More than life to me, whom have
I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven does he? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry Thou art calling, do not pass me by Thank you, John and Robin. Go back to Colossians 1 with
me now. Ask the Lord to enable me, to
help me to feed His sheep when the Lord was with His disciples
by the fire after He arose. That's what He told Peter. If
you love me, feed my sheep." That's the title. Pasturing a
shepherd. And the principal job of a shepherd
is to feed the sheep. Lead them beside the still waters. Make them lie down in the green
pasture. Now, this book, God's Word, is the green pasture. I hope we can lie down and find
some rest in it. The Word. God's Word is what
we feed on. The title is Blessed Words or
the Blessed Gospel of the Truth of God's Word. Blessed Word. Gospel. Good news. Sometimes
you'll hear somebody say, that sounds too good to be true. Well,
this is too good. But it's true. It's good. Gospel. Good, good news. I jotted
down, I went through here just reading it, and jotted down two
dozen words, good words, blessed word, grace. One time, years
ago, we did a series of messages on gospel words from this Colossians. We did a message on each word,
grace, peace. Faith. It's a blessed word. Faith. Love. Hope. Truth. Gospel. Fruit. Wisdom. Understanding. Walk. Work. Knowledge. Strength. Power. Patience. Long-suffering. Joyfulness. Thanks. Inheritance. Light. Redemption. Forgiveness. It's just the first chapter.
Just the first chapter. Blessed words of the truth of
the gospel. Let's begin. And we'll just,
I don't know how far we'll get. We won't get through the whole
chapter. But Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will
of God. This Colossians sounds a whole
lot like Ephesians, doesn't it? He said, by the will of God.
That's how he started out his book to Ephesians. Apostle by
the will of God. And he went on to say that God
works all things according to His will. He worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will. So the will of God is a
blessed thing, isn't it? Aren't you glad that God's will
is being done? Right now, there are very few
people that believe that. And this is our peace. This is
our comfort. That whatever happens, it's the
will of God. Whatever comes, whatever goes,
whatever He gives, He gives it. It's His will. Whatever He takes
away, it's His will. He worketh all things. Aren't
you glad that God is working according to His will and purpose?
Aren't you glad that man's will has no power? Aren't you glad?
Blessed Word. The will of God. By the will
of God. And Timotheus, our brother, brother. What a blessed Word. It's a blessed thing to have
siblings, to grow up with siblings, isn't it? Sophie and Isabella have each
other, and that's a blessed, precious relationship to sisters. Some of you have sisters, you're
old now, and you've been sisters all those years, and it's a blessed
thing, isn't it? Something greater than that,
though, is to have a brother or sister in Christ. Some of
you never had brothers and sisters. You were an only child. Boy,
you've got lots of manners. And it's closer. It's closer
than flesh and blood. Believe me. Believe me. Don't believe me, believe Him.
It truly is. Christ said, Who are my brethren? These are my brethren. I'm going
to be with them forever. The saints. Saints. I'm looking
at a bunch of saints. I don't see any halos. But I tell you what, the Lord,
He sees the perfect man. He sees that image of Christ
in you that you can't see in yourself. You can't see it, can
you? You look in the mirror of God's
Word, you can't see. You don't look at yourself and
think, well, I'm sure saintly. No, no, no. You think, I've got
a devil. That's what you think. That's
not what God said. And that's not what we see in
each other, is it? We look at each other, and that's why we
think I'm the chief of sinners. We look at each other and think,
you're a blessed saint. Saint means sanctified one. You're
not sanctified or set apart or made a saint by that imposter
that calls himself Holy Father over in Rome. You're sanctified
and made a saint by the Heavenly Father, by the Spirit of God. Now I cry. To the saints and
faithful brethren. Faithful. Faithful brethren. David once lamented in Psalm
12, And I've done this myself. Help, Lord, the godly faileth
and the faithful fail among the children of men. Some faithful
brethren, some for a long time, fail you. But by God's grace,
some don't. Some remain faithful. Faithful
friends, faithful to the gospel, faithful to His cause. And I'm
looking at them. Many of them. Faithful brethren,
in Christ. Aren't those blessed words? In
Christ. Just like Noah was found, he
and his family was in that ark, that's what that means. To be
in Christ. That's what Paul said in Philippians.
