We've been considering these
last number of Thursday evenings words in the closing part of
the epistle to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 4 and we
come tonight to verses 15 and 16 Colossians 4 and verses 15
and 16 Salute the brethren which are
in Laodicea, and Nymphos, and the church which is in his house.
And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read
also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the
epistle from Laodicea. I know we've considered these
words before on a previous occasion. I suppose it was about five or
six years ago we considered them on a Lord's Day. But I didn't
want to omit them as we've gone through the closing part of this
epistle. And so we come to consider really
this man Nymphos. Nymphs in particular, but I want
to consider some other things that are stated in the verses.
We've been looking at these various names, men, and of course women
whose names are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb from
the foundation of the world. In Hebrews 12 we read of that
church, the Great General Assembly, and Church of the Firstborn,
which are written in heaven that's where all the names of the church
are recorded and they're written there from all eternity in the
great purpose of God that's people that were committed into the
hands of the son of God in the covenant of redemption and so
to say something with regards to nymphos and the church in
his house. That's the theme, or we might
say we're going to also say something with regards to the church and
the Word of God. Now I just remind you that last
week we were looking at those contrasting people that are mentioned
in the previous 14th verse. We looked at Luke, the beloved
physician, and we looked at Demas. And certainly we can rest assured
that the name of Luke is written in that Lamb's Book of Life.
We have those poignant words at the end of 2 Timothy, the
very last of all the epistles of the Apostle when Paul says
concerning him, only Luke is with me. How faithful he was
to the Apostle and faithful to the very end whilst the Apostle
was there in Rome, only Luke is with me. But in that same
fourth chapter of 2nd Timothy, the Apostle writes, Deimos at
forsaken me, having loved this present world. It would appear
then that that name was not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, although
He may have been named amongst the colleagues and the friends
of the Apostle. He was doubtless looked upon
as one who was a child of God. And so we thought of the importance
of examining ourselves, knowing ourselves, and proving ourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in us, except we be reprobate. But as I said, we move on now,
and we have mention of just one individual here. We read of this
man and Nymphos. Nymphos and the Church in fact
we see some three churches being mentioned when we think in terms
of local churches that's our understanding of the doctrine
of the church we believe of course there is what many would term
the universal church that is the whole company of the election
of grace from the beginning of time to the end of time, all
those who were called under the Old Testament dispensation. There
was a church there in the wilderness. The Lord Jesus himself says that
in the Gospel, the church in the wilderness, with Moses, and
there is of course the church that is being called throughout
this day of grace since the coming of the Lord Jesus. We are those
who believe in the local church, how God gathers his people together,
he sets the solitary in families. And here we read of these three
particular churches. First of all, we have mention
of the church that's in the house of a man called Nymphos. And the comment, I do like, I
mentioned it before, Bishop Davenant, In his great commentary on the
Colossians, he was Bishop of Salisbury back in the early years
of the 17th century, and he says, commenting here, concerning Memphis,
for its religious sanctity, its private family merited the illustrious
name of a church. Because of its sanctity, His
family merited being called a church. That's a comment of Davenant. The church in his house. And we also read, don't we, of
the church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila in the epistle to
the Romans and there at the end of that epistle in chapter 16
verse 3 Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who
have for my life laid down their own necks, unto whom not only
I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise,
greet the church that is in their house." It was a church in the
house of Priscilla and Aquila. And Abraham, the father of the
faithful, were told concerning Abram. God says, For I know him,
that he will command his children and his household after him,
and they shall keep the way of the Lord's. Joshua. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. And so, here is a man whose own
family was a church in a sense. But something more than that
surely is mentioned. when the Apostle uses this expression,
Nymphos and the Church, which is in his house. His house was,
as it were, put to the service of the Church. That's how I think
we should understand it. We know that in the early Church
they certainly had all things in common. Doubtless this man
was one who was willing to make use of his own property as a
home for the Church. Remember what we're told at the
end of Acts chapter 2, those early believers, those who were
converted on that great day of Pentecost, how they continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and
in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every
soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together,
and they had all things common and sold their possessions and
goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And
we read of as a continuing daily with one according the temple
and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart praising God and having favor
with all people. And the Lord added to the church
such as should be saved. what a wondrous company it was
and how they were willing to serve one another and here is
one you see who has a church that gathers in his own house
how God makes every provision for his people, he has his ways
and he has his means to make that particular provision even
in times of persecution In the Revelation, in chapter 12, we
read of the woman who fled into the wilderness where she had
a place prepared of God. Even in times of persecution.
