Epipharous had brought good news
to Paul while he was in prison concerning these Colossians.
He spoke to Paul of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the
hope that God had given them in Christ, and of the love that
they had to all the saints. These three go together. Where
you find one, you'll find the others. Where you find faith,
true faith, you will find hope and you will find genuine love,
love to God, love to the brethren. And Paul says, for this cause,
we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you. We pray for you continually. That to me is priceless. Someone
wrote me a letter. Well, Henry did. Henry wrote
me a letter several months ago and he said, we include you and
your family in our daily prayers. I thought, boy, that's priceless.
That is absolutely priceless. And Paul says, we do not cease
to pray for you. But notice what it is that he
prays for them. First, he says that you might
be filled with the knowledge of His will. Not that you might
just have some knowledge, but you might be filled, that you
might be filled up full with the knowledge of God's will.
We can know. We can generally know the will
of God. I know we think oftentimes that
the will of God is just great, mysterious, saying that you can
hardly know, but you can. God has revealed His Word, or
His will, in His Word. I've been studying this this
week, and it's really been a blessing to me. God has revealed His will
of redemption in His Word. We know it. Look over in John
chapter 6. John chapter 6. Let me read you starting in verse
35. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me." Now what is that will? And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
This is his will of redemption. Christ said, all that he has
given me I should lose nothing, no one, no one that I have have,
no one that I've been given shall be lost, shall perish. That's
what he's saying. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him. You seen him? Believe on him? That's by the
will of the Father. That's by God's will. That's
by his will. Everyone who seeth the Son and
believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up
at the last day." We can know His will of redemption. His will
of purpose is revealed in the Word of God. And it can be summed
up like this, conformed to the image of His Son. That's what
God's doing. He's conforming us to the image
of His Son. And then His will of conduct.
to walk even as He walked. We are given in the Word of God
how to walk in this life. You know, you can go through
each of these epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, here in Colossians,
as we'll go through it later. It talks about the husband and
the relationship of the husband, the wife, the children, the servants.
We have His will of conduct. We can know His will. God has
revealed His will in His Word. And anyone who truly, really
desires to know His will will get in the Word of God and they'll
know it. They'll know it. God will reveal
it. These things which Paul prayed for were spiritual. You know, these things like the
job, these things that we need, our Lord says, seek ye first
the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and these things
will be added. They'll be added to you. They'll be thrown on
you along the way. But the most important things
that we need are truly. Truly, they're spiritual, they're
spiritual needs, things that are eternal, not the temporal
things, these temporal things the Lord is going to take care
of. Our greatest concern is these spiritual matters is what we
need. And he says here. Verse 9, For this cause we also,
since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and
to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Not that you would just be filled
with knowledge, but that you would be filled with knowledge
in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Knowledge without wisdom and
understanding will do us no good. It really will puff up and make
you proud. Wisdom, someone said this, wisdom
teaches us the right use of knowledge. Spiritual wisdom and understanding
teaches us the right use of the knowledge that God gives us.
And here's the purpose that we might know His will, that we
might be filled with the knowledge of His will. Here's the purpose
of it right here. right here, that you might walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Knowledge is not given to us
so that we might dispute, that we might argue, that we might
prove our point, but he's saying here that you might be filled
with the knowledge of his will with all wisdom and spiritual
understanding for this purpose. that you might know how to walk
daily, that you may know how to conduct your daily life, that we bring not reproach on
the name of Christ by our conduct. To walk in a manner that is pleasing,
he said to the Lord. Enoch walked, it says, Enoch
walked with God. And he had this testimony. He
pleased God. Any walk with God in such a way
that it's written of him, he pleased God. He believed God. He walked with God. And his walk
was such a walk that it was pleasing to God. This walk, now listen, this walk
that is worthy of the Lord, worthy of such a one as He, is to be
in our homes, it is to be in public, and it is to be in the
church. Now listen, if any of these,
if any one of these three is missing, it's all missing. If my walk in public is without
blame, if I come here and it's without blame, but if at home
I'm something else, then the whole thing's messed up. The
whole thing's messed up. To walk worthy of the Lord is
to walk at home, in public, and in church. When we're here together
as a congregation, as a family of God. True Christianity. It's much more than a profession. It is the life of God in the
soul. It is communion with God Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's communion with God throughout
the day, every day. Every day is the Lord's day,
isn't it? Every day is the Lord's day. Our walk is a real communion
with God daily. That's what Paul's praying for.
I mean, this is a powerful prayer, powerful prayer. And that you
might be fruitful, he says, in every good work and increasing, increasing in the knowledge of
God. Paul said this in Philippians. This is after he knew the Lord.
This is years and time that went by. He was in prison. Paul said,
Oh, that I might know Him. Paul knew the Lord. Paul knew
the Lord well. But he was not satisfied with
his knowledge because he knew that he could know Him far more. We cannot exhaust the knowledge
of God. God is infinite. You know, we
will spend eternity, listen, knowing God. We will spend eternity
knowing God. And then Paul says here, being
fruitful. Believers are to be fruitful. Fruitful. And we know what the fruit of
the Spirit is. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering. And these graces,
what we call graces of the Spirit, they grow. Love grows. Faith grows. Patience grows. Long-suffering
grows. These things grow. They grow. That's why it says, being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God and strengthened
with all might. You're going to need it. Paul
writing to those Colossians, he knew what they were up against.
