Let's stand together again. We'll
sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin. When this passing world is done,
when has sunk yon radiant sun, when I stand with Christ on high,
looking o'er life's history, ? Then Lord shall I fully know
? Not till then how much I owe ? When I hear the wicked call
? On the rocks and hills to fall ? When I see them start and shrink
On the fiery deluge break, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, Not
till then how much I owe. When I stand before thy throne,
? Impressed in beauty, not my own ? ? When I see thee as thou
art ? ? Love thee with unsinning heart ? ? Then, Lord, shall I
fully know ? ? Not till then how much I owe ? ? Chosen not
for good in me ? ? Wakened up from wrath to flee ? ? Hidden
in the Savior's side ? ? By His Spirit sanctified ? ? Teach me,
Lord, on earth to show ? ? By thy love how much I owe ? Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles again to
Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. I like that hymn we just sang.
Only then, only then, when we see him face to face and be made
like him, will we know how much we owe. And it'll take all eternity to
express it, our love and our worship. We look through a glass, darkly
now, but then face to face. I've titled this message, Beholding
Your Order. Beholding Your Order. Now we've already found out from
previous verses in Colossians chapter two, that the apostle
Paul had never been to Colossae. He was writing this letter from
a Roman prison. and towards the end of his life,
was riding back to different churches that he knew about,
but some of which he had never actually been to. He tells us
in verse one, that though they had never seen his face in the
flesh, Colossians 2.1, yet his heart was being poured out for
them. In chapter 4, he identifies some
particular individuals that they knew together as mutual friends. The church at Colossae knew these
people, Paul knew them, so even though Paul didn't know the individuals
at Colossae, he greets them from their mutual friendships. And
one man he mentions is Epaphras. And Epaphras, he tells us in
chapter 4, was from the church at Colossae and had brought a
report to the Apostle Paul in the Roman prison about what was
happening in the church at Colossae. Now, I say all of that in order
to say that some have suggested that when the Apostle Paul tells
us in chapter 2 at verse 5 that he was beholding their order,
though he was not with them in the flesh, he was with them in
the spirit, that somehow spiritually he was able to be there and overlook
the order of their lives and the order of their worship and
was commending them for that. The Apostle Paul doesn't travel
from place to place in the spirit to see things outside of his
body That happened once when he was caught up into the third
heaven and the Lord gave him a revelation of heaven. But I
do not believe that's what he's speaking of here when he talks
about beholding their order. Let's read the verse together.
Verse 5, for though I be absent in the flesh, Yet am I with you
in the Spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness
of your faith." Order. I looked that word up,
the word that's used in the original language, a fixed succession
or progression, an argument, or a structure of time. So it means in the original language
much of what it means to us, something that is done according
to an order of progression. Surely the Lord would have us
to worship Him orderly. First Corinthians chapter 14,
after the Lord rebukes the people at Corinth for abusing their
spiritual gifts and creating great conflict and chaos in their
churches, They were getting drunk at the Lord's table and they
were competing with one another to see who had the best spiritual
gifts. And the Lord at the end of chapter
14 says, let everything be done in decently and in order. Quit
that foolishness. There's no place for that in
the church. Was that what the Apostle Paul
is speaking of here when he says that though he was in the Spirit,
he was observing and rejoicing their order? 1 Timothy chapter 4, when Paul
writes to the church, Timothy's pastoring, he says to them, he
says, if I tarry, I'm writing these things unto you so that
you might know how you ought to behave yourself in the household
of God. And so the Lord gives us reason
to know that there is a place, certainly, for order in the church. But when Paul writes to the church
at Colossae and says, I am in the Spirit observing your order. I believe he's referring to the
report that Epaphras has given him about their faith. Let's go back to our text again.
Verse five, and though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you
in the spirit, rejoicing and beholding your order and the
steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and
grounded and built up in Christ. So he's talking about the order
of salvation. Does, Salvation have an order? Is there a succession of order
with God? What is God's order when it comes
to the gospel? And I believe the reason why
the Lord has instructed us in other places to do what we do
here decently and in order is because our God is a God of order.
