All right, if you would open
your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter
1. We have, I know, a very long
list of triage and folks that are hurting and sick. We've got
folks with COVID and recovering from it, and I want to remember
them. And I also would ask as much
as the Lord brings him to your mind, to keep Ben Thompson in
your prayers. Slightly baby step, as the family
says, improved since Friday. But he's still on a vent. He's
still in ICU. This situation is very, very
serious still. If the Lord's going to heal him,
he's still deep in the woods. He's got a long, long road if the
Lord's going to heal him. So just remember him and that
family in prayer. Novi Sparks has started her dialysis. And hopefully it won't be long
until she gets a transplant. Barb Collins and Charlie Davis
are Recovering slowly, but they are recovering. So it's let's
remember all these folks in prayer. Hold them up to our Lord All
right, Colossians chapter 1. We'll read down beginning verse
1 through verse 12 and After we sing a couple songs. I've
asked Eric Floyd to come lead us in prayer So glad Eric's back
since he's been here. He'd been from CDC Preaching
and I thought well, I'm a game to read for us while he's here
for he goes again. So I We'll look forward to that. All right, verse one, Colossians
one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and
Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren
in Christ, where you're at Colossae. Grace be unto you and peace from
God, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving 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. hope which is laid
up for you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word
of the truth of the gospel which is come unto you as it is in
all the world and bringing forth fruit as it doth also in you
since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in
truth as you 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 also For this cause,
we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that
you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power
and all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. giving thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son. All right, let's stand together
as Sean leads us in singing our call to worship. Rejoice, my soul, rejoice! The shepherd found his sheep. Give thanks and praise to him. The Lord is found, once he will
keep. I am the good shepherd. Christ Jesus has declared He
gave His life to save His sheep His sheep from wrath are spared
I was a wandering sheep The shepherd sought me out. He brought his sheep into his
fold. His grace I cannot doubt. I know, dirty and weak and dumb. But if the Lord my shepherd is,
he will his sheep bring home. Rejoice, my soul, rejoice! The shepherd found his sheep. Give thanks and praise to Him
alone, His found ones He will keep. Okay, if you would turn in your
hymnal to song number 39, This is My Father's World. This is my father's world, and
to my listening ears all nature sings and round me rings the
music of the spheres. This is my father's world, I
rest me in the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand the wonders wrought. This is my father's world, The
birds their carols raise, The morning light, the lily white,
declare their Maker's praise. This is my Father's world. He shines in all that's fair. In the rustling grass I hear
Him pass. He speaks to me everywhere. This is my Father's world. That though the wrong seems oft
so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father's world, the
battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
and earth and heaven be one. Anytime Abby and I come home
from wherever, as soon as we pull in the driveway, we look
at each other and we say, it's good to be home. It's good to
be. It's good to be home. Open your
Bibles with me to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Begin reading in verse 26 of
Acts chapter 8. The angel of the Lord spake unto
Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way
that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And
he, Philip, arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia,
A eunuch of great authority under Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians,
who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem
for to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he
read Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip,
go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither
to him. and heard him read the prophet
Isaiah. And he said, understandest thou
what thou readest? And he said, how can I? How can
I accept some man should guide me? And he desired, Philip, that
he would come up and sit with him. And the place of the scripture
which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. And like a lamb done before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the
earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and he said, I pray thee,
of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other
man? Then Philip. opened his mouth,
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. And as they went on their way,
they came into a certain water. And the eunuch said, see, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest." And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the
chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they
were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught
away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his
way rejoicing. But Philip was founded as Otis,
passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to
Caesarea." Thank God for his word. Our God and Father in heaven,
Lord, how we thank Thee for Thy word. Lord, how we thank thee
for the gospel. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity
to gather together as a people. We're thankful that you brought
us here to this place. Lord, to sing hymns of praise.
Lord, to read this thy word. Lord, truly, how can we understand
these things? except some man should guide
us. Lord, bless our pastor here this
morning. Lord, take that which you've
laid upon his heart, that which you studied and prepared, and
Lord, in the same manner, enable him to preach Christ to us. Lord, give us ears to hear. Lord,
a heart to receive thy word. Faith to believe. Lord, bless
us. Bless us to know the Savior.
