While John was reading that passage
of scripture from Micah, I was sitting there in my chair,
but I was jumping for joy in my heart. And here's why. There's a particular word that
was absent from that passage of scripture. If. Doesn't say he'll turn again
if we do anything. It doesn't say he will have compassion
on us if. It doesn't say he will subdue
our iniquities if. No if in there. That's great. If there was an if, I couldn't
get any joy out of it. But no ifs. Thank the Lord for that.
Now would you turn back to Colossians chapter four. Now keep in mind that Epaphras
was the pastor. of the Church of Colossae, and
he had gone to visit Paul while he was in prison. And he's sending
back his greetings when Paul's writing this letter, and Paul
says this regarding Epaphras. Epaphras, who is one of you,
a servant of Christ, saluteth you always, laboring fervently
for you in prayers. And here is what he prayed for,
that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record that he
hath a great zeal for you, and them there at Laodicea, and them
in higher Apollos." I've entitled this message, The Pastor's Prayer. This was the prayer of Epaphras
for the church at Colossa. Now, Paul had never met the Colossians
in the flesh, and what he knew of them came from Epaphras, who
was visiting Paul at this time. It could be that Epaphras had
learned the gospel through Paul and had gone to Colossians to
preach the gospel there. Turn to chapter one, beginning
in verse three. I'm sorry, beginning in verse,
yeah, verse three. 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 of the love which you
have to the saints, and for the 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 bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since
the day you heard of it. or since the day you heard 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." Now, Paul tells the Colossians, you learned the gospel
through this man. Now, if you and I know the grace
of God in truth, as Paul said, God taught us. Anything that you know spiritually,
anything that you know savingly, God taught you. And he did so through a man. I learned the gospel through
Henry Mahan, my pastor. God speaks through the preaching
of the gospel. Now, they learned the gospel
through this man by the name of Epaphras. God has appointed
this thing of a pastor teacher, and that's who they learned from.
And at the close of this epistle, he makes mention of Epaphras
again, who was with Paul at that time, and what he prayed for
the church at Colossae, that they may stand perfect and complete
in all the will of God. Now, Paul also says concerning
Epaphras, that he had a zeal for them. Look in verse 13 of
chapter 4. For I bear him record that he
hath a great zeal for you. And then there at Laodicea, and
then there at Hieper. However you say it, Hieper. I'm
not going to try it again. But that word zeal is the same
word that's translated jealousy. He has a great jealousy over
you. It's the same word Paul used when he said, I'm jealous
over you with a godly jealousy. For I've espoused you to be a
chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, this was Paul's fear,
his fear for himself and his fear for the people he preached
to. I fear lest by any means as Satan, well, let's go there. I'm not quoting it right. Second
Corinthians chapter 11. Paul said in verse two, for I'm
jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I've espoused you
to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,
but I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled, deceived
Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted
from the, I love this, the simplicity that's in Christ. You know what
that word means? That means the onlyness. the singularity, the
allness. I've got a very simple salvation,
Christ. God's got a very simple reason
for forgiving my sins. That means only one reason, for
Christ's sake. I have a very simple reason.
It's not complicated at all. I have a very simple reason that
I'll stand justified before God, Christ. And what Paul feared
for himself and what he feared for the Colossians is that they
would be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Now, if God
has made a man a pastor after his own heart, that man will
love the people he preaches to, and he'll have a zeal for them,
a jealousy for them, not wanting them to be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. Now, look in verse 12. Again,
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salutes
you. always laboring fervently for you in prayers. And that's
where we get the word agonize from. Agonizing for you in prayers. That you'd stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God. That this was his prayer for
them, and this was his prayer for himself, and this is my prayer
for you, and this is my prayer for myself. That me and you might
stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God. Now what in the world does that
mean? What does it mean to stand perfect
and complete in all the will of God? Now the first things
first, only God can enable somebody to do this. That's so simple. If you do stand perfect, if you
do stand complete in all the will of God, you'll know this.
