Thank you, Paul. Shelly, thank
you for that excellent piano playing. She's following in her
mama's footsteps. And we're very delighted and
thankful to our God for the talent he has given her. Once again,
it's such an honor to be asked to preach the gospel anywhere. And when David comes to me and
ask me, and sometimes he's almost apologetic, and I don't want
him to be. He says, I hate to burden you, but it's not a burden.
It really is not. And I'm delighted and honored
to be standing in his pulpit. And I know, I know David will
not allow anybody to stand here. And so I'm thankful that he Trust God, really, but trust
me in bringing the true gospel before you when I have the honor
of preaching. So it is an honor. If you would
turn with me please to the first chapter of Colossians. I started two weeks ago. I preached for David and I started
this first chapter and went down through verses four and five. and we just didn't have time
to go any further, but I want to pick up where we left off
and pray that the Lord will bless His truths to our hearts as we
look through some more scriptures. We won't finish this chapter,
but we can maybe go down through verse 14. The title of our last
message from this first chapter of Colossians was God's Divine
Order. Our God is a God of order. He
never does anything apart from what He has decreed before this
world began. And everything God does is right. Let me say that again. Everything
God does is right. I know there are people who have
wrong views of God. Even people who think they're
God's preachers and they apologize for God. and make up things that
are just not true. Putting God in subjection to
finite sinful men and women and that is blasphemy. God is sovereign in everything. He rules and overrules in everything. and what happens in time was
decreed by God before time began. Let me quote some scripture that's
found in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 1 through 8.
It says, to everything there is a season and a time for every
purpose under the sun. A time to be born and a time
to die. A time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to
heal. A time to break down and a time
to build up. A time to weep and a time to
laugh. A time to mourn and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones and
a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time
to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose,
a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend and
a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time
of peace. Now that's God's Word and everything
in those verses point to things that happen in time And everything,
like I said, that happens in time is according to God's purpose
that He decreed before time began. Now I know that our minds are
finite and we cannot understand that which is infinite. But when
the Word of God teaches something, those who are enlightened by
God the Holy Spirit Embrace that as the truth from God Himself.
This Bible is God's holy word from cover
to cover. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And so I may not
understand and I don't understand all of what the scriptures teach
and any man who says he does is a liar, but I believe it all. I believe every bit of what God
has written in his word to be from God himself. So we have
this wonderful, wonderful truth before us that God himself is
the author of this book. Now, if we know that God's blessings, all of them
are for those who are in Christ, and that's taught in the first
chapter of Ephesians. All the blessings that God has
for his people are found in Christ. And if we believe that, these
verses that I'm about to read to you will bless us. God chose us in Christ. We are
justified in Christ. We are the righteousness of God
in Christ. In Christ we have the forgiveness
of sins. In Christ we are sanctified and
redeemed. In Christ we have peace with
God. In Christ we have assurance of
faith. In Christ, God has blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, and I mean
all spiritual blessings. Now let me ask you something.
Are we so foolish to think that our God, the God of divine order,
would purpose the salvation of a particular people and not purpose
all the events that would assure them of his sovereign eternal
love for them. Of course not. So he has a divine
order and in this divine order God causes certain events to
happen to bring his people under the preaching of his gospel.
Now I know we don't understand all of that but it's true even
back When the Civil War was fought and the African-Americans were
released from slavery, God purposed that to bring his people under
that awful, some of it wasn't so awful, but most of it was,
awful part of the slavery that they were involved in come unto
the preaching of the gospel that he might be pleased to deliver
them from darkness, translate them into his eternal kingdom.
Now we're having some problems with people coming in through
our borders. Our president Donald Trump is
trying to stop that. It's one of those things that
God has purposed and I believe for the most part to get his
people under the preaching of his gospel. And you can't stop
God from doing that. He's ordained all of those events.
