Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 18 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymn book. Instead of singing the refrain
every time, we will just sing the refrain as if it was verse
two. So sing straight through. Let's
all stand together. gave his holy inspired word for
only one great end. The prophets and apostles, too,
revealed a sinner's friend. The Bible is a book of Christ,
it only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ,
it only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds. Those deeds of power and of grace
set forth ? The prophets all reveal our Lord
? ? As prophet, priest, and king ? ? The types of great redemption
show ? ? Christ, blood, and grace that flow ? told the Lamb, the Baptist said,
the sin-atoning God. As it was promised long before,
God's Son, as man has come, ? Our substitute obeyed the law
? Then died and rose again ? And in his word our savior said ?
Rejoice, I come again Please be seated. Good morning. The more we study
God's Word, the more we understand that hymn to be true. The Bible is a book of Christ.
In the volume of the book, it is written of me. The Lord rebuked
the Pharisees because they searched the scriptures, but they didn't
know that they were they which spoke of Christ. When we open
God's Word, our hope and our prayer is that the Lord will
be pleased to reveal Christ to our hearts. And that's always
our hope. And I want us to pray together
before we begin that the Lord be pleased to do that. I talked
to Bob Morrell this morning, who is Dee Park's father-in-law,
and Bob said that Dee is in a lot of pain, and his family's hoping
the Lord will be pleased to take him home soon. So I'll pray for
Dee and for Christy. And also Bert and Jennifer are
planning to be here. next week so they'll be back
here with us. Looking forward to that. I'll be going to Ole, Pennsylvania
to preach in their first conference where Caleb is pastoring and
next weekend. So, Hugo and Jeff will be preaching
here so you all remember to pray for us as as we prepare for that. Also, I got a call from a man
in Clearwater. His name is Billy Argaropoulos,
and last Sunday afternoon went and met him in Lakeland. And Billy pastors a very small
church in Clearwater, and the Lord has taught him the gospel.
and he's trying to preach Christ. And I was, Tricia and I were
encouraged to spend some time with him last Sunday afternoon. So, we're very hopeful the Lord will
give us a congregation we can fellowship with nearby. So, all right, let's pray together. Our heavenly Father, Thank you
for bringing us from our homes and giving us a place where we
can gather together, hear your word, by your spirit, and by
your grace, enter into worship. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us, Lord, that you would be pleased to make known to our
hearts your grace and your glory in the person of thy dear son,
that he would be lifted up. Thank you that your word does
speak of him. So Lord, we pray that as we open
your word, you would open our hearts, open the windows of heaven,
open our understanding, open our eyes, open what no man can
shut. And. Bless us with our presence
this day. Lord, we pray for D and for Christie
and for that family and ask Lord for your mercies and for your
grace and for your comfort to be upon them. in this time of
great trial. Lord, thank you for the fellowship
of the saints and the comfort that we have one with the other,
not only in one congregation, but between congregations. And
Lord, we pray that you would bless of Billy and the preaching
of your gospel in Clearwater to your glory. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen. All right, if you'll turn with
me to Colossians chapter four. I didn't look back to see when
we started, our study in the book of Colossians but I did
notice that the folder that I have that I collect my notes in I
do them by book and so when we go through a book I put all those
notes that that folder has gotten really thick so I know we've
been we've been in the book of Colossians for some time and
it's been such a blessing the Lord has taught us and and met
with us as we've considered his word. This morning I want to,
for now at least, bring a conclusion to our time in the Book of Colossians. And unlike most of the other
Sundays, we're going to take on a large portion of scripture.
the rest of the book that we haven't gotten to yet. But I think there's one overarching
message in these last words that are given to us in this book. You have your Bibles open in
Colossians chapter 4. We'll begin reading at verse 7. and we'll
read through to the end of the chapter and then we'll go back
and consider this overarching message. All my state shall Tychicus
declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister
and a fellow servant of the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for
the same purpose, that he might know your state and comfort your
hearts. with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one
of you. They shall make known unto you
all things which are done here." Paul is writing this letter from
prison in Rome. And Tychicus and Onesimus are
the carriers of this letter. And so he's telling the church
at Colossae Which, by the way, and this adds more weight to
the meaning of these passages, there's no indication in scripture
that Paul ever went to Colossae. When he addresses them at the
beginning in chapter one, I think around verse four, he says that
he was thankful to the Lord because he had heard of their faith.
