Colossians 1, verse 4. The name of the message is Faith
and Love. Faith and Love. Colossians 1, 4. I'll read our
text first and then I'm going to read the four verses in context. So let's read the fourth verse. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love
which ye have to all the saints. So let's look at verse one to
start, though, in the review. We'll just review a little bit
here. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. And Timotheus, our brother. So
the key phrase that we pulled out of there in verse one was,
by the will of God. by the will of God. Paul was
an apostle by the will of God. He was chosen, appointed, and
his authority came from God. He was an apostle by the will
of God. And think on this, beloved, all
the Trinity willed and ordained and ordered this to come to pass. The whole Trinity was in action.
And so too in the life of every single believer in Christ, right?
If we're saved, it's by the will of God. It's by the will of God. It's according to His will and
according to His purpose in Christ Jesus. And this gives us what? It gives us great comfort. Great
comfort. Great comfort. Verse 2 says,
to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossus,
grace be unto you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ. The key phrase that we keyed
on in verse two was, in Christ, in Christ. Believers are in Christ
all the time. They're in Christ all the time.
And remember also, all spiritual blessings are in Christ. They're
nowhere else but in Him. And we looked at also how in
that verse, grace always precedes peace. Grace always precedes
peace. Peace comes from grace, and grace
is a gift of God, and a result of that is we have peace with
God. We have peace with God. And it's always through, it's
always from the Father and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace,
one commentator said this, peace streams down from the fountain
of divine grace in Christ. In Christ. Verse three. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Praying
always for you. So in verse three, we looked
at the believers being thankful people and prayerful people. Thankful and prayerful. We give
thanks to God for one another. And we also looked at the importance
of praying for one another, lifting each other up in prayer. And
we see that this verse is connected to verse three, for the reason
for them giving thanks and being prayerful for the saints at Colossus. The next verse that we're looking
at, so we see in verse three, we give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. And now
our text tonight, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and of the love which you have to all the saints. So here's
the reason why they were giving thanks to God. and why they were
praying for them always, since we heard of your faith in Christ
Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints." So Paul
and Timothy had heard from Epaphras, look in verse 7, As he also learned
of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful
minister of Christ. So they had heard from him about
the saints in Colossus and about their faith and about their love
that they had, and the hope, which we'll look at next week,
after they heard the gospel. Now, Epaphras was a faithful
gospel preacher at Colossus. He preached the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ, and he had told Paul and Timothy
of the faith and love which the brethren had there. So again
at our verse, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and of the love which you have to all the saints. Notice here before us, we have
faith and love. Faith and love. Faith is a gift
from God, we know that, right? We know it's a gift from God,
but love springs from faith. Love springs from faith. They're
both gifts from God. And they're also both evidences
of salvation. Someone asked Spurgeon one time,
made a comment about, well, we've heard of these Christians who
profess Christ, but they don't love other people a whole lot.
He says, well, I perceive that they're probably not Christians.
Because God's people will love people. They'll love the saints. And Paul is thankful for these
evidences, these spiritual gifts. He's thankful for these evidences
that they're in the believers. And now unloving Christian is
an oxymoron. Really he is. Those who believe
will love the brethren. Those who believe will love the
brethren. And we'll look at that more later. But Paul had heard
of their faith first. He had heard of their faith,
which is in Christ Jesus. So the object of their faith
is Christ. Who is the object of our faith?
Christ. Christ. The object of their faith is
Christ. He is the mediator and he is the savior of his people. So their faith wasn't in themselves,
or what they've done, or 25 ways to live a better Christian life,
was it? No. No, their faith was in Christ and Him alone. Think of this when we looked
at verse 2, which speaks of believers in Christ, right? Christ is our
rest, isn't He? He's our rest and He's our repose.
You often hear preachers say, We need to repose in Christ.
The old-timers say, whenever I read the old-time preachers,
they constantly use this word. Well, think of this. Think of
your favorite easy chair or your favorite chair at home. Think
of that. When you sit in that chair, brother,
you probably have one, you're smiling, because I know I did
too. You sit in the chair, right? And you're at rest. You're at
rest. You're like, oh, I'm at rest.