The only reason you do so is because He caused you to do so. That's why he was praying to
the Lord about it. You pray to the Lord over that which you
can't accomplish, that you don't have any control in, that you
don't have any ability in. You ask the Lord to do it. He
asked that the Lord would cause them to stand perfect and complete
in all the will of God. And in the original, it would
read like this. Praying that you will be made to stand. It's actually in the passive.
That you will be made to stand. Made to be established. Made
to be set. Firm. Not being moved. Now, look in Colossians chapter
1 verse 23. Here's what it means to stand. Now Paul gives this blessed promise
in verse 21. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you. Oh, I love
this. Holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. And beloved, if I'm holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, there's only one
reason. Because I am, in fact, holy and unblameable and unreprovable. You see, God sees things the
way they really are. How he sees things is how they are. And this
is how he sees every believer in Christ Jesus. Holy. and unblameable
and unreprovable in his very sight. But look at verse three,
if now there's an if, if this is true, if you continue in the
faith, grounded and settled, that's what it means to stand
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. If we stand and do not fall,
if we stand fast in the faith, it's because God has caused us
to stand. Romans 14. Well, I don't want
to be swept away, do you? I don't want to fall away. Well,
don't you believe every believer perseveres in the faith? Yes,
I do. I believe that all together. And I don't want to fall away.
I want to stand fast in the faith. I don't want to be moved. Now
look here in Romans chapter 14. Paul says in verse 4, who art thou that judgest another
man's servant? You know, I don't have any business
judging you and you don't have any business judging me. You
belong to the Lord. I belong to the Lord. You're not my servant. I'm not
your servant in that sense. That's why we don't have any
business judging one another. Anytime, listen to me, and I'm
saying this first to myself, anytime I set in judgment on
anybody, I'm playing the hypocrite. You believe that? Anytime. And
so he says, who art thou that judges another man's servant?
To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be
holding up, for God is able to make him stand. Well, I'm thankful
for that, aren't you? Look at verse 14. Oh, I'm sorry, verse 10. But why
dost thou judge thy brother? I'm looking forward to getting
into this chapter while we're going through Romans. I'll be there in a few
months, I reckon. But he's given this entire chapter on this subject.
He says, why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou
set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. That person whom you're judging,
he's going to stand accepted, holy, and beloved before God.
And you're judging him? We're all going to stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. Now, I can appeal to every believer. How quick will you fall if God
doesn't cause you to stand? How quick? Painful to think about, isn't
it? But oh, how thankful I am for that grace wherein we, what? Stand. Stand. So first of all, Epiphras prays
that these dear believers of whom he was pastor would stand,
not be moved, stand. And look at the next thing he
says in Colossians chapter 4, verse 12. He prays, oh, he fervently
prays, laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand
perfect. Perfect. You know, we've all said, well,
I'm not perfect. Yeah, I knew that. You didn't have to tell
me. I'm not perfect. Why would we say something like
that? But what does the word mean when he says perfect? He prayed that they would stand
perfect and complete in all the will of God. Now, this one word
is used in two different senses in the New Testament. First,
it means that you would stand matured. grown up. And secondly, it means that you
would be perfect. Like when the Lord said, Be ye
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
That means perfect. That means without blemish. That
means without fault. He prayed that they would stand
perfect, mature, grown up, He prayed that they would stand
perfect, that God would cause them to be perfect. Now, the first way the word is
used is mature, fully grown. This is a part of the goal of
the ministry. Look what Paul says in Colossians
1 29. He says, Where into I also labor, striving according Well,
wait a minute, verse 28, whom we preach, warning every man
and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every
man perfect, mature and perfect. It means both those things, mature
and perfect in Christ Jesus. The reason for the preaching
of the word is for the maturing, the edifying of the body of Christ
that we don't, we're not, not to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Now, John, speaks of the three
different levels of maturity in the gospel. He speaks of little
children, he speaks of young men, and he speaks of fathers. Now, they're little children,
and it's a good thing to be a little child, isn't it? It's not a good
thing to stay a little child, but it's a good thing to be a
little child. That means God's done something for you. And John's
word to them was, little children, your sins are forgiven for his
name's sake. Isn't that a blessing? I'm all
for being a little child. I want to be a little child,
don't you? I want to believe God with the capacity that a
child has. You know, a child has such capacity
for faith. And I want to be somebody like
that that just believes God, takes him at his word and believes
him. Little children. But little children are immature.