And when he, Onesimus you remember is the runaway slave of Philemon
and so Onesimus is going back home. He's been in prison in
Rome as well and he takes with him a letter to his to his master
Philemon which we have in scripture as the book of Philemon. And
so these two men are bringing to a church that has never physically
met the Apostle Paul. If they saw him on the street
corner they wouldn't know who he was. But the affection that
is expressed in these words tells us that there is a bond of love
that's beyond the physical human interaction that we typically
think of in relationship to love. Love is, humanly speaking, develops
from having a relationship with a person, spending time with
that person. And that never happened between
the Apostle Paul and the church at Colossae. The reason I bring up the book
of Philemon is because Paul says to Philemon, He says, I hope
to come visit you if the Lord delivers me from this prison.
So every indication is that Paul had never been there. They had
never met him and he had never met them, which adds a whole
lot more weight to these greetings that are being shared amongst
these believers who had never been formally, physically introduced. They were basing their love on
the testimony of other believers. I hope that just by me telling
you about Billy over in Clearwater that the Lord has warmed your
heart toward a man that you've never met who's preaching the
gospel. This is a supernatural grace,
a work of grace done in believers' hearts. where we have a love
and affection and interest in the work of the gospel being
carried on in other places even if we've never been there and
never met them. This is a supernatural work of
grace. This is not the kind of natural
affection that men have as a result of a relationship, a physical
face-to-face relationship. So that's the overarching message
of these words. So Paul says to the church at
Colossae, I'm sending Tychicus because I'm concerned about your
welfare and he's going to report back to me how things are going
there. And he and Onesimus are going to bring to you a report
on how things are going here in my imprisonment and the preaching
of the gospel here in Rome. This is glorious. This is something
that only a believer who has a love for Christ and a love
for his church and a love for the gospel and a love for God's
word can enter into. Because naturally speaking, we
would not be concerned or interested in someone that we've never really
met. Let's read verse nine again.
With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of
you, they shall make known unto you all things which are done
here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, saluteth you. And Marcus,
sister son of Barnabas, touching whom you receive commandment,
if he come unto you, receive him." Paul had already written
to the church and said, if John Mark comes, receive him as a
brother. So all of these interactions are being based on the testimony
of other believers who are affirming their their love for the brethren and
saying this is a brother in Christ. And Jesus, verse 11, which is
also called justice. I brought this out Wednesday
night. I've been to Mexico several times
to preach. And in the Catholic tradition,
particularly in Mexico, parents will name their boys sometimes
Jesus and translated Jesus. And I've never met a Mexican
man by the name of Jesus who wasn't extremely proud of his
name. And I thought, You know, if my parents had called me Jesus
when I was born, I became a believer, I'd change my name. I'm not worthy
of that name. Somebody look to me and call
me by the name of my Lord, I would change it. Now Jesus would have
been a common name among the Jews. And here's the only place we
know of in the scriptures where another man other than our Lord
is called by this name. But it only stands to reason
that there would have been many Jews that would have had this
name from birth. It is the same name of Joshua
from the Old Testament. But what I want you to see here
is that when Paul mentions this man who is of the circumcision,
in other words, he was a Jew, he says Jesus who is also called
Justice. We don't call him Jesus anymore.
He was born with that name, but he goes by Justice now. What
a testimony of the glory of our Lord's name. Let's read this
together. In Jesus, which is called justice,
which is called justice. We don't call him Jesus, we call
him justice. Who are of the circumcision,
these only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which
have been a comfort unto me, Epaphras, who is one of you,
a servant of Christ, saluteth you. So Epaphras was in Rome
with the Apostle Paul, and he had come from the church at Colossae.
And he knew these people in Colossae. And he's saying, Paul's saying
to the church at Colossae, Epaphras, who is with me, who is one of
you, always labors fervently for you in prayer that you may
stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear
him record that he hath great zeal for you and them that are
at Laodicea and them in Hierapolis." Now these were towns that would
have been located very close to each other. You notice the
name Laodicea is one of the churches that the book of Revelation is
addressed to. And these churches were close
to each other. Luke, the beloved physician,
and Demas greet you. Salute the brethren which are
in Laodicea and Nymphos and the church which is in his house.
