for me, my all-time eternal home. Savior, take the fire and pour
it, make the kingdom for thy own. Overquickly, overquickly,
hallelujah, now, Lord, now, Thank you, Jeanette and Gabe. Colossians 1. Back to Colossians 1. Wednesday
night is a very special time to me. It's probably my favorite service. I think it's very vital, very
needful. from Sunday to Sunday is a long time. The gleaning has been done for
you tonight. I know you work and you don't have the advantage
that I do of sitting and studying and reading, but I've done that
work for you. If you just come, by God's grace,
open your mouth, I believe you'll get it filled. And Wednesday
night is a very profitable time. It's not law. It's not required
to come. And many of you make a special
effort, and I realize that. You drive a long way. You're
tired. You look tired. I know that. But I've prepared long for this. Wednesday night is mostly directed
at the church. That's why I think it's so special.
And with that in mind, I began to read the epistles. And I just chose an epistle like
drawing lots, you know. And I landed on Colossians and
began to read it and was so blessed by it. And I wanted to bring
a message from chapter 2, and I started reading the whole book. And I thought, I think we'll
just go through this book on Wednesday night. So that's what
we're going to do. We're going to start going through
the book of Colossians on Wednesday night. The epistles. You cannot beat the epistles,
can you, for wonderful, blessed instruction, edification, very
personal words of our Lord to His church. Hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. So, the book of Colossians. Chapter
1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. To
be a prophet, an apostle, an evangelist, a pastor, a teacher,
is by the will of God. It's a calling. One of the old
writers said, no prophet or apostle ever applied for the job, but
God called him. It's a calling. It's by the will
of God. An apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus,
or Timothy, our brother. Paul and Timothy. I looked it
up. Paul includes Timothy in five epistles that he wrote.
Five epistles he names Timothy. Paul and Timothy to the church
at Colossae and so forth. Philippi. They were constant
companions, Paul and Timothy. Constant companions. Timothy
was loved and esteemed by the church just as much as Paul was. And I couldn't help but think
about this young man. And I know you've noticed that
they pray for you now and are so thankful for you just as much
as me, just as much as him. Aren't you? And I'm so thankful. I remember Paul said to the church
at Philippi, he said, I have no man like-minded, like Timothy,
who will naturally care for your estate. And that's true of him. Nobody knows you and loves you
any more than him. So, Paul and Timothy. To the
saints, verse 2, and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae. To the saints. Saints. That means sanctified ones. The
Romans, he said, called to be saints. Who makes us saints? Well, it sure ain't the Pope. Paul thanks God for the people
at Thessalonica that God hath from the beginning chosen them
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. The Holy Spirit is He whom God
Almighty sends to set apart. to call out. How does he sanctify? What sanctifies God's people? The truth. Didn't our Lord say
that? Sanctify them through the truth. Thy Word is truth. And Christ is our sanctification,
isn't it? He said, I sanctify myself that
they also might be sanctified. Our faith in Him, the faith He
gives us. Our love for Him, our just total,
complete Trust and hope in Christ alone is what sets apart God's
people from the rest of the world. Saints. What a blessed term that
is. Saints and faithful. Faithful
brethren in Christ. Every time I use that term, you
look guilty. You look like you've come short
of that. And I do too. But now, I explained
it this way. Faithful means full of faith.
If you break the word down, full of faith. True. What does it
mean? True. Alright? What is faith? Is it something you do? Or is
it someone you look to? Huh? Is faith subjective? You look in here to try to find
faith? Or is it objective? Huh? Are you full of faith? You dare
not look in yourself, do you? You dare not look at your works,
look for evidences. You don't look for anything in
yourself to find faith. You look to Him. Do you believe
Him? Do you believe He's all your hope? Do you believe He's
all your peace with God? Do you believe He's all your
righteousness? Do you believe He is your salvation?
