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Thank you, sir Sam, for those kindly words of welcome. Sam has made it sound as though there were some connection between my bringing my brother here last year and what has subsequently happened. I have to confess I have no immediate influence in that direction, but if you think I have, and you would like to come with me where I go next, give your name in to me at the end of the conference. It is, of course, a great pleasure to be with you here once more, and I would like to thank particularly the conveners for twisting my arm in such a Christian manner as they are wont to do, and persuading me to come again. It is not the lack of enjoyment that makes me sometimes a little difficult, but the calls of other, perhaps needier places, and the limitations upon time and upon energy. But if this conference is anything like the others to which I have been invited, it will be a time from which I gather tremendous spiritual stimulation and enjoyment, and much sunshine of Christian fellowship, with which in memory to brighten the weary days of winter when they come. Following the alternating pattern of our past years, we come this year to take our encouragement in these times of devotion from the New Testament. And I have chosen for our devotional studies thoughts from the Epistle to the Colossians. I shall obviously not be able to survey the whole of that epistle in these four short sessions. As a tiny compensation, there will be a skeleton, and skeleton is the word, of an outline of that epistle, as it does, as it appeals to me, available to you in the course of the coming week, to fill up a little bit of what I shall not be able to cover. Finally, let me say what, uh, I normally say at this particular session of the conference. I know from long years of pers- pro- professional experience and having to attend lectures at the hour of four o'clock in the afternoon, that it is a most difficult hour to listen to lectures. Were it Gabriel himself or even Michael, some would find it difficult to attend and concentrate their vision upon their wings. And some of you have been traveling long distances and are doubtless tired from your duties over the weekend. I would have you know there's a sympathetic heart who stands before you. I used to find it very agreeable at such occasions and such times to listen to the lecture with my eyes shut. Opening them, of course, occasionally to encourage the preacher. If you feel that way inclined this afternoon, feel perfectly free. You will not, uh, embarrass me and not yourself, I hope, if you do so. On the other hand, if you're afraid of going to sleep through listening with your eyes shut, then the conference allows you to stand up and listen standing. Nobody will think you are a freak or anything like that if you listen standing up. The only other thing I can suggest is that I have your names before me here. And if you feel that you would be in danger of going to sleep completely by listening with your eyes shut, give your name in to me now, I will cross it off on the list. When I see you beginning to go to sleep, I will call out your name. More than that, I think we cannot do. Now let us read the holy word of God from the epistle to the Colossians, beginning in chapter one. Colossians chapter one verse three: We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens. Chapter two, please, beginning at verse one. For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of the understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden away. Finally, for the moment, in chapter three verse two: Set your mind on the things that are above, not on things that are upon the earth. For you died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. God give us good understanding of his word. It seems to me that three major topics dominate this short letter of Paul to the Colossians. They are as follows: our Christian hope, wisdom, and life. Three topics, and as each of them is is mentioned and broached, it proceeds to govern and control the part of the epistle to which it belongs. You may care to notice that as we begin our study by looking at chapter one. In the verse five that we read, we were introduced to the topic of our hope, which is laid up for us in the heaven. With the mention of our hope, that topic proceeds to dominate the chapter that follows. We find, for instance, in verse twenty three, as Paul comes to the end of the central paragraph, he speaks as follows, if so be that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard. Once more, in the final paragraph in verse twenty seven: to whom, says Paul, God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Hope then in the first part of the epistle to the Colossians, the hope that is laid up for us in the heavens, the hope of the gospel and the hope of glory. As we come to the central part of this epistle, we shall find it is no longer hope so much as wisdom that dominates its verses. Look at chapter two verse three if you will. In whom, says Paul, even