Let's read the first eight verses. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ with Jack Colossae, grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We
give thanks to God and the Father by the Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ and of
the love which ye have to all the saints, which for the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you, as it
is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doeth also
in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of
God in truth. As ye also learned of Ephratas,
our dear fellow-servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit." Paul is writing here, and suppose
somebody wrote you a letter. And they start out the letter,
and it says, Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing that'd be to
get that from somebody. And that's what he says there
in verse to grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be given unto you. And
let me tell you something. The only people who know they
need grace is those who've already received grace. They're the only
people who know they need it. They're the only people who want
it. And they're the only ones who appreciate the grace of God.
Nobody else does. That's why he says, grace be
unto you. Who to who? To the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ. Those that have been shown grace,
love grace, need grace, and appreciate grace. And then he says, peace
be unto you. Peace be unto you. And peace
is the result of grace given. You know, and this peace is given,
it's peace with a reason. It's peace with a foundation.
And what I mean by that, look over here in verse 20 of chapter
1. You know, peace. People, they always, they make
a lot of things said about peace, but he says, Grace be given unto
you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
that's the only place grace is given, is through Christ. The
only place that peace comes is from God the Father through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And our peace has a foundation
to it. It's just not a feeling we have. It's just not an emotion
we have. It's not a pie-in-the-sky kind
of peace we have. It's a peace that has a foundation
to it that has a reason behind it. And he said here in verse
20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him
to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether
they be things in heaven or things in earth. So you see, our peace
has a foundation. Now the God of peace be with
y'all. The God of peace brought again
from the dead, our great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord Jesus
Christ." So when he says, Peace be unto you, he's just not evoking
some kind of emotional experience. You know, just saying, I hope
you have peace. This is something we actually have, an experience
that we have a reason for our peace, and because of grace given. And this grace and peace comes
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason
it says, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ is
because they're one. They're one in unity. You can't
have grace without the Father. Grace is given to us through
Christ. Christ brought peace, and God the Father seemed to
establish peace. They're one in purpose. They're
one in what they give. And what a blessed thing for
someone to say to another. Grace. God gives you grace. God bless you and cause you to
grow in grace. Obe prayed for you tonight. He
said, Lord, grow in Christ. What a wonderful request for
somebody. Grow in Christ. What a wonderful
request. And then he says, grace gifted. God give me grace. Peace. And
I'll tell you, I'm always in need of both. Are you? Always
in need of both. Grace and peace. And then look
what he says here in verse 3. We give thanks. That's what I
want to talk about tonight. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. And here,
Paul always starts his letter with Thanksgiving. There's only
one letter that he wrote that he didn't start with Thanksgiving,
and that's the Galatian letter. And he started that out because
they didn't have peace, and he thought that they didn't look
like they had grace because they took out after another gospel,
which is not another. But that's all the rest of his
letters. He starts them out with giving thanks to God. And he
says, we give thanks to God the Father by Lord Jesus Christ.
And what I meant to him was God was a reality to the apostle.
God was not something that he just hoped it was an existence
of a supreme being. God was a reality to the apostle. And he knew that all things were
of God. That's what the scripture says,
2 Corinthians 5.18, all things are of God. And some people say,
that's deep doctrine, that's high doctrine, that's just doctrine,
that's just the truth. All things are of God. Not part
of the things, not some of the things. We hope some bad things,
good, only the bad things from the devil, the good things from
God. It says all things. God don't distinguish between
them. And then he says, oh, we give thanks to God. He was a
reality to the apostle. And then he says, the Father
by Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me tell you, just take
a minute here to tell you about three relationships here, three
aspects of the relationship of God, the Father, to his Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The relationship between his
Father and the Son. First of all, God the Father
gave the Son. God the Father gave the Son.
You know, He's the God, the Father of mercy, and the God of all
comfort. And He gave the Son. And then
the Father, when the Son came, He gave everything to the Son.
The Father has committed everything into His hands. And then the
Father gives all of us to His Son. And He says, All spiritual
blessings are in heavenly places through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so you see, here is the father gone, but they gave his son.
Then he turned around and he committed everything into the
hand of the son. And if any of you are not giving
anything, it comes to the son. So he's the bountiful father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he says here.
