Colossians Part 4 – Christ in You – The Mystery of Christ and the Church

Audience Member: You need to listen to that message that I heard one time about glory. You can if you only care about glory, and if you can find the message, really. I bought a tape that Gene preached about in 1971, and the name of it, I think, is “Ruled by His Glory”. It’s my favorite message of all.

My wife is living in the past; no matter what I say, that was almost as good as ruled by glory. Amen.

In all wisdom, I proclaim this Christ, this Christ in you, admonishing and teaching every man, and that’s the first singular reference I have found in this book, and I really wish you’d make a notation of it. You might even want to put a “1” by it. That I might present every man perfect in Christ. It is for this purpose I labor, striving according to His working, which works within me in power; an awful lot in this. I proclaim Christ, and I do it with wisdom, brothers and sisters, from Paul’s viewpoint, not from Webster’s dictionary, but from Paul’s viewpoint, wisdom is a divine thing, and it’s smart and it’s wise, but it’s not human wisdom, and it’s not human smart.

He proclaims Jesus Christ by means of something that is divine. Paul knows that the way he presents his Lord is unique. At the moment this book was written, I doubt that Peter or John understood as well as Paul the greatness of Christ. And someday you will hear someone say the gospel was such and such. Then Paul came along and changed it. Later, he came along and changed it. Saints, Paul wasn’t later; he was the first; he is the first person to put out a piece of Christian literature. He put out the second piece of Christian literature, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth. John wrote in his old age, and Matthew wrote after Paul. John wrote Revelation, and he wrote the book of John, and that brother was really getting smart as to who his Lord was.

Now this brother led the way in giving us this incredible Christ. He had met Him face to face, not in His Judean and Galilean state, but in His glorified state, which is our hope of glory. I proclaim this Christ with wisdom, admonishing and teaching every man. Now, this is what I would like for you to do when I’m dead. To be bold about the Christ you have and have known, that I might present every man perfect in Christ. And one more time, Paul sees himself presenting a person to Christ and Christ announcing this person is perfect. The word is stronger than complete. The word is perfect, flawless.

You have already learned in chapter one that you are holy, but I want you to just say it. “I am holy, I am holy.” By the way, I’m a holy one, I am a holy one, I am blameless, I am beyond reproach, and that’s what you are in the presence of Jesus Christ, and Paul would like to do that with every man. Well, I don’t know if that implies that he’s trying to get every man into the church because he knows exactly where he expects these things to happen. It is for this purpose I labor, and here is a true sentence of humility and really anti-American in every way.

We Americans are going to take the gospel to the ends of the world by grit, by gum, and by golly. Someone said if there had been a bunch of American Christians out there when Moses got to the Red Sea, those American Christians would have got out there in the middle of that river and they would have built that thing dry and walked over on dry land. They didn’t need God or the Holy Spirit; they’d do it all by themselves. And here are the words work, and here are the words power, but I want you to see how he tames those words in his life. I do this proclaiming Christ, I do it with wisdom, I admonish, and I teach, and I do this with labor, but, I am striving only by means of His working in me, and striving which works within me in power, and that is not Paul’s strength, nor Paul’s stress—that is all the work of God inside a man.

Now, I don’t want to make any of you lazy, but brothers and sisters, as you know, in the Old Testament, priests were never supposed to sweat. You knew that, didn’t you? Somebody in here must have known that priests were never supposed to sweat. Brothers and sisters, pray for three hours every morning, every day. Did you hear that? Did they hear that? Did that take up? Good.

Well, you’ve got to watch these preachers; they’ll make you sweat. You have to witness somebody every day, and you have to pray for 30 minutes every day. You’ve got to do this; you’ve got to do that. I remember when I left the organized church, the last words I said before I died were, “Lord, I will never serve you again.” And I have kept that promise, and the Lord has kept that promise, too.

I was physically, emotionally, and psychologically tired, as are most ministers in the gospel. And I swapped my striving for His work in me. Brothers and sisters, I would admonish every man. I would preach to every man the gospel. I would give them Christ. But you are not going to force me to do that.