Show me what I have to do, help
me out my strength renew. Let me live a life of faith,
let me die like Jesus did. Let me die like Jesus did. Great hymn, great hymn. Thank
you, Jerry. You'll notice he says, ask what you will. You're coming to a king. Large
petitions with the brain. And then so he begins with a
large petition. He doesn't start asking for temporal
things. He starts asking for great things,
things that are impossible for others. Remove this load of sin. That's the first thing he asks
for. Set my conscience free from guilt. Lord, I come for rest. Take possession
of my breast. Let thy spirit be my guide, and
on and on it go. Let me live a life of faith,
and die thy people's death." Not one temporal petition did
he ask. Those are great things. I was reminded of Isaiah 7, where
the Lord told Isaiah, Or Ahaz, as it was, asked a sign of the
Lord thy God. Ask Him in the depth or in the
height. Ask something great. Ahaz said, I won't do it. And
he said, if you won't do it, I'll show you a sign. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive. Great thing. All right, let's
go back to Colossians 1. John Luke, one of my favorite
hymn writers. Colossians chapter 1. This is
one of Paul's prayers. I love the prayers that are recorded
in the Scriptures. If you will look them up. If you want something to read
in the Scriptures, look them up. Moses made many prayers. David's prayers throughout 1st
and 2nd Samuel. the Psalms, Solomon's prayers,
Ezra. Oh, I love Ezra's prayer, Nehemiah,
Daniel, Habakkuk's prayer, and the Apostle Paul. The Apostle
Paul, in nearly every epistle, he prays a prayer for that church,
and this is one of those. And all of Paul's prayers for
churches are also this Paul's prayer from this church, the
church at Rocky Mountain. All right? Verses 1 and 2. Let's
go ahead and read. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, and Timotheus, Timothy was his constant companion,
and our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ.
To the saints. I love that term. I don't use
it lightly, and I don't use it carelessly upon anybody, but
I love that term. It means sanctified one. God's
blessed saints. They are truly blessed people,
blessed by God, sanctified by Him. And if you look around you,
these are saints of God, and they are those of whom the world
is not worthy. Aren't they? You wouldn't say
that about yourself, but you would about your saints, your
brethren, and the faithful. Faithful in Christ. Faithful. Thank God for His faithfulness
to you, to me. And I thank God for your faithfulness
to His truth, His Word, and to each other. I do. That's the work of God. He gets
the glory. But I give thanks to you also. Grace and peace, he said. Grace
be unto you. All grace from the God of all
grace to all the saints and faithful. And peace. Peace from God. We read how he's reconciled us
by the blood of Christ. From God, our Father. Not just
our holy God and creator, but our Father. Our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks, Paul and Timothy, and so do I,
give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you. Always praying for you. That's
a sign of real love, when you have somebody on your mind and
you pray for them. Pray for them. Always praying
for you. I believe you do the same. I
am for you, since verse four, since we heard of your faith
in Christ, thank God for this faith in Christ Jesus, saving
faith, and of the love which you have to all the saints. Notice
he mentions faith, hope, and love, verse five, and for the
hope which is laid up for you in heaven, which hope we have
been rejoicing in the last week, for the hope which is laid, we're
saved by hope. Thank God for that hope, for
that faith, love, and hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
which is laid, it's hope, we have a hope, but it's there,
it's sure, it's personal. Remember that? Our hope is a
person. Remember we read that in Hebrew?
He's a person and he's in heaven. He's in heaven right now. Christ
himself said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go
to prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you to
myself. Now if it were not so, I would have told you. But I
go and then I come again. So he is there now. And he's
coming again. He's been coming for some of
hours, and he's actually taking them. And they're with him, and
we wait in blessed hope of that reunion with him. For the hope
which is laid up, where have you heard before? In the word
of the truth of the gospel. The word of the truth of the
gospel. I love the language in Scripture.
