Our first speaker this morning,
Pastor Greg Elmquist from the Grace Gospel Church in Orlando,
Florida, but who was born here in Virginia. So we've been happy
to have him here with us. And before he comes, let's ask
the Lord to bless this day. Our Father, we thank you again
for the privilege of gathering here, for bringing us here in
your sovereign providence. This is a good place to be. As
the psalmist said, I was glad when they said unto me, let's
go to the house of the Lord. We have every reason to be here. You've blessed us with all blessings. And we thank you we've come here
not out of duty, but from the heart's desire to give thanks,
praise, and worship our God who is worthy to be worshipped. Surely
all men should remember the Lord's goodness and give thanks unto
him. We thank you for the time you've allowed us to have together
and the messages you've given us. We ask that you would Bless
us again with a double portion this day. Bless Brother Greg
now as he comes to rightly divide the word of truth. Who is sufficient
for these things? We need your Holy Spirit. And those who hear, those of
us who sit and listen, we need your Holy Spirit, the same measure,
to be able to hear and receive the word of the living God, spiritual
truth. Forgive us of our sins. Again,
we give thanks for all things Christ. Thank you, Pastor. And thank
you. For receiving me so warmly, this
has been a wonderful blessing for me. I forgot to tell you
the other night when we began that your brethren in Orlando
send their greetings. Several of our people that told
me to be sure to let you know that they were praying for this
weekend and that they valued your fellowship in Christ. And
I'm excited about getting home and telling them about your faith
and about what a blessing it's been to be here. Thank you. I
want to thank your pastor and Mindy and Hannah for their hospitality
and what a blessing it's been to be in their home this weekend. Thank you. Thank you, Mindy.
Let's take our Bibles and open them to the fourth chapter of
Colossians. Colossians chapter four. And we'll begin in verse two. As Todd told us last night, the
first verse really belongs with the topic that the apostle was
dealing with in the previous chapter. As you know, the chapter
divisions were added much later after the scriptures were written
and probably should have been placed between verses one and
two. But the subject does change somewhat now, beginning in verse
two, where The Lord reminds us through the apostle to continue
in prayer. Continue in prayer. What he's
admonishing us here is not to give up. Be persistent. Don't be discouraged. There are
many adversaries that would cause us to to be lax in prayer. There's the weakness of our own
flesh. There's the world that we live
in. There's the circumstances that we deal with that would
cause us to to not pray as we ought. And he's telling us here
that we need to be persistent. We need to continue even when
the answers don't come as quickly as we would like. Let's let's
turn back to Luke Chapter 11, because there's two examples
in the Gospel of Luke that really illustrate this point. As well as anything in the scriptures. In Luke Chapter 11, the disciples
have asked the Lord to teach them to pray. And our Lord gives
them the model prayer. There in the first few verses,
and then he says to illustrate this. Great. Need to pray in verse five, he
says, which of you shall have a friend and shall go into at
midnight and say unto him friend, lend me three loaves for a friend
of mine is in his journey has come to me and I have nothing
to set before him. And he from within shall answer
and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut and my children
are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
And I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because
he is his friend yet because of his importunity. Now, parables
are given in the scriptures to teach one main idea. And here's
the idea that we are to pray. with importunity. We are to be
persistent in prayer. He will rise and give him as
many as he needeth. And I say unto you, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened. If a son asks bread of any of
you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks
of a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he
asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit unto
them that ask Him? Be persistent. We are so prone. to give up, aren't we, in prayer? And there's another example in
Luke 18. Another parable that our Lord
gives to teach this same truth, beginning in verse 1, and He
spake a parable unto them to this end. Here's the point of
the parable, that men ought always to pray. and not to faint, saying,
There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded
man. And there was a widow in that
city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while,
but afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear not God,
nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge
her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said,
Hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God. Now, the point