And New Testament times were times of persecution. They were
persecuted by the Jews. Subsequently, they were greatly
persecuted by the Roman authorities. What devastations came from the
Imperial Rome, the martyrs, of the early church and yet the
Lord makes provision for his people even in the wilderness
that is the woman that fled into the wilderness the church where
the Lord had prepared a place for her and so this church is
distinct from the church at Laodicea we read of the brethren which
are in Laodicea and and Nymphos seems to be amongst them but
there's a separate church in his house and then it goes on
and when this epistle is read among you cause that it be read
also in the church of the Laodiceans it was a separate church of the
Laodiceans they were two distinct churches we believe in in the
independence of the local church. And each local church is, as
it were, a miniscule of the one true church of Jesus Christ.
In that sense, we have this very high doctrine of the church. We know what the word in the
New Testament means, the word that choose the church, Ecclesia.
It means those who are called out. The churches are made up
of those who are called out, they are called out of this world
and they are gathered into local congregations and so there is
a church in the house of Nymphs and there is another church which
is spoken of as the Church of the Laodiceans. Now, geographically,
if you look at the maps, you'll see that Laodicea is quite close
to Colossae. And not surprisingly, the two
churches are mentioned together here in the 16th verse. This epistle, the epistle addressed
to the Colossians, is to be read also to the church of the Laodiceans. And there was another epistle
that had gone to the Laodiceans and that was to be shared with
the church at Colossae. And we have other mentions of
the Laodicean church in this particular epistle. Paul speaks
of it there in chapter 2 and verse 1. I would that ye knew
what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea
and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. And then
again in the previous 13th verse of this
4th chapter. where he's speaking of Epaphras. I bear him record that he had
a great zeal for you, the Colossians, and them that are in Laodicea,
and them in Hierapolis. There were these different communities
of believers, but Laodicea is clearly in many ways associated
with the church at Colossae. And we remember how this church
is mentioned sadly in the book of the Revelation remember those
letters to the seven churches and the last of the letters is
addressed to the Laodiceans and what a sad state they were in
at that time neither cold nor hot neither cold nor hot and
the Lord speaks of spewing them out of his house out of his mouth Verse 15 of Revelation 3, I know
thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou
wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because
thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and of need of nothing.
And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked. Oh, they were such a self-sufficient
people. God preserve us from any such
thoughts. They were not mindful of their
complete, their utter dependence upon the Lord. But what gracious
counsel He has given to them. In verse 18, I counsel thee to
buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mightest be rich, and
white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed. And so it goes on.
The familiar words of verse 20. Behold I stand at the door and
knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. That much abused verse. I've
heard so-called reformed ministers preach from that 20th verse and
preach an evangelistic sermon and say here is the Lord standing
at the door and you have to take that last step. You have to open
the door, admit the Lord. into your life well it's not
addressed to the world is it this is a letter that's addressed
to a church in a sad declining state and the Lord is yet gracious
to his church and he will come again to them and he will sup
with them well that was the Laodicean church that's spoken of here
in the in the text tonight and then also of course I say there
are three distinct churches in the verses before us and that
other church is the Colossians and it's to the Colossians that
the epistle is being addressed. For an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God and to Malthus our brother to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossus. The letter is
addressed to that particular church. And as I've already said,
we're not to think of churches in a territorial sense. That's
what the Church of England does. It's an established church. So
you take a country and you say it's a Christian country and
you divide it into provinces, you have the Archbishop of Canterbury
in the province which is the southern part of England, you
have the Archbishop of York in the northern part, and then you
divide those provinces into diocese, so you have a number of cathedrals,
and you divide the diocese then into parishes, so you have parish
churches, it's a territorial church. That's the doctrine of
the Church of England, but we say, no, the Church is a gathered
community. It's a called-out community.