Don't you? I love the language of Scripture
that you heard of in the Word, the truth, the gospel. You have to have all three for
it to be, for any of them to be set, don't you? Peter says
the same thing. Peter said, we're saved with
that incorruptible seed, the Word, and this is the Word which
by the gospel is preached unto you. Word of the truth of the
gospel. That's the language of scripture,
and that's the language of true believers. The word of truth
of the gospel. This is where we heard of all
of this. This is how our Lord revealed
this to us, this mystery. Verse 7. He says, I'm sorry, verse six, this word
of the truth of the gospel, which is, which is coming to you. It's
coming to you. I have a small group here tonight,
but it's a blessed group because as Paul said to the Thessalonians,
knowing brethren, the love of the Lord, your election of God. Because our gospel comes to you.
This is how we know God's blessings upon a people and how they're
His elect. It says the gospel came, which
has come unto you. Put your name there. The gospel
which has come unto you. It passed by some of your relatives,
it passed by some of your friends, it passed by your neighbors,
it passed by others, but it's come to you. What a blessing. The reason he says, we thank
God always for this blessing which has come unto you, as it
is in all the world. And this gospel has gone into
all the world. The gospel has gone into all
the world. I'm about to go down to a little island in the Caribbean, where there's
a people there, Spanish-speaking people, that believe this very
gospel. Wish you could go with me. Wish
you could go with me. I know somebody wishes they were
gone, that she'd been begging me, but not this time. But it's
in all the world, Mexico, all over the world, this gospel is
coming. Have they not heard Paul say it? Yes, barely. Sounds gone
throughout the world, and brings forth fruit. Brings forth fruit. And fruit of faith, primarily. And everywhere the gospel goes,
wherever the gospel is, there must be sheep there. As it doth
also in you, it brings forth this fruit which it brought forth
in you since the day you heard of and knew, the grace of God
in truth. He keeps saying that, the word
of the gospel, the truth of the gospel. The grace of God, a lot
of people talk of grace, a lot of preachers claim to preach
grace and say a lot about grace and they name their buildings
grace this and grace that. But you know what it means by
the grace of God and truth. You know what it means. It's
not a general offer. It's not something that God tossed
out there for anybody to take and wants it. No, no, no. particular
grace, this is an undeserved gift, this is a sovereign, effectual,
saving, eternal gift of his son's righteousness and his shed blood
and eternal redemption for all those that he bestows this grace
upon. If this is the grace of God, saving grace, eternal grace
in truth, The true grace of God wherein you stand, Peter says.
You stand upon that. That's the reason we disdain
and hate all of this talk of grace that diminishes the grace
of God, for we stand on that. All our hope is built on that.
Grace of God in truth, that's our language. As you also learn,
he said, you heard this grace of God, Paul said, you heard
it from me, Timothy, and he also learned it of Epaphos, our dear
fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ.
And I thought of all the faithful men you've heard it from. But
their names, James, I'll use their proper names, James, Henry,
Donald, Thomas, Charles Willard, You know, Charles Riverd is a
taut sniper. You didn't know that. I called
him that one day and he said he didn't even know his own name.
