turn over, if you would, over
to chapter 4, the same book, and it says in verse 12 and 13,
in verse 15 and 16, we'll be looking. The Apophris, who is
one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always laboring
fervently for you in prayer, that ye may stand perfect, and
complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record that he
hath great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea, and them
in Heropolis. And in verse 15 and 16, it says,
Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, Nipheth and the
church which is in his house, and when this epistle is read
among you, cause it to be read also in the church of the Laodiceans,
and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. Epaphras is a fellow laborer
with Paul, the apostle in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's mentioned again, and turn, if you would, back to chapter
one of our book in Colossians. Chapter one, he's mentioned in
verse seven, as heaven taught the Colossian church the grace
of God and truth. He's a faithful gospel preacher,
preaching and proclaiming the free grace of God in Christ.
Ephesians, or I mean, Colossians chapter one, verses seven and
eight. as you also learned of Epaphras, of our dear fellow
servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also
declared unto us your love in the spirit. So he was a faithful
preacher to those in Coloss, and he also brought a good report
to Paul about their faithfulness and about how they're standing
for the truth. It's important to note that before
we go any further, who this epistle is written to. Look at it in verse one and two
again. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and
Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren
in Christ. So this book is written to the
Colossian believers, and also to all who would believe on Christ,
right? Because we are reading this thousands
of years later and gleaning from it right now. But think of this. Think of this. The reason it's
important to note Before we go any further, who the epistle's
written to is that a great many errors could be cleared up. If
we looked at who the scripture, if somebody was quoting a scripture,
look who it's written to. People like to rip what Peter
says about God not wanting any to
perish. They like to rip that out of
context. Well, that's God's elect. None of God's elect will perish.
So a great many errors can be cleared up if we look at who
the scripture was written to when folks quote it to us. And people love to quote scripture
out of context. And they also love to apply universalism
to scripture that's not there. This epistle was written to God's
people in Christ in Colossus. And this is, beloved, is why
we preach Christ and leave the work of persuading sinners to
God, because He does it all. He does it all. Salvation is
of the Lord. It's of the Lord, and we proclaim
this, and we proclaim that salvation is His doing. So let's look at
the first verse before us. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother. Paul here tells
us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that he is an apostle. Now we do not have apostles at
this time, although there's some apostates out there who claim
that they are apostles, but they're not, they're apostates. There's
no apostles right now. Although some like to claim in
their own little mind that they are. But during the time of this
writing, there were. And notice how quickly, though,
notice how quickly Paul, Paul doesn't necessarily focus on
himself. Notice how quickly, how quickly he turns the focus
on Christ. Paul, an apostle of who? Jesus
Christ. So right away, right away, he's
getting their minds focused on Christ. And this is why Spurgeon
said he made a beeline. If you read Spurgeon's messages,
you notice, Within the first few paragraphs, he makes a beeline
right to Christ. Because that's our hope. That's
where our message all comes in him. And it's all about him.
So the Greek word for apostle is defined as this, a delegate
or a messenger, one sent forth with orders. One sent forth with
orders. Specifically applied to the 12
apostles of Christ. And some characteristics of the
apostles were this. They were chosen by Christ. They
were chosen by him. They saw the Lord personally.
They saw the Lord personally. They had a personal knowledge
of the gospel revealed to them. And their doctrine, they were
gifted to work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrine. So Paul's authority as an apostle
comes from God, comes from God. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, which leads to our next point.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, it says in the text, of Jesus
Christ. Paul owes his appointment and
his authority to the Lord Jesus Christ. He gets all his authority
to preach from Christ, not from man, not from a group of men,
but he attributes his apostleship, not even to his own merit, right?
