Turn with me to Colossians chapter
1. We are going to begin a new study
this morning in the book of Colossians. Colossians was a city, actually
Colossians was a church at the city of Colossae. Colossae was not very far inland
from the Aegean Sea, and it was directly across the sea from
Corinth. Maybe down just a little bit,
but it's all the way across from Corinth. And it was surrounded. Almost it looked like the sun
with all the planets going around it. It was surrounded by the
church at Ephesus. the church at Philadelphia, Sardis,
Laodicea, Lystra, and more. And all of these churches seemed
like they were around Colossae. And lots of interesting facts
about it. The little city there, according
to the historians, now the church was established sometime around
62 A.D. But in about 65 A.D., the historians
say that the city of Colossae was destroyed with a great earthquake. And who knows? I don't know. I'm just going by what the historians
say. But the circumstances that led
to the writing of this epistle of Paul to the Colossians was that their pastor, and if
you look there in those first few verses, his name is spelled
E-P-A-P-H-R-A-S. And I've been pronouncing that
Ephraus for years. But according to the word when
I looked it up, his name is Ephraus. That's how it's said, Ephraus.
And he was the pastor there. He went to see the Apostle Paul
who was in prison at Rome. And the circumstances was that
for Ephraim to go there. And here's another little interesting
tidbit I'll throw in. Paul didn't establish this church.
He'd never seen these people. He didn't know these people.
He only knew them through Ephraim, their pastor. And he tells you
that over in chapter 2, that he had not seen their face before. And so here was a church. It
was established by this pastor. It really doesn't say give his
age, but I'm guessing that he was middle-aged and without a
whole lot of experience. But anyway, he was having troubles. The Judaizers gave everybody
troubles. All of the churches were troubled
by them. They wanted to come in and they
wanted to institute, like with Galatia, all they wanted from
the Galatians was to admit circumcision. And Paul told them, if you so
much as be circumcised, You're obligated then to keep the whole
law. You can't just keep one thing.
There's not just one thing carried over. Either it's all fulfilled
or none of it's fulfilled. One or the other. Because the
Christ, when He was to come, is going to fulfill all those
things. I either did or he didn't. So you can't, and you hear me
often times talking about all of these things. I suppose Catholicism
is the worst of the bunch, but, and not so much anymore. The
Baptist churches and some of the other churches are, now they're
dressing up in gowns and they got all kinds of headdresses
and special offices and special titles and all this kind of nonsense. And this is nothing in the world
but a carryover from the Old Testament and the so-called Christian
Sabbath days and all of those things that are done away in
Christ. But these Judaizers were coming
into Colossae and they were trying to institute these things, trying
to just get their foot in the door with them, just get them
to do something. Get them to do something. To,
you know, keep the Sabbath day or whatever. Just get circumcision. Something. And on and on. Holy
days. Well, it's not going to hurt
anybody if we keep these holy days. So they had certain holy
days, you know, and all that. And the pastor was fighting against
that. And then this was primarily a Gentile church. And so you
had Gentile philosophies. And they were trying to institute
those things into the church. And it's been my experience over
the years, somebody will come in, and let's just say, for instance,
I'll pick my own poison. I was raised in a Nazarene church.
And so a Nazarene man is converted, and he comes into the church,
and all of a sudden, he wants to bring in some of those old
philosophies out of that Nazarene church. And it don't come in
all at once. It just comes in little pieces. And the pastor here is fighting
against all of these things. And pretty soon, the whole church
is in an uproar. It's in an uproar. And so he
travels down to Rome to see Paul and wants Paul to write a letter
to him with that apostolic authority and assure them and confirm to
them this man's ministry and the truth that he preaches. And
that's what this book is all about. He desired Paul to write
to the church in his office as an apostle and confirm his ministry
and especially the gospel he preached. Now let's begin our
study this morning by just a simple verse-by-verse commentary. And
this may just be the way we go through this epistle, just verse-by-verse. In verse 1, he says, Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus, our
brother, that is, Timothy. Now this is where the faith of
God's elect always begins, ends, and is maintained by the authority
of the Scriptures. This is what these apostles were
all about. We don't have apostles today.
