Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 70. Number 70 from the hardback
hymnal. Holy, holy, holy. Let's all stand
together. Number 70. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy
sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee, which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. All thy works shall praise thy
name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Please be seated. Morning. We're going to be in
the book of Colossians again this morning. If you'd like to
open your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter one. Holy, holy, holy. If the Lord's pleased to to manifest
His grace, His glory, His person to us in worship this morning,
the first thing that we'll be aware of is His holiness. That word holy means to be separate. It means to be other. It means
that there's nothing in us that's like Him. He's holy. That glorious truth will cause
us to bow in worship of Him, and I pray that it will. Let's
join our hearts together in prayer and ask the Lord's blessings.
Our Heavenly Father, we come before Thy holy presence
knowing that It is the Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear son, our sin
bearer, our substitute, the one who stands in our stead and presents
himself as all our acceptance, all our righteousness, all our
holiness before thee. Lord, outside of him, there is
nothing in us that would be worthy of or able to
stand in your presence. What great hope we have in knowing
that you've given us your son to put away our sin and to establish
for us our righteousness. And Lord, we pray that you'd
be pleased to cause him to be lifted up this morning. That
you would bless your word and make it living and effectual
and cause it to do its work of grace in our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Just by way of reminder, we'll
begin in verse one of Colossians chapter one, and I'll read the
first seven verses. 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, 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, where have you heard before in the word
of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you as it is in
all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you
since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in
truth. As you also learned of Epaphras."
Epaphras' name means lovely. He was a member of the church
in Colossae. and had preached the gospel to
those believers in Colossae and now was with the Apostle Paul
in Rome. As Paul was writing back to the
church, he was rejoicing in the report that Epaphras had brought
to him about the congregation that was at Colossae. And so
he says, as you learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who
is for you a faithful minister of Christ. A faithful minister of Christ. No higher honor, no better epithet
could be given to any man than to be a faithful minister of
Christ. That, however, does not just
apply to who you may be thinking of right now. Timotheus is mentioned in the
book of Corinthians with Stephen, And Paul says that Stephen's
whole household was addicted to the ministry of the saints. This word minister is the same
word we have translated deacon. It means one who puts into practice
the commands of another. It applies to every child of
God and no greater honor can be given to you or to me than
for it to be said they are a faithful, faithful minister of Christ. You remember when James and John,
the sons of thunder, the sons of Zebedee's mother came to the
Lord in Matthew chapter 20 and asked the Lord if her two sons
could sit on his right hand and on his left hand when he entered
into his kingdom. Now at this time the disciples
still thought that the kingdom of God was going to be an earthly
kingdom. where the Lord Jesus Christ was gonna be seated on
a physical throne. And the Lord said, you don't
know what you're asking. He said, are you able to get
to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with? And are you able to drink the
cup that I'm going to drink of? And you remember what Peter and
John, they stood up, oh yes, Lord, we can do it, whatever.
And the Lord said, and you shall. The Lord was talking about the
baptism of his own death. They weren't able. Matter of
fact, they all fled when our Lord was arrested. And they weren't able to drink
the bitter dregs of God's wrath to put away the sins of God's
people. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
did it, They, by virtue of union with him, as true with all of
God's people, did it with him. We were baptized with the baptism
that he was baptized with, and we did drink the bitter dregs
of the cup of God's wrath. That's what Paul meant when he
said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me.
