As most of you know, that's taken
from Isaiah 26. It says, trust ye, it says, that
I will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he or she trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength, or the rock of ages. If only we could keep our minds
stayed on Him, we would have Such peace, wouldn't it? But
the flesh is so weak. Colossians 1. Go to Colossians
1 with me now. I was working on a message from
chapter 2. I read it and was enjoying it
and working on it. And I decided to go back and
read the first chapter. And it was a blessing. So I thought,
we need to go through this book. I did not realize that we just
looked at these first few verses in June of this year. I'm sure
you remember it well. I didn't. Not too long ago, we
looked at this book, Grounded and Settled, Chapter 1. So take
heart. If I didn't remember it, it's
okay if you didn't. Paul was in prison when he wrote
this. He wrote it at the same time as the epistle to Ephesians. It sounds very similar, doesn't
it? It's a wonderful, wonderful book. Colossians, just glorious. I'm looking forward to it, greatly
looking forward to it. Paul was in prison where God
put him to write this book and Ephesians. Aren't you glad that
the Lord put Paul in prison? That was a severe trial, wasn't
it? He was beaten and put in prison. Why? Why? Don't you know? The church was asking, why did
this happen to our beloved brother, Paul? Well, we know, don't we? He wrote this epistle. Aren't
you glad? Paul was glad. He said, the things that happened
to me fell out to the furtherance of the gospel. He said, I'm a
prisoner of hope. He said, I'm a prisoner of Jesus
Christ. He put me here to write them.
Look at chapter 4, the last part of chapter 4. He asked them to
remember him in his bonds. Verse 18, salutation by the hand
of me, Paul. Remember my bonds. And like He
signs off on every epistle, grace be with you. He begins it with
grace and He ends it with grace. Amen. But don't turn away yet. Look underneath there. It was
written from Rome to the Colossians by Tychicus and Onesimus. You remember that story in Philemon?
Onesimus was that runaway slave. Philemon, his servant, that apparently
stole from him and ran away, an ungrateful, rebellious servant,
he ran away, well he ended up in Rome. And somehow he heard Paul preach
the gospel. Maybe somebody took him down
to the jail, maybe he was in jail. And he heard Paul preach
the gospel and the Lord saved that young fellow. So that's
why Paul was in jail, like at Philippi, to save the jailer. And then Paul wrote this epistle
and gave it to Onesimus to deliver to the Church of Colossae. What a wonderful errand that
he was called on to do. So Paul was in prison by God's
purpose and for his glory and for his kingdom. Everything,
all things work together according to that purpose and for our good. We just don't see it at the time. It may be an extremely difficult
trial like Paul at the time. Any trial, most trials are fiery
trials, difficult trials, painful trials, grievous trials, but
they're found, Peter said, under praise and honor and glory. Like Brother Scott said, if we
knew what God knows, we would order our lives exactly like
He ordered and we wouldn't change a thing. And someday we're going
to know. Perfectly, and we're going to
thank Him for every trial, because every joy or trial cometh, falleth
from above, traced upon our dial by the Son of Love. We may trust
Him fully, all for us to do, and those who trust Him wholly
find Him wholly true. So let's trust Him in all things.
Paul did. Paul did. So he wrote this in
prison. Colossae, now listen to this.
Here's a little bit of history. Colossae was a fairly large city. 15 miles from Laodicea. Remember the church at Laodicea?
The letter to the Laodiceans in the Revelation. Alright? 15
miles, like here in Boone's Mill. Paul did not go to either place.
He did not preach either place. He never did go there. He wanted
to. And he makes that plane here
that they never saw his face before. Both cities, six years
after this, were completely destroyed by an earthquake. Completely destroyed by an earthquake. They're not there anymore. There's
some ruins. They rebuilt them, but it fell again. What's the
lesson in that? The sobering truth is that this,
that city, this city, any city is insignificant except for the
gospel being there. If the gospel is there, that's
the main thing. Because everything is gone, there's
not going to be one stone left standing on another. All the
works, all the major cities, everything on this earth is going
to crumble. What's important? The gospel
was here. at Laodicea. And there were believers,
there were saints there. There were saints. What about
this city? Will this one fall six years
from now? Maybe. Those people didn't think
it did. It happened all of a sudden.