He's a God of order. Everything he does, has an order
to it. We order things. I was telling somebody recently,
I'm not much of a planner, but I sure am thankful that I've
got a wife that is. I fly by the seat of my pants
and I don't plan much. I ought to. She told me recently,
your lack of planning is not reason for my being in an emergency,
you know, but often it is in our relationship. But why do
we plan things? Why do we order things in our
lives so that we can have some control over the outcome and
over the circumstances? Is that not true? And people
like me who don't order much are often out of control. as
far as the details of their lives unless they have someone order
them for them. Our God doesn't have to order
things in order to be in control. His absolute sovereign control
over all things is manifested and demonstrated in order. You see, we order things to control
them. God controls everything and therefore
it has an order to it. Does that make sense? It has
an order to it. The scripture says that we devise
our plans We think through things and try
to create some order to our lives, but God orders our steps. And so in Providence, here we
are trying to get control of our circumstances by planning
and ordering things as we ought to some degree. But in that,
we know that God's ordering our steps. Say not, James said, that
we'll go to this city or that city and buy and sell and get
gain, but say rather, if God wills, we'll do this or that.
You see, it's God's order that ultimately determines the outcome
of all things. And we rejoice in that. We bow
to a God who is absolutely sovereign. Paul says, I'm rejoicing in what
Epaphras has told me about your order. Genesis chapter one, verse one
begins with order. In the beginning, God, that's
an order, isn't it? Created the heavens and the earth
and the earth was without form and void. What is that? Disorder. It was without form
and void. It was empty. It was nothing
but mass confusion. And darkness was upon the face
of the deep. Darkness is disorder. Darkness
is not being able to see, not having things properly set forth. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. Is that
not a picture of our spiritual condition? Without form, disorder,
void, empty, making our plans but nothing ever goes according
to plan and we we and darkness is upon the face of the deep
there's nothing but you know we're like a blind man groping
in the dark there's no order to that and God says let there
be light now there's some order and then the rest of chapter
one there's order there's day one light Day two, and day three,
and day four, and day five, day six, man, and day seven, God
rest. Why? Because he's finished. He's finished the order. What
he began, he finished. And then John tells us, John
connects Genesis chapter one to Christ when he says this,
light has come into the world. But men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. Now that means two
things. The irreligious hate Christ and
they hate the light of the gospel because it reveals their lawless
living as sinful. The religious hate the light
and they hate Christ because it reveals their law keeping
as sinful. The sinner loves the light because
it's the only hope that they have to be rid of their sin,
to have their sins forgiven, to have them put away. And so light has come into the
world just like it did in Genesis chapter one. And there was an
order to it. And though men love darkness
rather than light, Those who have their deeds wrought by God,
they flee to the light. Oh, they want order. They want
order in there. Now, I'm not talking about just
ordering the events of your life and getting things in order as
far as your family and finances and all that sort of thing. I
want to be on God's order. I want to be in that's what Paul's
talking about. I'm beholding your order and
it's consistent with the order of God is my order. I've already confessed to you
that my My circumstances are often disorderly because of the
way my personality is, but is my order spiritually speaking
in line with God's order? Well, the order of the gospel
has a beginning and it has an end. And if the beginning of the gospel
that we believe does not start in eternity, then it's not on
God's order. And if it doesn't end in eternity,
it's not in God's order. Any message of salvation that
denies election is not on God's order and will not save. It denies the order that God...
You see, in order for it to be fulfilled in time, it had to
be ordained in eternity. You see, any message of salvation
that denies the Father's sovereign right to choose a particular
people according to His own will and purpose denies the Father
His glory and strips from the gospel its order. Any gospel
message that denies Christ as the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world is denying Christ His glory in salvation. You see, what He did in time
was already done in eternity. That's the order that Paul's
talking about. I'm beholding your order. How you're on the
same page with God. Your gospel is on God's order. Any message of salvation that
denies the covenant of grace and the participation that the
Holy Spirit had in that covenant of grace when he said, I will
make them willing in the day of my power, robs the Spirit
of God of his glory as deity and puts man in the driver's
seat. deciding for himself. It is not
a gospel according to God's order and it will not save. The gospel
has a very particular order to it because God is a God of order. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Isaiah chapter 44. Isaiah 44. Verse six, my concern for myself and for
you today is that our order be consistent with God's order. Verse five, or verse six, I'm
sorry. Thus saith the Lord. Is there
anything else that needs to be said? for you to be convinced that
the words coming up are God's words? That's all, you know,
thus saith the Lord. We're not here to prove anything
to anyone. We're here to declare, thus saith
the Lord. And the order is that God will
give ears to hear and hearts to believe whatever he has said.
Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the
Lord of hosts. So God, the Father, God, the
Son are in perfect agreement. I am the first and I am the last. And besides me, there is no God. and who as I shall call and shall
declare it and set it in order for me since I appointed the
ancient people and the things that are coming and shall come,
let them show unto them. I am the first, I am the last,
I am the alpha and the omega. I'm the cause of your salvation.
