As we continue to study in this
book, this morning we'll look at verses verses 5 and 6, but I
want to spend some more time on verse 3 today, so we'll look
at this again. Now, the title of the message
this morning is God's Means of Saving Grace. God's Means of
Saving Grace. And the apostle, Paul here, declares
his apostleship, remember we studied this, for the comfort
of this church. He had not seen this church face
to face. They had heard the gospel through
this man Epaphras. And Epaphras had come to the
apostle and rejoiced with him concerning this church. And the
apostle writes this letter to comfort them, to encourage them,
and he begins it by stating his apostleship. And so as we read
the salutations of the Apostle Paul, we should recognize that
these are for our comfort. That this Word we read is not
just the Word of Paul. It is Paul's Word as he received
it from the Lord Jesus Christ. This is truly the Word of God. It is the Word of God. He was
called to this office not by the will of man, but by God,
and received His message from God. And what was His message? First of all, we read in verse
3, that He gave thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, praying always for you. He gave God thanks for them. Thanks for their salvation. And
we saw this thanksgiving of God is always to be the heart of
every believer. Remember, keep it in mind that
you can't be thankful and murmur at the same time. You keep that
in mind because this is past week. I caught myself reminiscing. And I thought, well, man, it
would be good if I could go back to that certain Isn't that what
the Israelites did? Oh, for Egypt! Oh, for the time
of Egypt when we were without trouble. They were in trouble
in Egypt. They just didn't, when they reminisce, you know, you
got that big glorified view of how things were. You don't really
see them how they were. And so we should not be longing
for old times. We should be thankful for the
times that we are in. We should be thankful to God
that He has placed us in this place, in this time for His service. Remember, our God is an absolutely
sovereign God. And we are where we are and we
are what we are by the grace of God. And we should be thankful. Not murmuring, not envying, not
complaining, but rather being thankful. Thankful. And I'll tell you, if you can't
find any earthly thing to be thankful for, I promise you,
you who are believers can find many spiritual things to be thankful
for. Especially our redemption. Now, if there's nothing else
in the world you can find thanksgiving to God for, you can find that.
We are redeemed of God. Give thanks unto God. Go over
to Psalm 107. Psalm 107, with the mind turning toward thanksgiving,
this scripture came to me this week, and I've studied this scripture. The psalmist says, give thanks
unto the Lord. Isn't that something that we
have to be encouraged to do that? That's something that just should
be, it should be the most reasonable thing in all the world to do,
give thanks unto God. Yet, the psalmist must, by the
Spirit, stir our hearts to give thanks. And I'll tell you this, the Spirit
of God surely has to stir our hearts to do that. He has to
give us such a thankful heart. Give thanks unto the Lord. Why?
For He is good. He is good. If you want something
to give thanks to God for, thank God for His person. Thank God
for who He is. Thank God that He's nothing like
us. Isn't that right? What if God were like you? What kind of mess would you be
in? What kind of horrible tyrant would He be? And yet God is nothing
like us. He is absolutely good. And everything
God does is good. Give thanks to God for He is
good. Now consider, just for a minute,
the goodness of God. Now surely all the world should
give thanks to God for His goodness and mercy. Consider the goodness
of God and His long-suffering to the wicked. to those vessels of wrath fitted
for destruction, those sinners of Adam's race who will never
come to Christ, who will never seek after Christ, who hate Him,
despise Him, and love their wickedness, blaspheme Him, spit in His face,
and yet what does He do to them? Does He immediately cast them
out to hell? No. He gives them space for repentance. He gives them space for repentance.
He allows them to enjoy His world. The very breath they used to
blaspheme Him, God gave them that breath. The very energy that they used
to commit such wicked acts, who gave them that ability? Was it
not God? God gave them the power. Remember, the wicked can only
do as much as God allows them to. And so, even in this, their wickedness,
should they not be thankful to God for His goodness and not
casting them immediately into hell as they deserve? Consider that God has put His
law in the hearts of every lost son of Adam. He's given His creation
to testify of His deity and power so that all men are without excuse.