I'm thankful and I believe I can speak for every enlightened child
of God. I'm thankful that God purposed
to bring me under the preaching of his gospel so that I could
hear the truth. I would never have heard the
truth if God had not given me a new heart. It's called the
new birth. It's a miracle. It's a miracle
of God's grace. And He is pleased to save His
people under the preaching of His gospel. Not under the preaching
of lies, but under the preaching of His gospel. Now these scriptures
that we're reading that are addressed to those saints at Colossae,
These are real people. These are not fictional people. These are real people. Real people
that God delivered. Real people who were serving
their own lustful desires. Bowing down to gods of their
own imagination. God delivered them. And Paul,
the apostle, writing under divine inspiration is addressing them,
God's saints. And it applies to us. So it behooves
us to lay hold of these truths and apply them to our own understanding
for the glory of our God and for our own eternal good. So
look at verse 5 again. It says in verse 5, For the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before and the
word of the truth of the gospel, And then in verse six we read,
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 ye heard of
it, and knew the grace of God in truth. Now we looked at verse
five, but verse six tells us that this gospel came to them,
which is come unto you. They didn't come to it. We didn't
either. We didn't come to the gospel.
The gospel came to us. The gospel is Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ is the gospel. And we don't come to Him. We
don't want Him. We hate Him. We love the darkness
and hate the light. Our Lord Jesus said, No man can
come to Me, except the Father which sent Me draw him, and I
will raise him up at the last day. So the gospel had to come
to them. And God sent Paul and Timothy
to these areas preaching the gospel and God himself gave the
increased and established believers in those different cities and
he's doing the same thing today. We were talking in the men's
meeting this morning about these shysters, these TV preachers,
and so many more who are on every street corner and every town
who are preaching for one thing, money. They want money. They want your money. Have no
concern for God's glory, no concern for the lost. They want to build
big churches so they can get bigger checks, more money. That's
not what God's preachers desire. We desire the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ in our preaching and Him to make known His truths
to those sinners who are still in darkness and to encourage
those sinners who've been delivered from darkness and are in God's
kingdom right now. This is our desire. And so we
preach the gospel for the glory of our God. So the first thing
we learn from verse 6 is that the gospel came unto them. And
like I said, Jesus Christ is the gospel. The gospel must be
preached. We read in 1 Corinthians that
God has ordained the preaching of the gospel to save them that
believe. to the unregenerate to those
who have never been enlightened by God the Holy Spirit the gospel
is foolishness to them they don't understand how God can be just
and justifier of those who believe how he can pardon a sinner give
them a full pardon for all the sins that we have committed against
Him past, present, and future because of what Jesus Christ
did for them. That is foolishness to them.
They think that they must do something and most false preachers
know that and so they capitalize on that lie and try to get people
to come to their church by telling them what they know they want
to hear. Your baptism saves you. Your church affiliation saves
you. Meeting on Saturday saves you. Your free will, your decision
for Jesus saves you. And so they make up lie after
lie after lie, dishonoring God, robbing God of His glory, and
giving their hearers false hope in something that they have done.
I just was talking to a lovely lady just a few moments ago,
And the scripture says, For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. And we delight in that truth.
We know that's true. We know it's nothing that we
have done. It's what Jesus Christ has done
for us. So the first thing we see in
that sixth verse is that the gospel must come to us. It must
come, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance. And when it comes by the power
of God, we won't listen to the voices of strangers. We've heard
the voice of Jesus Christ, and He Himself is our Deliverer,
and we delight in the Gospel every time we hear it. The second
thing we see from verse 6 is this, When our God enlightens
the minds of His chosen people, His enlightened saints will bring
forth fruit. Paul writing under the divine
inspiration says, and bringeth forth fruit as it
doth also in you since the day you heard it and knew the grace
of God in truth. Brings forth fruit. Every enlightened saint brings
forth fruit for the glory of God. Turn back to the book of
Galatians, if you will, please. Chapter 5. If we know what the
fruit of the Spirit is, we won't have difficulty in believing
that every enlightened saint brings forth fruit. We need to
know what the fruit of the Spirit is. And we read this in Galatians
chapter 5, starting at verse 22. but the fruit of the Spirit
is love. Do you love Jesus Christ? We
love Him because He first loved us, and it's the work of God
the Holy Spirit to put the love of Christ in our hearts. The
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the power of God
the Holy Spirit. Paul writing to I've got to think, my mind doesn't
work like it used to. Writing to the saints in some
part of the world, it was to, in the book of Hebrews, herein
is love. Noah's first John, I just now
remembered. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, that is
the sin atoning sacrifice for our sins. You won't find a greater
display of love than what we see at Calvary. God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And
that is not teaching universal love. Our Lord, just before He
moved Paul to write that, talked about the miracle of the new
birth. He talked about it before that scripture, God so loved
the world. This is John 6 or 7 or 6 something. Anyway, I'm sorry. Anyway, He
just taught the miracle of the new birth. The wind blows where
it pleases. You can hear the sound of it,
but you can't tell where it went or where it came from. So is
everyone who is born of the Spirit. Then he said this, God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God has
his chosen people in every kindred and tongue and tribe and nation,
and he's going to display his love in their minds by pointing
them to what Jesus Christ did at Calvary. There's the love
of God. Jesus Christ redeemed His people
at Calvary 2,000 years ago. He didn't try to redeem them,
He redeemed them. And so the second thing we see
in our text, go back to Colossians chapter 1 please, is this, it
brings forth fruit. So it's love, joy, peace, gentleness,
long-suffering, kindness, all of those things are a product
of God's grace bestowed upon us that comes forth. Joy, how
can we not rejoice in Jesus Christ? We are the circumcision which
worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. Folks these are feelings And
we're not to trust our feelings, we're to trust Jesus Christ.