of this parable is that God's not like this on unjust judge. He doesn't answer just because
he gets tired of us listening. But the point of the parable
is that we that men ought always to pray. Shall not God avenge
his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he
bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth?" Prayer is an expression
of faith, isn't it? We truly do only pray for those
things that we can't control ourselves. And we're prone to
try to fix things on our own, aren't we? And so, the Apostle
said, continue in prayer. Don't give up. Keep praying. Now, is prayer for the purpose
of changing God? If God already knows, why pray? The Lord has given us this access
through prayer to change us, I think. That's the purpose of
prayer. It is through the continual prayer
that the Lord works in us that we might know His good pleasure. And so we pray, and as we pray,
we're able to work out In our fellowship with the Lord, those
things that we ought to pray for and in doing so, we have
the confidence that he hears us and that he will answer us. And that's the reason the apostle
goes on to say in our in our text now, continue in prayer
and watch with thanksgiving, expect and anticipate the heavenly
father to answer. To answer our prayers in a way
that's best for us and in a way that's going to honor and glorify
Him. Did the Lord not say, all things
whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. And so, prayer is the means by
which our faith is strengthened. As we pray, we recognize more
and more our dependence upon the Lord. And it's through this
continual prayer that the Lord grows our faith and prepares
us for the answer to our prayers. And so we pray with anticipation,
with thanksgiving. Now notice in verse 3, with all,
as you pray, pray also for us that God would open unto us a
door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I
am also in bonds. As we pray, we need to put high
on our prayer list. those that have been given the
responsibility to minister the gospel of God's grace in Christ. And pray for them that the Lord
would open a door of opportunity. Recently, I was accused of being
a hyper-Calvinist. And I asked this man, I said,
well, why do you say that? He said, well, because you don't
You don't promote evangelism. And I said, well, the difference
between me and you is that I don't make a work out of evangelism. I don't obnoxiously collar every
unsuspecting victim and force the gospel on him. I wait for God to open a door
of opportunity. And when He opens it, No man
can shut it. And we walk through those doors
as the Lord opens them. So we pray for God to open a
door. And, you know, in religion, men
are always knocking down doors, aren't they? And priding themselves
in their zeal for God. But those in faith pray for the
Lord. to open a door. And when he does,
the situation's right and the opportunity's available. Now,
that's not to say that when God opens a door and we walk through
that door and we're given by the Spirit of God an opportunity
to share the truth as it is in Christ, that there's not going
to be opposition. But the opposition comes as a
result of the gospel. Not in an effort to preach the
truth. That's that's clear. Look with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Look at verse 9. Paul says for a great door and
effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries."
Now, the Lord had opened a door for the Apostle Paul to preach
the gospel in Ephesus. Now, if you turn with me quickly
to Acts chapter 19, I'll show you where the adversary comes
in. In Acts chapter 19, beginning
at verse 8, and he went into the synagogue and spake boldly
for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the
things concerning the kingdom of God. There was an opportunity. God had opened an effectual door
and Paul zealously preached the truth of Christ as the opportunity
was given. And verse 9 says, And when divers
were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before
the multitude, he departed from them and separated the disciples,
disputing daily in the school of one Tyranus. The opposition
came as a result of the content of the message. And when those who were opposed
to the gospel made themselves known, the apostle
went somewhere else where there was an open door and an opportunity.
We don't take pride in the fact that people are offended by us. And we don't look for opportunities
to do that. We wait for God to open a door
and we need to pray for that. Let's go back to our text with
all praying also for us. That God would open unto us a
door of utterance, a door to speak. That's the word there
to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am in bonds. Now, He speaks of this mystery
in another place by calling it the mystery of iniquity. The
mystery of iniquity, and that's really at the heart of the gospel,
because what men don't know by nature and what they'll never
figure out is that their righteousness before God is iniquity. And that's really, you know,
there's several words in the New Testament to describe sin.
