The Modern View of the Gospel 2

Colossians 1:6b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Colossians 1:6, starting with the last couple words of verse five, goes, “The gospel, which has come
to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing — so among yourselves, from
the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

I said in our last talk that today, the gospel is not doing that. Part of the reason for this is,
the gospel today is so naked, so bare, and so lacking in the richness and the depths that God has
put in it. Not least is the case regarding the last part of that verse – “from the day you heard and
understood the grace of God in truth.”

Of course, the dear souls today have no idea of the depth of the grace of God. We know a little
about it when we “say grace” – “we’re saying grace.” And we know a little about it when we thank God
for all that has happened to us. But to understand the grace of God in truth – they have little
understanding of that. It’s a really “pat” little gospel that is preached today. “Jesus died for our
sins, and so we’re forgiven. We’re going to heaven. Yippee! Now let’s get on with life.”

It’s very much that kind of attitude. It’s very much, “The grace of God is that at least my sins are
taken care of now. I am not right, and I do not do the right things. But – thank God for Jesus!
Because his death has been for me, then I don’t have to worry about these sins.” It’s the same as a
friend of ours who says, “I know where I’m going!” A little bit of the feeling comes over, “The
others might not know, but I know where I’m going.”

If it’s not that, it’s certainly a simplicity that is not good. It lacks depth and profundity, and
really has not much idea of the grace of God. Part of it is that there’s very little interest in
God’s heart.

Really, I’m ashamed of myself. But only on a rare occasion did I think of the heart of God. But
through the City Mission I would end up places downtown {in Belfast where he grew up} that weren’t
so savory. Often they were the dear Catholic places. Often I would go into a Catholic living room,
and there would be the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the wall.

It made me sick of heart – but not in an encouraging way. I thought, “Uhhh! What a terrible thing to
have – the heart of Jesus with his dear breast open.” But at least I saw some attempt to understand
God’s heart of love. But rarely besides that did I think of the heart of God.

Nowadays, what do you think the heart of God is like? Nobody thinks of that. We quote him madly –
whether he’s for abortion or against abortion, or whether he’d agree with Obama on this. We say
we’re interested in his opinion. But the heart of God? We’ve said it before – we have an idea why it
is – because on the whole, we’ve inherited the idea of God as we get it from Lucretius, Livy, Julius
Caesar and Virgil.

It’s the idea of the Latin and Greek god as an impassive person – hardly a person – an impassive
being. We tend to tie him up with Mars, the god of war. We think of him as somebody who’s impersonal
– certainly not a human being, and not a personable person. So we in a way don’t think of him having

a heart.

If you press me and say, “But don’t we all talk about him loving us?” Yes, but who has any idea that
he cuddles us? Who has any idea that he’s soft and gentle? We use the word gentle. We certainly
wouldn’t use the word soft. We know he comforts you, “stands you up and gives you strength, and
gives you backbone!” But we don’t have too much idea of a gentle, kindly, loving Father who really
knows what I’m feeling. It’s not so much he’s not interested in what I’m feeling. He might be, but
he doesn’t have time!

I think that’s an accurate description. I think that’s what the majority of people think of when
they think of God – if they think as much of him in a human way as that.

To tell you the truth, I think they think of him as a bunch of beliefs — about abortion, politics,
this person who is bad, or this person who is good. But I don’t think for a moment they think of him
as a person.

It caught you off balance, partly because the man was a scientist or a lawyer. He quoted Job: “He
yearns for the creature his hands have made.” {Job 14:15} The man was a very successful lawyer. In
his obituary, it said that this man, who was a Christian, was touched by this verse — that God
could actually yearn for the creature his hands had made.

But – who thinks that? They don’t think that. I’m not for abortion or for unwanted pregnancies. But
the wee girl who finds she’s going to have a baby, and she’s not married. Why does she think of the
waste basket? Why would she even think of putting it in a waste basket, of putting it in a bag and
hiding it on a train after it was born? {As happened recently}. Because she is convinced that this
person {God} would have nothing to do with her.

