I titled this lesson, Things
to Give Thanks For. If you're anything like me, and
I suspect you are, because we're all men and women of like passions,
I get fixated on my troubles. I get fixated on my problems.
And I let them overshadow the benefits. the blessings that
God bestows on me daily. The fact that I get up in the
morning and I think upon Him. And I know this with every believer.
You go throughout the day, and sometimes during the day, sometimes
during a part of that day, you think upon Christ. It may not
be long, but you'll have a thought. You'll be impressed with something.
And your mind will think something of Him. And that's of God. That's
of God. The natural man does not think
upon the Lord. At all. At all. He doesn't think upon the Lord.
And the Lord has blessed us. And Paul mentions three things
in these first eight verses. He mentions faith. He mentions
love. He mentions hope. Just those
three things alone is something that we are to give thanks for
daily. Daily, that I believe God, that
I love the brethren. There was a time I hated to go
to church. I did. When my parents quit making
me go, I quit going. There was a time that I know,
I know my own heart. I know I would not want to go
there. It cramped my style. They did not do the things that
I wanted to do when I was a young teenager growing up. I didn't
willingly come here and sit under the gospel. I didn't willingly
do that. But I'm glad they made me do it. While I lived under
that roof, they did up until I was I left my late teens and
they quit making me. But now, now I do. I look forward to this hour.
Vicki and I were talking just the other night. This is the
one hour of the week that there's peace and there's rest and there's
comfort. That we can really, truly kind
of just forget about those things as much as we can and come in
here and sit down and hear the gospel. Hear the good news. Hear of Christ. Hear of that
world to come. Hear of Him in whom we have all
things, in whom we've been given all things. Wow, what we have
to give thanks for. Look over in Psalm. I thought
of this while I was sitting up here before we started. Psalm
103. Bless the Lord, O my soul. He's speaking here. David's speaking
to his soul, his self, his very being. He says, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that's within me, my whole being engaged in
this. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits. Don't get so fixated on your
troubles that you forget His benefits. Who forgiveth, and here's one
of them. What's this worth? Put a price
on this. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. What's that worth? How much thanksgiving
is that worth? A life of it. An eternity of
it. thanksgiving and praise to Him
for an eternity, for forgiving us of our iniquities, and who
healeth all thy diseases, thy spiritual diseases, thy wonderings."
Have you ever done that? Have you ever grown cold? You
don't really feel like coming? You really just feel like staying
home? And then one day you get a little
hungry. You're hungry for it. You look forward to it. That's
Him healing our spiritual diseases. And He heals our physical diseases
also, if it be His will. But if not, that's alright. My greatest need and your greatest
need is our spiritual healing. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction We've been looking at the cross
and what our Lord suffered there. He redeemed us from that. He
redeemed us from the hell of God's wrath. Who redeemeth thy
life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and
tender mercies. You're crowned with them. That's
the crown you wear. That's the crown I wear. The
loving kindness and tender mercy of God. We wear it every day.
He's crowned us with it. They follow us. His mercies follow
us throughout our lives. Who satisfy thy mouth with good
things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. You
know, I could just go on and on throughout the Scriptures,
especially the Psalms, the things to give thanks for. And that's
what we will look at here for just a little bit here in Colossians.
Now, Paul writes here to the Colossians from, now listen,
he writes from prison. He's not sitting in a motel room
somewhere. He's writing from prison, in a Roman prison. And
Epaphras had come to Rome and he visited Paul in prison. And he told Paul about the faith
of the Colossians and how that they loved one another and how
they loved the brethren, how they loved Christ. That love
is of God, that kind of love. The Lord said, Peter, do you
love me? And he asked him three times. And Peter said, Lord,
you know all things. You know I love you. It's a genuine
love. It's a divine love. It's of God.