in our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. So for the first paragraph of the second part of the epistle, look at verse eight which falls in the central paragraph. For there Paul warns us to take heed, lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy, as the ancient versions translate it. Philosophy, as you know well, is but a Greek word for the love of wisdom. And here Paul contrasts the true treasures of true wisdom and knowledge with this bogus wisdom, this bogus philosophy. And similarly, in the very last words of that chapter, verse twenty three, discussing certain ascetic practices, Paul warns us against them by informing us of this, that they have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and in humility and severity to the body, but are of absolutely no value whatsoever. Wisdom, then dominates the central part of the epistle, as hope dominated the first. With that, we come to the final part, where the dominant theme is not so much hope or wisdom, but life. Verse three, Paul reminds us, for you died and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall you also be with him, manifested in glory. Our life, our new life in Christ. While we look forward to its manifestation in the time to come, the remaining verses of the epistle remind us of the influence our new life should have upon our lifestyle now. For as verse, um, seven reminds us that once upon a time our lifestyle was disagreeable indeed. But now we have put off these things, putting off the old man and putting on the new. We're no longer to live after that old lifestyle, reveling in the things in which we walked before time when we lived in them. But we are to see to it that our actions and character are to be, are to be formed by this, our life union with the Savior. Three dominant things, therefore, in this epistle, life, wisdom, uh, uh, hope, wisdom, and life. And let's begin our serious study for a moment by looking at the delightfully evocative terms in which Paul describes each of these things. He says in chapter one and verse five, talking of our hope, it's not just a hope, but it is laid up for us in the heavens. He talks about the wisdom that is ours in Christ, but describes it thus as all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden away in Christ. And finally, he reminds us that the life that we now have, we have only in our union with Christ, for Christ is that life, and our life is hidden with Christ in God. Let's think for a moment, therefore, of those delightful descriptions. Says Paul in chapter one verse five, this hope of ours is laid up for us in heaven. And I love the term, and whenever I read it, it reminds us, reminds me at least, of the parable that our Lord Jesus told about the foolish farmer. And I wouldn't have you, of course, uh, emulate him. He was the man who, by using all the latest modern techniques, persuaded his fields to bring forth bountifully, so bountifully indeed, that in the end the man had a problem before him. He sat down and he said, you know, I have these many goods, my field so fruitful that I have no where to bestow my goods. So he sat down to confront his problem, and after scratching his farmer's head for a long while, he came up with a solution to his problem, which was this, said he, I will pull down my barns and I will build greater, and there will I bestow all my goods. And I shall say to myself, so. Oh, I think I can picture him sitting now on his sprung and feather bedded sofa, you know, and looking out the farmhouse window at these barns, bursting to the seams with all their delightful produce. I see him now, his feet up on the buffet, and there he's sitting saying to himself, so thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry. Poor fool. I wouldn't have you imitate him. Of course not. For he found the wrong solution to his problem, did he not? Laying up his treasure on Earth and forgetting that that very night his life might be required of him, and his pilgrimage on this planet be at an end, and he launched into a great eternity. How much wiser the man would have been to have lain up his treasure, his much goods, in a place where neither moth can eat or rust destroy or thief break in and steal, and thus have provided for himself a good foundation for the time to come. There's a rumor going around that eternity is going to last a long while. And if we would not only be there, but have the basic potential with which to enjoy eternity, a running block from which we may sprint into all the possibilities of eternity, then the Holy Apostle reminds us that we would be wise to lay up a good foundation against the time to ta- come, and to convert, as far as we are able, our material goods into eternal value. But there is just one thing in which I'd like you to imitate the old fool, without being a fool yourself, of course. Oh, my dear Christian friends, you have, let me remind you, you have much goods laid up for many years. You have a hope laid up for you in heaven. Ah, will you not allow yourself to imitate the