So there’s a tremendous need for you to spend your life, if necessary, on the Internet, explaining
the heart of God, and convincing people that our God has a heart, and his heart is concerned with
our hearts.

I was in the bookshop yesterday, and I saw this magazine on the shelf {holding it up}. I was looking
at computer magazines, and this caught my eye on the shelf. “Jesus” Man of History, Figure of
Faith.” It catches you. That picture on the cover is not the one I would necessarily have chosen.
There are other ones inside that are alright, and there are a lot of other ones that we would agree
are churchy ones. But the important thing is: why would they ever manage to get put on an ordinary
magazine shelf? I think it’s the American Bible Society who publishes this magazine.

But that’s what we want to do – put something like this on the Internet. You can see, it’s not so
offbeat that they are not able to think of putting it on an ordinary magazine shelf.

If you ask me, “Are people interested in God?” Of course they are. I think they always are. But what
they’re not interested in is joining a mega church, or having someone try to persuade them to join a
mega church. But I would say there are more and more people becoming aware that there is a huge
universe out there – and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that some of us might get out
there some time. I think more and more people are aware that the universe is vast. In their minds is
the thought, “Isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t it amazing? When God has us as the few human beings that we
know of in the universe – isn’t it remarkable that he has us here, and that we have a life that will
go on after this life? And I wonder what we’ll do there in that vast universe.”

So I think more than ever that people are interested. But I think what they desperately need, want,
and miss, is the heart of God. I don’t think they have any notion.

There is one guy who emailed me, who has got the important question. He says, “I would be glad if
you would elaborate on the phrase, ‘created in Jesus’” – which is the phrase of the central truth
I’m trying to put over! That is the most difficult one! I’ve started an answer. Somehow he’s come
across this phrase. {Part of Ephesians 2:10}

Of course it’s the central question of this whole gospel that I’m selling to you – because that’s
the heart of it all: We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus {first part of Ephesians
2:10}. That’s the most difficult part. I wouldn’t mind trying to answer all the other questions, but
that’s the most difficult one: “Created in Christ Jesus.”

But most people have no idea. I bring it before you again – they don’t even know that exists in the
Bible. And if they knew – they’d just be the same as the person who asked me about it. “What do you
mean? Created inside my mother, I know. But created inside Christ Jesus – what does that mean?” They
have no notion that that’s in the Bible. And they have no idea that we have that degree of closeness
to the Deity. None at all.

So I would bring it before you very seriously: the gospel that is missing in these days is: God’s
heart is real, and that we are part of him and his Son. They have no idea of that. If you just state
that, they will just say, “You’re stupid!” Or they will say, “I just don’t know what you mean.” So
it takes elaboration and thought to make that clear to people.

But I’d bring it before you. Can’t you see how it would transform a little inferiority complex?

We know a little fellow that Irene has gotten to know in town here. He’s a dear fellow – an
assistant. In the world’s eyes he’d be thought of as a “little nothing.” Can you imagine how the
truth I’m talking about transforms “a little nothing”? So – getting this truth out to people is
worth it.

I think God has given us the beginnings of an insight into him that is what the world needs. I’d say
to you all – thinking about that, making attempts at writing it yourselves, watching out for images
that could get it over, praying that God could give you more light on it, spending the rest of your
lives getting that over to people on the Internet – would be a wonderful occupation and wonderful
thing to do.

Do they understand the grace of God? No idea! They have no idea that God has made us in his Son, and
then has given us the freedom to do whatever we want to do, so that not even Marty can do he wants
to do – but Hitler can do what he wants to do. Not only can Colleen do what she wants to do, but the
guy who killed the people in the Boston Marathon – that he can do what he wanted to do. And it would
all take place inside Jesus, inside our Father’s heart. He would bear that.

Not only would he bear it, but he would let it go on until that person determines to stop it. That’s
it.

That’s at least what, “His steadfast love never ceases” means. We think it means more than that. But
at least it means that. “His steadfast love never ceases.” He keeps loving the person, even though

that person is killing his own Son.