And look at Colossians 1, 13 and 14. This is what I'm talking
about. talking about, you know, he gave thanks in verse 12, giving
thanks unto the Father. He hath made us mean. He has
made us fit. He's made us able to be a partaker
of the inheritance of the saints in life. That was a time we wasn't
fit or able. And watch this, who hath delivered
us and translated us from the power of darkness, translated
us into the kingdom of his Son, and watch it, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
So you see, everything we have, forgiveness of sins, spiritual
blessings, all come through the Son whom the Father sent. And then the second thing is,
God the Father, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, look
what it says there. We give thanks to God the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. God as the Father of whom? Whom? What in the world we mean by
that? That means by whom all things come, from and by the
Father, who is all-wise, who is all-infinitely wise, who declared
the end from the beginning, and it has to be good. And also he's talking about the
Father, God is the Father of whom. Look with me over here
in Ephesians 4, 6, just a minute, talking about this. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
6. So first, secondly, He's the Father. God as the Father of
whom all blessings come, of whom Christ is the Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He said here in Ephesians
4, 6, "...one God, and Father of all who is above all, through
all, and in you I So He's the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the God by whom all things exist, by whom all things come
from. And so everything has to be good.
I may have told you this before. I saw a church sign one time
that says, Come here, questions you always wanted to ask God. Well, I don't have no questions
for God. I don't have any questions. I don't have any. I don't have
any questions for him. I don't. He's done told me all
I need to know. You know, I don't need... He
needs to tell me what... He needs to tell me. I mean,
I have no questions. I have no plea. I have nothing
from the Father except a plea. Father, since all things are
of you, all things come from you, give me grace. Give me grace
to submit to you, faith to believe you, a heart not to complain,
and submit to you, and love you. So He's God, the Father of the
Lord Jesus Christ, in whom are all things, by whom gave us all
things through Christ, and secondly, thirdly, He's the Father of all
believers. All believers. Look with me over
in Romans chapter 8. We're believers because of God
the Father. He gave us to His Son, His Son
come and did everything that was necessary to save us. And
the scripture says, you know, which were born, not of the will
of the flesh, not of blood, nor the will of man, but born of
God. And He's our Father in Christ
by the Holy Spirit. And look what it says here in
Romans chapter 8 and verse 14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And the Spirit of God
always leads us to Christ, leads us to the things of Christ, leads
us away from the flesh, to have no confidence in the flesh, to
never trust the flesh, to curse the flesh, We don't walk after
the flesh. And he says, and the reason is,
is you led your way from your bondage. You've not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. That spirit of love, that
spirit of trying to please and satisfy God. But you've received
the spirit of adoption. God put the spirit of His Son
into your heart, and you cry, Father, Father! And the Spirit
Himself bears witness with our spirit that we're what? The children
of God! And as children, if you're a
child then, you're an heir. Heir of who? Of God! And joy-heirs
with Christ. Oh, so you see, He's not only
the Father by whom are all things, and the Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who sent His Son and gave all things to His Son, and
now gives us all things through the Son. And he's the father
of believers. And then we go back over to our
text and it says here. So we give thanks to God. Give
thanks to God. Always for you all. Praying always
for you all. Praying always. Let me tell you
something. When you start thanking God and
blessing God. Pray, you know, Thanksgiving
always leads to prayer. When you start giving thanks
and start blessing God for His blessings and what we have in
Christ. And so first of all, when we give thanks, we acknowledge
where everything comes from. It comes from God. And what prayer
is, prayer is a petition. It's a petition. You come and
you ask for something. Since all comes from Him, we
ask only Him, and we ask only through Christ what we desire.
Praying always for Him. Now, I don't mean that every
time Paul prays, he's constantly praying for these people. But
when they come across his mind, he'll say the Colossians. He
starts giving thanks for the saints at Colossae. And then
he'd give thanks for the Thessalonians. Then he'd give thanks for the
Ephesians. And he had particular people in mind, no doubt, and
he'd mention their names. And prayer is petitioning because
we know that everything comes... You want grace for somebody?
