Turn back to Colossians chapter
1. God the Holy Spirit was pleased
in inspiring Paul to write this letter to the Colossians to name
the pastor of the church in Colossa, Epaphras. When he speaks in verse
7, as you also learned of Epaphras. Our dear fellow servant is for
you a faithful minister of Christ who also declared unto us your
love in the spirit. I've entitled this message Epiphras. I've never thought about it before,
but I just wanted to look at this. Epiphras. We know from
the book of Philemon that at some point he was in prison.
for preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul called
him a fellow prisoner. He was persecuted. He shared
in the afflictions of the gospel. I read that church tradition
says, and if anybody can tell me what church tradition means,
I don't know, but I've read it many times and church tradition
says he was a martyr and was put to death for the preaching
of the gospel. And he was a dear friend of Paul's. Paul called him our dear, and
that word dear is beloved, our beloved fellow servant, Ephesus. Now I think it's interesting
when you read the epistles, remember this was written by man. man
who had friends. As a matter of fact, somebody
actually wrote a book entitled The Friends of Paul. And he goes
through fellows like Luke and Epaphras and so on and gives
some of their history. He was a dear, dear friend of
the Apostle Paul. And if you read through the epistles,
Paul had some problems with people. Look in Philippians chapter 2. Just cross the page. Philippians
chapter 2. He said in verse 19, But I trust
in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also
may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man
like minded who will naturally care for your state. For all
seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. Now
isn't that sad? I have no man. like-minded. Those were Paul's words. Look
in 2 Timothy chapter 4. You know, you read, while you're
turning there, you read the book of Corinthians. He's always having
to defend himself with those people. Look here in 2 Timothy
chapter 4. He says in verse 16, at my first answer, no man stood
with me, but all forsook me. Don't you know that hurt him?
And he said, I pray to God that it might not be laid to their
charge. Look in Galatians chapter four, he's speaking to the Galatians. And he says in verse 13, you
know how that through infirmity of the flesh, I preached the
gospel unto you at the first, and my temptation, which was
in my flesh, you despised not, nor rejected, but you received
me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the
blessedness you spake of? For I bear you record, that if
I had been possible, you would have plucked out of your own
eyes and given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? So you see, Paul had many issues
with people at different times throughout the epistles. So what
a blessing a good friend was like Epaphras. He called him
my dear, beloved fellow servant. And I thought about how grateful
we are for true friends that love at all times. That's the
friend I want to be, don't you? A friend loveth at all times. that will be there when everybody
else leaves. Who you don't have to be guarded
around, fearing how they'll use or misconstrue what you say in
a bad way. Someone who has your back, a
true friend. Well, Epiphras was a beloved,
loyal, faithful friend. And that's the kind of friend
I want to be, don't you? I want to be that kind of friend, a
loyal, faithful friend. And the first thing that I would
notice about this dear man is his preaching. Look back in our
text in Colossians chapter one. Verse seven, as you also learned
of Epaphras. Epiphras was the man who these
people had learned the gospel from. And what was it they learned?
Well, look up in verse six. He said, when you knew the grace
of God in truth, as you learned of Epiphras. Now, that is the
preaching of every true gospel preacher. He preaches the grace
of God in truth. Now, religion uses the word grace.
You know that as well as I do. But they mean something different
by it. Grace is God's help. Grace is God's offer to you that
you can accept or reject. But if you accept it, it'll do
something for you. Grace. Now, that bears no resemblance
to what the Bible means by grace. No resemblance. The message of
grace is it's done. The message of religion is do. Do, here's what you need to do.
Here's what you need to do. You gotta do this, you gotta
do that. You'll be better off if you do this. Always do, do,
do. When have you done enough? But
the message of grace is it is done. I am complete in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I've been saved by his grace
and I need nothing else. That's grace, isn't it? That's
the only kind of grace I know anything about. saving grace. Yeah, I was talking to a man
that was going to a church where I knew they didn't believe grace.