The churches would have, at this point, been house churches. They would have been meeting
in homes. And when this epistle is read
among you, cause that it be read also in the church of Laodicea,
and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. Now, we
don't have that epistle. Paul wrote to the church at Laodicea
another letter that would have been an encouragement to them,
and yet the Holy Spirit did not see fit to make that scripture. I mentioned this recently, men
talk about the lost books of the Bible. There is no such thing. All that God has inspired by
holy men that wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, he
has preserved in his word for us. And all that we need is contained
in the Bible as we have it. And the warning is given at the
end of the book of Revelation, three or four verses before the
very end of the Bible. If any man adds to the words
of this prophecy, the curses of this book will be added unto
him. And so we don't, we have, what we know here is that number
one, the Lord didn't preserve this letter. And number two,
the apostle Paul, at times was inspired by the Holy Spirit to
write inerrantly scripture, and at other times he would have
written things that weren't inspired. But he says to them, he says,
when you read this letter, read it to the other churches around
and mutually encourage them, and do the same with the letter
that I wrote to the Laodiceans, and say to Archippus, take heed
to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that you
fulfill it. The salutation by the hand of
me, Paul, remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen. Now, in chapter one, in his introduction,
he begins with grace be unto you. necessary. God's grace is for
sinners. If the Lord's not gracious to
us, if he's not merciful to us, if he doesn't give to us that
which we could never ever deserve, we won't be saved. We won't hear
from God. And so This letter is opened
with grace beyond to you and it's closed with grace beyond
to you. And everything in between is by God's grace. It's by God's
grace. There's no salvation apart from
grace. And grace is a complete work
of God so that everything, everything that God requires from me and
you. He provides. And he only accepts
that which he provides. And everything that he provides,
he provides in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we have nothing to add to that. That's grace. That's grace. We can't take away from it. We
can't add to it. Christ is all. and he is in all. And all these believers, all
these believers had the same hope. They had the same Lord. And how few and far between churches are. Gospel churches. Well, there's religious organizations
on every street corner, but churches that hold up Christ, That's a
rare thing to find. And believers who love Christ,
that love the gospel, love God's word, love his church, they're
a rare thing. We're cautious about embracing
someone until we know for sure or we have some confidence that
they really do believe the gospel and they love Christ and Christ
is their only hope. But once we embrace them, we
ought never to let that go. This hope that these believers
had was no passing interest. It wasn't a religious duty. What is the overarching message
that you get from these closing words to this church? Is it not that this is their
life? This is their life. And Christ
is our life. This is not just some thing that
we're doing on the side. Look over with me. We've been
studying 1 Peter on Wednesday nights. Turn with me to 1 Peter. Chapter 3, 1 Peter chapter 3. Look at verse eight. The stone,
in verse seven, which the builders rejected, God has made the head
of the corner a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, even to them
which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto also they
were appointed but you. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should
show forth praises of to him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light." Oh, to be called out of darkness
into his marvelous light, to know God, to have our sins forgiven,
to have the fellowship of the saints. This is a precious thing. It certainly was to these believers. John puts it like this. He said,
beloved, beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. And he that loveth not knoweth
not God. for God is love. This is the
work of grace that God does in the hearts of his people. We've
got to have Christ. We don't forsake the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is. We desire
to be with God's people and to hear God's word knit together
in the love of Christ Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 37 says, I will
give them one heart and one way. This is the overarching message
that I get from this. These strangers who had never
met are expressing their love for one another and their love
for Christ and their love for his church with such affection
and with such interest. and with such passion that it's
clear that the Lord has given to his people one heart and one
way. In Ezekiel chapter 11 verse 18,
I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within
them. And God gives his children a
new spirit, our spirits fellowship together. That's what's happening
here. This is a spiritual fellowship that's taking place. They weren't
interacting physically, and yet the depth of their love
was so real. This is God's work. In Acts chapter four, verse 32,
the scripture says, and a multitude of them believed. And this goes
on to tell us that there were 5,000 believers in Jerusalem.
This was the very early days of the church. And they were
all of one heart and of one soul. Christ is not divided. Believers
all believe the same thing. All the contentions and all the
arguments and disagreements that take place in religion is not
of God. It's when the Lord teaches you
the gospel, you know that Christ is everything. Does this mean
that these believers in the New Testament were not as sinful
as we are, that they were more spiritual, and that they, well, right after the miracle of Pentecost,
I mean right after the miracle of Pentecost, 3,000 people are
saved, the Spirit of God falls on this group of Jews, and within
no time at all, The Greek women go to the apostles and say, they're
distributing more food to the Hebrew women than to us, and
there was a contention already among them. No, no, these things happened. The Bible says that with Paul
and Barnabas, there was no small contention over what to do about
John Mark. John Mark had abandoned the Apostle
Paul on one of his missionary journeys, and then when Barnabas,
his uncle, wanted to bring John Mark again on their missionary
journey, Paul said, no, I don't trust him. I don't trust him. And there was a contention between
Paul and Barnabas over that, and they divided and went separate
ways. So there was offenses in the
church. There was disagreements in the
church. When the Apostle Paul went to
Antioch and found out that Peter had slighted the Gentiles in
order to give favoritism towards the Jews, Paul confronted him
to his face publicly and rebuked him for that because of the effect
it had on the gospel. And a wise man, A wise man receives
that correction and Peter obviously received it. These things existed
in the church. You just read the letter to the
church at Corinth. I mean, the church at Corinth
was so fleshly and there were believers that were getting drunk
at the Lord's table and arguing over who had better gifts than
the other. You know, so offenses took place in these churches.