It's of God. The Lord did a mighty work there
in Colossae. And Epaphras also told Paul about
those Judaizers that had come among them. that they were creating. They were trying to get the Colossians
to keep the law along with their faith in Christ, to intermingle
them, to mix them. Well, grace and works never mix. You can be sure of this. When
they're trying to mix grace and works, God's not in it. God is
not in it. He's not there. But these Judaizers,
They could not leave well enough alone, and they was in there
working at Satan. He comes in many forms. Satan
comes in many forms. And he came to them through these
Judaizers trying to get them to mix in the law, the keeping
of the law, the keeping of the law of Moses along with the gospel. And that doesn't work. Then they
had the problem of the Gentile philosophers trying to get them
to worship angels, saints, and all kinds of stuff. Trying to
get them to mix that in with it. And so Epaphras, when he
visited Paul, he told Paul about this. And so Paul writes this
letter. And he writes it to him with
great affection, great love. He says over here in chapter
2, verse 1, For I would that you knew What great conflict
I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as
have not seen My face in the flesh." He said, I have great
conflict over in the margin. He said, I have great fear. I
have great care for you. Even though they had not seen
Him and He had not seen them. Paul did not plant this church.
I don't know who planted this church, but Paul was an apostle
of the Lord Jesus Christ to all the churches. The church has
never been without her enemies in any age. Any age. And we need to learn to expect
trouble. We need to learn to expect it
because Satan is not going to be quiet very long. Doris told
me that one time years ago. She said Satan's not quiet very
long. And here he was raising up his
ugly head through these Judaizers and through these Gentile philosophers
and just working on that church at Colossae, trying to bring
it down. Satan's always trying to do that. So it starts out
here and it says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. This caught
my attention. Paul. I didn't get past that. Paul. This man used to be named
Saul of Tarsus. This is a name At one time, this
man right here, his name Saul, was greatly feared by the church. I mean, when he started preaching
the gospel, they thought he was just trying to slip in and try
to fool them and then get them. This man was feared. He was feared. And listen, no
one hated the church of God in any age more than Saul. Osama Bin Laden does not hate
America nearly as much as Saul hated and despised Christianity,
Jesus Christ, the church. That's how much he hated it.
I mean, he went to extra lengths to destroy it, to put men and
women in prison. That was Saul of Tarsus. He breathed out threatenings
every day against God's people. This is a man whom you would
have looked at and you would have never thought that God will
save this man. You wouldn't have thought that
by law. One day, he heads down the road
to Damascus. He's going to do some damage
to the church, so he thinks. And he meets his match. He meets
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord changed that man.
I mean, He changed him. He took him from Saul of Tarsus
and made him Paul the Apostle. Would you have thought that?
If we had been among the church in that day and to think and
to believe and even conceived that God would take this Saul,
this God-hating rebel, and turn him into the chiefest apostle,
the greatest defender of the faith. Oh, the power of God to
save. The power of God to save. When
God saves a sinner, whether it be a Saul of Tarsus, whether
it be a Philippian jailer or whether it be Lydia, whose heart
the Lord opened. That person is never the same. I mean, God makes a change. He
makes a change. Do you remember that demoniac
over in Luke chapter 8? I'm not going to turn there.
I don't have time. Listen to this. This demoniac, they chained
him. He ran around the tomb naked.
You know, he was a vicious person. You sure wouldn't want him in
your community. Vicious person. Then they went out to see what
was done. The town did. The town went out
to see what was done. And they came to Jesus and found
the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the
feet of Jesus, clothed and in His right mind, and they were
afraid. But he wasn't. He was sitting
at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And I love this. I love this. And in his right mind. They were afraid, but he wasn't. He wasn't. Christ's power to
save is real. The change is real. I mean, He changes a person.
I don't care how messed up that person is. He changes that person
and puts them in their right mind. Salvation is more than
just forgiveness. It is more than just forgiveness.
It's to be saved from the reigning power of sin and Satan, and it
is to be put in your right mind. That's what it is. Now, He says
He was an apostle. He was a special messenger. He
was one who had seen the Lord, he was one who had received his
message from the Lord, and his message was infallible. The message
that Paul gives to the Colossians and these other epistles he wrote
to Ephesians and Philippians around this same time in prison,
they are infallible. And he writes to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae. And He said,
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's not just, in the beginning
of these epistles, let's not just read past those real quick.