Charles, Willard, Marvin, Timothy, and so on. These faithful, faithful
ministers of Christ for you. Right? You've heard that same
gospel. Whoever stands in this bullpen,
you're going to hear this, the grace of God in truth. The word
of the truth of the gospel. Whoever stands here, I insist
that they be true minister of the gospel, preach the grace
of God in truth, and they all are fellow servants. Verse 8,
and they, Paul says, Epaphras also declared unto us your love
in the spirit. This Epaphras, who was an elder
or something in the church there, I went to Paul and told, reported
to him about the Church of Colossae, how it was doing, and he declared
unto Paul their love in the Spirit, how they continued in faith,
hope, and love, their love in the Spirit, their love for the
gospel, for truth, and their love for each other. That's what
that means, love in the spirit, love by the spirit, and love
in the spirit. And everyone who visits here,
all these men that I mentioned, or whoever for that matter, goes
away from here with reports of what a loving people. What a
church. Everyone that comes here loves
to preach here. I hate to leave here. There's
no place I'd rather preach. I don't mean that. And I really
do hate to leave here. I look forward to every service. But these men that leave here,
and all who just visit here, go away with just warm affection
for you and declaring your love in the Spirit, verse nine. And
so for this cause, Paul said, for this cause, we also, since
the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, but do not cease
to pray for you. I love what Samuel said, God
forbid that I should sin against him. and ceasing to pray for
my brethren. It's a sin against God to not
pray for your brethren. Don't pray just for your own,
pray for your brethren. That's what God honors. And so
Paul says, we do not cease to pray for you and to desire. Our heart's desire and prayer
to God for you is that. And he gives in four basic things
here in these next few verses. This is his prayer. He asked
the Lord to grant them, and I ask the Lord to grant you and me. The first thing is wisdom. The second thing he asked for
is fruitfulness. The third thing he asked for
is strength. And the last thing is thankfulness. We might be thankful. All right,
let's look at it. And then he ends up with a declaration
of Christ that's unsurpassed in all of God's Word. He can't
even quit. He keeps talking about Christ
and it's one of the longest sentences in Scripture. And I hope we get to it. Verse 9, he says, I pray for
you that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will,
in all wisdom and spiritual You remember that, don't you? We
just looked at the knowledge of His will, God's will. You
know what that is. Where was that? Do you remember
where that is? How that God has abounded toward us in wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of His will.
Where is that? Ephesians 1. You need to remember
that. Go back there. Ephesians 1. We
just studied that. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, the
mystery of His will. He's made known unto us, not
everyone. And Paul prays that we might
be filled with the knowledge of that will in wisdom and spiritual
understanding. Ephesians 1, verse 8, He's abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us those
who've been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, predestinated. accepted in the blood, redeemed
according to the riches of His grace. He's made known unto us
the mystery of His will. He's hid these things from us.
Many, many, many. But many are called but few are
chosen. Or what is that will? Read on.
He did this according to the good pleasure of his will, which
he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of time, that is, after everything said and done, this is what it's
all about, this is God's will, that he might gather together
in one all things, in Christ. Things in heaven, those that
are there now, those that are on earth now, he'll gather them
all together in one, even in Christ. That's what it's all
about. That's the reason He created
this planet. That's the purpose for all things,
is that He might gather together everything of people in Christ,
to the glory of God the Father and God the Son. Gathered together.
All things work together to that end. Everything in our life.
The lives of God's people, works together, all things, every event
in our life is working toward that end. All things, all relationships,
everyone we come into contact with, everything has been predestinated,
predetermined to bring about this eternal end, eternal end. Eternal doesn't have an end,
but eternal purpose. that we might be in Christ, be
found in Him and with Christ in that great day. Everything
works together for this purpose, us being with Christ in that
great day. So Paul prayed, may God make
you wise to see. May God make you to understand.
And whatever it is, no matter how it seems at the moment, know
this for a fact. May he fill you with all wisdom
in knowing that this too shall rebound unto his glory, and it's
for my good, and works together for that purpose. And it must
be, or it wouldn't have been. And he said, so Paul said, I
pray that God make you wise. Fill your mind and heart with
this knowledge. And this is the knowledge which
gives peace. Paul talks so much about peace
by believing, peace by believing, peace by believing, peace by
believing, peace. Settle your heart. Why? How? Believing what? That God reigns. That God worketh all things together
according to His all-wise purpose and will, and it must be, it
must be, it must be. Our Father knows best. Don't
question your Father. Bow, and someday you will give
Him thanks. from the top of your lungs for
doing it exactly like He did it. You'll see the whole thing,
panoramic view. You'll see how all things did
work together. You'll see how this must mean
for this to happen, for that to happen, for His glory in our
future. Yes, we will. And this grants
peace. So we pray that God may fill
you with the knowledge of His will, wisdom, and spiritual understanding. And this is His will also. The
second thing He asked for, verse 10, that you might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Paul said that. He doesn't
tell any church anything different. He doesn't tell one church one
thing and another, another. He doesn't leave out anything.
