All right, back to Colossians
1. Let's look at a few more verses this morning. I believe it was
last Sunday that we started this. I think. Wasn't it, Sam? I think
it was. You weren't even here, were you? He was in Ashland. Paul with all the epistles, all
the letters of Paul sound real similar because they are. Every single
epistle of Paul except the Hebrew begins and uses these two words,
grace and peace, grace and peace. Sometimes he adds mercy in there. Peter took it up, too. Both of
Peter's epistles, he says the same thing. Grace and peace. And they end up with, every one
of Paul's epistles, end up with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Grace to you. And like I said, they all sound
similar because they are the same thing. What is said to every
church It's the same thing, God's word, same thing. There's one
message and one message alone. And the three things here that
the apostle is going to thank God for, three things, faith,
love, and hope. Faith, love, and hope. And he
says it comes through the word, the word of the truth, of the
gospel. It leaves no doubt that there
is but one gospel. It's the word, the truth, the
gospel. Faith, love, and hope come through
the word, the truth, the gospel. All right? It's the same message,
and God's people never go tired of hearing them. Kind of like,
I thought about this. The day that we're in darkness,
I've seen a great light. Ye blind, behold your Savior.
Leap, ye lame, for joy. It's kind of like a man who labors
in a coal mine in darkness all day long. He works the day shift
in a coal mine. There's men that do that up in
West Virginia, well, western Virginia. Work all day long,
never see the sunshine. You know that? You reckon they'd
get tired of hearing about it? Somebody said, let me tell you
what a beautiful day it was. Oh, tell me about it. So it is
for those who hear the gospel and ever grow tired of hearing
it, how the sun shines. Verse 3, all right, let's begin
here in verse 3. Paul says, We give thanks to
God, Timothy and I, we give thanks to God. And the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ prayeth always for you. We give thanks to God. You know, worship. What we're
doing here this morning. We've come here to worship. That's what the true circumcision
does. True people of God, they worship. We're here to do one thing. Worship. And worship. And you know, in the course of
worship, what are we doing? Singing over a thousand tongues
to sing our great Redeemer's praise, the glory of our God
and King. Well, we're here to worship. We're here to sing. We're here
to pray. What is worship? What is prayer? More than anything. Worship is made up of Thanksgiving. We're here to thank God. We don't
need another reason, do we? To thank God. Why? Why? You just said that because God
gave you the breath to do it. You're sitting there because
God Why? Because all things are of God. We are what we are by the grace
of God, gift of God. We come here to give thanks,
to give thanks. Paul says we give thanks to God. We need no other reason. You
know, this is why, this is the chief reason, the chief reason
why God's going to destroy this planet. You know what it is? You say unbelief, yes, well how
does unbelief show itself? Romans 1 says, verse 21, neither
were they thankful. They weren't thankful. When they
knew God, it says, the invisible things from the creation of the
world are clearly seen. His eternal power and Godhead.
But they're all without excuse, he said. Everything a man had,
just look around him and see that God is. Only a fool would
say, no, God. But it says they weren't thankful.
People don't stop. Oh, they give God lip service,
don't they? In a restaurant or at the table,
you know. God is good. God is great. Now
we're thanking for our food. Amen. Goodness. That's not giving a thank. That's
not prayer. Prayer. It's not a form. It's not a format
at all. There's no set form given for
prayer in the Scriptures. Prayer is a state of the heart.
And prayer, what prayer is more than anything, is thanksgiving.
It's a heart that goes out. You don't have to bow your head
and close your eyes and pray. But your heart can be full of
thanksgiving to God at all times. He says pray without ceasing,
doesn't he? How are you going to do that? You've got to work,
you've got to clean your house, you've got a responsibility.