Then of course the obvious corollary of that is: everything that we do, he feels. We are in his Son
now. In that sense, we are in him {God the Father} now. In that sense, there’s nothing that we do
that he does not feel.

You know what the normal view is. The normal view is, “Oh, of course God knows everything! Oh yes,
he does know everything. He knows where all the winds are and all the rivers. He knows which nation
is the strongest. He knows what’s happening between Germany and France. Oh yes! He certainly knows
what I’m doing. He must be looking through his telescope and he sees this little beetle moving over
here, and this little fly. He certainly sees me.”

That’s as far as it goes. “He maybe knows when my Dad dies. He maybe knows if I ever get married.
Does he know what I’m going to do tomorrow morning? Well, I suppose he does. But I don’t think he’d
be interested.”

But what the Bible says in Heb 4:15 was: “He was touched by our infirmities.” {Paraphrased} Maybe
they’ll go as far as, “Well, that was Jesus. That was him as a Son of God and a Son of Man here on
the earth. They don’t say he was play-acting, but they say, “He was being a human being. So of
course he was touched by our infirmities. He wept when Lazarus died. He wept with Mary and Martha.
Yeah.”

“But, does he weep when I do something? Well, can you expect him – when he has so much to do?”

I think I’m right, and that you know that this is it. I think they have no notion and no idea that
what they do hurts God. If you use that term, “hurts God”, they agree with the term – a metaphorical
term that somehow or other the actions you do either forward his cause or don’t forward his cause.
In that sense, they hurt his plan and spoil his plan. But mostly it’s that kind of thing. They upset
his plans.

He’s thought of as a great chess player, who is moving the chessmen around. He’s not connected to
the chessmen at all. He just moves them. He doesn’t feel bad when the chessman falls over! He just
picks it up and moves it.

There’s no feeling for our Father, no sense that our Father has a feeling for them and loves them.
Yet you know fine well, that’s the heart of the apostolic gospel. That’s why Paul says, “The love of
Christ constrains us, because we judge that Christ died for all, therefore all have
died.”{Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 5:14} The love of Christ constrains us — that is, drives us and
motivates us to do what we do.

People have no feeling of that. If you say to me, “Now wait a minute. The leading commandment is,
‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and strength, and mind, and thy neighbor as
thyself.’ That’s right! I believe you ought to love God. And I believe if I do that properly, I’d
probably obey the greatest commandment. And I do love God! I don’t spend a lot of time saying, ‘Oh,
God, God.’ But I love God. I mean, I have a respect for him. I have gratitude for him.”

Are you ever sorry for him? “No, I’m never sorry for him.” Do you ever feel that he would be
heartbroken in this situation? “Heartbroken? No. I mean, he wouldn’t like to see all those people
killed in that ferry in Korea that went down. Heartbroken? Well, maybe if a baby was floating in the

water.”

But, has anyone encouraged them to think otherwise? Including my profession {ministers}. Who has
encouraged them to think otherwise? Not many.

If you said to me, “Where does the hardness in the world come from?” Isn’t it obvious? It’s obvious.
The great heart that loves it, and that so loved it that he gave his only begotten Son – nobody has
any connection with that.

So there’s a burning need for us to preach the gospel. I hate the term – “to preach the gospel.”
There’s a burning need that men and women would begin to know and understand the grace of God.

I put it to you. If you asked anybody, “Do you understand the grace of God?” They immediately say,
“Grace is undeserved favor, his undeserved favor, his mercy, his forgiveness of us. Yes, I
understand the grace of God. It’s his undeserved favor and his mercy.”

It’s so different from the dear man washing the disciples’ feet — showing them real love, and not
just “his undeserved mercy.” So – there’s a great need for people to hear about the heart of God.