And you're just resting in that chair. Total rest. Well, also think of this. When a ship drops an anchor,
and that anchor goes into the bottom of the ocean, and it's
got those hooks, too. And John was telling me that
those hooks are also to hold the, grab hold of something in
the ocean floor and hold it tight. And then the anchor is also,
or the chain is also part of the anchor as well. It keeps
it down. I didn't know that. John told me about that. But
that's resting in that ground and it's got a hold of that,
and it literally goes right into the ocean and rests right into
the ocean. That's what it means to repose
in Christ. Just to rest. Cease from your labors. Repose. Just repose in Christ. Just rest
in him. So the object of the Colossians
Church's faith is Christ. They're resting and reposing
in him. He's their rest. Also notice the order of our
text is not their love for Christ first or their hope in Christ
first, but their faith. We give thanks, or since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus. Love and hope, which are the
next things that he mentions, spring out of that, spring out
of faith. What wonderful grace God gives
us in Christ. And where is our faith directed?
Where do we look? Christ and Him alone. Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. The sinner's only hope. So first we trust and rely on
Christ, looking away from ourself to Him. So faith in Christ is therefore
the soul's rest. Soul rests in Christ. Since we
heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you
have to all the saints, and notice it says your faith. Your faith. It's personal. It's personal. The Colossian Christians had
heard the gospel of God's free grace preached, and they believed. They believed it. God had granted
them faith. It was not just a head knowledge.
They hadn't just heard, but it was a heart work. God, the Holy
Spirit, had done a heart work on them. He regenerated them. They're born again, and they
believed on Christ. They believed on Him. What is our hope? What is our
rest? Christ. Why do we believe that? Those of us who are saved, why
do we believe that? Because we've been born again. Often asked a question when I
was in Oregon to different folks, I'd say, what comes first, faith
or regeneration? 90% of the people say faith. No. Regeneration. Ye must be
born again. You must be. And you have faith. You run to Christ. No one will
stop you. So Paul was given thanks for
the faith in Christ Jesus and that they were bought to believe
in Christ. Oh, what happens to us when we
have been granted faith? We believe that Christ is our
substitute. We believe that he's our Savior.
We see him by faith dying on the cross in our place. His sacrifice, look at Colossians
1, 21 and 22, just a little further down in the chapter. His sacrifice
on the cross reconciled sinners, reconciled those of us who believe.
We were enemies in our mind at one time to God. Scripture declares
this, and you, the Colossians believers that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. Yet now
hath he reconciled. Oh, what a wonderful world where
the believers being reconciled to God by the precious blood
of Christ in the body of his flesh through death to present
you. Look at this. We know we're sinners, right?
We know we're sinners to present you holy and unblameable. and
unreprovable in His sight. When the believer gets home to
glory, oh, presents you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. Oh, it's marvelous. How can that
be possible? Because the believer is clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. Oh, wonderfulness. Our faith
sees what? Our faith sees fullness in Christ,
doesn't it? We see that God is satisfied
with the sacrifice of Christ. There's nothing left for us to
do, because he did it all. And what do we do? We renounce
any hope in ourselves, don't we? We renounce any hope in ourselves,
any hope that we had in bringing ourselves to God, we renounce
all that. There was a time when I thought
that I was good. I thought, well, I'm not as bad
as the guy down there. I did. I really thought that.
And I actually thought that God would put me in scales and that
he would weigh me. And because I hadn't done anything
really bad, well, in my mind, my good would outweigh my bad,
and I'd be in heaven. Well, then I found out, I read
some scripture and found out, whoa, it's the other way. Oh,
man, down I go, you know, because of my sin. There's no one good
in God's sight. Oh, my. So our faith in Christ
is our soul's rest. Our faith in Christ. And we renounce
any hope in ourselves. Any hope in bringing ourselves
to God. Any hope in being able to merit salvation by our works.
We just cast all that aside as believers. We can't. And we trust
in Christ. We trust in His merit, in His
work, what He's done. He's the mediator for our souls.
We look to him and him alone for the salvation of our for
the salvation of our souls. Oh, we have no hope. And faith
looks at Christ Christ. He is he's the author and the
finisher of our salvation. Hebrews says this in verse 11.
Hebrews says this, but without faith, it is impossible to please
him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that
he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek. So what's our
cry then? Salvation is of the Lord. It's
of the Lord from beginning. He's the Alpha and the Omega
from the beginning and end. It's all His work. It's all His
work. And without faith, it's impossible
to please God. To be without faith is to be
without Christ. To be without faith is to be
without Christ. Lord Jesus Christ is our peace
with God. I have no peace outside of Christ
with God. He's our righteousness. God demands
perfection to be in his presence. But scripture says that my righteousness
is like filthy rags. But the believer is clothed in
the righteousness of Christ. He's our sanctification. We can't
make ourselves holy, but we're sanctified in Christ. Turn with
me, if you would, to John chapter 5. John chapter 5. So to be without
faith is to be without Christ, as He is the object of our faith. Christ is the object of the believer's
faith. A lot of people, I've mentioned
this many times, people put faith in their faith. Well, no, no,
the believer puts faith in Christ. They don't make faith an idol. Do you know that Christ is the
principal, one commentator said this, Christ is the principal
object of faith for the believer. The scriptures regard Christ
as their end and aim. Which, in simple terms that I
like, The scriptures testify of him. John chapter 5, verse
39. Look at this wonderful scripture
in light of that. So the scriptures find their end and name in Christ.
