If you will, turn back with me
to Colossians chapter 2. And let me say while you're turning
that I'm thankful to be here today. I've known about the work
here since its concept, and I've known Joe even longer. This is
my first time here, and I'm thankful for the opportunity to be here.
But more than anything, I'm thankful to God when He opens a door. Paul said, pray for me that the
Lord will open an effectual door. I'm not one of those men who
try to open doors. I'd rather know that the Lord
opened the door and then passed through. Saints in Louisville
send their greetings and graciously agreed to allow me to come here
and preach to you this morning. Colossians is an unusual epistle. Unlike most of his epistles,
he's writing to a church he'd never seen. Paul, he wouldn't recognize it. It's
just like me in this congregation here. I met Bernie at a meeting
down at Drew Dietz's, Other than that, I didn't know anybody except
Joe and Bonnie. And Paul was in prison. Now,
he preached in that area, and evidently under his preaching,
a man by the name of Epaphras was converted, and he was used
of God to establish a local church there. And Paul, yet in prison,
but being visited by this pastor, he sits down And this pastor
begins to tell him things that are troubling him about the congregation. There's always troubles in a
church, always. The real significance of a pastor,
other than his being sent of God to preach the gospel, is
that he watches for your souls. as they who much give an account.
He watches for your souls. He watches as these problems
arise and he tries to deal with them. And this pastor, understanding
that Paul was an apostle, and it's hard for us to even connect
with this era because this is the beginning of the end of the
world. This is the beginning of the
gospel age. The gospel never been preached.
as it was being preached in his age. And this pastor being troubled,
he went down to Rome where Paul was a prisoner and he visited
with him and he sat down and told him his troubles and the
troubles that he feared for the church and Paul sat down by divine
inspiration and he pens one of my favorite epistles, the epistle
of Colossians. I don't know any official other
than Ephesians that I quote more than the book of Colossians.
And I want to say this at the outset of the message, the faith
of God's elect is a miraculous work. In our day, it's presented
as a random work, a common work, something that's You can see
it anywhere you go. You can see it in the grocery
store, you can see it here, you can see it up and down the road.
I don't know how many churches are here in Rock Valley, but
I've counted quite a few. But the faith of God's elect
is a miraculous work. After our Lord had fed 5,000
men plus the women and children and picked up basketfuls of remains,
They sought him and followed him on the other side of the
sea. And when they caught up with
him, he said, you didn't come to hear what I'm saying. You
didn't come to worship God. You didn't come for your spiritual
needs. You come because you ate and were filled. You're coming for an easy way
out. And they said, well, what can
we do to work the works of God? that's what men want to know
what what can i do to work the works of god what can i do what
and that they come up with all of these things he talks about
that in second second thessalonians chapter two all these works produced
by satanic religion what can we do to work the works of god
he said this is the work of god that you believe on him who sent
me That's the work of God. Faith is a miraculous work. It's
a work that can only be done of God. He has to make us meet
to be partakers. We don't have in us what it takes. And true saving faith is defined
in the scripture by two little two-letter words. I always have
difficulty trying to tell people what faith is. Well, he uses
two little two-letter words to describe faith, the word in and
the word on. To believe in is to acknowledge
his existence, to acknowledge his accomplished work and his
present power and glory. To believe on is to trust in
him that you've believed in. We believe on, we rest on him,
we rest in his word and his gospel. And Paul asked four very pointed
questions, all who would call on the name of the Lord over
in Romans chapter 10, beginning with verse 14. He said, how then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? When
I first began to attend church, it was rank Arminianism, and
they kept telling me, I was so troubled, and they kept telling
me, well, just believe. Well, how you gonna call on him
in whom you had not believed? How you gonna do that? How you
gonna do that? We minister to a world who they
spit out the name God and Jesus in association with every kind
of foolish notion under heaven. And Colossae was a city that
was the birthplace of a goddess called Sybil. She began as the
goddess of nature and then in time began to be worshipped as
the mother of all gods. Mother nature. We thought we invented the term.
Her priest would castrate themselves and the people would worship
her having orgies and loud music and private prophecies given
to them by what they called the spirit, kind of a forerunner
of modern day Pentecostalism. Spiritual orgies is what's going
on in these churches. And while this might seem a little
extreme to you, all sorts of imaginations are mixed with natural
man's concepts of God and Christ. Whatever he can picture in his
mind, he associates with God. You change the glory of God,
it says in Romans 1. You change it to be like unto
birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Believers don't spit out the
word, the name of God and then leave it to God to interpret
his name. His name is who he is. I know
whom I have believed. That's what Paul said. And his name is clearly manifested
in his son. He said, neither is there salvation
in any other for there's none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? Secondly, how shall they believe
in him of whom they have not heard? Where do men learn about God?
