Don't leave Christ

If you want to turn to the book of Colossians, please. The book of Colossians, and I've entitled today's message, as the Lord Jesus exhorted his disciples, or he asked them a question, will you also go away? So I've entitled today's message, Don't Leave Christ. Don't leave Christ.

Now, I want to say some things as preliminary to where we're going to be today. We're going to be in chapter four, verse seven, through the end of the chapter. Before I say these things, I want to try to prime your thoughts. There are a couple of verses this week that I've thought about. And it is usually the case that I think about these things and I don't get to talk to you one-on-one or as a group because there's just not enough time. But in John chapter 16, you hold your place in Colossians. If you're turning to John 16, I don't ask you to turn, I'm just gonna read this to you. John 16 verse 13, Jesus said, how be it when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth.

For he shall not speak of himself. That seemed very, very, that's amazing, that the Spirit of God would not speak of himself. But that's what Jesus says. He shall not speak of himself, for whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.

He shall glorify me. He shall receive of mine and shall show it to you. Do you see what the Lord is saying here? He's saying that when he goes to the cross in his descent, that he came down from heaven and laid down his life according to the will of the Father, that when he finished that work, his father would glorify him, he would ascend again where he was before. And from that throne, God's throne, the right hand of the father, he would send the spirit of his father and he would show, he would give to the spirit of God the things concerning himself that he would give them to his people. So that the gospel is preached today because Christ sits on the throne at the right hand of God. He descended first, then he ascended. Now as the king, he sends his gospel. And that gospel is preached to us and the spirit of God shows us the things of Christ. That's phenomenal.

In John 18, along the same lines, Jesus told Pilate, my kingdom, and this is John 18, verse 36, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence, not from here, not of this world, not an earthly kingdom, not a physical kingdom, spiritual. He said in verse 37, Pilate therefore said to him, are you a king then? Jesus answered, thou sayest that I am a king.

In other words, you're correct. It's just like you say. But to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, notice, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. Now, he just said to his disciples that the spirit of God is the spirit of truth. And Jesus said, I came into the world as a king, the king of truth, to bear witness to the truth. Of course, Pilate, not knowing the importance, the significance of that statement, he said, what is truth? It shows us complete ignorance to what Christ said.

And we feel our ignorance too, don't we? Now I say this as preliminary to Colossians because in my own experience in life, as you probably have too, we've attended school, we've gone to school, maybe we went through grade school and high school and even college, and we've learned things. We learned the basics of how to read and write and calculate. When I went to college, I learned things that men in history had spent their lives trying to figure out.

Sir Isaac Newton, for example, in physics. Niels Bohr in chemistry. Max Planck, I think his name was, and Maxwell's equations. I was way over my head. These men of old spent their lives deriving equations and models of the physical universe. Einstein spent most of his life trying to come up with an equation that captures the model, really, of physical things.

How planets are connected and the mass and light is bent and travels and all these things. He wanted a simple equation that would describe the physical world. But the Lord Jesus came into the world, the creator, the creator of these things. the one whose word sustains and upholds by whose word all things consist. And he said to Pilate, I came into the world to bear witness, to testify of the truth. But he never mentioned the equations that Einstein and Max Planck and Sir Isaac Newton and all these people came up with. He didn't give us the arithmetic and the model of this physical universe. If he did, what would the impact have been?

People would have said, oh yeah, it was Jesus Christ that gave us these equations. And this is what we use to model the physical universe so that we can construct electromagnetic and electronics and bridges and do chemistry and travel, interplanetary travel, all these things. Because Jesus Christ gave us a model of the physical world.

That is not why he came. He didn't want that kind of recognition. He didn't come to promote himself in that way. It was enough that he created the world, it was enough for him to say that by him were all things created and for him. And he who created all things, who avoided these kinds of praise and admiration from men because he understood these things that we see and live in day by day. He said, no, I have something else to tell you. The truth, the truth, the truth of heaven.

That's what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians about. When the Apostle Paul wrote, he didn't He didn't give them a dissertation of the complexities of the Jews' religion. He didn't boast in his knowledge of what God said in the Old Testament. He said, I have determined to preach nothing, to know nothing among you except the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what Jesus came to do, to preach Christ and Him crucified.

