Now, I have started this book
twice already. We were going to go through this
book on our midweek meetings, but then we decided
to change gears and go with a book, a study of the life of Elijah. So I thought, well, I'll just
do Colossians on Sunday morning, because that was about the time
we wrapped up the book of Isaiah. And we got started, and we had
two lessons, and then COVID-19 hit, and that was nearly three
months ago. So I'm just gonna start over, because I couldn't
even remember what I said three months ago. But we'll try to
get done today what we took two lessons to take care of last
time. But let's ask God's blessing.
Our Father, you are good to us in so many ways that we couldn't
begin to tell them all out. In fact, Lord, we've become so
accustomed to your goodness, we don't even take note of it. But here we are, Lord, met together
in the name of your Son, and that is a privilege. It's a privilege
to be allowed to do that. It's a privilege to have been
given a heart to desire to do that. We thank you for this book that
you inspired men to write. And we thank you that we can
read it and know it is the truth. And that we can walk according
to it and know that we walk in the right way. Open up your scriptures and open
up our hearts to receive them. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now, Colossians was written by
Paul in the early 60s A.D. while he was in prison. It was
written about the same time as Ephesians and Philippians. Now,
there is no reference to the book of Colossae, or reference
to the city of Colossae in the book of Acts, so there is no
record of its founding. That is, no record of the founding
of the church in Colossae. But Paul credits Epaphras with
being the one from whom these Colossian believers had learned
the gospel. You see that in verse 7. You
learned it from Epaphras, he says. Now, as of the writing
of this letter, Paul had not yet been able to visit the church
in Colossae, and we don't know if he ever did. I'm sure he would have liked
to have gone there, as he would have liked to have visited any
of the churches. But we don't know if he ever
made it there. In his letter to Philemon, Paul expressed his
desire to visit there, and after he was released, or he wanted
to go there after he was released from prison. And it's assumed
that Philemon, now you probably recognize that name, there's
a book in the Bible with his name on it. and he was a leader
in the church at Colossae. Now, Colossae was located in
the western part of modern Turkey, in the same general area as those
seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. It's about
10 miles southeast of Laodicea. The city was known for its fusion
of several religious streams of thought, Jewish, Gnostic,
and pagan. And these had all kind of come
together and developed an angel cult centered around the archangel
Michael. Evidently, some of the teachings
of this angel cult were creeping into the church, bringing them
into doctrinal and practical error. Jewish mysticism brought with
it the observance of various holy days, while Gnosticism brought
its concept of special mystical knowledge and the idea that there
are a series of mediatorial beings through whom men can approach
God, kind of like a ladder. This series of mediators was
called the fullness. Paul's general answer to these
errors, and to be honest with you, this is the answer to every
error that has ever crept into the church. But it's found in
chapter 3, verse 11, Christ is all and in all. That is probably as important
a statement as is made in the scriptures. Christ is all and
in all. For all error And you can just go right down
all the heretical forms of Christianity, every one of them is in one way
or another saying that Christ is not all. That you must add
something to who he is by being something yourself, or you must
add something to what he's done, something you do of yourself. But Christ is all and he's in
all. Christ is all was a principle
that would undermine that Jewish mysticism that added the observance
of feast days and all sorts of things like that. And that Christ
was in all would undermine the attitude of the Gnostics who
thought that they had a special relationship with Christ Jesus,
a special connection to Him that others did not have. Christ is all, leaves no room
for anyone else to be anything, and Christ is in all, leaves
no room for anyone to boast of a special relationship with Christ
above other believers. Now it says here in the first
verse, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and
Timothy, our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in
Christ at Colossae. Now we've gone over this point
of what an apostle is before, so we won't belabor it again.
But Paul was one of only 12 men who were considered to be apostles
of the Lord Jesus Christ. These four qualifications were
found in every one of those twelve apostles. It was this, they were
chosen by Christ. Christ chose them, Christ sent
them. They saw the Lord personally.