Your heart goes out in thanksgiving. A thankful heart. Prayer. Well,
he says we give thanks to God, verse 3, and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you. We thank God for you. And he goes
on to say what all God's done. To listen to the average preacher,
and I use the term very loosely, to listen to the average preacher,
you'd think men are doing something for God, wouldn't you? Thanking folks for coming. I can't think of anything more
blasphemous to thank people for coming Don't worship. Think about that. Thanking folks
for tithing. For giving back to God. What
belongs to him. Thanking them. They're like me,
Henry, loaning you everything I have. And thanking you for
bringing back the ladder. Thanking you. Oh, you'd be thanking
me, wouldn't you? For giving you everything. Thanking
folks for everything. Now, if you hear the word of
the truth, look at verse 6. When you hear the last line of
verse 6, you hear of it, or that is, knew the grace of God in
truth, why, you'll give thanks to God. You'll say like Paul,
we're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved
Lord. Well, thank you. We thank God
for you. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you. You didn't choose Him. He chose
you. Thank God. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you through sanctification of spirit and the belief of the
truth. We don't thank you for accepting Jesus, because that
wasn't the way it was, was it, Brother John? Uh-uh, no. He hath
made you. accept it in the below. So we give thanks to God for
accepting John. Thank you, Lord, for accepting
John as your personal son. That's giving thanks. Thank you,
Lord, for letting John come here and worship you. Could have been
anybody else you chose. We thank you for him, not you
for doing something to him. That's blasphemy. We thank God for you. All right,
read on. Pray and always for you. Verse
4. And I was going to have you turn
to so many scriptures that talks about thanking God for you. Well,
verse 4, he says, We thank God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
pray and always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ, we thank God. Why? Because the natural man
receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them. They're spiritually discerned.
You were dead in trespasses, and you didn't believe God. You
worshiped idols. But one day you turned from your
idols to worship the true and living God. Why? One day, you
did believe the truth, the word of the truth of the gospel. Why?
Because by grace are you saved through faith, and it's not of
yourself. It's the gift of God. So we thank
God for you, brethren, since we heard that you believe Christ.
You wouldn't believe Christ if God hadn't given you faith. Nobody
in here just up and decided for God. Nobody in here just up and decide
I'm going to receive Jesus into my heart. No, sir. A man can
receive nothing except what? It be given him from the Father.
That's grace. The word grace and give are the
same word. Gift. Grace. Grace. Grace and peace to you. See,
I started it. Grace to you. It's all grace. It's all grace.
It's all of grace. God of all grace. So we give
thanks to God for you, praying for you, since we heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus. You've heard of your faith in
Christ. Now look, here's these three things. Faith in Christ,
and he says in verse 4, love, we thank God for the love you
have to all the saints. And he says, verse 4, Verse 5,
for the hope which laid up for you in heaven. Now, I've heard
that before, haven't you? Faith, hope, and love? Yeah. Same. Same. Said it to the Corinthians. He's saying it to the Colossians.
Same thing. Same gospel. Where have you heard,
verse 5, and this is where you want to hear this and receive
this, faith, hope, and love. Faith, love, and hope. Where
have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel?
This is how God imparts or gives faith, love, and hope. How? The word of the truth of the
gospel. All right? All right. Verse 4, he says,
Your faith in Christ Jesus. Thank God for your faith in Christ
Jesus. which you've heard since you
have now since you've heard the word. All right. Romans 10 says
faith cometh how? By hearing. All right. Paul says, so I thank God for
the faith you have in Christ. Where'd you get it? Well, a man's
not going to believe in somebody who's not heard. He's not going
to hear without a preacher. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
by the word of the truth of the gospel. Thank God for sending
the gospel to you. And you believe. You heard. You
heard. I do want you to turn there to
2 Thessalonians 2. In case you don't know the verse,
I want you to turn. 2 Thessalonians 2. We quote this
so much, don't we? I don't get tired of it. I suppose
I've written this verse down hundreds of times. in my notes. I'm not tired of it yet. Second
Thessalonians 2, 13, we're bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God had from
the beginning, that is, before the world began, chosen you to
save you, to salvation, through sanctification of spirit. That
is, in time he sent the Holy Spirit to separate you. Remember
the word saints? separate you and believe for
the truth. God has chosen you to believe
the truth. Listen, verse 14, and this is
how he did it. He called you by our gospel. Is this your gospel, Stan? It's mine. It's my gospel. Is this your gospel? It's our
gospel, isn't it? Is this the gospel he called
you by? The gospel he called me by. He
called by our gospel, didn't he? Our gospel. See, this is,
you believe the truth after you hear the gospel. All right? Now listen, and I'm not going
to keep you long. There's no true saving faith
apart from hearing the gospel, the word of the truth of the
gospel. Bits and pieces of the truth
won't save you. It's the truth. the whole truth and nothing but
the truth. What is being preached today?