It's nowhere else? Prophet, priest, king, mediator,
all that. Do you believe that? Then you're
full of faith. Are you true to His glory? Would
you take any of His glory? Don't you want Him to get all
the glory? Worship Him and Him alone? All honor? That's what it means to be true
to Him. So you're faithful. Faithful. That's what He called. Don't
you know these people at Colossae? When Paul was writing this letter
to them, they thought, oh, I'm not faithful. They're just like
us, Kelly. People just like us. Sinners are just like that. And
when they receive this letter, they say, Oh, Paul thinks highly
of me, and I'm not faithful. Yes, you are if you believe and
trust Christ alone, and if you're true to his glory and his worship. That's the faithful in Christ.
Oh, my! In Christ. Salvation can be summed
up in those two words, can't it? In Christ. Those in his kingdom. Those in
his family, those in his love, those in his will, those found
in him, those accepted in him, those redeemed in him, those
forgiven in him. Salvation is to be found in him,
hidden in him. Oh, he says to those in Christ,
he says, verse 2, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace! What kind of grace? When we say grace, I had a fellow stop me, come here one day and
saw our sign out front. And he said, What do you mean?
What does that mean? So you're saying, what does it mean, grace?
What do you mean by that? I had another lady say, why did
you change your name from Baptist to Grace? So there's an opportunity.
And what we mean by grace, or what the Scripture says is grace,
is sovereign. It's a gift that God must give. It's His gift. Grace. Saving grace. Not trying
to save, but saving grace. Effectual grace. Constraining
grace. Restraining grace. Keeping grace. Upholding grace. Establishing,
settling, strengthening. It's an act of God upon us. An act of Christ for us. An act
of the Holy Spirit for us and in us. Grace is what God, by
grace you're saved. By grace, you say. It's not co-operation,
it's an operation. You understand? You understand
that. And I'll not go into what the world thinks it is. It's
not worth the breath. All right. Peace, he said. Grace
and peace be unto you. Peace with God. This world doesn't know it, but
God is angry. Though his wrath is clearly revealed
from heaven, and God has spoken once, yea,
twice, the men perceive it not." God is not in love with this
world. He's angry with it. And those
that believe not the wrath of God abides upon them. He that
believeth not is condemned already. They don't know it. It's like
those men who took David's Family. Ziklag. They took all his family,
and David went after them. And they're down there having
a big old party, thinking they got away with it. Since they're
all over just laughing, eating, drinking, sleeping, all that.
And while David is looking down on them, he's going to kill them
all. And take out his bride, Abigail. Abigail was in that one. He's
going to save her. He's going to take his own out
and slay the rest of them. That scripture, that story was
written to show us the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, but peace. God's people. God is not angry. You were children of wrath even
as others, but God. Salvation is found in those two
words. Salvation is in Christ and but God's. And you, but God's. But God's. You, same as the rest
of the people, but God made us to differ in Him and chose us. That's the grace we're talking
about. He chose us. Jacob had our blood. Chose him and put him in Christ
and swore that he'd never perish and never destroy, sinner though
he be. That's grace. And peace, peace
with God, how? By the blood of his cross. That's
in this chapter, this book. This book of Colossians, oh,
so rich. Peace with God, peace within. Christ said, my peace I give
unto you. Peace He made by the blood of
His cross. And my peace I leave with you.
