If we could turn to Colossians
and chapter 1, which we read earlier, and I'd just like to
draw your attention to verse 6. where we're thinking of the truth
of the gospel which is come unto you as it is in all the world
and bring it forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day
ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth and the phrase
that caught my attention in reading this was right at the end of
that verse where Paul writes and knew the grace of God in
truth and it's the thought of grace That word grace is at the
centre of our thoughts this evening. Last time I spoke to you, just
a few weeks ago, I spoke on hope. And of course there's also hope
in this chapter. And this evening we'll think
of grace. We think in verse 5, for the
hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before
in the word of the truth of the gospel. And now, We move on to
the next verse, where we read of the grace of God in truth. It's important that we understand
these words in the New Testament as the basis for our hope. Verse
27, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And in all these truths we are
thinking of Christ in us. This is one of those mysteries
of the Christian life. Christ is in terms of hope and
then in terms of faith. And in this lovely epistle, often
it's parallel to the epistle to the Ephesians. We were discussing
during the afternoon that although the place has a name, Colossae,
sounds like it's a big place, it's actually a small place.
It was near Laodicea, which is of course mentioned in the epistle. Apparently in historical times
it's a place that disappeared. It wasn't aimed amongst the seven
churches in Asia in the Revelation, although Laodicea was. This is
a more significant place and we also read that there was a
letter, this letter was to be read in Laodicea and there was
a letter at Laodicea that was to be read in Colossae, but we
don't know about that letter. and we see that there was this
man Epaphras, who was the faithful minister there. We know that
Paul, when he established churches, he established ministry, elders
in each place, and of course deacons as well. There was a
good pattern. So this town, though quite important
at the time, became less significant. place, but it was significant
in the word of God and it's significant that Paul has set forth all these
glorious truths in this particular epistle. And always Paul is aware
that the gospel was competing amongst people who are from Greek
backgrounds with many other ideas. Perhaps when he went to Athens
he met the most of this, but the gospel as today is competing
and therefore he's careful to point out to them, beware of
false teaching and he says, verse 23, if you continue in the faith
grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature
which is unto heaven whereof I, Paul, am made a minister so
don't be moved away from the gospel and then in chapter 2
and verse 4 he says, and this I say any man should beguile
you with enticing words for though I be absent in the flesh yet
I am with you in the spirit joining and beholding your order and
your steadfastness and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ as ye
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in
him very keen that they know what the Christian life is and
that they continue in it verse 8 of chapter 2 beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ
that's a wonderful word isn't it for the day that we live in
And then in verse 18, let no man beguile you of your reward
in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those
things which ye have not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly
mind, and not holding the head from which all the body, by joints
and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together,
increaseth with the increase of God, and then he goes on to
say, don't be taken away with the rudiments of this world,
don't touch this, don't taste that, which have a show of wisdom,
but there's nothing in them. I'm sure we're all familiar with
that. There's false religion, the do's and don'ts. but we want
to focus as Paul wants to set forth to them true religion and
in a sense his epistles of course were written to deal with the
circumstances they were faced with, the errors that were around
them that they should know the truth even as today as we try
and set forth the gospel we have to deal with the errors and those
things around us in our day and particularly a setting forth
of Christ Paul is in all his letters of course he wants to
set forth Christ verse 12 giving thanks unto the Father which
has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light he then says in the next few verses who has delivered
us from the power of darkness in whom we have redemption of
Christ who is the image of the invisible God in him all things
were created verse 17 he's before all things verse 18 he's the
head of the church And then verse 19, that all foolish should dwell
in Christ and that he has made peace, verse 20, through the
blood of his cross. He wants to set forth the greatness
of this gospel. And it's set forth so wonderfully,
isn't it, in this epistle, right in this first chapter. So we
see this verse, and they knew the grace of God in truth. and grace is a word that we have
some familiarity with and as always when we we take words
from the bible we need to understand what is that word in the greek
sense and how is it actually used and applied in the new testament
and there may well be different quite often is different to the
common use in the english language and we must always It's part
of what we need to learn, isn't it, of the Gospel. Now the word
grace, the Greek word, is charis. And it's an important word. It appears about a hundred times
or more in the New Testament. So it's a word that is much used,
the word grace, and we need to understand. Now in our common
use, we have some understanding of the word and how we might
use it. We might use it for something that's elegant or graceful. We
might use it for somebody who's virtuous or gracious as a person. We might see some good qualities
in people. We might use it that way. Someone
who's kind and polite. We sometimes speak about somebody
being a bit snobby, don't we? Having airs of graces about them. And so forth. And I was saying,
when I was at university, we used to say grace. in the refectory
before we got a meal when I was a student in the older residence
and we all had to stand up and the thanksgiving, the grace so-called
was given in Latin but you see that wasn't the same way that
grace is nothing to do with the word charis that we have in the
New Testament it has a very specific meaning and we mustn't confuse
this either with the word charisma Well, we know, we talk about
somebody having charisma, and we know there's a branch of Christianity
that's charismatic. And that is to do with gifts
of grace. And we're not, again, in that
realm, we're not talking about gifts of grace, whatever they
might be, and that's another subject for us to look into.
