All right, brethren, let's be
turning to Colossians, Colossians chapter four. When we were here last in Colossians,
we saw three relationships. It was a relationship between
a husband and wife, a relationship between children and their parents,
a relation between servants and masters, or employees and employers,
And we saw how each of these relationships teach us something
about our relation to Christ as believers, the church's relation
to her Lord and Savior. And today we see another relationship
that's within the body. And this relationship shows us
the need that every member in the body has. It's a relationship
that Paul shows us between himself and the body. And he speaks of
this relationship in terms of prayer and speech. In terms of prayer and speech. And as we look at it, it's humbling. It's humbling to every one of
us. We know that knowledge puffeth up. And certainly Paul had knowledge. He had a knowledge of the mystery
of God. He understood the gospel. He knew the glory of God revealed
to sinners in the face of Jesus Christ. And yet Paul asked for
prayer. Paul speaks to us about prayer
and he asks that as we're praying that we pray for him and for
other ministers who are preaching the gospel with him. And he includes
himself as needing the grace of God in his speech, just as
we need the grace of God in our speech. And so that's the relation
that we see in the body of Christ. And so, first of all, this first
relation is an exhortation to us. An exhortation is an encouragement. Our Lord encourages us unto prayer. And it says in Colossians 4,
verse 2, continue in prayer. and watch in the same with thanksgiving. So there's three things here
included in this verse about prayer that I'd like to emphasize
with you. First, Paul said continue in
prayer. What he's speaking of there is
that we're to walk, we're to live in an attitude of prayer. in an attitude of dependence
upon our God, in an attitude that is mindful that we are but
dust, we are creatures, and he is the true and living God. We're
to live in an attitude of prayer and continual prayer in this
thought, brethren, that we've been reconciled to holy God by
the Lord Jesus Christ. We that are sinners, we that
have fallen in sin and are ruined in our nature have been reconciled
by God and adopted into the family of God by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And there's fellowship there
between the saints of God, between believers of God and the true
and living God. There's fellowship there. Our
Savior is a friend. a husband and a friend and He
provides for us and He loves us and He shows us that love
in providing for us and caring for us and all things that we
have need of, speak to Him. Speak to him. Be mindful of your
God and your Savior. Speak to him throughout the day
as is necessary. And another thing, too, that
this thing says to us is don't let the day go by without prayer. It's so easy for us to get caught
up in our tasks and our list of things to do and the things
that we plan to do. It's so easy to get caught up
and want to get started on those things. And before you know it,
the day is Mostly gone. And sometimes it's gone. And
we've not even bowed our head, bowed our heart, bowed our mind
and thoughts to the true and living God. and we're to live
and continue or to continue in prayer. Next thing that Paul
says here is, watch in the same. Watch in the same. And this speaks
to our attention of things. This speaks to our understanding
of what's going on here with regards to all the things that
our savior has said to us and spoken to us about and we see
things and we're to be vigilant about what we're seeing here
that we're to be watching and aware of what's going on in the
world and the dangers that are here and the things that take
and draw our attention away from that which is most needful and
that which is most needful is the Lord Jesus Christ and our
fellowship in relation to Him. That's what's most needful. Our
Savior said, watch therefore, that's the same word, watch therefore,
for ye know not what day and hour your Lord doth come. You don't know what hour your
Lord is coming. And so now is not the time for
us to be choked out with the weeds of this life. We see the
things going on. We see the evil. We see the evil
that's present in our world. We see the hatred. We see the anger burgeoning up,
swelling up, welling up in people. We see there's difficulties and
troubles and hardships abound. Now's not the time to put all
our focus and attention on the weeds of this life, those things
that choke us out and starve us out and keep us from the light. Now's not the time for that. We're to be awake. awake and
very much aware that there is danger, there is trouble, but
it's not to frighten us, it's not to make us fearful, it's
that we should be watching and praying about these things that
we see. Peter said it this way, be sober,
be vigilant. And I looked that word up, and
it's the exact same word as watch. Not even off by a number. It's
the very same word. Be vigilant. Watch, because your
adversary the devil has a roaring lime, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. So be awake in prayer. Be mindful
of these things. He's your God. He saved you. He's called you unto himself
into this fellowship with the true and living God. Lay them
before your Lord. I'm mindful of King Hezekiah. when Sennacherib came from Assyria
and was boasting about what he was going to do to the people
of God. And he laid it before the Lord. He laid out what he
said before the Lord and prayed, cried out to the Lord. And it's
the same thing. We're troubled. We're burdened
by things. Watch. Lay them before the Lord. Go to the Lord with your cares
and troubles. And finally, Paul adds, with
thanksgiving. With thanksgiving. Because we're
not watching in fear. We're watching and are thankful
that the true and living God is our God. And that he's delivered
us out of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son. That we should know him. and
the true and living God and know what He's done for us and accomplished
for us in redeeming us graciously. graciously, not because we've
earned it or deserve it. We deserve the wrath of God by
our own works. But in grace and mercy, he's
delivered us and covered us with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're thankful to the
Lord for revealing himself to us and for being gracious to
us and giving us the things of grace, the fruit of the spirit,
revealing that in us. Paul said it this way when he
was writing to the Philippians. Philippians 4, 6, be careful
for nothing. And what that means is, why are
you carrying a burden around with you? Why are you bottling
that up and holding that in? We are made to care about things,
and don't be careful. That is, don't hold it all back,
but lay it before the Lord. Go to your Lord. Be careful for
nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the reality is, when we stop
and think about it, we have much to be thankful for. We have much
to be thankful for. I often think of the women in
my life. I think of you wives and you
ladies, you mothers, and how you sacrifice and you lay down
your lives for your children and your husbands. And you do
a lot of wonderful, nice things. And how much harder is that when
no one seems to appreciate it? No one gives you thanks. No one
says, hey, thanks for doing that. I appreciate. what you did there. It's a lot easier when you're
thankful, when someone's thankful for what you're doing. And how
often do we lay our cares out before the Lord and we bring
all our troubles and cares to the Lord, do we just forget? Do we just keep laying on all
these troubles and cares before Him? We do, but isn't it good
to be mindful that, you know, He actually, I was praying about
this and the Lord's resolved that. He's taken care of that.
He answered that prayer. He did this and He did that thing.
Thank Him for it. Stop and thank Him for it. He
is God. What can we give to Him? But
ought we not have a thankful heart to our God and recognize
what he's done? Think back of all the times in
your life when you were fearful and afraid and thought, this
is it. This is the end. I'm undone. I'm ruined. And yet
here you are. And those things have been resolved
by your Lord. And he brought you through it.
He provided. Be thankful of those things and how he's provided
for you. And what I found is sometimes
I go to pray and I have a cold heart. My heart feels cold and
hard. And the surest way out of a cold
heart is to begin by thanking the Lord. And as you begin to
thank the Lord, all these other things come to your mind to be
thankful for. And your heart begins to be warmed
because you're realizing the Lord is so good to me. He's so
patient with me. I've forgotten that for so long,
but now I'm remembering it. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for
your grace and your mercy. And the heart begins to warm,
and it breaks as the Lord shows us that. I had some leaf-breaking
to do this last week, and you go outside, and it's chilly.
It's cold. But as soon as I began to rake
the leaves, I warmed up. I warmed up. And the quickest
way to a warm heart is to begin with the exercise. I don't even
like to call it an exercise, but to be thankful. Because it
exercises the heart in warmth and cheer and gladness of what
our God has done. And because as soon as we begin
to thank him, it reminds us, it communicates to our hearts
that he's sovereign God. He's given me all these things.
He's done this and he's done that and he did this and he did
exactly as he says he'll do in his word and I forgot and now
I see, Lord, you've done everything. And that's good for us who are
dust to be reminded that he is sovereign, that he is the true
and living God. And what am I? That he is mindful
and does take thought of me, a sinner. And so it's good. Every good gift, James says,
and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, that is, he
doesn't change, neither shadow of turning. He doesn't turn from
us. Now, one might ask, well, how
would a continuing prayer, And how would watching, a prayer
of watching, and watching with thanksgiving, how would that
sound? What would that look like? I
don't know how to pray. Well, look at Colossians chapter
1. Look at Colossians 1. And Paul lays out a pattern here. And I won't read it all, but
I would encourage you to read it today. To read it this week
and to look at the prayer that Paul is speaking of here and
recording for us, look at verse three, he begins, we give thanks
to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always
for you. Praying always for you. Aren't
you thankful for brethren? Aren't you thankful for brethren
of a like mind? who love your Lord, who are called
by His grace. Aren't you thankful that He's
given us brothers and sisters? Because some days you wake up
and you don't have brothers and sisters. So you're made thankful
for those brothers and sisters that you do have, that the Lord
has given you. And we thank God for our brethren
because just like he's done for you in giving you a new birth,
he's given them that same spirit, that same new birth. And there's
fellowship, there's a body there. There's members of that body
and we're thankful for that. What else do we have to be thankful
for? In the next couple of verses
he speaks of faith, Our God has given to you faith. Our God has
given to you love. Love for God and love for your
brethren. And He's given to you hope. Hope
in the inheritance which is promised to the saints in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's given you that good hope.
Aren't you thankful that with all the trouble and difficulties
and threatenings going on in the world that, yeah, everything
could be taken away and yet they can't touch that eternal inheritance,
which is given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We could lose everything,
and I don't want to lose everything. My flesh likes comforts and likes
peace. It likes to have certain easements,
but our inheritance isn't in this life. Our inheritance is
in that which is to come, and He's good for His Word. He's
given his word and he's good for his word. And he says in
verse five, he says, you've heard the word of the truth of the
gospel and it was prosperous, it was profitable, made profitable
to you so that it bears fruit in you that hear this gospel
and you knew the grace of God in truth, in truth. Many have
heard, many are aware of Christ and to a degree of what he's
done. They're aware, but to them it's just a dead letter religion. Why is it made profitable to
you? Why has God blessed your heart to hear this word and to
believe not in what you've done, but in the Lord Jesus Christ?
That's the grace of God unto you. That's God's grace to you. And for time's sake, I won't
continue to read, but down in verses nine through 12, he encourages
you, brethren, to walk worthy in thankfulness for what your
God has done for you. That's a pattern. This chapter
here mostly is a pattern of that continuing prayer, that watching
prayer, that prayer of thanksgiving. And that's a pattern. How do
I pray? Well, why don't you read how Paul prays in Colossians
chapter one. Why don't you read how Paul prays
in Ephesians chapter one for the brethren. In Ephesians chapter
three, look at those, he's thankful. Now back in Colossians 4.3, he
begins, with all, praying also for us. Praying also for us. Now here's Paul the apostle. the Apostle, and Paul is asking
for the brethren in Colossae, remember us in your prayers too,
with all means together. While you're praying, remember
us too. Remember us in your prayers,
because we need your prayers too. And so that tells me that
all men need prayer. It doesn't matter how great and
mighty you think a person is, that is in the Lord, and how
strong and confident they seem, or faithful they seem, or what
good works they do. Every one of us needs the grace
of God. And every one of us is helped
in that prayer. Not because God requires it,
but because God is pleased to soften our hearts, to warm our
hearts in prayer, one for another. Because we're all capable fallen
we're all capable of doing heinous sins and things that disappoint
and trouble our brethren and And every one of us can do that
and every one of us is thankful here that people don't know our
hearts But the true and living God does and he says pray for
your brethren pray for them and love your brethren and and and
rejoice in what the Lord has done for them If the apostle
was dependent on the grace of God and he asked for prayer,
well then how much more do each and every one of us need prayer
and are helped by it as it pleases the Lord to do it. I know he's
sovereign. I know that he does all things
and doesn't require us, but he tells us, I will be sought by
my people for these things. I'll be sought by you. I'll move
your hearts to pray them. That's what he's doing. When
we're praying, we're not bringing something new to the Lord. It's
because He's been gracious enough to burden our hearts, to lay
it on our hearts. Go and pray. Lay before the Lord. So often when I get a thought
sometimes and I don't deal with it right away, if I don't write
it down or I don't stop right then and there and pray, if it's
a prayer, it disappears. It goes out my head. And it could
be later that day and I'm like, oh, what was that thing? is pray. Pray continually and pray when
the Lord burdens your heart for your brethren. He has a purpose
in it. And so we have that relationship
in the body. We're all sinners saved in the body of Christ and
we have one head. We share in this one head, the
Lord Jesus Christ who is over all. And that brings us now to
our second relation here which concerns speech. So back to Colossians 4, we'll
pick up in 3 and verse 4 again. So with all together with your
prayers while you're praying pray for us also that God would
open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ
for which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as
I ought to speak. And so think about this, what
is the church's great commission? What did our Lord give to you,
his church, here in the earth? What did he say? He said, go
and preach this gospel to all nations, teaching them, declaring
to them what I have accomplished, for my people." You proclaim
it. You declare what the Lord has
done so that when we're preaching, we're to preach the sufferings
of Christ. We're to preach that Christ was
crucified. Why? Because that tells us that
the Son of God came in the flesh to do for His people what we
could not do for ourselves. He laid down His life for His
bride to give her life. to give her deliverance from
the wrath of God and to give her life by the Lord Jesus Christ
in himself. We're to declare that he rose
again the third day, the third day, that he's not dead. He rose
from the dead and we in him, we are justified by his death
and resurrection. And we're delivered from death,
God declaring to us that we are delivered from death. were to
declare to sinners, repent. And what does that mean? Repent
from what? Stop doing this and start doing this? What he's saying
there in repentance, the true repentance is stop trusting in
your vain, false, empty, wicked works that you call righteousness
and trusting in those things. Repent of that and be turned
to Christ. Rest in Jesus Christ alone. He is the very salvation of God. Trust Him. Trust Him. That's what we're declaring to
sinners to repent from. We're declaring everything that
you're trusting in in the flesh is false, it's wicked, it's wrong,
it's death. Be turned from that and look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the very salvation of God. And the Lord, the Spirit, takes
of those things, of that Gospel Word, and He lays it to the hearts
of His people. He delivers them from death and
makes them to see Christ, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of sins. This is how our Lord said it
when He was speaking to the disciples in that great commission in Luke
24 how He records it in verse 46-48. He said unto them, Thus
it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer. The Son of
God came in the flesh, and He suffered. of sinners for his
people. He bore the wrath of God which
was against us. And it behooved him to rise from
the dead the third day, and that repentance, turn from your dead
wicked works, and remission, forgiveness of sins, should be
preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things." That's what the church has made witness of. declaring
Christ crucified and Christ raised from the dead for our justification. And so that's what we're praying
for. Lord, send forth this word in
power and in great glory, conquering the hearts of your people, delivering
them from death and darkness and ruin and trouble and bring
them into the kingdom of your dear son and rejoice their heart,
deliver them. That dynamo, the dynamite that
explodes and destroys all the shackles and the bondage and
the prison that we're in by nature and delivers us out into the
light of Christ. rejoicing in Him. So to speak
the mystery of Christ that Paul speaks of is to preach that gospel. To preach the gospel. We're sinners. We deserve the wrath of God.
We haven't earned God's grace and mercy. We deserve wrath.
But he declares freely to us, this is what I've done to save
my people from their sins, to deliver them from the wrath,
my wrath and my judgment, and to give you an expected end,
a joyful end, an end of hope and peace and joy and rejoicing
in my son with my people whom I've chosen and given to him
to save, and all who believe. and confess Him and believe Him,
they have the forgiveness of sins. They are delivered from
death. And that's what He came to do,
to deliver us from that dominion which is over us, to give us
His Spirit, to teach us, to reveal this very truth. And Christ has
obtained it. We have it because He obtained
it by His death and resurrection. He did the whole thing, and that's
why we rejoice in Him. That's why we don't boast of
what you and I do, we boast of what He has done by His death
and through His reconciliation, by His sin-atoning sacrifice
as our substitute, as our surety. And He mediates that peace between
us and Holy God and brings you into fellowship with Himself
to know Him and to rejoice in the true and living God. And
so Paul says, pray for this, that I may make it manifest as
I ought to speak. That's what I'm going to be talking
about. That's what I'm going to be preaching and declaring
to you is what Christ has done. Because that's how the sheep
and the lambs are fed. That's how you are nourished.
That's how you are strengthened. That is your comfort, that is
your peace, that is your joy, and your all. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I pray that the Lord make
that effectual to your heart and mine. We pray that the spirit
open the hearts and minds of our hearers, that they too may
live and believe and rejoice in the hope that is given to
us. Because we know there's many that come, many have heard, Many
read good books, many even read the Bible, and many pray and
do a lot of religious things, and it's not profitable to them.
It's not profitable. They're zealous, but they're
zealous in their works, and they're zealous for what they're doing,
and they've missed Christ. And the Lord knows, the Lord
knows, and we need Him. We need His grace to keep us.
Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 2, 14, He said, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. He says they're
foolishness unto him. That's nonsense. That's crazy. That can't be that way. That's
not how God saves his people. You've got to do this, and you've
got to do works, and you've got to show yourself faithful. But
it's the Lord that we are dependent on. It's the Lord that gives
us faith, and it's the Lord that makes us faithful and keeps us
faithful. And He gives us that burden to
continually pray, Lord, I see my weakness. Lord, how many fall
away? Lord, keep me. Keep my heart. Lord, keep me ever looking to
Christ my Savior, my Lord, and not being caught up and so focused
on this world, which is perishing and burning up and passing away.
You say it is. Why does it trouble me so much?
Lord, keep me looking to Christ, because that's the one thing
needful. He's the preciousness of God for sinners. And so we
pray that the Lord, and it says, neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. We need the spirit of God. And
every one of our hearers needs the spirit of God to help them,
to make them hear it, just as he's made us to hear it, to draw
us to Christ irresistibly by his grace and power. And that's
what the Lord tells us. Seek me for these things. Seek
me. And you go out and preach this word, and trust me to do
it. I'll bring in my people. I'll
bring them in. And so we pray for an open door,
because it takes a supernatural. It takes the power of God, the
grace and glory of God to work this grace in the hearts of spiritually
dead sinners, of which we all were partakers when we were in
Adam. And now we stand in the inheritance of Christ. We stand
in Christ now. So, if God doesn't save the sinner,
they will not be saved. And it's going to reveal faith
in their hearts. Now, just as ministers of the gospel like
Paul need grace in their speech, so we too, brethren, all of us
need grace in our speech when we're talking to others and to
walk in that spirit, the new man. Paul says it this way in
Colossians 4, 5, and 6. These are our final verses here. Walk in wisdom toward them that
are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with
grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how you are to answer
every man. So then that are without, they
are the unbelievers. They don't have faith. They're
them that are without. Now, we're not to speak that,
to treat them harshly, because we don't know. I mean, we're
vessels of mercy. They may be a vessel of God's
grace and mercy. And therefore, Paul says, walk
in wisdom toward them. Walk in wisdom. Now, here's a
good way to remember it. Grace is to speech as salt is
to meat. Grace is to speech as salt is
to meat. I've eaten a few meals in my
life that were hard to eat. They were a little tough to get
down and it would have been impossible to finish them. But I had salt
and you could add a little salt and the salt makes it more flavorful. It makes it more enjoyable. It actually allowed me, in a
number of cases, to complete the meal, to finish the meal,
to finish everything that was given to me because of Saul.
And that's what he's saying there. Let your speech be seasoned with
grace. because a lot of times people
get upset. They hate this gospel. They hate the truth by nature.
We don't love the true and living God. We despise the grace of
God. We despise his salvation. We despise his people. We despise
his word by nature. And a lot of people turn off
and they shut their minds right off and check out until they're
gone and out of there. And he's saying, let your speech
be seasoned with grace in the hopes that they won't check out,
in the hopes that they won't turn away, but they'll finish
the whole meal. Because it may be that the Lord
will bless it to their heart. Perhaps the Lord will come in
and sup with them. and feed them and deliver them
from that same darkness that He's delivered us from. And so
that's why we want our grace to be, our words, our speech
to be seasoned with grace, to be patient and kind and understanding
with others because the Lord was patient and kind and understanding
with us and made us in His time to hear this word of grace. And
so, one more thing, our actions and our words, they're a reflection
of what we preach and believe here. And what the Lord teaches
us here, so be mindful of that. He says, redeeming the time. Redeeming the time. The days
are evil, and darkness is always upon us. Every one of us. We all have a day that we pass
on. Redeem that time with them. Watch,
observe the time, Pray that God would open unto us a door of
utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, giving thanks always
for the many blessings that he has given to us all. I pray he
bless that word to your hearts, brethren. Amen.