Peace with Him that passes understanding. Only Christ can give. Peace with
others. Peace with the brethren. We have
enjoyed years of peace, haven't we? Why? Well, it's not due to
me. You know me. And it's not due
to you. It's due to God who hath ordained
peace in his church, his true church. There's no reason to
fuss and fight. None whatsoever. Peace with others,
and as much as possible, with everybody. God's people are peacemakers. And that wasn't so, was it, until
you heard this gospel. And that's what he goes on to
say. He said, Grace and peace, we give thanks, verse 3, to God
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. We give thanks always for you,
to God for you. Always thank God for everything,
but especially God's people. God's people. We thank God for
His people. And he said we always do, and
Mindy will tell you. That she and I, every time we
pray together, we always mention her. We bring up names. We try to. It's not always possible
to bring up every name we know. But we do. Always praying for
you. That's what we all ought to do
for one another. That greatly unites us in love. That keeps the unity of the Spirit
and the bond of peace. You cannot be mad at somebody
you're praying for. You can't do it. And God answers
prayer. He sure does. He delights in
it. He delights in intercessory prayer. He said, we always pray
for you since we heard, verse 4, of your faith in Christ Jesus
and of the love which you have to all the saints. You heard
of your faith. Paul is writing to them from
Rome. in prison, and he heard of so
many of them that he had met, and he was so thankful that God
Almighty had been pleased to give them this faith in Christ
Jesus and love to the brethren. He says, we thank God for the
faith that He has given you, this precious gift, that unspeakable
You know, most people don't care anything about Jesus Christ. Most human beings could care
less about the Lord Jesus Christ. Awful, isn't it? But God has given you faith,
love, hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, that's a gift.
It's a gift. Introduced his son to you. Caused
you, wooed you, sent you. It was your hap. It was your
hap to fall on the barley field that belonged to Boaz. Isn't that wonderful? And caused
you, he gave you some of his corn. and wooed you and made
you fall in love with your kinsman-redeemer that you didn't know you had.
Made you go to His feet and plead that He might redeem you. God
did all that. He did all that. Gave you this
faith in Him. And I quoted it a while ago,
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, we're bound. That's why we're bound
to always thank God. to always give thanks unto God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, foreloved of the Lord,
that God hath from the beginning, before the world began, chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of spirit and belief of the truth,
whereunto He called you by our gospel." John, you're the only
one in here from Connecticut. I know there are more believers,
but what are you doing all the way down here? Huh? Long way, isn't it? It's not
your home. Everybody down here talks funny,
don't they, John? Why did he bring you here? What
a blessing. What a blessing. Huh? What a
blessing. Giving you this faith. It's a
gift. What a gift. And your love, he
says, to all the saints. Thank God we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus. That's where faith is. It's repentance
toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the love which
you have to all the saints. Your love. Along with faith. Paul mentions these three things.
Faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love. And this love, along with faith,
is evidence of being one of God's children. One of the greatest evidence.
1 John. Go to 1 John 3 quickly. You know these verses. But look
at them again. 1 John 3. This love to the saints,
love of the brethren, is a gift of God. It's the first fruit
of the Spirit. Isn't it? It's the first thing
that God puts in His people. Love to God and love to the brethren.
Love him that begat and love him that's begotten. It's evident. Love. To love as brethren. That's not natural. It's not
natural. It's supernatural. To love people
that are not your blood kin, to love them like brethren, is
not natural. Is it? Everybody loves his blood
kin. The mafia does that. But to fall
in love with, and really, if your blood kin are not believers,
then you actually prefer the company of your brethren in Christ,
don't you? That's not natural. That's of
God. And this is what he said in verse
14, chapter 3. Verse 14, we know we've passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. You take a man like Brother Henry
Sower there. He and I are so far apart in
our background and our upbringing. Man, oh man, he's from Corn Valley,
and I'm from Ashland, Kentucky. Poles apart. Man, I love that man. I esteem
him so highly. God does that. He brings us together
with His love. Love to Him Himself and love
for one another. Look at chapter 5, verse 1. I just quoted it. Yeah, that's it. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is Christ is born of God. But we looked at Sunday
then. Born of God. What's it mean to
be born of God? Well, here's what it means. Everyone
that's born of God loveth Him that begat, and loveth Him also
that's forgotten of Him. By this we know we love the children
of God. We love God. We love God. We love His brethren. And those
born of God, oh my, what a gift. You know, flesh, talk about flesh
and blood, and go back to the text. Flesh loves those most
like us. That's why blood kin loves blood
kin so much. We're just alike. Talk alike,
think alike, act alike, and so forth. That's who flesh loves. Spirit. Loves those like Christ. Loves
those most like Jesus Christ. Spirit of man, heart to man,
heart to man. Spirit. He says much about that throughout
the Scriptures, this great evidence of love that God puts in. I go back to our text. So he
says, we thank God for this. And if you do, and you know whether
you do or not, and if you do, you love the brethren, thank
God, that's a great gift. And it starts here, doesn't it?