It's also used, the word grace is also used of highly favoured,
and there's some value in that. In Luke chapter 1 and verse 28
we read of Mary and what was said to her by Gabriel. And in
verse 28 the angel came in unto her and said, How thou that art
highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among
women. We can't understand this. It's
quite important. We know that in the Roman Catholic
religion much is made of the person of Mary. We have to say
that Mary was a very fine person, a wonderful person in many ways.
She was by God chosen that she should bear the Christ. We have
every reason to believe that she was a person of the highest
faith and character. But this is what it's saying
about her. When it says, Thou art highly
favoured, it means the grace of God is upon you. because the
word charis is used in that context. She's somebody who knew the grace,
the favour of God. And then we read that Mary is
blessed. Now if I was a Roman Catholic
I would say she was the Blessed Virgin Mary, implying that in
herself and of herself there was something very good and special
and gracious. But actually what the Word of
God is saying is that she's blessed. And being blessed is a verb.
It is what God does. You're somebody who knows the
blessing of God. It's not that you've got something
special in or of yourself, but you have been blessed with God.
That's a very important thing to understand when we look at
the idea of grace. Grace is that which God brings
to us. It's speaking of His favour. It's not speaking of anything
that is inherent in us. It may well be that the grace
of God working in our person and character over time leads
us to be the sort of people that God wants us to be. That's what
the Gospel is about. But in the first instance, it
is a work of God. It's highly favoured. So what
I'm saying is that it's not a personal virtue. There are personal virtues
in the Word of God. Where this word charis is used,
which is used here, and in many places in the New Testament,
we are specifically thinking about that which God brings to
us. Very important in the matter of salvation. So it's not of
us. It is effectively God's undeserved
favour towards us. We do not deserve this. We are
all before God. Every one of us are sinners.
We've all offended God's law. We've all deserved sin and judgment. But God in his mercy has set
forth Christ. And he sets forth his grace. He brings that grace, that gift
of grace to us through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
wholly unmerited. And that's why we talk to people,
we still, the human heart still thinks I've got to do some work.
I've got to do some deed. to be saved. We talked to a family
member once about the man, the thief upon the cross. Initially
he railed at Christ, but then he called upon Christ that he
might be saved. Christ said today you will be
with me in paradise. I remember my relative saying
it's not fair, why should that man go to heaven? He's never
done anything good. He was a thief on the cross.
But you see, it's all of grace. The grace of God is so great.
It can reach such a man in such a place at such a time by the
grace of God and save him. That's our gospel. We don't have
to live a life of good works that we might be saved. We need
to know God's grace and favour. God's love that he brings us
through the gospel in the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings this,
this is related to the doctrine of election. And the lesson is
to do with God's choice. God has a people for himself.
Now from our point of view, we have no idea who these people
might be. But we do know that God has a
purpose to save. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. He came to call his sheep. He
knows them all by name, is what Christ says. That he might have
them to himself, that he might love them. He said not one will
be lost. Great mystery in the Gospel. We don't believe in a
free will gospel, we should say more about that. We believe in,
because that is a gospel which hypothetically all men could
reject, none could be saved, it could be turned down by everybody.
