Sovereign Grace Chapel, located at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. So if you would, let's be turning to Colossians 1, and let's talk about that just God and a Savior, because that's the only message that we need to hear.

Colossians 1. I'm gonna read a few verses here. All right, Colossians chapter 1, starting in verse 1.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is coming to you as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it does also in you. since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.

As ye also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Strengthen with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

So we start off this book to the Colossians, and Paul begins with talking about the will of God. I'm not going into that as much today because I've done that the last few weeks. But it all has to do with the will of God and not man's will. But I just want to go down through what we've just read and point out some of the highlights, if you will.

There is a certain order of these things, and we are also told some whys and becauses of these things. We read, as I've already mentioned, about the will of God. Next, we see what the cause is to every believer that these things would be true of them. There's always a cause to everything, and that cause is always God. But this cause is the grace and peace, and God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we see what this grace and peace from God results in. Here is the effect, if you will, of God's grace and peace towards these brethren. Faith in Christ Jesus and love to all saints.

Then we have the hope of the gospel. We learn of that hope we have when that gospel comes to us in power and much assurance and of the Holy Ghost. This gospel comes to believers and it produces fruit, the fruit of believing. We heard last week from Malter how that we get that from God, the hope from the gospel, and that is because he causes us to believe the gospel. Something scripture tells us we must do or we will die in our sins. We hear in this passage that other believers will talk about what they see others do, and that is believing. They see others believing this gospel, and they will report it to others because they love them. We read of God filling us with knowledge, and because of that, because God causes this to be, him working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure, we will be fruitful to every good work. Then we see there is something we do because God does all this for us and to us. We give thanks to him. Then we have the why this is. Him translating us into the kingdom of his dear son, and him, that is Jesus Christ, who redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, which the result of that is forgiveness of sins.

So I have the following points, and I'm not gonna read them all through, I just went through them. But I have nine points. I won't keep you long this morning. it will be less than two hours. No, some of these are short, but first we have the will of God. Just to reiterate the gist of what I've been saying the past few weeks, our will has nothing to do with it. If we have our way and what our will is by nature, that will will take us far from God. But if he wills to do something, it will be done. And it will be because of his grace and peace which he gives us.

So next, grace and peace from God. Grace, that is favor from God, unearned by us and undeserved by us. But nevertheless, Joe, he has shed his grace on us. God has favored some, not because of anything they have done good or evil. For the children having not been born, neither having done any good or evil, it was said unto her that the elder shall serve the younger. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. So this grace was given to us because God wanted to do it. He willed to do it. What comes by this grace being shown to us? Peace. When God lets us know what he has done, it will bring peace to our soul that we can then do as what Walter says before, that he always says, you can relax, rest.

But there's another specific cause that's spoken of here, and I want to spend a little more time on this one. With this grace and peace given from God, what comes along with that? It's faith in Christ and love to all the saints.

So next, faith in Christ and love to all the saints. First of all, why does it say faith in Christ, as opposed to say faith on Christ? Because the faith we are talking about is a faith which comes from Christ himself. That faith which he had to carry out the will of the father in saving a people for his name that Joe just talked about. Not only that, but scripture is clear that it is only in Christ we are to be found. You will not be found outside of Christ, because outside of Christ you are on your own. But it's not just a faith that is apart from us in any way. I mean, we are actually given this faith from Christ. We are given this faith as a gift of grace. This faith is a faith in Christ as to who he is and what he has done. We are by this God-given faith enabled then to see who Jesus Christ is and who is he. He is God Himself. But we are also enabled to see what He has done, which we have a point for that later, so I'm gonna leave that. But this faith enables us to see that He has redeemed us. Without seeing that, we will have no hope. And without the will of God to show us mercy and grace and peace, we will not have any faith.

