You'd like to follow along I'm
going to be in the book of Colossians The epistle of Paul the Apostle
to the Colossians chapter 1 And I want to begin reading in verse
3 Read the verse 10 verse 3 We
give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying
always for you. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of truth
of the gospel, which is come unto you, as it is in all the
world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since
the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. as he also learned of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the spirit. For this cause, we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that ye might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,
and increasing in the knowledge of God." I'm going to stop right
there. I'm going to read you a statement
from Thomas Fuller. I don't know a lot about Thomas
Fuller. I didn't check into it, but I like this. Zeal without knowledge is fire
without light. I like that. I'm very, very much
afraid that's true. Paul said it, they have a zeal,
but not according to knowledge. And that's somewhat what we're
surrounded by today. My title today is called The
Knowledge of Believers. Knowledge of Believers. Before
I get started. I'm gonna give you my conclusion
The conclusion is this Believers are given knowledge by God That's
the conclusion then we'll we'll work toward it as I go here Now
I do know there is you know scripture that knowledge puffeth up That's
not what Paul's writing about here Understand even religious
knowledge can puff up even true Doctrine can puff up knowledge
of it But this is not true of the knowledge given by our Lord
Jesus Christ Given to every believer by the Holy Spirit And in here, in these first 10
verses, Paul wrote to the Colossians telling us three specific things
which we believers, well, in verse 2, to the saints and faithful
brethren in Christ. We, and I include ourselves in
that, we know three specific things in these verses he tells
us. Paul is not writing, and I want
to just say this very clearly, he's not writing as a superficial
knowledge. He's not writing the way children
learn the multiplication table. If they still do that, I don't
know. It used to be a big thing. I
went to college before I ever got a calculator. You want to
know why? Because they weren't invented
before then. And man, if you got a programmable
calculator, which came out and you could slightly afford in
my second or third year of college, you had it made. Now kids go
to school today with computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones. Anyway, that's not the knowledge
Paul's talking about, such as in memorizing facts. The Greek
word Paul uses here denotes, and this is what it means, being
fully acquainted with it. It means discernment and understanding. That's the kind of knowledge
Paul's writing about here. We have been given true knowledge
by the Holy Spirit and through his word, through the word of
God. Now, the first one is in Colossians
1 and verse 6. where it says, which is coming
to you as into all the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as
it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it. And. What? Knew the grace of God in
truth. In truth. Oh, my. Well, this
is the first thing I've got to tell you. We're going to get
real deep here, OK? The grace of God is true. The grace of God is true. And
that's what Paul is writing of here, the grace of God. Because I'm gonna tell you something,
God's grace, the grace of God is different than religious grace. Understand, religious grace and
what is preached around, all around us and all across America
and most of the world is this. Religious grace is this. Do something
God will do something That's not grace That's not grace You
understand the grace of God is he's going to do something when
you want him to do the exact opposite When you want him to
leave you alone he won't not if you're one of his and not
if it's your time and they're saying there are times when God
was dealing with me when I was I evidently Regenerated but not
completely converted and didn't know what was going on that I
wish God would leave me alone And yet it showed me another
verse of scripture And when I got to John 6 I about pitched a fit
I Did I didn't get it No man can come unto me except it be
given unto him of my father Wait a minute see I believe You know,
Jesus knew who was going to be saved. I believe that. I didn't think God dictated who
would be saved. That it was his choice and not
my choice. And so I asked somebody about
it. And you know what they told me? They told me a very good
thing. What does it say? What does the
book actually say? And I said, well, it says this.
And that must be what it means. And they were right. And I thought
to myself, seriously, I mean, you have discussions in your
head, which some of them you don't say out loud, which is
a good thing. But I had this discussion within myself thinking,
well, that's what Christ said. And he's God. And I'm not. So I guess it's
right. Seriously, I was a very, very
young believer. Well, you saw me that young. I was actually younger than that
when this happened. By a year or two. 22 years old.