Ask God to give it. If you want mercy for somebody,
only God can give it. If you want forgiveness for somebody,
only God can give it. If you want deliverance from
the power of darkness, only God can deliver from the power of
darkness. And he says he gives thanks and
prays because he heard some things about these dear saints. That's
what he said down here in Colossians chapter 1. He says, you know,
since we heard of your faith, and that's what he says down
in verse 7 and 8, we learned some things about you. From Ephesus,
our dear fellow servant. So that's why he gives thanks,
because he heard some things about him. And then he gives
some reasons of why he prays for him. And I'll tell you, here's
three things that every believer has. Three graces that every
believer has. And this is what he gives thanks
and prays for him for. Giving thanks to God the Father
by our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying always for you. We give
thanks first because we heard of your faith. Secondly, We heard
of your love which you had for the saints, and thirdly, the
hope that's laid up for you in heaven. Every believer has those
three graces. Faith, love, and hope. Wherever the grace of God's at
and the gospel's at, you're going to find those three things. And
here he gives the reasons for his prayer of thanksgiving. First
of all, since we heard of your faith. We heard about the faith
you have in Christ. We heard about the faith, where
you trusted Christ, you believed Christ. You see, it's faith,
faith, this blessed gift of faith, that unites us to Christ. It
brings us in this union with Christ. It's a vital living union
that joins us to Christ. And Christ himself is the object
of our faith. Oh my, we look outside ourselves.
Our faith is objective. Now believe me, we have a subjective
faith. We know there's something that
we possess that's ours. But our faith is based on something
that had happened 2,000 years ago. And on a historical fact,
on a historical person who actually accomplished something in this
world. Now, my salvation was done completely outside me, so
if I look to somebody, I have to look to somebody who accomplished
something outside of me. And that's what we mean when
we say Christ is the object of our faith. My salvation was accomplished
2,000 years ago. I heard it in the gospel, and
that's why we look to Christ now, what He did. That's why
Paul says, you know, in Hebrews 12, he says, Look ye, look ye. unto Jesus, the author, that's
the one who begins your faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author,
and then not only that, but he's the one who's going to finish
it and bring it to an end, an accomplished end. That's object
of our faith. And we live by faith of Jesus
Christ. Look in Galatians chapter 2.
I've quoted this so many times, and I tell you, you need to look
at it. We've quoted it so many times, but just look at it. Paul
said, I give thanks for your faith. I give thanks for your faith. And I do. I give thanks for your
faith. And I hope you give thanks for mine. I give thanks for Bruce
Crabtree's faith. I give thanks for Todd Meyber's
faith, Don Carter's faith, Henry Mayans. I give thanks for these
dear saints that I've known all these years. Oh, for you. I give
thanks for men's faith who've done God all, and the testimony
that they left behind, and the witness they left to the grace
of God. They were saved by faith, they were joined to Christ, they
looked to Christ all the days of their life, and they died
looking to Christ. And you find somebody now in
their 80s that know Christ, 90s that know Christ, you know what
they're doing? They're looking to Christ. They're done with
self. Bless his holy name. And look
what he said here in Galatians 2.20, excuse me, Galatians 2.20.
I am crucified with Christ. I died with him. Nevertheless,
I still live it. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. And the life which I now live
in this body, now watch this now, I live by the faith of the
Son of God. Now what does that mean? I live
by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Not by faith, but by
His faithfulness to His Father, to His death, to His satisfaction. And because He was faithful to
do what He did, That's why our faith is fixed on Him, because
He's an undealer. And who loved me and gave Himself
for me. He said, now that's logic to
my faith. Oh my. And then not only did He say
faith, I give thanks for your faith. Then He goes back over
here and says, we heard of your faith. They heard about their
faith. And watch this. And of the love, Which ye have
to all the saints, there in verse four, and of the love, since
we heard of your faith, and of the love which ye have to all
the saints. Love to all the saints? You know, faith and love go together.
Faith works by what? Love. And then look what he says. Which
ye have to all saints. To all saints. Now what does
he mean by that? That this love is universal.