The very name Ecclesia means the called-out ones. We're called-out
of the world, and God gathers us into local churches. So we see something of the doctrine
of the Church, the local Church, in these verses. But also, as
I said at the beginning, we could say we're considering the Church
and the words, the church and the scriptures and that's what
we have in verse 16 he says concerning this epistle it's not only to be read amongst
the Colossians but also read with the Laodiceans the importance of the public
reading of the word of God in the church And I would say in
many ways it's one of the most striking marks of the true Church. It's an important mark of the
Church, the public reading of the Holy Scriptures. It's the
purest part of all our worship. We pray extempore, We don't have
read prayers. I mean, even those read prayers,
of course, in the Church of England, they're written by man. There
are many, many wonderful prayers in the Book of Common Prayer,
many of them the product, of course, of the Reformers. But they're not scriptural. The
scripture is this book, this book alone. And when we come
to pray, we pray extempore. When we preach, we preach extempore.
We sing God's praises in not only Psalms, but also we use
hymns, spiritual songs. But the purest part of all our
worship is when we gather and hear the public reading of God's
Scriptures. And this letter is addressed
to all of the Church. It's not just addressed to the
Church officers. It's to the saints and faithful
brethren in Christ which are at Colossae. And it's interesting
when we go back to Philippians, the order that we have there,
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, it says, to
all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the
bishops or the overseers, and deacons. So, it's addressed not
first to the overseers and the deacons, the order that we have,
and it's the biblical order, it comes first to the church,
it belongs to the church, thus the Word of God is to be read
in the church. And it doesn't just belong to
these churches, it was addressed in the first place, it's part
of the Word of God, it's addressed to every gospel church. This
letter is not only for those at Colossae, it's also for those
at Laodicea. and again look at the language
that we have in 1st Thessalonians 5 verse 27 Paul says I charge you by the
Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren all
the holy brethren it belongs to all and there's to be that
public reading of it the charge that's given to Timothy in those
pastoral epistles, amongst other things Timothy is told quite
plainly, till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to
doctrine. Now, those are all public means
of grace. Of course the exhortation is
public, is exhorting the people. The word doctrine, give attention
to doctrine, it literally means teaching, is to teach the people.
And the reading is also the public reading, the public reading of
the Word of God. And we know that that was very
much the pattern in the synagogues. The Lord Jesus himself, when
he enters into the synagogue after his temptations in the
wilderness, There, in Luke 4, he goes, as was his wont, into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And we find him there reading,
and reading the prophet. It reads from Isaiah chapter
61. We've referred to the passage
many a time before. We're told, aren't we, over in
the synagogue, there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet
Isaiah. When he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon them. Because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering sight
to the blind. to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach an acceptable word of the Lord. He's reading
the word of God. And it was the common practice
in the synagogues, the public reading of the words. And when the apostle goes on
his initial missionary journeys, he goes first to the Jew, doesn't
he? We find him going into the synagogues,
until the Jews altogether reject the word, and then he turns to
the Gentiles. But what does he do? That first missionary journey
in Acts 13, together with Barnabas, we read in Acts 13.15, After
the reading of the Lord and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue
sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any
word of exhortation for the people, say on, They're given the opportunity
to say what they will, to preach as it were, but it's after the
reading of the Law and the Prophets. There was the public reading.