Big earthquake. Alright, verse 1. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, a messenger of Jesus Christ, Christ chose
his apostle. The qualification, as you know,
for an apostle were that Christ had to choose them. He chose
each one of his apostles. Remember after Judas hung himself,
and the apostles got together and said, we've got to choose
somebody as successor to Judas. No, you don't, fellas. You just
wait, you'll see. Well, they did, and they cast
lots. That's not how it's done. But they did. Matthias, well,
you never ever hear from him again. It was Paul. Christ chose
his apostle. They had to see the Lord. They
had to actually see the Lord and receive their ministry from
him. Paul did that on the road to
Damascus, remember? He said, I was one born out of
due time and I saw him later than the other apostle. And thirdly,
they were given extraordinary supernatural gifts, powers to
heal the sick, to heal the blind, to raise the dead. And these were proofs that God
had called them and sent them. There are no more apostles. There are no more apostles. Anybody that claims to is a false
apostle. So Paul said, I'm an apostle
of Jesus Christ. They were chosen by Christ, messengers
sent by Christ. What was their message? Christ. Paul said, I'm determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Whom we preach. We preach not ourselves, Paul
said, but Christ Jesus the Lord and our servant for His sake.
Your servant. Alright, by the will of God.
Everything is by the will of God. Ephesians 111 says that. He worketh all things unto the
counsel of His will. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
nothing is left to chance? Everything is according to the
will of God. And Timotheus, he writes and
includes young Timothy. Timothy was his constant traveling
companion, a faithful young man. One time he said, I have no man
like-minded who will naturally care for your estate like Timothy.
I thought about Cody Henson. Same thing. If he and I were traveling all
over, I could say the same thing about him. He has a genuine heart
for the truth and for God's people. And it comes out that way. Well,
Timothy, Paul included Timothy. He said, he's our brother. Don't
you love that term? Brother. Brother. You never had
a brother, did you? You got lots of them now. Lots
of them. Oh, my. our brother. To the saints,
verse 2. Saints and faithful brethren
in Christ. The saint. This is one of the
names or this is how the Lord refers to his people more than
any other. Saints. Saints. Sanctified one. And I always like to go to 2
Thessalonians 2. Let's go there, okay? 2 Thessalonians
2. I always I think of this verse when I think of the saints, or
sanctified ones. That's what saint means. All
of God's people are saints. They're not high saints and low
saints. They're all saints. Sanctified ones, set apart by
the Spirit of God through the gospel. Verse 13, 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13. And this is what he said to the
Colossians, We're bound to give thanks always to God for you,
brethren, beloved, for love, beloved, the bride of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, chosen
to save you through sanctification of the Spirit, set apart by the
Spirit of God from other people. Chosen of God, called, predestined, given this faith by the... Look at this. Sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto this salvation
He called you by our gospel. That's how you heard. That's
how you were called. That's how you were set apart.
You heard the truth. The truth. You're going to hear
Paul say, the grace of God in true. The true grace of God.
Not an offer. An act of mighty power of God
upon you and in you and for you. An act of God. Grace of God.
Yes, I'm going to quote the rest of it, John. I can't wait. This is all to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Few people are interested
in His glory. All of God's people are. That's
why we're here tonight. Praise of the glory of His grace.
All right, go back to chapter 1 of Colossians. To the saints
and faithful brethren in Christ. Faithful. We don't think of ourselves as
faithful, do we? In fact, we all feel like we're
unfaithful. But just break the word down,
okay? Faithful, full of faith. What is faith? Is faith something
you do? Is faith a work? No. What is faith? Faith is not of what? Faith is
trusting someone. That's all faith is. It's trusting
someone. Oh yes, faith works. Faith without works is death.
