Turn with me, if you would, to
Colossians chapter four. Colossians chapter four. I'd
like to read from verse seven to the end of the chapter, but
before I do, I want to tell you that I've titled this message,
Beloved Brethren. Beloved Brethren. Colossians four, verse seven,
it says, the apostle Paul said, all my state shall Tychicus declare
unto you who is a beloved brother and
a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have
sent unto you for the same purpose that he might know your estate
and comfort your hearts. With Onesimus, I've sent him
with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of
you, he was from Colossae, They shall make known unto you
all things which are done here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner,
saluteth you. And Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas,
touching whom you received commandments, if he come unto you, receive
him. And justice, Jesus, which is
called justice, who are of the circumcision. These only are
my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort
unto me. Epaphras, who is one of you,
from Colossae, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring
fervently for you in prayers. that you may stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record that he
hath a great zeal for you and for them that are in Laodicea
and them in higher Apollos. Luke, the beloved physician,
and Demas greet you. Salute the brethren which are
in Laodicea. and Nymphos and the church which
is in his house. And when this epistle is read
among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans,
and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And say
to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received
in the Lord that thou fulfill it. The salutation by the hand
of me, Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with
you. Amen. Let me begin this by pointing
out that we know a few things about some of these men, but
we don't know hardly anything about many of them. Not much
is written about many of these men. at all. Sometimes we assume
that all these men were preachers, but it doesn't say that all these
men were preachers. It just says they were brethren
and fellow workers, fellow servants. And I want to begin by saying
that any service done in the ministry of the Lord is a service
to the ministry of the Lord. One service is not above another
service. Some of these men preached. There
is some information given on some of these names. And some
of these men preached and some of these men traveled with and
supported and encouraged the preacher. Both of those jobs are of equal
importance. They're of equal importance.
I think it was last Sunday, I feel like I have lived a month of
life in the last week or week and a half. But I believe last
Sunday, a brother from this congregation traveled to another congregation
and preached. And another brother traveled
to the same congregation and drove the man who was going to
preach. And both of those jobs are equal
service in the ministry of the Lord. And one job is not above
another. I thank God for both of the men.
I thank God for the service. Our Lord said, if you give a
cup of cold water to a preacher, you get the same reward as the
preacher. So thank you. Some of these men just showed
up to the worship service. Some of these men were just faithful
men who showed up to the worship service and made sure that their
family was with them, and they just faithfully sat and listened
to the message, which is just as important. How can a man preach if nobody
shows up to hear him? One may be the mouth, one may
be the hand, one may be the foot, One may be the ear. Every component of the service
and work and ministry of the Lord is of equal importance. Now, I know that we all show
up to hear the gospel to be fed. I know that's why we're here.
We want to hear about Christ. We want to hear about the good
news of the blood of Christ that has saved us. We're here to worship
God. We're here out of personal need. We're here out of personal need.
But with that, I believe we ought to consider our faithfully attending
the worship services to be a ministry. That's how I have felt this way
for a long time. I believe we ought to see this
as our personal need and I believe we ought to see our faithfulness
to worshiping our Lord as a ministry. When we are all here it is so
encouraging. Every brother or sister who walks
through that door is an encouragement to every brother and sister who's
already in the building. And it's just so encouraging.
We encourage each other, we strengthen each other, we remind each other
this is life to us. The Lord has called us out of
this, this world. I think about masses you see
on television, masses of people. You think God chose me. You know,
we think about Kingsport, but think about Tennessee. Think
about the United States. Think about this world. God chose
us. One man is not above another
man. One woman is not above another
woman. I know that Paul mentioned men right here. All the names
I just gave were men, but he wrote this letter to the brethren
in Colossae. And we read also the brethren
in Laodicea, all the brethren, men and women. But he mentions some particular
men right here. And these brethren who were so
beloved by Paul, we may not know much about them, but we do know
this. They were all sinners. They were all sinners. Verse nine mentions Onesimus. You've heard the name Onesimus.
He was an unprofitable, unfaithful servant to a man named Philemon.