And the word iniquity is always used in the context of men's
presumed righteousness. And if you think about that word,
that word really is a conjunction of two words which means unequal. Inequity. And the way it's used
is in showing that what men believe to be sufficient to make themselves
righteous before God, God says, when I look at that, it's unequal
to my standard of righteousness. And God calls what men, what
men highly esteem, God calls an abomination. And he calls
it iniquity. And that's the mystery. That's
at the heart of the mystery of the gospel, isn't it? that men
can't see that, the mystery of iniquity. And then, of course,
there is the mystery of God's sovereign grace, of his electing
power, and of the effectual work of Christ in putting away all
the sins of all of God's people once and for all at Calvary. Those are the things that we're
to make clear. And Paul says, pray that God
will give me the ability to speak the mystery of Christ. We preach Christ. That's it. I profess to know nothing among
you save Christ and him crucified. That's the that's the subject
of our message. He is the subject of our message,
isn't he? We're not here to to preach philosophy
or to preach doctrine or to, you know, one of the things that's
very popular in religion, and they actually call it this, they
call it fix it sermons, fix it sermons, where a man will stand
up and give some practical advice on how one should fix the problems
in their lives. And of course, they miss the
gospel altogether because it's hid from them. Those who have
their eyes blinded can't see. And so, we make clear the mystery. And look what he says in verse
4, that I may make it manifest. That I may make it manifest.
Now, we know that it's the Spirit of God that has to make it effectual
to the heart. The Lord said to Peter when He
asked Peter, He said, Whom do you say that I am? And Peter,
on one of those rare occasions, actually had the right answer.
And he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
the Lord said, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and
bloods not reveal the Son to you, but my Father, which is
in heaven. This is my divine revelation. And it's designed that way in
order to make mercy beggars dependent upon God to open their hearts
and to reveal this truth to them. Lord, teach me. Show me. Lord,
if you don't open my eyes, I'll remain blind. So Paul says that
I may make it manifest. Though it is the Spirit of God
that makes it effectual and truly manifest to the heart, the preacher
is to Do everything possible to speak as he ought. That's
what he says. Look that I may make it manifest
as I ought to speak. Now, how ought a gospel preacher
to speak? How any believer to speak as
God opens a door of opportunity to to to declare the truth? Well, first of all, we ought
to speak with plainness of speech. We don't try to impress men with
words of worldly wisdom. We make it clear and plain and
simple. And we use the scriptures to
do that, don't we? Refer back to what God has said,
because that's the means that he uses to open the heart. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the Word of God. So we we speak with plainness
of speech using the word of God. How many times we've we've heard
someone speak and thought, well, I don't know what he said, but
it sure did sound good. Well, you can be sure that if
that's your response, it wasn't the truth and it wasn't it wasn't
the gospel as it ought to have been spoken. Secondly, we we
don't contradict the simplicity of the gospel with yay nay preaching. We don't say one thing out of
one side of our mouths and something else out of the other side of
our mouths. We speak consistently. We don't use ambiguous speech. We don't use words that can have
double meaning. So many do that, and they do
it in order to take the offense out of the gospel. Well, maybe
he meant this, or maybe he meant that. And so we won't get offended
because maybe he really didn't mean what it sounded like he
meant. He could have meant this other. Paul said, pray that I
will speak as I ought to speak, as I ought to speak. And then
finally, we ought to speak Faithfully, we don't tell half truths. We
speak the whole truth as it is in the Scripture. And as it's
revealed in Christ, it is required of a steward that he be found
faithful. So we speak the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. So help us God. That's how we
ought to speak. Verse 5. Walk in wisdom towards
them that are without, redeeming the time. Now, to walk in wisdom is to
walk in Christ. If we go back to the book of
Proverbs, we'll find that personification of wisdom is a clear description
of none other than the Lord Jesus Himself. Paul said in 1 Corinthians, he
said, God hath made him to be for us wisdom. He is our wisdom. So to walk in wisdom is to walk
in the discernment that comes from the mind of Christ, looking
in faith to Christ and redeeming the time as we're in this world. Why is it so important that we
redeem the time? Well, because the time is short.