Worketh by love. But faith, the essence of faith
is this, is looking to God, to Christ. Trusting Him. That's
not a work. It's the one you're trusting
in. Alright? If I were to ask every believer
in this room, what is your hope of eternal life? What is all
your hope of salvation? What is your righteousness? What
is your sanctification? What is your redemption? If you
hope to be with God someday, forgiveness of sin, pardon, what
is your hope? Every person in here would give
me the same answer. Christ. And you're full of faith. Is that all your hope, Christ?
You know, in Him dwelleth all the fullness. It please the Father
that in Him should all fullness dwell. You're full of faith. You ever thought of it like that?
And faithful means true. It does, doesn't it? It means
true. God's people are true to His
glory and His honor and fear. Their hearts are united in His
fear. God's people are true. This is
how you know them from the rest. God's people have God's glory
foremost in their mind. His name, His glory, they are
true to Him. True to Him. Faithful brethren
in Christ. Christ. In Christ. Does that sound familiar? It's
everywhere in the scriptures. In Christ. This is salvation
in two words. In Christ. Paul said to Philippians,
Oh that I might win Christ and be found in Him. And you know, it's like those
people in the ark, Noah's ark. Why would they say? Because they
were found in the ark. How'd they get there? God put
them there. The animals, every animal that
was saved was saved. Why? Because they were in the
ark. How'd they get there? Noah went
out and called them and God made them willing. He changed their
nature. A lion won't come when you call
it. He'll eat you up. Well, they did when Noah called
them and they were in that ark. Well, that's salvation. To be
found in Christ. In Christ. Like that ark. Look
at verse 14. In whom? And we don't have to
go to Ephesians 1. We can just stay here. In whom
we have redemption. We cannot redeem ourselves. We
cannot undo anything we've ever done. We can't pay for one sin
we've ever paid for. Jesus Christ paid it all. In
whom? He's the payment. We're redeemed
in Him, by Him. Look at verse 19. It pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Chapter 2,
verse 3. In whom? In Christ are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You know that. You know that. Do you know how few people know
that? Why do you know that? Look at
verse 27 of chapter 1. whom God would make known the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, that's us,
which is Christ in you. In you, faithful, you have Him
in you, your hope of glory. So look at chapter 2, verse 9.
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete, where? In Him. which is the head of
all principality and power in whom also you're circumcised. We're made a Jew, a true Jew,
a true child of God by the circumcision of Christ on Calvary tree. So, it's a mystery but it's true
in him, in him. Cannot really be explained. But
it's certainly true. Let me give you this illustration.
I've given it to you before. I used it in Kingsport. It seemed
to be a blessing. It's a good one. But there were
two ladies with, they were expecting. Tracy, that baby's born now. But now Lauren Wachey, Tony Moody's
daughter, is expecting a child. A mother that has a child In
her. In her. That's a living child
in it. As soon as conception starts,
it's a living child. Okay? And that child in her,
as she is, so is that child. Does her father love her? Well,
he must love the child. He's in her. The child is in
her. That woman, Lauren, wherever
she goes, that baby goes. If someone accepts her, they
have to accept the baby. They can't say, well, you can
come in, but your baby can't. Well, I love you, but not, no,
no, no, no, no, no. And then Christ, you remember
in the garden, Christ said, if you seek me to let these go,
We're in him, we're in his heart, in his mind, in his love, in
his covenant engraved on the palm of his hand, and in him
with a union that we cannot understand. But we're in him, we're seated
with him, we're in him. But that mother, okay, whatever
she does, the baby does that. Her works are the child's works. That's the best I can do with
that. In Him. So is this mystery, this mysterious
union that is in Christ. And someday, well recently, Tracy,
today, gave birth to this child. into this new world, this new
kingdom that we, right now, we can't see. We see through like
a child in the womb. We see through a glass darkly
or dimly, but one day. A new creature, brand new. Oh
man, won't that be wonderful. So, this is to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ. This is not to the world. This
was not written to the world. This is how false preachers,
corrupt, deal deceitfully with the Word of God, is they apply
it to everyone without exception. That's lying on God and lying
to men and women. This is written to the church. Remember Christ said in John
17, 9, I pray not to the Father, I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. Thine they were, thine they
are. And Paul is writing to his church,
God's church, all right? Like you write a letter and you
address it to whomever you're writing it to. That's who you
write it to. And if someone else picked it up and started applying
it to them, you'd be angry, wouldn't you? They have no part or lot
in that matter. This is to those to whom he wrote
it. Okay? This is to his church.