These apostles were the inspired writers of Scripture. And if
Paul is not an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, then
half the New Testament you can tear it out and throw it out
the yard. You see what I'm saying? And this is what he's writing
to the church and he's telling them first and foremost, I am
an apostle. This is not an opinion I'm writing
you. I'm not writing to you. I'm down
here in prison and I'm not giving you my opinion. I'm not giving
you my interpretation. I'm telling you that what I'm
giving you is divinely inspired of God. I'm an apostle by the
will of God. And if it's not, if He's not,
then half the New Testament is just the word of a man and only
opinion and speculation and personal interpretation and that kind
of thing. And we're given two main reasons for believing these
men to be God's apostles of Christ. Since we're on the subject, I
want you to understand why. You know, in our society today
and with women's lib and all of that, I've heard a lot of
talk, a lot of talk about Paul and his attitude toward women
and the things that he wrote about women and they're saying
he was a male chauvinist pig. You know, he was raised in the
wrong time and that time has nothing to do with our time and
all this kind of stuff. And I want you to see here that
Paul is an apostle and everything that he writes, these were just
letters, just like if I wrote you a letter and sent it to you.
These were letters, but they were divinely inspired letters.
Divinely inspired of God. And we're given two reasons for
believing these men to be inspired of God and to be the apostles
of God. First of all, because God accompanied
them with miracles and wonders and signs and gifts of the Holy
Ghost. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
2. Now today, Catholic popes and some of the other ones, I'm
just more aware. of the things of Catholicism
than I am of other churches. But they also have priests and
hierarchy and things very similar to the Catholic Church. But Catholic
popes claim the right of divine inspiration. They claim to be
apostles just like Peter. In fact, if you'll follow their
chain back from pope to pope to pope, you'll find out that
where they trace it back to is Peter. And they take that verse
of Scripture where Christ said, upon this rock shall I build
my church. And then they take that literally
to mean a succession of apostles just like Peter. But none of them were ever confirmed
of God. God confirmed these men with
miracles and wonders and gifts of the Holy Ghost that can't
be reproduced. You can't fake these things.
Now you can stand and smack a guy in the head. Russell, you come
out of that. You can smack a guy in the head and he can fall over
on the floor and pretend to be in a trench and all that kind
of nonsense. You can fake that kind of stuff.
But you go out here to the cemetery and that man is laying there
dead. He's already buried in the dirt on him and you raise
him from the dead. I'm going to listen to what you've
got to say. And that's what the Lord did with these apostles.
They could speak fluently any language. If you look at where
all of these churches were, they were all in different countries
and talking to people of different languages. And these men could
walk in there with no background, no training, and speak immediately
in their native tongue. And everybody there could understand
what they said. That was the gift of tongues. That's what
tongues is all about. And they were also given gifts
of healing and gifts of discernment. That apostle could discern what
was in the heart of that man and woman when they held back
part of what they promised to give to the Lord. They understood
exactly. They had gifts of discernment
far superior to anything that we had. gifts of healing and just undeniable
confirmation from God. Look here in Hebrews chapter
2. Therefore, verse 1, we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. Where the word spoken
by angels was steadfast, And every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompensive reward. How shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him,
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and
with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to
His own will. So the first reason that I believe
this man to be an apostle of God and worthy to be listened
to and followed and submitted to is that God confirmed his
ministry with miracles, miracles, undeniable miracles. And then
secondly, we receive these letters as the Word of God because God
the Holy Spirit confirms their writings in the hearts of all
them that believe. God confirms His Word in you. In you. You hear it. That's it. You know it. I don't have to
get a committee together and come over to your house and say,
now, listen, you know, and sit down and just try to beat it
into your head. When you hear the Word of God,
you know it. If you're a believer, you do.