Cause us to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, for those of our number
who are under heavy burdens, Lord's sickness, Lord, you know
the needs of your people. We pray that you'd comfort that
you'd heal as you see fit. And Lord, especially for these
young ones, Lord, we pray for them. Lord, for Ben and for Novi. Lord, how many times do we read
in your word, Lord, of such dire and desperate situations. But Lord, no case
is too hard for thee. Thou art the great physician. And Lord, we pray if you see
fit that you'd be pleased to heal. We pray you'd continue to be
with us. Lord, bless and strengthen, encourage,
in all things cause us to look to Thee, to rest in Thee. For it's in Christ's name we
pray and give Thee thanks. Amen. All right, if you would now open
your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1. With everything going on in the
world, going on in our world, our friends and loved ones right
now, I so wanted to bring a message
to you this morning that would comfort our hearts by honoring
the Savior. And I thought about going away
from our study in Colossians, but I just kept kept coming back
to it, and I trust that this will be a blessing to your heart
by honoring our Savior. Actually, as it turns out, in
the will of the Lord, this is going to be a continuation, really,
of Wednesday night's message. I titled the message, How Do
I Walk with the Lord? In the will and purpose of the
Lord in different snow and weather situations, to cancel services. These two scriptures came up
in our study in Genesis and Colossians back to back. Wednesday we looked
at Enoch walking with the Lord and I took the title of today's message
from verse 10. Paul said that you might walk
worthy unto the Lord and to all pleasing. Now walking worthy
of the Lord. Wednesday we looked at walking
with the Lord. This Paul says walking worthy of the Lord. Walking
worthy of the Lord. You think who the Lord is? He's
holy. He's glorious. That sounds impossible that somebody
in the flesh like you and me could walk worthy of him, doesn't
it? We saw Wednesday Enoch walked with the Lord. Scripture tells
us Abraham walked with the Lord. And when I think about those
giants, I think about the kind of man that Abraham was, the
kind of man he must have been. I just hold them in so much higher
esteem than myself. I could see they walked with
the Lord, but me? Walking worthy of the Lord? It
seems impossible because I'm so sinful. My sin, the weakness
of my faith, the weakness of my constitution in every way,
stops me in my mind from walking worthy of the Lord. Now, if we've
got to get rid of all the sin in ourselves and all the sin
in our lives before we can walk worthy of the Lord, then you're
right. It is impossible for us to walk worthy of the Lord. But
getting rid of all the sin in ourselves and getting rid of
all the sin in our lives is not how we walk worthy of the Lord.
You know, it must be possible for a sinner to walk worthy of
the Lord. It has to be possible for a believer
to walk worthy of the Lord or else Paul wouldn't have made
this prayer for the believers at Colossae that they walk worthy
of the Lord. And it is certainly possible. And it should be so
with the believer that we walk worthy of the Lord in this life. And from our text, I want to
give you four ways that the believer walks worthy of the Lord. And
the first way is really three words that all go together to
make one. It's knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual
understanding. Verse nine, Colossians one, for
this cause we also since the day we heard it, do not cease
to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with
the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Now the word knowledge that Paul
uses here means a precise, correct knowledge. This is a precisely
correct knowledge. Now, you and I should know this,
that we cannot have a precise, correct knowledge of God's will
in everything that He does. I mean, how often do you hear
people say, oh, I know what God's will is in this. Well, I don't. I mean, unless God tells you,
I don't know how we can. We don't know what God's will
is in sickness and disease that He brings. our loved ones. So
the pain of losing a loved one when the Lord calls one home
or one dies. Tornadoes and hurricanes sweep
through areas and destroy, seems like, entire towns and people
in such devastation and disasters and pain that people suffer.
How the Lord governs the earth, what he has happened in many
different parts of the world, how it's all happening at once
in these different situations. I don't know what the Lord's
will is. I don't know why the Lord's doing that. Anybody that
tells you that they do is probably not telling you the truth. So
Paul could only mean here that we would be filled with the knowledge
of God's revealed will. We can't be filled with the knowledge
of God's secret will. It's being filled with the knowledge
of God's revealed will. Now there's a lot of what God
does we do not understand, but we do know what God's revealed
to us. We would be so much better off
if we'd stick to what we know instead of what we don't know.
Instead of trying to figure out what God's secret will is, we'd be
a whole lot better off sticking to God's revealed will, what
God has revealed to us. I do know, by God's grace, I
know this. I know what God's will is in
the redemption of his people. He's revealed it plainly, I know
that. I know that the father willed to save a people. He chose
to save them. He elected them. He chose it.