I mean, the older we get, the more we are are reminded of how
brief life really is, aren't we? I mean, the Lord said life
is as a vapor. And it really is. It's here for
a moment and it's gone. It's like a flower. It blossoms
and then it dies. And so, it's incumbent upon us
and necessary for us to redeem the time that we have to make
the best use of it. to keep our eyes on Christ and
to walk in Him and in His wisdom, particularly towards those that
are without, that we not shame the gospel of Christ. Look at
verse 6. Let your speech be always with
grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to
answer every man. Let grace be the motivation of
your speech. Let grace be the subject of your
speech. What a joy it is to be around
God's people after a service and have them speak of the things
of Christ that they've just heard about. And let your speech be
with grace. Always with grace. Not just after
a service. But as we have opportunities
to to to speak of the grace of God as it is in Christ Jesus,
we we delight in that. And it's that speech that the
Lord blesses. We're to we're to speak the truth
in love. We're not to be contentious. We're not to be argumentative.
We're to seek ways in which we might edify one another. We're to be kind and truthful
and considerate, making others the center of attention. And
what a great thing it is when the Lord gives the grace to do
this. And this is something to pray for, isn't it? Because by
nature, oh, by nature the tongue truly is a little member that
boasts of great things, isn't it? It's a fire, a world of iniquity
that defiles the whole body. The tongue by nature is an unruly
evil full of deadly poison. And, you know, as we read these
admonitions and scriptures on how we ought to walk and how
we ought to talk and how we ought to live, we're convicted of how far short
we follow these things, aren't we? And we're reminded that there's
only one. There's only one that maintained
perfect obedience to the commands of God. And we look to Him as
our substitute who satisfied all the requirements of God to
live up to these requirements. But at the same time, we understand
that He's our example. And in looking to Him, He will
give us the grace to put into practice these things in our
relationships with one another. And so Paul said in Ephesians
chapter four, let no corrupt communication proceed out of
your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that
it may minister grace to the hearers. He left us an example
that we should follow in his steps. Now, I'm sure that he's
not talking about what we often hear hypocrites, self-righteous
hypocrites in religion doing when they attempt to impress
one another by speaking in syrupy terms. Doesn't that offend you? You know, I'm going to speak
in grace. And so they just sort of have this sing song, you know,
religious tone to everything they say. That's not what he's
saying at all. As a matter of fact, notice in our text, he
says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. Now, if you go back to the book
of Leviticus, you'll find out that every offering that was
to be brought into the tabernacle Had to be seasoned with salt. It was required of God that every
offering was to be offered with salt. It is referred to in the
scripture as the covenant of salt. And if we go back to second
Kings chapter two, we'll find that the prophet Elijah went
to Jericho and the people of Jericho were were dying because
their water was polluted. And there was no pure water in
the city. And what did Elijah do? A type
of Christ. He took salt and threw it into
the well, didn't he? And the water was made clean.
This salt is nothing less than a picture of the gospel. It's
a picture of Christ. It's a picture of grace. So when
he says, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,
he's talking about the offering of our lips to the praise of
God being centered around Christ and his gospel. And it will take
that which is corrupt. Isn't that what salt does? Salt retards corruption. Salt
takes what is otherwise unsavory and gives it flavor. That's the way the gospel works
through the lips of God's people. But he says in reference to this
being therapy all the time, let your speech be always with grace
seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer
every man. You see, the truth is that we
don't speak the same thing in the same tones to every person
in every situation. Now, that's what that's what
that's what hypocritical religious people do. They just try to take
on the same tone all the time. And that's not the way it ought
to be with great sympathy and compassion and gentleness to
people who are hurting and people are sincerely looking for mercy. And then there are times when
we have to speak in ways that I had a man just the other day. I mean, this guy was as much
a Pharisee as anybody I've been around since the Lord saved me. Since I was a Pharisee. But I'd just taken all I could
take of him. And I'd been coming to the church
for about a year, and I just finally told him, I said, listen,
you just need to know that I'm not impressed with your speech. And matter of fact, I'm offended
by it. And he said, he said, well, don't
you think you ought to talk to me like Jesus would? And how do you suppose, what
sort of tones do you suppose the Lord Jesus blind guides, children of hell,
whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones. Do you suppose that
he said, well, you know, I think you all need to consider the
possibility that you are full of dead men's bones. I hate to