And yet what do men do? They blaspheme God instead of
thank Him. Still, they continue to rebel
and refuse to come to God and His Christ alone, without their
works and self-righteousness. They refuse to forsake their
own sin and uncleanness, which they call righteousness. They refuse to forsake their
sins, which God calls their righteousness, filthy rags. And yet, God still
allows them to enjoy the pleasures of His creation. Why? Would you? Would I? No. But God is good. God is good. And they should
be thankful, but they won't. Who then will be thankful? Look
at the psalmist. He said, Let the redeemed of
the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hands of the
enemy. Who's going to give thanks to God? Who will be thankful?
Only those that are redeemed of God. will give thanks to God. Man by nature, this word redemption,
it has to do with someone being held captive, someone who is
bound by debt, that cannot free themselves. Therefore, they must
needs have someone come and redeem them, to buy them out of their
captivity. Man by nature is captive to sin. This is because our Father, your
Father, my Father, willingly, openly, in rebellion against
God, sold us into sin. Our Father sold us under sin. And the result of that sin was
death, spiritual death. And death passed upon all men
because all have sinned. In our Father we sinned. And the result was death and
sin. What is that? That is rebellion against God. That is disobedience to the law
of God. Sin. And the sentence of sin
is eternal death. Listen, this is a debt, a debt
that none of us could pay. There's not one in this room
who could pay the sin debt they owe. Not one. And God who is just will never
accept a lesser payment. You know, sometimes people get
in credit card debt and they call these people and then they
try to reduce the debt. They try to get out of what they
owe. God is not a God to bargain.
God is not a God of bargaining. In Micah chapter 6, God asked
this question. He says, Shall I count the pure
with the wicked balances? Shall I count them pure with
wicked balances or with a bag of deceitful weights? In other
words, is God going to judge unjustly? Is God going to let
you and I slide into heaven without punishing our sins? No. Friends, God does not deal justice
by deceitful measures. God will never punish a righteous
man. Isn't that glorious? Isn't that
good? God will never punish a righteous man. If a man is righteous, God
will gladly embrace him, gladly accept him if he is righteous. But on the other hand, God will
by no means clear the guilty. by no means clear the guilty. Friends, all of us were sold
under sin into a debt of sin that God will never unjustly
release any man from unless it is paid in full. This is the price of redemption,
even the blood of the guilty. The blood of the guilty. But in the law of God, as you
could read this later in, I believe, Leviticus chapter 25, God in
the law made a provision for such a redemption. If a man were
to sell himself into slavery, if a man were to sell his inheritance
and become indebted to another, there is a provision by which
one can redeem him, buy him out of his debt. But this one must
be of a near kin. The law says this is the law
of the kinsman redeemer. God made a provision for such
a man who sold his inheritance that one of near kin may redeem
him, pay his debt, and purchase and restore his heritage, his
inheritance. Behold that Jesus Christ is our
near kinsman, Redeemer. The law could not redeem us even
because we were actually guilty. You remember in Ruth, that's
the whole purpose of the book of Ruth, is to show this point
of the kinsmen. How Elimelech sold his family
into slavery, lost his inheritance, and here comes Naomi and Ruth
back into Jerusalem, penniless, poverty, in poverty, and there
comes a man Boaz, who is of near kin, and he gladly redeems the
heritage of Elimelech. He gladly redeems it, but there
was one that was nearer kin. You remember him? There was one
that was closer of kin. That's a picture of the law.
The law is of closer kin to us. But you know what the law could
do to redeem us? Nothing. The apostle says, for what the
law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. See, the Law could not redeem
us, but Christ who came into this world, bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh, has redeemed us from the hand of our enemy,
even from the curse of the Law, by being made a curse for us. This is the glory of the Gospel. That God, the Son, came down
and became a man. For what purpose? Why would He
do such a thing? So that He might redeem us from
the curse of the Law. That He might pay our sin debt. Behold, that Jesus Christ, our
near kinsman, Redeemer. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the only perfect and sinless man. He walked perfectly before
God in absolute obedience to the Law of God. Why was this? Not to provide righteousness
for Himself. He needed none. He provided righteousness
for us. We who had no righteousness,
the Lord provided righteousness on our behalf. But this was not
enough. Because the law not only demanded
our positive, active obedience, it also demanded death. It demanded payment. Therefore, Jesus Christ came under the sentence of death
and strict holy vengeance of God in order to redeem us. You listen to this, believer.