That love starts here. David said, I'm a companion of
them that fear thee. Alright, verse 5. He said, we
thank God since we heard of your faith in Christ and love which
you have to all the saints. And we thank Him for the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven. Oh, the hope. The hope that's
laid up for us in heaven. See, we're saved by hope. We live on hope. Paul said in
Romans 8, hope that's seen is not hope. If a man seeth it,
why is he hopeful? We hope in unseen things. Faith is evidence of things not
seen. We hope. But what is this hope
he's talking about? What we see not. Well, Mack read
this for us, I think it was last Wednesday night. He read this.
Whom have ye not seen? Whom have ye not seen ye love? Our hopes, person. Our hopes
in a person. The Lord Jesus Christ said, Whom
have ye not seen ye love? In whom? Though now ye see him
not, yet believe him, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable. and full
of glory. Our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. It's a person. We hope in a person. And he said,
you wait for that you hope for. He said, this hope is laid up
for you in heaven. You wait for it. What's that?
A mansion? Oh, I've got a mansion now. That's
not, that's carnal. He told the Thessalonians, he
said, I know you're elect. I know that God has chosen you
because our gospel came unto you. Not in word only, but in
power. The Holy Ghost is much assured.
And he went on to say, you turn to your idols to serve the living
and true God and to wait for his son. from heaven. You're
waiting on Christ from heaven, because He sits right there at
the right hand of the majesty on high, seated, reigning, ruling,
controlling, ordering all things to fulfill His purpose. He's
waiting. He's waiting to be gracious to
one of His future elects. He's waiting till the last elect
is brought into the fold and then, phew, it's getting up.
He's not going to come back. He said He would. He told the
disciples, you go before me into Jerusalem and wait on me. I'll
be there. And he tells us the same thing. He said, you get
together and you wait on me. I'm coming back. And he'll appear,
the scripture says, in the air. And so shall we meet the Lord. And you know, every time we come
here, I can't help but think this might
be it. Come to wait. Maybe, maybe he's
coming. Don't wait on Him. So He's the hope, you see. He's
the hope laid up for us in heaven. Our hope is in Him. Whereof you
heard, you heard a hymn before, verse 5, in the word of the truth
of the gospel. What a line. The word of the
truth of the gospel. My, my. Thank God for His word. I just read something by Thomas
Watson on the Word, how we know it's God's Word. It's just wonderful. I'm going to try to write it
down, put it in a bulletin and preach on or something. But this
is God's Word, and it's the Word of the truth of the gospel. Thank God for sending His Word.
Thank God for raising up a preacher. I thank God for this man. How
shall they hear without a preacher? I thank God that He sent me this
preacher. How shall they hear without a
preacher? Thank God for sending the Word of the truth of the
Gospel. Many people claim to believe
the truth and many fellows claim to preach the Word, that is,
the Bible. The Bible. But here it is in
a nutshell. It's the Word of the truth of
the Gospel. That's what this book is all
about. the truth of the gospel. What's the truth? It ain't a
what. I love the doctrines, but it
can all be summed up by the doctrine of Christ. The grace of God that's in Christ. The doctrine of Christ. That's
what John said, if any man abide not in the doctrine of Christ. But that's the truth of the gospel
in a name, in a person, in a word. The Lord Jesus Christ. The truth.
The truth. You know, many receive not the
love of the truth. That's a gift. The truth. Many turn away their ears from
the truth, don't they? Your friends, your family, people
you run into, you try to tell them the truth. I don't want
to hear that. Why? Why don't you want to hear the
truth? Why do you want to hear the truth? It's a gift, isn't
it? You receive the love of the truth.