Oh, I want to be found in Christ in that day. Don't you? In Christ. Just like Moses, Was the Lord
put him in the cleft of that rock? That's where I want to
be, don't you? Crucified with Christ. In Christ.
Which you're at Colossae or Rocky Mount. Verse 2. Grace. Grace be unto you. What grace? All grace. The God of all grace. Grace be unto you. And peace. Grace and peace. Grace and peace. Grace and peace. Sound like one
word, doesn't it? Grace and peace. He signs all
of his letters that way. Begin that way and end that way.
Grace and peace. Grace and peace. There's a brother in a church
in Kingsport who loves the sound of those words so much, he named
his daughter Grace. Grace and peace. Grace and peace. Grace. What
grace? All grace. God of all grace. electing grace,
saving grace, keeping grace, restraining grace, redeeming
grace, forgiving grace, inheriting grace, sealing grace, like Ephesians
1. Grace. You ever get tired of
hearing that word? It means a gift. Gifts. Grace. Peace. Peace with
God. How? They said, by the blood
of His cross. Verse 20. Christ made peace through
the blood of His cross. Aren't you glad we don't have
to make our peace with God? Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
Christ did it for you? God ought to be angry with me
all the time. And maybe sometimes He is. I
know He is. But Christ made peace. Peace. From God our Father. Father. God. Stop at each word,
Kenneth. Blessed Word. God. Brethren,
our God is God. He's not trying to be God. He is God. Thy God reigneth. He reigneth
over us. Father. Today is Father's Day,
isn't it? Well, some of us don't have a
father living right now to whom we honor on this day, do we?
Yes, you do. In fact, every Lord's Day is
Father's Day. Isn't it? That's whom we honor.
Father. I had a good father. Some of
you had a good father, didn't you? A great father. You were
thankful that he was your father, weren't you? Good father. Oh,
if God is our Father. I wish I could get this, wish
the Lord would put this in my head and my heart, that God is
my Father. I'm so fearful and so afraid
that He's going to cast me out. God is not a man. And our God
is our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ. That goes all together. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Brother Cody Groover. Oh, didn't
you love that man? Still do. When he referred to
Christ, it was always the Lord Jesus Christ. Like one word.
The Lord Jesus Christ. That's His name. That's His title. That's His person. That's His
work. That's who He is. That's what He did. So he did
it for the Lord. God made Him Lord. Made Him our
Lord. Aren't you glad? Jesus, Savior. He came to save
His people from their sin. And He did it. And saved means
saved. Are you a preacher, once in grace,
always in grace? Yes. That's precisely what I'm
saying. Once in Christ, His grace saved
by Him. He shall not fail, Scripture
says, or even be discouraged. He shall save His people from
their sin. And He did. That's His name. If He came to
save me and couldn't, He's not Jesus. But His name is Jesus, Savior.
Christ, Covenant Head, Second Adam, Messiah, Prophet, Priest,
King, Mediator, High Priest, Christ. What a blessed Word. The Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3, we give thanks to God
and the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.
We give thanks. We give thanks. Oh, what an unthankful, unholy
world we live in right now. That's what 2 Timothy 3 says
in the last days. Unthankful, unholy. Unthankful. God's name is on people's lips,
but it's just to curse with. Not give thanks. But God. Save the people. To save them
from cursing and bitterness. Whose mouths were filled with
poison. And put thanks in their mouth. And praise in their hearts. Do
you not love to sing these songs of praise and thanksgiving? Do
you not love to give thanks? We give thanks. We give thanks. God's people. To God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and love which you have
to all the saints. Praying. Prayer. Prayer. What a blessed thing. What a
blessed privilege. What a wonderful thing. Prayer. He said pray in all ways, in
all things, in everything by prayer and supplication. Let
your requests be made known unto God. It's just been the last
several years that I realize I need to pray over everything.
Doesn't matter how small it is. But you can. Can your children come and talk
to you about anything? Can they? You urge them to. You want them to, don't you?
They should do so. Especially if they're little
children, they should. How much more? In everything. And I'm not embarrassed or ashamed
to say this now. I've prayed over some things
that you'd think were just so insignificant. But at the time,
I needed help. I needed help. Brother Stephen
can enter into this. I've been working on something
and be in an awkward position like under a car or whatever
and drop a bolt. And it's always, Stephen, it's
always Just how you reach it. That ain't Murphy's Law,
it's God's will. Why? Well now, Lord, and I've
done things, I've lost things, I've been doing things, I think,
I can't do this. I can't get it done. I'm going
to fail. I've got to do this. Help me. You know what? He has. Why do we pray about everything?