He stole from him. He ran away from him. He deserted
him. Marcus in verse 10, that's Mark,
the penman of the gospel of Mark, John Mark, the nephew of Barnabas,
who Paul in Barnabas had a division over. And I don't know what the
problem was. But there was a problem so great
it broke fellowship between those men for a while. Demas in verse 14. I get so sad every time I hear
his name mentioned. You heard of the name Demas? He's one who departed from the
faith. He didn't just depart from Paul, he departed from the
faith. He was a false professor of Christ. He was with them, traveled with
them, but he was a false professor of Christ, one who claimed to
believe these things, but ultimately he had no heart for Christ, no
love for Christ, no need for Christ. And when I think about
that, I think, Lord, please don't let that be me. And I mean this,
I mean this. Please don't let that be me.
I'm at the mercy of God. I'm at the mercy of God. You know, people talk about hanging
on by a thread. I'm not hanging on by anything.
If God is not hanging on to me, there's no hanging on happening.
And I'm at his mercy. I am literally at his mercy.
I do not want to assume that I'm gonna be a follower of the
Lord Jesus Christ and a preacher of the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ the rest of my days. I beg Lord, please, please keep
me. Please don't let that be me. I find it interesting to see
that the spirit of our Lord inspired Paul to say something comforting
about each one of these men except for Demas. I want to point this
out and then we'll move on. Verse seven, he said, Tychicus
is a beloved brother, a faithful minister and a fellow servant
in the Lord. Verse nine, he said, Onesimus is a faithful and beloved
brother. Verse 10, he said, Aristarchus
is my fellow prisoner. We're in here for preaching the
gospel. Marcus, Barnabas, Justice, Verse 11, he said, these are
my fellow workers in the kingdom of God. Verse 12, he said, Epaphras
is a servant of Christ. Verse 14, he said, Luke is the
beloved physician, beloved by God, beloved by me. And then
he said, Demas greets you. As if to say he's here too, he's
among us. but I don't know if he's with
us. But Demas greets you. He says his greeting too. Lord,
please don't let that be said about me. Please put the confession
of Christ in my mouth and in my heart and in my walk. Let me identify with him. Let me identify with his gospel. Let me identify with his people.
Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry, while on
others Thou art calling, please don't pass me by. Even me, even
me, let Thy blessing fall on me. To finish my point here,
verse 15, he said, Nemphis, this man Nemphis, the church is in
his house, the church of God. And verse 17, he said, Archippus
has received a ministry from God. So I believe there's a clear
exception given in the scripture here concerning Demas. But for
the rest of these men, Paul said, they are beloved brethren. They are beloved brethren, loved
by God, loved by me. I am right now looking at some
beloved brethren. Beloved brethren. Last weekend
and this weekend, I had the opportunity to see and meet and spend some
time with some beloved brethren. We traveled a little bit. What
makes us to be brethren? What makes us to be brethren? And what makes us to be beloved? There's one answer. It's the
same answer for both questions. Look at the last two words of
verse seven. The Lord. That's the answer. Verse seven says, all my state
shall tick a kiss, declare unto you who is a beloved brother
and a faithful minister and a fellow servant in the Lord, the Lord. The middle of verse 11 says,
the kingdom of God. We are fellow workers and beloved
brethren in and unto the kingdom of God. God the king. Who's that? Verse 12 says Christ. We are servants of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our common denominator. He's our common denominator.
He is our fellowship. He is the tie that binds us together. He is this Christian love that
we share. Blessed be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love. That's Christ. He's the tie. He is our elder brother. He is the cause. He is the reason. He is the hope of this family
bond that we share. In Christ, we're family. We truly
are family. Every time the Lord reveals another
confessor and professor of the Lord Jesus Christ, I get so excited
because that's family. That's the revelation of another
family member. Now how is it possible for us
to say that we have been made to be beloved brethren? How is that even possible? What
makes us to be beloved brethren? Look with me at 2 Thessalonians
2, it's just a few pages over. Second Thessalonians 2 verse
13, it says, but we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you brethren beloved, beloved brethren, brethren beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. What makes us to be beloved brethren?
God does. God did. It's not a what, it's
a who. God the Father from the beginning,
before the foundation of the world. And again, I just talked
about, you know, the Lord chose us. You think about this. We
see all of these people out there in the world. Think about the
generations of time. And that God would set his affection
on us. Before the foundation of the
world, God chose us. He chose whom he would and it
was sinners. He chose sinners to be loved.