Well, you run across saints wherever you go. And some of you have
been to a lot of other places, a lot of other saints, and met
a lot of people in a lot of places. And here we go, and wherever
you go, this love that we have is universal. When we run across
God's people, wherever they are, there's this union, there's this
communion, there's this fellowship. Bob Corky and I was talking up
at the wedding. And we was talking there and having a wonderful
time. And I said, you know, as we start
talking about the gospel, the things. And I said, here we was
standing here, all these people around. And we actually have
worship standing there, him and him talking to one another. We
worship Christ. And we have all these brothers
and sisters, all these people around. And it's this love that
we have wherever you at. It just manifests itself. It
cannot help but do it. And when he says all saints,
And I tell you something, all saints desire to know the love
of Christ. Paul said, I want, I would, that
you knew the love of Christ that passes height, depth, width,
or height of breadth, because it passes understanding. And
not only that, but we pray for, not only love all saints, but
we pray for all saints. We desire to know the love of
Christ in our own hearts. Manifest the love of Christ to
others. And Paul said here in Philippians 4.16, Ephesians 6.18, he said this,
he says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints. He did it tonight. Lord, wherever
there's churches, you've got people that need preachers, need
pastors. Pray for the saints and their
needs. Why? Because we love them. We want
them to have the very best. And then not only, look here
again in verse 4 of Colossians 1. We give thanks for we heard
of your faith and we heard of the love which you have through
the saints. And then for the hope. For the hope. What hope are you
talking about? It's laid up. Laid up. Where's it at? Up in
heaven. For the hope is laid up for you.
Oh, our faith and our love gives us the certainty of our internal
inheritance. And it says here, it's laid up
for you. It's laid up for you. Oh, my, you never went through
the Scriptures and seen about the things that's laid up. God
said He laid up His goodness. Over in Psalm, I think it's Psalm
39 or 31, He said, He laid up His goodness for those that fear
Him. There's a crown of righteousness
laid up for them who look for His appearance. Oh, my! And oh, faith gives us,
our faith and love gives us certainty of this eternal inheritance,
this laid up for us. You know, I look again over there
in verse 12, here at Colossians 1. Here's another thing that
he gives thanks for. He said, we give thanks to the
Father. He has made us fit. He's made us able. There was
a time we were not fit and we were not able to be a partaker,
partakers of the inheritance of the saints. It's already gone.
The saints are dwelling in life and with God. We're partaking
of the inheritance that they've got. It's laid up for us. And
it's Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. And
I tell you, these three graces are named together many, many
times. The last verse of 1 Corinthians 13 says, faith, hope, and charity,
the greatest things. But the greatest of these is
charity. But they all three go together, love, faith, and hope.
And let me tell you something, beloved. Hope looks to the future. I want you to always remember
that. Hope always looks to the future.
And this faith, it comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. But
faith, it comes by experience. I mean, hope comes by experience.
Faith comes by hearing, but hope comes by experience. Patience,
trials works patience. Patience works experience. And
that's what happens as God trials us in our faith. It works this
patience in us, we wait on God, we trust God, and faith looks
to God, and trust Him, and hope, and the more He tries us, and
the more patience and more things we go through, this brings an
experience to us, and this experience increases our hope. And hope
makes us not to be ashamed, because we understand that no matter
what else happens in this world, this is not our only world. We've
got a hope laid up for us in glory. The only suffering we're ever
going to do is in this world. We've got a hole laid up for
us in glory. And whenever your heart's breaking
or you know you're so scared that something happens to you,
you can't even catch your breath, you've got a hole past this world.
This laid up, who laid it up for you? God did. Oh, faith looks to the person
who promised. God promised eternal life before
the world began. So what do we do? We look to
Him who promised. Then He turned around and He
says, and now I'm going to lay up a hope for you, and when you
get there, you'll get everything that I gave to you. And so we
look to the end for the hope. We look to the thing that's promised.
And how do you deal with a hopeless situation? Well, let me tell
you something. Look in Romans chapter 4. How
do you deal with a hopeless situation? Well, I'll tell you one thing.
I know this. There ain't no such thing for a believer. You say, boys look like hopeless.
Not for a believer. Never, ever a hopeless situation.