But you can't have a relationship with Jesus Christ without having
love for Him, without having joy in Him, without having peace. All of these are feelings. And
so that's the fruit of the Spirit. And every enlightened child of
God brings forth that fruit. So in our text, the second thing
we see is that every believer brings forth fruit. And the third
thing we see from our text in verse 6 is that those saints
at Colossae knew the grace of God in truth. That's what it
says in the last few words of verse 6, and knew the grace of
God in truth. All professing Christians use
the Bible word grace, all of them. But they don't know what
it means, most of them. The word grace comes out of one
corner of the mouth and man's works out of the other corner. The Native American Indians use
this term, white men talk with fork and tongue. The Bible uses
this term, a double-minded man. Same thing. A double-minded man
is unstable in all of his works. But when we know the grace of
God in truth, and that's the work of God the Holy Spirit,
teaching us, by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. So our faith is not something
we conjured up. All men have not faith. It's
called the faith of God's elect, and it's a gift from God. And
when He gives us that faith, we know the meaning of the word
grace. We couldn't earn God's grace. We couldn't purchase it. We couldn't
do anything to merit it. It's a free gift from God, and
when He gives us that, and our minds are enlightened under the
preaching of His gospel, then we will know the meaning of the
word grace. It's unmerited favor. God says He will have mercy on
whom He will have mercy. And when He shows that mercy,
we know it's God's doings, not ours. Let me just share some
thoughts from verses 7 through 11. Paul says, as you also learned
of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful
minister of Christ. This man Epaphras brought the
news back to Paul. Like I said in our last letter,
Paul had never been to Colossae. He wrote this epistle when he
was in prison and Epaphras brought him the truths concerning the
saints there that they expressed their belief in the gospel by
their love one for another and by their faith in Christ. And
so he brought Paul received the news of these men and women at
Colossae from Epaphras, in verse 8 says, who also declared unto
us your love in the Spirit. They loved one another, they
loved the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says, for this cause
we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you and desire that you might be filled. with the knowledge
of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. And
so Paul is encouraging them to continue. He's encouraging them
to manifest this love they have for Christ by their love one
for another. and encouraging them to continue
in the faith, He tells them that His desire as He prays for them
is that they might be filled with the knowledge of God's will
and all spiritual understanding. Listen, God's will is going to
be done. We can be a Christian and need
to grow in this area of understanding that our God is on His throne
in heaven. His name is Jesus Christ the
Lord, and I'm not denying the Father, I'm not denying the Holy
Spirit. But these three are one, and
in Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So our God's on His throne. There's
a glorified God-man in heaven right now. People say, won't
you make Jesus your king? You're too late. God's already
done that. He's put Him on His throne, He's Lord of all, and
He's running this show no matter what people try to say. Finite
sinful men do not control God by their will. God's will is
going to be done. He said so. Of His own will begat
He us with the word of truth. It's God's will and salvation,
not man's will. Everything that happens is according
to God's will. I delight in telling you that
Jesus Christ is the true and living God who's in control of
this whole universe and nothing happens apart from his permissive
will. Nothing. Nothing. He's in control. I delight in telling people that
Jesus Christ is my Lord and my God. and he's going to do what
pleases him and Paul said in the book of Galatians when it
pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by his grace to reveal his son in me to me yes but in me
When God sends the Spirit of His Son into the hearts of His
children, blood-bought children, it's the Spirit of God that cries,
Abba, Father. That's also in the Book of Galatians.