43 years ago, almost. Time flies when you don't pay
attention. But I remember reading that. And I looked, and I thought,
OK, God said it. It doesn't matter whether I know
anything about it. It's got to be right. And it was. And it is. Because I read on. I was at John
chapter 6, verse 44. No man can come unto me except
the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. That's John 6, 44. And I finally
came to this thing. Well, OK. I don't quite get it,
but I believe it because Christ said it. OK? Then I get to John
6, 65. And he said, therefore said I
unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. And from that time, actually
it says from that. Time is interpolated there. From
that statement, I'm gonna tell you this right now, from what
Christ said, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. And I said, I was close to rejecting what
he had said before And then Jesus said unto the twelve look at
his disciple will ye also go away Then Simon Peter answered
him and said Lord. I love this part to whom shall
we go? There is nowhere else to go And you will realize that as
a believer I'm gonna tell you something That's grace. That's
grace. Thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And I looked
at that, and I read that, and I said, me too, Peter. That's
exactly my reaction to John 6, what, 44, was their reaction
to John 6, 65. Christ said it. He's right, whether I get it
or not. But he said it twice. Well, you
don't have to hit me with a hammer, thankfully, this time. Maybe
later, but you understand. That's the grace of God. That's
the grace of God. I got There's a I'm gonna read
you just a verse a song this is by Joseph Kent and I heard
Henry quote this on the way up here, and I found it. It's in
Gadsby's hymns number 407 but anyhow Charles Spurgeon said
that some of the people in his church didn't like this one verse
in this song and I'll read it to you because it's good, and
that's why they didn't like it Here's pardon full for sin that's
past it matters not how black their cast now Everybody loves
that part But here's the rest of it and oh my soul with wonder
view for sins to come Here's pardon, too And that gives you
chill bumps. Because that is grace. And if you got a problem with
that verse of that song, go look at Romans. And see where David
wrote, Paul quoted that David wrote, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Folks, that's future. And it's just as future now as
it was then. Oh, I like that, I do. Oh my soul, with wonder view,
for sins to come, there's pardon too. That's the grace of God
that believers know. We have a knowledge of his grace. Understand that's a far cry from
you take the first step and God will meet you there. Oh No, no
you believe and God will give you eternal life Listen folks
well Carol Poole said that last week here dead person can't take
a step and a dead person can't believe and The natural man knoweth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them,
for they are spiritually discerned." Life comes before faith. It always has, and it always
will. Oh, dead men cannot come, and
here's the other thing, dead men will not come. The natural
man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. And I'm
going to tell you something. The grace of God is a spiritual
thing. It's a spiritual thing. Stephen
preached just before they stoned him, just before they stoned
him. Stephen preached that those uncircumcised
in heart and ears, those who have uncircumcised heart and
ears, who's the natural man, natural as he is born, Unregenerate,
what? Do always resist the Holy Ghost. Now, I got to tell you a funny
story. Well, it's not all that funny,
but it is to me. There are people who will take that scripture
and say that, oh, you see, men can resist the Holy Ghost. God
won't force you to be saved. God won't force you. Jesus Christ
never forced anybody to do anything except for some very profane
people to get out of his father's temple. He never took a court
of whips and beat anybody into the temple, but he did remove
some people from the temple. But here's the thing, he can
make you willing to come to him. You'll be willing when you come.
Oh, if you can come, you will. And if you will come, it means
you can. Oh, I like that. God's grace always, and this
is the thing, God's grace gives us the opposite of what we deserve. It's not just God giving us what
we don't deserve. He gives us the exact opposite. We deserve
eternal death, and He gives eternal life. Oh, I like that. And he gives that eternal life,
what? To as many as the father gave
to him. Oh, we deserve hell. And he gathers
us to himself. He's going to bring all his people
together in one. And there's going to be, make
no mistake about it, there's going to be one flock and one
shepherd. And he's the good shepherd, we're
the flock. And there's only one. Oh, I like
that. He's promised us an inheritance
in the heavens, undefiled, that fadeth not away. Christ promised us, and I believe
Gentiles in particular, when he said, we ain't going to come
from the east and come from the west. And sit down. Sit down. with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Folks, of ourselves, we got no
business being there. But oh, he makes us meet. He
makes us meet. He fits us to sit down with Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. by His grace, by His
grace. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6 says
this, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, I like that. Believers have a knowledge of
his grace of his grace Believers know they haven't earned anything
from God except the wages of sin and Believers know they don't
deserve his mercy and grace and Believers have been given a knowledge
of the grace of God by Jesus Christ oh secondly And verse
9, for this cause we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, of
his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That's the kind
of knowledge he's talking about. Oh, I like that. Believers. have a knowledge of
the will of God. This book's full of it. I'm going
to tell you something. Everything that happened in this
book is from the will of God. Everything that's happening now
comes from the will of God. Because the will of God is of
supreme importance. All of His sovereign power directs
and is directed by His will. And His will, I like this part,
directs His grace and mercy. The will of God directs it. God
told Moses, I will be gracious to whom? Will be gracious That's
as simple as that and it's profound as that It's as complex as that
oh I like that and he said this I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy The will of God is supreme in grace and in mercy
and believers know this Christ himself told us the father's
will and It's in John 6, 39. And this is Christ speaking.
And this is the Father's will. You want to know what the Father's
will is. You want to know what the will of God is. Christ told
us Himself. And it's recorded in the Scriptures.