I know his will is to save. I know that. I know it's God's
will to save his people by the obedience and by the sacrifice
of his son in the flesh. I know that because it's revealed. I know that salvation is by the
obedience of Christ. It's the representative of his
people, not our obedience to the law in any way at any time
ever. I know that's God's will to make
his people righteous by the obedience of his son, not their sinful
failed efforts of being obedient their own selves. I know that
salvation is received by faith in Christ, by trusting him, by
trusting him to be everything that I need and everything God
requires of me. I know it's God's will that his
son be glorified in all things. I know that. I know the purpose
of all this. of life and particularly what
we do here. The purpose of it is the glory
of Christ. I know that. God's not doing anything so you
and I can be glorified in each other's eyes or glorified in
somebody else's eyes. Everything God does is for the
glory of his son. That's why salvation is all in
the doing and the dying and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If I know anything at all from reading this book, I know that.
It's all for the glory of Christ. If God's ever going to save me,
if God's ever going to bless me, if he's going to forgive
my sin, if he's going to cleanse my sin, if he's going to take
me from this world of sin, from this body of sin, to be with
him in glory and be made just like Christ, I can tell you why
he's going to do it. It's for his glory that he'd be... I know
that. I know that. If I know anything,
I know that. That's knowledge. And Paul prays that these believers
be given knowledge. You know why he prays and asks
the Lord to give knowledge? Because by nature, we don't have
any. I mean, we don't have any. By nature, we don't know God.
We don't know how God saves sinners. We don't understand the gospel.
If we're going to have any knowledge of who God is, of his holy character,
if we're going to have any knowledge of how it is that God saves sinners,
God's going to have to give us knowledge because we can't figure
it out on our own. We need knowledge, a precise,
accurate knowledge of who God is, how God saves sinners. We
need knowledge, but you know, we also need wisdom. Now, wisdom
is the right use of knowledge. Wisdom applies what we know to
our actions. You know, only a fool knows something
and doesn't act on it. I mean, somebody knows something
and they don't act on it, don't you question them? You know,
somebody, if you see a tornado's coming, you know what a tornado
is, you know what damage it can do. You have a precise, accurate
knowledge of that, don't you? Well, what do you do? You have
that knowledge. What does wisdom do? Take cover.
If you don't, you're a fool. If a fool knows something, but
doesn't act on it. Let me give a few examples of
the spiritual. We're talking about spiritual
wisdom. Knowledge is knowing our sin. Knowledge is knowing
I'm a sinful man. I was made a sinner in Adam and
that all I am is sin. Everything I do is sin. Wisdom
is going to Christ for the forgiveness of sin. Knowledge is knowing. But I got this doctrine down.
I mean, I've had it down as long as I've ever understood language.
I've had this knowledge down. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. It's the blood. It's the blood.
It's the blood. It's the blood. It's the blood.
It's the blood that makes atonement for the soul. That's knowledge. That's a precise, accurate knowledge.
Wisdom is begging God. washed me in the blood of Christ.
Cleansed me in the blood of Christ. Knowledge is knowing my inability.
I can't do anything. I mean, I don't have the ability,
I don't have the power, I don't have the strength, I can't do anything.
Physical or spiritual, I can't do anything. That's knowledge.
Wisdom is depending on Christ to be everything for me. Depending
on Him to do everything for me. Knowledge is knowing that salvation
is by faith, Not by works. I mean, the plain reading of
the English language tells you that from the Bible, doesn't
it? Salvation by faith, not by works. Why do people read that
and then go try to please God by their works? Because God ain't
giving them wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge. Salvation by faith, not by works.
And then going to trust Christ. That He's all it takes to save
me and I don't have to add one thing to Him. There's not one
thing I have to do to add to Him. to save me, because salvation
by faith, not by works. Just like knowledge, God's got
to give us wisdom. He's got to give us wisdom to
act on the knowledge that he gives, because by nature we're
fools. That's why Paul prays and asks the Lord, give these
people knowledge and wisdom. Give them the wisdom to act on
this knowledge of who you are and how you save sinners. So
we need knowledge, we need wisdom. But if we're gonna walk worthy
of the Lord, we also need a spiritual understanding. Now spiritual
understanding has to do with how we apply our knowledge, how
we use our wisdom spiritually. This is a spiritual understanding.
