This morning is an article, and
it's in today's bulletin, if you'd like to read along with
me. It's in Under Food for Thought, written by Pastor Todd Nyberg.
Listen to these words carefully. This is so good. In Titus 3.5,
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Now, Pastor Todd Nybert, and
what a wonderful preacher God has sent us, and this man, Todd
Nybert, I can't wait until he comes out here again. He comes
out, usually goes over to Marysville, and when he does, we love to
go over there and listen to him preach. He's just a really good
preacher. He writes this about those words.
There are only two kinds of people in the world, the righteous and
the wicked. Interestingly, the righteous
believe themselves to be wicked. That is why they need the gospel.
And the wicked believe themselves to be righteous. And that is
why they do not need the gospel. Isn't it wonderful that the Lord
has caused you and I to need His gospel? Turn, if you would please, once
again to the Book of Colossians. Last week I introduced what I
believe is going to be a series of messages that I would like
to bring from the letter written by the Apostle Paul addressed
to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ, as it is
written in chapter 1, verse 2. To the saints and the faithful
brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae, This is a letter
that Paul wrote to them, and the title for today's message
is Faithful Brethren in Christ. Now, you don't need to turn there.
In 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, we read this. All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable. It's a profit. It's profitable to you and I.
It's something we need for reproof, for correction,
and for instruction in righteousness. This letter was written to you
and I, as well as all of the saints and the faithful brethren
that were in Christ, that have ever have and that ever will
be walking this earth. All of the faithful, all of those
who God Almighty has given the gift of faith throughout all
time, of course they didn't have it before in the Old Testament,
but since the New Testament was written, for all that time this
letter is to all of God's saints, everywhere. All of the faithful
brethren, let me get that right, faithful brethren in Christ. all of those who are in Christ,
throughout all time until the Lord comes again. In 2 Peter
3, verses 18, we read this, grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In Romans 10, 17, it
goes this way, so then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. And then in Romans 10, 17, I just read that one. Ephesians
2.8, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works which any man should
boast. The gift of faith, the gift to believe, comes through
the preaching of God's Word. Paul is thanking Thanking God the Father,
in verse 3, of our Lord Jesus Christ and praying always for
you. You know, I can't express in words again that phrase I
said a few moments ago, but it's so true of how thankful I am
that God brings anybody to this church at all. I am so thankful for you folks
who want to hear the Gospel every week. Because that's all I'm
going to preach. I'm not going to stand up here
and preach to you about some guy named St. Patrick who went
around Europe building churches. I heard a guy preach that one
time from the church up in Pollock Pines. I'm not going to stand
up here and pretend to be preaching to you about a group of young
folks in the church who've gotten together and done such a good
deed about raising money for an ambulance in a town down in
Mexico. Now, those folks down there,
they needed that ambulance bad. And I'm thankful those kids did
that. But that's not what this is. This is a worship service
for God Almighty. We come here to worship our Savior. to declare Him to be our God,
King of kings, Lord of lords, ruler over everything, over us. We were talking about that in
Bible study. You know, there was a time when each and every
one of us ruled ourselves with our own will. We walked around
thinking, this is what I'm going to do today. I'm going to do
it. And then God arrested that old stony heart, cut it away,
and He gave us a new heart that says, He, He is my Lord. I do what He tells me to do. I am guided by my Savior, as
all things are in this world are guided by Him. That includes
my mistakes, and I make a lot of them every day. That's why I have to go to my
Lord every day and ask for forgiveness for my sins. Confessing my sins
to Him, He will be faithful in forgiving them. That's what He
tells me. This gift of faith, gift of belief,
it comes through the preaching of God's Word, and God's Word
is one thing. From cover to cover, it's all
about Jesus. Five men are going to come to
this church two weeks from last Friday night. One of those five
is me. I'm going to preach Friday night.