We believe in a gospel where God will save, and He will save
perfectly, according to His perfect and sovereign will, not according
to the work and the traditions of men. but in God's will, and
by his electing, mysterious electing purposes. Who can understand
God and his ways? But what we do know, there is
a change. When God comes to a person, there
is a change in their life. We were looking in the epistle
to the Galatians this morning, and if we look in chapter 1 of
Galatians and verses 15 and 16, but when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal
his son in me that I might preach him among the heathen immediately
I had conferred not with flesh and blood and so on you see but
it pleased God to call me by his grace that's how Paul became
a Christian Much could be said about Paul. I've said before,
Paul was not looking to become a Christian. On the contrary,
Paul was lost, dead in his senses. He testifies in the Acts of the
Apostles. He was not seeking Christ. He
was seeking, on the contrary, to eliminate Christianity, to
eliminate Christians. His hatred, his wrath, was against
them. He had papers to go even to Damascus
to find Christians that he might destroy them. that we read here
that for such a man we read by the grace of God revealed by
his son that the gospel came to him he called me by his grace
he called such a man he became that great apostle and yet we
know from his letters that he always felt the burden of what
he had been in the past so God comes by his means wholly unmerited
We have to accept in these truths that we are slaves to sin. I'm
sure we say if we went outside to tell people in the street
they were sinners they would be very offended with us. If
we told people they were slaves to sin I'm sure they would be
equally offended but that is the truth as set forth in the
gospel. We are bound by sin until we
are set free in Christ. Now there have been errors through
the history of the Christian church, we do at times attempt
to deal with them. We've possibly heard the name
of Pelagius or Pelagianism. He saw it within his doctrine,
said well then we have some freedom. We have some freedom of choice.
We were actually totally lost, totally dead in our sin. But
that's not what the word of God says. It says we were lost. Or there's the Arminian view.
Jacob Harmonson was a Dutchman who didn't like the doctrines
we preach. These doctrines of free and sovereign
grace. His Latin name was Jacobus Arminius. That's how he wrote.
And the Arminian doctrines are still with us today in many evangelical
churches. They still hold to a sort of
free will view that we present or we offer the gospel to whoever
will accept it. But if people are dead in their
sins How is it that they are going to accept the gospel? They're
not able to. In my experience, and some of you I'm sure, as
you've tried to talk to people and to witness, you find most
people just do not want to know. Alas, we pray for them, of course
we do. We long and we love that people
would turn to Christ. We thank God that there are those
who do listen. those who want to come and the
Arminian view sees grace as not something that is an unmerited
favor that God grants but they see rather it's something that's
offered to every person here is grace you can come if you
want it you can come and take it as though it was something
that he could pick off a table but that is not how God is working
We see it's all in the mystery of God's sovereign operations.
It's not of us. We cannot dictate it to God.
This is God has set forth. This is his gospel. This is his
way. It's all perfected in Christ. It's all achieved and brought
to an eternal purpose in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in
him. Ultimately it's as do we know
him. Have we come to have an experience
of Him by faith? Do we love Him? And that is what
God does. We see, of course, the results.
It was seen in our Lord Jesus Christ. It was obvious that there
was something special about Him, as you would expect. And so the
Scripture says of Him, in Luke 2 and verse 40, of the young
child we read, He grew, and was strong in spirit, filled with
wisdom and the grace of God was upon him you see this is how
God works the grace of God in his humanity was upon him it
came to him it's a work of God there's a mystery of course as
we know Paul talks of the mystery of Godness can we ever fully
understand Christ as both God and man I think it is very difficult
for us but we accept what the scriptures said and in Luke chapter
4 and verse 22 We see that all bear him witness
and wonder at his gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.