But what comes along with this faith? Love to all the saints. It's easy to say that word love, but a whole different thing to actually do it. What do we read in 1 John 3. 18? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. But this says that Paul and those with him heard that these Colossians have faith in Christ and have love to all saints. We see throughout the New Testament where we are told to have faith in Christ and love the brethren. You read that in several different places. It always says that. There's only one way we do this. Through his gospel. Indeed and in truth. We do those things which show we love God's people and we do this in truth, not lies. That is the truth of the gospel.

Now please understand me. It is God that is the doer of anything we do. And I think we all understand that here. Christ says, without me ye can do nothing. But Jesus Christ does enable us and we will see that in a little bit. But the gospel is what brings the people of God together. Without the gospel, all we have is a social event.

For this, turn with me to what I call a sister passage to this 1st Colossians, but turn with me to 1st John chapter four, 1st John chapter four. I want to read 7 through 14.

1 John chapter 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was 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 loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. If we love one another, it is a manifestation that we are born of God.

That's what we read just there. But just as everything we do toward God and toward all his saints, there is a cause to this. And it is not just something we drum up ourselves. The cause is what he sent Jesus Christ to do. And in Christ so doing, in him shedding his grace and peace on us, we then also are enabled to love the brethren. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us. And He showed this to us by sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is the cause and the why that we should have loved all the saints.

But verse 14 of 1 John 4 tells us how this is manifested. This is how you love indeed in truth. And it says in verse 14, and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. We tell others what Christ has done for us. We will love to be around others who want to tell of what he has done for them. And we will also want to testify of what he has done for us. This is not hard to understand. but it's impossible to do without God, without Jesus Christ. As it says here, none of us has seen God. If we love one another, it is because God dwells in us and because of him, his love is perfected in us.

So that brings me to the next point, the hope of the gospel. Verse 5 of Colossians 1 says, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where have ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel? What is the hope of the gospel? And there can be many things said here, but here it is in short. Here's the hope of the gospel, that we will be with Jesus Christ forever. This can only be done if we have been given everlasting life in Christ. The hope is that we can ultimately love one another because we are all the body of Christ. He is our head.

The hope of the gospel is that I can believe his gospel by his power and might. The hope is I will be able to worship God as he ought to be worshiped. The hope is to see that one day it being consummated, my marriage to another.

I see ever before me the law of God, which condemns me as guilty before God. But the gospel sets forth to me that one which came, which is the righteousness of God without the law, that could redeem me from its curse. And that curse being do this and live. It is a curse because I cannot do it. But he did. But he went far beyond that. He kept the law, but how could he not keep it? He is God the Son.

But what else did he do that went far beyond that? He actually paid the debt of Sinai. You see, it's not that I might break God's law or that I hope not to break God's law. It is that I have already broken God's law and I am guilty before him. He went far beyond keeping the law. He died in my stead to redeem me from its curse.

Folks, I can love some folks whom Jesus Christ has done that for. because he's done the same thing for me. I have to continually cry out to him, God, cause me to love all the saints. Give me or send me your gospel to remind me of what you have done.

Him doing this by grace and peace causes what? Fruit of the gospel. So the fruit of the gospel. God does not give us life so that then we can begin to see, have, or believe our truth. You will hear some today speak of their truth. They will say, that's my truth. But what we get from the gospel is God's truth. There is only one. We cannot be ecumenical about God's truth. His truth is who He is and what He has done, and He's very specific about it. Anything else is man-centered and is not truth at all. It is blasphemy against God to speak anything else.

He sends us His gospel, and by that God-given faith, we begin to believe God. That is the fruit of the gospel. Again, if we don't believe the record God gave of His Son, we will die in our sins. So you can either have your truth or be given His truth. You can pick which one you want, I'll say it that way. Because I know this, if you pick His gospel, it is Him that has worked that in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He will send you His gospel and you will believe Him. All we can say is, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Take me away from myself. I don't want my way because I know that way leads to destruction. Teach me your way.