He said, I will love them freely. Why would God do that? I'll love
them freely. I'll love them eternally. I'll
love them in spite of all their sin against me. I will love them. God chose what made us to be
brethren. God chose for us to be brethren.
He chose, he adopted, he selected us to be brethren. And he did
this turn with me, if you would, to Romans eight. Romans eight, verse 29, it says. for whom he did foreknow who
he chose, who he selected and adopted. He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What does that
mean? What does that mean, he justified
us? What does that mean, he glorified
us? What did he do? Verse 32 right
here says, he spared not his own son, our elder brother. Christ our Lord, the one that
unites us, the one who we're gonna be conformed to the image
of. He spared not his own son. That's
what it took for this brotherhood to happen. Beloved brethren,
that's what it took. Verse 32, he spared not his own
son, but delivered him up for us all. Who are the us all? All
of the beloved brethren. Every soul he foreknew. All who
are the called according to his purpose, as verse 28 says. All
who are called to believe this truth concerning Christ, our
elder brother. 2 Thessalonians 2 said, we're
bound to give thanks for you because God chose you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the truth.
Belief of this truth. Look at verse 14 right here in
Romans 8. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs
with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. You talk about not
enter into a verse of scripture. We have never entered into that
verse of scripture. Children of the living God, that
we can call him Father, Abba, Father. joint heirs with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved. He said, this is my
beloved. Here's my beloved. And in him,
we have been made to be beloved brethren. Beloved brethren. We're brethren in him because
we've all been made to be brethren with him. I love this verse of
scripture. Hebrews 2, 11 says, And if he's
not ashamed, then neither should we be. And that's what Paul is
closing his letter to the Colossians saying. Go with me back to Colossians
4. After mentioning all these names,
Paul gave four exhortations to all who are and claim to be and
desire to be brethren. Beloved brethren. The first one
is in verse 15. This is how Paul closed the letter. Verse 15, he said, salute the
brethren. Salute the brethren. All right,
four exhortations. Number one is, salute the brethren. I absolutely love this. I love
looking up the original definitions and the meanings of these words
when they were written in Hebrew and in Greek. What the writer
was really saying, sometimes we lose that in the translation.
So we look up these words to see what the writer was really
saying, what he really meant in this. And I love the true
meaning of this word salute. You know what it means? It means
hug. He said, hug the brethren. All right, four exhortations.
Number one, hug the brethren. It means draw to one's self. Here's the definition of the
word. Draw to one's self. Receive joyfully. Enfold in the arms, embracing
and kissing. Hug the brethren. Y'all better
get ready. After this is over, I'm gonna salute everybody here
by order and commandment of God Almighty. Love them, love them. We're beloved brethren in the
Lord, in Christ. Love them, hug them, draw them
here. Back in Paul's day, there was a big problem with people
having favorites. A lot of the brethren went around
saying, I prefer Apollos. And then other brethren would
say, nah, I prefer Cephas. We still have that problem today.
A lot of brethren go around saying, I prefer Don. And others say,
nah, I prefer Henry. Paul said, let's not prefer anybody
in Christ. A better way to say that is let's
prefer everybody in Christ. If their beloved brethren. Let's
prefer everybody for his sake because of everything he accomplished
to make us to be beloved brethren. This is what Christ did for us.
Let's not promote a preference for preachers or any of God's
people. If it's a brother, let's leave
it right there. Let's leave it right there. If I believe that a man or a
woman loves Christ, If I really do and is not trying to create
division from Christ and is not trying to draw men's attention
away from Christ and such on and so forth, if I believe that
a man or a woman truly bows the knee to Christ and believes on
Christ, if I believe I'm gonna be in glory with that person,
I need to hug that person. I just need to hug that man or
woman. If Christ hugged them, I need to do the same thing.
That's a beloved brother or sister in the Lord. You say, well, I
just don't like that person. Well, Christ shouldn't have liked
me and you. But thank God he did. Thank God Christ liked us, loved us, chose us, sided with
us, forgave us, covered us. So for his sake, Let's salute
each other. Let's salute all of the brethren
of Christ. That's the first exhortation.