old fool, at least in this? Sit back a moment. As you come in from the field, from your labours, from your pains, from your aches, and from your sorrows, and the burdens of life and all their exhausting demands. Now, in these few moments, allow yourself the indulgence, if indulgence it be. Sit back a moment. My brother, my sister, put your feet up, and in all simplicity and gratitude of heart, look out of your window, past this temporary planet. Look out, if you will, on the glorious reaches of eternity, and say to yourself, soul, by God's infinite grace, I have a hope laid up for me in the heavens. That hope of seeing the blessed face of Jesus Christ, our Lord. To see that face, to look upon which is the greatest bliss that any creature could possibly attain to, to look upon which was the ultimate reason why we were created. Oh soul, you have hope laid up for you of seeing the very blessed face of Christ, no longer in a dark, in a glass darkly, with need of subtle interpretations to explain the difficulties and apparent contradictions in our faith and practice. But to see him face to face with Christ, my Savior. And to see not only the blessed Lord himself, but all the great galaxy of the spiritual stars. Oh, what it will be like, won't it, to stand at the door? And as our Lord Jesus reminded us, to see Abraham, oh, and Isaac, ah, and Jacob, you'll see, and their wives arriving at the heavenly banquet. Oh, what crowns shall adorn them. All the majesty of those princes and princesses, conformed every one of them to the Savior. And I shall nudge old Sam Robinson and say, Sam, who is that? And Sam will say, well, that, that, that's Enoch, you know. He got here without dying, you know. Ah, thank you, Sam. Ah, I shall like to go and have a word with him. So be it, the banquet is over, I shall nudge myself around the place, and what a delight it will be to be with all the ten million myriad saints of glory and have time in eternity to listen to their experience of God and be eternally enriched by what they have learned and can pass on to the likes of you and me through their great, uh, experience. Oh, a hope laid up for us in the heavens. I do hope the prayer meeting won't last forever, because I want have an interest in the galaxies, and I want to have time to get off, you know, from singing hymns now and again to have a look around the galaxies and to answer the question, why has God got them all there? So they won't be there by the time you get there. They're all going to be destroyed, oh, I say, too bad. And nothing in their place. Oh, to spend some of the time of eternity at any rate, investigating the great schemes that almighty wisdom and almighty love has already devised, so that of age after age after age, we might fathom something of the great wisdom and glory of God in bodies that no longer limit or crib, cabin, and div- and confinement, but in glorious bodies. Praise God with personalities refined, able to take in and to react as is appropriate, spirits conformed to Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh friend, won't you allow yourself the luxury just now, like David did, when God through Nathan revealed to him the great purposes of God, saying, I will build him a house. And David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Lord, you've spoken of your servant for a great while yet to come. My brother, my sister, so has God spoken of you. You have a hope laid up for you in the heaven. Not only that, but says, uh, the apostle, we have, um, treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden away in Christ. And I mark first that God does not refer to them simply as wisdom and knowledge, good as those things are, but as treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And if God calls them treasures, be persuaded that he doesn't exaggerate. He who sits enthroned in unimaginable wealth of every conceivable kind. If he calls them treasures, then treasures they are, indeed. Treasures. But of what kind? Treasures, says Paul, of wisdom and knowledge. That wasn't your face falling, was it, I saw just now, just then? No? Good. Of course, I was just a little bit afraid that somebody would say, ah, dear me, I thought it was not going to be that kind of theoretical stuff when we got home to heaven, you know, wisdom and knowledge. I thought it was going to be real treasure, you know, golden streets and pearly gates and heavenly concord, uh, chariots. Whatever that may be. Oh, and what glorious and holy fun it will be to dwell in that real world, of which this world at best has only been a shadow. To be in a city that has foundations and shall never pass away. And yet, and yet. You'll not think me irreverent, will you? But if experience here is any guide, that you could get bored with over much gold. Could you not? Well, see, gold is cheaply valued by people that haven't had any. And if you'll read with a kind and sympathetic heart the hymns by Sankey and Company, you will observe how our great-grandfathers so looked forward to heaven because of all the golden