Because when that whatever you prayed for came to pass, you'll
give God all the glory for it. Don't go around telling everybody
you're praying about, don't do that. No. But we can and should. About everything. Whereas if
we don't ask for things, if we don't pray and it happens, we'll
attribute it to chance or luck or our own whatever. Everything. And when you get the thing, or
receive it, or even don't, you'll give God the glory. Now here's
what he thanks God for. We give thanks to God the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, pray and always for you since we heard
of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have to
all the saints for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.
We thank God for faith, hope, and love. These three things.
Thank God that you believe. Oh, he says that over and over
again. 2 Thessalonians 2. Oh, we're bound to thank God. 1 Thessalonians 2. We're bound to give thanks to
God that you've received the Word as it is in truth, the Word
of God, not the words of men. You're sitting here listening
to me read this book and declare it, and you know You believe
with all your heart and all your mind and all your soul that this
is God's Word. There's no doubt in your mind.
None whatsoever. Is it? Is it? No. Nobody can convince me otherwise. I believe with all my heart that
this, that's not the words of Paul. This is God's Word. I believe Jesus Christ. Don't
you? I do. I really do, John. I believe everything he said.
And I don't hardly believe anything anybody else says. But I do,
don't you? That's a miracle. There was a time when I was a
skeptic, I was a agnostic, I was a scoffer, I was a scorner, I
was an unbeliever. Just like my brother sitting
over here tonight. I was just like him. But now I believe with all my
heart." Why? I did not one day say, well,
I think I've changed my mind. No. God. Faith is not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's according
to the working of His mighty power. God one day said to this
proud rebel, Believe! And I did. Love it! Hate what you once loved and
love what you once hated. And I do. That's the only way
I can give an account for myself. Grace. Sovereign, electing, saving,
revealing. Grace. Faith. Hope. Hope. Oh, is that not a blessed
word right now? You know what this world is hoping
for? A cure for this disease. That's all they're hoping for. That's all they're hoping for.
Hoping somebody will find a cure for this disease so we can go
on sinning. And live life like we used to. What's our hope? It's in Christ. Christ is our
hope. In hope of eternal life. This is what we're hoping for.
God's people really want this whole thing to be over with. We want Christ to come back.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Hope. Our hope is in Him. Oh, and if you have a hope that's
built on nothing less than Jesus Christ's blood and His righteousness."
Oh, you've got a good hope. It's a sure hope, Paul says,
through grace, through Him. Is that your hope? I ask people
that all the time. What's your hope of eternal life? Whatever's in the heart, come
out of your mouth. Have the abundance of the heart. And if your hope
is in Christ, if you can say from the bottom of your heart,
And the first thing that comes to your mind is Christ. You've
got a good hope. You've got a great hope. You've
got a sure hope. And the only reason it's called hope is because
it hasn't been realized yet. But it's just as sure as God
is. Our hope is a person. And Hebrews says our hope is
within the veil right now, seated. That's our hope. It's entered
in within the veil. And His name is Jesus Christ.
Our hope. Faith, hope, and love. Love to
the saints. Love to all the saints. He said
down in verse 8 that Epaphras declared your love in the Spirit. Love to the saints. Oh my. Don't you love to gather with
the saints at the river? Anything you'd rather be doing
with anybody else? I'm just not comfortable with,
I have no companions and nobody in this world I want to be with,
but you. Love. And this is how you know.
Love. And some of us are so different.
Some of us are so different. Most of y'all are so strange. You know, that's why we all come...
I'm a Mahan, you're an Anderson, or you're a Cheeseman. Jesus,
you're a strange people. That's what he thinks about me.
We're all just a bunch of sinners saved by grace. A bunch of nobodies. That's all I am is a nobody trying
to tell everybody about somebody who saves anybody. Oh, love to
one another. Read on. It says, Where have
you heard this faith, hope and love which is the gospel? Cry. You heard it before in the word
of the truth of the gospel. You heard it. It says down in
verse 6, It's come unto you as in all the world brings forth
fruit in the day since you first heard of it. Knew the grace of
God in truth. The true grace of God. You heard
it. Hearing. Heard. What a blessed
word. Do you love to hear the gospel
preached? We love to read God's Word. Do you love to hear it
preached? Some of you, I know you do. You
listen to messages all the time. And you come back and listen
to this fellow. Same voice. Same message. Same book. All the time for 30, 40, 50 years.