We pray, we hope for others to be brought into his church. But
they're not going to be unless they hear the gospel. All right? This is to the saints
and faithful brethren at Colossae. Grace! Hear these blessed words. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace. Grace and Peace. Brother Tony
Moody, they adopted two Chinese daughters, you know, and one
of them is 13 years old now. Can you believe that? And the
other one is 11, 10 or 11. They named the second one Grayson.
Grace and Peace. He liked the sound of Grace and
Peace so much. That's what he told me. Grayson. Grace and Peace. This is the
Gospel. This sums up the gospel then.
By grace are you saved. By grace. Grace is not an offer,
an act of God, a work of God, a gift of God. Grace. By grace
are you saved. Grace. Grace bestowed. The power
of God. The gift of righteousness through
Jesus Christ. The gift of forgiveness of sin
by Christ crucified. Life given. You don't offer life. You can't offer life. has to
be given, has to be bestowed. The gift of repentance is the
goodness of God that leads us to that. Faith is not of yourself,
it's the gift of God. Fruit, all these things, are
the grace of God. He giveth. He is the God of all
grace. By grace are you saved. By grace you're saved. And peace.
Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace
God is angry with the wicked infidel. God hates all workers
of iniquity. God is going to destroy a world
full of sinners. But I'm a sinner. And I was ungodly. I didn't have
any use for God. I didn't have any thoughts of
God. I was just such were some of you. But God, gracious and
merciful, Look at verse 19, or verse 20. It says that Christ
made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, things in earth,
things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked work, now hath Jesus Christ reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death. Through death. And it says, He came and preached
this peace, this gospel of peace to you. We don't make our peace
with God. You've heard that so many times,
haven't you? If somebody on their deathbed, and the preacher goes
and pulls a confession of faith out of them on their deathbed,
and the preacher like notching something up, like notching an
animal he bagged on his belt. That's what they do, because
they're corrupt. And they say, He made His peace with God. He
accepted Jesus. No, you don't make peace with
God. Peace is only made one way. And
we just read it by the blood of Jesus Christ. Christ said
to his disciple, before he left, he said, peace, I leave with
you. Peace, I leave with you. I'm going to the cross to make
peace with God. for you. And He will forever
be at peace with you. Why? For Christ's sake. And my
peace I give unto you. Peace by believing Him. Alright. Grace and peace from
God our Father. Oh my. I heard my dad preach
recently. An old message, he was pretty
fiery when he was young. He was real fiery. Born of Jesus,
son of thunder. People don't have much taste
for that anymore, do they? Well, I do. A buddy, he started talking
to me, he said, these preachers tell people God loves you. He
said, do you know what it means if God loves you? If God loves
you? That means He'll save you. That
means He'll love you forever. Love never fails. It's perfect
love. It's love that casts out fear. You will not be cast out.
If God loves you, He's never cast out anybody He's ever loved.
No, He saves them all. If God loves you, He that spared
not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with that unspeakable gift give us all things? If God
loves you, He'll do everything for you. God is our Father. How? Through Jesus Christ. He's the
first begotten of many brethren, the firstborn among many sons.
How is God our Father? James said, of his own will begat
he us through the word of truth that we might be a first kind
of first fruits of his creatures, his workmanship. by the word
of truth, the gospel, Peter said, the gospel. So we are, God is
our father, born again, adopted, begotten of God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 2. I may not get past verse... Well, look at this. Grace and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give
thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray
and always forget. Why does he call him the Lord
Jesus Christ? Because that's who he is. Because that's what
he did. That's what He does, that's who
He is, that's who we worship, and that's what we call Him. That's how you know who fears
Him, because no man calls Him Lord but by the Spirit of God.