This is the truth. He said, I am the truth. I'm the way, the truth and the life. Now, I say these things because we are the recipients of these. We have been given the words from the one who is the wisdom of God. He knows us. He knows our needs. More importantly, He knows His Father.

He knows God. in the intimacy of one who from eternity, face to face, in unrestricted communion and fellowship with the heart of the Father, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word of God, face to face, from eternity, came into this world. And when he did, no one knew him. He created the world and we didn't know him. He came to his own, the Jews, they would not receive him.

And that's our condition. And the Lord says, but even though man is utterly spiritually blind in darkness and without any spiritual value, out of the ruin of that death and emptiness and darkness, the Lord God has redeemed us by the blood of the Lamb, washed us from our sins, brought us to God, and clothed us in the righteousness of his own obedience. in order to bring us to God and to give us his life, to give us his life. And this is what the Lord Jesus did. This is what the apostle did. Paul, you could say Paul was a genius by any measure among men.

But he said, no, I'm going to be very gladly spend and be spent for you. I'm not seeking yours. I'm seeking you. That's what he told the Corinthians. And so when Paul wrote to the Colossians, he spent the time not talking about these things that men use, banter about, and they boast in their knowledge of them, their intellectualism, or their achievements, or their experiences, or their mystical things. No, he said, I refuse. I completely set aside all of my religious accomplishments. All of the things that I could claim as a religious experience, those things I set aside and I count them but dung in order that I may be found in Christ alone and have not my own righteousness but his only.

And so when the apostle wrote to the Colossians, he opens the book this way. Paul, an apostle, sent one of Jesus Christ by the will of God. to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see how he opens it? This is the most momentous thing he could do.

He was in prison. He was suffering by the will of God for the sake of Christ and his church. You would say, we would think that's not any way to be successful. to be shut up in prison and suffer? That's not the way to success, is it? He needs to be released. The Christians prayed that God would release Peter and he was let go. What about Paul? That's not God's way. God glorifies himself out of our impotence. Not out of our ability, but out of Christ. And the message of Colossians is this, Christ is all. Christ is all. And so he opens this way. I was sent by him, by the will of God. He's going to reveal God. He's going to reveal his truth, his character, his name in his son. He's going to reveal his mind, his will, and from that his work. And his work has to do with the souls of men.

Sure, He created the world and upholds it, but it was for this purpose that He might exalt His Son in the salvation of sinners. This is the truth. This is what Jesus Christ came to bear record. This is what the Spirit of God is sent by Christ to tell His church, that He who reigns and disclosed to them what Christ is, who Christ is, all that is His, given to Him by His Father, Because he fulfilled his father's will, he answered God's perfections in the sacrifice of himself. He overthrew the entire kingdom of Satan in his own blood, offered to God for our sins. That's the truth. That's the truth, the eternal truth of heaven and God's heart. This is why he came. He did not come to talk about superfluous, superfluity or anything like that, not about traditions of men, not about what you can do.

He talked about what Christ has done and His glories in His salvation of His people who were utterly unable to contribute without strength, sinful against God. The enemies of God and God has so reconciled them to himself by the death of his son that he joined them to him in one, they're one in spirit.

And he's given them this grace of faith to see and to know Christ and actually love him. Now this is the ministry, this is the service of Paul to the church, commissioned by Christ, who himself was a servant to his people, so much that he laid his life down in ransom for them to redeem them to God. And so he goes right into it, he tells us that this is, we're praying for you, we're giving thanks to God the Father for you, for the hope he has laid up for you in heaven. Because when this gospel, the truth of God was declared to you, God gave you faith to believe it, to believe his son. And now you are holding fast to him in faith. And God has so given you this grace of his spirit that you actually now love the Lord Jesus Christ.

You would have nothing else. You can't go anywhere else. You have no one else to go to, no one else to come to God by except by Him. You have an account you must give but you can't give it and so you come to God and to Christ, Lord be my account to God. Let your obedience, your blood be brought to God as my account given by my surety.

So he goes on in this, he says, now, this is the reason we pray in verse nine, that we desire you to be filled with the knowledge of his will in these things, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, you see. It's not about our intellect, our understanding of this world. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. The news of the day for the believer is not the news of the world. It's the news of heaven. It's the gospel of his son, the gospel of his dear son, the gospel of God. And what amazing news it is, isn't it?