They had infallible knowledge of the gospel by special instruction
given to them by Christ Jesus. and they were gifted to work
miracles in order to confirm their message. Now those four
qualifications had to be met before someone could even be
thought of as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, see if I can't muffle this coffin
a little bit. Paul's apostleship was often
questioned and he often had to defend it. He wasn't part of
the original 12. He was God's replacement for
Judas. The other apostles had come up with their own replacement,
but once they had chosen this other man and said, he's one
of the apostles, you never hear of him again. And the very fact
that later on, God, in the person of Christ, confronted Paul on
the road to Damascus, converted him, and said, now, you are my
chosen vessel to take the gospel to the Gentiles. God, our Lord
Jesus Christ, had chosen him. Our Lord Jesus Christ had confronted
him. And it is our understanding,
Paul gives testimony of having spent three years in the desert
of Arabia. And it is assumed that during
that three years the Lord Jesus Christ personally trained him
as he had trained the other disciples for about three years. And he
was able to work miracles. So these things qualified him
to be an apostle. Now, he addresses this to the
holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Christians
in the first century referred to one another as brothers. Now, in our culture, of course, we
have a special connection to those who are of our biological
family. In times past, the same kind
of relationships were naturally experienced. But
so often, there were many half-brothers. You remember, Jacob had 12 sons. But these 12 sons were spread
across four mothers. And we find in the history of
the Jews, that there was a special relationship between those who
shared both of the parents, but there wasn't much love lost between
those who shared only one parent. After all, Jacob's sons were
quite willing to sell their brother, Joseph, into slavery out of jealousy. Why? Well, he wasn't their brother
by the same mother. And so they sell Joseph off and
they feel bad about it because they think it was unjust and
they might have to pay for it. But they didn't feel bad about
it as though they had betrayed an object of their love. But
believers are brethren of the same father And yet, in one sense,
as the scriptures use it, they have no mother. So we are all
equally united one to another. And all the affection that is
included in the concept of a brother is to be taken in a spiritual
sense in the relationship between various of the people of God. Now, in our days of egalitarianism,
there are people who have claimed that the Bible is a patriarchal
book. Well, it's true that it wrote about people who had a
patriarchal society, but then everybody did at this time. And
in some sense, the Bible does set up a patriarchal authority
structure within the home and in the church. But this patriarchal
authority structure has no bearing upon the value and usefulness
of all of God's people, regardless of what sex they are. And it
has been shown that the Greek word adelphos, which is the word
for brother, was even back then applied to women as well as to
men if they were, you know, part of a group. So in a mixed group
like, such as we have here this morning, you know, several men,
several women. But we could have, if we lived
back then, I could use the word Adelphos, and you would understand
that to apply to everyone, not just to the men. So all of God's
people are of one kindred, under one father, and they all are
heirs of God equally. And that shows how that God has made it to where one's sex has
nothing to do with their blessedness in the sight of God. As one of
the scriptures say, there's neither male nor female. So he says, brethren, and he
calls them holy and faithful because all the brethren are
holy because their holiness is in Christ. For of God are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God has been made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
holiness, and redemption. Now there may be different levels
of holiness in the way they act, But there's no difference in
holiness in terms of their persons. That is, every one of them is
equally set apart to God by His grace. They have been equally
chosen by Him, equally redeemed by Christ, and equally called
by the Spirit. God may make some differences
among them in the graces he gives them in order to be useful in
the church. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 4, Paul asked those Corinthians, who makes you to differ? And
he didn't mean to say to them, what makes you Corinthian believers
differ from the pagan unbelievers? No, he was talking about the
differences that existed among themselves, because some could
do some things and others did different things. And what some
people did was much more visible than what other people did in
service to the church. And the flesh tends to rise up
in those kind of things and say, hey, this person's being treated
better than another. Or the one who has maybe a position
that in the flesh would look to be higher than other ones,
they might begin to be proud about themselves and say, look,
I'm a leader in the church. Well, God may make us differ
in our function. within the church, but he has
made no difference in the worth and dignity and value of any
of his sons. They are all brothers. All Christians are holy, all
of them are faithful, because faithful simply means that they
continue to believe. Once again, Paul is not referring
to their personal virtue. Rather, he's speaking of their
essential character as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not all who say, I believe, actually
do believe. But every Christian truly does
believe. And he continues to believe.
And he believes even when he doesn't feel like he's believing.
He is trusting God at all times, his soul rests in Christ Jesus
at all times, even if his flesh is greatly troubled. Verse three, we always thank
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.