Salvation's spiritual. It's not in the flesh, it's not
in this material world. It's spiritual, it's supernatural.
So we need spiritual understanding. And spiritual understanding is
knowing that salvation is just that, it's spiritual. It's not
physical, it's spiritual. Spiritual understanding knows
this. I can't look for evidence of salvation. My salvation or
yours in the physical. How often would we make a mistake
when we do that? Almost all the time. Somebody
that acts holy and righteous and they're self-righteous and
they're holier than thou. and they're just so straight and
so strict doctrinally, we'd say, ooh, could be they're just straight
as a gun barrel and twice as empty, couldn't be. We'd see
somebody like David committing adultery on his wife, killing
a man. We'd see David numbering the people when God told him
not to. We'd think, that man don't know God. And that's the
man after God's own heart. I'm not excusing that behavior.
What I'm saying is this. The man, after God's own heart,
is a man, a woman, a sinner. Trust Christ. David would freely
tell you I'm a complete and utter failure. My house is not so with
God. It's not the way it ought to
be. I've not let it the way it ought to be. I've not left it.
I'm not leaving it the way it ought to be. But that's not my
hope. My hope is God's made with me
an everlasting covenant that's ordered all things in sure. That's
spiritual understanding. Knowing that this evidence of
salvation is not physical, it's the spiritual. The only evidence
we have of salvation, that God's been merciful to us, that he's
given us, that he saved our sorry souls, is faith. Do you believe
Christ? Do you trust him? That he's all
it takes? Huh? Do you? That's spiritual
understanding. That's faith. It's the only evidence
that we have. Spiritual understanding is knowing
this. Salvation is in the healing of the soul, not the body. Now, that certainly does not
stop us from asking the Lord to heal the body, does it? But
whether He heals the body or He doesn't heal the body, it's
got nothing to do with salvation of our soul. No. Spiritual understanding
knows this thing is done in the heart, in the soul. Salvation
is a vital, mysterious union with Christ, with God, with God
Almighty. It's a supernatural, mysterious
thing. If somebody preaches the gospel
to you and it's not a mystery, they're preaching to you and
it's just, there's not a mystery to it. It's not so glorious.
It's a mystery. Let me tell you something. They're
not preaching the gospel. The gospel is supernatural. This
salvation union with God Almighty is a supernatural thing. Spiritual
understanding lays hold, knows that and lays hold on it. So
walking with God, walking worthy of the Lord, I got this mysterious
union with Christ. He's given me, he's saved my
soul, he's joined me to Him. So if I walk worthy of the Lord,
I'm gonna live my life now. Life, spiritual life, it's spiritual. It's not this life, it's life
with Christ, it's the life to come. But buddy, I got some time
left here. I don't know how long it is,
but I got some time left here. You do too. If I'm gonna walk
worthy of the Lord, I'm gonna walk, I'm gonna conduct myself,
living my life, taking care of all my earthly responsibilities,
taking care of my family, taking care of my job and my home and
my friends. I'm gonna do all that. I'm gonna
live an honest and upright life. I mean, I think it's only fair
that a believer be known as an honest, upright person, don't
you? Walk that way with complete dependence on Christ to save
you. It's not your morality. It's
not that you're honest. It's not that you're giving.
It's not that you're loving. It's not that you're faithful.
It's not how moral you are, you know. By all means, be that kind
of person. But live in dependence on Christ,
not on those things. You see that? Do those other
things out of thanksgiving to God. because that's just what
you ought to do. Not because you're trying to
earn something from God. You see that spiritual understanding
is living as a moral upright person, but not adding, depending
on any of that to add to my salvation. I do want to live in a way that
honors my God. You do too. You want to live
in a way that honors the Lord, don't you? I mean, He loved you
when you were unlovable. He loved you and chose you when
nobody else would. He's gracious to you. He's so
gracious to you, He slaughtered His Son to pay for your sin.
He's so loving, He sent His Son to do for you what you could
not do. Obey the law, make you righteous. His Son humiliated
Himself for 33 and a half years to live in the flesh to do that
for you. Of course you want to honor Him.
Of course you do. I want to live in obedience to
His commandments. I would like for people to say
of me what they said about their disciples. I'd watch them, take
note, they've been with Jesus. I like that. I want that for
you too, but don't depend on any of that for your salvation.
