Now let's just begin with verse
seven of Colossians one, and see if the Lord will teach
us some beautiful gospel truth in
this passage of scripture. Verse seven, as you also learned
of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful
minister of Christ. When we're studying through these
books, we, of necessity, have to sort of stop in the middle
of a thought, because we just can't always spend the time to study
a larger passage. But when he says, as you also
learn, of course, he's talking about the gospel in verse five.
The gospel. for the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven, verse five, where have you heard before in
the gospel of the truth, in the word of the truth of the gospel,
which is come unto you, as it is in all the world, bringeth
forth fruit, as it doth also in you, that since the day you
heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth, as ye also learned
of Epaphras, that gospel that accomplishes all of that, it
teaches you the grace of God in truth, the gospel of his grace
in Christ, as opposed to the false gospel of works that's
preached in this religious world. And this is how people learn
the gospel. They hear people preach it. You
learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. Second Timothy
2.2, the things that thou hast heard of me, Paul said to Timothy
there, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men who shall be able to teach others also. Epaphras was a fellow
servant to Paul and a minister of Christ to the church at Colossae. So you see the preaching of the
gospel, which clearly this refers to, that gospel you learned of
Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. So preaching the gospel and being
faithful as a minister of Christ is the same thing. If you preach
the gospel, you're a minister of Christ. because he is the
gospel. The word faithful is integral
to the word minister. This is, of course, cause for
self-reflection for me. Am I a faithful minister of Christ? Faithful here means about what
you would think it would. It means one who can be relied
on. A faithful minister of Christ. Now, one that can be relied on
is not just talking about somebody that shows up. We use the word
faithful in that way sometimes. They're faithful. It means they
attend the gospel. This is not talking about just
showing up when it's time to preach. I pray that you, by the grace
of God, can rely on me to be a minister of Christ. That's
the context here. A faithful minister of Christ,
faithful in preaching Christ. The words of Christ define what
it means to be a minister, as well as the word faithful does.
It's one that can be relied on. And you must be a minister of
Christ to be faithful. because that's what God sent
us to do. Can I be relied upon to preach nothing save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified? That's the question, and that's
essential. Showing up is one thing. Preaching
in season and out of season is one thing. But what are we a
minister of? What is it that we minister? Do we preach the word, as the
text says, the word? Christ is all in the preaching,
or you don't have a faithful minister of Christ. God said, comfort my people,
for example. How does that happen? What's
your comfort? He maketh you to lie down in
green pasture. He restores your soul. What else has he commanded me
to do? What was the Lord's message? He said, you teach them all things
that I've commanded you. Go ye and preach the world, preach
the gospel to every creature, teaching them whatsoever things
I've commanded you. What was his message? I am. I am the bread, I am the door,
I am the truth, life, The way, come unto me. That was his message. Whosoever
believeth in me hath everlasting life. We're not only his ministers,
but we're ministers of him. That's what it is. Do you need healing of your mind and your spirit
Christ is the balm of Gilead. Do you need to be saved? His name is Jesus for he shall
save. He'll save his people from their
sins. Do you need peace this morning? You know, we go through this
life and we think we need things. There are certain things we think,
well, I need that and I need this. And then we come here,
a lot of times the Lord is gracious to put us in our right mind. He sits us down and clothes us
in the righteousness of Christ and puts us in our right mind
and we're able to realize, what do I really need? Do you need peace in your heart?
Christ made peace by the blood of his cross. To whom shall we go? Right now. To whom shall we go? And the word minister here means
one who executes the commands of another. I didn't volunteer. We're ambassadors for the king. You know what else minister means?
And this is interesting. We've seen this before, but I
don't know if everyone here has heard this. Minister also means
this, as I said, it means one who executes the commands of
another. That's clear. The Lord gave us a commission.
were ambassadors of King Jesus. But you know what minister also
mean? You look this up in Strong's Concordance. The original word
means this, a waiter. One who serves food and drink. Is that not a beautiful definition
of what we do? I want you to turn to Acts 17
too, because again, I know some of you have heard this, but I
don't know who all has and hadn't. I want you to see this. What
a beautiful thing. Come and dine, the Lord said,
come and dine. Acts 17 too. and keeping in mind that the
word minister there, a faithful minister of Christ, a waiter. It literally says that. That's
word for word. A waiter, one who serves food
and drink. And listen, Acts 17 too, and
Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath
days, reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, That's what
we were talking about this morning. It can't be denied, can it? If
you reason with people your opinions, they've got their own opinions.