But when the other apostles, the other 10, the scripture says
in Matthew chapter 20, heard what Peter and John were requesting,
the scripture says they became indignant. They became indignant. Who are you to ask for that position? What about us? And the Lord's
response to the disciples was, the princes of the Gentiles exercise
their authority and power against you. But let him who would be
first be the minister of all. The way up is down. The Lord
in another place said, they that would be first will be last and
they that would be last will be first. Oh, our God has just
turned the whole world upside down, hasn't he? This being a
faithful minister of Christ is the heart's desire of every child
of God. To take the commands of their
Lord and to exercise them in a willing and loving... Epaphras is a picture of all
the saints of God. He's not just a picture of a
gospel preacher. He's a faithful minister of Christ. He is a lovely man who is following
after the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to Him, listening to
His charge and His command, and addicting themselves, if you
will, to the ministry of the saints. This word minister is
a description of a waiter, a table waiter, one who just simply brings
the food out from the kitchen and puts it on the table. We
express our gratitude to those table waiters, but we also say
our compliments to the chef. He's the one who put the food
together. And so that's where we are. That's
where the people of God are. I pray that the Lord would give
us a desire for that. That we would want to be known
as faithful ministers of Christ. It's a lowly position. It's not
a position of accolades. It's not a position of power
or influence. But no higher honor can be given
by God to men than to be a faithful servant, a faithful minister
of Christ. It is required of a servant that
he be found faithful. No greater reputation No more
enduring legacy can be given to a son or daughter of Adam
than to be called a faithful minister of Christ. And this
is a title that we do not give ourselves. We look at our own
faithfulness and we are only aware of how unfaithful we are,
how selfish we are, how full of ourselves we are, how desirous
of being glory we are, how lacking we are in serving our brethren
as we ought. And yet the Lord sees that which
is done in secret. And he honors it with this title,
a faithful minister of Christ. And to him, it is lovely. And
it's such a rare thing. Proverbs chapter 20, verse six
says, most men will proclaim their own goodness. Most men will proclaim their
own goodness. And standing before God, that's exactly what men
do. They say, but Lord, but Lord,
isn't this what the goats did when they stood in the day of
judgment? But Lord, we've cast out demons in my name. We've
done many wonderful works in your name. We've been faithful
ministers of Christ all of our lives. And what does the Lord
say to them? Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never
knew you. Most men, Most men will proclaim
every one his own goodness. And the rest of that verse says,
but who can find a faithful man? You see, a faithful man doesn't
go about proclaiming his own goodness. A faithful man doesn't
go about drawing attention to himself, wanting the, and yet
he remains faithful. And the Lord's saying, who can
find a faithful man? It is such a rare thing. History remembers men for their
rare and extraordinary accomplishments, does it not? And yet God says
all of those accomplishments produced by men are but vanity. Vanity of vanities. Empty. of any real significance,
any real meaning. But what is more rare than a
faithful minister of Christ? What is more extraordinary than
a faithful minister of Christ? There are few. Epaphrases. Yet, in another sense, Epaphras represents every one
of God's children. He produces that faithfulness
and he makes us to remain faithful, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith until our dying breath. This
is a work of grace in the heart. The Lord's going to say to every
one of his children, to every one of them, well done. good
and faithful servant. And so there is a God-given heartfelt
desire in the new man to be faithful, to be a faithful minister, a
servant of Christ. to hear His call and His command
and to follow after Him. And at the same time, there is
a God-given work of grace in the heart causing
us to remain faithful. Let me show you that. Turn with
me over just a couple of pages to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Child of God, may God be pleased
to make us an epaphras. And may our brothers and sisters
in Christ, in spite of all the unfaithfulness that we see in
our own hearts, look to us and say, there's a faithful minister
of Christ. And may God, by his grace, keep
us and produce in us that desire and That keeping look at Look
at first first timothy chapter 5 verse 23 and the very god of
peace sanctify you Holy notice how the word holy is spoken.
It's not the word sanctify is the word holy but he's talking
about being sanctified in body and spirit and mind and in service
and Being set apart, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 23. May the
very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth
you who also will do it. Faithful. is he that calleth
you, who also will do it. Second Timothy chapter two,
verse three, how much unbelief there is in our old man. We all cry, Lord, I do believe,
help thou mine unbelief. And then the Lord says this,
if we believe not, And we often do. There's a believing
not that's with you right this very minute. And if we believe
not, yet he remaineth faithful, for he cannot deny himself. We're members of the body of
Christ. He would not deny himself. He remaineth faithful. So that
in spite of all the unfaithfulness that we have in our lives, He
works in us, causing us in that day to say, well done, well done,
good and faithful servant. Now I want you to turn with me
in your Bibles to Numbers chapter 12, Numbers chapter 12. Moses has been used of God as
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matter of fact, in one place
the Lord said, I'm going to send another prophet like unto you,
referring to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. What did Moses
do? He brought the children of Israel
out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt. And that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ does. He brings his people out of the
bondage of sin and of the law and puts us under grace and delivers
us and makes us free. Free so that there is now therefore
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. What a beautiful
picture of Christ Moses is in so many ways and Moses has a
sister, Miriam, whose name means rebellion. That's what Miriam
means. If your name is Mary, that's
what Mary means. And that's what we all are by
nature. It goes back to the garden. goes
all the way back to the garden, raising our fist to God, the
old man saying, we'll not have this man reign over us. It is our sinful nature to stand
in rebellion against God. Aaron Aaron, you remember, was
God's priest and the brother of Moses. And so now Aaron and
Miriam, after they see, just like with the disciples and John
and James, when Miriam and Aaron see the authority that has been
given to Moses, they stand up in rebellion against Moses. And
look what the Lord says. So the Lord says, you come to
the tabernacle. And the Lord appears to Moses
and Miriam and Aaron, who are saying to Moses, you're not the
only prophet of God. God speaks to us. We don't have
to have you. In verse six, the Lord's going
to speak to, well, look at verse two. Here's what Miriam and Aaron
said, and they were jealous because Moses had married an Ethiopian,
the scripture tells us in verse one. And they said, hath the
Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?