Don't be looking to that as evidence of your salvation. Live. If you would walk worthy of the
Lord, live trusting Christ, trusting him, depending on him to be your
all. Look back at Ephesians chapter
two. Ephesians chapter 2. And I'm not trying to motivate
you to do something you can't do. If we're going to walk worthy
of the Lord, God's got to give us these gifts. Knowledge and
wisdom and spiritual understanding. If God don't give them, I can't
have them. These things are gifts of God. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved, through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast." Now
that settles the whole issue once and for all about this matter
of salvation by works, doesn't it? It's not of works, lest any
man should boast. It's all for the glory of Christ,
that we boast in Christ. You're saved by grace through
faith, but that's a gift of God. God's got to give us that gift
in order for us to walk with Him. But now look at verse 10. For His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Now this thing is a gift of God,
but God's ordained his people walk in these things. Walk morally,
walk upright, walk in this way. If you'd walk worthy of the Lord,
do you wanna walk worthy of the Lord? Then do what Paul does
here and pray. Ask the Lord to give you knowledge
and wisdom and spiritual understanding so that you trust and believe
on Christ alone. If you go through your life,
no, taking care of all your earthly responsibilities, the absolute
best of your ability, do it knowing that you're dependent on God
to save you. And you're trusting Christ and
resting in Him and not trying to add any of your works to Him
to make God happier with you than, you know, He is somebody
else. That's walking worthy of the Lord. It's just complete
dependence on Christ. All right, number two, back in
our text. We walk worthy of the Lord by being fruitful. Verse
10, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
of God. Now look back at Galatians chapter
five. You have to, at least I do, think about this passage whenever
I think about fruit being fruitful. What Paul's speaking about here
is the fruit of the spirit, and he gives us the fruit of the
spirit. Galatians five, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
Here's the fruit of the Spirit, it's love. It's love towards
God. Not the God of your imagination,
but the God of this book. It's love towards God, love towards
Christ, love towards other men. It's joy. It's joy in Christ,
not in these fleshly things that can be so easily taken away from.
It's joy in eternal things, spiritual things. This is a spiritual matter.
It has to be a spiritual matter. It's the fruit of the spirit,
doesn't it? It's peace. It's peace with God through the
blood of the cross. It's peace with one another through
the blood of Christ. Because we're all in love with
the same person. If we're in love with the same person, it's
peace. It's long suffering. And that word means patiently
waiting on God. Patiently waiting on God to perform
his will. I don't know what his will is
in many matters, but I know he's going to perform it. And it's
patiently waiting on him to do it. It's being patient with the
faults and weaknesses of others, because I'm cut from the same
cloth. I can't expect more from you
than I can expect from myself. I'm cut from the same cloth.
Gentleness is kindness. Just be kind. Goodness is doing
the right thing. You know what the right thing
is. I love what Brother Nyberg says, people don't need to tell
me how to tell them how to live, they already know how to live.
You know, you know right from wrong, do the right thing. And
faith. It's faith in Christ. It goes
back to what is all through this thing of walking worthy of the
Lord is living depending on Christ. Now this is the fruit of the
Spirit. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
God has to give it to us. The Holy Spirit has to give it
to us or we can't produce it. So Paul prays and asks the Lord
to make these believers there in this church at Colossae, make
them fruitful. And yet he prays and asks the
Lord to give it to him because only the Lord can give us the
fruit of the spirit. Now I tell you, I strongly desire
to bear more fruit of the spirit. Don't you? Don't you? I mean,
Paul said there, against such there is no law. I mean, have
that as much abundance as you can possibly get. I desire to
bear more of the fruit of the Spirit, and I'm sure you do too.
The more fruit of the Spirit we have, that gives more glory
to the Savior, because it's not of us, it's from Him. And I tell
you what, it makes life for the people around us, people in our
family, people of our brethren, people in the neighborhood. It
makes it better for them if we bear more fruit of the Spirit.
I'd like to bear more of it, wouldn't you? Well, how do I
do that? I mean, I know it's a gift of
God. But is there a way? Is there something I can do that
I might bear more of this fruit of the Spirit? Well, there is.
I can tell you what it is. If you want to bear more fruit,
be where the seed's being planted and where the seed's being watered.
How do you get fruit? You plant a seed and you water
it. That's how fruit grows. But the fruit of the Spirit grows
the exact same way. The fruit of the Spirit grows
from the Holy Spirit planting the seed of the Word of God and
watering that seed. Planting that in our hearts and
watering in our hearts through the preaching of the gospel.