Disagreements took place in these churches. But here's the message,
and here's the message of the end of the book of Colossians.
They had a bond in Christ that enabled them to forgive one another
and to accentuate that thing that was necessary among them,
the glorification of Christ and the salvation of their souls,
so that they didn't break fellowship with one another over these things.
They'd been forgiven and they forgave one another. And they
loved one another. This is the work of grace that
God does in the hearts of his people. And I'm so thankful. We're a selfish, sinful people. And we disregard the needs of
one another and we offend one another all the time. But in Christ, there's There's forgiveness and
there's a bond of grace and faith and love that makes those differences
irrelevant. Paul and John Mark are later
reunited. Matter of fact, he mentions him
in these verses we just read. John Mark is now with Paul in
Rome when he writes and he says, he greets you, he sends his greetings
to this church in Colossae. So, I was talking to a neighbor some
years ago and He was asking me questions about
what we believe and I was trying to share the gospel with him
and he listened and his response was, man, man, sounds like you
guys are all in on this thing. That was his response. And I
said, yeah, we are. You see, most people have just
enough religion to be miserable. They really do. You know, they're
trying to check the boxes, trying to, you know, find a way to heaven. They know death is coming and
they practice just enough religion to be miserable. We're all in on this thing. God makes you to be a believer.
Christ is your life. Amen. He is and that's what I
get from all these verses that we just read. The importance of fellowship and
mutual encouragement and prayer and ministry of the gospel. The Lord tells us in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12 that the church is like a body, and the body has
many members, and one part of the body cannot say to another
part of the body, I don't need you. And one part of the body
cannot say to another part of the body, I'm more important
than you are. The whole body, he's using your physical body,
the whole body. Is any part of your body that's
unnecessary? Any part of your body you want somebody to cut
off? No, no. And the only reason that the
body has life is because it's connected to the head and the
head controls everything in the body. So it is in our relationship
with Christ. You know, most of the 12 apostles
are only mentioned once or twice in the scriptures. Peter, James,
and John are exception to that, but the majority of them are
only listed in the Gospels a couple times, and then they just fade
away. I mean, it's not that they minister
the Gospel in Jerusalem, obviously. The Jerusalem church became a
very large church, and the apostles would have been part of that. But I bring that up in order
to say that in our text, look with me, go back with me to verse
seven. All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you." Tychicus is
mentioned seven times in the Bible, seven times. He's a traveling companion of
the Apostle Paul. He's from Thessalonica. He heard
the gospel from Paul and then he began to follow him and ministered
with him. And now he's in Rome and Paul
is sending this letter by him back to the church at Colossae,
which no indication that Tychicus had ever been to Colossae, but
he's happy to go and take these letters with him. what the Lord records about Tychicus
in his word. Three things, a beloved brother, a beloved
brother. Now men love titles, don't they? Men love the praise of men, and
they love the accolades and the acknowledgements of other men,
and they love to be held high in the esteem of other men. And
God says that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
to him. And here's the esteem that God
gives to this man called Tychicus who's mentioned seven times,
seven's the number of perfection. And this is the title that I
would like to have and I hope that you would like to have if
your name was written in God's word. What higher esteem could be given
to any child of God than he's a beloved brother? This word brother means that
he was birthed from the same womb and brothers in Christ are
birthed in the same gospel, the same Christ and same church.
There's no division and there's no separation among beloved brethren. The second thing he says about
them is that he's a faithful minister. He's faithful. It is required of a steward,
and that's what a minister is. He's just a steward. He's been
one that's been given a responsibility. He's been given a message, and
he's been faithful to it. It's required of a steward that
he be found faithful. God make us faithful. Faithful
to the gospel, faithful to one another, faithful to Christ. No higher title, esteem could
be given to any man. These things aren't valued among
the world. They don't consider them to be
important. We consider them to be the most important. A beloved
brother, a faithful minister, And thirdly, a fellow servant
in the Lord. He serves the same master. He
answers to the same master that I answer to. Oh, might the Lord
use these titles to identify us. He's gonna find out how you are,
and he's gonna give you some mutual encouragement. He's gonna
comfort you. Now, who needs comfort? Who needs comfort? Those who
are discomforted. Those who are afraid. Those who
are sinful. Those who, are discontent and dissatisfied
and sorrowful and filled with pain, those are the people who
need comfort. God's people need comfort. They
need to be comforted. And the Lord told the prophet
Isaiah, he said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem and tell them their warfare is accomplished.