Little children are selfish. Little children act like little
children. But then he talks about young
men at a stronger stage, growing in grace. And then he talks about
fathers. Fathers in the faith. Though
you have many instructors in Christ Jesus, Paul says you have
not many fathers in the faith. Paul said to the Corinthians,
I couldn't speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal,
even as unto babes in Christ. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
3 for just a moment. Paul says, and we're talking
about maturity, and this is what Epaphras was praying to the Colossians
that they grow up. Paul says to the Corinthians,
And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I fed you with
milk, and not with mead, for hitherto you were not able to
bear it, neither yet now are you able, for you are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you
envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk
as men? Aren't you acting like unbelievers, is what he's saying?
You're acting just like unbelievers with that kind of action. Turn
to Hebrews chapter 5. Paul says in verse 11, he'd been,
or whoever wrote Hebrew says in verse 11, he'd just been talking
about Melchizedek. And he says in verse 11, of whom
we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you
are dull of hearing for when for the time you ought to be
teachers. You have need that one teach you again, which be
the first principles of the oracles, or the words of God. And are
become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone
that useth milk is unskillful, inexperienced in the word of
righteousness, for he's a babe. But strong meat belongeth to
them who are of full age. That full age is the same word
translated perfection. They're grown up. They're a full
age. Strong meat, somebody that's
mature, can take the strong meat of the word, even those who by
reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good
and evil. Now let me say this. The milk of the word is the ABCs
of the gospel. It's the fundamentals of the
faith. As a matter of fact, he speaks of them in chapter 6,
verses 1 and 2. Look. Therefore, leaving the
principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto maturity,
perfection, not laying again the foundation. Now what happens
if you always have to lay again the foundation? The superstructure
won't go up, will it? If there's foundation trouble,
The superstructure won't go up. And he says, we don't want to
have to always be laying again this foundation. This ought to
be automatic to you, just like breathing, just like the ABCs.
You ought to be grounded in this. Therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works. Every work you
had before God gave you life is a dead work. Dead. Have you ever repented of your
dead works and seen them for what they are? Nothing but dead
works. All the works of religion, dead
works. And to faith toward God, which
is the same thing as faith in Christ. He's God, isn't he? Faith
in God, faith in Christ. Of the doctrine of baptisms.
And notice the word doctrine. The doctrine of baptisms, that's
what does baptism teach? I love what baptism teaches.
I love the simplicity of it. It teaches union with Christ.
Here's my hope. When he lived, I lived. I was
in him. When he died, I was in him. When he was raised from
the dead, I was in him. That's all baptism. Baptism is
the gospel. It teaches us how a sinner is saved, the doctrine
of baptisms. And next, he says, The doctrine
of the laying on of hands. Now that's not talking about
me laying hands on somebody and all of a sudden they start speaking
in tongues or something like that. You know better than that.
Throughout the Old Testament, the high priest would lay his
hands on the head of the sacrifice. And that signified the transference
of guilt. My guilt was transferred to the
sacrifice and his innocence is transferred to me. That's the
gospel of substitution is all that is. And then he speaks of
the resurrection of the dead. What happened when Christ was
raised from the dead? God's elect were justified. What happens
when a dead sinner hears the gospel they're raised from the
dead? We're going to be raised one of these days incorruptible.