He wanted, he prayed the apostle according to the spirit of God, the will of God, as Christ sent from heaven, Christ at the right hand of God prayed that the believers, the church of God would be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding in order that you might walk worthy of the Lord.

You can't walk according to the truth unless you're given the truth. And God has to give you that faith by which we walk, these feet of faith, these eyes of faith, these hands of faith. That God enables us to cleave to Christ, to see Christ, to stand and walk and leap and praise God because of Christ. And he goes on, he says, now I want you to have this knowledge in verse 11 to be strengthened.

For what purpose? With all might, with God's power, according to His glorious power, unto all patience, enduring patience, long-suffering with joyfulness. You see, faith enables us, as Christ did on the earth, to consider it all joy. Paul said it, I consider it all joy to suffer for your sakes. to consider it all joy to suffer for Christ's sake, in whatever way he calls us to suffer. That's where we're at now. And I could go back through the book and we could review these things, but remember these things. This is what we've been studying here.

He says, God would make known to you what is the riches of the glory of this mystery. This knowledge that's heaven knowledge in the heart of God. unknown to the natural man, but revealed by the Spirit concerning Christ, what He accomplished, who He is, His glories. knowledge, this mystery, the riches of His glory, of this mystery, I have been given by Christ to preach this among the Gentiles. And here it is, Christ in you, the hope of glory, the certain expectation because God has promised and Christ has taken possession of that eternal inheritance of eternal glory for His people. And God has so joined us to Him that we're in Him and He is in us. in this body, now, today, by faith, Christ in you, the hope of glory. He told Nicodemus, the son of man which is in heaven, He is the one who descended first and ascended, and now he's seated in heaven. While he was talking to Nicodemus. And the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of God, who sits at the right hand of God in all of his majesty, is in the hearts of his people by his spirit. Christ in you.

This is a new thing, isn't it? This is the good news. He is our hope of glory. He says in verse 29 of chapter one, I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily. Honey, could you turn the air conditioning so it's a little warmer in here, please? All right, this is the one in chapter two. He says in verse three of chapter two, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And since they're all in Him, we would expect to be able to go to Him for them. And we do, don't we? Ask, he says, ask me. As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, as a sinner, empty, void, darkness, and the light of the gospel, the glorious gospel of Christ shine in your hearts, so walk. Walk in it. Walk in the truth of it. Walk in Christ.

In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete, a complete Savior, and you're complete in your Savior. This is the one who redeemed us, the dear Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, by His blood has redeemed us to God. He's forgiven you all your trespasses.

He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. He took it out of the way. He nailed it to his cross. And he overcame and spoiled principalities and powers, put them to shame, and emptied them of all of their effect against us. He turned the evil, not only of our sin, but of Satan and his kingdom into good. Hell's designs was hell's defeat. And this was by the wisdom of God that whatever the devil did, it was according to God's will.

Amazing grace. And from his throne on high, as the hymn writer says, thus the eternal counsel ran, almighty grace, arrest that man. You see how God's grace is the truth. You see how it concerns Christ and his victory. And now look at chapter four. He's drawing these things to a close. And we're drawing this book, our series in Colossians to a close in these things. And he says several things in chapter four.

After having exhorted us to realize that our relations reflect our relation to God and to Christ and his to us and to act in faith and to live in these relations out of faith in Christ and do everything for his name, asking God to receive us for his sake and give us grace for his sake and to treat us and to look upon us in Christ and to nowhere else and to enable us by his grace to live this way in all these relations. And then in chapter four, he says this, He says in verse 2, I'll read this again, but we're going to start at verse 7. He says, continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Pray. Pray. Watch. Be watchful through prayer. Always with thanksgiving. Not so much to get, but to be thankful that in Christ we have all these things.

With all praying for us, he says, praying for us, us apostles, us preachers, us teachers, those given by God to declare the mysteries of God, the truth, to be the witnesses to the truth as Christ was. That God would open to us a door of utterance, to open the door that the gospel might be preached, to speak the mystery of Christ, that's the gospel. known only to God, revealed by God. We can't know it. God has to reveal it. But when he does, then we see the light of God, the truth. Christ is the king of truth. And he gives that truth to his people by his spirit of truth.