He confirms that Word in your heart. John said, we are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. It's the same God in me who taught me, who's in your heart
teaching you. You reckon He's going to teach
you something different? I don't think so. He's going to teach
us the same thing. He that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not
of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. And then turn with me to I Thessalonians
chapter 2. Now here's what I'm saying. We've got two primary reasons
for believing that these men who wrote the Bible were writing
the very words of God to us. First of all, because God confirmed
both them and their work with supernatural powers and gifts. And then secondly, by confirming
their message in the hearts of all believers. Now watch this
here. 1 Thessalonians 2.13, For this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you received the word of
God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of
men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually
worketh also in you that believe. This book is not divinely inspired,
and these writers are not moved in inspiration to write these
words, then all we have is just another computation of philosophy,
opinion, and speculation. Either this is the word of God,
and these men, the inspired writers of divine scripture, or this
book is the biggest fraud ever pushed over on men. One or the
other. There is no middle ground. And Paul confirms his office
at the outset of all his epistles because it is the very foundation
of his authority over the churches to whom he writes. He tells us
in Ephesians 2 that we're built upon the foundation of the apostles
and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Let me read you one more scripture,
and we'll go on to verse 2. In Romans chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God which
he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the
seed of David according to the flesh, declared to be the Son
of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the
resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace and
apostleship," now watch this, "...for the obedience to the
faith among all nations for His name." That was His authority.
That was His authority. And you reject the words and
message of these men, you reject the authority and message of
God. And then Paul includes in this first verse his faithful
brother in Christ. Sometimes he calls him his son
in the faith, Timothy. All right, verse 2. To the saints
and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae, grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the Word of God has something
to say to all men. The Word of God sets forth warnings,
sets forth warnings, and we're to give those warnings. As faithful
servants of God, I'm to give warnings from this pulpit even
to those who are not believers, even to those who reject this
book and this message. I'm to warn them. But this book
primarily is written to believers. It's the children's bread. It's
written to believers. And so he uses those words in
this verse to the faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae. He's writing to believers. He's
writing to the beloved of Christ. And he tells them, grace and
peace from God to you. It's the children's breath. Jesus
said to those Jews professed to believe on him in John chapter
8. He said, if you continue in my
word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the
truth, and the truth shall set you free. And then he tells us
this, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God.
Believers are not born of God by random speeches and entertaining
orators, but by the incorruptible Word of God. If what I have to
say to you is just me saying, me talking, and I don't ever
show you in the Scriptures the basis for what I'm saying, I
mean, how many Scriptures have I read to you this morning? would
almost equal this whole book of Colossians, just what I quoted
to you this morning. And when he talks about the preaching
of the Gospel, that's what he's talking about. We declare what
the Gospel is, but we read plain passages from the Word of God
as the basis for what we're saying. Believers will not receive anything
contrary to the Scriptures. They're not going
to receive them. A natural man, he'll reject the
truth on the basis of everything. On feelings alone. Just feelings
alone. Somebody never read the Scriptures. Somebody don't know anything
at all. Never heard the Gospel. Don't know any of these things.
And you tell him something, and he'll start arguing with you
just on... Well, it don't sound right. Don't
sound right. Don't feel right. He'll reject
the truth on the basis of feelings alone, tradition alone. That's
what that pastor told me up there here the other day. He said,
well, if what you're saying is true, then how do you explain
my profession? See, he was going back. He was
basing all these things on his profession. And I said, it's
your profession. You explain it. Not mine. I am just trying to tell you
what the Word of God says. And I say, well, Paul, let God be
true and every man a liar. A natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But to the believer, the Word
of God is the source of all, all that he believes. And it's
sufficient for him. He finds a sufficiency in the
Word of God. This is sufficient for every
question that he asks. He finds the answer right here
in the Word of God. And being written by the inspiration
of God, it's profitable to him for everything. It's profitable
for his doctrine, for rebuke, and for correction, and for instruction
in righteousness. And believers cherish this book.
They cherish its promises and it brings them comfort. You know,
I can talk all day, but I'll tell you this. When you see the
promise of God in the Scripture, it brings you peace, don't it?