He bore your sins in his own body on the tree. He bore our sins, our guilt. How do you feel about your guilt?
Does it not weigh you down? It does me. My conscience weighs
me down. The only hope for any of my conscience
to have any relief is to go to the cross of Christ and see that
He bore my sin in His own body. That's the only relief I have.
That's the only comfort. Why? Because He bore my guilt. He bore the guilt of my sins. Go over to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. In verse 19, the apostle talking about reconciliation. How is it that we can be reconciled
to a just God? To a holy God? Seeing we have
sinned against Him. How is that possible that He
should reconcile us? This is it, to wit, that God
was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Listen, not
imputing their trespasses to them. That's the debt I was talking
about. Not charging the debt to us. God's not willing to charge your
debt to you. And we know this, that whatever
God wills, He does. And whatever God wills has to
be just, doesn't it? It has to be holy. It has to
be good. How then could He not charge you who are guilty? How is it that a just God can
allow such wicked people as we are to pass? How can He say,
I'm not going to impute your sins to you? How is it that He would reconcile
us? And this is the word of reconciliation
that's committed to us. That we are ambassadors for Christ,
as though God did beseech you by us, be you reconciled to God.
This is the reason you should be reconciled to God. For He
hath made Him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. You see, He imputed our
sins to Christ. and God who cannot judge by false
measures fully poured out his wrath on
his son. He who was just and holy did
not change his character though he was made sin. You read His
words and tell me that He did any sin. He did no sin upon the
cross, did He? He only believed God. He only
trusted God. And yet, in this way, God imputed
our sins to Him, and God cannot bring His justice on the righteous. Only His justice would come on
the guilty. And He made Him to bear our guilt
in His own body on the tree. And God poured out His wrath.
He said, Awake, O sword, and smite the shepherd, a man that
is My fellow. And you know what God said? Then
I'll turn My hands to the little ones. How can God turn His hand
to you? How can He turn His hand in gentle
kindness and love to you? Because his shepherd was smitten. Because our sins actually received
a just reward. Death. And so then you, you who are
redeemed, you who are redeemed, by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is it not just reasonable then to give thanks? You know, if I went out and bought
you a new car, wouldn't you be thankful? But I'll tell you what,
after a while, when that car rusts and it falls apart, you'll
be cursing me. Why? Because that gift would
be corruptible. All my gifts to you would be
corruptible. This gift that God has given, this debt that has
been paid, is full. It's full and it's incorruptible. It's undefiled. It doesn't fade
away. It's reserved in heaven for you.
God loves you with an everlasting love. His everlasting arms are
wrapped around you and nothing will separate you from Him. Why?
The debt is paid. There's nothing we owe to God. Nothing but thanksgiving. Isn't
that the sacrifice that we're to offer? Isn't that it? Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. And so, Paul, go
back to your text. I know I went a little long on
that, but go back. Paul, he gives thanks to God. He gives thanks to God for what?