This is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, Should lose nothing nothing But should raise
it up again at the last day Excuse me This is the father's will I Will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy and those that the father gave to Christ are Gonna
be Christ Actually, they are Christ and they always shall
be Christ. Oh We can we can lose our minds
We can rebel We can fight we can fuss we can we can cuss But
you understand The Lord knoweth them that are his He's not gonna
lose a one Not one person. That's the Father's will. Christ
will raise us up at the last day. I will show mercy to whom
I will show mercy. Christ will be gracious to all
that the Father gave to Him by the will of the Father, according
to the will of God. And we are saved by His grace,
according to the will of God. You understand, you know, if
God be for you, who can be against you? Well, God is for us. That's what this says. The will
of God is for us. God's will is for his people. It don't matter who's against
you. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Because I'm
going to tell you something. Nobody's getting in God's way.
Or they may think they're going to show somebody something. They're
going to try and kill you, and in killing you, they think they're
doing God a favor. They're wrong, if it's one of
God's sheep. Oh, God is for us, and God's
will is for us. Jesus Christ himself was delivered
at the hands of wicked men, crucified and slain according to the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. And that was for us. That was the will of God. The determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. They did it, and they did it
by wicked hands. They did it by wicked hands.
Oh, they meant it for evil. God meant it for good. And it
didn't change the incident one way or another. That was going
to happen according to His determinate counsel and foreknowledge. God's
will is for us. That's what it means. According
to the will of the Father. Because Jesus was the perfect
sacrifice for the sin and the sins of His people. The perfect
substitute. He took our place. According
to the will of the father. It's also according to the scriptures Read Isaiah 53 You got any questions? Oh? My he was the perfect sacrifice
according to the perfect holy righteous will of God and now
according to his will We give thanks praise to God First Thessalonians
5 and 18 says this in everything give thanks Why? For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you Concerning me Give thanks for the will of God
oh my and Here's the thing the will of God is good. We don't always see it as good.
We don't always know it as good. But it's good. It's good. The natural man can't see it. The unbeliever won't have it. They'll deny it. They'll fight
against it. They'll rebel. But believers
love the will of God. Oh, my. Because all of His promises
in Christ are yea and amen. The will of God is good. And
God's will has purposed the salvation of His people. And He made that
salvation Not possible, not available,
he made it sure. It's in his son. And his son's
not gonna fail. All that the father gave to him,
they're gonna come to it. And him that cometh to him, I'll
in no wise cast out. I will never leave thee, I will
never forsake thee. The foundation of God, I said
it earlier, that foundation stands sure. The Lord knoweth them that
are His. Do you understand? The foundation
ain't got nothing to do with us, except we're the ones that
He knew. We don't keep the foundation
sure. We're not helping shore up the foundation. We're not
propping it up. No, no, no. The foundation's
sure. God knows. And God has willed
that every one of His people come to Him through His Son,
by His Son, in His Son. God's will is purpose, the salvation
of His people. And the will of God in Jesus
Christ provided the salvation of His people. We have a knowledge
of the will of God. Now, verse 10. We have to be filled with the
knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding
that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being
fruitful at every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God the knowledge of God We have a knowledge of himself We have
a knowledge of the grace of God, we have a knowledge of the will
of God, and we have a knowledge of God himself. Now notice here
very clearly we are told by the Apostle Paul to increase in the
knowledge of God. We are not told anywhere to obtain
the knowledge of God. It's a gift. We are told to increase
it. We are told that. Believers have
a knowledge of God given by Jesus Christ, and we are told to increase
in the knowledge of God. What does it say? John 17, verses
2 and 3. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, these are the words of Christ in his prayer
to God. the Father, that he has given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And here's another one. This
is life eternal. Want to know what it is? It's
written right in the Bible. That they might know thee. the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent." He gives eternal life. He gives the knowledge
of himself. He gives the knowledge of God.
Eternal life is a gift of Jesus Christ that they know Christ
and the Father. Oh my, what Christ told his disciples,
he that has seen me has seen the Father. I and my father are
one oh I like that they know Jesus Christ is God believers
do Manifest in the flesh Believed on in the world How
by faith The faith Which Jesus Christ
is the author and finisher? He gives faith You're saved by
grace through faith and that none of yourselves It's the gift
of God It's the gift of God not of works lest any man should
boast and boy we like boasting and For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath ordained
that we should walk in them." Oh. Oh, we have a knowledge of God.
We have a knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Oh. And that knowledge is to increase. Paul said it several times. One
day I might preach on that. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren. I'm going to tell you something. Pay attention. I would
not have you to be ignorant, brethren. Paul said it more than
once. We have a knowledge of God. We
have a knowledge of His grace. We have a knowledge of His will.
