hear that passage that Brother Ben just read about the Lord coming. You know, when they watched him ascend up into the clouds, the angel said, he's coming again in like manner. And you know now, there's all this talk about there being life out there somewhere. Well, there is. The Lord is and his people. And he is coming again in like manner as he went, but he's coming in all his glory.

And can you imagine, you know how now everybody has their social media access and everybody weighs in on everything and anything. Can you imagine in that day when our Lord starts to return and people see him, can you imagine what all the People will be saying, you know, and skeptics and all the things that they'll do, and he's going to make his people know it's him. You're going to know it's him. That'll be a day, won't it? Watch, he is coming, watch.

I'm not going to read this passage again, Cautions 4. I'm just going to pick up and start telling you what I wanna show you here, but every word in the Bible's important. Every word's important. My grandfather used to tell me that if you don't see Christ in the passage, it's not because he's not there. You just don't see him. He's there.

And so here, even a salutation like this in verses seven through 18 in Colossians 4, this is important. Paul's in prison in Rome. He's under house arrest. And you see the power and wisdom of God. The Lord ruled the hearts of men to arrest Paul and put him there. And arranged it so that Paul could still preach because the Lord had some people in Rome. And the Lord saved some of his people in Rome. Saved some in Caesar's house. And the Lord graciously provided Paul with some brethren. some brethren to help him.

And Paul now, he's sending back some of these brethren to Colossae to check on them and know their state, to tell them all about his state. And he sent this letter and he sent a letter to Laodicea and he told them, now y'all read each other's letter to the congregation. And in all of this, what we see is we see the faith and love of God's people, faith and love of brethren, because of the faith and love of our Savior. And that's what I wanna focus on. I wanna focus mainly on the love, the faith and love of Christ, and that is the reason the character of his saints is faith and love, because Christ dwells in you. Christ creates this.

First, the character that our Lord creates in his people, is his characters, one of being faithful and being full of love and therefore beloved of one another. Faith and love. He says there in verse seven, and I'm gonna call Tychicus Ty because that's just easier to say, but Ty is a beloved brother, he said, and a faithful minister. He's a faithful, a fellow servant in the Lord. He said in verse nine, Onesimus is a faithful and beloved brother who's one of you. The Lord makes his saints faithful. He makes his saints faithful.

When we're born again, let me show you Colossians three there. When we're born again, in verse 10, He says, put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, now catch this word, after the image of him that created him. That new man in us is created after the image of Christ who created the new man. Look at Ephesians 4, just a few pages to your left. In Ephesians 4, I didn't, let me see. Oh, I'd help if I could get in the right book. Hold on one second, Ephesians four. Verse 24, he says, put on the new man, and again, watch, is created in righteousness and true holiness. The new man is created by our Lord Jesus and is created after his image. It's created in the image of Christ, in his righteousness and his holiness. It's because he fulfilled the law for his people in perfect righteousness and put away our sin. That's why it's just for God to have mercy on us and to create a new man in us in the new birth. And through faith he imputes the righteousness of Christ to you because Christ made you righteous in him.

And that new man is holy because Christ dwells in your new man. Christ is the holiness of the new man. And that makes you look to him only. It doesn't make you look to yourself. It makes you look to him only and know he is all your salvation. So that character of Christ himself is the character of our new man. We have a fleshly man that sinned, but the new man is created after the image of the Lord Jesus.

And so Christ is faithful, so he gonna make his child faithful. It's of him, he's faithful. What does that mean? It means one full of faith, faithful. And it means one that can be trusted, one that can be relied upon. And first and foremost, it is that one himself trusts the Lord, has faith in the Lord, is full of faith in Christ only.

And when our Lord walked this earth, he was faithful. He's faithful now, but what I'm saying, when he represented his people, he was the only one God looked to. to represent all his elect from the beginning to the end. All his elect were all in Christ, and Christ is the head and representative who alone God is looking to. What he does, all his people are doing in him. Who he is, all his people are in him. Christ Jesus the Lord is the substitute, he's the representative, he's the head, he's the only one that God looks to. And all his elect were in him by God's grace.

What Christ did, we did. When Christ pleased the Father in all things, we pleased the Father in all things. When Christ established us in right, the law and righteousness, he established us in righteousness. We established it in righteousness in Christ. When he went to the cross and was made sin for us and he bore the curse and condemnation that the law and justice of God demanded, we bore that and we died. And when he came out of that grave and arose and sat down at God's right hand, we came out and sat down in him.