If you reason with people all the deductive things that you've
come up with, you know, I've written these things out and
all that, they've probably got their own deductions that they've
come up, but reason with them out of the scriptures. How are
you gonna argue with God? He reasoned with him out of the
scriptures, opening and alleging. That word opening means about
what you think. It means to open up, which in
the case of the scriptures, it doesn't just mean he did this,
but he made it clear, he opened it up, he spoke clearly. But that word alleging is very
interesting. It means to place beside or near,
i.e., food placed on a table. You see what he did? He said,
here's the bread of life right here, right in here, right here,
what God said. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes out of God's mouth. Here's what
God said. Opening and alleging what? That
Christ must needs have suffered. Christ crucified. That's our
message. A faithful minister of Christ.
God make me that. Paul was a waiter. What was on the menu? The suffering and death of the
Son of God. as surety, as a sacrifice, as
the offering that God will accept for his elect. May he always be the only thing
on the menu right here. And notice he identified with
this Jesus that I preached to you. He's the Christ I'm talking
about. He's the one. Verse 80 back in our text, who
also declared unto us your love in the spirit. The fruit of the
spirit is what? First shot. By this shall all
men know that you're my disciples. Your love for one another. What Epaphras told Paul about
these people was concerning their love. It was great evidence of the
Lord's blessing upon them. That's how you'll know that they're
mine. And let me ask you this, have
we learned to differentiate between what passes for love in this
world and the love of the brethren? Have you experienced the difference? I get along with about two people
in this world that I can stand to even be with. And look, I'll just be real honest
with you, our neighbors ain't one of them. I don't wanna be
unkind or unsociable or whatever you wanna call it, but I talk
to people in this world for five minutes and as they go on and
on about themselves and what they've done and this and that
and sometimes horrible things, I'm not interested. I have a couple of friends that
I think are lost and we have a lot in common and I pray for
them. And that's another thing, but the
love that God gives, the way that he knits the hearts
of his people together It's different. It's special. It's precious. That unity is like that ointment
that ran down Aaron's beard. There wasn't anything else like
it. It was prescribed by God and it was precious to God and
it was precious to his people. It was a sweet smelling savor
unto God, that unity. Love in the spirit, love for
Christ, love for his people, love for his minister is clearly
included here in the context. The Lord was building a church
in Colossae. And you could see that. You could
see that it manifested itself in love. Knowledge puffeth up, but love
buildeth up. Love in the spirit. Again, there
are a lot of things called love in this world. This love we're talking about
is the fruit of the spirit of God. There's nothing else like
it. Verse nine, for this cause we
also, since the day we heard about it, do not cease to pray for you. Isn't that interesting? I know Paul rejoiced to hear
of that love. Won't you imagine it? It blessed
his heart, I know it did. That's not what he said here. I know often he did say that
he thanked God for the brethren and for the love they had, the
gospel and for one another. But there's a lesson here in
what he said here. Paul said, I've heard a wonderful
thing. I've heard about your love in
the spirit. And here's Paul's reaction to
that. I'm praying for you. I'm praying for you. This love, this unity, this fellowship,
this blessing of God is so rare and precious. And by God's design, it's fragile. I don't mean to say that God
can give it and we can ruin it. It's in God's hands and if he
blesses it, and he prospers it and increases it, we can't mess
that up. I'm not saying that, but by God's
design, it's a fragile thing. So easily disrupted, and Paul
understood this. That's why his first reaction
to hearing of their love in the Spirit was not to think, well,
everything's great there, no need to worry about them. His
first reaction was, I'm praying for you. I'm praying for you. Paul came before the throne of
God and said, God, fill with the knowledge of your will. Is
that what it says? With the knowledge of your will
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. May God fill us with the knowledge
of His will. Y'all know I was in religion
for many years as a young man, teenager. It was common to say we're seeking
the will of God. We just wanna seek God's will. God's will is clearly revealed. What are you looking for? When
you say that, what are you looking for? Knowledge of the will of God
is not learning some secret intricacies in the Bible or God's purposes
and all of the details in this world as they play out. We're
not ever gonna know that. He works in mysterious ways.