It's by preaching, by planting and watering, that fruit grows. Now look back at 1 Corinthians
3. If you would bear the fruit of
the Spirit, you want to bear more of it? Then be here to hear
the gospel preached as much as humanly possible. Let me show
you this, 1 Corinthians 3, verse 6. These folks, you know what it
is in Corinth, they're arguing, oh, I'm of this preacher, I'm
of this preacher, I follow him, I follow him. He says in verse
5, who then is Paul? Who is Apollos? He says, we're
nothing, we're nothing but ministers by whom you believe. Not you
didn't believe us, you believed on Christ, even as the Lord gave
to every man. I've planted, Apollos watered,
but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. He that planteth and he that
watereth are one. We plant and we water all by
preaching the same gospel. And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor. We're laborers together
with God. You're God's husbandry, you're
God's farm, you're God's fruit patch, you're God's building. We can't give the increase of
this fruit. We can't give the increase of
the spiritual life. God gives it. Only God can give
the increase. Only God can give life. Only
God can give faith. Only God can sustain it. God
has to give it or we can't have it. But don't let that make you
fatalistic. Read something in God's word.
You hear something in the gospel and it makes you fatalistic.
Say, oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter what I, what I do or what
I say or what I think or where I go, you know, God's will is
going to be done no matter what I do. Just, you know, so I'll do nothing.
If you think that you got it wrong, you've misunderstood something.
Don't let that make you fatalistic. Don't, don't think, well, you
know, I'll bear as much fruit of the spirit God's given me.
There's nothing I can do about it. Oh yes, there is too. Yes, there
is. You can be where the seed's being
planted and be where the seed's being watered, and all that happens
through the preaching of the gospel. In our text, Paul says
we become more fruitful and increase in knowledge at the same time.
Well, how do you increase in knowledge of Christ? Hearing
preached. How are you gonna bear more fruit? Hearing Christ preached. And I'll tell you one of the
best examples that I can think of where one plants and one waters. is our Sunday school teachers.
And I'll, I guess as long as the Lord lets me stand here and
keep giving you commercials for our Sunday school teachers. I
mean, they are the best. I mean, I'm telling you. I've
been around a lot of them. I've seen a lot of them. I'm
telling you, this is the best group of teachers in one place
I've ever seen. I mean, they're just, I'm so thankful for you. I thank every one of you. I'm
so thankful. And they work hard at this and preparing lessons
for our children to hear in their classes. And I can't tell you
over the years how many times one of our teachers has come
up to me after the service and said, you said the exact same
thing I said in my class this morning. You're sitting there
preaching. I'm going to look around at my kids saying, are you listening
to this? Are you listening to that? I said the same thing.
You know what that is? That's one plant and one water.
And that's exactly what it is. I remember preaching here one
time right before a conference. I preached, and we were getting
ready to have a conference. One of the very first speakers got
up and had the exact same outline that I had from a different text. It happened while I was at a
conference one time. It's the first time I'd ever been there,
down at Crossville, in a big conference. And just had to preach
once. I had my message all ready. Had a backup message in case
somebody preached my message. And I was sitting there, and
I was supposed to preach that night, Saturday night, and Todd
Nyberg was preaching Sunday morning, and he was second speaker. And
he announced his text, I thought, nobody else has got my text. Todd had four points. My message
that I was going to preach that night had four points. Three
of them were the exact same points, just from different texts. I
thought, well, I'm preaching it again. That's one plantain
and one water. That's exactly what that is.
And that is the way that God causes an increase in the fruit
of the Spirit. It's planting and watering, line
upon line, precept upon precept. If you'd bear more of the fruit
of the Spirit, I tell you what, work hard at it. Work hard at
it. Work hard at being here. And
don't just be here with a behind and seat. Be here. Before you
get here, ask the Lord to let you hear. Ask the Lord to give
the preacher a message for you, for your heart. Ask the Lord
to let you hear more of Christ. Seek Him. Seek Him. Put some
work into it. I know only the Lord can give
the increase. You know, here this spring, I
know only the Lord can give the increase. I know that. I went
out and visited Jotaro a few years ago. It was harvest time
when I got there. And I'm telling you what, we
go on this road and as far as I could see that way, as far
as I could see that way, that way and that way, I mean I could
not see the end of cornfields. Couldn't see the end of it. Now
I like corn. Corn goes into a lot of things.