And he said he believed grace. And I said, well, do they preach
grace there? He said, well, not like you do. I said, oh, what's
this supposed to mean? He said, well, they might not
believe in election, but they believe in salvation by grace
from faith. No, they don't. They believe in salvation by
faith with the help of grace. And that's not grace at all.
Not really. When Epiphas came to these people,
he preached the grace of God in truth. Saving grace. Now, the gospel has a content
that must be learned. And God teaches through a man.
As you also learned of Epiphas, Paul calls him, now remember,
Paul's the apostle. Paul's the chief apostle. I mean, he is,
he's an unusual man. He called himself without egotism,
the wise master builder. But look what he says with regard
to Epaphras. As you learned also of Epaphras,
our dear, our beloved fellow servant. Paul was a servant of Christ.
And he calls Epaphras a fellow servant of Christ. He doesn't
put himself up on a higher level. I'm an apostle and he's just
a servant. No, we're fellow servants of Christ. I'm a servant of Christ. Now I've been called to pastor
this flock and that doesn't make me any more of a servant of Christ
than you are. I'm a servant of Christ. You're
a servant of Christ. We're fellow servants of Christ. And we like it that way, don't
we? We don't have a hierarchy. We don't have a, this one's up
here and this one's there, no. We're fellow servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he says he is for you, verse
seven, he is for you a faithful minister of Christ. Now this
is how God works, through a faithful minister of Christ. Look in Romans
chapter 10 with me for a moment. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. to save them that believe. That's
what's going on when a faithful minister is speaking. He's preaching
the gospel of God's grace. If you're saved, if I'm saved,
it's because God crossed our path with a preacher and taught
us the gospel. Now look here at Romans chapter
10, verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. How then, verse 14, shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him whom they've not heard. You can't believe something
you've never heard. And how should they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent? Now that's God's
way. And he calls Epaphras a faithful
minister of Christ for you. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter
4. A faithful minister of Christ.
I love this passage of scripture. Let a man so account of us as
of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of
God. Moreover, it's required in stewards
that a man be found faithful. What do you want in hearing somebody? What do you want more than anything
else? Faithfulness, don't you? You want somebody that tells
you the truth. You want somebody that's faithful to God, faithful
to his word, faithful to his son, faithful to your soul. Faithfulness. Epiphras is called a faithful
minister of the Lord Jesus Christ to you. And I love this word
faithful. It means two things. It means
you believe. Believers are called the faithful.
It means you can be believed. Now first of all, a true preacher,
like any other believer, believes the gospel. Now listen to me. I am relying, right now, while
I'm talking to you, this is real, I'm relying on this, that the
only thing that matters In my relationship with God, the only
thing that's truly relevant is what Christ did and how God responded
to it. That's everything in my acceptance
before God. I'm relying completely on the
Lord Jesus Christ. I do believe the gospel. That's what every faithful person
does. They believe. Right now, I am
relying wholly that all that God looks to me for, ever been
of it. He looks to His Son for and He's
satisfied with what His Son did. I really believe that. And I'm
relying on that and I'm counting on that. If that's not the case,
there's no hope for me. If my salvation has something
to do with my faithfulness or my repentance or my belief system
or my holy living, I've got no hope. My only hope is that all
God requires of me is in His Son. Is that your only help at
believing? Not only does a believer believe,
we can be believed. Honest. I think of that passage
of scripture in Psalm 32, 1 and 2. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. That's talking about the new
spirit. That's talking about the new man. It's not just talking
about somebody that has a kind of honor. I mean, there's honest
people that are unbelievers, so to speak. They pay their bills,
and you can count on them, and they'll be dependable. That's
not the kind of honesty I'm talking about. I'm thankful for that
kind of honesty. But I'm talking about that spirit, that new spirit
in which there is no guile, no deceit. They're honest before
God about what they are and who Christ is. Honest. And they can be believed. They can be counted on. They
can be relied upon. I don't have any interest at
all in hearing someone who's not faithful to you. They must
believe and they must be able to be. You know, I was thinking
of Epiphras being the pastor of this church, and my mind was
brought back to 1988 when I was in the hospital, and I remember
I went through all these different things, but I can remember what
was on my mind while I was laying there. I couldn't read at the
time. I couldn't read because I was still seeing double, so I just had
to think. All I had to do for six weeks was lay on my back
and think. And I thought of two things that I felt such gratefulness
for after that. that illness and that sickness.