He's our Lord Jesus Christ, in that order. Barnard used to say,
you can't have Jesus as your Savior unless He's first your
Lord. Paul didn't know if the Lord
was going to save him or kill him, Saul of Tarsus. He said,
Lord. When he found out this Jesus
is Lord, and He was in his hands to do with as He pleased, he
called Him, Lord, what will you do with me? He's the Lord. Our Lord and Savior,
Jesus. Christ, our Messiah, our Covenant
Head. The whole message in those three
words, those three names. The Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
3. Now we give thanks to God and
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.
You really love someone if you pray for them. And we are told
to pray Without ceasing, we're told to pray for all men. You
read that in 1 Thessalonians 5. Be patient with all. We're told to pray. And you've
heard it said so many times that you cannot be mad at or hold
a grudge with anybody that you're praying for. So our Lord tells us to pray
for them that despitefully use you. Now that's humanly impossible. We've all been mistreated, we've
all been done wrong, we think, and it's hard to pray for somebody
like that. Well, our Lord tells us to. And
what does it do? It breaks down the enmity in
us. And you don't know that that
enemy, just like us, might become our dearest friend. The whole church was scared to
death, the solitaires weren't. They weren't praying for Him.
They were praying God would kill Him. God saved Him. And do I need to remind? Yes,
I do need to remind us all that when Christ was hanging on the
cross, the first words out of His mouth, Father, forgive them. The very ones that spit in His
face, the very ones hurled insults at him, the very ones that killed
him. He prayed for them. What did God do? He saved thousands. And they became his friends,
reconciled by the blood of his crown. He did that to me. If he saved me, he can save anybody.
So pray for all. So he said, we pray always for
you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love
you have all the same for the hope that is laid up for you
in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel. Paul says we heard, verse 7. We learned of Epiphras. Epiphras was a preacher here
at Colossae. Maybe the pastor. We don't know
for sure. We don't even know who brought
the gospel there. Somebody did. Maybe Epiphras.
Because they heard it preached. And Paul said that. And everyone
must. But he came back and he told
Paul when in prison, he said, Paul, Paul, you're going to rejoice, brother.
I went to Colossi, a city near Laodicea. There was a group of
people meeting there, and Paul, they believed. Several of them
believed the truth. And they asked me to baptize
them, just like you heard of Brian and Matt and Trevor and
Thomas and things like that. Doesn't that rejoice your heart?
It doesn't have to be somebody in the army, it does. Won't we
rejoice if the Lord... Can you think of anything that
would rejoice your heart more? Did you hear? So-and-so's son
believes Christ, that rebel. God broke his heart, broke down
that enmity. He's sitting in the church house
worshiping, singing those hymns. He confessed Christ and believers
baptism. Can you think of anything that
would give you more joy? Because there's nothing else
matters. Nothing else matters. Oh, let's pray to that end, brethren.
Let's pray to that end. That purpose. It's the one thing
needful. Salvation. So he said, we heard
of your faith in Christ, the love you have to all the saints.
Faith and love go together. If you believe Christ, you love
His Word, you love His truth, you love His salvation, let such
as love thy salvation say, the Lord be magnified. You love His
salvation, you love His Word, you love His truth. There's not
one word in this book you don't love. Some people don't want
to hear words like election, predestination. We do. And we
say, say it loud, because this was my salvation. And we love
his truth. We love his word. We love his
kingdom. We love his worship. We love
to sit here and hear his word. We love his people. We are brethren now. You are
the only friends I really have in Franklin County, Virginia.