But his will for us is clear as a bell. Knowing that is like knowing that Christ is
all. Do we need to know that? And yet, does God need to teach
us that? We know his will, but knowing
his will, we want to know his will. God's will is to glorify his
son. You're gonna say, well, I just
wanna be in the will of God. Then you need to find out what
God's doing. He's glorifying his son. He's making a marriage for his
son. But I'll tell you this, he's
doing that in a bazillion different ways that we can't even see.
Every second throughout this world, he's doing that. But I
know how we do that. I know how we get in on that,
we preach it. That's what he told us to do
in that effort, in that purpose, in that ministry of glorifying
his son, preaching. Hear him. Preach him. Worship him. What is spiritual understanding?
In all knowledge of his will and spiritual understanding,
Paul said. Spiritual understanding, again,
religion, we're gonna crack the Bible code. There's no code. There's no secret code. Turn
with me to 1 John 5, 20. Please. Paul prayed for this church that
God give them wisdom and spiritual understanding. What is that?
The ability to unlock deep mysteries and to have epiphanies about
things not revealed? No. 1 John 5, 20, we know that
the Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding. That's
what Paul prayed for. May he give you an understanding.
The knowledge of his will and understanding. Now, what is it
that we're taught that we know that God has revealed when he
gave us an understanding? That we may know him. It's not
complicated, is it? I don't need to know the secret
of, you know, every certain number of verse in every single chapter. They do all kinds of weird puzzles
in the script. That we may know him, that is
true. When God gives you an understanding, you're gonna know Christ. You're
gonna lay hold, you're gonna believe on his son. And we are in him, that is true.
Even in his son, Jesus Christ. So it doesn't depend on our knowledge,
though I have all knowledge. and understand all mysteries
and have not love. So it's not just about he has
revealed to us. A lot of people think that salvation
is knowing a lot about God. Knowing him is not that. It's not great intellectual understanding. It's spiritual understanding. That we may know him that is
true and we're in him, that is true. Of God are you in Christ
Jesus who's made unto us wisdom. It's not about our knowledge,
we're in Christ and he's made unto us wisdom. Righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. Even in his son Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life Verse 10 in our text that
you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing Worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing
I want to talk about these three things in this verse. Walking
worthy of the Lord, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God. The title of the message is Worthy,
Fruitful, and Increasing. Now it's important to understand
now that this is a continuation of the thought in verse nine.
If your understanding of spiritual truth does not define who you
are and what you do, then you don't have understanding. It just does. If any man be in
Christ, he's a new creation. Everything's different. Nothing
is the same. First of all, let's consider
this walking worthy. What is it about your walk that
would make it worthy of the Lord? Well, it's just simply following
Him. It's following Him. The whole chapter of 1 Corinthians
10 is about our walk, and I want you to notice how Paul summed
that up. Look over there with me, 1 Corinthians 10. Let's just sort of scan through
chapter 10 so we get an idea of what Paul's dealing with there. Look at verse six. Now these
things were our examples to the intent we should not lust after
evil things as they also lusted. Neither be idolaters as some
of them were. Verse eight, neither let us commit
fornication. Verse nine, neither let us tempt
Christ. Verse 10, neither murmur ye.
Now all of these things, verse 11,
happened unto them for in samples. And they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Take heed
lest you fall, verse 12. He talks about temptation and
God is faithful. He won't suffer you to be tried
beyond what you're able. It's not a question of you messing
up what God has done for you. You can't do that. It's not about
that. Verse 14, flee from idolatry. We're one body, verse 17. No idols, again. Do we provoke
the Lord, verse 22? Even talking about eating, eating
things. He said, all things are lawful
for me, but all things edify not. Just keep scanning on down there.
Be a partaker. For if I by grace be a partaker,
why am I evil spoken of? Whether therefore you eat, verse
31, or drink, whatsoever you do, do it to the glory of God.