And we have a knowledge of Himself. God himself. In 2 Peter, we are warned against
the error of the wicked. And, this is 2 Peter 3.18, but
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ, to whom be glory both now and what? Forever. Amen, that's right amen Grow
in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ The knowledge of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ is a gift to his people He gives it and
we are to grow thereby What we're to listen to his gospel preached
Now if the gospel is not being preached you don't have to listen,
but the gospel being preached you better listen We are to study his word Study
to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not
be ashamed Believers are to learn more what? by him of him Because
here's the thing, if you know Christ, you believe Christ, you
love Christ, you understand, Jesus Christ is magnificent to
his people. He ain't much of nothing to anybody
else, if you really want to know the truth of it. The long and
the short of it is this, Jesus Christ is really nothing to the
world. They think they celebrate his
birthday at Christmas. But that ain't it. They're just
looking for presents. That's all I was doing when I
was a kid. You understand? But Jesus Christ is magnificent
to believers. To believers. You understand?
Believers want to know more. They want to hear of Him. They want to learn of him, by
him, from him. Oh, I like that. And here's the
thing. You keep going, believers want
to know more. More. And to know Christ Jesus
makes you want to come to him. And after you come to him, You
keep coming. You keep coming. Understand that
Gadarene Damaniac, where was he when it's done? He was clothed
in his right mind and sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ.
That's where believers want to be. And he wanted to follow Him. And he did follow Him by Christ
sending him home. He did that in more than one
place. There were other people in the Gospels who wanted to
follow Christ, and Christ said, no, go home and tell them what
happened. He told some, don't tell what
happened, and they went and told it anyway. It didn't surprise him. It didn't
surprise him. Believers want to sit at his
feet and to learn about him from himself, from himself. Believers
want to hear his gospel, they rejoice in his word, and believers
are glad to come to the house of the Lord. Oh, I like that. Teach me, and I shall be taught. Give us an understanding of your
scripture, to know the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We have,
believers have, a knowledge of God. Last thing, all true knowledge comes from
God. From God. Look at verses 11 through
14 of Colossians chapter 1. Strengthened with all might according
to his glorious power and all patience and longsuffering with
joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us
meet. to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. Oh my, I like that. Who have
delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin. even future sins. That's grace. Oh, I like that. Believers know
he has made us meet. Because I'm going to tell you
something. Believers know we aren't meet in and of ourselves. But he has made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He's given us an inheritance. He's delivered us from the power
of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. And you understand, once He's
put you, translated you into the kingdom of His dear Son,
that's that strong habitation I talked about a couple weeks
ago. You're not coming out. You're not coming out. If He's
translated you in, you're staying in. Because Christ is going to
raise you up at the last day. He's promised. He's promised. Oh, I like that. In Him, God's
dear Son, Jesus Christ, we have redemption. Oh, through His blood. And yes, the forgiveness of sin. The forgiveness of sin. All of
a believer's hope is in Him and is Him. He is our hope. A believer
knows the salvation of God is totally from God. And we are, I love this word,
we are complete in Him. In Him. Not in ourselves. say Excuse me Matthew 11 28 through
30 Come unto me all ye that are labor that labor and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest rest Now we read that and we
love that I do I like it But I also like what follows it which
some people have a tendency to leave off. It says, take my yoke
upon you, what? And learn of me. Learn from me. For I am meek
and lowly in heart and ye shall find, what? Rest under your very
souls. Rest under your souls. For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light. Learn of me. Learn of me. Learn from me. Knowledge and understanding come
from Christ to His brethren by His Holy Spirit. Because the Spirit takes the
things of Christ and shows them to you, to His people. I like that. He takes the things
of mine and will show them unto you. That's a promise of God. Oh, I like that. And you know
that? Believers want that. Believers
want that. That's what I want. I want to
learn of Him. They willingly learn of Him. Willingly. Charles Wesley wrote it this
way in a song. Save us in thy great compassion,
O thou mild Pacific prince. Give the knowledge of salvation,
give the pardon of our sins. By thy all-sufficient merit,
every burdened soul release. By the shining of thy spirit,
guide us into perfect peace. Believers have knowledge of his
grace, they have a knowledge of his will, and they have a
knowledge of himself. And you know what? Continue. Continue. You are my disciples
indeed if you continue in my word. Continue. What? Learn of me. Learn from me. Because Jesus Christ brought
us by his grace, through his will, to himself. And we have that knowledge in
earthen vessels. You understand? It's not the
vessels that are worthwhile, it's the knowledge. It's not
the vessels. It's the Spirit. It's not the
vessels, it's Christ. Indeed, the hope of glory. But we've been given this knowledge.
Rejoice, study, learn, grow in the grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for this time, this place. Thank you. for all that you've done for
us and for all that you've given to us. Your son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, who redeemed us from all sin by his own shed blood
and his own sacrifice for our sin, took him upon himself and
paid the debt we couldn't pay. Be with Paul and be with Walter
as they come to preach your gospel. And we'll give you all the praise
and the honor and the glory because it is yours now and forever. Amen.