These, the salvation of these people, he says this, I give
thanks to God and praise always for you since we heard of your
faith in Christ, your love for all the saints, for the hope
that is laid up for you in heaven. Faith, hope, and love. Those who are redeemed by the
blood of Christ are those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, the only way you may know if you are in that group is faith. Faith is the evidence. Do you
believe on the Son of God? Have you, by the grace of faith,
have you rested your soul absolutely on Christ? That's faith. Faith is to come to Christ with
nothing. It's to come to Christ as a guilty
sinner pleading for mercy. And everyone that comes to Christ
in such a way is brought in by the grace of God into salvation. Believe on the Son of God. Do
you now believe? True faith in Christ. Completely
rests on Him and He is all our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now listen, faith doesn't make
Christ your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
That's so. Faith doesn't make Him those
things. God made Him those things. Faith is the evidence that He
made Him those things to you. Faith. Faith. And you know what
faith yields? Love. True faith always yields
the fruit of love. Love to the brethren. John says,
those that are born again of God, love God. And love those
that are born again of God. And listen, the stronger the
faith we have, our faith in Christ, the sweeter our love and compassion
will be to the saints. You see, these grow together. If our faith is strong, I tell
you, our love will be strong. If our faith is weak, then our
love is surely weak. And faith not only yields the
fruit of love, but it yields the sight of hope. The sight
of hope. What is hope? Confidence. Assurance. Do you desire assurance? If we
desire assurance, then surely our faith must be strong. We
must go to Christ and rest in Him if we're to find any hope
of assurance. Asaph said that. He said, I know
God's good to Israel, but ask for me. Who says that? Who has
that thought in their mind? I know this. I believe that Jesus
is the Christ. I know that He will save His
people. Oh, but ask for me my sin. My
sin. My envy for the wicked. And yet,
how was his hope restored? Was it not when he went back
to the sanctuary and heard the word of God and believed it? You see, these graces are tied
together. They're tied together. Therefore,
every believer has great cause to thank God for our faith, our
hope, and our love. And now notice in the end of
verse 5, how did this come to them? How did this faith, hope,
and love come to them? Whereof, you heard before in
the word of the truth of the gospel. How did this faith, love,
and hope come to them? Salvation by the hearing of the
word of God. Now all faith in Christ, love
for Christ, and the brethren, and hope of eternal life comes
to men through the means of the preaching of the gospel. This
is God's means by which these are strengthened. The grace of
faith, hope, and love are strengthened, how? By hearing of Christ. By hearing of His perfect work
and salvation. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing how by the Word of God
Now we know that the preacher has no power this morning I understand
that if there's anybody that knows the weakness of this preacher. It is this preacher. I know my
weakness So I know I have no power to make this word effectual
to your hearts never have never will I don't have any power like
that I Cannot save you Yet this is the means by which God has
chosen to save His people. What the world calls foolish,
outdated, and useless, God says it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. The gospel came to these people
of Colossae as it did, Paul says, unto all the world in verse 6.
which came unto you as it is in all the world. This is how
it came to them, through a preacher. This man Epaphras, he came to
them. That's the one we're given. This
is the man that came to them, that preached the word to them. His gospel came to them through
the preaching of the truth, which is Jesus Christ. He is the way,
the truth, and the life. Listen, no man comes to God but
by Him. That's a pretty narrow statement,
isn't it? That's narrow. There's only one
way to God. Through Christ Jesus. Faith in
Christ Jesus alone. That's it. There's no other way.
No other means. And so therefore, this is the
only message we preach. And we desire only to preach
Christ and Him crucified. We preach that He is God manifest
in the flesh. That He came to save those that
God gave Him. And we declare that He is a victorious
Savior. We serve a risen Savior. A risen Savior. a victorious
Savior. We preach to you that Jesus Christ
did not fail in His work, He was not discouraged, but He,
being the Christ, did redeem all of His people from their
sins. And therefore now the Holy Spirit goes out into all the
world through this means of preaching, and He takes the Word that is
preached, He affectionately applies it to the heart of the dead sinner,
and the dead sinner is brought to life. This is the glory and
power of God. And not of men. God says, I will gather them
out of the lands from the east and from the west, the north
and from the south. In Jeremiah, he said, Hear the
word of the Lord, O you nations, and declare it. You isles are
far off. Say, this is what we're to say,
He that scattered Israel will gather him. Oh, this is, you have no idea
how comforting this is. Who's gonna gather his people? He will. And you know what? You may be
discouraged, but God's not. I may be discouraged, but God's
not. Everything is going exactly according to plan. Everything. Everything he will gather them
and listen and keep him He will gather him. He will gather Israel
and he will keep Israel Believer how sure is your salvation? It's as sure as God It's as sure as the word of God. It's as sure as the blood of