Their end and name. Look at this. Search the scriptures.
For in them you think you have eternal life. These religious
folks, they thought they had eternal life. And they are they which testify
of him. Remember, there was no New Testament when Christ was
speaking these words. He's talking scriptures. He's
talking the Old Testament. And in Luke, if you want to turn
there, chapter 24, verse 44. So all the Old Testament sacrifices
and all the Old Testament prophecies found their end and their aim
or their conclusion in Christ, right? They pointed to Him. They
pointed to Him. And then the New Testament writers
pointed us to what he's done on the cross. So they all combine
at Christ. This is why we as grace preachers
say it is absolutely vital to preach Christ and Him crucified.
Anything else is just a waste of time. We must preach Christ. Luke 24 verse And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms. Concerned
me. Concerned me. So the Scriptures
find their end in Christ. They're all pointing to Him.
This is a book about Christ. About the great Redeemer of sinners. So the principal object of Scripture
and of our faith, you see they join together, don't they? It's
Christ. It's Christ. So Paul was thankful. He was
thankful when he heard of their faith. Thankful when he heard
of their faith. And think of us when we hear
that the Lord saved someone. We're thankful. I remember just
a couple, few months back, I got a phone call from young Jacob,
and he told me that brother Tim James' daughter, the Lord just
saved her. We were rejoicing on the phone,
and just, it was wonderful. And I had never met her. But
he fellowshiped with her in Colorado, and still does, and we were just
rejoicing about it. God saved another one of his
sheep. Praise be to the Lord. You rejoice, just like Paul did. And think of this, too. Without
faith, there's no union with Christ, is there? Therefore,
our faith has one object. Again, I know it's a nail I just
keep hitting tonight, but it has one object, and that's Christ.
That's Christ, and that's Christ and Him alone. So without faith,
there can be no benefit from Christ, as all spiritual blessings
are in Him. They're all in Him. What a blessed
union between Christ and the believer. Turn with me, if you
would, to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 and 31. In Christ we have all spiritual
blessings. We know that from Ephesians 1,
3. What a blessed union between Christ and the believer. And what we're going to read
here, we have all these things in Christ. But of Him, 1 Corinthians 1,
30 and 31. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, in righteousness, in sanctification,
and redemption. We're made wise when Christ opens
our eyes up to the scriptures, right, and points us to Christ. We can't make ourselves righteous,
but we're righteous in Christ. We can't sanctify ourselves,
make ourselves holy, but in Christ we're made holy. And we can't
redeem The price God demands for one sin, let alone the millions
that we commit in a lifetime, and Christ redeemed the believer
from all his sins. It's marvelous. So all those
spiritual blessings are in Christ. All of them. Back to our text again. Since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you
have to all the saints, Next we see love, which I commented
at the beginning of the message that we're going to look at this
more in depth. And I also commented that love springs from faith. Love springs from faith. Love
is a result of faith. It is the fruit of the Spirit.
Turn with me if you would to Galatians. Galatians chapter
5. Verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit.
And before we get started in reading this, let's look at that.
It's the fruit of the Spirit. We can't muster it up. We can't
manufacture this. In religion, when I was in religion,
we tried to manufacture this. We can't. It's the fruit of the
Spirit. God has to work this in you.
But the furthest spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such that there is no
law. So love is a furthest spirit. It's something that when we have
faith in Christ, he works in us love. Brother Henry Mahan said this,
let's go back to our text beginning in Colossians, and we'll read
it again. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints.
Brother Henry Mahan said this, and I love this quote. And think
of this within the church body, we as believers, right? Within
the church body, he said this, love is the cement that binds
us together. Love is the cement that binds
us together. Now think of that. Think of that. And we're going to look at some
scriptures later on about us being a spiritual house. Believers. So love is the cement that binds
us together. Think of when someone's laying
bricks, right? I used to work in construction. They're laying
bricks. They put the cement down there, and they put the next
brick in there. Sticks them right together. holds them together. So love
is the cement that holds believers together. And when we, we can
see all kinds of houses in this area that have cement, cement,
or they have bricks all cemented
together. It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Well, in church,
love is the cement that holds us together. Because what? Without love, we have no unity,
right? What happens when there's no love? You get divisions. You get people
getting nasty. It just happens, unfortunately.