But then I'm going to sit down and the Lord's going to feed
me the bread of life through four other men. And all five
of us will preach the same message. If I thought for one minute one
of those men would preach something foolish as children raising money
or St. Patrick or whatever, I would
not let them stand here. But I've heard them speak. I've
listened to their words and they preach Christ and Him crucified. That's what God's Word is all
about. He who became flesh and walked perfectly, fulfilling
the laws of God in every way. Could He have done it anything
less than perfectly? He's God Almighty, in the flesh,
right? Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with
us. He fulfilled the law in every
way and He walked righteously, perfectly, without sin, establishing
a righteousness for an unrighteous people. There's me. And then, taking the sins of
His chosen people upon Himself, God the Father made His Son,
who knew no sin, to be sin, that this people, this people who
were chosen of God, would be made righteous in Him. Do you know when the first story
of blood came? God Almighty slew an animal.
killed an animal so that he could take the skins of that animal
and clothe the two who had sinned, Adam and Eve. That's a picture of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, right from the beginning of the book. His righteousness, His blood
covers our sins completely. If you try to make a fig leaf
and do it on your own, you're still going to look naked. Have
you ever seen those people walk down to a hospital and they got
one of them garments on that tie up in the back? There was
a movie about that. James Garner, I think, was in
it. The lady was walking down. He's pointed it out. And next thing you know, she's
like, oh, no. Well, that's what happens when you wrap yourself
up with a fig leaf. You're still naked. Thank God
He sent someone to clothe us, to clothe us in His own righteousness. All of our sins were laid upon
Him. When He was crucified, when He
died for us, He died that we would live. The elect of God,
those whose names are written in the book of life, those whose
names were written before the world was made, we all live in
Christ. That's what Paul is saying here,
the faithful brethren, not to those who are faithfully walking
around being as good as you can, but to those who are faithful
in Christ. You see, it is in Christ that
things matter to you and I. If you count on Me for anything,
I'm going to let you down. But you can count on Christ in
Me to be true. We live because Death could not
hold Him. Death cannot hold the Creator
of all that is. The grave could not hold Him.
In John 10.17, we read it this way, Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again.
And then he says in verse 18, and you can't argue this. You
can't say, oh, this means something else. This is plain. No man taketh
it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay
it down. I have power to take it again.
That's God's word from his own mouth. Our substitute is the very One
who sits on His throne of all glory right now, ruling over
every detail, so much so that He knows the number of every
hair on our head. And He's working all things out
according to the counsel of His will. He's not some puny God
waiting for men. He is the ruler of everything.
And I like that. That's why we have confidence.
There's nothing to doubt. We don't have any reason to doubt.
He's God. Those sins were put away. He says so in His Word.
He says, I did it. Not John Reeves. I, the Lord
Jesus says, I did it. He says, it is finished. Turn to Romans chapter 8 for
just a moment. He says, I did it. In verses 1 of chapter 8 of Romans,
we read this. There is therefore now no condemnation. You can't charge that one, you've
already charged me. I've already paid the debt. This
one's mine. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. 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. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. And then we read over in verses
28 through 30, and we know our confidence is in God's Word because
our Lord and Savior is God Almighty Himself. And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. For whom he did foreknow,
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."