Where do men hear his name? In a closet? Out on the lake? Up on the mountain? Where do
you hear about the name of the Lord? Well, you can't call on
him in whom you have not believed, and how you gonna believe in
him of whom you have not heard? I'll give you a story, the Ethiopian
Union. He was seeking the Lord, I believe
truly seeking the Lord. And somebody told him, he said,
you need to go down to Jerusalem during the feast days and just
camp out there. And so he did, he went down there
and he went through all the feast days and all the Sabbath days
and all these things. And he came back as ignorant
as he was when he went. And doesn't satanic religion
today, isn't that what they do? They gather, they worship, they
sing, they pray, they go through all the motions, but they're
not really learning anything about God. They're just going
through the motions. They don't ask you if you learned
anything about God. They say, did you go to church? You can't go to church. The church
is a people. How you gonna believe in him
of whom you have not heard? Who is this man Jesus of Nazareth? Scripture said he's the son of
God. Scripture said there's one mediator between God and me and
the man Christ Jesus. Scripture said he's surety of
the everlasting covenant of grace. He's the creator of the world.
He's the reason for the creation of the world. He's the one in
whom full provision was made and promised to God's people.
He's God come into the flesh. God and man in the union of a
representative head. He's the promised Messiah, the
Lord's Christ. He's the Savior of his people.
Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. He's the propitiation for our
sins. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. He's the hope of glory. He's
the first begotten from the dead. He's the high priest of God's
Israel, whoever liveth to make intercession for us. And he's
Lord of the dead and the living. Christ is all, the scripture
said, and in all. That's what Paul writes to these
people. This man is the object of faith
as he is the incarnate wisdom of God. This is the true God. To know
Him is to know God. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto Him against that day. How shall they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard? There has to be a hearing. Now watch this. He asked this
question, how shall you hear without a preacher? I don't know
anything more contested in my day than the necessity of gospel
preaching. And yet our Lord only gives one
commission when he leaves this world to go into glory and he
tells them all power in heaven and earth is given unto me. Now
you go preach my gospel. He didn't have this big long
list of things for us to go do. You get involved in this, you
get some banners, you protest. No, you go preach my gospel. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned. And a preacher, whether he's
an evangelist or a pastor-teacher or both, is a man sent of God
to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. His message and his reason
for being there is defined in Ephesians chapter four and verse
12. Our Lord gives his ascension
gifts, and he names them apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers. What are they to do? Well, here's
the first thing he tells us over in Ephesians 4, verse 12. The
perfecting of the saints. Is he talking about progressive
sanctification? No, there's no such thing. We're
not getting better and better. We're getting worse and worse.
The more light you shine in a room, the more dirt you see. as we
grow in grace and knowledge of Christ we grow less and less
in our own eyes. I must decrease, he must increase. There's no such thing as progressive
sanctification. Saints are not perfected by some
kind of religious evolution. And I'm gonna tell you something
else, you're not supercharged by the Spirit so you can go out
and walk a better life and do better things and acquire this
perfection that he's talking about. That's not how it comes. Scripture said we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,
Hebrews 10.10. And then in verse 14 he says,
for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Those who are sanctified by that
one offering are also made perfect by the same offering. It must be perfect to be accepted.
If you're to be accepted of God, you must be perfect, and that
perfection cannot come from you. It has to come from him. The perfecting of the saints
is their seeing their perfection in Christ and resting in him
as such. And preachers are sent for the
work of the ministry. What's that? Well, we point men
and women to Christ and we urge men and women to be reconciled
to God's reconciliation in Christ. Be you reconciled to God to find
satisfaction in him who satisfied God. In the book of Isaiah chapter
53 it said, God saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied.