It brings you peace. And they cherish this book and
its promises. And they heed its warnings. They
read the warnings of this book and it sobers you up. You know,
you kind of just get drunk on this world sometimes, and you're
just going from one thing to the next, and you get caught
up in that current, and you're out there, and all of a sudden,
you see something in the Word of God, and boy, it sobers you
up. I mean, you see what's going
on, and it kind of just pulls you back, pulls you back. But
any man who speaks apart from the teaching of the Holy Scripture,
he is not the servant of God. Isaiah said, to the law and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this Word, it
is because there is no light in them. David said in Psalm 119, verse
49, he said, remember the Word. Thy Word under Thy servant, upon
which Thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my
affliction, for Thy Word hath quickened me." This is the children's bread,
and to those who cherish it, and those who see Christ in it,
those who have been enlightened to it and trusted in Christ,
He says, grace to you. That's God's grace. God's been
gracious to you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, the Bible has a lot to say
about a lot of things, and everything it says is accurate and true. It's accounts on creation, history,
seasons, strange events, future prophecies, and you can go on
and on. Those things are all stated in
the Word of God, and they're all true. All true. You can rely
on every one of them. But primarily, the message of
this book to believers is grace and peace brought out from God
the Father through that redemption accomplished in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul, that's kind of his
key word to the churches. You can tell that the Apostle
Paul wrote a book simply by the way he begins his letter. And I tell you, there's absolutely
nothing more vehemently denied by men than the eternal purpose
of God in the salvation of His elect through the person and
work of His Son. It's rejected totally. Everything
that happens in time is according to the eternal purpose of God
in Christ. He worketh all things after the
counsel. of His own will. He predestinated,
He is elect unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. And I tell
you, we know nothing of some limited deity who reacts to unknown
circumstances. That's not the living God. We
were justified and redeemed in the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. So that the actual accomplishing
of these things was said to be by the determinate counsel. When Christ died, how did he
die? By the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. He was given over to those wicked
hands and then crucified. And all that was done to him
was done by God's hand and according to what his counsel determined
before to be done. So that there's a sense in which
it can be said that God hath saved us. Isn't that what he
said in 1 Timothy 1-9? That's past tense, isn't it? You mean to tell me that a believer
before he's born is already saved? In a sense he is. Not in the
experience of it. He's going to experience these
things, not in the new birth of it, not in the application
of it by the Holy Spirit. But I tell you this, He was saved
in Christ who was slain before the foundation of the world.
And that's what He tells us over there. He hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Salvation is always attributed
to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore,
we give thanks to Him for all those spiritual blessings that
He gives us in His Son before the world was. Now watch this,
verse 3. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Why do we do that? Because God
the Father is the wellspring of all these things. This is
where these things come from. He's the wellspring of all that
saints receive in time. And knowing this as it's revealed
in the Gospel, His children's first words are what? Abba, Father. That's right. Abba, Father. Our
Lord gave to His disciples a model prayer. You remember how it begins? Our Father. Our Father. And you can't know Him without
the person and work of Christ. But through His person and work,
we do know the Father. And we pray to Him. And we give
Him thanks for all things. Christ said in that day, when
I was ascended up into heaven, you no more ask Me. He said,
you ask the Father. You pray to the Father. But how do we know who these
chosen in Christ are? How do we know His children?
How do we know who has grace and peace from God and who don't?
Verse 4, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of
the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you have heard before
in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you
as it is into all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it
doth in you since the day you heard it, and knew the grace
of God in truth." God's elect are manifested in this world
by hearing the precious gospel of Christ. And they are given the gracious
gift of faith which always bears the fruit of the Holy Ghost. All believers know the grace
of God in truth. They know it in their head, they
understand it, and they know it in their heart. And I tell
you, you can know it in your head and not know it in your
heart. It has to be in both. But when that truth is applied
to the heart by the Holy Spirit, it produces fruit. Our Lord said
in John 15, 5, He said, I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.
God's elect are all His workmanship, Paul said, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
he should walk in them. And as they are identified to
us, we give thanks to the Father for them. I give thanks to the
Father for it. I preach near all the time. Everybody
don't believe what I say. They don't believe what I say.
And I understand why. I do. But those who do, I thank
God for them. I thank God for them. Because
this is something you can't do on your own. This is something
you can't get by decision. This is something God has to
intervene in your heart and in your life. and give you power
to believe. God's people know the grace of
God in truth, and by this experiential knowledge, they're made truly
gracious and merciful, and they love one another. But those who
have an empty profession, they go unchanged, uncommitted, and
they're unruly. Only God can take down the strong
man and spoil his house. May the Lord be pleased to use
these things to establish you both in the faith and give you
a good hope through grace. That's what this book of Colossians
is all about.