The flesh has nothing to do with that. So we cry out, Abba, Father,
because we've experienced the miracle of the new birth, and
we recognize that God is our Father, and we're His adopted
children. purposed by God before the foundation
of the world to receive the spirit of adoption. So Paul's desire
in his prayer for the saints at Colossae is that they might
walk worthy of the Lord unto all, pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Verse
11 says, strengthened with all might according to his glorious
power unto all patience and long-suffering and joyfulness. Folks, listen. It's easy to praise God when
the highway is smooth, we have money in the bank, our health
is good, our loved ones are doing well. But when that highway has a bump,
something happens to take away our finances, or something happens
to our health, or the health of our children, there's where
the true test comes in. Do we praise God then? It's difficult,
but yes, God's enlightened the saints do. We praise God for
all things, in everything we give thanks, for this is the
will of God and Christ Jesus concerning us. So we see God
in control. We don't say to others, oh I
had a streak of bad luck today. There's no such thing as bad
luck, good luck, misfortune, mother nature. It's all controlled
by our wonderful God who has never ever made a mistake
and never will. If God could make a mistake he
wouldn't be God. woman trapped in a man's body. No, you're not. You're a pervert. And God himself lets us know
that those people are an abomination to him. Now I know I could go
to prison for saying that, but I'll say it anyway. That's sin. Doing things that are contrary
to nature. That's all I'm going to say about
that. But I know this, we can do all things through Christ
who strengthens us. That's what verse 11 is pointing
to. And verse 12 says, giving thanks
unto the Father which hath made us meet or fit to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. And you know what God
has done? When He sends the Spirit of His
Son into our heart, He makes us partakers of His divine nature. And we're partakers not only
of His divine nature, but of the inheritance of the saints
in life. And our inheritance, our inheritance is incorruptible
and undefiled and fades not away, but it's reserved in heaven for
us. Peter, riding on a divine inspiration,
tells us that. And God's the one who made those
reservations. There will be no empty seats
in glory. God has a people that he purchased
with his own blood and he's reserved an inheritance for them in heaven
and that inheritance is a full inheritance. It's not like the
inheritance that might be from wealthy people when they draw
up a will leaving somebody this much and somebody this much and
somebody this much. Every child of God Every blood-bought
child of God receives a full inheritance from God Himself.
God is our inheritance. If we have Jesus Christ, we have
everything. Judy and I were talking about
this yesterday. If God be for us, who can be
against us? And God's for us. He's for His people. He's not
for everybody. There's going to be some that
stand before Him on judgment days, going to hear these words,
depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you. But
to those who are in Christ, to those who were purchased by His
precious blood, He's going to say to them, well done thou good
and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. Well, when
were we ever good and faithful? In Christ. In Christ, in Christ
we walk perfectly before God. His work, or His walk, or His life
of obedience, and He was obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross, that obedience is for me, for those who believe,
to those who have faith in Christ. God sees us in Him, and He sees
us just as perfect just as holy as Jesus Christ himself. We have
a substitute. We have one who by himself established
a perfect righteousness for his people, and we receive that righteousness
when we're born again. When God enlightens our minds
to the truths of the gospel, we see Jesus Christ as the only
righteousness that God will accept and more. more we see him we
see Jesus Christ as our substitute who not only laid down his life
for us but he rose again for our justification we were delivered
for our offenses I should say Jesus Christ was delivered for
our offenses, but we were in Him when He was delivered. And
being in Him, we've already suffered the wrath of God. So we were
delivered from this awful darkness that we were in under the preaching
of the gospel. Look at verse 13. Speaking of God's power who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son." We were in darkness. We loved that darkness. We wouldn't
come to the light because the light exposed what we really
are in the sight of God. sin. And we didn't want that.
And our Lord taught that. Can I take you over please to
2nd Corinthians chapter 4. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Not
only has God delivered us from the power of darkness, but He
has assured us that the only way that we could have been delivered
was to have the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ
shine in our hearts. We must see the light. That light
is Jesus Christ. If we don't see Him, then we
don't know Him. And if we don't know Him, we're
still in our sins. But how does God do that? How
does God reveal Himself to us? How does He cause the light to
shine in our hearts? Well, how did God create the
sun? How did he cause the sun to shine?