say that to you, but you know, it just could be the truth. No,
he didn't. When we, as we walk in Christ
and walk in wisdom and discern the truth as it is according
to the scriptures, God will give us the ability to speak to each
man as we ought. And sometimes it's necessary
that we speak sternly with individuals. So, Paul says, pray that we'll
have that speech always seasoned with salt and always with grace,
but as we ought to every individual person. Now, notice in verse
7, all my state shall Tychicus declare unto you who is a beloved
brother and a faithful minister and a fellow servant in the Lord. I love the way that the apostle
gives affirmation to those who have proven themselves to be
faithful in the gospel. And, you know, I know once again
in religion everybody's your brother, you know, brother so-and-so. And I have people come up to
me that want me to call them my brother, and I refuse to do
it. You know, they'll, they'll say,
Well, hello, brother, find out that you go to church, you know,
and they'll, they'll say, Well, how are you, brother, and they're
waiting for you to, you know, refer back to them as brother,
and we ought not to do it. But for those like the apostle
now begins referring to he calls them beloved brethren. And, you know, I think it we
ought not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, what is more
You know, what's more affectionate than for us to refer to those
who have proven themselves to be brothers in Christ? Brethren,
call no man your master, for we are all brothers and sisters
in Christ. And it's a it's an affectionate
term. And we're we have an affection
as brothers and sisters in Christ that we don't have with our natural
flesh. who aren't in Christ, don't we? I have two brothers
who don't know the Lord, and I call them brother, but it's
a completely different type of brother than what I have with
him. So, he says the Tychicus is a beloved
brother and a faithful minister, a servant of Christ, a fellow
servant in the Lord. This word servant in our text
is the word doulos, is the word bond slave. He has proven himself
to have been bound as a slave and a servant of Christ. And
he greets you. And I'm sending him. Tychicus
now was the one who brought this letter to the church at Colossae.
And notice in verse eight, whom I have sent unto you for the
same purpose that he might know your estate and comfort your
hearts. The believers, you know, these
last few verses, when when when Paul assigned these chapters,
I don't know, I read for chapter four, I thought, now what you
know, that half of this chapter is just the end, you know, the
name of the individuals. And I thought, well, that's going
to be difficult to deal with. But the point here is that, that
Tichitus was sent to comfort the hearts of those in Colossae
because they were concerned for the Apostle Paul. And You know,
the thing that stands out to me in these last verses of this
chapter is the importance of individuals in the Church of
Christ, in the true church. You know, in religion, people
come and go, and you know, it's not really a grievous thing.
I mean, I preached in false churches for years. And, you know, I just
kind of got used to people coming and having problems. And, you
know, they'd go and somebody else would come. You know, I'd
do what I could to try to try to help them, you know, but but
I knew when they left, you know, that somebody else would take
their place. But it's not that way now. It's not that way. These three pastors here have
spent the last three days talking about individuals in this fellowship,
in my fellowship, in Brother Todd's fellowship, not in a critical
manner, but in an affectionate way. How is so-and-so doing? I'm interested in knowing about
you as individuals and find out from your pastor how the Lord's
worked in your life. That's the way it is. Every individual
is important in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we show genuine interest
and concern for one another. And that's the affection that
the church in Colossae had for Paul and Paul had for them. And
now he begins to mention all these particular individuals. Notice verse 9, when Onesimus,
a faithful and beloved brother, notice again, he uses these not
only affectionate, but these adjectives of accolade to lift
these men up who have proven themselves to be faithful in
the gospel. And these are the terms we use
to discuss and talk about each other. so and so. Your pastor has told me about
many of you with just glowing terms of how encouraged he is
to see your faithfulness and your love for Christ and the
work of God's Spirit evident in your life. And that's what
he's doing here. Notice Onesimus. You remember
the book of Philemon. Onesimus was Philemon's slave
who was from Colossae. and ran away from Philemon, and
came to Rome, and in God's providence, ran into the apostle Paul, and
Paul preached the gospel to him. God opened his heart and gave
him faith to believe it, and now Onesimus has, in time, in
time, he's proven himself to be faithful. And he calls him
a beloved brother who is one of you. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner. Aristarchus was obviously in
prison with the Apostle Paul for the gospel. And he says he's
my he's my fellow prisoner. And he salutes you also. And
Marcus, this is the same Mark that penned the Gospel of Mark. And he was the cousin of Barnabas. He says the sister son to Barnabas,
touching whom You received commandments. If he come unto you, receive
him. I'm not sure whether he's going to be coming yet or not.