Not even to his own merit, not to his own strength, not to his
own sufficiency, but to the free grace and the goodwill of God. He is a chosen, turn with me
if you would to Acts chapter nine, he is a chosen appointed
messenger of God to preach and proclaim the gospel of salvation
in Christ plus nothing. He's a chosen ordained vessel
of God. Acts chapter nine, verses 15, And then put your
finger in Acts 22 as well. Acts chapter 9 verse 15, but
the Lord said unto him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel. A chosen vessel unto me. And
in Acts 22 verses 12 to 15, And one Ananias, a devout man
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, verse 12, came unto me and stood and said
unto me, brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour
I looked up upon him. And he said, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee. Hath chosen thee. He's a chosen
vessel. That thou shouldest know his will and see that just one. Look, there's another name for
our king, just one. And shouldest hear the voice
of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness unto all men of
what thou hast seen and heard. And in Acts 26, turn over to
Acts 26. And here's our master speaking
to Paul about this very subject. And see, this is just where scripture
confirms scripture. So Paul owes his appointment
and his authority to the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. He
gets authority from no one else. Acts 26 verse 15 and 17, to 18
actually. And I said, who art thou Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Now think of
the union between Christ and the body. Paul's persecuting
individual Christians, isn't he? The head, Christ is the head
and we're the body, right? See that union, that incredible
union between Christ and the believer? That when Paul was
persecuting believers, he is persecuting Christ? But rise and stand upon thy feet,
for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee
a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast
seen, and those things in which I will appear unto thee. delivering
thee from the people, from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send
thee. So he's a chosen, ordained vessel of God. And then verse
26 says, or 18, I mean, to open their eyes and to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Oh, Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, an apostle of Christ. Galatians says this, but I certify
you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not
after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And these are Paul
in Galatians chapter one, verse 11 and 12. He tells us that the
gospel he preaches is not after man. He's not man-taught, but
his authority comes from God. And remember this as you're reading
the epistles, the Pauline epistles, Paul constantly battled against
works-based religion, constantly. The Judaizers were coming at
him, the mystics were coming at him, the Gnostics were coming
at him. He had all different attacks from all different areas,
but the one thing that they constantly attacked too was his authority
to preach the gospel. And he's telling us here that
his authority comes from Christ and from him alone. And they were constantly attacking
him, saying he didn't have the authority to preach. But he did.
It came from God. And praise God that the authority
he had didn't come from men or their opinions of him, right?
But from God. And he preached Christ. to glorify
God. So to reject the words of Paul
is actually to reject the words of the master, as his authority
did not come from himself, but from Christ. He that receiveth
you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that
sent me. What a blessed union between
Christ and his servants. What a blessed union. Apostolic teaching is Christ's
teaching. To receive the 12 is to receive
their Lord Jesus, our Christ, our King. To receive the Lord
Jesus is to receive God himself, Matthew 10, 40. He that receiveth
you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that
sent me. So when they were rejecting Paul
and rejecting his authority, they were rejecting God in that
sense, because he was preaching about Christ. He was proclaiming
Christ to them. So hence, to reject the words
of an apostle, which Paul is, is a rejection of the will of
God. John says this in chapter 13,
verse 20, verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever
I send, receiveth me. He that receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. Therefore, Paul had the authority
from God to address the church and the saints at Colossus. He didn't do this on his own,
which leads to our third point in the text. Look at this, Paul,
an apostle, verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. And this
is the name of our sermon tonight, by the will of God. And Tometheus,
our brother, notice these five words which are true of every
believer in Christ. Paul is an apostle by the word
of God. He did not attain his high office
through aspiration or by usurping anyone, right? He didn't force
his way in. He didn't make someone else step
down. But he was an apostle by the
will of God. And he tells us right here in
the text, right here in the text, by the will of God. Paul was also, and here, Here
is an expression basically of Paul's theology. How was Paul saved? By the will of God. By the will
of God. How was Paul able to preach?
By the will of God. How were any of the saints saved?
By the will of God. His authority as an apostle was
by the will of God. His teaching and learning the
truths of the things of God in Christ was by the will of God. Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter one, verse 10, and put your finger in Romans
15, 32, and I know I have us turning, but what I'm trying
to do is show us the correlation between this. Do you know that
his travels of preaching the gospel was all by the will of
God? And he acknowledges that. Romans
chapter 1, verse 10. I love this little verse. Making
request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous
journey, by the will of God to come unto you. To come unto you
by the will of God. And in Romans 15.32, and this is a constant vein in
Paul's preaching and writings, he acknowledged that anything
that was done was by the will of God. Even
if he went to visit someone, even if he went on a journey,
it was by the will of God. That I may come unto you with
joy by the will of God and may with you be refreshed, Romans
15, 32. That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God. And think of this, even his time
of departing from this world, his breathing, his last breath
was by the will of God. We all have an appointment. We
all have an appointment. Now some may ask, what does this
have to do with me as a believer? Beloved, everything. everything. All of us are here breathing
and living and moving by the will of God. You're gifting to be able to
do the jobs where you work is all by the will of God. Brother
John, I can't do what you do. You know, you're You do your
construction work, right? There are the dozers, and you're
running the big machine. I can't do that. But God has
gifted you with the ability to do that. And we may look at that and think,
well, yeah, but you learned how to do that. Yeah, by the will
of God. Brother Bob was telling me he
used to be a heavy equipment operator, too. I don't know the first thing
about that kind of stuff. I can work on a computer and
stuff and tear that apart and work on all that. God's given
me the ability to learn that. See, everything, we look at things
and we think, oh, no, but it's all gifts from God to be able
to do the things that you can do. Because not everyone can
do those things. And here's a comforting thought
for believers. If you're a believer, It's by the will of God. It's by the will of God. And this is true of every one
of God's enlightened children. Every single one of them. If
you're saved, And those he will save, it will be by the will
of God. Doesn't it strip us of all our
doings? It's marvelous. It's marvelous. Of his own will begot he us.