And a lot of that's just our flesh. But the love, the love we have. That's our unifying. That's what
keeps us together. The love of Christ and the love
we have for each other in Christ. If faith is genuine, then our
love for the brethren will be genuine. Our love for the brethren
will be genuine. By faith we look to Christ and
we rely upon Him. He's our refuge. He's our strength. And He's our peace. And all of
us are doing that. All believers are looking to
the same Christ. Hearing of thy love and faith
which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints,
Philemon 1.5. This is a thing that Paul often
wrote about. Look in Colossians chapter 2,
one chapter over from where we are. Believers in Christ have
their hearts knit together. Their hearts are knit together
in love. Knit together in love. Look at Colossians chapter 2,
verses 1 and 2. For I would that ye know what
great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and
for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their
hearts might be comforted being knit together in love. Knit together
in love. And unto all riches of the full
assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery
of God and the Father and of Christ. What often sets us apart
from other people? The love we have for one another,
the love we have for Christ. You can't explain when you meet
people for the first time, and you know, we've all often mentioned
this, you meet people, you meet other believers, and you feel
like you've known them for years. See, love is, like Brother Henry
said, it's the cement. It keeps us together. It holds
us together. Why does this happen when the
Lord saves us? Why is love, why does love for the brethren? Because
it's the fruit of the Spirit, like we looked at. It's the fruit
of the Spirit. It springs from regeneration,
from being born again. I didn't love the brethren before
the Lord saved me. As a matter of fact, I wanted
to be as far away from Christians as I possibly could before the
Lord saved me. Now I don't want to be with anyone
else. How do you explain that? only through regeneration and
the fruit of the Spirit of God. Why do we feel so knit to believers
in Christ? Because we're part of a new family.
We're part of a new family. We have a new master. And think
of this, every believer is part of the body of Christ. He's the
head. He's the head. We're the body.
We're attached in Christ, in him. He's the head. Look at Colossians 1, 17 to 19. And turn with me, if you would,
to 1 Peter 2, 5, but I want you to look at this part in Colossians
first. Colossians 1, 17 to 19. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. So Christ gets all the preeminence.
He's the object of our faith. And He is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell." All fullness dwell. Turn with
me, if you would, to 1 Peter 2. Remember earlier about the
cement? Love being the cement which unites
believers? I'm going to read in Zechariah
first, while you're turning to 1 Peter. Zechariah 4, 6, and
7 says this, Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This
is not the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might
nor power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Or this is the
word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, who are Thou, O great
mountain before Zerubbel, thou shalt become a plain, and he
shall bring forth the headstone thereof, which shoutings grace,
grace unto it." Grace, grace unto it. So the headstone of
the building, which the building's all fitly framed together, that's
us. The headstone's Christ. He's
the foundation and the headstone, the topstone. But we're the building
that fit together. Look at this in 1 Peter, and
remember the statement about the cement which unites us together.
1 Peter 2, verses 5 and 6. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house. Built up, you're lively stones. Built up. Do you see the correlation
with the cement then? The love being the thing that
keeps us all, we're being built up, a spiritual house. and holy priesthood to offer
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. Wherefore,
also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, being Christ, precious, and he that believeth
on him shall not be confounded. So Paul was thankful as he saw
these evidences of the Holy Spirit. He saw the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. Faith and love. Faith and love. And think of this, we're born
again, those of us who are saved are born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. We all have the same Father. We all have the same Redeemer,
the same Savior, and it's Christ in Him alone. It's nowhere else. And we have a bond and a union
that we never had before. A bond and a union that we never
had before. Back to Colossians 1.4 again.
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love
which ye have to all the saints. The latter part of this verse
mentions which ye have to all the saints. Over in 1 Peter it
says this, 2.17. Honor all men, love the brotherhood,
fear God, honor the King. Love the brotherhood. And in
our text it mentions the love which he had to all the saints.
Well, an interesting observation is how the Jews used to despise
anyone who was outside of their religion. They would despise
them. Even the Gentiles who had converted
over to Judaism, they despised them as well. So the Jews would treat the Gentiles
with disrespect and would despise them. We're not to be like that
as believers. And we're especially exhorted
to love the brethren, to love the brethren. In the body of Christ, there's
to be no respecter of persons, rich or poor, doesn't matter
your standing. We're to love each other the same way. whether one is very weak in the
faith or whether one's very strong in the faith. We're to love the
brethren, because it's Christ who unites
us. We're united in Christ. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to all the saints.