So ask him, Lord, open a door to the gospel that we may utter it as we ought to speak the reason, he says, in verse three, for which I'm also in bonds. That seems antithetical. Why would I be in bonds if I'm supposed to preach the gospel? Well, that was God's way of glorifying himself. Through what apparently seemed like a failure, God would be victorious. This is the way he works. Haven't you seen it? Through the utter ruin of ourselves in our sin, God brings forth his great victory. in Christ.

So he says in verse four, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak, walking wisdom toward them that are without the wisdom of the gospel, redeeming the time, make use, take advantage of the opportunity, pray that God would enable you in your lifetime, it's short, to live according to the truth of Christ. He says in verse six, let your speech be always with grace. Be gracious and speak of God's grace in Christ. Speak of him who emptied himself and made himself poor, that by his poverty we might be made rich in grace, seasoned with salt, knowing that the salt of the sacrifice and of the covenant that heals the cursed streams came upon Christ that we might be healed. And warn every man that outside of Christ, that judgment must fall on you. Don't depart from him like Lot's wife. Remember that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Christ has answered for his people at judgment in his cross. He says, all my state, in verse seven, and I want to go through these verses one by one. All my state shall Titicus declare unto you who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and a fellow servant in the Lord.

We're gonna take these words, these verses here together one at a time. I want you to see some things here. First of all, I want you to see how Paul prayed for the Colossians and asked them to pray for him. And then I want you to see the fervent desire that he had for them, and they, to whom the gospel came, also had this fervent desire for one another. He tells them, I want you to salute your brethren, in verse 15. Salute the brethren.

In verse 16, he says, and when this epistle is read, I want you to read the letter I've sent to you. In verse 17, he says to Archippus, take heed to the ministry. So the Lord is telling us, be watchful over this ministry God has given you. In verse 18, remember my bonds, you see these things?

But in verse seven, he speaks about Tychicus or Tychicus, I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it. He says, all my state shall Tychicus declare to you who is a beloved brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. You see, just turn it off and shut the switch on the bottom to the opposition. Tychicus was a beloved brother. So is everyone in Christ. Tychicus was a faithful minister.

God had given him a ministry. This is his task. This was his vocation, his calling, to serve. That's what a minister does. They serve. He was a fellow servant. Paul said a fellow servant. He said, I'm the apostle. He's a lowly man. No, we're equal in this. We're both serving Christ by serving his people in the gospel.

It says in Second Timothy, chapter four, that Titicus was of Asia. He was an Asian. He was a Gentile. In Acts chapter 2, verse 9, when the gospel was preached, it says, and those of Asia heard the gospel in their own tongue. That's incredible. I was at China one time. I couldn't understand the language. But they heard. The Asian people heard. Titicus heard. It says that Tychicus was of Asia. He says that in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Here it says that he was a beloved brother, a faithful minister.

There was no barriers between believers because of culture, because of where they came from, or even by language. God was removing the barriers. He was showing us that in Christ, all of his people received the same grace The same salvation, the same eternal inheritance, the same eternal life. It's all by grace. It's the reward of the inheritance. Those two things are showing us that it is not of works. It's of God.

He prepared a kingdom for us in Christ before the foundation of the world, before you had any opportunity by whatever you were thinking or doing or experiencing to contribute to the reason why God would do this. You don't have a higher place in the kingdom of God. The lowest is in the highest place, and that's Christ. And so these men were pointed out for these reasons, a servant of Christ, a servant with Paul, not rivals, but one who abased himself for Christ's sake.

And he says in verse 8, he says, whom I sent to you for the same purpose that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts. You see, the reason that Paul sent Tychicus to the church at Colossae was to comfort them. And he wanted to be comforted, too, by knowing how they were doing. So there's an interest in the church. Paul is interested in them, very interested, praying for them and wondering, how are they doing? And Tychicus wanted to know, how are you doing? And he would bring that message back to Paul, this is what's going on. And Tychicus would tell them, this is what's happening with Paul.