I'm the object of your faith. I am the one who keeps you. You
see, there's an order. There's a perfect, oh, God said,
it's my order. Paul said, I am observing your
order. Now, I want to try to be as clear
as I can on this next point. God cannot be known by logic. God cannot be known by logic.
He can only be known by divine revelation. Take all the classes
of logic that you can take and you're not going to discover
God by logic. God uses the food and assists of preaching to save
them which believe. God does a miracle in the new birth
when he breathes life into us and causes the light to shine
out of darkness in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ, just like he did in creation, just like he did for the Apostle
Paul when the light shined from heaven and knocked him off his
high horse. That's the new birth. Just like the Lord said to Nicodemus,
you must be born of the Spirit. The Spirit listeth with us whoever
he wills. You cannot know God by logic. Clear? The gospel is not illogical. One of the things that distinguishes
us as humans from all other creatures is our ability to be logical. The scripture says that we're
created in the image and likeness of God. No other creature of
God can build a building or plan something or do the things that
we do. They don't carry on conversations
like we have. Let them talk about the whales
and dolphins all they want. They're just stupid animals compared
to us. And when the Lord shows us His
order, He does not defy logic. Man-made religion is illogical. You cannot make sense out of
nonsense. And that's what man-made religion
is. Man-made religion says that God is all-powerful. He's God. He's the irresistible
force until he comes up against an immovable object. Now, can
you make logical sense of that? Is it possible logically for
an irresistible source to come up against an immovable object
and for there to be a standstill? No. Because if the objects have
been movable, then the force was not irresistible. And if
the force is really irresistible, the object is movable. But that's
what religion says. God's all powerful till he comes
up against your will. And then you become God. The man-made religion says God
loves everybody, but most of the people he loves he's going
to punish in hell for all eternity. Does that make logical sense
to you? Christ died for everybody, but
most of the people that he died for are going to end up in hell.
Does that make logical sense? God wants everybody to be saved.
But, you know, even though he's God, He's abdicated his throne
of sovereignty and omnipotence, and he's allowed you to get up
on the throne and make your own decisions. You see, it's not,
it doesn't even make sense. If God loves everybody, here's
a logical statement. If God loves, you see, most people,
when they come to church, they just, they just lay their, their
intelligence to the side and they, and they swallow hook,
line, and sinker, whatever the preachers say. I don't want you
to do that. I believe the gospel is orderly. I believe that it has an order
to it, and it's a logical order. Matter of fact, the word order
in our text comes from the same word as the word logos, which
is the word that the scripture uses to describe the Lord Jesus
Christ as the word of God, the full expression of God. Here's
a logical statement. If God loves everybody, what
in the world does the love of God have to do with anyone's
salvation? If God wills all men to be saved,
what does the will of God have to do with anyone's salvation?
You see, these are unanswerable questions. If Christ died for everybody,
then what does the death of Christ on Calvary's cross have to do? And I'm assuming in these questions
that God loves everybody, but not everybody's gonna be saved.
God wills for everybody to be saved, but not everybody's gonna
be saved. Christ died for everybody, but not everybody's gonna be
saved. That's what they say. It's illogical. There's no order
to that. Again, you cannot know God by
logic. God has created us with a mind
that people will not accept. Well, more so in our time, I
guess. It's amazing what people believe, not just about religion,
but about everything else. You read it on the internet,
it must be a fact. But logic tells us you need to research
something before you just believe it and make sure it makes sense. And yet in religion, men will
just hang their brains on a hook back there at the back door when
they come in and they'll just believe whatever's said, even though it's completely out
of order. The gospel of God's free grace
in the glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is simple. It is logical. And most importantly,
it is true. Been talking about perverted
forms of the gospel that put man on the throne of God, what
about Judaism or Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam or Catholicism
or any other religion or ism of the world? What about those
religions? You know they all have one thing
in common? They all have a God, little g, that depends upon man
to do something in order for that God to be able to save them.
Every one of them. Does that make sense to you? Does that make sense to you?
What kind of God is that? Who does that make out? You see,
our gospel is the only gospel, and if I can say it like this,
I want to be... Our gospel is the only gospel
that lets God be God. that declares God as God. He is God. He has an order. When Paul said, I'm beholding
your order. He's talking about the fact that
they believe in a God who is God. Who sovereignly reigns on
his throne and is not threatened by man. He doesn't have a plan B. He always does according, Romans
8, 28. For you know, you know this,
this makes sense to you, that all things work together for
good for them that love God and those that are called according
to his purpose. For whom He did foreknow, that's His order. He
did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. And
Him that He predestinated, He called. And Him that He called,
He justified. Him that He justified, He glorified.