And the Lord heard it. The Lord heard the rebellion
of Miriam and Aaron against the authority that he had given to
Moses. And here's the Lord's response after he appears to
them in a pillar of fire in verse five and in verse six. And he
said, hear ye now my words. If there be a prophet among you,
I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will
speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses, however, is
not so, for he is faithful in all my house." Now this is the
first word of the, the first use of the word faithful in the
word of God. Here's why I want us to go to it. When we see a
word for its first time, it, the meaning that it gives is
carried out through the rest of scripture. It's the law of
first mention, and this is the first mention of the word faithful.
And what is the Lord saying to Miriam and Aaron? If I speak to you, it'll be through
a vision or in a dream. But Moses is not like that. When
I speak to Moses, he is the faithful one in my house. When I speak
to him, look, verse eight, with him will I speak mouth to mouth,
even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of
the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses? And Moses here is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the faithful one of his house. Matter of fact, this theme is
carried over into the book of Hebrews. If you'll turn with
me to Hebrews chapter three, the same truth is revealed in
the New Testament. with the Lord showing us in the
revelation of the New Testament what that story really was about.
It wasn't about Moses, it wasn't about Miriam, and it wasn't about
Aaron. It was about Christ, who is the
faithful one. His name is called in the book
of Revelation when we see Him coming on that white stallion,
the scripture says, and His name is faithful and true. Most men will pronounce their
own goodness, but a faithful man, who can find? Who can find? This is a picture of Christ. And the Lord God, you know, God, Hebrews chapter
1 starts out, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake
unto our fathers by the prophets, speaking of these revelations
that God had made to the children of Israel in the Old Testament,
through men like Moses and prophets like Isaiah, has now spoken unto
us by his Son. Not so with my son. When I speak
to him, I'm going to speak to him mouth to mouth, face to face,
in a perfect similitude of God. He's going to be the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and the full glory. And so you be afraid
to stand up in rebellion against my son. I speak to you, it's
going to be in dark speeches. But when I speak to him, it's
going to be face to face and mouth to mouth. And now Look
here in Hebrews chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him
that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all of his house. For this man was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses in as much as he who hath built the
house hath more honor than the house. For every house is built
by some man, but he that built all things is God. And Moses
verily was faithful in all of his house as a servant for a
testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. but
Christ as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if
we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm to the
end. If we are able by God's grace
to remain faithful in believing on the Lord Jesus Christ to the
end, then we're part of his house. Moses faithful to his house,
the Lord Jesus Christ faithful to his house. He's not going
to lose one, is he? He's not going to lose one. So,
Epaphras, a faithful minister of Christ, the highest, highest I want to say accolade, but it's
more than that. The highest honor that can be
given to any man is to be a faithful servant of Christ. No other honor
the world has to offer can compare to that. And I pray that you
and I will want to be lovely like Epaphras, that we will want
to be known as faithful. ministers of Christ. If we are,
it will be because God has given us the faith to look to that
one who is perfectly faithful. Perfectly faithful. And our faithfulness
is bound up in Him. We're not looking to our faithfulness
as the hope of our salvation or our acceptance before God.
we're looking in faith to the one whose name is called faithful
and true, and desiring to follow after him. 1 Samuel chapter 2, you don't have
to turn there, this is a story of Eli, the priest, and Hophni
and Phinehas, his two sons who were serving as priests in the
tabernacle, but were unfaithful. And the Lord revealed to Eli
a judgment was going to come to his house because of the unfaithfulness
of his two sons and that they were both going to die in the
same day and that the Ark of the Covenant was going to be
taken. And it ultimately was exactly as God said it would.