He's talking about doing. Don't do this, do that. Give
none offense, verse 32. Not seeking mine own profit,
but the profit of many that they may be saved. And then how does
he sum all that up? He's fixing to completely change
thoughts. But before he does, you see in verse three, he completely
changes thoughts. But I would have you know that
the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is
the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or
prophesying, having his head covered, he goes on talking about
completely different things. But before he does that, he says
this, be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. That's what sums all of that
up. Walk in worthy of the calling
wherewith we are called. Be followers of Christ, imitators
of Christ, looking to Christ, trusting Him as our righteousness. We don't do what we do to establish
righteousness. Paul said the religious Jews
are going about to establish their own righteousness. They
haven't submitted to the righteousness of God in Christ. That's walking
worthy, to walk in Him, to walk by Him, to walk for Him. to follow
Him, to imitate Him. Secondly, consider what it is
to be fruitful in every good work. Fruitful. Herein is my
Father glorified, that you bear much fruit. Fruitful in every
good work. The Lord taught us what that
is. In Mark 14 three, if you'd turn there with me, we won't
go long, but I want you to see these scriptures today more than
we ever have. Mark 14 three. We'll get into verses 11 and
12 I think another time. I want us to concentrate on this
verse 10 and see these three things particularly. And how
that Christ is simply all in these things. walking worthy
of Him. How in the world are you gonna
do that? Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame. It's walking with your faith
fixed on Christ and what He did for you. Mark 14, three, and being in
Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as our Lord said it
meet, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment,
of spikenard, very precious. And she break the box and poured
it on his head. And look at this, there were
some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was
this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for
more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. And they
murmured against her. And Jesus said, let her alone,
why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work.
You want to know what the definition of a good work is? On me, on
me. Why do you give? Why do you work up here and do
things that need to be done? Why do you take the time to come
in here? Why are you faithful to the ministry
of Christ? Why does it take priority over
everything? Why did this woman do this? She believed on Christ. She didn't go around breaking
the alabaster boxes of spike nerd on everybody's head. She
knew who he was. She believed he was who he said
he was. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. And faith has but one object. And I'll tell you what else about
her. She loved the Lord Jesus. She loved him. What is a good work? Only for
those reasons, because of who he is. And because Him having
first loved us, we love Him. If you love me, keep my commandments, do what
I say. If you don't love the Lord Jesus
Christ, but you're just trying to do good because you love yourself,
you know, most people do what they do because they love themselves.
Even when it just happens to benefit somebody else, and doing
it for themselves. You know how I know that? Because I'm one of them. Yeah. If you do what you do because
you love him who first loved you and gave himself for you,
that's a good word. You know, I always mentioned
Dorcas who made coats. When she died, everybody was
sad and they talked about the coats that she had made for them.
It's precious, isn't it? The little things that people
do just for you. Because you're the people of God, the family. Increasing in the knowledge of
God. If God gives you spiritual wisdom and understanding to know
Christ, which is what we just saw in the previous verse, what
are you gonna do? He gives you spiritual wisdom
and understanding, and we saw what that is. He gave us an understanding
that we may know Him. That's pretty clear. But what
are you gonna do when you know Him? You're gonna wanna know
Him. the knowledge of God, increasing
in the knowledge of God. You're gonna wanna know Christ.
To know God, it's the son who reveals him. You know that. No man knoweth
the father but the son, and he to whom the son will reveal him. Why do we come to worship the
Lord? Why do we do anything that we
do? Remember Psalm 27 if you want
to turn over there, we're closing with this Psalm 27 for Remember
we're talking about increasing in the knowledge of God Maybe we need to all go to seminary
theological seminary you reckon Here's what David did One thing
have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after. I guarantee
you this, whatever your desire is, whatever you're pursuing
right now, that's what your desire is. That I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. Behold the beauty of the Lord
the fellowship of the Saints is wonderful But this is why we're here to
behold the beauty of the Lord Can we preach the gospel in such
a way That we see how altogether lovely The Lord Jesus is and to inquire. I've got some
questions. Did you come with some questions
this morning? Did you come with a desire to gain something that
you don't have? We behold his beauty, we know
him. We rejoice in accomplished salvation in him. We rejoice
in a conquering almighty captain of our salvation. We rejoice
in his grace. We rejoice in all of his attributes
and glory, but I came to get something too.
You know what it is? If your one desire is to behold
the beauty of the Lord, then what would you be inquiring about? More. More about Jesus, let me
learn. More of his holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me. I want to see his beauty better.
I want to know more about how beautiful he is. More, more about Jesus. more of his saving fullness see,
more of his love who died for me. May God give us grace to
desire this one thing, to dwell in his house. That doesn't mean
we're moving in here. It means we dwell in his presence.
We dwell as his family. We dwell in his household under
his protection and provision and love. And as Paul said that I may know
him, that I may know him. Let's pray.