And I know we say this a lot and we dwell on these things
a lot. I hope we don't dwell on them,
but we at least bring it up a lot. Because this is all you're hearing
today and we need to discern the difference. What is being
preached today? is that God loves everyone and
wants to save everyone. Isn't that right? That's what's
being preached today. Why would you have faith in a
God like that? Huh? Why would anybody have faith
in a God like that? He loves everyone, and yet some
of them die, perish, and go to hell. And right now there are
people in hell that God, he must still love them. Why would you want to have faith
in the God that somebody tell me why anybody would have faith
in a God like that. What's there to have faith in. If if if God loves everybody
and yet some of them go to hell what's the love of God have to
do with salvation. And what they're saying today
is that Jesus Christ died for the sins of everybody. Isn't
that right, John Davis? Isn't that what 999 of a thousand
so-called preachers say? Jesus died for every single person
that ever lived. He paid for your sins. They love
to sing a song, Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. That
Christ put away our sin by his blood. Did he? But there's, Vicki, there's people
in hell right now paying for those sins. Huh? Jesus died for them, paid
for their sin, but they're paying for them again. Why would you
have faith in the blood? Joe, why would you have faith
in that blood? It can't do anything for you. There's people in hell
right now that Christ shed his blood for them, and they're damned. I don't have faith in blood like
that. Who needs it? If Christ died for everybody
and some perish, what does the blood of Christ have to do with
anything? Nothing. You can't have true saving faith,
apart from hearing the Word, the truth, the gospel. Well,
they say the Holy Spirit. They say the Holy Spirit saying
He can do something for you. He can give you power. He's got power. He can give it.
He can give you power. He can give you the victory.
He can? Well, why have faith in Him if
He just can? Huh? But won't unless I let Him. I tell you what people ought
to do is have faith in themselves. They all have faith in themselves,
and that's exactly what people do. Ask them. Ask them. I was listening to
that professional golfer that won the U.S. Open give his talk
after he won it, and he said, he said, if it wasn't for my
faith in God, I wouldn't have been as great as I am. That's
not funny. I wouldn't be as good as I am.
My faith wasn't for my faith. My boy. Do you understand what's
wrong with that statement? I don't know. We thank God for
you, brethren, since we heard of your faith. since we heard of your faith,
and since you heard the word of the truth of the gospel."
Here's the word of the truth. It's taken too long to get to
it. The word of the truth of the gospel says this. The word.
Here's what the gospel says. Here's the word. Here's what
the truth says about your God. All right? And this is a God
you can have faith in. All right? Say undesigned, by
God, reigneth. I know it doesn't say try it,
it says train him. I can have faith in a God like
that. Not wants to, but wills to. Not hopes to, it's already done
it. I can have faith in a God like
that. Not a God who plans to, but a God who absolutely purpose
to. victim factor. Not a God that will if you will,
but a God who says, I will, therefore you shall. Now, I have faith
in a God like that, can't you? That's a God who is God. Or tell
them, you're God's reign of God. That's what the word, that's
the truth. Boy, that's good news to me, the gospel. And it says
that this God that reigneth sent his eternal, have you heard
these words before? I have, and I just like speaking
them, sent his eternal, immutable, indescribable love upon some
people. Love that saves, love that keeps,
love that lasts forever. set His love on them. Ain't nobody
or nothing going to stop Him. Who shall separate us from the
love of God? Ain't nobody can. Once He sets
His love on them, it's set, and He'll love them forever. And
here's what He did now. He gave them to His Son. Gave these chosen
ones to Him, Son, whom He made Lord over all, but dead in the
living. gave unto Christ to become their
advocate, mediator, redeemer, intercessor, savior. He came
to earth, took a name, an earthly name, yes, named Jesus, the name
of a man, which means he shall save his people. And he came
down here, he lived a perfect life, imputed that to all these
people. God sees them holy, unblameable,
unapprovable in his sight. They're perfect. They're holy.
They've never done. He's not going to send them to
hell. Why should he? They're holy. And then Christ went to that
cross and he poured out his soul unto death, not just his blood,
but his soul, because the soul that sinneth must surely die.