The point I want you to see here is our Lord was faithful. He looked nowhere but to his Father as the one perfect believer representing all his people. I always have to say this when I say that because I don't want anybody to misunderstand. He is God. He is the Son of God. He is one with God. He's the one that spoke heaven and earth into existence. He's the one that upholds all things by the word of his power. He is God. When he took flesh to represent his people, he did what his people should be doing and should have done. What Adam should have done was look only to the father and trust the father for everything and obey the father and trust the father to keep you and sustain you and provide everything for you.

That's what his people should have done, honoring the father by faith, honoring the father by commitment to the father. That's what Christ did, and he did it perfectly. We've seen in Isaiah, and I think it's very important to see it, Isaiah 50, Isaiah 50, This is what, this is Christ speaking, and he said, he said, verse five, he said, the Lord God hath opened mine ear. What's it gonna take for you to hear God and believe God? He's gonna have to open your ear. This was what took place when they made a man a willing bondservant. They put an awl through his ear, they opened his ear. And the picture there is, is if you're gonna be made a willing bondservant to the Lord, He's gonna have to open your ear. He's gonna have to give you new ears to hear him and make you willing.

Well, our Lord did this in perfection for his people. The Lord God has opened mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off their hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

Why did he do that? Because he was faithful. He said this, for the Lord God will help me. There was his faith, the Lord God will help me. That's why he gave himself to die in the place of his people. The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifies me.

Verse nine, behold, the Lord God will help me. And you know what God says about that? Go with me to Hebrews three. What does God say about the Savior? This is what the Spirit of God wrote right here. Hebrews 3, verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle. See, why is all the rest of the apostles faithful? Why are they considered by God to be righteous and holy and perfectly faithful? Because of the apostle. They were in the apostle, Christ Jesus. And consider the high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. who was faithful to him that appointed him. God appointed him and he was faithful to God that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

For this man is counted worthy of more honor, more glory than Moses, and 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. That's who Christ is. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant for testimony of those things which to be spoken after. God said that about Moses. God made him that way.

But look here, but Christ as a son over his own house, whose house are we? Moses was faithful as a servant. Christ was faithful as a son. He did what he did not only in faith, but in love to God and to his brethren in the house, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And we're of that house. If he's called you and made you to hold fast to him, your confidence, and you hold fast to him and rejoice in him all the way to the end, that's what his people will do.

You see, the Son of God really did become us. He became his people and represented his people and was faithful to God in perfection. That's why the scripture says he's the author and finisher of our faith. He is the only one God looks to. Your faith can be as small as a grain of mustard seed. It's the gift of God, and it can be very, very small, but you trust Christ.

But see, it's not the amount of your faith or the degree of your faith. It's all because Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. God is pleased with him, and what he is, his people are in him. We've been made perfectly faithful to God in Christ, perfectly righteous to God in Christ, perfectly holy to God in Christ, and we died already in Christ. Everything's in Christ, brethren.

So when he's formed in you, so when Christ is formed in you, you know what your new man's gonna be? Faithful. What is, how does God give faith, and what is, what does faith do? He gives faith by Christ being formed in you, the faithful one, and the new man's gonna be faithful. The new man's gonna look only to Christ and trust Christ. Well, I don't always look only to him. I see that I have so much unbelief.

That's your old man. That's how you are in your old man, is sin and unbelief. But that new man is perfectly united to Christ, perfectly one with Christ. perfectly faithful to Christ. That's right. The old man's full of sin. So because this is the case, we can't look to us. We have to look only to him.

God is faithful. This is what he makes you to know. God is faithful. Go with me to 1 Corinthians 1. I want you to see this. God is faithful. He says that in verse 9. God is faithful. He's faithful. The true God-given faith knows God's faithful. He's worthy to be trusted. Now, what does all that entail? Why did he make that statement? Go back to verse five. Here's why. Well, let's go to verse four. Well, let's go to verse three.

Grace be unto you, peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. Now here it is, look, in everything, you're enriched by him. In all utterance and in all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. Even as you were made to believe the gospel, the witness of God, and it confirmed in you. So that you come behind in no gift. In the new man, you are not lacking in any gift. Not all have the same measure, but we all have all the same gift. Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Do you see why? Do you see why we look to him alone? because he's done everything for us and brought you to look only to him.