That's the doctrine of the red. This is the foundation. And eternal
judgment. I love this word. It doesn't
just say judgment, eternal judgment. Judgment has already taken place
eternally in the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
You see, everything God does is eternal, isn't it? With God,
there's not a sequence of events. This happens, this happens, and
this happens. No, it's all at once, all in the present. Now,
these are the things He says you're to be grounded in. And
if you're not grounded in these things, if you're always having
to lay this foundation again, you'll never go on to perfection
and to maturity. Now, the mature have grown in
grace and the knowledge of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And this is how I want to grow in grace. I want to grow in the
fruit of the Spirit. You know, when you grow in grace,
the first thing you grow in is your understanding of your need
of grace. That's growing in grace. I want to grow in love, love
to my Redeemer, love to you, love to all men. I want to grow
in joy, rejoicing in Christ. Oh, I want to rejoice in in Him. Peace, the peace that comes from
believing. I want to grow in long-suffering
patience because God is on the throne. I want to grow in gentleness. You know what that is? It's graciousness.
That's what that means, being gracious. I want to grow in goodness,
the fruit of the Spirit of goodness. You know what that is? That's
a capacity for mercy. I want to grow in faith. Oh,
I want to believe in more. Increase our faith. I want to
grow in temperance. I want to have that control from
within by God the Holy Spirit. Faith, temperance. I want to
grow in meekness and humility and lowliness. Grow in grace. And this is what he was praying
for the church here. That they would grow, that they
would mature in grace. You know what? Perfect also means
without fault. Now, how perfect is God? How
perfect is Jesus Christ? How perfect is He? Well, as He
is, so are we in this world. You're looking at a perfect man. And I'm looking at some perfect
men and women. Perfect in Christ Jesus by one
offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. I'm
perfect. Perfect by what He did. When
Christ died, God said He's perfect. There's no fault in Him. There's
no sin in Him. He is perfect. You know, David said with a holy
confidence in Psalm 138.8, The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. What concerns you? Well, the salvation of my
eternal soul, my likeness to Christ. We're given this promise.
The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. And here's why. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. That's why it's sure. And then
he said, forsake not the work of thy hands. My salvation is
the work of thy hands. Is your salvation the work of
his hands only? Well, if you're saved, you know
it is. Now, notice he said in our text back to Colossians chapter
4, he was praying fervently for them that they may stand perfect
and complete in all the will of God. He wanted them to stand
perfect and complete in all of the will of God. Now, I love
to think of the will of God. There is such a thing as the
will of God. and it's supreme. You know what that means? That
means it's always done. You see, His will is the first
cause behind everything and His will controls everybody and every
event. He has absolute control. Don't
you love His will? I love His will. I might not
understand it all, but I really do pray, Thy will be done. That's what I want. I want the
will of God to be done. And here's what I'm really happy
about. I know it will be done. So what I'm praying for, I know
it's answered. His will will be done. It's absolutely
supreme. His will is eternal. That means
He never changes. Whatever was way back when, it
still is now and it always will be. His will is immutable. His
will is efficacious. His will is causeless. That means
there's nothing in me that causes him. He doesn't react. There's
nothing outside of himself that affects it. That's his sovereign
will. But Paul also uses language like
this regarding the will of God. And I love this. He said, I beseech
you by the mercies of God. that you present your bodies. That's everything about you. I beseech you by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Isn't
anything else unreasonable? It is, isn't it? Completely unreasonable.
And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove what is that
good and that acceptable and that perfect will of God. And what I think is very interesting
when you go on reading in the next verse, when he talks about
demonstrating what that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God is, the first thing he says, I say to every man among
you, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to
think. First thing he says, first thing he says. Boy, I need to
hear that constantly. Don't think of yourself more
highly than you ought to think. That deserves a sermon in itself. Be not unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is. Now, I have some understanding
of what the will of the Lord is. I know it's his will for
all the elect to be saved. I like that will, don't you?