Christ. It's as sure as the throne of
Christ. And no one and nothing will be
able to take that away from us. It's sure. Why? How can I be
so sure? We all are such wicked and frail
and sinful people. Or we turn on a dime, don't we? One minute we're so high as heaven
and next we're down as the depths of hell. We're up, we're down,
we're turning, we're moving, we're always doubting and fearing. How can you be so sure? Because
God keeps me. That's how sure I am. Because
God has His arms wrapped around me. God garrisons me. And nothing will take me out
of His hand. Nothing. It's as sure as God. You would have to take God off
His throne before you could take me from Him. He will keep us. Is this not
the song of the redeemed? Thou hast redeemed us out of
every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, and has made us kings
and priests unto our God. And this is how we believed even
as we heard the word of truth and as it came in power to us. Notice this in your text. This
gospel came to them. Isn't that true of us? We weren't
looking for God. We weren't. I don't care how
red in the face men get, when mad they get, when they say,
yes, I can seek God. God says you can. Now, you can
jump up and down and spit and kick. You cannot seek God. No man seeks God. Romans 3. It says, there's none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that what? Seeketh after God. And tell you what, I wasn't looking
for God when he found me. I tell you this, He found me
because He was seeking me. Jesus said, I came to seek and
to save the lost. I came to seek and save the lost. This gospel came to them in power
and demonstration. This morning, this gospel, I've
cast it out among you. But I'll tell you this, it's
going to land on all kinds of different hearts. See, I don't have no power over
that. You see, the Spirit of God has
to work on the heart. He has to plow the heart to see
his sin and his need. And as the good ground gladly
receives the seed, so is the heart prepared by the Holy Spirit,
gladly receives the Word of God and believes. I heard the gospel from my youth,
but it was not until the Holy Spirit came to me in power that
I actually believed it. Man by nature will never seek
Christ, but yet God says, I was found of them that sought me
not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. We who are saved confess this,
that God called me. by his grace. And when God's
word comes in power, listen, there will always be fruit. It says in our text, which came
unto you as it is into all the world and bringeth forth fruit. Bringeth forth fruit. What's
the evidence of life? How do you know you're living?
You're breathing. There's evidence. How do you
know if your faith is real and genuine? Because faith always
yields fruit of love and hope, just like I said, just like the
word says. It always yields the fruits of
the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
faith, all of these fruits bear themselves in our new man, in
that new nature God has given us. And therefore, we desire
to hear and long to know of our acceptance of God in Christ.
I only want to be, you know, I'm not content with anything
else. I'm just not. There's nothing in this world
that's ever gonna satisfy me except I awake in his likeness. I must have Christ. And as I hear this word, these graces grow. I tell you, when I first believed, Thought really my faith was strong.
I thought oh man. I'm just gonna this is it was
set on fire It was a zeal in me, but I tell you what that
was a that was a lot of that was just hot air My faith was
really small And God gives you faith he's gonna cause that faith
to grow and how is he gonna cause it to grow? How is this fruit
gonna grow? pruning the cutting away of the
dead flesh, he's going to cause us to go through many trials,
difficulties. That's how he causes his saints
to grow in these graces. And if a man ever comes to a
point where he says, I'm just, I'm grown enough. If you're grown enough, it's
because you're not alive at all. You see, living things grow.
And if you're not growing, it's because you're dead. We grow. And He causes us to
grow through many trials. Go to Romans chapter 5, and I'll
close. I'll show you this, the truth
of this in God's Word. Listen to Paul's thought. He
said, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace, the throne of grace, wherein we stand and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but
we glory in tribulation. What? What did he say? We glory in tribulation. We rejoice
in tribulation. Why? Knowing that tribulation
worketh patience. And patience experience. And
experience hope. Hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto Us this patience comes by tribulation Tribulation
causes us to do what to have to wait on God Sometimes we wait longer than
others don't wait Consider Moses. He waited 40 years on the backside
of the wilderness. You think you've waited a long
time? 40 years. But in that, Moses had
to grow. He had to learn. Patience. Waiting
on God. And this patience, it yields
experience. Have you not experienced God's
deliverance time and time and time and time again? and experience hope. You wanna increase hope, it's
gonna come through trouble. And hope maketh not ashamed.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, are you? Why? It's a power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. This is the means by which God
has chosen to save sinners, even the preaching of his gospel.
And I'll tell you, we should be thankful to God for it. We
should be thankful to God that he has redeemed us, called us. And this word is not just words. These are to us effectual words
of love from God himself. That he has redeemed us by the
blood of his son. And we should be thankful. May
God help us to be thankful.