And they said, is this not Joseph's son? They knew him perhaps from
the town of Nazareth. But you see, the power, the grace
of God was in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's something seen. It was something very special,
seen in the sense of God. I've just picked one out. of
so many I could pick of that cloud of witnesses if you turn
to Acts 7 and verse 10 there is the words of Stephen and he
is talking about Joseph and of course Joseph was a remarkable
man he is often taken as a type of Christ and in verse 10 there
we read of Joseph and he was delivered out of all his afflictions
and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king
of Egypt and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house
and we know from the life of Joseph. He was filled with the
grace of God. He was seen. He was seen in the
house of Potiphar. He was seen by Pharaoh. Here
was a man of the highest character. Here is a man we can trust. This
is a man who is different. We will put all of Egypt under
this man's hand. We will put all of our food production.
We will believe him. We will let him take us through
the good years. We will let him take us through
the famine. Why? Because he had that character. Fantastic character that God
had implanted. Remember Joseph? And we see that
graciousness at the end where his brothers trembled before
him when he died, when his father died, thinking he would take
retribution. But he said, no, you meant harm.
But God intended all of this, all his slavery and the rest
of it, for good. That is the wonderful working
of God. And God's mercy, so its effect
is in grace. We talk of people being in grace
or in a state of grace, and there is some merit in that. It's not that we have asked for
grace, but it's something that's abiding. If the grace of God
is with us, we aren't those who think that you're in Christianity
one day, out of Christianity the other day. It's a unique
feature of the doctrines that we hold to in such a chapel as
this. You could go to other places. I can remember our younger days
meeting with people from different evangelical backgrounds. Many
of them believed that they could fall away. They could go out
of the faith. But that is a contradiction to
the doctrines that we believe the scripture sets forth. When
a man is born again into newness of life, that is not something
that we did by a decision. It is the sovereign work of God.
God works in us and he makes a change. just like when we are
born as a person we can't go back into our mother's womb says
Christ to Nicodemus so a man has to know that new birth and
there is a new birth because a new man all things are passed
away behold all things are new in Christ Suddenly, that old
man wanted to go to sin. It was like a compass, a magnet.
He wanted to go that way. We leant towards sin. We had
a desire for sin. When we're in Christ, suddenly
we find, are those sins still there, lurking and tugging at
us? We want to go to God. We want the things of God. We
want the things of Christ. They're wholesome. Our lives
are turned right round. And all things are new. That
was my experience. And I trust they will continue
to be new and fresh in the revelation of God. Because there's a real
change in us. And the heart is not what it
was. It is renewed. That is God's
work. It's not what we do. You can
join many faiths and religions And you know what they are, so
many of them. You've got to do this, you've
got to do that, you've got to go to this ceremony, you've got
to go to that sacrifice, and so on. You've got to go to this
place every year, and you've got to do certain things, and
some of them you've got to beat yourself, and you'll hit yourself,
and it's all vain. And we find examples of that
in the Philistines and others in the New Testament. But no,
we don't. The work is all of God. Being in a state of grace is
that which God has done by his mercy in our soul. In Romans
chapter 5 and verse 2 we read that we are justified, well,
verse 1, we are justified by faith. We have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, not through what we did, but
through Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Paul says into this grace wherein
we stand. We stand in a state of grace
because we have known God's favour and we have to recognise it.
Of course we do. When God first brings that knowledge
to ourselves then we have to repent of our sins. I'm sure
our testimony, those of us who know the Lord, is that's what
we felt we needed to do. to confess and to look to Christ and His
righteousness alone. So we need to understand, as
I said, the words, we need to understand them in the context,
not generalise, and have hope from the Gospel, and it brings
fruits. How do we know somebody's saved?
How do we know there's anything in what I'm saying to you? How
do we know there's any truths ever proclaimed from this gospel?
Are we just reading things from a book? Is it a fantasy? And the answer to that's got
to be no. Because if it's true, there will
be fruit. Our hopes are built on Christ. I can believe in Christ two ways.
One, I believe by faith. I believe in that revelation
of Christ to the human soul, and it's a very real thing, as
I tried to say last time. I say it's tangible, it's probably
too strong a word, but it's almost as though you could touch it
and feel it. It's something known. I also believe there is the historic
person of Christ. There was a Christ. We can read
about him. You can read about him in, not just the Bible, there
are some contemporary writings, Jewish writings, about Christ. He was a historical person. So we have some grounds also
from that. But that's not the main reason
we believe because of the gospel. The gospel comes to us as the
word of truth. And so we come to what we read
in this verse here. They knew the grace of God in
truth. And it's important that we see
that it's in truth. Some people want the grace of
God. They want to know something of Christian experience. They
can't be bothered to read the Bible. They can't be bothered.