1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 23, I love this. He said, the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Oh boy, the self-sanctifier jump on that and say, see there, we're gonna be made perfect at some point and we still got a ways to go. We're working and we're getting more holy and more holy. That is not what he's talking about. When you're born of God in Colossians, he said you're made meet, fit to partake of the inheritance. You are sanctified. But he's saying here, read on what he says here. He's saying the whole work of sanctifications of the Lord, he's gonna preserve you and he alone's gonna do it. Look, I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. It's all of him. When he saves, he saves entirely, wholly, and the whole works of him.

So back in our text now, when Christ dwells in you, he's gonna make you faithful. His child's gonna be faithful. And he makes you to be his disciple, to be one that can be relied upon by your brethren. You'll be one that your brethren can rely upon. You're gonna be trustworthy. Ty's a faithful minister, he said. Onesimus is a faithful brother, he said. Faithful. He said there in verse seven, Ty's a fellow servant. That's a compound Greek word. Several compound Greek words put together here. And this word fellow is stronger than being in the same place or in close connection. It means a strong, undivided, unbreakable coherence. It means a divine union. And we've been united as bond servants. That's what fellow servants, we've been made willing bond servants, bound by grace, bound by the Holy Spirit, same Holy Spirit. each given a new will by the power of the Lord Jesus, each been made willing to give up all our other endeavors to serve Christ and his, promote his gospel, to promote, to promote the gospel to save his people. That's what it is to be a fellow servant.

When that, in the law, when that, when that servant had been, he'd been sold to this master and his master was good to him, And when it came time for him to be released, he said, I don't want to leave my master. He's been good to me. They take it to the, to the door post. They put all through his ear. They marked him. And from then on, he was, he was willingly serving his man. He didn't have to be there. He willingly was doing that. Well, that's the picture of when the Lord gives you a new ears to hear. You're marked from then on. You're different than you were before, because now you're not trusting you anymore. You trust only him. And now your service, your business now, is you're bound to serve him only. And that's what he does for his people.

He said, Aristarchus here, verse 10, is my fellow prisoner. That means a whole lot more than just being cellmates. What that means is They had that united divine union. So they were fellows and they were prisoners. They were taken by the Lord, set apart by the Lord to be the Lord's prisoner, to be his prisoner. Christ made them faithful. Christ made them fellows. Christ made them willing servants. Christ made them to be his willing prisoners. He made them, how'd he do that? By making them free through his blood, making them see they're redeemed and they're free.

I said you won't serve the Lord till you know that you're free from the curse and condemnation. There's nothing else to offer. There's nothing else for you to do to be accepted. You're made free, and when you're made free, you'll be his prisoner. Look here, 1 Corinthians 7. Paul, you know, the early believers thought when they heard there's neither male nor female in Christ, they thought that meant The male should stop abiding by the customs of the day that males should abide by, and the females stop abiding by the customs that females abide by. When he said, in Christ there's neither husband nor wife, you're one in Christ, they thought, well, should we get a divorce, or should we not marry? And when they heard that in Christ you're free, and you're no longer the servants of men, those that were servants thought they should run away, Those masters thought they should just let all the servants go. And he said, no, he said, here's what he says about, see, this is when you're free by Christ, you're made his prisoner.

Look here, verse 22, 1 Corinthians 7, he that's called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's free man. If you're in prison when he called you, you're free. You're the Lord's free man. And likewise, him that's called being free, he's Christ's servant. And when he makes you see how truly free you are by his blood, from all the curse and condemnation, from your sin nature, from death, hell, and the devil, that's when you become his servant, his prisoner. And Paul relied upon these men. He trusted these men because they were faithful. He sent them to preach the gospel to Colossae. He sent them to tell Colossae about his state and trust them to go there and comfort the Lord's people. Cautions 4-7, he said, all my estate shall I declare unto you, he's a beloved brother, he's a faithful minister, he's a fellow servant in the Lord, whom I've sent to you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who's one of you, they shall make known unto you all things which are done here.

And you think they're gonna come there to those brethren and walk in and start Telling them all the things Paul did? No, they're gonna go tell them all the things the Lord did. How the Lord saved his people, how the Lord put Paul right where he should be and gave him the message, and the Lord saved his people. And they're gonna comfort the hearts of their people, of the brethren, because that's what the Lord makes you faithful to do.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to Jews. That means speak to their hearts, comfort their hearts. What's the message? Tell them that their warfare is accomplished. Their iniquities pardoned, they received of the Lord's hand double for all their sins. That's the message we're supposed to preach. And that's the message faithful servants preach, by God's grace.