Number one was I could look at death truly with welcome because
I knew that my sin had been taken care of. Christ put it away,
and I had his righteousness, and I could actually look forward
to death. Now, the Lord, I can tell you this, when you're dying,
the Lord will give you grace. Not before then, but when you feel like
you're dying, you'll get the grace you need. You think, I'm
afraid I'll mess up. Well, you would if he didn't
give you the grace, but when you need it, you'll get it. I'm just sure
that the Lord gives special grace at time of need. And I was so
thankful that I could look at death without fear. But here's
the second thing that really hit me. I was so thankful the
Lord had given me a pastor who was more concerned about me knowing
the Lord's name than his own. I love my pastor. Love him. Epaphras was a dear, faithful
servant of God. And look what he did. Look in
Colossians chapter 4. Paul mentions him again with
reference to these Colossians. Verse 12, Epaphras, who is one
of you, a servant of Christ, salutes you always, laboring
fervently for you in prayer." So literally that word is striving,
agonizing for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God. Now, my question is, what was
the fruit of the ministry of Epaphras? We've already seen
how they learned the gospel through him, but you know, if all that
meant was they became indoctrinated in proper doctrine, doesn't mean
much, does it? If they change from being Armenians to Calvinists,
well, congratulations. That quarter will get you a cup
of coffee. You know, I mean, it's what actually
happened in this man's preaching. Well, look, look back in Colossians
chapter one, verse eight, who also declared
unto us your love in the spirit. Now, this was the fruit of his
preaching. He declared unto us your love
in the spirit. Now, the love he's talking about is
the love that comes from being born again. Now I'm thankful
for the different kinds of love that there are among men that
he's made. I mean, aren't you thankful for
the love a mother has for a child? That's very special. You can
have that without knowing the Lord. I'm thankful for the love
that exists between a man and a woman that make them dedicate
themselves to one another and stay faithful to one another
all the way to the end. I admire that so much. And you're
thankful that the Lord has given us love like that. I'm thankful
for the love of friends where people really love each other
and they stick with each other and they're there for each other.
We're thankful for these various kinds of love that a natural
man has. So I wouldn't in any way speak
ill of that. I'm thankful for it. But that's
not the love that's in the Spirit. That's not the love that comes
from being born of the Holy Spirit. That's not the love that... Turn
to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. For God is love. You see, this is that love that
comes from being born of the Spirit of God. It's your nature
to love God. Holy supernatural, the natural
man has no love for God. We're thankful for these different
kinds of love, but there's no love for God there. As a matter
of fact, every natural man hates God. So we say, well, I've never
hated God. Well, you've never heard who he is, because if you
did, your hatred would come out. The natural man hates the living
God. And every believer loves God
as he is. It's a love of the spirit. Faith worketh by love. Now, love in the spirit, first
of all, loves God. Do you love God? Now, the best way to answer that
question is not to think about, oh, I'm afraid I don't love him
enough. I'm afraid I don't feel enough. I'm afraid you probably
don't, no doubt. But God said, I am that I am. Do you love God as he is? God says, I am holy. Do you love that God? The God of the Bible is absolutely
sovereign in control of everything and everybody and the first cause
behind everything. Do you love that God? I do. I do. I love the God who elects. I love the God who sent his son
to die for his elect. I love the God whose grace is
invincible and irresistible. I love God as he is. I love all
of his attributes. God is immutable. He said, I'm
the Lord. I changed on. Don't you love
that? That he never changes. He's eternal. He never had a
beginning. He never had an end. Understand
it? No. But love it? Yes. We love
God as He's revealed in the Bible. We love every one of His attributes.
Listen, I love His justice. I love His wrath. I don't have
to fear His wrath. Christ took it for me so I can
love. I admire the fact that He's going to punish sin and
He's not going to let sin go unchecked or unpunished. We love
God as He is. Every one of His attributes.