But here's also what the Lord, and you remember when Eli got
the news that his sons had been killed and that the ark had been
taken, Eli said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Let him do that
which seems right in his eyes. That's what he told Samuel, and
that's the response he had when he died in that moment of time. Here's what the Lord said to
Eli. After I've killed your two sons,
I will raise up a faithful priest that shall do according to that
which is in my heart and in my mind, and I will build him a
sure house. Now, the immediate fulfillment
of that prophecy was Samuel. But Samuel is a type again, as
Moses was, of Christ. I'm going to raise up a faithful
priest and his house is going to be an eternal house. And he's
going to be the one who gets all the glory. So here we see
that if the Lord does say to us, well done, good and faithful
servant, or if our brethren see in us a faithful minister of
Christ, it won't be to our praise and glory, it'll be to his. It'll
all be to his. He was faithful to redeem his
people. Here's the faithful one. Exodus chapter six, I've heard
the groanings of the children of Israel. God hears your groanings
and he hears mine. And oftentimes, oftentimes our
prayers can't even be verbalized. We just groan before the Lord,
Lord, I'm in trouble. Lord, I need help. And the Lord
hears our groanings. Those groanings are made because
of our sin. That's what really aggravates
our... It's not that we're groaning
over our circumstances. It's the unbelief associated
with those circumstances that cause us to groan. If we believe
God, our circumstances wouldn't bother us at all. But they do,
don't they? They do because we don't trust
God as we ought, and we find ourselves coming before Him just
groaning. And that's what the Lord said.
I have heard the groanings of the children of Israel, whom
the Egyptians keep in bondage. There's our sin, whom the Egyptians
keep in bondage. Paul, speaking of his own sin,
said, In my flesh, there's no good thing. My sin is ever before
me. That's what David said. That's
our groaning. And the rest of that verse says,
but I remembered my covenant promises. The covenant of grace. The promise that God the Father
made to His Son in eternity past before time ever began to give
to His Son a bride. The promise that the son made
to his father to redeem them by his own precious blood. The
promise that the Holy Spirit gave to make the message of the
gospel effectual to their hearts and cause them to believe. I
remembered my covenant promises and therefore I redeemed them.
And when the Lord did deliver the children of Israel from Egypt,
what was the redemption price? After all the first nine plagues,
Pharaoh's heart was only hardened. Hardened all the more, more determined
not to let the children of Israel grow. Until finally, what happened? Ah, blood had to be shed. A lamb
had to be slain. A perfect lamb, a lamb that was
without spot. When that lamb was slain and
when that blood was shed, the blood was placed over the doorpost
and the lentil of the houses of the Israelites. And God showed
a distinction. He made a difference between
the Egyptians and the Israelites. And the death angel came through
that night. And God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass by
you. That was the redemption price. And all those bloody sacrifices
for 1,500 years after that. Day in and day out. Lamb after
lamb. All going back to that lamb that
God slew in the garden when he said to Adam, those fig leaves
aren't going to cover your nakedness. You need the fleece of a lamb. You need a righteousness that
you can't sew together. And so God slew that lamb. Abel
later slew a lamb, and his offering was pleasing in the sight of
God. Now the Paschal Lamb is going to be repeated over and
over and over for 1,500 years. until the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world, shed His precious blood on Calvary's
cross as a redemption, a covering for all the sins of all of God's
people. If I spoke to a Jewish friend
today, I would ask them, how do you find redemption? How do
you find redemption for your sins? I would be very interested
to know what a practicing Jew would say to that. Your Bible clearly states that
God requires a blood sacrifice and you haven't shed blood in
2,000 years. You don't have a temple, you
don't have an altar. Ever since the Romans destroyed the temple
in 70 AD, the Jews have never been able to practice a blood
sacrifice ever since. How would you, how do you, if
you believe what God says in the Old Testament, how can you
get redemption? How can you? You can't. Unless all of those
blood sacrifices were but types and shadows pointing to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who would come and fulfill all the promises
of God. He is the faithful one. He was faithful to redeem us. He was faithful to satisfy all
the demands of God's holy law. He was faithful to justify us
before God. He is faithful right now to stand
before God as our intercessor. He was faithful to send his Holy
Spirit to convict us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And he will be faithful. I will
come again and receive you unto myself so that where I am there,
you may be also. If you and I are to be called
epaphras, lovely, a faithful minister of Christ, it will be
but the result of us looking in faith to that faithful one,
that faithful one who gave his life for his sheep and faithfully
redeemed us Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Forgive us for our unfaithfulness
and enable us, Lord, by your grace to set our affections on
things above where Christ is seated at thy right hand. Lord,
thank you for putting into our hearts a desire to be lovely,
and faithful ministers of Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen.