1, Colossians chapter 1. And the title of the message
is, The Stewardship of Servants. The Stewardship of Servants. We'll go ahead and read to our
text, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. and
Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren
in Christ, which are at Colossae. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints
for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you
heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel 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 you heard it, and
knew the grace of God in truth. As you also learned of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, Now last week we saw how the
gospel of Jesus Christ came to this church of Colossae, to these
elect of the Father, redeemed of the Son. Those called by the
Holy Spirit were not called by the Apostle Paul's preaching,
but rather we know this, that this man Epaphras, This man who
Paul calls a fellow slave. A fellow slave. Hey, that's Papyrus. He's a fellow slave. He's a fellow
slave by which God used so that you should hear the gospel of
the truth. The gospel of Jesus Christ. They
heard this message and believed it in the same way that every
elect child of God hears and believes. Through the preaching
of the gospel. As it came to you, as it came
to everyone else in the world. As it's gone out into the world,
so it's come to you in the same means. And this gospel message,
this gospel of the truth, I want you to know this, and you store
this away. May God implant it on your hearts.
There's only one gospel. Only one. Remember the church
of Galatia? They thought they had the gospel.
They believed on Christ, but they added one thing to the gospel. They added one thing to the work
of Christ. Circumcision. And Paul said,
that is not the gospel. That is another gospel, which
is not another. He said, Let if any man preach
unto you another gospel than that which is preached, let that
man go to hell. That's what He said. Let him
be accursed. Let him go to hell. There's only
one gospel. And friends, the sum and substance
of this gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is it.
This is our gospel. This is our message. This is
what we preach. I know men get tired of hearing
it. I've had a man come for years and then leave because he wanted
to hear something else. You want to hear something else,
you're going to have to go someplace else. I ain't got nothing else, and
I don't want anything else. And God's people don't want anything
else. We have one gospel. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It is the only truth. Jesus Christ
is the truth. I'm not giving you a view of
the truth. I'm telling you the truth. There's
no view of the truth. There's no certain aspect of
the truth from your perspective or anybody else's perspective.
There's only one truth. And truth is a person, Jesus
Christ. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to God but by Him. This is it. I don't like that
way. The only other way is hell. It's
broad and it's wide. Go ahead. There's no other way
to heaven. It's very narrow. It's only one
person. Jesus Christ. That's it. The
only way to God. He's the truth. And this is the
message that Epaphras spoke. This is the message that he preached. And this is what Paul calls him. A dear fellow slave. Paul calls
him a servant. A servant. Now preachers of the
gospel of Christ are servants, not of their own choosing, but
rather they are chosen of God. Men who preach this gospel do
not make themselves preachers. Heard that this weekend? Wonderful.
That's just so. You don't make yourself a preacher.
If you do, and if you make yourself a preacher, somebody else makes
you a preacher, you shouldn't be a preacher. Well, I was made
a preacher by the seminary. Well, you shouldn't be a preacher.
God makes preachers. God makes preachers. It's by
the will of God that men preach the gospel. And these men are
called of God for the primary purpose, the sole purpose of
preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul
said to the church of Corinth, I desire to know nothing among
you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is the message
of Paul. He said, I'm not sent to baptize.
Now did Paul, he said, I thank God I didn't baptize any one
of you. There at Corinth, he said, I'm not sent to baptize.
Baptism is a wonderful thing. And if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, you should be baptized and follow him. But that's not
why I'm sent. I'm sent as Paul was sent to
preach the gospel, to declare the gospel of Christ. That's
what we're, it's our purpose. Hold your place here. Go over
to Titus with me. Look at Titus, because Titus
was sent by the apostle with a mission that, and this was
an apostolic authority that was given to Titus, and he was to
set up elders in the church there in Crete. And Paul gave him specific
instructions as to the qualifications of these men, these preachers. He says this in verse six. He
says, if any man be blameless. Well, I'll tell you what, he's
not saying sinless because we know this, every man is a sinner
by nature. What he's talking about is a
man who is blameless before God. A man who is called by the grace
of God. A man who is saved. You wouldn't
want a pastor who has not experienced the grace of God. If a man hasn't
experienced the grace of God, how can he tell you about the
grace of God? It's impossible. You know, when I ask people about
taking a trip somewhere, I like to know people that's actually
been there. Yeah, I don't want to hear what
you read on Google. I mean, I can read that. I mean, I'd like to
know some things about it. He said, man, we went here and
we did this and we had... So I can... I say, hey, that
sounds good. That person has some experience. You know what?
God's man needs to have some experience in this matter of
grace before he preaches it. What good is it if he don't have
that? So he must be blameless, not
sinless, but man called of God's grace. Listen, he must be the
husband of one wife. That does away with all women
preachers. That's it. Husband and one wife. And this
is not talking necessarily mostly about divorce, but rather polygamy.
This was a common practice in that day that there were many
wives. But that ruins a picture of Christ and His church. So
therefore, this was instituted. Now, faithful children, he said
he must Having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
What does this mean? He needs to be a good parent.
He just needs to be the best parent he can be. That doesn't
mean that his children are going to be the greatest because they're
sinners too. They're just sinners. I know this. I should be a parent
that instructs my children. So that's what they're looking
for is a man that instructs his children. A man who loves his
children. For a bishop must be blameless,
listen, as the steward of God. The steward of God. This is the main and sole purpose
of a preacher's calling, is to be a faithful steward. What is a steward? A steward
is nothing more than a slave. That's what we are. If you want
to see a slave, look at me. I am a slave. A happy slave,
but a slave nonetheless. I am a slave to the gospel of
Jesus Christ. That's what I am. I'm a slave
of the Lord Jesus Christ, called to serve Him. And this stewardship
that we are given is not of money or time or earthly talents. You'll hear that a lot. When
you hear a man that's mostly, they're just not God's men, but
they'll preach messages on stewardship. Man, you should be a faithful
steward of your money. You should be a faithful steward of your
time. You should be a faithful steward of all the talents. You
know what? God's given you these talents and God needs your talents.
No, he doesn't. God doesn't need your talents. The only two things that a preacher
is to be a faithful steward of, and they're both really the same
thing. In all the New Testament, now, you can read on stewardship
later if you want to, in all the New Testament, there is no
place in the New Testament that tells you to be a steward of
time, money, or any earthly things. Nowhere. Go over to 1 Corinthians. Now, it's just stewardship. 1
Corinthians, Paul talks about this, 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
He tells us what he is a steward of. Verse 1, let a man sow a count of us. as of the ministers of Christ,
the servants of Christ, the stewards of Christ. And stewards of what? What are we to be faithful in? Stewards of the mysteries of
God. And moreover, it is required
of a steward that a man be found faithful. Now this tickles me. This gives me great comfort.
It's not required of a steward that he be found good. But faithful. Faithful. Faithful in what? The mysteries
of God. The mysteries of God. What is
that? It's the gospel. The gospel. Go over to Peter. 1 Peter. And read this. 1 Peter chapter 4. Peter talks about the stewardship
here in verse 10. As every man hath received the
gift, Even so, minister the same one to another as good stewards
of what? The manifold grace of God. That's what we're stewards of.
We're stewards of the mysteries of God and we're stewards of
the manifold grace of God. What are these things? They are
the gospel. That's what faithful stewards
are for. They're for preaching the gospel of God's grace. Back in Colossians, Paul says
this, he said, I am made a minister, a servant of God according to
the dispensation of God. That word dispensation means
stewardship. According to the stewardship
of God. He was made a what? Minister
of what? The gospel. That's what he was
made a minister of. You remember when John Mark went
with Paul and Barnabas on that missionary journey. John Mark
was a young man, cousin, I think his nephew of Barnabas. They
went out on this missionary journey and you know what his job was?
His job was bellhop. That's what he did. He was a
servant to the Apostle Paul and Barnabas. He picked up their
clothes. He gave them their food. He served
them. That's what he was there for.
To serve. And you know what? When he got
in the middle of this, he left the work. Why? He didn't like
to serve. He thought he was above service.
And you know what Paul did when they went back on this second
journey? That next journey? Barnabas said, hey, I want John
Mark to come with. And Paul said, no, I won't have
anyone come with us who is not willing to serve. Serve. This is what preachers are. We're
servants. Servants. We're stewards of God. The work of the preacher is to
serve as stewards, and in our stewardship, we have the mysteries
of God. Mysteries of God. Manifold graces
of God, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of God,
or sound doctrine. In that place in Titus, that's
what Paul, after he gives those qualifications, He says this to those that he
chooses to be pastor, those that Titus were to appoint, he said,
holding fast the faithful word which he hath been taught, that
he may be able by sound doctrine to exhort and to convince the
gainsayers, those that are opposed to the gospel. Weren't you opposed
to the gospel? I was opposed to the gospel.
But yet, through the preaching of a faithful pastor, God used
him, and I'm no longer opposed. You're no longer opposed. This
church in Corinth was no longer opposed. Why? Because God sent
a faithful man to preach the mysteries of the gospel. Mysteries. Gospel, my friend,
is a mystery. Mystery wrapped in an enigma
I Forgot the whole saying of that, but it's it to man. It's
impossible for men to understand these mysteries Yet God has given
these mysteries In earthen vessels I Never want to preach to you
what I don't know I Sometimes we as preachers do
business in deep waters. When we're dealing with the things
of God, like the person of God, the Trinity of God, we are really
just swimming out into deep waters. Because I really don't fully
understand that. And there are many other things
that I don't fully understand, but what I do understand is God
says it, and I believe it. But I'm going to tell you what
I do understand. I'll tell you what God says,
and then we both have to believe it, whether we understand it
or not. But yet, I want to deal with things that you do. This
gospel we preach, this gospel is a mystery in that it deals
with the will of God before the foundation of the world, before
there was any creation, before there was any man to see it,
or angel to witness it. There was God. all by Himself. And yet God has revealed to us
the mystery of His eternal will. That before the foundation of
the world, God ordained, purposed, decreed, according to His own
sovereign free grace, to save some of Adam's fallen and dead
race. God the Father decreed that all
those who He loved in free grace should be made holy. He decreed
that He should adopt, that He adopted His people to be His
sons. And that Paul declares that these
who are called according to His purpose in Romans chapter 8,
they were called according to the purpose of God to life and
faith in Christ, which is evidence Faith is always the evidence
of what God has already purposed in eternity. Your faith actually
did nothing to that covenant. It just showed you the covenant. It showed you your part in the
covenant. But God gave us that faith that we were purposed to be conformed
to the image, the perfect, sinless, spotless image of Jesus Christ
His Son And those whom He foreknew, He also did predestinate to glory. Therefore, God, who predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of His Son, must have sent His
Son to accomplish the work. This is our message, that God
purposed to save a people, and now, now, now, at the appointed
time, Jesus Christ, the messenger of the covenant, has come into
the world to accomplish the work that God purposed for Him to
do. He come into the world as He
agreed in the covenant of grace. Christ came into the world as
a man. The Son of God laid aside His
glory and took the nature of what? A servant. A servant. Isaiah chapter 42. Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1. God says, Behold who? My servant. Behold my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have
put my spirit upon him without measure. He put his spirit upon
Christ. And he shall bring forth judgment. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. This judgment of God is truly
a mystery to man. Has no idea about the judgment
of God. Listen, if you're lost this morning, if you knew anything
about the judgment of God, you'd be weeping and howling and crying
for mercy. If you knew anything. Yeah, God's
gonna send people to hell. You don't know anything at all
about the judgment of God. You don't know anything at all. Man,
by nature, doesn't. It's a mystery. Natural man's
idea of judgment is corrupt because we, by nature, are spiritually
judged already, condemned, dead in sins. And our minds are in
enmity against God, and not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. But this servant of God, Christ,
He shall come, and He shall, what? Bring forth! What does
that mean, bring forth judgment? It means to display it, to manifest
it, to show the judgment of God, the justice of God. That's why
Christ came into the world. To show, to manifest, to display
the glory of God. The servant of God came to display
clearly the judgment of God, and he did so in two ways. He
did so by his righteousness. By his righteous obedience, he
displayed God's judgment, God's justice and holiness. In verse
2 of that text in Isaiah 42, it says, He shall not cry, nor
lift up his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the
street. I'll ask you this. How perfect
was the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ? How perfect? How perfect did he believe God? So perfect that he never lifted
up his voice to murmur. Never murmured against his law. Always subject to the will of
God. Perfect perfect If you want to see how perfect God's judgment
is you should look at the life of Jesus Christ You should look
at his life because he perfectly honored that law He perfectly
obeyed God so much so that the voice of God could not keep silent
It said this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased You
know what? As good as you think you are,
I know this, you've never heard that voice. Not say that about
you. This man, this man showed forth
the perfect justice of God by his faith in God. By his sinless obedience, he
pleased God. So if you want to know how much
you need to please God, you should see Him. If you want to earn
your way to God, then you need to be as perfect as He is. Oops,
you've already missed it. You've already blown it. You've
already murmured. You've already complained against
God. You've already sinned against God. So then, therefore, by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight. Yet Jesus, friends, did not come
to be an example. He came to actually obtain righteousness
for His elect. You want to know why Jesus Christ
came into this world? He came into this world to manifest the
judgment of God by obeying the law of God, not for Himself,
but for His people, for His elect, for those that God the Father
chose in eternity. Christ obtained their righteousness
and their righteousness alone. He obtained the righteousness.
by being their representative. The Scriptures are very clear
that Adam was a representative man. Wherefore, as by the offense,
by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners, even so by
the righteousness of one shall many be made righteous. It's the perfect righteousness
of God alone that Christ obtained and now
imputes to every one of his people. Oh, the joy of preaching this
gospel. A lot of men venture out into
different occupations never knowing if they're going to be successful.
I don't have to worry about that. I do, but that's just my own
sin nature. This gospel is always successful. It just is. It's always successful. So every time I preach it, it's
successful. It does exactly what God determines
it to do. And you know what? This righteousness
is imputed to every one of God's elect as they believe on Jesus
Christ. Righteousness before God is not
a joint effort between the sinner and Christ. Righteousness is
obtained, merited, and earned, and deserved only by the work
and faith of Jesus Christ. As our representative, then it
becomes ours because He represented us. Therefore, we are called
the Lord our righteousness. That's His name, the Lord our
righteousness. And you who believe, that's your
name, the Lord our righteousness. Because He obtained it for you.
He did it. Secondly, He displays the judgment
of God clearly in His death on the cursed tree. If any man will
understand the judgment and justice of God, The strictness and unbending
justice of God. If you want to see God's holiness,
then you should look at the cross. You should see how God deals
with sin. Behold the crucified Son as He
bore the sins of His people. When God found my sin in His
Son, He tortured. Vengeance fell on his soul. God took the sword of his justice
and ran it through the bones of his dear son. Now if he found sin in his son,
which was not his own but ours, What do you think He'll do with
you? Unbending justice. God not willing
to impute the sins of His elect to His people purposely. purposely imputed them to his
darling son and he bore our guilt in his own body on the tree and
justice swiftly came down and killed his son in our stead. And by his death we are reconciled
to God. This is how God reconciles us.
This is how God purposed to save His people. How He purposed to
reconcile us. To bring us who are afar off,
to bring us near. That's what reconcile is. There
was something that stood between us and God, our sins. But now
then Christ has moved them out. He's taken them away. And justice,
after he had finished, after he had poured out all the holy
vengeance from eternity on his son, justice wipes his hands
and says, that's enough. That's enough. I'm fully satisfied
with his death. Sin. Their sins, the sins of
my elect, are no more. No more. He was made a curse for us. This was seen clearly in the
prophecies in Isaiah 69. I love this. The zeal of the
house had eaten me up. You know what that is? That's
His righteousness. The worship of God hath eaten me up. Oh,
how he loved God, how he served God. And then it says, and the
reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. His righteousness,
the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. His death, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee fell on me. This is the gospel. This is the mystery. How the
sinners can be accepted by a holy God. This is it, by Jesus Christ. In that same text he says, oh
my sin, my foolishness. Can you imagine that? Can you
get that, can you grab that? That's exactly, it became his. Though he did none of it, it
became his. And God punished him in our stead. Behold the wonder and mystery
of this gospel of which we are stewards. Jesus Christ has by
His one offering forever, forever, forever, forever satisfied God's
justice for sin. Forever! God's justice will never
come on anyone of His elect. Listen to me, if it does, God
is unjust. If one sin, for one elect soul
was not redeemed, God will lose his glory. And we know that just
ain't going to happen. Why? Because Jesus said it's
finished. This is our message of which we are stewards. It's
finished. The work's done. And to testify of this, God raised
him from the dead. The prophet said, the Holy One
shall not see corruption. And Jesus rose on the third day,
did not see corruption, even because death could not hold
him. Why does death hold everyone in the grave to this point? Because
sin. But there was no sin. He had
removed it all. Therefore the grave had no hold
on Him and could not hold Him, raised Him from the dead. God
had highly exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every
tongue should confess. You know what? Look at me. You
all will confess this. You will. And everyone that stamps
their feet and spits and cusses at it, they will confess it.
God's people confess it in time. Everyone will confess it in eternity.
Every one of you. Deny Him now, or you will. You
will confess it. You will bow. Because He has risen. And you
know what He's doing right now? He is seated on his eternal throne
doing what giving eternal life to as many as the father had
given him That's what he's doing. He said father. I will that you
that you glorify me With the glory which we have you've given
me power over all flesh that you should give eternal life
to the whole world No, no Not going to give it to the whole
world Not going to give it to every man without exception.
He may give it to every man without distinction, but he's not going
to give it to every man without exception. No. He says, I pray not for the
world, but for those which you have
given me out of the world. Those are the ones I'm going
to give eternal life to as many as. How many? As many as. I like
that term. That just, that settles me. That
gives me great peace. Spurgeon was asked, sir, if God
is only going to save the elect, if he's only redeemed the elect,
why then do you preach? He said, sir, if you would kindly
point out the elect to me, I'll only preach to them. Do you realize
this message is only for the elect? That's it. I'm reading the Covenant Mercies
of God, John Warburton, and he kept going to church. He knew
he was guilty of sin, and he had conviction of it, and he
kept going to church, but all the preacher was talking about
was blessings for God's people. And he said, all he talks about
is blessings for God's people. I don't have any hope for that.
And he was tortured by that until one day God revealed that he
was one of his people. And he enjoyed it then. Oh, the
blessings of enjoyment when we find out that we are his. We
were purposed of God, called of God, justified of God, and
listen, we're glorified of God. This is a mystery, isn't it?
That all things, all the works of God are known to him before
the foundation of the world. You know what he knew? He knew
he'd call you. He knew he'd justify you, and
he knew he'd glorify you. It was already done in the purpose
of God. And everything God purposed,
you know what? Has to come to pass. It has to. So then, all of the elect must
experience the calling. They will know their justification
before God. And they all shall be glorified.
Not one will be missing. This is so comforting. Not one. You know there are 24 seats?
You know how many elders there are? 24. You know why the Revelation gives
the number 144,000? Because it's a specific number. Doesn't mean that they're just
going to be 144,000. No, that's foolish only fools believe that
It's a it's a perfect number Who is it as many as the Lord
our God shall call? Scripture says as many as were
ordained to eternal life did what believe? You see? You see what God has done? He's
purposed salvation through Christ, He's accomplished salvation,
and now He has sent His Spirit into the world to call His elect
people by the preaching of the gospel by faithful stewards of
the mysteries of God. That's what we are. I'm just
a servant. Just a servant. We cast the seed of the venture,
but listen to me, to the Holy Spirit, it's no venture. It's no venture for Him. At His appointed time, He pierces
the heart. He exposes the guilt, and He
puts faith and life into the soul of man and gives him life. This is how it's done. This is
how it's done. As it was done in Colossae, so
it is done in all the world. God is calling his faithful,
his people, by faithful stewards of the gospel. And lastly, I
want you to see this just quickly. I know I'm running past, but
I want you to see it. Go back to your text in Colossians
here. In verse 6 it says, "...which
is coming to you as it is in all the world." And listen, "...it
bringeth forth fruit as it doth in you since the day you heard
it and knew the grace of God." What the hell happens when this
seed of life comes in to the soul? It grows! It grows. I made Audrey make me a promise
when she was about three. I said, you promised daddy that
you'll never grow up. And she said, I promised daddy,
I promised. And every time I see her, she's
growing up. And I told her, I said, you didn't keep your promise.
You keep growing. Friends, God's children grow.
They grow in those same graces the Spirit has implanted. There's
no new graces. These graces have all been in
us since our new birth. And they grow! They don't grow like you think they
should grow. They don't grow as fast as you
want them to grow. They grow according to the divine
purpose and will of God in each one of His people. They grow
as fast or as slow as He purposes. You can't hurry them up and you
can't slow them down. They grow. And how do they grow? Last verse, Ephesians chapter
4, last one. Ephesians chapter 4. Our Lord Jesus, having ascended
up on high, led captivity captive. He gave gifts unto men. What
are these gifts? He gave some apostles and some
prophets and some evangelists and some pastor teachers. As Don pointed out on this last
week, I had seen it before, but it's just so, pastors and teachers
are the same people. It's not two different sections.
If you'll notice how it's divided up, he gave some apostles and,
notice the word some, some prophets and some evangelists and some
pastors, and notice, there's no some before teachers. Some
pastors and teachers. So it meant pastor slash teacher,
same one. So what is it that I do when
I'm here preaching the gospel to you? I am teaching you things
you already know. But have we learned the fullness
of all these things? Have we experienced the joy in
its fullness of all these things? How many things do you know that
you don't use in wisdom? Now you can know a lot and be
a fool. Wisdom is actually application of what you know. So do you apply
all the things you know yet? We must grow. We must grow. And this is what he says. For
the perfecting of the saints. For the maturing of the saints.
For the work of the ministry. For the edifying of the body
of Christ. That's our purpose. Our purpose
to declare the gospel. And God gives life to His elect. God gives faith to them. And
He causes those who do believe to grow by the same message of
the gospel of Christ. And what's the duration? How
long are men to preach? Until we all come together in
unity of faith. Until this whole thing's wrapped
up, men are going to preach the gospel. There's nothing anybody
in heaven or earth or hell or Satan or anyone can do about
it. God will send his men and they'll preach. They'll edify
the church. They'll comfort them. They'll
build them up. This is our purpose. I have no
other purpose here. No other reason. I should be
a faithful steward. And listen. You should pray for me that I
should be only a faithful steward in the things of God for you. It's what Epaphras was for them.
It's what I am for you. And you should pray for me that
I continue to be faithful in this one thing I'm given to do,
be a steward of the mysteries and the manifold graces of God.
I pray God will bless you.