Am I? Am I satisfied with him who satisfied
God? I'm not if I keep seeking other
things. We seek him. He's my perfection. We're accepted
in the beloved, Paul said. And the work of the ministry
is to call out God's elect, called out of darkness. What darkness? The darkness of worldly religion,
superstition, sensualism, ceremonialism, intellectualism, and whatever
other ism enters into the fallen imagination of men. And our weapons
are not carnal. They're not carnal. I wish I
could get that across to this world. Our weapons are not carnal,
picking up a banner and marching in the street is not how God's
going to accomplish these things. Button-holding a man in the corner
is not what's going to accomplish these things. Our weapons are
not carnal. They're mighty through God. The
Spirit of the Living God. I'm going to preach to you this
morning and then I'm not going to have you do anything. I'm not going to ask you to do
anything. I'm going to wait and see what the Lord does. It's
His work. it is work all wrote to the philippians
and he said let every man work out his own salvation and parent
rand white women project works religion this is not how he followed
it up for its god who work within you both the will and to do with
his good pleasure when i've done preaching this morning it's in
his hand i've done what he called me to do Now I'm going to wait
and see what he does. And what he does is powerful.
It's irresistible. It's wisdom from above. Our weapons
are not carnal, but they're mighty through God. To do what? To the
pulling down of strongholds. Casting down imaginations. and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God." Bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ.
His obedience, not ours. His faithfulness, not ours. His
glory, not ours. His rule, not ours. And there's
no end to the foolish notions of unbelieving men and women.
when god sent a preacher he deals with things that this is absolutely
not nine oh most you were raised in calvin i was raised in rank
armenian anything else anything and i was blown away when i found
out that god's preachers deal with subjects that other men
run from The first time I mentioned predestination to one of the
elders in that Armenian church, he went, it took his breath. Secret things belong to the Lord.
He whispered like if he spoke out loud, he was gonna get struck
by lightning or something. He said, the secret things belong
to the Lord. I said, I know. But in the scriptures,
the Lord told John, he said, put your pen up. But he didn't
put his pen up when he talked about predestination. Did he? No, he wrote those things. And
he wrote about them more than once. And he wrote about election. That's not fair. Probably wouldn't
be if I was doing the electing, but if God does the electing,
then it's as fair as it can be. Oh, casting down these imaginations. And nobody can do that. It takes
the work of God in men. In men. There's no end to the
foolish notions of unbelieving men and women, and preachers
deal with these subjects. Election, predestination, eternality,
absolute sovereignty. I never heard that word sovereignty
when I grew up in religion. Never heard it mentioned one
time. I read Daniel chapter four and I couldn't believe what I
was reading. I read what Isaiah wrote. I declare the end from
the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I'll do all my pleasure. I never heard of a God like that. all these gentiles and all these
romans and all these priests and all this religion and they
all got together and they did what god's hand determined before
to be done they deal with subjects that
other men run from particular redemption go preach that at
the first nazarene church you come to or the first baptist
church and preachers deal with edifying the body of christ their
teachers sent from god Listen to the Great Commission
as Matthew was inspired of God to record it. Go ye therefore
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And then he tells us the preacher's
goal over in Ephesians 4 verse 13. Till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ
he's the perfect man and now i go back to that question
how shall you hear without a preacher and men come up with all kinds
of answers i remember i work for a roofing company and some
of these guys boy they were fierce they were hard to deal with i
worked construction my whole life there's some big men out
there tough men and i had to deal with him and i asked my
boss i said when i get out there and these guys don't want to
do what i say what you want me to do he said tell him to call
me tell him to call me so what do i do with men when they come
to me with all these water bouts and hips call him you talk to god be somebody reached
out for a two-day and he was preaching and one old man got
up and after the message and he said uh... you know john gill
didn't believe that and i thank god for giving that pastor wisdom
he said well i just told you what god said he said who's word
you think we are back uh... time set in book society let
god be true and every man Paul said, I don't care if an angel
of God comes with another gospel, let him be a curse. Preaching is the ordained means
used of God to manifest his elect through the preaching of the
gospel. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 he said, God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. Now listen to this. Through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, we're unto for this reason,
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And for all them things, Paul
says to the Colossians in verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father.
which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of saints in light, that is, enlightened saints. We rejoice together with enlightened
saints. And he delivered us from the
power of darkness and translated us unto the kingdom of his dear
son. And I cannot overemphasize the
person and work of Christ when I preach to men. And Paul wrote
here, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
And I know this is true of the Father and it's true of the Holy
Spirit, but Christ is the only way of knowing God in any of
his persons. God was manifested in the flesh. He was made known. He appeared. And I said all that to say this.
Look down here at verse six, Colossians chapter two. As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in
him. That's the title of my message.
So walk ye in him. True faith believes in and on
the Christ of God, not another Jesus. And he tells us in verse
seven to be rooted and build up in him and establish in the
faith. If I'm gonna be established in
the faith, I've got to be established in Christ because that's what
faith's all about. All that the Father giveth me
is gonna come to me. So what is the believer's life
to be after faith comes? Exactly as it was in the beginning. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. How did we receive him? As God
testified of him in his word. He's the virgin born son of promise.