Now, that's a miracle. That's a miracle. You heard...
See, the hearing ear... Here we go again, Cody's tip.
The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made even both
of them. There was a time when the last
thing I wanted to do on earth was to sit in a pew and hear
my dad preach. Now, it's the highlight of my
life. I order my life around it. You heard. Didn't Paul say,
oh, how shall they hear without a preacher? The world calls it
foolishness. The world calls this foolishness.
But, oh, those who are being saved, Christ's preaching of
the gospel is the power of God and the wisdom from God. And
a blessed, blessed thing to come and sit and hear God's Word for
you. Didn't. There was a day when
I didn't, wouldn't hear, couldn't hear. But then one day, I could. And I did. And I do. And I want to. How about you? Heard. I'm losing my physical
hearing. I've got hearing aids, but I
don't wear them. But you got yours in, Mom? Nancy,
don't blame me, because unless you've tried them, I hate them. I'll never lose my hearing. In fact, it's getting keener.
The older you get, the keener your hearing, that is your heart,
from God's Word. You'll tune out everything and
everyone but Him. That's the way it ought to be.
Because everything and everyone will give you nothing. The opposite
of peace, the opposite of hope, the opposite of faith, fear.
But if you hear His Word, those things are out the window. They're
out of the center. What about the fear of His Word? It's come unto you and bears
fruit. Fruit. If you just turn back a few pages
to Galatians 5, it says what the fruit is, the fruit of the
Spirit. It says love. You've already looked at that.
Joy. Do you enjoy that? Three things that Paul said make
up a true believer. They worship God. Spirit. God's people come here to worship
Him. Isn't that what you do? I know you do, because that's
all we do here. That's all we do. We don't have any entertainment.
We don't have a choir. We don't have a big band. We
don't have all this stuff. What do we have? One thing. We worship God in the Spirit.
And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Do you enjoy hearing Christ preach
the gospel prayer? I know you do. You keep coming.
I have no confidence in the flesh. Not your own. I have none. I
have no confidence in myself. Do you have any confidence in
yourself? Any whatsoever? Zero? Good. You must be a child of God. Is
your salvation dependent on anybody or anything other than Jesus
Christ? Good. You must be a son of God. Galatians
5. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering. You know, we're still here together. We're getting to know each other
pretty well. We still love each other. Long suffering. Gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Oh, what a good thing. Fruit. Don't you love fruit?
Read on in our text. Let me close. It says, you learn
of Epaphus, our dear fellow servant, verse 7. There's been some dear
fellow servants come here and preach, haven't there? There
was one here last week, a young man, like a young Timothy. We've had some dear, dear fellow
servants named Henry, named Scott, named Cody, named Walter, Marvin. Dear fellow servants. Servants
of what? Christ. Preaching the gospel. Faithful ministers of Christ.
That's how you know them. That's who they preach. And they
declared unto us your love of the Spirit. And brothers and
sisters, I wish you could hear the comments by various ones
about you. All the brethren know this church
well, and each one of you individually, and they declare unto me what
a blessing you are to them. Verse 9, For this cause we also,
since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and
desire, This is my heart's desire and prayer to God for you is
that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding. What is His will? It is that
you know Jesus Christ. Number one. His will. That you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. His will. And, even your sanctification. Verse 10 says that you might
walk worthy of the Lord. In wisdom, wisely. In other words,
Here it is. The will of God is that you know
Christ, believe Him, trust Christ, and be like Him. Is that what
you want? Don't you want to grow in grace
and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's it. You
have no great desire to be rich in this world or famous, but
you do want to be rich in faith. Rich in peace. Rich in comfort.
Is that your desire? It's of God. And it says in verse
10, being fruitful in every... and I've got to get down to this
one verse I want you to look at. Strengthen, verse 11, with
all might, according to His glorious power. Sam's so weak, well, you're
still here, in spite of all the things that have happened. Huh? Read on. Strengthen under all
patience. This is my prayer, that we might
patiently wait on the Lord in long suffering with joyfulness,
Giving thanks unto the Father, verse 12, who has made us fit
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. God has
made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in life. He had a whole message on that line right there. What
is it that makes you fit to be in heaven? Well, the righteousness
of Christ. Okay? The righteousness of Christ.