Because there's meat in them. There's instruction in them.
Or they wouldn't be put in the Word of God. The Word of God,
now listen, the Word of God is primarily written to the saints
and faithful brethren. Now the Word of God does give
warning to unbelievers. It gives warning to unbelievers.
But it's written to them that believe. Because to the unbelievers,
this book doesn't mean anything. To the unbelievers, this book
is closed unless the Lord opens the eyes and the understanding.
It's a closed book. But notice where the saints are.
He writes, To the saints and faithful brethren in Colossae. Doesn't say that, does it? Doesn't
say that. to the saints and faithful brethren
in Christ. You know, right now, this morning,
the whole church of God is gathered together in Christ. Right now. From the beginning to the end. The whole church, right now,
is gathered together in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says they're
in Christ Jesus All God's saints are gathered in Him. They are
preserved in Christ. They are kept in Christ, even
though we have our separate localities. We have the local group here.
You have one in Lexington, Virginia, and so forth. But we're all gathered
together right now in Christ. Now, he says, he says to the
saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae. Their location's at Colossae,
but their gathering is in Christ. And that's real. That is real. This is not some kind of fairy
tale. That's real. And he called them saints. Well,
let me let me read to you Psalm 90 before I go on here. I want
to read this to you. Psalm 90. Look what? Look what Moses, the
man of God, says. Verse 1, Lord, thou hast been
our dwelling place in all generations. Where is
the church's dwelling place throughout any generation? Where is the
church's dwelling place? In the Lord. In the Lord. Then he writes here, saints and
faithful brethren. These go together. These go together. Unfaithfulness is a mark of unbelief. A person who is not faithful.
To Christ, I mean, to the church. It's unbelief. That person is
unbelief. James said this faith without
works is dead. Now, listen, faith without faithfulness. Is not faith. Saints and faithful
brethren, they just go together. They just go together. And these
are the ones that he's writing to. And he says, grace and peace,
grace be unto you and peace in that order, in that order. It is through the grace of God
that we have peace. It is through the grace of God
that we enjoy peace. It is through the grace of God
that that peace is increased. And that's why he says grace
be unto you in peace. There can be no peace. There
can be no real peace, and there's sure not no peace between God
and that person apart from grace. Apart from the grace of God,
where you find grace, you will find its fruit. And one of that
fruit, which is mentioned over in Galatians chapter 5, is peace. Peace. And then Paul gives his prayer
of thanksgiving here. I don't know how in the world
time gets away that fast. But, Lord willing, we come back
again and finish it. We give thanks, verse 3 through
5, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ praying always for you, since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus, and it's your faith. God gave it to you, but
it's yours. It's yours. You believe. You
believe. He's enabled you to believe what
you believe. And of the love which ye have to all the saints,
not just the ones at Colossae, but to all the saints, and for
the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard
before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Now, first of
all, Paul thanks God. He doesn't write and say, I thank
you, Colossians, for believing. I thank you, Colossians, for
gathering together and worshiping God. He says, I thank God for
you. Because apart from the grace
of God, there wouldn't be you. You wouldn't worship God. You
would not believe God. You would not love the brethren.