I mean that. I've got some good neighbors
and some people that I know and all that, but they're not my
companions. You are. You are. And what a joy. What a fellowship. Brother Gabe preached on 1 John
1. It's truly our fellowship with the Father and with His
Son. You can socialize with people, but you can't fellowship except
in Jesus Christ. All right. He says, we heard
of the hope you have. You now have hope. And it's laid
up for you in heaven. We heard of your faith, your
love, and the hope that is laid up for you. You heard before
in the word of the truth of the gospel that came unto you that
it come in all the world and bring forth this fruit of faith.
Since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God and
truth, there's hope that's laid up in heaven. And the only reason
it's called hope, people, is because it's not fully realized
yet. But it's not like, I sure hope
this is true. That's not the hope. That's not
the way this is viewed. I hope this is true. I sure hope
this Bible is true. That's not faith. I know this
book is true. Don't you? Sure you do. It's His Word. It's His voice. He speaks to us. He lives in
us and speaks to us. We commune with Him. He with
us. The world says that's foolishness. Well, okay. But we're fools for
Christ's sake. But it's not like a hope, I hope,
I hope, cross my fingers, hope. No, no, no. It's called hope
because we're not there yet. We're not on the other side yet. But it's a good hope, Scripture
said, through grace. It's a sure hope. A hope is in
a person. A living person. It's not in
a creed, it's not in a doctrine, it's not in a church, it's not
in a denomination, it's not in me, not in a preacher, not in
a profession of faith. It's in a person. A living, reigning,
ruling, communing, speaking person. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our hope is built. On nothing
less than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. We don't trust
the sweetest frame or anything, any feelings, anything. We wholly
lean on His precious name. On Christ, the solid rock, I
stand. This is how a man can go to his
death. In the last words, he said, I'm
standing on the rock. Person. That's why you don't
go out of this life kicking and screaming. You go out with peace.
Why? Because you've got a person under,
you're in His everlasting arms. He's your hope. It's not like
a hope, a hope, a hope. No, no, no. Christ is your hope. It's a good hope because He's
within the veil. He's within the veil. And I started to preach
tonight, and I'm going to quit. I started to preach tonight from
1 Corinthians 15. I might do that Sunday. Start
thinking about, in Adam all die. Death. Start thinking about death. We're all going to die. Paul,
everywhere he went, preached the resurrection. Every time
he preached, he stood up. Acts, all of his messages in
Acts, he stood up and declared a living Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I thought he was dead
too. I thought he was dead and I was glad. But, I found out
he's alive. I found out in him I live and
move and have my being. And he preached everywhere a
living person. Jesus Christ. So our hope of
eternal life is a living person. And we're going to see. Maybe
we'll look at that son. But every eye is going to see
him. In fact, my wife told that fellow who said, I don't believe
that. I don't believe any of that. She said, you're going
to find out. Because every eye shall see him. Do you believe that? Who said
that? He said it. I am alive forevermore. I was dead and now I'm alive. And behold, I come quickly. And
God's people say, Hallelujah. And we're waiting on Him. The
real person. Fools? No. Wise in Him, aren't
we? He's made us wise. All right,
stand with me. Our Father in Heaven, Blessed
be thy holy name. We bless you for your word. We
bless you for your truth. Word of truth and gospel of our
salvation that's in Christ Jesus. Oh, we worship a living Lord.
How thankful we are that you've revealed yourself in us. Christ
in us. Lord, we want, like Paul, though,
to know you more, that I might know Christ, that I might win
Christ, be found in Him, that we have not yet apprehended,
but we pressed or demarked for the prize of the high calling
of God into Christ. And that's why we're here tonight,
Lord. We need to hear from You, and we have. We've heard from
Your blessed Word, and we believe more than when we came because
of Your Word. This is Your Word. It's the truth
as it is in You, and we bless You for it. It's our peace, it's
our hope, it's our comfort. You are our hope, our peace,
our comfort. Thank You, Lord. We ask that
You would speak to our sons, our daughters, our unsaved spouses,
our unsaved fathers and mothers, our neighbors, people in the
community. Lord, use the means you've given
us. Call out sheep out of this world into your fold for your
glory, for your honor, for our rejoicing. We ask these things
in Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, blessed name. Amen. You're
dismissed.