Isn't that what we're told about these Colossians in verse 9? It says, For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. It has nothing to do with what we want, but all to do with what God wants. It starts and it ends with His will. He causes his people's will to be that toward what God wills, and they want to drop it like a hot potato, that is their will.

Then we begin to do what is, what as a, what do we then begin to do as our way of life? In love, talking about the brethren who believe. First of all, we read where these saints were talked about, but it's not a talking about in gossip. It is declaring what God has done for someone, even if those that are being talked about have faults and failures. Colossians 1.4, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which he had to all the saints. It is a joy to hear of others speaking about what the Lord has done for them. Speaking of how they want to help others who have had this same thing done for them.

We also read in verses 7 through 10 of Colossians, as ye also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."

Loving the brethren is also praying for the brethren. Because we know that without Him, we can do nothing. Because as Paul says here, that without Him, we can do nothing. That's what he's saying.

So next, God working in us all these things. Verse 11. strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Just reading that, you can see to love someone, you're going to have to be long-suffering and have joyfulness and patience. How do we have any might to do anything toward God or to His people? It is all and only by His glorious power. He strengthens us with His might. He may not always strengthen us how we think He should strengthen us. It says in Scripture, when I am weak, then He is strong. He will cause us to suffer persecution, tribulation, which will force us to look to Him for all our strength to do these things.

What does this then lead us to do? Giving thanks to God. I will have to admit to you, I do not give God enough thanks for what he has done for me. But all things come from God, even our tribulations. We are to be thankful, not necessarily thankful that our house burnt down, but maybe. Walter, I remember a time where a tree fell on your house and everything, and we kind of talked of it as a blessing in disguise, and it was. We are thankful that He causes us to see Him through these things, even in our corrections. We might not first see these things, but we will see that when we are corrected, it is because He loves us. Otherwise, He would not correct us. We see so many others in this world who He is not correcting. Things seem to be smooth sailing for them all the time. even though we can see the hatred toward God coming from their actions and their words. They are not loving in deed and in truth. They are just saying words with nothing to back them up. But we are thankful to God that He continually causes us to look to Him. We are thankful for what He has done to us, but not apart from what He has done for us. We are thankful to Him for translating us into the kingdom of His dear Son, and that because of what Christ has done.

So next, Him translating us because of what Christ did. So as we see again, this is something that God does. And I'm trying to stress that this morning, that it's God that does all this. We are not meat in and of ourselves, but we have been made meat, it says right here. That is, God has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance. This making us meat has something it accomplishes. It delivers us from the power of darkness, which we would not be delivered from in and of ourselves. But it says he has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. He's moved us from one place to another. We are born forth into his kingdom by his gospel. We are conceived by God and brought forth by God into his kingdom and by his gospel.

But it all hinges on what Jesus Christ did on that tree. It is in him, Jesus Christ the Lord, that we are to see any redemption. What is the conclusion to all this? Give thanks unto God for all He has done and all He does. God the Father sent the Son and in sending Jesus Christ, He made peace for His people. And that is a peace to God. Jesus Christ made it so that God is at peace with us. Because of that, He then in time comes to us, translating us into His kingdom and thereby giving us peace with God. We see God is at peace with us and then we lay down our arms against God and take sides with God against ourselves. We should have nothing but thanks to God.

For had He not did any of this, had He not just not just done just one of these things that he said is needed, we could have not done it ourselves. None of this is about us. Faith in Christ, love to the brethren is not about us. It's all about him who has done all things and they have been done for him. But because it was his will to love a people, we have a good hope. This is the conclusion by Paul of this matter.

Let's read verses 15 through 22, and you'll see this of Colossians 1. 15 through 22. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly. I'm in the wrong chapter, ain't I? Yes, I am. Chapter 1, verse 15 is where I want to be.

Who is the image of the invisible God? Just as Joe was saying earlier, God has always been, Jesus Christ has always been there. That's how we see God is in the face of Jesus Christ. Who is the image of the invisible God? The firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him. and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 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."