He says the same thing. He writes the same thing. You
remember when he said that very thing? To write the same thing
is not grievous to me. It's safe for you. But he said
to the Thessalonians, this is the will of God, even your sanctification. that you should abstain from
this and that and possess your vessel. So this is his will also,
that you walk worthy of this vocation. Walk worthy of the
Lord unto all pleasing, endeavoring to please him. That's what he
said to Thessalonians, that you know how you ought to walk and
please God. He's our Father. If you love
your dad, you're more pleasing, don't you? You want to bring
honor to it. You want to be like Him. And
that's what He says to us. Being fruitful in every good
work. Fruitful. He asked God to make
us fruitful. Everything is for God's glory. And Christ Himself said, Herein
is the Father glorified. You remember what He said? He
said, This is the way the Father is glorified that you bear much
fruit. Solomon writes a great deal about a disobedient son
and a rebellious son throughout the Proverbs, and he says how
it's a son or a daughter that are disobedient, how they bring
reproach upon the parents. But an obedient, fruitful son
or daughter brings great glory to the father. And so it is with
us and our Heavenly Father. Herein is the Father glorified
that you bear much fruit. Why did Jesus Christ come to
this earth? What's the first reason why Jesus
Christ came to this earth? To glorify God as a man. This is why God created man,
for his glory. All have sinned and come short
of his glory, haven't they? In every respect. For Christ
came. The God-man came. He glorified. Father, he said, glorify thy
son as he glorified Jesus. So he came, and he did. He was
that fruitful vine, wasn't he? He's that fruitful vine. And
this is why we are created in Christ Jesus. This is why God
saves us, that we might be created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which the Father had ordained that we should walk
in. Right? That's why we're saved, not just to give us a fire escape,
not just to make us happy eternally. No, for His glory. For His glory. And to turn us from devils into
God's children. When he found us, we were unholy,
blameable, reprovable, saved us in order to present
us holy, unblameable, unreprovable, to make us harmless, separate,
undefiled. That's the reason he did it.
Go over to Galatians 5 real quickly. You know these things, the fruit
of the Spirit. This is not something we produce. This is the fruit which the power
of God's Spirit produces in everyone that God has saved, everyone
who God chose and Christ redeemed. Galatians 5, so Paul says, I
pray that you might be filled with fruit, fruitful. Here it
is, verse 22, that the fruit of the Spirit
is first love, love, that you might be filled with love. for
his gospel, for his people, joy, filled with joy, joyful, full
of joy, joyful, joyful. Paul was, wasn't he? Joyful. Peace, peaceful, full
of peace. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, all of those are descriptions
of our Lord himself, aren't they? That we might be like him. All
right, go back to the text. So Paul prays that God would
make us fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge
of God. Verse 11, here's the third thing
he asked for, that you might be strengthened, strengthened
with all might, strengthened with all might. That is, in all areas that we
need strength. We're weak, aren't we? We're weak in
every area. We feel weak, so we need strength.
We need to be strengthened in faith. Our faith is so weak. Thank God for the mustard seeds.
I'm not satisfied with it. Are you? I'm glad it's there,
and what little bit's there, but I'm sure not satisfied with
it. He is, but I'm not. I want to grow, don't you? I
want my faith to be strengthened. Hope, hope, love, and all of
these things. And this strength comes one way
by His power. What's His power? What's the
power of that? The word, the gospel, the word
of the truth, the gospel. This is God's power through His
Spirit. But you might be strengthened
with all might according to His glorious power, unto, boy we
need these don't we? Strengthened in patience. Patience, patiently waiting.
Patience is just not a virtue we're born with, is it? My, my.
And it's something that it takes a lifetime to work in us. And it takes trials. Trial your
faith. Work with patience. Patience,
experience. Experience, hope. James wrote
about it. Paul, Peter, and James, they
all, in turn to 1 Peter 1, they all say the same thing. This
is what Paul wrote is like reading Peter. First Peter one. Look at this. Peter says this
in his first letter to church, general church, first five. First
Peter one, you're kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed. Paul said that hope is laid up
in heaven. Peter said, you're ready to be revealed, ready.