All those things are in the past tense. They all happened in eternity,
and there is an order. Order. God is not asking you or me. to believe something that doesn't
make sense. And yet that's exactly what the
whole world has done. Our God is a God of order. And everything he does is according
to a perfect, logical order. Micah 7.18 says, Who is a God
like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage, and retaineth
not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy? You see, our salvation begins,
the very beginning of salvation is the love of God. He delights in showing mercy
toward his people. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
came, that's what he did. The very first time that order
is used in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 22, when Abraham took
Isaac up on the mountain to make him a sacrifice according to
what God had commanded. And you remember Isaac said,
Lord, father, here's the wood and here's the fiber. Where's
the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide
himself a lamb. We know what that story is all
about. It's about, it's a picture of Christ. God will provide himself
a lamb. God will do the providing. He'll
provide himself as the lamb and he will provide the lamb to himself. And so the scripture says that
they got up on the mountain. You remember he told his servants,
said, you wait here, the land and I shall return. We're going
to worship God. And the scripture says that Abraham
took the wood and laid it on an altar in order, in order. Now if Isaac is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ as the sacrificial lamb, and the fire
is a picture of the wrath of God, which clearly they are,
what is the wood a picture of? What is the fuel for the fire?
Is it not our sin? The fire of God's wrath could
not fall upon the Lord Jesus Christ until God made him sin. He bore our sins in his body. There's the wood. And it was
laid in order. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
just die for everybody's sin or for sin willy nilly. He died
in order of the particular sins of his particular people. And
he put them away once and for all by the sacrifice of himself.
Abraham laid the wood in order. Nothing else makes sense, does
it? When the Lord gave Moses the
instructions on how to build the tabernacle, you read it in
Exodus, the word order is used over and over again. The lamps
were set in order. The table was set in order. The bread was set in order. The
sacrifices were to be laid in an orderly fashion upon the altar. Why? Because our God is a God
of order. And when Paul said to the church
at Colossae, I rejoice in observing your order. He wasn't there somehow
in the spirit, watching their way they conducted themselves.
He's talking about the order of the gospel, which Epaphras
had come back and told them they believed the gospel. And Paul
knew from the beginning to the end that God was a God of order.
You haven't just swallowed some nonsense about a God who really
can't save. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
nine. Isaiah chapter 9. Very familiar passage, but I
want to call attention to a word that we may often overlook. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. For
unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
had to be a son before he could become a child. He was the eternal
son of God. And a child was born, born of
a woman. And the government shall be upon
his shoulders and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
And of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no
end and upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order
it. To order it. What is the order? Salvation begins with God and
ends with God. And to establish it with judgment
and justice from henceforth, even forever, the seal of the
Lord shall perform this. He's gonna perform it according
to his order. Turn with me to Luke chapter
1. Luke chapter 1. Theos, you know, is the name
for God. And philo is one of the words
in the original language for love. And so Theophilus, Theophilus
is a lover of God. a lover of God. I believe in
Acts, Luke addresses him as the most excellent Theophilus. He
was a Roman man in the Roman government who probably was very
well educated, and he wasn't going to swallow something that
was illogical. And yet, Symbolically, Theophilus
represents every one of God's children. Now look how Luke begins
his letter. For as much as many have taken
in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things
which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered
them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and
ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect
understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto
thee in order, most excellent Theophilus. That thou mayest
know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. I want you to be sure. Because
number one, it's revealed in the word of God. But number two,
it's orderly. It's not nonsense. It makes sense. The gospel is
the only thing that does make sense. How God could be just
and justify the ungodly? How can that be? There must be
a sinless Savior that's able to bear the burden of our sin
and satisfy the justice of God. He must be one that's gonna stand
in my stead and present Himself on my behalf as my righteous,
the only thing that makes sense. No other message of salvation
even makes sense. that God will require something
of me in order for him to be able to save me? What kind of
God is that? That makes sense. And when Paul says, I'm observing
your order, saying the same thing that Luke's saying here to Theophilus,
I'm gonna write to you in order so that you know the certainty
and you'll understand what it is we believe and who we believe. Not going to send you a bunch
of... I mean, what was Greek mythology? That's what the whole
world believed at this time. It was nonsense. Nonsense. You got a whole bunch of deities
in heaven fighting with one another and man on earth fighting with
him. You got an irresistible force moving up against an immovable
object and nobody can figure out what's going to happen next. Our God reigns. He's omnipotent,
He's sovereign, He's immutable. He's a God of order. Might our order here be the same
as His order? 2 Timothy 1, verse 9 says, who
hath saved us and called us. What came first? God has to save you before he
can call you. That's just, faith and regeneration chronologically
happen simultaneously. But in the logical order of things,
and that's what we're talking about, the logical order of things,
regeneration must precede faith. We believe because we've been
born again. It just makes sense, doesn't
it? And it's a sovereign unilateral
invasion of God the Holy Spirit that breathes life into our dead
hearts and makes us to be believers and causes us to believe. That's God. That's the order
of salvation. who hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. There's the order. I'm observing your order and
I'm rejoicing. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call upon Him
in whom they've not believed? You see, when you call upon the
Lord to save you, it's because He's already called you. And He's already given you faith
to believe. That's the order. It can't be any other way and
God still be God. How shall they call upon Him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they be preached unless they be sent?