He heard of some of their troubles, those philosophers who came in
and some of those Judaizers and some of those Gnostics that were
there. He knew what they were up against. And he says, strengthen
with all might. We are in a warfare. Truly. I know we can't see that world
that's going on. We have the Word of God. We believe
the Word of God. We preach the gospel. We understand
there is an unseen world. There's heaven, paradise, where
Christ sits at God's right hand, angels. Do you believe there's
angels here this morning? Really, truly, do you? If this
is the Lord's church, If we are His people, I assure you there's
angels in this room this morning. I'm not some kind of mystic here. There's angels in this room.
You can't see it. You see them. They're spirit.
But it's real. It's as real as you and I are
real. And this warfare that's going
on Most of it's unseen, and a lot of it goes on within. We struggle. The Scripture says we wrestle
not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers.
That's what we wrestle with. And the enemy is subtle, and
he's very powerful. Even the archangel would not
dispute with Satan. He said, the Lord rebuked you.
He would not even dare dispute with him, get in an argument
with him. He said, the Lord rebuked you. And that's why it must be
strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Even though we are frail, weak, clay pots, yet in the hand
of God, Paul says we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us. More than conquerors. And he
said, I pray that you'll be strengthened with all might according to His
glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.
Boy, do we need patience. We need patience with one another. I need your patience with me. We need patience dealing out
in the world, living out there in the world. We need patience
and longsuffering. And when Paul, in Paul saying
this, he's telling them, you're going to go through some trials.
You would need patience and long-suffering if he were not talking about
trials. He said, you're going to go through
some trials. You're going to go through some hard trials, and they may
be long trials. It may last a long time. You
think, man, when is it ever going to end? It may go a long time. It may do it. That's why we need
patience and long-suffering. But he says here, we need His patience and long-suffering
to endure these trials, listen, with joyfulness. Joyfulness. And I think this goes back to
walking worthy of the Lord. Not going through these things,
murmuring, complaining. I guess the number one sin of
Israel going through the wilderness was what? Murmuring. Murmuring. The Lord heareth your murmuring.
They murmured. But Paul says, I pray that God
will give you patience and long-suffering and that you will go through
these things with a joyful spirit. That doesn't mean you go through
these things laughing like nothing's going on. That means you go through
it with an inward joy and peace knowing in your heart that this
is of God, it's under His control, it has a purpose, and He knoweth
the way that I think when He tried me. He knows it. And then
Paul turns here in verse 12, and he gives thanks unto the
Father, because He's the first cause of all things. He's the
one He's praying to. He's the one we pray to. The
Father, which hath made us meet, and that word meet means fit.
We are not fit for heaven the way we are born into this world.
We are not fit. We have to be made fit, be made
that way, which hath made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. First, Paul thanked God, for
He's the first cause of all things. He's the first cause. And we
thank God at all times for all things, at all times. We thank
Him for it. But especially for making us
fit for His presence. For not leaving us to ourselves. Now how does God make us fit?
First of all, He says in verse 13, by delivering us from the
power of darkness. Delivering us from the power
of Satan. Everyone is born in darkness. and under the power
of darkness. That's the way we come into this
world, every last one of us. And he's delivered. You believe
God? You believe the gospel? God has
delivered you from the power of darkness. And then he also
has done it by translating us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, which is the kingdom of grace. And he does that by new
birth. into the kingdom of God. But
now listen, God cannot just give any man, any woman a new birth,
regeneration, put them into the kingdom without first being satisfied, without His justice being satisfied.
You see, He says now here in verse 14, That is, let me read 13, "...who
hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son," and he's speaking here
of his dear Son, "...in whom," that is, in his Son, his dear
Son, "...we have redemption." We have been purchased. We have
been ransomed. God's law has been satisfied.
This is how He can deliver us from the power of darkness and
translate us into the kingdom of His dear Son. It's through
the redemption that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, even the
forgiveness of sins. All our sins forgiven, gone. Only a sinner can appreciate
that. Only a sinner. And this One in whom we have
redemption, is the image of the invisible God. He is God. This
one in whom we've been redeemed is God. That's what he's saying.
And he's the firstborn of every creature. That doesn't mean he
was the first of creation. That just means he's the king.
The firstborn was the king in the family. He had all things
belonging to him. Everything fell to him. That's
what he's saying here. He has the preeminence. He is
God over all, blessed forever. This is the one in whom we have
redemption. God. Now, how sure is that? How sure is our redemption? It's
as sure as God is. Now, look here in verse 16. For
by Him, that is by His Son, were all things created by our
Redeemer. All things were created that
are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers. All
things were created by Him and for Him. Nothing is above Him. What confidence this ought to
give us. What hope this ought to give us. There is no one,
nothing above our Redeemer. He's the head. He's the head
over all. He's the potentate. He's the
monarch. And He's our Redeemer. He's our
God. He's our King. That means our redemption is
sure. It's sure. And here He is before all things.
This is proof of His deity. This is proof of Him being God.
He's before all things. He has no beginning. Unto us
a child is born, yes, but the Son is given. He's not created.
The Son is eternal. He's before all things. And by
this One, by this One in whom we have redemption, we, all things
are held together. I know these scientists, they
think, you know, A million years out there, it's all going to
explode. They come up with all these theories.
No, it's going to hold together until He explodes it. As it says over in the book of
Revelations, He placed one foot on the sea and one foot on the
shore and declares time shall be no more. This is our Redeemer. This is our God. And by him,
all things consist, all governments, all governments are held together
by him until he says it's enough. He
says, I raise up, I bring down. I raise up a nation, I'll bring
down a nation. But by him, everything is held together right now. All right, we'll just close on
that note.