I'll be quick. The second exhortation from the apostle is verse 16. He said, read this word. When this epistle is read among
you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans
and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. He said,
you read it. You read it to them, and you
tell them to read it to everybody else. You just keep reading it.
Just pass it along. What he's saying is, beloved
brethren, let's make this word to be the centerpiece of our
fellowship. Let's make this word. Let's come back to this word.
This word is what keeps that union bound tight. Stay on this
word. People who claim to be brethren,
there must be heresies among the brethren. Divisions come
and such on and so forth. You know the only thing that'll
keep that from happening? This word. If we all look at
it and say, yep, that's right. For Christ's sake, let's forgive
each other. Let's love each other. That's the answer to the issue. That's the doctrinal position
right there. This word, stay on this word. There's a problem,
come to this word. Look to this word. only speaks
of and points us to Christ. Stay on Christ. Stay on His word. I'd love to spend all kinds of
time warning us of the dangers of the wisdom of this world.
I really would. I would love to take about an
hour right now and really go over the dangers of following
the wisdom of this world, but I just don't have time to do
that. For now, let me say this. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
cling to the word. Cling to the word, go to the
word, the word of God, the word of Christ alone. Cling to the
word. All right, third exhortation.
Verse 17, he said, heed the ministry. Say to Archippus, take heed to
the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou
fulfill it. Take heed means, And this is
good, and this is good instruction. Take heed means see to it. It means look on it. Behold it,
pay attention to it. Don't have the heart, and that's
what he's telling Archippus right here, don't have the heart, somebody
else will take care of that. Somebody else will see to that.
See to the ministry, look on the ministry. See what the needs
are and fulfill them. The Lord has given a ministry.
God is the one who fulfills the needs of his ministry, but he
uses the means of his beloved brethren to accomplish it. So here's the exhortation. Here's
his closing exhortation. Hug each other. Stay on the word. See to the needs of the ministry
that you've been blessed with. Guard, protect, nourish what
the Lord has given. And finally, this is what Paul
said. He said, pray for me. Pray for us. Verse 18, he said,
the salutation by the hand of me, Paul, remember my bonds. Remember my bonds. Pray for me,
pray for us. If we love brethren, we'll pray
for them. Verse 12, he said, Epaphras,
and this is so sweet to me. This is just so sweet. Epaphras
was their pastor. He was their minister to Colossians. And Epaphras had taken a gift
to Paul. And he was with Paul at this
moment in time. Paul was in prison. And he said
in verse 12, he's speaking of their minister. He said, Epaphras,
who is one of you, a servant of Christ, He hugs you all in
His heart, in His love. He salutes you always. Listen to this, laboring fervently
for you in prayer. We hear Him. Is it His turn to
pray? He's praying for you all that
you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Oh, I
want them to be just before the throne of God. Complete in Christ,
verse 13, I bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you
and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis. Laodicea is literally right next
to Colossae, just side by side. Let's love each other. through
that right there, by bringing each other before the throne
of God in prayer. Let's love each other. By bringing
each other to God in prayer. I believe this, I strongly believe
this. If we will bring brethren before the Lord in prayer, the
Lord will cause those brethren to become beloved to us. The Lord will create a love for
us in them. If we'll bring them to the Lord,
and bring them to the Lord, and bring them to the Lord, They
will become beloved to us. It'll strengthen our love and
our bond. That's the greatest part of hugging up to each other
and loving each other. It's drawing each other nigh
to God in prayer. Pray, pray for each other. In
prayer, in worship, in the gospel, in fellowship, may God give us
the unity of being beloved brethren. That's a sweet way to close the
Book of Colossians, isn't it? We've been here a while. And
this has been a wonderful study. I've enjoyed this so much. I
want to close the message with Ephesians 4. Go there and I'll
close the message. Ephesians 4. Now it's Ephesians three, Ephesians
three, verse eight. It says, Paul says unto me, who
am less than least of all saints is this grace given that I should
preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ.
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal
purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him,
Wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations
for you, which is your glory. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family
in heaven and earth is named. I love that. The whole family
of beloved brethren in Christ. We bow our knees in thankfulness
to him. Amen. All right.