There's our confidence. He did it. He says, I did that. He says, I did that for you,
each and every one of us. And if God did it, can anybody
undo it? That's the greatest peace John
has, because all my screw-ups that I need to go to the Lord
and say, Lord, forgive me for, can't undo the love that my Lord
has for me. Is that good news for you? Because
that's the way it is with every one of God's children. Every
one for whom He hung on that cross, bled and died and was
raised again for, have that peace. Paul spoke these words of encouragement
to these faithful saints. That they would remain in the
hope of the Gospel, which is seen over in verse 23. That's
what we preached about last week. The hope of the Gospel. The true
Gospel. The only gospel. The gospel of
Christ and Him crucified. Don't be led astray. Don't be led astray by tinkling
brass, as the Word of God calls it. Things that sparkle. You
know what that church up there is doing? Man, they're doing
such good stuff. They're feeding the poor. They're
raising all this money for people who need it. They have a kitchen
to feed everybody. Folks, I'm not putting them down
for that. That's all good stuff, but that is not the gospel. That is not what gets us saved. Christ Jesus and His blood shed
on the cross is what saves us. And too many people in the world
are trying to make it that good deeds that they're doing. And
it becomes enticing to people. I know someone who could not
come to this church anymore several years back. Why? Well, there's just not enough
there for me. I need more. The gospel of Christ and Him
crucified is not good enough. I need something I can do. I need something to keep me busy. And then they went off to that
church that kept them busy, and then they would come back every
once in a while, just every once in a while, and they'd say, well,
I'd say, well, what brings you back? Well, you know, it's kind
of like eating a Twinkie up there. It's sweet, but it's not good
for you. I'd come here once in a while
to get a little meat. I swear, that's what they told me. She's
shaking her head because she was there with me when they said
it. Eventually, they stopped coming
at all. It got to a point where the meat
here left a bad taste in their mouth. Folks, you don't come here to
hear John Reeves give you my opinion on stuff. The faithful saints of God come
to God's churches to hear about our Lord and Savior. Paul spoke these words to encourage
the faithful saints, the true gospel, the only gospel, the
gospel of Christ being crucified. Do not be led astray by the wonders
of this world, the sparkling attractions of the flesh. Do
not be led astray by those who wish to make lasciviousness of
God's grace. That's what it warns us about
in the book of Jude. The word lasciviousness means to take
the truths of God's grace and add lies to it. Oh yeah, God
rules over everything, but He leaves it up to you to make a
decision. He leaves that part of salvation up to you. That's lasciviousness of God's
grace. That's taking God's loving grace that is so perfect, we
cannot even understand it, and making it a lie. Making it wickedness. Anything other than God's truth
is a wicked lie. That's what free will teaching
is. Oh, it's your free will. You need to make a decision.
You need to walk down to the aisle. You need to get into the
baptismal. You need to take of the cup. You need to worship
on Saturdays. You need to do this. You need
to exercise your free will. That's what free willism is.
It's teaching lies of God's grace. In Romans 9.16, this will prove
it. Listen. You think I'm up here
just making an opinion of my own? Listen to what God's Word
says. So then it is not of him that willeth, in Romans 9.16.
That means it's not of your will. Isn't that what that means? Can you argue that? No. It sounds,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. That's
the works. In other words, your good deeds
aren't going to get you anything. It's not of your free will, and
it's not of your works, but of God that showeth mercy. To say
that it is your decision to love God is to make that, and many
verses like it, into a lie. We must, folks, we must guard
ourselves as faithful saints from those who bring works of
the law and dilute the teachings of grace. This very church right
here used to be 100 membership. Kathy and I have gone through
some of the pictures. Did you know they had 40 kids out here?
Well, I don't know, 40. It sure looked like it, didn't
it? There was a big, old, huge group of kids. There was at least
five children in that nursery at a time on most Sundays. And
those other little rooms that we have now sectioned off for
guests and stuff like that, those were for teenage kids and primary
school kids. They had three different teenagers, first through sixth,
and then kindergarten. So there's three different classes,
and then the adult class over here, of course. The church split. Five families. Said, Pastor Gene, you can't
be our pastor anymore. Stuff is going on in your life.
You're a sinner like the rest of us. You're not on that table
like you're supposed to be. You need to be out of here. And
he said, no, I'm not going. Do you know the pastor has a
right to do that? That happened over in Wayne Boyd's church here
just recently, six months ago. Half the church got up and said,
you can't be the pastor anymore. Why? You're not preaching the
gospel. He sent the messages out to seven different, or five
different, I think it was I don't know how many. He sent the messages
out to some other pastors, Todd Nibert and some other ones, Terry,
and they all listened. They said, we don't understand
what you people are saying. He's preaching Christ and Him
crucified. He said, OK, fine. You're fired. He says, you can't
fire me. He said, all right, we're leaving. He's still there.
They left. The ones who split from this
church, and I'm going to have to say this on recollection of
what Bill has shared with me, went off and started another
church. Bill actually was there for a
little while, and he found out and figured it out eventually
that it was all works. That's what that's talking about.