He's a revelation of God. He's the savior of sinners. He's
the Lord of salvation, providence, the dead and the living. He's
the righteousness of the saints. He's the one effectual atonement.
He's the elder brother, the surety of our adoption and inheritance
and all God's provision for his elect is in this man, Christ
Jesus. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Well, I don't understand
what you're saying, preacher. Well, let me put it this way.
Is he your righteousness? Then walk that way. Walk that
way. I don't have a righteousness.
He's my righteousness. Let me walk that way humbly. Is he my acceptance with God?
Then walk that way. I can just picture it. I grew
up in the South. We all wear overalls when we
work. I can just picture Neb Knesset standing up on that hanging
garden of Babylon with his thumbs on the straps of them overhauls,
looking down on Babylon, saying, there's not this great Babylon
that I built. God let him go out and eat grass.
Go out and be a cow for a while, chew on grass. Oh, is he my acceptance
with God? Is he the builder of the house?
Then walk that way. Is he my sanctification? Then
walk that way. Is he the living evidence of
God's love for me? Then walk that way. is he the
sole reason for my justification? Then walk that way. We don't necessarily walk in
some ordered fashion like a bunch of robots. We walk according
to our knowledge and affection for Him. That's how we walk.
And our goal and our heart's desire is to be rooted and build
up in Him, establish in the faith, being taught of God's ordained
means and ways. abounding therein with thanksgiving. Oh, thank God he sent me a man
to tell me the truth. Any man saved of God gonna say
that. Oh, how I thank God for Henry
Mahan. I heard enough lies in my lifetime
to send everybody to hell. But God was pleased to send one
man to tell me the truth. And then secondly, Paul leaves
us with a warning. Now you receive Christ Jesus,
the Lord so walk in him. He's all in me, then walk that
way. But he said, you beware, lest
any man spoil you. He's not talking about being
spoiled like a rotten apple. He's talking about being spoiled
like victims of war. You remember back during the
Gulf War, those Israelis come into Kuwait and they stole all
their goods and treasures and everything, was trying to get
away with it. That's what it means to be spoiled. And we're
to beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain
deceit. After the tradition of men, the
rudiments are basic principles of worldly religion and not after
Christ. and i don't know if this will
shock you or not but the overwhelming population of this world are
men and women who are religious and lost they don't know God
they're religious as they can be you remember that woman at the
well she'd been married multiple times she was living in adultery
with the man she was with and she was telling the Lord how
to worship and where to worship men are religious but they're
lost They're lost. Before your conversion, Paul
said to the Ephesians, you were without Christ. Christ was just
a name. It was just a concept, a word
that you heard. You knew nothing about Christ.
He's the promised way of salvation and acceptance with God. We were
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. We knew nothing of
God's eternal election or his promises or his people. Strangers
from the covenants of promise. Religion knows nothing of God's
everlasting covenant, nor of that covenant as it was established
with the saints. And he said, having no hope without
God in the world. You beware, beware. Religious and lost. Don't allow
such men to spoil or take what God has given to you by way of
philosophy. What seems to be right to fallen
men. Basic principles used by fallen
men to reason things out and not after Christ. And then lastly,
he tells us something about true assurance. For in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and ye are complete in
him which is the head of all principality and power. Assurance is not confidence in
your confidence. Assurance is confidence in Christ.
You see what he's saying here? This is assurance. He's done
it all. Jesus paid it all. All to him
I owe. He's the representative head
of the church that in all things he might have the preeminence
for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.
And so it is. In whom we're circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands and putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Buried
with him in baptism wherein you're risen with him to the faith of
the operation of God who raised him from the dead. there's a unity of the faith
and knowledge of god that's worth striving for and the object of it is christ
all made the lord be pleased to use what i've said
here today to promote such a unity and leave this congregation trusting
only in christ that's why we're preaching uh... point men to
christ they're just one way he's the way what is true that's what pilate
asked christ he was looking at the truth there is no other truth
alter anything you ever learn about god you're gonna learn
in christ whether you're talking about love or sanctification
or justification or anything else if you really hope to learn
something in your heart you're gonna learn it in christ it's
all in him so or scratch my head what one of my goal for each
other here you are i don't know where i'm going to reach from
but i know i won't break down won't recruit was in him dwelleth
all the fullness and you're complaining may the lord bless the preaching
of the gospel for his name's honor and glory