If we're going to have corn harvested next fall, you know what those
farmers are going to have to get out there and do? Plant corn
as far as the eye can see. And it looks to me like it's
hard work. I mean me and they buy hundred
thousand dollars, pieces of machinery and just I mean the work and
the money and the effort that goes into that. I know only the
Lord give the increase. I know that. I know that. But
you ain't going to have a harvest unless seeds planted. That's
just so. Here's how you walk worthy of
the Lord. By bearing fruit and the way you bear fruit is availing
yourself of every opportunity you have to hear Christ preach.
That's how he plants and waters. If you want to know the Lord,
does anybody here wants to know the Lord and don't? Tell you
what to do. Be here where somebody's telling
you who he is. That's how you get to know him.
And that same way, how you bear fruit. All right. Number three,
we walk worthy of the Lord by Christ's strength, not ours.
Verse 11, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious
power and all patience and long suffering with joyfulness. Now
walking by the strength of Christ. That's just another way of saying
walking by faith. This is what goes all through
this. It's walking by faith and depending upon Christ. Go back
at Ephesians chapter three. And it's not just for physical
things. And you know, if you're wise, you know, you depend on
the Lord for physical things, to give you the things that you
need, to give you the strength and ability to have a job that,
you know, can provide for you. give you the health that you
need, but what we're really talking about here is spiritual strength,
spiritual strength. Ephesians 3 verse 16, that he
would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be
strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you'd be rooted
and grounded in love. The inner man that Paul is talking
about there is the new man, the spiritual man that's born of
God. Now, our physical life, I sure
hope we know this, our physical life is lived by the strength
that God gives us, not our own. I mean, we can't do, we don't
have the strength to be able to do anything physically unless
the Lord gives us the strength to do it. I mean, you know that.
You can't even draw your next breath unless the Lord gives
you the strength to draw it, can you? Of course not. But more
importantly, we need the Lord to save us by his strength, his
strength, spiritually, spiritually. We need the Lord by his strength
to give us faith in Christ, because we're powerless to produce it.
We need the Lord to save us and to keep us saved by His strength,
because we don't have the power to keep ourselves. If it was
up to our power, we'd fall away right now, right now, immediately.
We need the Lord to keep us believing, to keep us believing on Him through
every trial that He sends, to keep us clinging to Him. If He
doesn't, by His strength, we'll fall away. We need the Lord to
draw us to Him, And not just to come to Christ, but Peter
said to whom coming, to keep coming to Christ, to keep coming
to Him to be fed, to keep coming to Him to be instructed, to keep
coming to Him to be strengthened. We need the Lord to do everything
for us and in us, all by His strength and none by ours. You
know, God's people, we're just like every other human being,
we're as unstable as water. I mean, just unstable as water.
Well, how does God make those, those unsteady people to be steadfast? That's what the word patient
Paul uses here. Steadfast. Somebody's unstable as water.
How in this world can they be steadfast and not leave Christ? The Lord's power that he gives
it to him. The Lord's people are so impatient. I think you're
like me. Aren't you always impatient? Yes, I want the Lord's will,
but I want it right now. I want to know what it is right now.
I mean, I don't want to wait, you know, You know the whole thing, Lord give
me patience and give to me right now. That's us. How does the
Lord make those impatient people to have the strength to be patient,
long-suffering, and endure to the end? How can you possibly
be patient? There's one way. If you already
know how this thing's going to end, then you're patient, aren't
you? Well, I know how this thing's
going to end. I can be patient. This world is not a pleasant
place to be. I know you young people don't
believe me, but you'll learn it soon enough. The only way that I can, that
I see, that I've ever seen, that the Lord weans his people away
from this world and makes them ready to pray, Lord, take me
out of it, is by sorrow. It's the only way. is not a pleasant place to be.
We're on this world full of weeping and sorrowing because of sin,
our sin, sin around us, the effects of sin in us and around us. How
can somebody be joyful? Be patiently joyful. When we're
strengthened with all might. Not ours. Strengthened with the
might of the Almighty. God's name is the Almighty. I'm not mistaken. That means
he has all might. Well, if I'm strengthened with the strength
of the almighty, I can say what Paul said. I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. Because he's got all might.