Now we might not agree on all things, but we agree that salvation is
of the Lord. Salvation's in the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him alone. And I was convicted of this,
as I read this week, this this week, I'll be honest with you,
I was convicted of this. That even those who I don't agree
with, that are preaching the gospel
of God's free grace, I'm to love them and pray for them. Seeing you have purified your
souls and obeying the truth The Spirit, turn with me if you would
to 1 Peter 1.22. I want us to look at this verse
here because there's a word that's used here. Unfeigned love of
the brethren. 1 Peter 1.22, seeing you have purified
your souls and obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently. This unfeigned love here of the
brethren, it's defined in the Greek. This is amazing. Sincere. It's sincere. This sincere love for the brethren
is not in the hearts of the unregenerate. I remember before I was saved,
I did not love the brethren. Not at all, but now I do. And
it's sincere love. It's amazing. And it's all God's
grace. It's all because of His mercy.
And it's all in Him. And it can only be found in one
who's born again in the Spirit of God. One commentator says
it does not grow on the unplowed soil of the natural heart. And this love we have for the
brethren is something that all believers have. You'll not find faith without
love for the brethren. And think of this. If you have
it, it's been put in your heart. Because you can't muster it up. And it's a fruit of the Spirit. It's put into our hearts. Romans
5, 5 says this. And hope maketh not a shame because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. This love we have for one another,
it's not forced. It's not manufactured by us.
It just flows. A regenerated heart. And it's
evidence, it's fruit of the Spirit of God. Turn with me, if you would, to
John 13, 35. Here are words from our Master's lips. John chapter
13, verse 35. So if anyone professes to be
a Christian and they don't love the brethren, Well let's see
what this scripture measures. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples if you have love one to another. Love one to another. We love
one another. It's amazing. It's incredible. And this will distinguish us
from others. We have a love shed abroad in our hearts which we
know that God put in there. He's done a work of grace in
the believer's heart. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 John 4. This will be the last scripture we'll turn to. 1 John
chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. And keep in mind what we just
read by this show, all men know that she are my disciples. If
you have love one to another. First, John four, verse nine
to 11. In this was manifest, manifested
the love of God toward us. Because that God sent his only
begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. We didn't seek him, did we? We didn't
love him before he saved us. Not that we love God, but he loved us. That's amazing grace. He loved us. Remember how we were? Remember that lame man? Passed
by all that multitude of people. Did he love Christ? Christ loved
him. He's one of his sheep, remember? One of his sheep. Here in his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his
son to be a propitiation for our sins, to die on the cross
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we are also to love one another. Here's a quote from an old preacher
of old. He said, you are no lover of Christ if you do not love
his children. As soon as the heart is given
to the master of the house, it is given to the children of the
house. I love that. As soon as it's given to the
master, it's given to the children. Love Christ and you will soon
love all that love him." It's amazing. It's amazing. Oh, what wonderful, wonderful
grace of God. And amazing that this is all
the work of the Holy Spirit in us. We can't manifest. It's the fruit of the Spirit. We have a new nature, those of
us who are born again of the Holy Ghost. Those of us who've
been redeemed by Christ, we have a new nature. We have a new heart, a heart
that longs for the things of God. And remember, we looked at this
love is sincere, isn't it? It's a sincere love. We're not
trying to muster it up. It flows from being born again,
from being regenerated. And we are not holier than thou,
accusing others when something happens. But we pray for one another. We pray for one another. As we know, there go on, but
for the grace of God. And we lift each other up. When
we're sick, we lift each other up in prayer, praying that if
it's God's will, oh, that he put a heel in hand, but his will
be done. And we acknowledge that we are
sinners saved by grace, just like the brethren who we love.
Because if you're one of God's, if you're one of God's sheep,
there's only one way you'd be saved. And that's through Christ
and Him alone. We're all just saved sinners,
those of us who've been saved. And we have a sincere, genuine
love for the brethren. and you can't explain it. You
can't explain it. It's amazing. Now think on this, beloved God,
what we looked at tonight. Faith and love come from God. They're gifts. Faith is a gift,
and love springs out of that. He grants us faith, He grants us faith, and we love
the brethren, don't we? And what do we do? We give them
all the glory. We give them all the glory. I'll
see you when it's time.