It's like talking on the phone or getting the newspaper. But it wasn't about what was going on in between nations and all these things that occupy all of the news today or some shock thing. This is what Christ is doing in his church. You see, that's what they were interested in, the ministry. They were interested in the ministry of the gospel from Christ on his throne through the preachers he had given.

Look at Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians, just a couple of books back from Colossians, he says in Ephesians four, Verse seven, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. The Lord, who is on the throne by his sovereign good pleasure, assigns to each of his people a portion in his ministry.

Remember how Jesus told his disciples, he says, pray that the Lord of the vineyard would send laborers into the vineyard or into the harvest. Both of those things are used. So he says, pray for us. But here he says to every one of us has given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, wherefore he saith. This is the Lord.

When he ascended up on high, Christ ascending back from earth, having accomplished our redemption, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. He not only subdued our captors, but he freed us who had been captives and brought us, and he gave gifts from his throne to men. So what kind of gifts? Gold, silver, intellectual gifts? Ambition, strength, bodily strength, athletic strength? No. Beauty? No. None of the things the world seeks after and admires.

It says now in verse 9, now that he ascended, what is it? But that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended, that's in the crucifixion, is the same also that ascended in the resurrection and exaltation, far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. You see, Christ is enough.

And he gave, this is what he gave, some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. For what purpose? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Are we recipients of this? Oh, yes, we are. Yes, we are, aren't we?

Here we have the written epistles of Paul, who labored and was imprisoned, but out of that labor, out of those sufferings, came the richest revelation of the mysteries of God and of Christ. He says that this ministry is given until we all come into the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God and that body of Christ unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, being conformed to his image. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, preaching the gospel in love of Christ, may grow up unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. from whom Christ, the whole body, every believer, fitly joined together, compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."

Isn't that amazing? Amazing. This is what Paul is saying. I sent Tychicus to you to see how you're doing and tell you how we're doing. Basically, I want to find out what the Lord is doing with you and tell you what the Lord is doing with us. He's revealing himself to us and he's giving his gospel success. His people are being called according to the eternal counsel that ran this way. Almighty grace arrest that man.

So he goes on, he says in verse nine. He says, with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you, they shall make known unto you all things which are done here. You see, both Titicus and Onesimus were sent. Tychicus of Asia, Onesimus was from that area. He was a servant to Philemon, which is another book we'll read about soon. And so Paul sent them both. Onesimus was so dear to Paul, he calls him as his own bowels.

If you really want to bless somebody, you send the one that you love the most, don't you? Isn't that what God the Father did? He sent his son that we might live by him. And herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And so Paul sends his son in the faith, Onesimus. He was a servant to Paul. He had been unfaithful to his earthly master. Now he was faithful to Christ, to Paul, and to his people. So he sends him, him and Titicus, a fellow laborer, he calls him, a dearly beloved.

He says to Philemon, who was Onesimus' master, the church in your house. So that's what he's telling them about. what the Lord did in Onesimus. And then in verse 10, he says this, in verse 10 of Colossians 4, he says, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, salutes you. And Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, touching whom you receive commandments, if he come to you, receive him.

So you can see that what was on Paul's mind was not the political events. It was what was going on in the household of God. You see? This occupied his thoughts, his prayers, his labors. It was a reason for his suffering, for his imprisonment. And he did it for Christ's sake, but as a servant to Christ's people. And so he says this about Aristarchus.

He's my fellow prisoner. They were both in bonds. And he says, Aristarchus salutes you. To salute means to greet warmly. The root word means to draw in close, to embrace, to bring in close, to disclose one's own heart in intimate fellowship. He salutes you. It conveys this nearness, this closeness between the believers. Aristarchus salutes you. He warmly greets you.

It's like when we were talking with Darwin just the other day and Yvonne on the phone. Just hearing their voice. You want to tell them, you're very dear to us. Not because they've been in our lives a long time in the physical sense, but because of the gospel. Each of you are dear to us because of the gospel. We have different jobs, we have different backgrounds, but we have this in common. We have one mind, Christ is all. We're sinners, helpless, and of no account and of no value. But the Lord has redeemed us by the blood of his son.