And because many don't receive it, God sends them strong delusion,
and they believe a lie, and they love to have it so. And they
heap to themselves teachers to tell them lies, and they love
it. Why don't you? Why do you insist on hearing
the truth? Why do you insist when a man gets up, tell us the
truth? Tell us Christ. Show us Christ. Huh? Why? Oh, that's why I keep
saying we thank God for you. Thank God this is by His grace
that you love the truth. He's given you this love for
the truth of the gospel, the good news. You know, many people
are still under the law. Many people are under the law
and therefore under the curse. And they pretend to be happy? Don't know that they're under
a curse? Under evil men that love to oppress them like the
Pharisees of old? Some of you were under that,
weren't you? The Barrys? Oh, blessed freedom. We sing
that song, free from the law, O happy condition, the Lord Jesus
hath bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law, bruised by
the fall, Christ hath redeemed me once for all. Free from the
law, free from the law, blessed freedom, liberty, the glorious
liberty of the sons of God. Salvation just by looking to
Him, not keeping the law. That's a gift, isn't it? The
word of the truth of the gospel. What a message that is about
to set. Well, verse 6, he says, it's
coming to you. It's coming to you as it is in
all the world. Have they not heard? Yes, barely. The sound
has gone throughout the world. That's why I believe we're in
the very last of the last day. Our Lord said in Matthew 24,
when this gospel is preached in every place all over the world,
then come. Then he's coming. And I don't
know of a corner of this globe where that gospel has not been
pressed down. Do you? No, sir. So, it's come unto you, this
gospel. It didn't have to come to us,
but it did. The Lord sent it. What grace. Sent it into all
the world. Oh, my. And it brings forth fruit,
verse 6. Which bringing forth fruit, you
know the fruit in Galatians 5. Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy,
peace. You say, oh, I don't feel like
I have much fruit. Well, I don't either. But I believe I've got
some. Okay, let's go over that again.
Love. Do you love the God of the Bible? That's where it starts. Do you
love His Son? Do you love His salvation? Let such as love thy salvation.
Do you love His salvation? You love His glory. You love
His honor. You love doing this. You love His worship. Sounds
pretty good to me. Sounds like fruit to me. You
love His brethren. That's fruit. Joy. Does this
gospel give you great joy? You were smiling when I was talking
about free from the law. You must be joyful. Hold this
joy. This steadfastness of joy and
rejoicing steadfast in the end. Joy. In the gospel, a lot of
people don't enjoy this gospel. They hate it, don't they? You
enjoy this gospel? Love? Joy? Peace? Does it give
you peace? Don't think it does? Sounds like
you've got the fruit to me. See? That's where it starts. Sort of. Love, joy, peace, so
on and so forth. Well, it brings forth fruit. And all the people of God throughout
the world, same fruit, same spirit, same gospel, same truth, same
Lord, one Lord, one faith, one calling, one Father, one God
of all. That's why. Same fruit. Fruit,
singular. All fruits are fruit. They all have it all. And since
the day, when did this come? The day you heard of it and knew
the grace of God in truth. Peter called it the true grace
of God wherein you stand. The true grace, not an offer,
an act, not a plea by God, a command. That's when you heard it, when
God said, Here! And you heard it. That's the
truth, he said. You finally saw it. That's the
truth. It's not an attempt, but an atonement. Oh, this is the
true grace of God, and since you knew it, and the grace of
God in truth. In verse 7, you learned it also
from Epaphus, our dear fellow servant. You learned it from
this man. There's a couple of people in
here who didn't hear the gospel from me. I heard it from him.