God only knows when it's going to be, you're going to be revealed.
If your time is appointed, and wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness through
manifold and many temptations, let the trial of your faith be
in much more precious than of gold and perishing, though it
be tried with fire. might be found unto praise and
honor and glory in the period of Christ. Verse 9, receiving
the end of your faith, salvation of your soul, and all the glory
of God. So back to the text. Paul says,
I pray that God will make you strong in faith, hope, love,
patience, long-suffering. Oh, my. Long-suffering with joyfulness. Suffer long. with joy upon them. Our Lord, I love that passage
in Hebrews 12 where it says, now our Lord endured. He said that you might be long-suffering
and patient. That means enduring whatever
it is. You patiently wait for what you
have received. You patiently endure things,
knowing that the Lord, this too shall pass, and it's for a reason.
You're long-suffering, or you've suffered long through, well,
through this world you have many tribulations, with joy, by the
stuff. What can give us joy? Same thing
is said of Christ in Hebrews 12, where he said, he endured
the cross. despising the shame, I thought
nothing of it, but it was set before me.
Knowing this all for eternal unspeakable joy, endured the
cross. Now, we haven't done that, and
we never will. None of us have resisted under blood, striving
against sin. He did. He sweat it, and he poured
it out, and suffered from the cradle to the grave, unlike no
one ever will. Yet the joy, you see, for the
joy that was set before him. So that's what Paul says, that
you might be strengthened. You need this prayer? I do. Look at the last thing,
the fourth thing he prays for, giving thanks. He's not giving
thanks, he's already done that, isn't he? Paul already did that. He's praying for us that we might
give thanks in all things. You remember how He said that
in the Philippians? And in everything that you might
give. In everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving. It says the same thing. Give
Him thanks. Pray that you might give thanks
unto the Father. Thanks, that you might be thankful.
You know, Look at this next thing. In light
of what he says here, it ought to make us mighty thankful. Give
me thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance and the sanctity. Let me put it in our language.
God included us in the family. The inheritance. I'll always
be given thanks that he included us, that he included us. Everything, if everything were
considered in this life, He chose me. He called me. He
sanctified me. He redeemed me. He sent His Son. He leads me. He guides me. He chastens me. All these things
because I'm one of the family. Remember little Chela down in
Mexico? That means I'm one of the family. Somebody said to a saint that
had endured a great deal of trouble, and wisely said to that person,
God must love you always. He's included in it. He's made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. We're
in on the inheritance. We're included in the family.
We're like almost in the shed. You know, we ought to think of
ourselves as old men through the shed. I wonder if he ever lost sight
of where he came from and where he was. I wonder. Every time
he looked down at his old legs, he'd remember, I'm sure. He was
an enemy. He was deserving of death like
all of Saul's sons, all the enemies of David did. The rest of his
brothers, Mephibosheth's brothers, were killed in him. But old Mephibosheth was sitting
at the king's table, included in the family as one of the king's
sons, from an enemy to a son, sitting at the king's table,
sitting among princes, from the Dunheath to sit among princes.
That's what Hannah's prayer was. That ought to be your favorite
prayer, Hamlet. Hamlet. Hamlet's prayer, he wrote it.
He lifts the beggar from the dunghill, sitting among the princes.
Ask old Mephibosheth, he'll tell you what that means. Ask old
Job, he'll tell you what that means. Ask the thief on the cross,
he'll tell you what that means. Ask Mary Magdalene, she'll tell
you what that means. Always remember where you came
from, it'll make you thankful. Always remember what you have
right now, it'll make you thankful for everything, everything. I love to talk about my old dog
Abner, because he's such a good illustration, but he's such a
humble dog, isn't he? He's so humble. He grins at you,
just hoping you'll speak to him or pat him on the head And I've
told you about this before, but the highlight of his whatever,
day or week or month or just whenever it is that I feel so
inclined to let him in the big house, you would think he's in heaven. I mean, he comes in, doesn't
he, and he's wagging all over. Every part of him wags. the dog
wags, and he heads immediately for the floor. He's comes in
the big house, and he let him in. His ears are down. He's tight.