You see, there's the order. God sends a preacher, declares
the message, a logical, truthful message again. You're not gonna
learn it by logic, but it's not going to violate your logic. God's going to cause you to believe
it. And you're going to find yourself calling upon him because
you believed. This word order is used in the
book of Hebrews six times. You remember what it is? The
order of Melchizedek. Now Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ who met with Abraham after
Abraham had fought a battle against the kings. And Abraham pays tithes
to Melchizedek. And Melchizedek is explained
in the book of Hebrews in six times, the Lord Jesus Christ
is referred to as the one who came in the order of Melchizedek. What is the order of Melchizedek? Well, according to Hebrews chapter
seven, he was without father, without mother, without ancestry,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life, but made like unto the Son of God and abideth a priest
continually forever. That's the order of Melchizedek.
And that's the order of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul said,
I am beholding your order, all he was saying was, I've heard
that you're worshiping God as God. You're not violating his order with some nonsense and foolishness
that doesn't make sense. I close with this as a, as a
encouragement and a challenge. Elihu came to Job and he was a faithful
gospel preacher who laid out the gospel in order. in order. Job's friends had created such
discord and such disorder about things, and they were trying
to make sense of what was happening with Job without any truth. And
Elihu comes and declares, God is God. And here's what Elihu
says in Job 33. If thou canst answer me, set
thy words in order. Stand up! Give me an argument that proves
me wrong. Show me where I'm wrong. Prove
your defense. Defend yourself by reason, if
you can. Show me from the clear order
of scriptures where I have erred. And when we preach the gospel
of God's perfect order, that's what we say to men. And you know
what my experience has been over all these years? Can't do it. They cannot bring an accusation
against the order of scripture. And so what do they do? They
resort, just like they did in the New Testament, to personal
attacks. Well, he's an insurrectionist,
so they've got a cult. Or, you know, they'll make some sort of personal
accusation because they cannot, as Elihu said to Job, bring a
defense in words of order. They can't do it. And you can't
do it. And you don't want to do it,
do you? You like God's order, don't you? You like God's order. In Job 33 verse 37, after Job
refuses to try to answer this rhetorical question, Elihu says,
we cannot order our speech against him by reason of darkness. You're not going to bring an
argument against God. That's pulled out of the darkness
of nonsense and disorder. Paul from a Roman prison. writes under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit to a church he'd never been to. He says,
Epaphras has come. He's told me about who you believe
and what you believe. And I'm rejoicing in your order,
in your order, because your order is God's order. Our Heavenly Father, Bless your
word, cause us to bow to your order. Lord, make the truth of
the gospel simple. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You know, one last thing I wanted
to say, when you hear the truth, you just know it's true, don't
you? You just know it's true. Why? Because truth is simple.
It's not complicated. That has to be true. Tom, number 20 in the Sproul
Hymnal. Let's stand together, number
20. Long, long before the world was
made, God chose to save me by His grace, and blessed me in
my covenant head with every blessing of His grace. In Christ my surety
was found, a ransom for God's chosen one. Deliverance was then
proclaimed, and God's great work of grace begun. In the due time my Savior came
to do His holy Father's will. A body was prepared for Him that
He might righteousness fulfill. When Christ had righteousness
brought in, He took my awful load of sin. Dying for me upon
the tree, My Savior put away my sin. Though I was born a child
of wrath, depraved and helpless, dead in sin, and though I chose
the rebel's path, despising God and loving sin, My Savior's love
could not be quenched. He sought and found me by His
grace. Awakened by His Spirit's call,
I'm saved, I'm saved by sovereign grace. ? Amazing free and sovereign
grace in love ? ? Christ Jesus took my place ? ? Chosen, redeemed,
and called by grace ? ? To Christ alone I give all praise ? ? My
only hope, my only plea ? ? Is that Christ lived and died for
me ? In him alone I am complete, to Christ alone my praise shall
be.