That wedding garment that He made and put upon you. And it's
this new creature, this new heart, this new mind. All things pass
away and all things become new. A new creature, alright? And
that creature is known by the things that it enjoys and the
things that it does. This new creature loves the things
of God, the Word of God, the people of God, the Christ of
God, the truth of God, the Gospel of God, the Word of God, the
songs of God, the songs of Zion, the singing. These things, what
we're doing right here. That's what this new creature loves.
The old man doesn't. The new man does. Let me ask you this. What if
you thought that all we're going to do in glory is to hear Christ
preach and sing? And praise? One big worship service forever. That's it. That's it! Does that appeal to
you? Well, see, if it appeals to you
now, you've been made fit for heaven. Those that don't love
that now, heaven will be a hell to them. They don't want to go
there. Those that don't love preaching
the gospel now, sure don't want to be there then. Those that
don't sing the songs of Zion now, sure don't want to be there
then. Because that's all that's going on. Really, preacher? You've read it. They say day
and night, Revelation, day and night. Well, there's no night.
Blessing and honor and power and strength and wisdom unto
Him, unto the Lamb, that's what they're doing. And I have no
doubt there's one preacher, John, Christ Himself. Will we ever
get tired of hearing him pray? The disciples didn't. One time
he preached on the road to Demas starting in Genesis, went all
the way through Malachi. And they said, don't stop. Don't stop. My heart's burning. That's what it means to be partaker
of the inheritance of the saints in light who's delivered us from
the power of darkness. I want to get to one word. He
delivered us from the power of darkness, translated us. into
the kingdom of His dear Son. We already have been translated. We already have been. We truly
have. Brought from darkness to light, death to light. But someday
we're going to be like Enoch. Someday, for us, it's going to
be just like Enoch. We're going to, whatever, we're
going to walk and all of a sudden we're going to wake up in glory. Really. You're not going to,
death's not going to, you're not going to, you're not even going
to taste of death. That's not going to be death
to you. It's going to be like waking up. The most refreshing
thing that ever happened to you. The most wonderful thing that
ever happened to you. It's better than birth. When that child comes
out of the womb, whoa, look at this. It's better than that.
Death. Isn't that what the scriptures
say? Alright. In whom we have redemption. Redemption. He has redeemed this
worthless life of mine. One way, through His blood. Even
the forgiveness of sin. That's the word I wanted to get
to. Forgiveness. That's a blessed word. And what
God means by forgiveness is just that. It means forgotten. There's
no forgiveness if you haven't forgotten. It's not forgiveness
if you haven't forgotten. If you ever bring it up again,
you didn't forgive them. We're not very good at forgiving,
are we? God is. He said, the sins and iniquity
of Israel shall not be remembered or come to mind. But Lord, my
sin, what sin? I'll give you the illustration.
One time I got to feeling real guilty and ashamed of the sins
of my youth. David prayed that, didn't he,
in the Psalms. He said, remember not the sins
of my youth. Wouldn't you like to wipe out
some of your youth? All of it. That I was feeling real ashamed.
I think Mom was in the hospital at the time. I thought, she's
going to die and I've got to make a confession. I went to
her and I said, Mom, forgive me. crying, and she said, when
I was, you know, kind of confessing, she looked at me like, I don't
remember that happening. And it was against her. She,
it's like, I don't know what you're talking about. What are
you talking about? But I did, I don't remember.
That's love. Love covered. If it's covered,
what's that mean? It's covered! You don't uncover it. Hatred? Uncover it! And I cover it. Well, that's God's name. Love. Cover it. I'll never bring it
back up again. Forgiveness. Isn't forgiveness
a wonderful thing? Well, if you're guilty, it's
about the most blessed word you'll ever hear. I forgive you. That
woman is about to be stoned at Christ's feet. He said, your
sins have forgiven you. She went out of there just high
off the ground. And no one else mattered from
that day forward. My sins are gone. Alright. Wonderful words of life. Come on Robin, you can play it.
You can do this. Hymn number 234. Wonderful words
of life. Sing them over and over again. 234. Let's stand.