streets and pearly gates, dear blessed souls. They were glorious warriors for Christ, many of them, and they lived in the most appalling poverty. And the sheer material glories of heaven spoke to their hearts. They had few glories here. But then you see, if you'd have been living in Solomon's time, so scripture, uh, tells us, uh, you wouldn't have thought much of silver. Why ever not? Well, because there was so much gold about the place. So if you got a few pounds of silver, you just kicked it down the drain. There was so much gold to be enjoyed, you'll see. And after a few eternities spent in heaven, golden streets in the BMA will be golden streets, won't they? You could get used to it. I am glad that the chief treasures will be better treasures than that. Treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and they are hidden in Christ. Treasures of wisdom. I mean, you surely have contemplated the little daisy from time to time. But yes, it's a pretty flower, and it looks nice and set- unless it ruins your lawn, and uh, but then it's only a daisy. Let some scientist skilled in these things, a botanist and a biologist and a biochemist come along and analyze the wonder of that daisy and tell you how it works and the wisdom that's in the thing. Then you could spend an entrancing hour or two considering the wisdom of the mind of the creator that's in a tiny little daisy. And in considering it, you're seeing something of the practical wisdom of God. Why, even the mosquitoes for which this place is famous, and they have laid on a whole brigade of them. I may tell you, I have felt their favors. But, uh, if you can keep them off you and put them, uh, under a microscope, then the zoologist will tell you what absolute marvels they are. The wisdom of that drill that pierces your arm so neatly and so painfully is a sheer wonder of mechanical ingenuity. Even the dear old mosquito, with its stings and its bites, who could at least, uh, admire the wisdom of its creator. And oh, my good friend, you whom life has stung with its sharp and piercing bite on the information of troubled emotions that follow. Ah, one day, one day yet you shall see the wisdom that was behind it, and you'll forget the pain in adoring the wisdom that both allowed it and employed it to your eternal better. Wasn't it thus with the Apostle Paul, as in his missionary labors, he wilted, burdened and sorrowing because of the hardness of heart of his Jewish fellow nationals to whom he preached, how few of them were converted. Indeed, he became so sorrowful and so burdened that, said he, I could wish myself a curse from Christ for their sake. What lifted the pain and drew its mark? Why, as he comes to the end of his discussion, and he begins to see the wisdom of God that overrules all man's obduracy and heart, and will use the unbelief of the Jew to bring the gospel to the Gentile, and in turn use the blessing of the Gentile to provoke the Jew to jealousy, that God may have mercy upon all it is possible to have mercy on. As Paul considered the wisdom of the strategy, then forgetting all the pain, he burst out into a tremendous doxology of God's praise, all the wisdom of it and the knowledge of it. And I can see you now in the glory, coming round one of the battlements of heaven with the broadest heavenly smile upon your face. Ah, when you discovered one more part of the wisdom of God. You say, why is it hidden? Well, for my part, I begin to think it's a lovely idea that the wisdom is hidden away. Because, uh, well, you wouldn't want to get bored, as I say, would you? And when things lie on the surface, we so easily get used to them. What a tremendous fun there is in discovering hidden things. Haven't you ever watched a boy who's received as his Christmas present a, a, a, a metal, uh, uh, indicator thing, and he puts it over the ground, hoping to find rich treasure, and the thing goes blimp, and he picks up an old rotten horseshoe. Oh, he thinks it's marvelous. It was the discovery of it, you see. All the archaeologists coming and sorting through the ruins and finding a clue that enables him to calibrate the ancient periods of ancient history. All the sheer fun of finding out. I can guarantee you now that heaven shall not be a bore. I think of the wisdom of God and the treasures of wisdom that are hidden in Christ. Prompt our quest, our seeking, and all the wonder of discovery. All the deep, deep love of Jesus. It would take ages to explore but one drop of all that ocean, or a grain from off its shore. Of course, hidden things have to be sought, don't they? It is easy for us to skip over the surface, even of God's holy word and the revelation God has given us therein, and we content with simplicities, whereas we might be millionaires in our understanding of its wisdom. There was a farmer who lived outside my hometown for many, many years. He was indeed a believer, and he farmed his broad acres out of the town of Ipswich in Suffolk in England, and reaped some profit for them, doubtless, for many, over many years. He grew old and