So I thank God for you. We give thanks to God for all
things, because all things are of God. Faith is of God, love
is of God, hope in Christ, hope in this world to come is of God,
and therefore we thank God. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. We thank God. And every spiritual
gift is from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's written
in the Gospel of John, a man can receive nothing except to
be given him from above. If we have faith, we received
it from above. If we have love, we received
it from above. If we have hope, we have received
it from above. James said, Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father
of life, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow or turning. And
then Paul thanked God here for their faith, because without
faith, there's no union with Christ. And if there's no union
with Christ, there's no salvation. There's no love. There is no
hope. Because He is the hope of glory. And without faith in Him, without
union to Him, there is no benefit. Then he thanked God. Now listen,
he thanks God. I thank God for your faith. Then he thanked God for their
love, love toward one another. It is written in John 13, By
this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have love. one to another. Love is the fruit
of faith. It's the evidence of faith. Love
is. I think that's probably the first
fruit of faith. The first evidence of it. That
you love God. And you love the brethren. You
love to come here. You love the fellowship with
one another. You love to hear the gospel. That's a fruit of
faith. The absence of it reveals the
absence of God. It says in 1 John 4, 8, He that
loveth not knoweth not God. And then Paul thanked God for
their hope. Hope. It doesn't matter how bad things get in this life.
And I know I said it doesn't matter. I'm not saying we don't
feel it, don't hurt, don't cry. I'm not saying that. But however
devastating things get in this life, believers have a hope. We have a hope. We have a hope
that cannot be taken away from us. We have a hope of being with
the Lord, being like the Lord, And if there is an end to this,
there is an end to this. And we have a hope that when
we die, we will immediately go into his
presence where sin, Satan, this world can molest us no more. We have a hope. Some, many, are
already there. They are experiencing. I can't
imagine, you and I, I'm standing here trying to get through this,
hoping the Lord enables me to say something that you can go
away with, that you can chew on the rest of the day. But there
is a multitude standing right now in His presence, worshiping
Him, It's just unimaginable what's going on. We have a hope through
the blood and righteousness of Christ, through the person of
Christ, that in a little while we will join that group, that
assembly, that cloud of witnesses spoken of in Hebrews. We have
a hope. And we have that through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then he prayed for them,
he said, always. Never underestimate prayer. To
do so is to underestimate God. I hope that you pray for me always
and the Lord will always lay you on my heart to pray for you.
Don't ever underestimate prayer. Listen to what Samuel said over
in 1 Samuel 12, 23. He said, Moreover, as for me,
God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease Him
to pray for you. It would be a sin. I would be
sinning against the Lord if I did not pray for you. That's what
Samuel said. God forbid that I should sin
against the Lord and cease Him to pray for you. But I will teach
you the good and the right way. And Paul says in verse 6, and
I'll wind this down. I'm not going to have time to
do too much more with it. Which is, he speaks here of this
gospel. Let me read verse 5 with it. For the hope which is laid
up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of
the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you. God sent the
gospel to you. I was not looking for the gospel
when I found it. And I assure you, you were not
either. God sent it to you. Paul was not looking for Christ
on the road to Damascus. But Christ had his eye on him. This was mine. And he crossed
your path. God sent the gospel to you. You
didn't come to it. God sent it to you. He said in
Isaiah, in the book of Isaiah, well, it's written in Romans
10, 20, but Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found of them.
that sought me not, were not looking for me. I was made manifest
unto them that asked not after me. They wasn't even asking about
me. But I was made known to them.
John said, 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 when it came to you, It came to you in power. God sent it
to you in power, not in word only, but in power. And the evidence
of it is this, it bringeth forth fruit. I'm telling you where the gospel
comes in power, when God sends the gospel to the heart of a
sinner in power, it will bring forth fruit. The fruit of faith,
love, joy, peace, longsuffering. That will be it. That will be
there. It will be evident. It will be evident. And then verse 7 and 8, Paul
commends the preacher, Epaphras. Calls him a dear fellow servant.
He commends him for being a servant of Christ. And he praised He
praises him for being a faithful minister of Christ. He says here in 7 and 8, as he
also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant. That's one
of the greatest evidences that God is among a people, is that he sends them a man that
preaches the gospel faithfully. That's the greatest evidence.
You have the gospel. Not another gospel. But you have
the gospel of God's glory preached to you. And I'm telling you,
that's something to give thanks for. That God sent the gospel
to you. He sent it to you in power. And
the evidence of it is your faith, your love, your hope. And these are things Listen,
these are things to constantly give thanks for. Give thanks. All right.