And walking worthy of the Lord is simply walking this way. I
need the Lord to strengthen me in everything. I'm depending
on his strength. Here's the fourth thing. We walk
worthy of the Lord by giving thanks. Verse 12, Paul says,
giving thanks. Unto the Father, which hath made
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Now, if anybody
should be a thankful people, it's believers. And I'm not just
talking to believers all over the place right now who may listen
to this recording. I'm talking to Hurricane Road
Grace Church. There's absolutely no reason
in this world why this congregation should not be known as a thankful
people. Thankful people. How can an object
of God's mercy and God's grace not be a thankful person? That
in justice, God should send me to hell. But because of his grace
and justice, he can make me like his son, take me to glory. How
could we not be thankful? How can you know? You have a
knowledge, you have a wisdom to know this. God gave you everything
you have. There's not one thing you have
you earned by your own self. God gave it to you. How can you
not be thankful? Physical, material things of
this life. How can you not be thankful for
your family? You don't have a family unless God gives it to you. You
don't have a home, you don't have a job, you don't have food
to eat, air to breathe, something to drink, you know, clothes to
wear. How about this country? Every morning you wake up in
freedom, how we ought to give thanks to God for this country.
I mean, the list is just endless. We ought to be a thankful people.
But oh, that pales in comparison to spiritual blessings. God's
given his people, he says, everything. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Everything God has for a sinner
is yours in Christ. God help us. God forgive us for
being ever ungrateful. Ever. Ever. Paul mentions some
of these blessings here. He says, Lord's may us meet.
You know what that word is? Fit. God made it fit for us to
be his people. God made it right for him to
call us his children. God made it right for him to
show mercy to us because he punished his son in our place. Oh, my. How can you be thankful for that?
He put our sin away. By the sacrifice of His Son,
He caused us to be born again with a holy nature that fit to
be in the presence of the thrice holy God. He put us in His Son
so we'd be accepted in the Beloved. How can you not be thankful?
Paul says here, God made us partakers of a heavenly inheritance. He's
made us joint heirs with Christ. What's Christ going to inherit
from the Father? Everything. Everything God owns. Everything
under His dominion. You are too. It's yours too if
you're joined here with Christ. I'm thankful. We didn't earn
any of that. We don't deserve any of that.
That's ours by being joined to Christ. I'm thankful. God's delivered
us, His people, He's delivered them from the power of darkness.
He delivered us from the darkness of ignorance, from the darkness
of unbelief, from the darkness of death, and translated us from
that kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son.
We're born in darkness and the Father has made us citizens of
the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom of life and grace and peace and
joy and light. How thankful we should be. Why
are you here this morning instead of some far out left field religion
or anywhere else? Why? Why? God's grace to you,
that's why. We should be nothing but thankful.
The Lord's forgiven our sin by His power. By a power that's
so great, He made the sin of His people to be gone. So it
doesn't exist anymore. Now, how thankful should we be?
I ask you, how thankful should we be? We should live our lives
saying, thank you, Lord. And going through this life,
just being thankful. Being thankful and acknowledging
everything that I have, God's given me. I am what I am by the
grace of God. Don't make this, you know, try
to sound so religious by false humility, saying, oh, you know,
I don't know anything, and I don't know if I'm saved, and God wouldn't
save me, and I don't know, you know, I just, no. Acknowledge
what you are. You're an object of God's mercy.
God's given you knowledge, wisdom, spiritual understanding. You
know Christ. I know it's not perfect. It's not what we want
it to be. But if you know Christ, and you trust him, don't be poor-mouthing. You're a joint heir with Christ.
Be thankful. Be thankful. That's walking worthy
of the Lord. By God's grace, I hope that's
what we'll do. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how
we thank you for your mercy and your grace. How we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ, that you made it mean, you made it
right and fit. That you would call sinners your
children. Accepted in your presence father how we thank you how you
how we thank you you made it, right? That we can come before
you as your children crying Abba father Father I pray you to you
take your word as it's been preached and apply it to the hearts of
your people that we might See the glory of Christ Christ our
Savior rest in him Father all these things we ask and we give
thanks in that name, which is above every name for the sake
of and the glory of Christ our Savior. Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn to song
number 205 and stand as we sing once for all. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath bled and there is remission. Cursed by the law
and bruised by the fall, Grace hath redeemed us once for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Now are we free, there's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. Come unto me, oh hear His sweet
call. Come and He saves us once for
all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Children of God, O glorious calling,
surely His grace will keep us from falling. Passing from death
to life at His call, blessed salvation once for all. Was for all, O sinner, receive
it. Was for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all.