wished to retire and sold the farm to a developer in those parts. Proceeded to put up crowds of houses where once the golden ears of grain had waved. There was a certain bulldozed man driving a bulldozer. He was driving the bulldozer one morning when something glisten- glittered in the soil, and stopping the bulldozer, he got down and felt amongst the mud and pulled out a golden torque bracelet, last worn by the Anglo-Saxons when they inhabited our part of the world. It was not only a delightful work of art that now resides in the British Museum for all admirers to see. I think even in those far off days, thirty years ago, it brought in thirty thousand pounds from the coven. You just imagine the farmer. His plow had been going over the top of it all these years, backwards and forwards, content with some ears of grain. If only he had dug deeper, he might have found the gold. It was a very difficult question for many of the people that bought houses on the estate thereafter, because some of them were already in their houses, and they planted the gardens, and the lawn was so nice, and the bushes were beginning to flower. Now, what should they do? Suppose, I mean to say, suppose they dug down and found gold, that would be marvelous. Worth ruining the roses for that. Suppose they dug down and they didn't find any gold, that was the trouble. And suppose I were to spend hours studying God's Holy Word and got nothing. But then suppose I didn't. Suppose I studied it and found the mind of Christ with all its unimaginable wealth. Oh, it would be like taking heaven to heaven with you, wouldn't it? But it's hidden, you'll see, on purpose, that it might draw forth our determination to discover. And in the discovery itself, a delight as well in the thing that we discover. Hope laid up for us in heaven. Treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. And a life hidden with Christ in God. Not hidden away so much for us to discover, but hidden, concealed, as the blessed Lord Jesus is now concealed, temporarily, from our world. We are assured nonetheless in the same breath that one day our Lord, who is our life, shall be revealed in glory, and when it happens, we too shall be revealed along with him in glory. The world last saw him as a crucified carpenter. Oh, they're surprised when they see him as he now is. When John saw him on the Isle of Patmos, John was obliged to drain the whole universe for metaphors and similes with which to describe the glorious person of our Lord. And then I think of you. Oh, what are you going to be? How will you look when at last, amidst the glory of the appearing Christ, you appear too. And shall you not be outshone? You will indeed. Shall you not be eclipsed? No, not eclipsed. For he who has dis- determined to work in you conformity to his own likeness will never have you eclipsed. But every single one of you revealed in glory. Truth to tell, we can sometimes see a spark of it or two shining out, and more than a spark. And particularly with those of us of whom it could be said, as with Paul, that the earthly old picture is beginning to be broken. And what we suspected long since, we can see is true, that the eternal glory of a transformed personality is already shining out from you, and we can see it. But what shall you be? Oh, how shall you be like when you are revealed with Christ in glory, the real you that so often was hidden, and you found difficult to express and difficult to convince other people of the real you that was underneath, because of the frail flesh and broken brain that hid and concealed the glory. When it's done with, and you are revealed. Say what it will it be? We know not what we shall be, but we know that when he appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Hope, wisdom, and life, therefore. Let us for a moment, as we close, concentrate on some of the things that are said about our hope. This hope, of course, is in all its parts founded in and secured by Jesus Christ, our Lord. The hope is laid up in heaven. Why in heaven? Because, my brother, my sister, that is where Christ is. And Christ is your hope. Listen to Paul writing to Timothy in his first l- letter, chapter one and verse one: Greetings from God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. He grants us security. Not only security, mark how effective our hope is. I hasten to say it, lest you think I'm a dreamer worse than Joseph and say, here comes this dreamer, this unpractical dreamer, come, let's slay him or something. These are not, uh, vain visions, my brothers. It is this hope that is one of the most powerful things and effective in the life of a believer. It, says Paul, you'll see, has produced faith in Christ, has this hope. We who have long since been believers, we sometimes forget what an impressive thing the Christian hope is. Stand around the grave of a departing believer and watch the faces of the unconverted, if you will. How it confounds them, doesn't it? They have no hope. Take your atheists and humanists and analyze them a little bit and take them