So Tychicus now is a faithful minister and is a beloved brother. And as a fellow servant is going
to take that message back to Colossae and tell them, your
warfare is accomplished. Your sin's been put away. Christ
has satisfied all the demands of God's holy law and justice
on your behalf. This is our hope. Christ is our
life. And this gospel message is our
hope. We're dying sinners, aren't we?
When Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, he said, he
said, there's going to come a day when the trump of God is going
to sound and and the dead in Christ are going to be raised.
And those of us which are allowed to be caught up together with
them in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. And
then he says this comfort ye one another with these words.
There's no comfort in this world. All the things that this world
has to offer are vain, they're empty. To the believer, the unbeliever
might find great comfort in this world. They're completely satisfied
with all the things that this world has to offer. But the child
of God cannot be. He cannot find comfort. He cannot
find contentment. He cannot find satisfaction in
anything this world has to offer. Paul says, Tychicus is going
to bring you a word of comfort. And he's going to come back and
comfort me with a message of salvation that God has done for
you. Because I need to be comforted.
Here I am chained in a Roman prison. Perhaps at this point,
Paul was under house arrest, but either way, he was in bonds. And you can only imagine. the discomfort that such an experience
would cause. And what comforted Paul's heart
was to hear about the grace of God at work in another church
among people that he had never met. This was a great encouragement
and comfort to him. There is no other place to go
for comfort. He said, Onesimus is going to
come to you, and we already mentioned the book of Philemon, who was,
you see in verse 9, Onesimus, he was a runaway slave. Now,
you know, we sometimes think, well, there's too many differences,
you know, among God's people. In this church, in most of the
New Testament churches, probably the majority of the people in
there were slaves. They were property. They didn't
have freedom. They were owned by another man.
They could be beaten and killed by their owner anytime the owner
wanted to without any recourse from the law. And then in the same churches
would have been owners of slaves. I mean, what a contrast. There
would have been Jews and Greeks and Gentiles and rich and poor. And Paul writes to Philemon and he
says, this man who was unprofitable from you, and when Philemon ran
away, he stole from Philemon. And now Paul's sending him back. And he tells Philemon, he says,
receive him as a brother, as a brother. What a, what a difference. Are there any differences, any
differences that we have that aren't overshadowed and made
irrelevant by the gospel? Any? There really aren't. Not if we're children of God,
not if we're members of the body of Christ. The last thing I want to mention
is in verse 12. Epaphras, who is one of you,
a servant of Christ, saluteth you always, laboring fervently
for you in prayer, that you may stand perfect and complete in
all the will of God. Is there anything that the flesh
fights against in your life more than prayer? I mean, it's a it's a hard thing
to pray. It's a hard thing. You remember
when the Lord, when the disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane
and the Lord said, you know, you stay here and pray and I'm
going to go and Lord sweat great drops of blood and he came back
and he found him asleep and he woke him up and he said, wake
up, wake up, the hour has come. he said to them, he said, I know
the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and he went away
and he prayed and left them praying and when he came back they were
asleep again. You know, brethren, the experience,
don't you? You have that same trouble being
able to fight against your weak flesh. This matter of prayer
is a is a fervent, laboring fervently for you in prayer. It's a work
of grace. Look at Colossians chapter 3,
verse 1. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right
hand of God. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth. How difficult it is for us to
set our affections on things above when so many things in
this world calling for our attention and
for our affections. For you are dead, you're dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ who is
your life, when Christ who is your life shall appear, You shall
also appear with him in glory, mortified therefore the members
of your body." How strong this flesh is and how often it needs to be
put to death and acknowledged that it is dead. That's how we put it, looking
to Christ. He's the only one that can do
it. That's what Paul was talking
about in Romans chapter 7 when he said, to will is present with
me, but how to perform that which is good I find not, O wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Thanks be to God through Christ
Jesus I am free. He has put away our sin. He has
delivered us. And he has called us into fellowship,
first with him and then with one another. And this has always
been the state of God's church, God's church. Our Heavenly Father, bless your
word and forgive us, Lord, of our sin. And Lord, we pray that you would
cause us to have one mind and one spirit, one soul, one hope. Christ to be all and that he
would be in all for we ask it in his name.