery. One of them is Christ, and I’m going to tell you what the other one is. You could say it in one word, but I’d like to say it in one sentence. But what is it in one word? The church, but I’m going to put it another way. This was the mystery: that there was a girl hidden inside of God.

Christ was in God, and that girl was in Christ. Adam walked around here on this earth and didn’t know there was a girl hidden inside of him, but the Lord knew it. The Lord walked around on this earth and knew there was a girl hidden inside of him, a divine creature. Paul has been made a steward of the word of God, and that word of God is the mystery.

There’s nobody in this room, essentially, but a broken-down old Frenchman and a bunch of Puerto Ricans. You come here and you meet together, and you sing and you praise the Lord. I would like you to do one other thing. You don’t know this, but someday you’re going to get old. Honest to goodness, I have not always been old. I say that to you deliberately because when I was a little kid, I thought everything was static. My grandfather was always 70, my parents were always 30, and I was always six. Then I got to be seven and my parents got to be 31, 32. My granddad got to be 71, and when I was about 30 years old, this will happen to you, or it has happened to you, you figure out this is not going to stop. But no matter what age you are, you never can figure out that someday you’re going to be anxious, and you are.

I would ask you to be stewards of the mystery, to be able to look people straight in the face and you can, and say to them, “I am part of a great mystery, I am part of and have experienced and lived in known and seen revealed, comprehended and apprehended, and have been part of my life, the mystery of God.” And that’s what’s really happening here, and that’s who we are, and that’s God’s central heartbeat, and that’s real. It may be unseen, but saints, it’s real. And if it’s yours, you’re a steward of it. If I proclaim the mystery which is Christ, and you lay hold of that mystery which is Christ, then you become with me a steward of that mystery. Don’t be ashamed of who you are, what you are, or what you’ve known and what you’ve experienced. You are part of the revelation of the word of God. This is the outcome of the word of God. This is the outcome of the word of God.

I will continue reading. The word of God is the mystery, and this mystery has been hidden since creation. But today, this mystery has reached the holy ones. It is you, the holy ones in the assembly in Colossae, that God desired and willed to make known… What should the next word be? What should the next word be? The mystery who? To make known what is the church? What is the mystery? But it does not say that.  Now, saints, this is important, and I want you to listen to it.

A man can open a book. You can go buy a book somewhere, I suppose, and it’ll say the mystery is the church and Christ in the church. The mystery is the word of God. And he can say, “Oh, I know that.” and he can teach it and preach it, and other people will listen, and they’ll hear, “Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.” But Paul did not come to give you a mental intellectual understanding of the mystery, nor did I. You don’t have anything when you know what the mystery is. He came to give you the riches of the ministry, that’s experiential. That’s something you lay hold of; that’s something you take a bath in; to know the riches of that mystery. I don’t know what to say after that. I’m not telling you how to have them. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve got them. The only thing I want you to know is to know that you’ve got the riches of that mystery. Here, wake up, you have the riches. You’re taking a bath in them. There is something about the church of Jesus Christ, especially on a good day, when you feel like you’ve touched heaven, and He has given us all the riches in heavenly places that are in Christ. You are the recipient of the riches of things in heavenly places, not to come, but now, and you touch them. Now then, is this true or not? If this is not true, then I need to know. Do you touch the riches of the mystery? You’re not lying to me. Yes, you’re lying to me. Sometimes, yes. Alright, praise the Lord.

I will leave Chicago this weekend richer than I came. Mrs. Edwards, is that what you were thinking of when you saw that? And Paul, I resent this about Paul. The man can’t write. I wish he’d let me edit his books. He won’t be satisfied with the riches of the mystery, the riches of the mystery, of the grace, of the this, of the that of the other. And then he’ll get off the subject, and he’ll say something about the knowledge of and the wisdom of and your tongue’s hanging out, and then you finally get to the end of the sentence and find out what it is. You know why he does that? Sometimes you might find it interesting to read the first draft of the books I write, and I get carried away just like this brother does, and the sentences are incomprehensible. And I’m just almost in a trance here, you know, talking about the things of the Lord, they’re the riches of the glory.

Did you learn yesterday that glory has might and power? Now you find that glory has riches. And what is the glory? The glory is the revelation of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ is revealed to you, brother, that’s glory. And there’s might and there’s power and there’s riches, and you know where they’re located? Two places: in the church and in you. Say Amen!

Audience Member: I’m really sorry. I’ve just been biding my time; I’ve been waiting for years for an explanation like this. Now you just made a statement about why it was that Paul makes all these long sentences. Please clarify that. What is your opinion? What’s the reason?