They say, we don't need to go to church. We don't need religion,
but we want something of God. I'm sorry, but that's... In the
Scripture, there's a whole package, as it were. It comes, and it
comes as it is. And we have to see that we know
God in truth. And that truth is the Word of
God. How is it that we can have a saving knowledge of God? It
is through God's Word. It is through the foolishness
of preaching. I preached on that not so long
ago. The foolishness of preaching. That is God's means. The world
may think it is very foolish, as Paul says, but it is the wisdom
of God to those who are lost. It is how God brings the truth
to us of Christ. We have all that we need in the
Word of God. But it needs to be explained.
We thank God that we have a pastor to explain the truth. God raises
up men so to do. And of course we parallel these
thoughts very much with those familiar words that we often
turn to in Ephesians chapter 2. Because you come back to such
wonderful words in verses 8 to 10. And this is what we are saying. You see, by grace are you saved. It's an unmerited favour in us.
God comes for no reason other than He loves us. Not because
of what we are, or for what we did, remarkably, but He loves
us. And He saves us. That's what
we read here in the Word of God. By grace are you saved. Not because
you did things, or because you were a member of the church,
or whatever. By grace. Unmerited favour. Through faith. And that faith we know is a gift
of God. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of
works, that any man should boast. And we all of us want works really.
That's how the human heart is. We all want to do something.
But it's not of works. And then we move on. I love verse
10. But it's not all for vanity.
That's not the end of the story. God has a purpose. He says we
are his workmanship. God wants to work in faith in
us. He wants to do something with
us. to be created in Christ Jesus unto good works. The good works
are not the ones we do for salvation, truly they are what comes out
of salvation. It's how we are changed as persons,
how we live, how we love, what we do, our motivation should
all be changed, all things should be new. and we read that God
has before ordained them that we should walk in them God has
set before the believer the way we should walk it's set out clearly
in the New Testament we could be in no doubt what we should
be and how we should behave as believers but we have to be in
grace and that is the work of God and it is by faith which
is the gift of God as I said last time when we receive faith
it's not a notion I'm sure those around us we talk to at times
about our Christian faith think we've got religion which is kind
of a set of ideas or it's a philosophy it's a set of notions that's
peculiar to us and it's what we believe you know I've heard
people say to me well that's your religion that seems to work
for you but I've got my religion as though it's just happened
to be the set of things I like but it's not that is it? See
faith is a gift of God I've got true faith it's something that
God has given me and therefore it's not just notion, it is truth
from God, it's embedded in the truths of his word and it comes
by grace, by unmerited favour. Now in our Gospel Stands and
Articles, number 20, strongly recommended, it says this at
the beginning, the grace of God produces a real change in a man. If somebody's got the grace of
God, There are chains and there are many, you probably know some,
many people have been turned round. There have been some wonderful
cases, people who've been in the grip of drink. We had a member
of this church who in an earlier life was in the grip of drink
and he's been freed from it by the grace of God. I think I've
mentioned before there was a well-known case of one of the terrorists,
he was a so-called loyalist terrorist in Northern Ireland and he'd
been involved in murders. But God saved him. He was supposed
to be a Protestant, but he was completely lost. But he was saved. That man turned himself in, and
he received a sentence of 25 years for what he did. Now, he
may be under the amnesty, he may have been released, but there
was a real change in him. The grace of God came to him.
No longer was he wanting to kill. He was full of sorrow, true remorse. He wanted to be right. He did
the thing that was right before God. Gave himself in. Only the
grace of God can do such things. Many people have terrible problems
in life today. And there are many who do their
best to help them, whether it's drink or drugs. But the thing
we have found is that the one thing that can really turn a
person around and truly save them is the grace of the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing, is there? Nothing
but nothing to compare with the grace of God. We thank God. And
it's the agency whereby we come to a knowledge of God's purposes.
God brings his grace upon us, as it were. He smiles on us.