It's not of works. Paul is writing to the Colossians
warning them of these very ones, these ones who will sneak in,
these ones who will come in with their religion of works and try
to bound us, try to bind us down with works religion. Henry Mahan puts the introduction
to this letter this way. He says, this letter to the Church
of Colossae was written about 30 years after Christ died on
the cross. Paul wrote it while in prison
to Rome, about the same time that he wrote to Philippians
and the Ephesian churches. Who brought the Gospel of Colossae
to Colossae, we do not know. But for Paul had never preached
to them. The city was destroyed six years
later by an earthquake and later rebuilt. But what we do know
is that the occasion for the letter was that Epaphras, who
had preached to them, that's what we read about down here
in verse 7, as ye also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow
servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who preached
to them, came to Rome. And he told Paul about their
faith and their love. He also reported their danger
from false teachers who had come among them, Judaizers, who urged
the ceremonies of the law, and Gentiles who promoted philosophy.
Those who worship angels and saints will worship in punishing
the body. And Paul wrote to them to confirm
them in the gospel of Christ, to warn them of spiritual error
and to exhort them to discharge the discharge of their duty to
God and to one another and to all men." So now with that in
mind, let's take a closer look at verses 1 through 12, and it'll
go kind of quickly. We won't go too long this morning.
We are going to come to the table afterwards. I've only got, what,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 more pages? In verses 1 through 6, read along
with me if you would. Let's actually, you know what,
let's do this. Let's read 1 through 12 all the way through, and then
we'll come back and do a cursory look at it. Colossians chapter 1, verse 1.
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 he hath to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven, wherefore ye heard before 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 ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God
in truth. Excuse me a minute. As ye also learn of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit
for this cause. We also, since the day we heard
it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might
be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord
unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His
glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Now,
let's take a look, let's consider for just a moment what we read
in verses 1-6. Believers, true believers of the true gospel
of Jesus Christ are earnestly exhorted and boldly and faithful
to hold to the standby and to contend for all that pertains
to faith. Folks, I'm telling you right
now, that was a lot for me to say in one verse, in one sentence. But it's not going to be easy. Our Lord has preordained men
to come into churches. Those men who came into this
church, those five families, they were big families, were
preordained to be in this church. We believe that God rules over
everything, right? In the book of Jude, it declares the men
who sneak into the church, come in cunningly and craftily, are
preordained. Let me read that real quick so
I read it correctly. For there are certain men crept
in unawares to this condemnation. Ungodly men turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. And it says that, it talks about
men who sneak in, they come in as ravenous wolves. It's not going to be easy. for
our enemies without and within the church who are motivated
by Satan and by their own wicked nature to seek, to pervert and
compromise and destroy the true and only gospel, the gospel of
redeeming grace as it was purchased and revealed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So Paul says to them, he says, we give thanks to God
in verse 3. Folks, God's people give thanks
to God for everything. I worry about what's going on
down there in Washington, just as you do. But I give thanks
to my Lord and Savior, even for President Clinton or Obama or whoever that guy
is going to be there next. I don't think it's the guy, to
be honest with you. I think he's going to go away real quick, and we're
going to have a woman president really fast. We give thanks to
God for everything, because it's his will, for all things are
of God. That is our salvation, faith,
hope, love, everything about us. Paul says, I am what I am
by the grace of God. Every spiritual gift, he says
that in 1 Corinthians 15, 10. Every spiritual gift is from
God through our Lord Jesus Christ as we read in John 3, 27. He
thanked God for their faith in verse 4. Without faith there
is no union with Christ. There can be no benefit from
Christ if you don't have faith in Him. How are you going to
have faith in Him that you don't know? He thanked God for their love
in verse 4. Their love for one another. You
see, love for the brethren is evidence of the faith. Love is
the fruit of faith. Our Lord tells us that the absence
of love reveals the absence of God. Read 1 John 4 when you have
