By Gipsy Smith
Col. 1:27-28 -- "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus."
"Christ in you, the hope of glory whom we preach." that is Paul's hope. There is no other. I pause that you may take that in, because some of you have been turning aside from Paul's hope, God's hope, the world's hope, to the manufacturing of your own hopes, and the love you have for your own denominational reputation.
Jesus is the ladder upon which this poor old world is going to climb from darkness to light and from sin to God. It is His hand that will stretch down into the abyss and will lift broken-hearted men and women up out of the mire, and set their feet on the rock, and put a new song into their hearts and into their mouths.
Jesus is the jewel for which this vast universe is but the mere setting. He is the morning -the dawn in the darkness.
He is the cure for the ills of the world, the antidote for the serpent's sting. There is no other; and you may search the universe for something else to assuage the woe of the world, to dry its tears, to still its storms, to calm its boisterous seas, to heal its broken hearts, to give rest to every weary soul. Or, to use Paul's words, "He is the hope of glory." And hope for the world cannot be found anywhere else but in Jesus Christ.
Paul said, "Whom we preach," and you know Paul had tried the schools and found the schools had failed. Schools have it not; social reformers have not the cure; politicians have not the cure; quacks and nostrums can't provide that for which the soul longs, and that which the soul demands for deliverance and hope. Why spend money for that which is not bread? Why spend money for that which satisfieth not?
"Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."
My brothers, my sisters, the hope of the soul and the hope of the world today is Jesus. If you would learn that you would stop running after the quacks.
There are more quacks in America to the square inch than anywhere else in the world. I know; I have preached on five continents, and I have seen more of the world than most men. I know.
You will run after anybody that will shout loud enough instead of listening to and obeying Jesus. I would rather listen to Jesus than to any earthly man-and certainly than to any earthly woman.
The hope of the world is Jesus, not environment. That is a big word. When you want to say something that sounds "tony" you say "environment" -- it has an 11 o'clock sound. If anybody ever had a good environment it was Adam. There were no saloons. There was no jazz. He was in a garden, surrounded with beauty, with flowers and birds -- and he fell.
Environment isn't everything. You know you can't cure a patient of the smallpox by putting him into clean sheets. You don't change the nature of a pig by putting him in the parlor. I know which would be the quickest to change, and it would not be the pig.
Educationalists -- I know what they are advocating -- educate -- educate -- educate. Jesus Christ on Calvary is saying, Regenerate -- regenerate -- regenerate. I know what the educationalists are saying. Give us pretty surroundings, better art, better books, flowers, and an automobile to ride in -- some of the people who have these things are the biggest sinners. I have yet to learn that there is any essential connection between a Prince Albert coat, a silk hat, and a clean heart.
Some of the poorest people I have ever known in this world have been the most saintly; some of the richest have been the greatest scoundrels.
The hope of the world is Jesus Christ -- not Oxford, not Yale, not Harvard, not Princeton, not Athens, not Plato, not Cambridge. It is over an old-fashioned hill called Calvary.
The hope of the world is Jesus whom we preach, "warning every man and teaching every man." In these words you have the universality of the hope of every man -- "that we may present every man perfect in Christ."
You see not only the vastness of this hope but the glory of it, the perfection of every man in Christ Jesus. There's the glory, as Paul tells the Ephesian church, "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
Teaching. and admonishing you is what I have been doing this week. I know you don't like that. I have let down a bucket and stirred up the mud, but it was my bucket, not my mud. If you will be a Goliath in sin, don't be surprised if God sends some little David along with his sling and stone and floors you with your mouth in the dust and your heels in the air. You need to be brought down low in the dust, and I would to God I knew how to bring you there, for I know the only way up is to come down lowly in the dust before God.
I have seen the worst kind and the best kind of people in the world -- if there is any best and worst. There can be only two kinds of sinners in the world; the man who is found out and the man who is not. I wonder how many people here would be in jail today if their real selves were known. I wonder if your friends would recognize you on the street, or sit beside you in church if they knew you as you really are. But the wonderful thing is, no matter how far you have strayed from God's commands, how greatly you have erred, the grace of Christ can save. This is the hope of the world.
If you came here this morning eaten up with a loathsome disease; if you came with a consciousness of having broken all the ten commandments, Christ can make you new and whole again through amazing grace.
Let no man despair because of his great sin; it is not what you are, but what He is. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Christ is the Saviour for sinners because He bore your sin on the cross and rose again for your justification, and then was exalted to sit on the throne and become a Prince, and a Saviour. God, His Father, in giving Him that seat on His right hand on the throne, is saying to a world of hopeless sinners, Justice, Righteousness, ]Eternal Law and Love are all satisfied. Here is your hope, Jesus -- so no man need despair because he is a sinner. God has met and provided the remedy.
Tell them that for me -- Jesus is the sinner's Hope. The Devil often comes to me and tells me, "You are not what you ought to be"; and I answer him and say, "I am not as bad as I was." He tells me, "You are not what you ought to be," but then it is not what I am but what Christ is that gives me hope. And if He gets into your heart and your life, He will work a miracle.
"Whom we preach, warning every man, teaching every man, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." That pieces up with the other word in Ephesians III, "According to the power that worketh in us." God is able to work in you and take away all sin and make you like Jesus. The Holy Spirit will reproduce Jesus in you -- the hope of glory, Christ in you; and you will be able to say with the Apostle, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
It is Jesus that has to do it -- not the preacher -- not the Church -- not the outward form, but the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Jesus must be wrought in you. Jesus -- this is the hope of the world.
Have you Christ within this morning? Is He your Saviour? Do you love Him? Do you long for Him above everything else? Do you long to look into His face and feel His touch, and hear Him speak to you more than anything else in this world this morning?
If you feel like that, that is the evidence that Christ is within you. And my text shall be, "He that loveth is born of God." And if you love God and if your heart is given to Him, then you may class yourself as a Christian. "He that loveth is born of God." Close your eyes and say, "My Jesus, I love Thee, I know thou art mine." If you do this, then blessed art thou, oh, love of God.
And I ask in closing this morning, What brought you here today? Did you come to see a man or to see God? Did you come to hear the voice of a preacher or to hear the voice of Him who spoke from the great white throne? You know. I will tell you what brought me. I need God and I want to help you a little nearer to Him. I want more of God for myself and I want more of God for you. Are you contented with His gifts and do not want Him?
I told you a story last night of my sweet little daughter, Zillah. Let me tell you another.
I had just returned from America and had reached my home in Manchester where I was living at that time. I had been separated from my family for nine long months, nine long, homesick, strenuous months. And when I reached home I found my pastor busy, conducting a sale of miscellaneous articles in order to provide a home for the waifs of that city. And because there was no other man just like him in the world to me, I felt that my place was by his side.
So I took my family and went to him, and Zillah, my baby, was hanging on to my coat, my arm. Her little arms were twined around some part of me. Her little touch was just what I had been hungry for. Her voice was the music my heart had pined for.
As we were walking I met a bachelor friend who I knew did not understand children and did not care for them much, and I was afraid my little child's constant talking and prattle, which was music to me, would annoy him. I took some coins from my pocket and told my little Zillah to take what money she liked and go to one of the various stalls and spend it as she desired.
She refused to take the money and, looking at me, said, "Daddy, I don't want your old money. You have been away nine months, I want to be with you. It is you I want."
What is it you want? The Lord's money or the Lord. The fine things He can give you, or do you want Him? What are you hunting, digging, scraping for? Is it the hope of your heart and life? Is it the hope of the world? The thing you are striving for is not satisfying to the hunger within until you know Jesus Christ, whom we preach, striving to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