With the word of truth, James 1.18. Of his own will begot he
us. we are bought into a living union
with the resurrected Christ of God under the preaching of his
glorious gospel by the sovereign will of a majestic and mighty
God. And he gets all the glory. He gets it all. If you're a child
of God, It's not because of a decision you made or a prayer you prayed. If you're a child of God, it's
by the will of God. Now, do God's people, do His
elect, do they cry out, do they pray to Him, do they run to Him?
Absolutely, because they're made willing. And they're made willing
by the will of God. Oh, it's marvelous. There is
no merit in our doings. No merit. And I'll be honest
with you, when you're witnessing the people too, it's sure comforting
to know that if the Lord saves them, it's by His will. I remember a dear friend of mine,
and he was caught up in the group that they basically told him,
if people go to hell, it's all because of you. No, people go
to hell, it's because of their sin. But if you ever go to heaven,
it's by the will of God. It's by the will of God. But after that, the kindness
and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. The kindness
and love of God. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. There goes our doing. It's gone. but according to his mercy. If you're saved, it's by the
will of God, according to his mercy. Mercy. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration, being born again of the Holy Spirit, and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly. Remember, pressed down, overflowing,
daily loaded down with benefits. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Titus chapter three, verse four
to seven. Made heirs by the will of God. It's marvelous. The hope of eternal life, by
the will of God. Regenerated by the Holy Spirit,
by the will of God. Called out of darkness into the
light, the marvelous light of Christ, by the will of God. Saved
from all your sins, every single one of them, by the will of God. Oh, it's marvelous. He gets all
the glory. He gets all the honor. He gets
all the praise. Oh, if we're bought from death
to life in Christ, it's by the will of God. Remember how we
saw we were a corpse the other night, dead in trespasses and
sins, but then we're made alive, believers? It's by the will of
God. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word,
and believeth on him, believes on Christ, that sent me, and
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death into life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is when the dead, there's the dead
spiritually, shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that
hear shall, shall, shall. Those are those imperative words.
I love them. Shall. It's not a question. They shall.
It's beautiful. It's wonderful. Because our salvation
is in Christ and Him alone. Our hope is in Christ. Do you
see how it tears any hope in ourselves away from us? And this
is what free grace preaching does. It strips us of any hope
or any thoughts of merit in ourselves and exalts Christ to His right
place. He receives all the glory, and He receives all the honor,
and He receives all the praise. Do you know if Christ died as
your substitute? It's by the will of God. Remember our Savior dying and
bleeding upon the tree? By the will of God. He must redeem His people from
their sins. And this answers the question,
by the will of God answer the question, How then can a man
be justified with God, or how can he be clean that is born
of a woman? Job 25, 4. The answer is in Christ
and nowhere else. But how are we saved? In Christ,
by the will of God. And we know, turn with me if
you would, we know, Romans chapter 8, we know that by measuring
scripture with scripture, that this is true, that we are
saved by the will of God. And I'll read you a portion in
Acts quickly. Acts says this, take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers to feed the church of God, which he purchased with
his own blood. If you're being purchased, if
you've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, it's by the will
of God. It's by the will of God. Romans chapter 8, verses 28 to
30. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose, his purpose, for whom he did
foreknow. He also did predestinate, notice
the past tense in all this, to be conformed to the image of
his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called, past tense.
And whom he called, then he also justified, past tense. And whom
he justified, then he also glorified, past tense. It's amazing. It's incredible. It's all by
the will of God. It's all by the will of God.
If you're redeemed, if you're saved, it's all by the will of
God. Jude says this. Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified
by God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus and called. If
you are sanctified in Christ, if you're being preserved in
Christ, it's by the will of God. Why don't we go off the rails? Because it's the will of God
to keep us. He does, he keeps his people. He keeps us looking
to Christ. He preserves us. And we saw in Romans 8.30 that
when we are glorified, it'll be by the will of God, right?
It's according to his purpose. He does what he pleases. And if you're lost and it's God's
will for you to be saved, you'll be saved. This gives us hope, doesn't it,
for our loved ones. It's not fatalism. We pray for
them. We witness to them. But if they're saved, it's by
the will of God. You're good as sheep. He won't lose one of
them, not one of them. And this is the hope, as we trumpet
the gospel of God's free grace in Christ, that God will save
his people. And we know he will. And when
he does, it'll be all according to his will, all according to
his will. And see what this does? This
puts man way down here where we're supposed to be, and it
puts God way up there. And that's what scripture does.
The God of religion is way down here, and man is way up here.