He reveals himself to us. As I said in my prayer, that
wonderful quotation from 2 Corinthians, you know, the light of the knowledge
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When you read those words, what
does it do for you? I find a thrill every time I read that. God reveals
himself, as it were, in the face, in the human face of Jesus Christ.
It's something we can know. Something we can understand in
his humanity. For God has spoken most perfectly
in his Son. How more perfectly to mankind
could God speak than coming in human form, in all humility,
amongst us. So we believe that. We believe
in the free and sovereign grace of God. We say that. We believe
that these things are of God. God is working. God is calling
out to people. God is saving people. He uses
the agency of the Church. He uses the agency of the Word
of God, a ministry of the Word. But ultimately it's God's Word,
as the Apostles are paying us to tell us. And it's free grace. We don't merit it. We don't earn
it. God freely comes. and sets his love upon this one
and that one. We know not why. It's all in
his mercy. Why does God save some? You have
families where at times we were reflecting where everybody is
saved. Parents and children. And you've
got other families and perhaps only one of that family is saved. And you think, well why should
that be? It's all in God's hand. We must trust God. We must pray. We pray for loved ones. We seek
only the best for loved ones. We seek that God's saving purpose
will go forth. That many will be brought into
the Church of God. And we trust Him for all these
things. It's not our work of merit. It truly does not originate
with us, though many would think that. It's a free gift. Knowing God in truth. Knowing
God as we can, of course, through the Word of God. Being persuaded
of the truths in the Word of God. And we know, I trust, as
we walk the Christian life, as we walk the life of faith, as
we experience the things of God, we prove them. And God will prove
faith in us. You can join certain brands of
Christianity, which are often known as the Wealth and Health,
Prosperity, and I've met some of these people, and they'll
tell you, come, come into our church, all your problems will
be solved, you'll find your health will improve, and your finances
will improve and I don't find that gospel here that's missing
the complete point and it's a travesty there are those who have come
to faith and they suddenly find life has got more difficult there
are people who for them life was easy they had a crowd of
friends they got on well at work but now they're a Christian they
want to live in such a way as to please God now suddenly they're
in problems their friends have turned against them and they're
cold-shouldered at work, they might find that their employer
doesn't like them. And in our day, I've said before from the
pulpit, there are codes of employment practice that make it very difficult
to the point, in some cases, of being virtually impossible
for Christians to work in that employment, because of the code
that operates in our day. And we've all seen this over
the last 50 years, how this has moved, how society has turned
against the Christian, and therefore people who once were probably
quite happy with life and doing those things to please them.
Now they love God. Now they want to follow God. Now life has become
more difficult. It's become a challenge. God
puts before us in life, that's my experience, I'm sure you can
say this as well, your experience, He puts before us difficult challenges
and trials which prove faith. If we don't have faith, they
overwhelm us. But if we have faith, It is strengthened. It is proved. God is with us.
And very trying things come to us, don't they? Difficulties,
bereavements, serious illnesses, loss of employment. Many things
come to try and vex the Christian. And we often think, well, why
is it happening? Often when you think you know where you're going,
and you're on a well-trod path and you think that things are
going to continue down this path this is what's going to happen
for the next few years your life is well-ordered suddenly it's
all changed and some of us have known has God given up on us? has God abandoned us? is our
faith in him? he proves us we know famous stories
like the story of Abraham and the proofs and the trials he
went through especially like Isaac the situation of Isaac
to be offered were great tests or David who was told he was
to be king and yet he was hounded and persecuted by Saul he had
to keep fleeing for his life and his accession to the throne
took a long time it took many years of faith and patience before
he became king over Israel so the great thing about the word
of God we have so many accounts that cloud of witnesses that
we read of in Hebrews so many who can tell us about this, and
we know many of them, don't we? Many of the great saints in the
scripture. Look at Paul, as he recounts
three shipwrecks, and the stonings, and the beatings, and all the
things that afflicted him, churches that turned against him, all
the trouble he had with the Corinthian church. But he walked the life
of faith. He was a man in grace. God was
with him. We read here in chapter verse
5 Paul says the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof
ye heard before in the word of truth of the gospel this is the
key the word of truth the gospel he says it's laid up all this
hope all that you need to know is in the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ and through that God worked in their hearts that's
how God is going to work in your heart that's how God is going
to work in my heart through his work through the revelation of
Christ, He will speak to us, if that's His will, by His grace,
by His love. Now, what is the evidence of
this? Well, in our verse that we read, verse 6, Paul says,
of the gospel that has come to you, as it doth, as in all the world, and bringeth
forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard
of it, and knew the grace of God and truth. You knew the grace
of God. God brought grace to you. Something
happened to you in your lives. How do we know? How do we know
you're not just the same as all these other people in Colossae,
or in the Greek culture, and all that that meant, and their
gods, and their religion, and their philosophy. How do we know
the Colossians were any different? We can say the Gospels come,
but Paul says this. He brought forth fruits. There's
a change. Back to what we say in our articles. It produces a real change in
a man. Or there's nothing there. If
we say we have faith and we carry on as we were before, it's what
James says. We're living our life. If there's
faith, there's something. There is a something. That's
why I use the word sandalwood. It's not the right word. It makes
a change. We become a different person.