But if he comes, you receive him. He too has proven himself
to be a believer and to love Christ and to love his gospel.
And I send my confirmation of him and Jesus, which is called
justice, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow workers
unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. They've worked side by side with
me. You know, I was in the in the
ministry of the gospel. I was I'm encouraged to have
your pastor say to me about one of the men in the congregation.
He's one of those guys you never have to ask him to do. He just
sees the need and just does it as a fellow worker. And that's
part of being a fellow worker in the Gospel. But another part
of it is what you're doing right this very minute. Preaching is
not something that one man does behind this pulpit. Preaching
isn't. is an encounter that we have
together and your attentiveness and hunger for the gospel is
the is is just as much a part of this preaching experience
as what the pastor does behind the pulpit. And so you are being
a fellow worker in the gospel as you sit there and encourage
the preaching of the truth of the truth through your attention
and your love for what you hear. fellow workers in the kingdom,
which have been a comfort unto me. Epaphras, who is one of you,
a servant of Christ. Every single one of these individuals,
he adds to them words that describe their character and describe
their faith. He is a servant of Christ. He
salutes you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers
that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. He has such a desire for you
to be full and for you to be mature and for you to grow in
grace and be complete in the Lord Jesus Christ and in all
of His will. And this is the way it ought
to be with fellow servants and with other believers. We covet
your prayers, and I promise you that our people will be praying
for you. as we grow together in the faith. Verse 13, For I bear him record
that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea,
and them in Hierapolis. He talks about you, he prays
for you, he thinks about you, he's got your best interests
at heart. He's got this zeal for your good. Luke, the beloved physician. Luke was Paul's companion in
ministry and in the mission work, and Luke was the penman. that recorded many of the things
that the Spirit of God gave to Paul through inspiration to write. And Luke was actually the one
who wrote out many of these letters. And he was a physician by profession. And I'm sure that with the things
that Paul had to say about himself, it was God's mercy to Paul to
have a doctor close by all the time. You know, I really, really,
you know, this was this was the way Lord the Lord took care of
the Apostle Paul as well. And Demas greet you now, do you
notice anything different in verse 14? Every single person that Paul
has mentioned up to this point, he calls them a beloved brother,
he calls them zealous for the gospel, he calls them faithful
ministers, he calls them servants. And Demas is there with the Apostle
Paul in Rome and Demas says, tell him I said hello too. And
so the Apostle Paul says, Demas greets you also. Now what's the
significance of that? Well, the Book of Colossians
was written in 64 AD. In 66 AD, two years later, the
Apostle Paul penned 2 Timothy. And in 2 Timothy, the Apostle
Paul said, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present
world. Now, don't you know that two
years before Demas forsook the Apostle Paul, The Apostle Paul
had reason to believe that Demas was just there in body but not
in spirit. And I'm sure that it was heavy
on his heart that that was the case. You know, we pastors are
very concerned for those who are there, you know, in body,
but But, you know, they just don't have any real reason to
have confidence in their faith in Christ and their faithfulness
to the gospel. And, you know, I'm also that
the interesting thing here is that Demas's name means governor
of the people. That's what his name means. And
my experience has been, and I'm sure that these other pastors
will affirm the same thing, that there are people who come into
the church and they expect a position of leadership. And the first
thing you know is that if a man expects that, he doesn't have
any idea of what he's talking about or what he's doing. And
then if you don't give it to them, they get offended and they
leave. And so it's the better part of
wisdom for a pastor to not recognize someone in the congregation until
they, like these other men, have proven themselves to be faithful
in the gospel. And here's the thing about it