It's not like that in the scriptures, though, is it? As we read the
scriptures, it's not like that at all. Oh, he's so far above
us. He's God. We can't even fathom
him. And think of this, for all of
us here hearing this message, or those listening on the internet,
or those who will listen, it's all by the will of God. It's all by the will of God. The last point I'd like to look
at is we are brethren in Christ. Look at this. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, And Timothy is our brother. Now we're a family. God's people
are our family. We're brethren. We're all redeemed
by one Savior. By one Savior. And Timothy was not an apostle.
But he was a faithful preacher of the gospel of God's free grace
in Christ. He was a fellow laborer in the
work of the ministry. He was one of our own dear brothers
in Christ. Remember that as we read these
scriptures at home. These are our brethren. And we who are God's preachers, we're not in competition with
each other. Not at all. And we don't desire the preeminence.
If we do, we're in trouble. We want God to have all the preeminence. We want Christ to have all the
preeminence. We who preach only preach by
the will of God. We're called to preach the gospel,
but it's by God's will. We can't boast about it. Everything
we know, we've learned. We're just safe sinners telling
other sinners where to find bread. That's all. So God's preachers
are not in competition with each other at all. We rejoice when
the gospel's preached. This is also true with the whole
family of God, though. No one's trying to put more feathers
in their hat in the body of Christ. No one's trying to outdo each
other or obtain a position, no. What's the one thing that we
seek when we gather together? That God would be glorified,
right? That he'd be magnified in Christ. That the gospel, another
thing, that the gospel would go out with power. And that God
would use it to glorify himself and to save sinners. This is the only way a sinner
can be saved, is through Christ in him alone. There's no other
way. So the earnest desire of every
believer, every member of the body of Christ, is that the Lord
Jesus Christ would receive all the glory and all the honor that he would
be magnified. And Paul, think of this, here's
an apostle and he says, Timotheus, our brother. Norm Wells, a dear
friend of mine, dear preacher friend of mine, he's been preaching
for a long, long time. And we get on the phone and we
can talk for hours sometimes. But he always says to me, brother
Wayne, I just look at you like my equal. And I said, but brother,
I get with you and the other grace preachers and I feel like
Timothy. I do, I'm among these men who
have preached the gospel for years, but they treat me like
an equal. They don't vault themselves over
each other. And I've noticed that with them,
The ones I hang out with, they don't vault over each other.
They don't. We'll get together and talk about Christ and just
rejoice in what he's done for us and what he's doing. So Paul, he's an apostle, and
he says, Timothy is our brother, like he's an equal. And this speaks of our kinship
and the unity that we have in Christ. And think of this, this is for
all beliefs. We have a unity in Christ. We're
brothers and sisters in Christ. We're family. We come from all different walks
of life. Every one of us. All different
nationalities. But we have one unity. We're
united in Christ, aren't we? We're united in him. This is where we find our hope,
our salvation, our redemption. Paul summed it up when he said,
Christ is our all in all. He's our alpha and our omega,
our beginning and our end. It's often spoken of the brotherhood
in the military or police. And Brother John, you probably
experienced that, right? In military or police or firefighting professions,
they often speak of a brotherhood But I really believe this from
what I've experienced and I've talked to other men who've been
soldiers too before and they've even said the brotherhood in
Christ far exceeds that. Far exceeds that. And I've talked to many grace
believers who have the same feelings that I have who say we're closer
to one another than we are to our own family. How do you explain that? We all
have the same Father. We have the same Father. We have the same Redeemer. The same Holy Spirit within us. The same robe of righteousness. the same inheritance, in the same hope, the same eternal
hope that's in Christ. We don't hope in ourselves. There
was a time when we may have. Don't now. No one. The world doesn't understand
that kinship. that bond of love that believers
have. Now, like any family, sometimes
we don't always get along, right? Sometimes a brother will get
along with a brother, and sometimes they'll have a time. But the
one thing with believers is the Lord will always bring us back
together. And here, think of this. If someone's wronged you, think of how much God's forgiven
you. And it won't be hard to forgive
others. I heard Henry Mahan say this
too. He said, if you're having trouble with someone, pray for
them. He said, a believer can't be
mad at another believer if he's praying for them. He just can't.
It does work. I've tried. But think of that. We have the
same God, the same Redeemer, the same Spirit within us, the
Holy Spirit, the same robe of righteousness, the same inheritance,
the same eternal hope. What more could we possibly want,
beloved? And we know why Paul said, Christ
is our all in all. And my prayer is that God would
continue to cultivate among us a love for the brethren, in unity one with another, in
Christ Jesus our Lord. May the Lord bless you and keep
you, and may he be glorified, and may we keep our hearts and
minds set upon him. I'll see you when it's time.