Paul was a man of great thanksgiving, and that ought to cue us. We
have much to give thanks for, and one of the things we should
be really ready to give thanks for is one another. If this COVID-19 did anything
good for the church, for our church, it probably gave us a
greater appreciation for the fellowship of the saints. I've missed people. I enjoy when
we come together on Sunday and I see my beloved brothers and
sisters in Christ. And it's good to know that they
were able to listen and watch via the live streaming, but it'll
be better yet when we can see them face to face. So, we give thanks to God for the
church and for every member in it. All things are of God. That
is, our salvation, faith, hope, love, all of this comes to us
from God. Paul said in I Corinthians 15
verse 10, I am what I am by the grace of God. Every spiritual
gift is from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we have that's good
was given to us by God as a gift of His grace. Therefore, we have
reason to give thanks. So Paul gave thanks to them and
he gave thanks to God for what God had done for them and in
them. He thanked God for their faith.
They believed. If you find someone that believes,
then you have found someone in whom the greatest miracle of
all has been accomplished. You have found someone who has
had worked upon him a more powerful work of God than was done by
Jesus Christ when He raised Lazarus from the dead. He has made someone
spiritually alive who was before spiritually dead. They have faith. Certainly, they were allowed
to believe beforehand. God never said, no, I don't want
you in heaven, so you may not believe. You cannot believe.
He never said that to anybody. But this we know. Faith is not
possible for a natural man. The natural man will accept only
those things that he can perceive and understand with his natural
senses and his natural mind. It's not until he's been given
spiritual understanding that he perceives the kingdom of God.
It's not until he's been made spiritually alive that he sees,
and what he sees with his spirit, he believes. Faith, whether it looks to be
strong faith or weak faith, is saving faith. And we should thank
God for it. And he thanked God for their
love for one another. Love is the evidence of faith,
and it is the proof of the presence of God. In 1 John chapter 4,
verse 8, it says, he that does not love God, or he that does
not love, does not know God. So much is love a part of the
character of God that anyone who has been born of Him will
bear that characteristic. The fruit of the Spirit is love. When you see religious people
fighting with one another, and I realize even honest believers
can get into that, it's a denial of what they claim to believe,
It seems that our flesh is so filled with bitterness and pride
and the hatred that go with all of that, even believers end up
biting and devouring one another, as Paul described it in the book
of Galatians. But where there is no love, there
has been no work of grace. Where there is no love, God is
not there. He's not there in His grace.
It says in Galatians chapter 5 that neither circumcision nor
uncircumcision amounts to anything. The only valuable thing is faith
that works by love. Now, we like faith whenever we
see it, but not every kind of faith is that faith which is
the gift of God. There are some who will believe
the doctrines that they read in the Bible, and while we may
not be able to discern that they are simply believing them on
a natural level, if they were honest in their own hearts, they
would be able to discern it, because not only do they believe
those things, they're proud of their faith. God's people are
not proud of the things that God has given them because they
know that it was given to them. Do we have faith? Yes, we do.
Are we proud of that? No. There's no cause of pride
in it. It was a gift handed to us. So
we have this faith. How do we know that it is the
faith that is the gift of God? Well, we could say, well, it's
a faith that truly from the heart lays hold of Christ. Well, that's
true. But is there anything possibly discernible even by others that
might prove or at least give strong conviction that somebody
who professes faith actually has it? Yes, it's this. They
love the brethren. are willing to serve the brethren,
do for the brethren what needs to be done for them. They suffer
with them in their trials. They rejoice with them in their
blessings. They help them when they need help. Love is the key to all. I've been doing some thinking
about that recently. And just as with all good things,
when we ponder on them and think about ourselves, we once again
come to the conclusion we do such a poor job of those things,
which the scripture set forth is good. But there is no better
life than the life of love. Love takes away bitterness. Love
undermines pride. Love, true love for other people,
frees us from that bondage of serving ourselves. Now, most people don't think
that's a bondage. That's what they want to do.