to pieces. Do it as Christian as you can, but do it anyway. And you'll find for all their fair words, when it comes down to the practicalities of life, they have no hope. Bring them to a young mother of thirty five dying now in terminal stages of cancer. What will you say to them as a believer? Come on now, we we want something practical now. And you'll say, my dear, and in spite of it all, you are a creature formed in the image of God, fallen but redeemed through Christ. And even your very sufferings God can take and use them. Those sufferings that are but a little while to work for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. It is not lost, the pain and the sorrow and the difficulty. And life has its meaning. Its joys, insofar as they are joys, true joys, are valid. They are precursors of eternal joy. We have a hope. It leads to faith. Come on now, you atheist, you talk to the lady. I will find him a job, won't it? What shall he say? My dear, you have no hope. There is no hope. There never was. There never will be. Life itself, and that costliest, costliest of things like pain, are useless. Oh, thank God we sorrow not as them that have no hope. Our hope it is laid up for us in the heavens that gives life its meaning. It produces faith, it produces love to all the believers, says Paul. I know why you put up with me, half of you. Put up even with an Englishman. Sign of grace, that. But sign you've caught hold of the reality of the hope, and you feel so rich. You could put up and tolerate an Englishman. You could even forgive him when he needs to be forgiven. You feel wealthy enough. It's when we get so burdened and distant in our hearts from the Lord, and we lose the sense of the reality of our home, that we become less than charitable as Christians. Is it not so? There's no more practical thing than sitting back, not like the old fool now, but as citizens on the way to eternity, sitting back and considering your hope. How do I know if I've got the right thing? Well, because it produces fruit and produces growth. Ever since you heard the word of God in truth and knew the grace of God in truth. For it is this fantastic grace of God that changes our lives and makes them fruitful and brings an increase. Grace taught my wandering feet to tread the heavenly road, and who supplies each hour I meet while pressing on to God. Hope laid up in heaven because that's where the Lord Jesus is, points us to Christ in glory. Hope, says the middle of the chapter, the hope of the gospel. And what is that? Well, there Paul is talking to us about the great presentation day, when according to God's decree, Christ will take us and he will present us holy and without blemish and unreprovable in him. All because of his sufferings at Calvary. We should mark the third of those adjectives, holy, without blemish, and unreprovable, meaning without charge. It is the related word to that which Paul uses in Romans chapter eight: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, when it is God that justifies? Oh, for the gospel, based now not upon Christ in glory, but upon Christ who died upon the tree, reconciled through the blood of his cross. And I bid you contemplate your hope, the hope of the gospel. Oh, what a ceremony it shall be when the blessed Lord at last takes you, my good sir, my good madam, and with triumph and exceeding joy presents you before the presence of almighty glory with exceeding joy. Presenting us not only in the mass of the church to himself, but as every individual to the Father. Who shall lay any charge against God's elect, since it is Christ that died, risen, gone above, reconciled to God through the blood of his cross. And finally, the hope of glory. And this time, as we think of the hope of glory, we think of its secret, not only our blessed Lord in glory himself, nor now our blessed Lord hanging upon the tree and making expiation for our sin. But here, listen. This wonder of the mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And we sing with dear old Jay and Darby, do we not? We admire his poetry, if it's not his prose. And if it does, I shall be like thy son. Is this the grace which he for me has won, father of glory, thought beyond all thought, in glory to his own blessed likeness. Brought. How shall it be done, you say, that took us from the bankruptcy of earth, the moral disfigurement of our lives? How shall it be done to bring us home at last, Glorified glorified and and like the Savior. And the secret is this, not only that the Lord Jesus is in glory, not only that once he died for you at Calvary, but if you be a believer as you sit on this seat at this very moment, the living Christ is in you. This is no Fran- Hans Anderson fairy tale. For God who has willed the goal that you'll be like his son, has wheel- willed the means to that goal. Christ, this very moment, dwells within you to promote his life and to promote your increasing conformity to his image. And thus shall we be thinking of our hope, our wisdom, and our life. God bless his word for his name's sake.