But he wasn't doing that for himself. He's doing that as a
substitute for his people. And when Christ died, I died,
my sins are gone. G-O-N-E, gone. There remaineth
therefore no more sin and no more sacrifice. By his one sacrifice
he perfected forever when he had by himself purged our sins. He put away my sins. I don't
have to go to hell and pay for them because Christ did. And then he went back to heaven
and sat down, satisfied, the work finished, accomplished,
overseeing the bringing in of all his children. Every single
one of them sends his Holy Spirit to preach what I just preached,
the word of the truth of the gospel, and everyone will hear
his voice, will repent, believe Christ, and someday be with him. Now, that's the word of the truth
of the gospel. That's what God's Word said. I just paraphrased. Everything
I said was a paraphrase of Scripture truth, right? Because time wouldn't
allow us to read every Scripture. That's the Word and that's the
truth. It'll set you free. It'll set you free from a religion,
for one thing. And that's the gospel. It's good
news. Isn't that good news? Isn't everything I just said
good news? It is if you're a sinner, buddy.
It is if you're a sinner. All I did was stand there and
talk about what God's done, what Christ's done, what the Holy
Spirit comes to do. I didn't tell you to do anything,
did I? Well, that's good news. Because I'm without strength.
I'm without hope. I'm without. I'm poor and needy. I'm wretched, miserable, poor,
blind and naked. But Christ is my strength. Christ
is my wisdom. Christ is my covering. Christ
is my hope. Christ is my righteousness. That's
the good news. Quit now. I'm not going to. I've
got a few more things to say. All right. And he said, no, that's
the faith. I thank God that you believe. The faith. The faith that you have. Where
is faith? It's in Christ Jesus. It's in him. It's in him and
him alone, isn't it? than him and him alone. And he
says, for the love you have to all the saints. Verse four. Thank
God for the love you have. If it wasn't for God setting
his love on you and shedding abroad his love in you, I'd kill you. And you'd kill me. We're children of wrath, even
as others. This is a violent scripture that says perilous
times. I admit, folks, road rage rises up in me just like anybody. I want to bite somebody's head
off just like anybody. But I tell you, he's absolutely
put love in the hearts of his people for his people. and even for some of our enemies.
That fellow that called me Jim Jones one time, I knew it was
inevitable. We finally ran into each other
face-to-face in a hardware store. And, you know, I'm glad it was
now and wasn't then, because I really wanted to punch his
lights out. But now, we shook hands. And he said, I hope we're
not enemies. I said, what for? I don't remember
anything. So you can even, he can even
give you love for a rotten rat who's spread all kind
of lies on I wish I could tell you what he told me. But especially for the household
of faith, the believers. It's real love. I'm talking about
more than flesh and blood. Not superficial, y'all. I love
you, brother. You know, God's people don't
say that. They don't say that all the time.
We don't say it enough, but we sure don't like these lip service
of the Pharisee, oh, I love you, brother, when you know he doesn't
love you. Do we? But it shows, doesn't
it? Joe, it shows. You don't have
to say it all the time if it shows. I ought to say it, yes. But God's people, and you know
how he does this. You know how I can love old John,
that's old John, young John, Jesus. You know how I can love
him? Because he's meek. and lowly
and humble, he's a sinner. He's a sinner. Aren't you, John?
Do you feel like you're the chief of sinners? I do, too. John's not holier than me. John's
not better than me. John doesn't look down on me,
you know. John sees right through me. He loves me anyway. He's a sinner. I can love an
old sinner just like me. I can't love one of these Pharisees.
No, sir. I can't love them. Can you? I can't love them. They're so
much better than I am, but an old sinner, somebody that's digged
out of the pit like me, we're bosom buddies. And this gospel
lastly gives hope and real love. It's real love to the saints,
and it's hope It's laid up for you in heaven. It's a hope you
have laid up for you in heaven. I want you to turn in closing
to Ephesians 1. All right, Ephesians 1. Now,
again, you've read this before. And Paul says this, it's hope
that's laid up for you in heaven. Now, what is your hope to get
to heaven? Do you hope to go to heaven? What is it? Why do you want to
go to heaven? That's a better way to ask it.
Why do you want to go to heaven? Most people, now listen, most
people just want to escape hell. Most people want a Carnal utopia,
that's a big term for they won't keep playing the games they're
playing now. Most people want to go to heaven
so they can be happy all the time. Why do you want to go to heaven?
What's the hope laid up for you in heaven? Our pastor used to
always call it a yo-yo. want a bigger yo-yo in heaven,
or a nicer golf course. David said, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? When by His grace I shall look
on His face. will be glory for me. The hymn writer said, heaven
for me. And David went on to say, whom
have I in heaven but thee, and there's none on earth I desire
beside thee. Christ is the hope of heaven for God's people. Not a mansion,
I've got one. Don't we, men? It gets bigger
every day. as we clean it and repair it.