And fruit was bought. Essentially that fruit is the
work of faith. It is the life of faith. We live and walk according
to the gospel. We live as Christians. We put
off the works of unrighteousness as Paul would. We put off sin.
We put off the works of darkness. And that's quite relevant in
our culture today. The way our society is heading.
We're all quite aware of the downhill slide of our nation. How perverse it's become. In
the Greek and Roman culture, even more darkness and blackness. For someone to question war would
have made them very different, would have marked them out from
society. Straight away they would have
entered into big conflict. In Rome, of course, there was
the Roman religion, worship of Caesar ultimately. And in the
Greeks, they had all their gods. And if you didn't go along with
that, you could be in great problems, civil problems. But fruit was
born. And he says that he wanted them
to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Verse 10, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God. That's how we are to want to be, to desire to be in our
own lives, to be fruitful. And thus, we've looked at a few
bits, the thrust of this epistle. We see that Paul's prayer for
them. Verse 3, he's praying always for you. and we see later on
he continues from verse 9 he says for this cause we also since
the day we heard of it do not cease to pray for you he says
and he's not just praying that they get food and all the things
they want but this is what he prays that they might be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding
That's where prayer starts for. The basis of our prayers is not
I need this, I need that. The basis of our prayers is a
godly cause to desire to be filled with the knowledge of God's will
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Then he says then that they might
walk worthy of the Lord. They might be strengthened with
all might. These are important things. So prayer is terribly
important. We'll just close with these three
things. Verses 9, 10 and 11. Very important.
part of Paul's prayer. His desires, the grace of God
has come to them, verse 9, that they would be filled with the
knowledge of his will, and that's something we should all desire
and pray for ourselves and pray for others. In a sense it is
the basis for what we try to preach from this pulpit, that
we set forth those things that are the will of God, that they
take root in hearts, that they encourage people, and that we
go on As our articles suggest, we go on and grow in grace and
grow in a knowledge of God. We don't stand still. Faith is
an active thing. We should always be going on.
We shouldn't be threading water, as it were. And that should lead
us to verse 10, that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing. Is that how we want to be? Is
that the sort of persons we see ourselves? Is that our desire?
Do we love Christ? Do we want to walk in such a
way that pleases Him? Do we want to be fruitful in
every good work? Do we want to be active in serving
God? Yes, we are often very active
in looking after ourselves and our own affairs, but are we going
to be fruitful in the things of God, and increasing in the
knowledge of God? And finally, Paul prays here,
that they should be strengthened with all might, according to
His glorious power. Oh, that we might be strong enough,
we might know God's gracious dealing with us, His building
up, and we see that it's with all patience, as I said before,
we have to be very patient and we learn that more and more as
we go on and all suffering in the Christian faith but I do
trust in all of this by the grace of God in our hearts it is with
joyfulness and giving thanks unto the Father for all that
He has revealed so we thank God for His Word, we thank God for
that unmerited favour, that grace even as we read here, that was
granted to the Colossians that they knew the grace of God in
truth. Amen.