And that's just fine with me. That's where I heard it. Same
gospel. He's a better preacher than I
am. He doesn't have a better gospel. Same gospel. Same gospel. It's not the creature. It's the gospel. That gives me
hope. It's not the creature. It's not
his ability. Not by power, but how? By my
spirit. It's by this gospel. He said,
I'm going to speak to this people with people of a stammering tongue. That sure gives me hope. Because
I just stumble and stammer all the time. He says he's a fellow
servant and a faithful minister of what? Of Christ. That's how
you know God's ministers. That's how you know God sent
them. Everyone of them are faithful to preach this message. Like
Paul said, I'm determined not to know anything of you. He said, I'm not going to stand
up and give you some eloquent speech and persuasible words
of man-wisdom. God has made foolish that stuff.
And Paul could have argued with the philosophers and doctors.
He said, just forget them, like our Lord didn't argue with me
today. Leave them alone. He said, I've come to preach
to the common man. I've come to preach to common
sinners. I've got good news for sinners.
Here it is. Like Moses lifted up the serpent
on a pole. Christ crucified. Anybody been
bitten? Anybody die? Look. How does a
man say, look? Explain that. Look. Spurgeon one time was testing
the acoustics in a building one time that he was going to preach
a message. This is a true story. He was
down on the podium and he was testing the acoustics long before
they had a PA system. And he evidently had a powerful
voice. He was only about 5'4", but he
weighed 240 pounds. And he had a chest and he could
bellow it out like all those old preachers. He had to. Well,
he stood there and he Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else."
Just testing the acoustics. And he left. And during that
meeting, a fellow came up to him and said, I'm the janitor
here. He says, I was up in the balcony
that day. And the Lord pierced my heart. He didn't know it was there.
It's a word. It's a simple message. It's a
supernatural, miraculous work. But it's a simple message. Look. Look. Oh, my. And verse 8, I close. He said,
Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, faithful minister of Christ,
Christ has sent him and Christ is his message. And he declared
unto us, your love in the Spirit. This man named Epaphras came
to preach there while Paul was in prison. And he came back to
tell Paul about his going to Colossae. And he testified and
said, Paul, the Lord is really blessing those people. They just
loved the gospel. They loved me. They were so generous
with me. And they're praying for you and
praying for all the churches. Oh my, the Lord has been so gracious
and done a work of grace there in that church. You'd be happy
to know. Apologies for joy. And that's the way it is with
every single preacher that comes to this pulpit. Every single
preacher that comes here, be it Donnie Bell, be it Marvin,
Tom Harding, whoever it may be, Todd, whoever comes to you, they
report back to me and they say, boy, oh boy, those sure are some
wonderful people. The Lord sure has blessed those
people. They just love the gospel. And
nearly to a man, they all say, I don't know of anywhere I'd
rather preach unless it's their own pulpit. Now, who's responsible
for that? It sure ain't me. It's God. God did this work. God works
in spite. God uses men who still works
in spite of them. Oh my. I thank God for you. Thank God for this gospel. Don't
you? That's united us, that's saved
us, and unites us. May God keep it coming forth
from this place. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord and our God, thank You
for Your Son, the Son of Your love, in whom we have redemption
and forgiveness of sin. Thank You, Lord, for making Him
sin for us, a bloody sacrifice. Thank You. Thank You for sending
Him to this cesspool of iniquity, the dung heap, to raise us up
to sit among prisoners. to redeem us peculiar people
unto himself, revealing the gospel to us. Thank you, Lord, sending
the Holy Spirit through a preacher to reveal the truth, the word
of the truth of the gospel unto us. It's coming to us. We believe
it. The gospel. It's our gospel. It's your gospel.
It's our gospel. It's my gospel. We thank you
for it. The blessed hope that we have
in Christ Jesus. Thank you. You would continue to use it
powerfully. Operate, Lord. Operate on our
children. Operate on our lost loved ones
and neighbors and friends, Lord. We pray for Your glory and their
salvation. Again, we pray for our brothers
and sisters going through trial. Lord, have mercy, we pray, for
Christ's sake. It's in His name we've met tonight.
Amen. You're dismissed.