I don't want a great big house, you know. What's the hope in heaven? Christ
is the hope for the believer in heaven. He's the hope of everybody's
truly going to heaven. And I'll tell you why. Look at
Ephesians 1. Verse four says, according as
he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world to
be holy and without blame before him in love. And verse eight,
it says he's abounded toward us in our wisdom and prudence.
Verse nine, made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. that he might gather together
in one, all things are in Christ, in heaven and earth, even in
him, in him, verse twelve, that we should be to the praise of
his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted
after you heard, now here it is, the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, in whom in Christ you also And also, after
you believe you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which
is the earnest. Now, here's what I'm trying to
say. It's the earnest of this inheritance. It's earnest. In
other words, earnest. Let's say, Stan, I'm going to
give you four million dollars. OK? Four million dollars. I got four million dollars to
pay that to you. Here's the earnest. Twenty-three
cents. Twenty-three cents. But it's
earnest. It's earnest money. Money put
down. Well, Scripture says the hope
of glory, the mystery is Christ in you, and we're going to gather
together in one, all things, even in Christ. And it says that
in whom you believe and trusted and loved after you heard the
word of the truth of the gospel and he sent his Holy Spirit,
by which this gospel is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
What does the Holy Spirit do? John 16 says, He takes the things
of Christ and shows them to you. It causes you to fall in love
with Christ, doesn't it? Christ, Christ, Christ. That's
what the Holy Spirit does. Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ. It reveals Christ to his people. It puts a love
for Christ in their heart, a joy, and the earnest And it's about like 23 cents.
Of the unsearchable riches of what? Not heaven. Christ! Is now. Did you enjoy what this 23 cent
sermon? Did you? Maybe I'm giving myself
a bit of a doubt. Maybe this is only worth about
3 cents. Huh? Did you enjoy this 2-bit sermon
that I tried to preach? Because who can tell? The half
has not been told. Who can describe the unsearchable
riches of Christ? But all we've been talking about
is Christ. Do you desire to see Him? Well,
let me tell you. Well, I can't. About Him who awaits. He's the hope laid up. He's heaven. That's why you won't
care who's there. When you see him, you won't miss
anybody. You've taken up with him, and
it starts here. This is the earnest. You see?
Do you enjoy it? Deborah, do you enjoy singing
these songs of praise right now? You better! Because you're going to be singing
for four trillion years the first verse. Is that not right? What do you
see in scriptures that they're doing in heaven? But sing it.
Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. And they
sing it millions of times. And somebody says, let's sing
it again. Everybody says, great. Worship. Worshipping Him. Worshipping
the Lamb. Do you love it now? This is the
earnest. You see what I mean? It's about,
but it's, Dan, it's about like 23 cents. I hadn't seen you hadn't heard.
You have been in the heart of the things. The one. The hope. Him. Oh, Sheba. Sheba heard of Solomon,
didn't you? Solomon, the greatest, the wisest,
the richest man who ever lived. Dear man, Sheba heard about him
and she just had to go see him when she got there. She was going to prove him with
hard questions. It says she didn't even know what to say. She asked
him a few things after it was all over and she saw his ascent. It was all about Solomon. It
was all about Solomon. After she saw the way he walked
up to the throne and his train that followed along behind him
and heard his wisdom, his beauty and all that he had done, there
was no more spirit left in him. And she said, oh, it's true,
everything I heard. But I tell you, she said the
half hadn't been told. I had to see it myself. And boy,
I tell you, not even a fraction, not 23 cents worth of Christ
has been preached. Unsearchable riches of Christ.
The hope is laid up for you in heaven. But if you enjoy this,
That's good. That's earnest. That's earnest,
that you heard the word of truth. All right, Joe, what? 127. Number 127, stand with me. Sing the 1st, the 4th, and the
5th stanzas. 1st and the 4th and 2nd. Who have sinners to reclaim? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was he to that meeting,
meeting was his crown. Now in heaven exalted hath hallelujah
for the Savior. When He comes, our glorious King,
All His lands come home to bring. When I hear this song, we'll
sing, Hallelujah! God make good. Thank you, and you're dismissed.