This is the will of Him that sent me, that of all which He
has given me, I should lose nothing but raise it up again at the
last day. I know it's His will for everybody
that Christ died for to be saved. You know what? I also know it's
His will for me to obey Him. I know it's His will for me to
worship Him. I know it's His will for me to
love Him and to serve Him. It's His will for me to deny
myself, to take up my cross, my confession of Him, and follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. I know God's will for my life. And I don't mean by that I know
what I'm supposed to do tomorrow because I never, every decision
I ever make, I'm always questioning it, wondering whether the Lord's
in it. I never, I've never known for sure what I'm supposed to
do about anything as far as should I go here, go there, do that.
I pray that the Lord would hedge me about and that he'd cause
me to do his will. And I'm thankful that it's him that worketh in
me both to will and to do his good pleasure. But as far as
knowing what God's will is for me to do this, I don't know,
but I do know this. It's his will for me to believe
on his son. I'm sure of that. It's his will for me to lay hold
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we're to grow in this
prayer, If it crosses all my plans and
schemes, thy will be done. If I end up being humiliated
out of it, thy will be done. Whatever his will is, is best,
and that's what we want. We want to grow in this thing
of standing perfect and complete. in all of the will of God. And notice he says that we might
stand complete in all the will of God. Now, all the will of
God, that means his will in terms of his decrees, that means his
will, and this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, even your
sanctification. It means both. That's what it
means by all the will of God. He prays that they might stand
perfect and complete in all the will of God. Now, I like this
word, complete. Colossians chapter two, verse
10 says, you are complete. Same word, you are complete in
him. Now, you know what that means?
In him, you have completely done all of God's will. You haven't
left out anything, you've done it all. Now that's such a beautiful
thought to me. That the Lord looks at me and
he says, he's done all my will. He's fulfilled my will. The word
is also translated accomplished. Luke 9 31, they speak of the
decease which he should accomplish. Lord said, not everyone that
sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven.
And what is that will? He's talking about faith there.
He's talking about faith. Many will say, Lord, Lord, have
we not preached in your name? In your name, have we not cast
out devils? And in your name, have we not done many wonderful
works? They had all the religion, but
they didn't do the one thing needful. They never believed
the gospel. The word is translated, the end. Romans 10, 4, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. Now you have completed God's
will by not going about to establish your own righteousness, but submitting
yourself to his righteousness, trusting Christ as the end of
the law for your personal righteousness. Do you do that? And you're standing
perfect and complete in all the will of God. It's translated,
expire. reaching its end. It's translated
fill. May the Lord fill you up with
His will so that your prayer is the same as the Lord's from
your heart. Not my will, but thine be done. It's translated
fulfill. Oh, that we would fulfill all
of His will, that we would actually do it. It's translated full,
as in you're so full of His will that there's no room for anything
else. And the last way the word is
used is preach. Paul said, I fully preach the
gospel, this same word. I fully preach the gospel of
Christ. I've left nothing out. Now here's the prayer of Epaphras
for the Colossian believers that he had such a great zeal for
and love for that they might stand perfect and complete in
all the will of God. Now that, you know, I don't think
I'd ever given a whole lot of thought to this prayer, but boy,
everything's in it, isn't it? If they might stand, not be moved. You know, I love people who are
predictable. You know what they're going to
be like. Standing in the gospel, not moving back and forth. that
you might stand perfect, that means mature, and perfect, made
to stand perfect in Christ Jesus and complete, not lacking or
coming up short in anything in all the will of God. And this
I know, the only way that you and I will stand. perfect and
complete in all the will of God is as He causes us to stand perfect
and complete in all the will of God. And this is something
that I want to pray for myself. I want to pray this for you,
that we might be made to stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name that you, by your grace, by your
spirit, by your gospel, by your power, by your will, would cause
us to stand and not be moved. We ask that
you would cause us to stand perfect and mature, cause us to grow
in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
and Lord, cause us to rest in the perfection that we have in
Him. And Lord, cause us to stand perfect
and complete, nothing lacking in all thy will. Bless this message
for the Lord's sake, in his name we pray, amen.