And it's been shining for how long? 6, 7,000 years or somewhere
around there? God is the one who created the
sun, and he's the one that caused the sun to shine. And if it stops
shining, we're done. We're done for. Well, the same
power that commanded the sun to shine is the same power that
causes the light to shine in our hearts. Folks, I'm telling
you the truth. This is God's doings. If any
man be in Christ, he's a brand new creation. God creates us
anew. And He's the one who commands
the light to shine in our hearts. Let me show you. Here in chapter
4 of 2 Corinthians, starting at verse 5, we read, For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Now when God commanded the light
to shine, guess what happened? I'm not talking about the sun,
there's a light before that. The light did shine. That's God's
command. It had to shine. And where the
word of a king is, there's power. And under the preaching of his
glorious gospel, at the sinner's appointed time of love from God,
he commands the light to shine in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. All the attributes of God are
in Christ. He's the image of the living
God. And we see God's glory in the face of his darling son.
And I'm not talking about this artist's conception of Jesus
looks more like Wild Bill Hickok. I'm talking about the image of
God. Jesus Christ is the express image
of God, and we see God's glory in His face, the face of His
darling Son, and this is by God's command, and we worship His Son. If we don't honor Him, even as
we honor God the Father, we don't honor God at all. So our text,
if you go back to the book of Colossians, tells us that God
has delivered us from Darkness, the power of darkness has translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son. We're in His kingdom. We're in the kingdom of Jesus
Christ. Right now. Right now. I said earlier, some
preachers are telling their congregations, won't you make Jesus Christ your
King? Won't you make Him your Lord?
They're too late. God has already done that. Because
He was obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross, God
has highly exalted His Son and given Him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus, at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow of things in heaven things in earth and
things under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father what that means
God has put him God the Father has put his darling son in control
of everything in heaven our Lord taught us to pray Our
Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Well, how do
you think God's will is being done in heaven? Perfectly. None of the elect angels would
dare go against what God commands them to do. They always behold
the face of God ready to do His bidding. And all of the enlightened
saints of God who have gone on to glory are right there in the
presence of King Jesus, delighting every time a sinner repents. You know why? Only God can grant
repentance unto life. And we, as His blood-bought children,
who have been enlightened by God the Holy Spirit, know that
we're in His eternal kingdom right now. I know it's by faith. I know we see God in all of His
glory by faith. But one of these days, faith
is going to give way to sight. And we're going to see Him in
all of His glory, right there on His throne in heaven. People
are looking for the kingdom of God to appear here on this earth. They're looking for Jesus Christ
to sit on a literal throne in a temple made with hands over
in Jerusalem. Listen, God doesn't dwell in
temples made with hands. He says that. Can you imagine Jesus Christ
who is seated on His sovereign power in heaven and has been
ever since He came out of the grave and ascended to glory.
Can you imagine Him coming off of His sovereign throne of power
and sitting on a throne here on this earth while there's still
sin all around? You know that's being taught
in many religious circles. When Jesus Christ comes back
He's coming in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not
God and obey not His gospel. pouring out His wrath on those
who have never bowed down to King Jesus and acknowledge Him
as their Savior and their Sovereign Lord. But God has given us that
understanding, He has given us the knowledge, the spiritual
knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior and
we delight when we hear anyone exalt our King and give Him all
the praise and all the glory. This is why we're here. We talked
this in Sunday school this morning. We're here to worship and praise
King Jesus and to wait for Him to come from heaven, the same
Jesus who has delivered us from the wrath to come. I don't know
about you. I hope I do. But we sing a song
And one of the verses of that song is, suffer a sinner whose
heart overflows, loving his Savior to tell what he knows. Once more
to tell it would I embrace. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. That's what we do. We tell others. that Jesus Christ didn't try
to save us when He died on that cross. He saved us. We confess that He's our Savior
and encourage others to believe on Him as He is plainly set forth
on the pages of Holy Scripture. Repent. Turn to God. Look to Jesus Christ. Embrace
Him and you have this blessed assurance from God Himself that
every evil, sinful thing that you have ever done or ever will
do was taken care of by Christ our Savior when he was nailed
to that cross, suffering the wrath of God as our substitute. Come to Christ. Believe on Him,
and thou shalt be saved. Thank you. God bless you. Brother
Paul.