Paul knew they were faithful because they'd been faithful to him. He said in verse 11, Jesus, which is called justice, He's of the circumcision, he was a Jew in the flesh. Now he's a true Jew, one circumcised in the heart. He said, these only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.

You know, one of the most comforting thing for a preacher, one of the most comforting things, and this is a privilege, this is a rare privilege that God gives his preacher, is to hear a man preached the gospel that heard the gospel through your preaching. That's a blessing. That is a blessing. And as these men heard the gospel through Paul's preaching, and now Paul said, and they're comforting my heart. So they're preaching Christ so plainly and clearly, giving him the glory. And he said, and they comfort me. They comfort me.

Epiphas, he was a man the Lord made pastor at Colossae. He said there in verse 12, Epiphas, who's one of you, a servant of Christ, he salutes you, he labored fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. I bear him record, he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis.

Go back to Colossians 1. You know, when I started this series, I wasn't gonna preach through Colossians, I was just preaching a message. So I started in verse 12. And I never did go back and cover verses one through 11. But let's see here, let's learn about Epiphas right here. Colossians 1, seven, the Lord had saved the brethren at Colossae under Epiphas, Epiphas, and used him to preach. He said they knew the grace of God in truth, verse seven, as you also learned of Epiphas, our dear fellow servant. That mean you were taught of or taught by Epiphas. That's how you know the gospel. who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who has also declared unto us your love in the spirit.

See, that's the greatest compliment, the greatest title, the greatest honor anybody in this world could have is he's a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't get greater of a compliment and an honor and a title than he's a faithful minister of Christ. You know, when the Lord began, when he brought his people out and he began leading his people in his holy nation, he didn't lead them with a king. He didn't have a governor like we think and kings like we think. That's not how he did it. How'd he lead them? With a preacher. He led them through the preaching of the gospel. It was the people who saw these kings that the heathen nations had that told Samuel, we want a king like them. We want a showy, somebody to be showy. So that was all in the will and purpose of God though, because he used that to show how Christ is the faithful king of his nation. But I'm just saying, when he started, he didn't use a king to lead his people. He led his people through the preaching of the word. Faithful minister to Christ.

Now, one other thing, and I just want to try to touch on this, The same as faithfulness is by the Lord, by him dwelling in us, love is by him dwelling in us. He makes you love him, and he makes you love your brethren, and by that, makes you to be beloved of your brethren. He said there, verse seven, Ty's a beloved brother. He says, Nephesus is a beloved brother. He said, verse 14, Luke's the beloved physician.

God is love. God is love. Christ is love. The Holy Spirit is love. God is love. Why did he choose a people in Christ? Because he loved us. Cause was in him, not us. He loved us. He sent his only begotten son into this world. The best, most precious thing he could give his people, that's what he gave, his son. Why? Because he loved us. The Lord Jesus came into this world and took flesh like his brethren. and laid down his life, poured out his blood for his people. Why? Because he loved us. And he sent you the gospel, and the Holy Spirit quickened you and gave you life and faith to know he is all your salvation. Why? Because he loved us.

Look here at 1 John. Let's go over here, 1 John. I'm gonna read, this is one of those passages where you start trying to just take a verse and then, well, let me get that next verse in there, and well, let me put the next verse in there, and next thing you know, just about put the whole chapter in there. But it's all so good. I just wanna read it. Look here, verse seven.

Beloved, verse seven. Beloved, see there, that's even how we address each other. Let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. See, we don't take credit for loving one another. It's because Christ, who is love, was formed in you. That's why you love. Same reason you're faithful. because Christ, the faithful one, was formed in you. Same reason you love is because Christ, who is loved, was formed in you. Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.

Now take note of what he said next. This is the manner in which God loved us. So means manner. For God so loved the world. That means the manner in which God loved. So you've tied your shoes. You put this shoelace over this one and this one over this one like so. after this manner, that's what the word so means. And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son in the world that we might live through him. God loved his people by giving what he loved most, gave his son. And his son, he gave him that we might live through him. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. Here's the manner in which he loved us. He loved us when we hated him. He didn't wait on you to love him. He didn't wait on you to do something for him. He loved you when you hated him. Verse 10, hearing his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son, the propitiation for our sins. There's the manner God loved us. Gave the best he could give, and Christ came and gave everything he could give. He laid down his life for his people. perpetuated God on our behalf for our sin, while we were the ungodly, while we hated him.