They want to serve themselves. Self is the worst master there
ever was, because he's never satisfied. Got to have this,
got to have that. No matter what you get, you want
more. And they who serve themselves may think that they are being
fulfilled, but if they were ever fulfilled, would they not quit
searching for more? But love makes us serve one another
and makes us able to rejoice in the blessings that God gives
to other people even as much as we might rejoice some blessing
that God gave to us. I've experienced that blessedness
once in a while. Wish I could do it all the time,
hear about something good happening to one of my brothers and sisters
in Christ. Maybe something I would like but God didn't do for me,
but he did it for my brother and be just as happy over the
fact God gave it to him rather than giving it to me. Now that's
love. Love unburdens us. Then he thanked God, thanked
them for their hope. The believer's inheritance is
not yet in his hand. He has it only in hope. In verse five he says, the faith
and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you
in heaven and that you've already heard about in the word of truth,
the gospel that has come to you. Who hopes for what he already
has? Our hope is as certain as the
purpose of the Father, as certain as the atonement of the Son,
and as certain as the witness of the Spirit of God. But it
is still hope because we have not yet taken possession of it. Everything the believer longs
for in terms of experience is yet to come. It's reserved in heaven for us. So we live lives of hope. Now,
that both energizes us to look forward and it also releases
us from that burden of the form of religion that says we already
have possession of these things. So if you've been saved by Christ,
you won't do this and you won't do that. Really? Are these not
things that we hope for? Yes, we strive not to do those
things. And we strive to do the things
we want to do. But like Paul says, when we would
do good, evil is present with us. We hope for, we long for,
we look to that day when everything about us will be made like the
Lord Jesus Christ and we shall experience in ourselves no sin. no rebellion, no resistance to the things of
God. But in every aspect of our being,
we will find full satisfaction in the worship of our God, in
the fellowship with our Savior and with one another. Now of this gospel, he says,
it came to you. We do not come to the gospel,
God sends it to us. It's written here or in the book
of Romans that God was found of those who did not seek him.
And that's true. Nobody ever found God because
he sought God. He found God because God put
himself right in front of him and then opened his eyes. And
it looked like he was seeking the Lord, but he was really,
as Paul said in another place, going about like a man trying
to walk in the dark with his hands groping around. Just as we didn't go to Christ,
but Christ came to us, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling
among us, so we did not go to the Gospel, God sent His Gospel
to us. The Gospel bears fruit. Isaiah
55, 11 says that God's Word always accomplishes the purpose for
which it was sent. When God sends His Word to His
people, it will always bear the fruit of faith, love, joy, and
peace. All those aspects of the fruit
of the Spirit are produced through the Gospel. We are renewed inwardly. You know, a seed that does not
produce fruit is not the seed of the Word of God. The Gospel continues to produce
fruit. He said it's produced fruit In them and all over the
world, since the day you heard the gospel and knew the grace
of God, it has produced fruit. And then
it bears fruit among those who have heard it and understood
it as a message of the grace of God in truth. There is an
untruthful understanding of the grace of God. And such an understanding
arises from a faulty gospel, and it produces a faulty, unsaving
faith. For example, the view that the
grace of God is received by participating in the religious rituals of the
church, and there are churches that believe that. That's how
you get the grace of God. Well, that's not the grace of
God in truth. And such an understanding of
the grace of God is not the faith of God's elect, and it will not
save. We understand the grace of God
and its truth. We understand this truthfulness
of it, that every aspect of our salvation is prompted by and
fulfilled by the grace of God. That nowhere does anything of
our natural energies or wisdom come into the equation. It's
God who chose us, Christ who redeemed us, the Spirit of God
who calls us. And by the time we even knew
anything about it, or felt any stirrings within our heart, God
had the thing done. And then he says here in verse
7 and 8, you learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant,
who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who
also told us of your love in the Spirit. Though this grace
is from God, and though the gospel which reveals that grace is sent
by God, and only God can make it powerful, nonetheless, it
nearly always comes to us by the mouth of a man, a human. God sent Epaphras with his message,
and Epaphras proved faithful. Because he went to Colossae and
he told them exactly what God told him. And that's why they
received the grace of God in truth. Because Epiphras didn't
hear from God, or whoever he learned the gospel from, he didn't
learn that and say, But in Colossae, they got some
different ideas about religion. Maybe I need to present this
with a different spin to it so it doesn't confront them and
offend them. Because if you offend them, they're
never going to believe. If you preach a gospel that doesn't
offend people, nobody's ever going to be saved by your preaching.
Because everything about God is offensive to man until he
changes his heart. Well, we'll pick up there next
week.