time. He says in verse 5, He says,
I thank God for your hope. You see, the believer's inheritance
is not in his hands yet. We don't have the perfection
that we are promised yet. We still have to battle this
flesh with our spirit. Our spirit is as holy as Christ
himself, absolutely, but our flesh has enough sin to condemn
us every second. Our inheritance is not in our
hands yet. We have it in hope. Our hope
is as certain, though, as the purpose of the Father. The atonement
of the Son, the witness of the Spirit, it is still a hope. However,
until it becomes a reality, we have little to expect or to hope
for of this world. But here's the deal. If God gave
His only begotten Son for us, how shall He not give us all
things? It is the gospel that is God's
instrument to beget faith and hope in the heart of His people. In verse 6, after mentioning
the gospel, Paul begets faith, or after he mentions it in the
beginning, faith and hope and love, he says this, he says,
it came to you. It didn't come, you didn't come
to it, God sent it to you. He is found of those who sought
Him not, is what the Word says in Romans 10.20. He also tells them that the gospel
bringeth forth fruit. We read in Isaiah 55.11 and it
brings forth fruit of faith, love, joy, peace. We are new creatures in Christ. If you planted a seed And nothing
grew up. Would you go back and watch that
seed? No. The seed of Christ brings and
breathes love, joy, peace, and faith. The gospel continues to produce
fruit. Since the day you heard the gospel,
he says, and knew the grace of God, it has brought forth fruit.
In verses 7 and 8 we read, having confirmed the gospel, Paul commends
the preacher. He is commended for being a fellow
servant of Christ with Paul. He is praised for being a faithful
minister of Jesus Christ in him crucified. He is commended for
his respect for the people and for he declared their love and
faith in Christ to Paul. Is it not a good sign when someone
comes to you and says, I know that person is a child of God.
That's all they speak about. I know those four other preachers
coming here are children of God, preachers of God, because I have
heard them speak. And I'm telling you, they will
speak of Christ. And if they start talking about
something else, I'll get up out of the chair and tell them to
leave. Seriously. We'd be fighting. But I don't think that happened. He commends these men for their
respect, this man for his respect for the children of God. For
he declared their love in Christ. It's always a good sign when
one speaks well of those who are absent. Now we covered verses
9 through 12 in a pretty good detail last week, so allow me
to close with this. Folks, we are talking about the
faithful saints in Christ. God's chosen people. Those of
us who were chosen in Christ before the world was made. We're
talking about the faithful saints in Christ. These who believe
because God the Father has revealed the truths of God to dead sinners. We read in Matthew 16, 13, when
Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples,
saying, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Who do you
say He is? Who is He to you in your conversation
in the world? Is He everything? Is He the glorious
King that He is to you in your own personal heart? Is He a glorious
Savior as He is to you in your own personal heart? Who do men
say that I am? And they said, some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremiah, or maybe
one of the prophets. Then He turned and He said unto
them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered, and
he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now
listen to our Lord's words next. Listen carefully. And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Blessed art thou. Blessed art thou. Blessed art
thou. I'm not blessing you. The Lord
Jesus Christ blessed you. God Almighty blessed you. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. Faithful brethren in Christ,
The very ones that this letter is written to is written to you.
Those of you who have had the revelation of who Jesus Christ
is, what He has done, and where He is now, and who He did it
for. Do you see how God has blessed
you? I'm telling you, the more I read
that, the more I just jump for... You know, not really because
it would hurt if I actually jumped, but in my heart. That's such good news that John
the Baptist jumped in his mother's womb when he heard it. And she thought he was just kicking,
because he wanted out. Scripture says he jumped. He
jumped with joy. Faithful saints. are faithful
in one way, and only one way. Do not look to your flesh for
your faithfulness. We are faithful in Christ. All of our faith is in Him and
of Him. All of our love for the brethren
is in Him and of Him. All of our hope is in Him and
of Him. If we look to this flesh we walk
in, we will find nothing but failure. Nothing but disappointment. But I'm here to tell you this
morning that if you belong to Christ, if we belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ, His promises are sure, His word is true, and His
love is absolute. Now I ask you, Do you belong
to Jesus? That will be our closing song
this morning.