is, if they're God's elect, they're not going to be offended by not
being recognized. by not being affirmed, by not
having these accolades spoken of them, they're not going to
be offended by it. They will remain in the church until that
time where they have proven themselves. Demas obviously didn't. He went
out from them because he was never of them. And for if he
had been of them, he would have remained. That's our experience
in the gospel world. and in the church. Verse 15,
salute the brethren which are in Laodicea and Memphis and the
church which is in his house. You know, we salute one another,
your brethren in Orlando. I can't tell you how many came
up to me on the last Sunday and last Wednesday and said, be sure
to tell the brethren. We love them and we're praying
for them and send them our greetings. That's the way it is. And I'll
do the same when I get home. Verse 16, And when this epistle
is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church
of the Laodiceans, and you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. Share these truths one with the
other. And that's what we're doing this
weekend, isn't it? We're sharing the gospel with
one another, and we're encouraged by that. to hear the Lord at
work in other places and with other people. Verse 17, and say
to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received
in the Lord that thou fulfill it. Now, Archippus was a pastor
there at Colossae and he had a responsibility to preach the
truth of Christ. to the church. And Paul's reminding
him of that. Perhaps there had been some some
talk about, you know, how he was maybe being influenced by
these who were coming into the church, which is what the whole
book of Colossae is about. There were those who were saying,
well, Christ is necessary, but he's not sufficient in and of
himself. And, you know, sometimes a pastor
can be adversely influenced by people who come in and start
doing different things and saying different things. And Paul's
reminding him and reminding me and reminding your pastor and
Todd of the importance of not allowing that to happen. You
be faithful to this gospel and don't tolerate anything that
would contradict it or that would change it in any way. You receive
this of the Lord and you will be responsible to him. You know,
that's the beauty of pastoring a gospel church that we the pastor
is here to serve God's people. No question about it. He's got
to be the number one giver. He's got to be the he's got to
be the most sacrificial. And these things that we've just
read about all these men have to speak of him more than anyone
else in the congregation. And that having been said, he
is the servant of no man. He's the servant of no man. He
doesn't answer to men. He doesn't fear men. He doesn't
do his work for the approval of men. He does what he does
as unto the Lord, knowing that his final reward will come from
him. And that's the kind of pastor
you want, isn't it? It's not that way in religion. I don't
know how many of you all have been in religion before, but preachers
in religion are always, always testing, you know, the direction
of the wind and doing whatever's necessary to keep everybody happy
because they're the servants of men, protecting their jobs
and their reputation. The truth is that a faithful
pastor, in the end, If he's speaking what's true, and he's confident
that it's faithful to the gospel as it's revealed in Scripture,
and that God's pleased with it, in the end, he doesn't care what
anybody else thinks. And if everybody leaves, that's okay. Isn't that
amazing? After the Lord fed those 5,000,
and they wanted more, and he said, you're just following me
so that your bellies can be full. And the scripture says they all
turned around and left. Now, in religion, the apostles
would have said, you know, Lord, we need to we need to temper
our speech a little bit here and we need to figure out we're
about to lose 5000 potential church members. And what the
Lord say, he turned to the apostles and he said, Will you leave me
also? Aren't you going to follow? The
invitation of the gospel is, leave if you can. Really? I mean, we can say that. We can
stand up here and say to God's people, leave if you can. And you'll never hear that statement
in religion. What'd the apostles say? Lord,
where should we go? For you alone have the words
of eternal life. You see, God's people aren't
going to be offended by that. And they're not going to leave.
Those that are offended and do leave, well, that speaks volumes
of their condition, doesn't it? The salutation by the hand of
me, Paul, remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.