Never. Never. Didn't you know? Doctor
come in and say it's hopeless. Oh, if you're a believer, it's
not even close. No, no. You may feel grief for
those who don't have any hope when their doctor comes and says
it's a hopeless situation. But the believer never has a
hopeless situation. Look in Romans 4.18. Talking
about God told Abraham he's going to have a son. Told him when
he was 75. 25 years went by, still no boy. who against hope believed in
hope, that he might become the father of many nations according
to that which was spoken. That was the promise. So shall
thou be seed be. And being not weak in faith,
he considered not his own body, now dead, past the ability to
produce children, when he was about a hundred years old, and
he didn't even consider the deadness of Sarah's womb. Why? Because
God made him a promise. So in all of his strong hope,
he said, I'm going to hope and hope. He staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. Now watch it. And being fully
persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
So what did Abraham do? He said, there'll be a day. He
said, I'm hoping. I'm hoping. I got a hope. God promised He'll bring it to
pass and hope for it to the future. And, oh, beloved, how do you,
we don't have a hopelessness. Where did this faith, now back
over here in Colossians 1, where did this faith and this love
and this hope come from? How did they receive these blessed
things that Paul said that he'd give thanks for and for? Well,
he says this, where'd they come from? He said, for the hope which is
laid up, verse 5, which is laid up for you in heaven, where have
you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel? Where'd
they get it from? From the gospel. You heard it. You got to hear before there's
going to be any faith. Ain't that right? Faith comes
by hearing. You have to hear Him who you're
to believe. You got to know something about
Him. And when he says, before you heard the word of truth,
the word of the truth of the gospel, a definite message. And the gospel here is called
the word of truth. I mean, the gospel is a definite
message. Well, what is that message of righteousness revealed? God
reveals his righteousness through the gospel, his righteous character,
which demands payment for sin, satisfaction for a broken law.
Well, then He set forth His own righteousness in His Son to do
for us what we could not do, by bearing our sins in His own
body. God declared His righteousness
in doing that. Of sin being put away by the
sacrifice of His own Son, that He put His Son, He declared His
righteousness and put His Son as the substitute for His people,
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the truth. And
by that, God saw the tribulation of his soul and was satisfied. And when you hear that, that
you have a righteousness provided for you that's equal to God's
own character, that's good news. Our sin's been put away once
and for all. That God is satisfied with him
and him alone, that's good news. Paul called here the word of
truth. You heard this word of truth.
You heard the gospel. And that word of truth means
it's genuine, it's trustworthy. And this gospel, this word of
truth, beloved, it's of a salvation accomplished, a full salvation,
a free salvation. They did what he said down here
in verse 6. Look what he said in the last part of verse 6.
And you knew the grace of God in truth. There's only one message. There's
only one message that God sends to save sinners by. And it's
a definite message. And I'll tell you, beloved, and
people are going to... That's why we've got to preach
it, and we've got to witness to it. We've got to tell every
opportunity. Send bulletins, send CDs. Find something that
you love to read, something you love to hear, something you found
that you really enjoy. Send it to somebody I don't know
what you think of that. You never can tell when God may
take one of them words out of just a line, out of a bulletin,
a line that some preacher said, and just draw back the arrow,
smack it and resuscitate somebody's heart. These folks, they were heathen
idolaters. And somebody went to them and
started preaching them the gospel. Said, there's only one God and
Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and through
whom are all things. And He sent His Son into this
world. You know what He sent Him for? To declare how righteous God
is. That it took His Holy Son to
come into this world. And to live a sinless, holy,
infinitely holy life before God as a man. And as a man, he was
able to take the sin of all of his elect and his own person
on that tree. And as a sacrifice for that sin,
God poured out His blood and put His wrath on him and caused
him to suffer for sin. And because He did it in the
words of His person, sin was put away once, and you can't
never undo it, and you can't do anything to put away one's
sin. So what am I going to do? Look unto Him who's the author
and finisher of my faith. And God, you know what He'll
do? He'll justify everybody that looks to Him and declare you
as righteous as He Himself is. Oh, that's the gospel. That's
the Word of Truth. That's trustworthy. Folks don't
know anything about a free salvation. And then look what it says here
in verse 6. It says, which is come unto you.
You know what that tells me? It says you didn't go in. It came where you was. It came to you. You didn't go
in. It came to you. You didn't seek
it. You didn't know it. But God sent
it to you. It came to you, the gospel came
to you. There you was in your sin and your adultery, and the
gospel, the word of faith came unto you. And then look what
it says, as it is in all the world. Now what does that mean
by that? That means that the gospel that
went out, it's universal. It's for Jew and Gentile, bond
or free, male or female, rich or poor. out of every kindred,
tribe, nation, tongue, and people on the face of the earth, to
every one that believeth. And then look what else it says
here. It says, This is come unto you as it is on all the world.