So I would say to you: express and explain the real gospel. That is, explain and express the heart
of God. Enable men and women to know that God feels everything we do, and everything they do, and
that he knows what it is, because he has made them part of his Son, and he knows his Son very
intimately. He doesn’t have to say, “Son, why is your foot sore? Why is that hole in your side
bleeding, and throbbing?” He doesn’t need to say that. They are so close to each other. They know
each other.

So it’s a great privilege we have. I’m sure you sense, “That’s right! That is where it’s at. That is
where people are at. And that’s why the religious stuff that goes on today does nothing for them and
doesn’t touch them at all. Because it has nothing to do with these things at all.”

And yes, they get harder and harder with every divorce, and with every separation — because there’s
no softening influence anywhere in the world now that is touching them. That’s why they like movies
– because they see imaginary people who seem to have imaginary feelings for each other. So they kind
of “wash out the inside part of themselves.”

Really they don’t. They fill their inside with all kinds of imagined feelings that don’t affect
anybody’s life. But it kind of sublimates their desire to have feeling, which figures so little in
their lives.

Of course, it’s why all the drugs are so popular – whether it’s anxiety drugs that people take, or
worry drugs, or whether they’re “getting high” drugs. That’s why people take them – because they
feel there should be more feeling in life! There should be more satisfaction in life than there is.
There should be more excitement in life than there is! There should be more intimacy in life than
there is. There should be more feeling for each other than there is.

That’s undoubtedly what drives them into the charismatic worship. You feel in church there should be
something more than just mind! Something more than concepts. Something more than just people
standing up and singing. There should be some feeling!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen two things more popular than they are now. One: the bear hug. It’s
never been so popular as it is now. Two: the kiss-kiss. It’s never been so popular! And yet we all
know – there’s something kind of strange about it. When we see some of them do bear hugs, we think:
that isn’t natural to you. But you’re doing it, because, “That’s what the guys do! All bear hug.” Or
kiss-kiss. Well that’s the European way. We kiss on each cheek.”

It’s a world that is pretty cold, and pretty unsatisfied. The only thing you still get on the
Internet is the intellectual religion — but what I mean is, the not really intelligent religion. I
mean the mental religion – something that affects the mind and the emotions.

You can see it. It’s the whole game with the psychology, the whole game with all the trouble we have
with groups. We laugh about the film Romantics Anonymous. But we know more and more that’s what
people try to get into – get into a group that will encourage you to relate to other people, and to
occupy your whole personality with people. It’s the desperate need of the day.

So I’d ask you to take seriously Colossians 1:6 – “from the day you heard and understood the grace
of God in truth.” Can you now share that with the world in ways that are understood, simple, and
straightforward? I think there’s a great opportunity for us.

I do agree with you: “You have to think out of the box,” as they say. Really all you have to do is
think straight, and think of some of those things that I’ve mentioned, and then get to work
yourselves.

It certainly won’t all be solved with the right pictures. But undoubtedly, if you’re going to
communicate on the Internet, it will have to be with good visuals and images, with music by all
means, and with words. But it needs to be something pretty plain and straightforward. But I think
there’s tremendous need to enable our dear Father to share his heart with the people that he has
made. Let us pray.

Dear Lord, you know what runs through our minds as we each think, “Oh, but how could I do that?” We
know that you have given us the answer: I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.
Lord Jesus, it’s our time spent with you that will enable you to do these things through us.

We see, Lord, that it is just pride that makes us think of our own ability. We see plainly that we
have no ability compared with you. But you do have ability, and you have said that you would
strengthen us, and that your strength would be made perfect in our weakness.

So Lord, we would come to you, and ask you to help us here. Help us to work out websites, images,
texts, and writing, that will enable people to know, dear Father, your heart, and begin to guide
their lives by what you are feeling and thinking.

We know, Lord, that that’s why you put us each here – so that you, through your dear Son in us and
his Spirit, could express to the world what you’re thinking and what you’d like done.

So Lord, we give ourselves to you anew this day. We ask you to lead us forward. We don’t know at all
how we will do it. But Lord, we will present ourselves to you so that you will begin to do it
through us. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, be with each one of us, now and evermore. Amen.