So he speaks of Aristarchus this way. And then he says in verse 11, he says, and Jesus, oh, well, in verse 10, when he mentions Marcus, this is the nephew of Barnabas. It was Barnabas's sister's son. And remember, there was a falling out between Barnabas and Paul over Mark. And now he says, I've given you a commandment.

We don't know exactly what he told him. And he says, when he comes, receive him. Receive him. Receive him as a brother. Receive him as you would receive Christ. Is that too strong? That's what the Lord says, if you receive one of these little ones, you've received me. And if you receive me, you receive him that sent me. Receive him. Paul told Philemon in the book of Philemon, receive Onesimus as myself. And we'll get to that later. So he says, receive him. And Jesus, which is called justice in verse 11, now, Justice and Mark, or Jesus, whose name was called Justice here, these two were of the circumcision.

In other words, they were Paul's fellow servants, fellow laborers as Jews, but the rest of them were Gentiles. And he says, they're my fellow laborers. These only are my fellow laborers under the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort to me. The apostle Paul needed comforting and got it from nobodies?

Yes, yes, because we do too. The lowliest servant is a member of Christ's body and the body is built up by that which every joint supplies. And so he mentions justice. Now justice is a name that men were given to call them a just one. And we know that means someone who is righteous. But none of us are righteous in ourselves. So this name really was carrying with it what we believe that in Christ, God has made us the righteousness of God in him. So even in the name, it was a reminder. See what God has done. This is the truth of heaven.

We're righteous in His Son. We have no righteousness of our own, but we are so delighted, even with all of the things that come upon us in the daily troubles of this life and in the decline of our body and in the terrors at night or the doubts, that in Christ, God has made us, God Himself made Christ unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. And therefore, we glory only in him, in the Lord, justice. He says in verse 12, Epaphras.

Who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you, he also warmly embraces you and draws you near to himself. He salutes you always, laboring fervently for you in prayers. You see what God has given his people to do? This is one of the ways that we're built up as a body, praying. Praying that the gospel would be, the ministry of the gospel would go forth. Lord, send laborers into the field, your harvest, to bring in your harvest. And praying for one another, comfort, faith. steadfastness, love, all these things, hope.

That you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. That's a high prayer, isn't it? Perfect, complete in all the will of God. Yes. God himself will glorify himself. There won't be any failure. He's going to conform us to the image of his son.

And as Sarah prayed or Sarah believed in Hebrews 11, 11, She judged him faithful who had promised. Sarah represents the mother of all believers. You can read that in Galatians chapter four. So the mother of all believers represented by Sarah in her birth of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, the children of faith, the children of promise. She judged him faithful who had promised, and therefore, it says in Hebrews 11, 11, therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude.

Now the church is given this great promise that through the preaching of the gospel, God would gather his people in, Christ would gather his harvest in. to His barn, His grapes, His vine into His vineyard, from His vineyard. And this would be to the God's glory.

He's going to do it. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. And so Epaphras was praying this way, laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record that he has a great zeal for you and then that are in Laodicea and then in Hierapolis. So this man was a preacher. He was a pastor of this church, Epaphras.

And Paul wanted them to know that he was given this grace by God. Verse 14. Luke, he says, the beloved physician and demons greet you. Now think of Luke. He wrote the gospel of Luke. He traveled with Paul. He wrote the book of Acts. He was a doctor, but he didn't have an office. He went to those who were sick. preaching Christ, the salvation of the Lord.

Remember Luke 2.30? Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.

And you know that Luke, when he penned those words in Luke 2.30, verse 30 of chapter 2 of Luke, you know he himself, through Simeon, looked upon Christ and said, my eyes have seen thy salvation. This was Luke.

A doctor in those days didn't get rich. No, they were probably the poor and they came to the sick among the poor as a physician. And he attended to the needs of Paul, who had a lot of problems, physical ailments because of the labor and the sufferings of the gospel. And he attended to him, to Timothy, to all these things.

Luke was the physician, the doctor, Dr. Luke. Not as a way of, as the earthly accolades are doctor this, doctor that, but doctor in the most endearing sense. You got an affliction? Let's talk to our beloved physician, Luke. I like that. I like this mention of Luke.