Watch what it says here. And this gospel that you heard,
and it came to you, that brought forth this faith, love, and hope,
it brings forth fruit, as it doeth also in you since the day
you heard it." It started bringing forth fruit. It brings forth
fruit. Do you know when it started? The day you heard it. And what
that means, the day you believed it, the day the gospel became
the gospel of your salvation, immediately, when you knew the
grace of God in truth, it started bringing forth fruit. It couldn't
help, you know, it can't help but do that. Do you know why?
First of all, it brought forth faith in you. That's the fruit
of the grace of God. It brought forth dependence.
It brought forth a need. It brought forth a desire. It
brought forth a life that you never had, a life you never seen,
a hope you never had. And, O beloved, were there's
a reception of the gospel of God's grace, thou be a reproduction
of that gospel in you and me. That's what our Lord Jesus said
to you. That seed that fell among the
good ground, it brought forth fruit. Some thirty, some sixty,
some a hundred. But it all brought forth fruit.
And oh, beloved, it starts since the day you heard it. Ain't that
what it says? Since the day you heard it. And I'll tell you,
do you remember when you first heard it? Do you remember when
you first really heard the gospel? And it became, you heard it.
I mean, you really heard it. The first thing it brought forth
to you, when you've been a believer, with joy and peace." Oh, you
were just over... You mean to tell me that... Oh,
my, that's the best feeling I've ever... I mean, I can't say... You just quit working, you rest,
you go to bed, and you start humility starts, and you say,
oh, bless you, Father, that you would choose me and love me and
call me and teach me and do for me. It's just all the things
that begin to work in you the moment you believe. And oh, beloved,
it don't take long for the gospel to work. And it says here, you
know, since you knew the grace of God, look what it says, verse
6, since the day you heard it, and knew the grace of God in
truth. And that word knew there means you had this grace of God
in a personal experience. You experienced the grace of
God in you. And then let me hurry there to tell you this. Look
at how God brings the gospel to these people, and how He brings
the gospel to anybody. He said in verse 7, As ye also
learned of Epaphis, our dear fellow-servant, who is for you
a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your
love of the Spirit. Where did these folks hear the
gospel at? He said, you learned this word of truth, you learned
this gospel through Epaphis. And what did he say? A fellow-servant
and a faithful minister. Look over at Colossians chapter
4 and verse 12. See, somebody's going to tell
you the word of truth, the gospel. You see, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Colossians 4.12, look what he
says. Ephrathas, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluted
you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may
stand perfect and complete. in all the will of God. He has a great zeal for you.
You know how God brings the gospel? He brings us through some preacher,
a faithful preacher, faithful minister. And Paul called him
a dear fellow servant. And what did he mean by that?
He said, we have the same master. We're doing the same labor. He
said, we're serving together in the gospel. We're preaching
the same thing. And they weren't lured over God's
heritage. Let me show you this. Look, right
over to your right, the next book over, 1 Thessalonians. They
weren't lured over God's heritage. Look in 1 Thessalonians 5, 12.
This is what we're talking about. This is God's way of bringing
the gospel, where these folks have this hate and love and hope. And how'd they get this word
of truth? Through emphasis. How'd they
earn the grace of God? Through emphasis. And look what
he says in verse 12 here. And we beseech you, brethren,
to know them which labor among you." Paul knew Epaphis, and
the Colossians knew Epaphis. They knew him, and they knew
his labor. "...and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you."
And here Paul's doing that very thing for Epaphis, and he said,
"...to esteem them very highly in love for their worth's sake,
and be at peace among you." That's what Paul's doing to Epaphis. He's esteeming Epaphis. He said,
you know, I'm an apostle, but you know, you all heard the gospel
through Ephesus. So here they was, said, no woman, no woman.
And then he called him not only a dear fellow servant, but who
is a faithful minister of Christ. A faithful minister of Christ.
He told us, he declared unto us, Paul's talking to him and
Timothy, he declared unto us your love by the Holy Spirit. And see that word spirits capitalized?
That means that the Holy Ghost is the one who produced this
love in you. This love of the gospel, this love of the truth,
this love for one another. The Holy Spirit produced it in
you. The Holy Spirit will sustain it in you. And because you knew
the grace of God and you heard the gospel, you know the flesh
and got no part in it. We give thanks. Got a lot to
give thanks for, don't we? A lot to give thanks for.