there in the synagogues. And that pattern was clearly
followed in the churches of the New Testament. There would always
be that public reading, as well as exhortation, as well as teaching. And so Timothy is told, till
I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine,
the public means of grace. And what is to be read? The Word
of God. the Word of God, the Canon of Scripture. Now, the
question arises, if there was a letter to the Laodiceans, why
isn't that letter in the Bible? That's what we're told here in
verse 16, When this epistle is read among you, cause that it
be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise
read the epistle from Laodicea. Well, why have we not got a letter
here in our Bible's address to the Laodiceans. Well, Roman Catholic writers
would say it was a letter that was written by Paul to the Laodiceans,
but it was not admitted into the canon of Scripture by the
Church. That's why we don't have it. The Church decided that it
was not inspired as the other writings of the apostle Paul
were inspired. That's how they explain it. Now, we sometimes use that expression,
the canon, the canon of Scripture, the books of the Old Testament
and the books of the New Testament. But the word canon, it's a Greek
word, it simply means the rule, or the standard. Isaiah says to the Lord and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them. The canon is the standard
by which we are to judge all things. And in the teaching of
the Romish church, the canon is decided by the church. However,
We would disagree, of course. We would say that the Bible is
really self-authenticating. That's the important thing. The
Bible is self-authenticating. Paul says that. Writing to the
Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 14.37, he says, If any man think himself
to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the
things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
The Bible is self-authenticating. That's what Paul is saying. And
again, here in 1 Thessalonians 2. And verse 13, Paul says, For
this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when
ye receive the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it,
not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God.
which effectually worketh also in you that believe." The Bible
is self-authenticating. The Romanists will put the Church
above the Bible. The Church decides what is to
be recognized as the books of Holy Scripture, but we say that
that's erroneous, that's not according to what we read in
the New Testament. the church is under the word
of God Paul taught accurately and steadfastly
that word of truth and how bold he is I certify you brethren
to the Galatians that the gospel which was preached of me is not
after man for I neither received it of man neither was I taught
it but by the Spirit of God and so There's no Laodicean epistle
because there was never a letter addressed to the Laodiceans that
had that quality, that self-authenticating quality. But how important is
that public reading of the Word of God? It's the most pure part of all
our worship. We do well then to attend to
the public reading. And it is amazing. We might read
a passage in our own devotions at home, but I've certainly experienced
this when in a service, in the public reading. It's come with
a strange authority, though I may have read it many times. when
alone, or reading with my wife, or reading with family, or reading
with others. But when we hear it sometimes
in the public reading, in the services of God's house, it comes
with such a gracious authority to us. Well, the Lord help us
then to recognize the significance, the importance of his own word. It's amazing what we read with
regards to these various individuals as we come to the end. I just
want to conclude by saying a little more with regards to our dear
late brother Martin Penton. I was thinking of what we've
read previously here. concerning some of the characters
that are mentioned go back to Tychicus in verse 7 where the
Apostle speaks of him as a beloved brother a faithful minister and
fellow servant in the Lord and that's what I feel with regards
to dear Martin to me he was a beloved brother and he was a faithful
minister he did on occasions minister the word of God here
and at Hagen I know he was certainly appreciated when he would regularly
go over to Hagen to preach and he was certainly a fellow servant,
he was very much the servant of the church here, diligent
how he gave himself, he was a stalwart really as he sought to fulfill
that office that he held as a deacon amongst us but now We thank God
he's entered into his eternal rest, and we can rejoice in that. He's with Christ, which is far
better. Oh, the Lord be pleased then
to help us. We're going to turn now to the Lord again in prayer. I'll ask our two praying brethren
to lead us in prayer, but before we pray, let us sing our second
praise in the hymn 360. 360. Tune Warrington
432. God in his earthly temples lays foundations for his heavenly
praise. He likes the tents of Jacob well,
but still in Zion loves to dwell. His mercy visits every house,
that pay their night and morning vows, that makes a more delightful
stay where churches meet to praise and prave. 360, tune 432.