But then he says in Demas, now Demas is a sad case. In 2 Timothy 4, verse 10, Paul says, Demas has forsaken me for this present world. And that's where this message title comes from. Don't leave Christ. He left the ministry. He left the service of Christ. He left Paul. He could live without Christ. He was never one of his people. We don't leave Christ having been his people. No one of Christ's sheep will ever be lost. Jesus said, remember Lot's wife, Demas has forsaken me.

What do you say? When When the Lord says, when any stray from Zion's way, alas, what numbers do me thinks I hear my Savior say, wilt thou forsake me too? Ah, Lord, with such a heart as mine, unless thou hold me fast, I feel I must, I shall decline and prove like them at last, unless you hold me fast. That's our prayer, isn't it? Be the doctor to my soul. Let me feed upon you, Lord Jesus, in your body and in your blood. Let me find my all. Let me not have any other thirst than a thirst for your righteousness as mine before God. And so he says this about Luke and Demas. And then in verse 15, he says, Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea and Nymphos and the church which is in his house. Greet them, warmly welcome them, draw them close, embrace them.

Nymphos, I don't know if he's mentioned elsewhere, but it says he had a church in his house and this was not uncommon. Priscilla and Aquila had a church in their house. Philemon had a church in his house. Memphis had a church in his house. Churches weren't big in those days. They were little, small groups of people meeting to hear the gospel, the ministry of the word, the body of Christ, a very small remnant out of this world.

And yet this is what God is interested in. This is his work. He says in verse 16, when this epistle is read among you, read the letters of Paul. Cause that it be read also in the church of Laodicea. All the churches read Paul's letters. And that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And I say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfill it. Watch.

You know how I was, I was outside yesterday. I have to confess I'm at that point where it doesn't feel good to sit and study. I admire Don Fortner. He could sit for hours. and never move physically except looking at his screen or his books or whatever and writing. I can't do that. My body just doesn't tolerate being still. So I walk around. I get up, I get down, I get down, I get up, I move around a lot.

But here, he says to Archippus, one of the things I do when I'm walking around is I notice things that need to be done. It looks like we need to take care of the dishes, or we need to take care of something outside, or we need to take care of this or that. I'm watching around. I'm looking at the house. I'm looking at what needs to be taken care of.

The Lord says, take care of, watch the ministry. That's what he's saying here. You know what taking care of things and watching things is? The ministry. That's what you need to take care of. The ministry of the gospel, the people of God, the glory of Christ, the truth. So take heed, Archippus. And then he says in verse 18, this salutation by the hand of me, Paul.

Remember my bonds. Remember me. Remember that in my bonds, it's filling up the sufferings of Christ. He says in Hebrews chapter 13, verse three, he says, remember them that are in bonds as being bound with them. I don't, I'm not in prison. Sometimes I tell my wife, sometimes I wonder if I'm a believer because I don't seem to suffer very much. I've learned to be content with that. Paul suffered, remember his bonds. Others suffer, remember them. Remember one another, their afflictions, their needs. Remember them as being bound with them.

We're bound now, aren't we? We're in a body. We all need the same savior, the same grace. We live upon the same broken body and blood of our savior. We live in expectation of eternal glory because Christ has been given to us. And we know it because we've been given this faith to believe him. Mind the ministry. This is the occupation God has called us to. This is the gift he's given to us. This is the grace he's given us. that we would serve him in the kingdom of God, the truth from heaven. Let's pray. Father.

Thank you for the letters of Paul, for the service of Paul, for the ministry you gave him, for your church. Thank you for your exalted place on high, where you sent the truth from heaven to us into our souls by your spirit, revealing the things of Christ to us, causing us to see the light of the glorious gospel of of God, the the light of heaven. our salvation, our life, our all. Help us to find nothing in this world that we would cling to, but to find everything that Christ is to be all of our life.

All of our coming, all of our praise and thanksgiving. Lord, be with your church, be with this ministry, send laborers into this harvest, call your people, glorify yourself in our salvation to the uttermost. We pray you'd be with all those who have so many fears and doubts among us and afflictions of any kind and strengthen us. Lord, open a door of utterance from your heavenly throne. of the gospel, the mysteries of God into our hearts. Open our hearts to receive them. Give us your grace. Cause us to never leave, to depart our Savior. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Don't leave Christ

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Don't leave Christ

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