Verse 11, beloved, if God, after this manner, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another after this manner. No man had seen God at any time. If we love one another, God gets the glory. It's because God dwelleth in us, and his love perfected in us. Perfected means this is the end to which God brings you when he dwells in you. He makes you love. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he's given us of his spirit. This is how we know everything. This is how we trust him. This is how we love and how we're faithful. He dwells in us. He gave us his spirit and we've seen And we do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, why does he do it? Because God dwelleth in him, and he in God. See, he's given all the glory to God. He's saying, if you believe, not only do we love one another, we're faithful because it's God in you. Both of them, it's because it's God in you. You love and you have faith because it's Christ in you. And we've known, and believe the love that God hath to us. It's all of God. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Dwelling in Christ, you know what you're doing? You're dwelling in love, because he's love. And you dwell in God, and God in you.

Herein is our love made perfect. Here's the end to which the love of God brings you, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. That doesn't mean that you try to live to be like Christ, though that's a good endeavor. But what it means is, is you are as he is. You're in this world, he's there, but you are exactly conformed to his image. You are as he is. He's holy, righteous, free, accepted, eternally living in God's right hand. That's all, so are you. So were you.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that fears not may perfect in love. The Lord didn't give you the spirit for you to fear. He didn't give you the spirit for me and you to try to threaten one another and use the law to whip one another and make one another feel guilty and afraid. He didn't give you the spirit. And that's not the spirit of the Lord. That is not the spirit of the Lord. That's what he's saying exactly right there. He did not give you a spirit of fear. He gave you a spirit to know you're loved of God and you'll never be rejected.

And we love him, verse 19, because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? See, faith, seeing God who's invisible through faith, being the evidence, the substance, is vitally connected with love, and love can vitally connect with faith, and both are because Christ is in you. In this commandment, have we from him, he who loveth God, love his brother also, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, if you have faith, you're born of God. Everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that's forgotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.

Believe Christ for all your righteousness, and all your holiness, and all your salvation. That's not grievous to a child of God that's born of him. And love the brethren, look at them as being Christ right there. That's the closest you're gonna get to Christ being right here in person in the flesh. He's your brother. And you're born of the same spirit. You have Christ each dwelling in you. This is what makes us love one another.

For whatsoever's born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. All he's talking about through this is faith and love. being entirely due to God who is love, Christ who is love, dwelling in you and making you believe him and making you be filled with his love so that you love one another.

Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God. So everything in this salutation, brethren, that Paul write, it's all faith and love. We do all things dearly beloved for your edifying. My brethren, dearly beloved, my longed for, my joy, my crown. That sound like love, don't it? Stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. That's the spirit the Lord put in Paul. And I'll tell you what it'll do. You still have flesh, you're gonna sometimes, maybe you might fall out with your brother. But sooner or later, the spirit of the Lord is gonna make you see and remember how God's forgave you, and you gonna forgive for Christ's sake, because God's forgiven you.

And you see it right here in our text, verse 10. He said, Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom you receive commandments. If he come to you, you receive him. He told Timothy, Mark's profitable to me for the ministry. And that's the one you know why him and Barnabas fell out. John Mark, he wilted. He didn't want to keep going on that missionary journey too hard. He wanted to go home. Paul said, we're not taking him on this next one. And Barnabas wanted to because that's his nephew. And they fell out. But the Lord brought Paul around to see, Marcus is valuable to you. He's my child. I saved him. I made him righteous. And I've made him faithful now. And Paul wrote to him and said, you receive him. You receive him.

Here's what he said, let's go back to Colossians 3.12, and I'm done. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, well, that's a wide brush, ain't it? If any man have a quarrel against any, talk about brethren, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God roll your hearts, to the which you're called in one body, and be thankful." Be thankful.

Paul said, verse 18, this salutation is by the hand of me, Paul. That's a big deal because in a lot of his epistles, They, other men, penned it for him. Paul had an eyesight problem. When Lord blinded him on the road to Damascus, he never gave him his sight back. Paul told the Galatians, you'd have plucked out your eyes and gave them to me. He had a problem seeing. And these other men would write the epistle, and Paul would just put his name on it. And you can see the difference in some of the other epistles. This one, Paul said, I wrote this salutation. I wrote this. I wrote the whole thing. That's how important faith in Christ and love to brethren was to Paul. I wrote this with my own hand. So he said, remember me in my bonds and grace be with you. He always asked for God's grace to be with his people. Every epistle ends, grace be with you. That's what we remember one another, pray for one another, and above all, ask God's grace for one another.

I hope you got something out of that. I hope the Lord blessed it. All right, Brother Greg. Our closing hymn will be number 56.