Well, this evening, may the Lord
be with us as we commence our meditation in the fourth chapter
of Paul's epistle to the Colossians. And this evening, we'll just
think on the first two verses. So Colossians chapter four, verses
one to two. Masters, give unto your servants
that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master
in heaven. Continue in prayer and watch
in the same with thanksgiving. Well, this first verse, as you
will I'm sure appreciate, continues from the end of the third chapter.
And why the chapters were split like that, I have no idea. The chapters, of course, are
not those which were ordained by the Spirit of God, and they
were man-made, so we have to just accept what is there. But
anyway, the truth is that the words are true, and the words
are good, and so he speaks to masters. those who have servants, those
who have people working for them, that they are to be just and
equal in how they manage them. And we have, of course, a knowledge
that we have a great and glorious Master who is in heaven. And if we just ponder and think
how the Lord deals with us, how the Lord has dealt with us. He
hasn't dealt with us as our sins deserve. He's been very gracious
and been very merciful. And if we have this before us
as we go about day by day to realise that those that we may
perhaps have under us we should deal with in like manner so that
they have no cause to criticise us in our dealings with them.
And of course it's fairly far-reaching to instruct them what to do and
what not to do, how they should be paid and what rewards we should
give. All these things come really
under this simple statement, masters give. unto your servants. It doesn't say masters take,
it says masters give unto your servants that which is just and
equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven. Well let's remember then what
our master in heaven does for us and how he deals with us and
may that really influence us as we deal with others. And then
he comes on to this second verse and he says continue in prayer. Now, prayer is what we might
term the Christian's vital breath. Naturally, we must breathe to
live. Spiritually, we must pray to
live. And what a blessing, therefore,
if we are able to come and realise the necessity prayer it should
not be something which we forget it shouldn't be something that
we don't want to do it should be something that we love to
do you may remember the Apostle when he wrote to the Thessalonians
he spoke just three words pray without ceasing that means to
pray very often That means to pray perhaps when we get up in
the morning, during the day, when we go to bed at night. Prayer
should be on our lips. Pray without ceasing. I just have a paragraph here
which I copied out by John Gill, which is fairly comprehensive. It tells us really how we should
pray continually. And it says this, a day should
not pass without prayer to God, for our daily cases call for
it, our lives, our health, our daily bread, and all our temporal
enjoyments, which depend on his daily goodness, providence, and
power, our spiritual affairs, the renewing of the inward man
day by day, fresh supplies of grace for new service, our daily
trials and afflictions, the continued enemies of sin and Satan and
the world, all fully show the necessity of daily prayer. God does not always immediately
answer the prayers of his people. He will be sought unto time after
time, even for a blessing he intends to give. And therefore
the saints should not be discouraged, but continue in prayer till they
receive the mercy and the opportunity is a means of enjoying it, as
we have in the case of that poor widow who came and prayed and
eventually was heard, which is indeed an encouraging reason
why men should always pray and not to faint. And then just quoting
that case of the woman In Luke chapter 11 and verses 8 to 10
we read, I say unto you, though he will not rise, that's after
many requests, he will not rise and give him because he is his
friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as
many as he needed. There was that time of course
he was calm, this man came and wanted bread and asked that this
might be supplied. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth.
And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. That's the words
for our encouragement, but we must never forget that we must
come in a right way. We must come seeking that the
Lord's will may be done and come seeking that his name may be
honoured and glorified in any answers that are given. We should remember they emanate
from our God. We are to come, as the Apostle
said when he wrote to the Ephesians, praying always, with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit. It doesn't stop there. As we
read in this second verse, continue in prayer and watch. We are to
pray and we are to watch for answers. We're not to pray and
forget what we prayed about. If we have truly prayed by the
Spirit of God, then I'm sure we will be waiting and watching
for answers as that verse carries on in the Ephesians. And watching
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
That means that we are to pray fervently. We read together in
this fourth chapter and in the twelfth verse we read about Epiphras,
and that's a good example for us. Epiphras, who is one of you,
a servant of Christ, salutes you, always labouring fervently
for you in prayers. It's a great blessing, isn't
it, if we're blessed with fervent prayer. Remember, the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man avoideth much. And you may say, well, I'm not
a righteous man. In and of ourselves, we're not.
What a blessing if we are a righteous man or a righteous woman. Christ
and so then he says therefore and that for you in prayers that
you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God let's
not forget that the will of God our wills may not be the same
as the will of God we must be very careful therefore not to
demand that God should hear and answer our prayer. And so the
Apostle says, continue in prayer and watch. Let us be watchers. We do pray. We pray collectively. We pray for God's blessing. We
pray the Lord will be with us and bless individuals. The Lord
will be mindful of us. and may we watch and wait for
answers to those petitions. He says, continue in prayer and
watch in the same with thanksgiving. And how important that is, that
we do come thankful to our God. When Paul wrote to the Philippians,
he said, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be known unto
God. We come, don't we, sometimes
perhaps with a want list of things that we desire. But we must never
forget to come to God with thanksgiving for what he has done. Because
all of us, without exception, have good cause to thank God
for many, many, many blessings. So as we come in prayer, with
our requests, hear what the Apostle says. With thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God. And again, turning to the
Ephesians, he says, giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sure that's one of the biggest
things that we fail to do, and that's to thank God. You know,
there's that line in that hymn, isn't it? Count your many blessings,
count them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord
has done. It's good, you know, when we
come to the end of the day, to look back and to thank God for
his many blessings. They may not lie forgotten in
unthankfulness and without praises die. Remember Samuel in his day
and age, he took a stone, he set it up and he called it Ebenezer. And he said, hitherto hath the
Lord helped us. Well, I hope we can all come
tonight in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving and
be able to say from our heart, very humbly, hitherto hath the
Lord helped us. You know, that is God honouring
we should desire to honour and glorify the great name of our
God and especially if he has directed us to what he has done
in dying upon that cross at Calvary to redeem our souls, what cause
there is for thanksgiving. We may have prayed to God, I
hope we have prayed to God, that he will reveal himself unto us
as it is not unto the world. And if he has come and touched
our hearts, if he has come and given us a view by faith of his
all-sufficient sacrifice, have we truthfully and honestly thanked
our God? Oh, my friends, what a debt we
owe. What a debt we owe. What a mercy,
therefore, when we consider this to be able to come with thanksgiving
to our God. He is worthy of receiving all
praise. And so we have these words here
this evening for us. Continue in prayer. Continue. Don't stop. Continue. Day in, day out. Night in, night
out. To pray without ceasing and watch. in the same with thanksgiving. May the Lord be gracious to us
and bless us.