He doesn't have a tail, but it's whatever it is, tucked under
his leg. Wagging his whole body, and he comes in, and he just
lies down in the rug and just lies there. Like, I won't move. I'll stay right here forever,
if you just let me stay in the big house. You don't have to
give me anything. Honestly. Admit it. He'd stay
right there. So happy to be with family. Instead of like out there with
the rest of the dogs running wild. Remember where you came
from. You're in the big house. Not just every now and then.
Always seated with Him in the heaven. Seated. That ought to
make you thankful for everything. We got to get to this. We got
to get to this. Paul says, Give thanks unto God
the Father, who made us partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, God, who hath delivered us." Oh, my. Maybe I'll preach Sunday from
that passage in 2 Corinthians 10, where it says, He hath delivered
us, doth deliver, and we get delivered. Oh, I love that. He
hath delivered us from the power of darkness. He hath, yes he
hath, past tense, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. You love this place, don't you?
You love these people, don't you? This is a fort. This is
the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven doesn't
come with observation. It's right here. Right here among
you. Christ among us. Christ and His
people. These right here are what makes
this life worth living. Isn't it? Nothing no one else
does. It's a dog-eat-dog world out
there. If you come in here, His love, His fellowship. We're in the kingdom. In whom?
The kingdom of His dear Son, the Son of His love. In whom?
In Christ. We have redemption. Everything's
past tense here. We have redemption. Not might
have it. We have it. Why? Because Christ entered into
the holy place with His own precious blood, having obtained eternal
redemption. It's done. The transaction's done. I am
my Lord, and He is mine. We have redemption through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sins. We'll never forget our
own sins, past sins. We mourn over present sins, and
there will yet be future sins. But we have forgiveness for all
of them. God said their sins and iniquity
I will remember no more. It says the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought and it won't be found. God's not goat hunting. Remember that? Maybe I'll preach
that soon. The scapegoat. God's not hunting
that goat. He took it out or it'll never
be found. We have redemption, forgiveness. Who is? Christ is
the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. God was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Therefore, by Him, by Christ,
were all things created in heaven, in earth, visible, invisible,
whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things
were created by Him, devils, demons, everything created by
Him and what? For Him. Nothing and no one exists
or does one thing except by his sovereign power and purpose. His head's just about in Satan.
No one can touch him, but what God allows for his glory and
our good, it's for him to fulfill his purpose. God hath made all
things for himself. Proverbs 16, 4 says, even the
wicked for the day of evil. The wrath of man will praise
him, and the remainder of wrath he will restrain. All things
before him, including us. And he, Christ, is before all
things, above all things, before all things, eternally and in
station, and by him all things consist. He holds all things
by the word of his power. That's Christ, the word. And he is the head of the body,
the church. He's the head. You see, the body
takes everything from the head. Not even the little finger wiggles
for what the head doesn't order it. Does any part of your body
move without you moving it? Huh? No, you tell the arm, go
here arm, go there, move foot. So it is with the head, concerning
the body. He's the church, he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead. And the reason for all of this
is that in all things Christ might have preeminence, quote,
because it pleased the Father. that in him, Christ, should all
fullness dwell. And he's made peace through the
blood of his cross. And by Christ, he's reconciled
all things unto himself. We're reconciled to God by him. By him, I say, are the things
in earth, the things in heaven. So Paul's prayer is a good one. It's my prayer for you, for me,
for all of God's people, all of God's church, everywhere.
You might know His will, you might be strong, you might increase
in knowledge and understanding and be fruitful and be thankful. And be thankful. All right, stand
with me. Our Father, we thank you. for
your word, and this prayer of the Apostle Paul is our prayer,
not only for ourselves, but each other. Lord, grant by your power,
by your Spirit, grant all of these things that you led the
Apostle to pray for, for the church there. Grant them for
us, for your glory, and for our temporal and eternal good. It's
in Christ's name we're met here tonight. Amen.