Oh, we love His grace. We love His graciousness. We
love His mercy. We love His kindness. Every attribute
of God we love. We love Him as He is. I love the Lord Jesus Christ.
the Son of the Father, the brightness of God's glory, the express image
of His person. I love Him. All you're ever going
to see of God in all His glory is Jesus Christ. He said, He
that has seen Me has seen the Father. And oh, how we love the
excellency and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We love God
the Holy Spirit. All I experience of God is through
God the Holy Spirit. Every bit of it. Every view I
have of the Lord Jesus Christ comes from God the Holy Spirit. We love God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We're so thankful that God the
Holy Spirit came and convinced us of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. Oh, we're thankful. We love God
as He is. Now, love in the spirit loves
all those who are begotten of God. Turn to 1 John chapter 5.
You're in chapter 4. Look in chapter 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Now this
is love in the spirit. This is the fruit of the Holy
Spirit. Remember how the scripture says in Galatians 5.2, the fruit
of the spirit is what? Love. Love. Love to God, love to his word,
love to his people, love for his gospel, but love. The fruit of the spirit is love.
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 13. I love this chapter. May the Lord bring this home
to me. Verse 31 of chapter 12, Paul
says to the Corinthians, but covet earnestly the best gifts,
and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. Now remember that
the point is in Epiphany preaching the grace of God in truth, the
true grace of God. Here's the fruit. Here's the
fruit. And Paul says, here is this more
excellent way. This is better than any gifts.
Verse one, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not love, I can be as eloquent as an angel, and yet
without this charity that I'm speaking of, this love in the
spirit, I'm become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. I sound shrill. And though I
have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge And though I have all faith so that I could remove
mountains and have not this love, I am nothing. I can do all those
things and yet it is nothing. Judas could do those things,
but he didn't have this love in his heart. Verse three, and
though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I
give my body to be burned as a martyr for the cause of God
and truth. And that shows how far you can
go. He says, though, I give all my goods to feed the poor and
I get my body to be burned and have not charity. It profits
me nothing. And then he gives this beautiful,
beautiful description of what real charity is. Charity. Is long tempered. It suffers long. And charity is kind. It's gracious. It's not mean. It is concerned
about the feelings of others. It's not indifferent. It's kind. Love is kind. Isn't it beautiful? And then he says, charity envies
not. You can't possibly envy somebody
you love. If your kids are promoted, do
you envy them? No. You want the best thing for them.
The higher they make it, the happier you are. You're not envious.
You're not jealous. Love doesn't envy. You can't
envy somebody you love. Not this kind of love. This is
one of the glorious things about being a believer. If you're promoted,
I'm promoted. That's the way it works. If you're
promoted, I'm promoted because we love each other. And we, and
if you're promoted, I'm just as happy as if it were me, if
I really love you. Love envies not. Then he says
in verse four, charity vaunteth not itself. That means it's not
a bracket. It doesn't try to push itself
on somebody. It doesn't try to say, look at
me. It doesn't vaunt itself. It's not charity is not puffed
up. It's not proud and conceited
and arrogant. It never is. It's always lowly. It's always humble. Verse five, charity does not
behave itself unseemly. It's not rude. It's not rude. Not this charity. He says, charity
seeketh not her own. It's not self-seeking. It's not
narcissistic. It's not seeking its own, its
own happiness. And you know, true charity seeks
the happiness of the object of its affection. It's not seeking,
it's I want to be happy. Watch out when somebody wants
to be happy. Next, he says charity in verse
5. Charity, this gift of God's grace,
the fruit of the spirit is love, is charity. Charity is not easily
provoked. It's not touchy. It's not easily
offended. It's not someone you have to
walk on eggshells around and someone that cannot be approached.
It's not easily provoked. And then it thinks no evil. Charity keeps no records of wrongs. Isn't that beautiful? It keeps
no records of wrongs. If you love somebody, you're
not keeping a record of their wrongs. Charity doesn't. And
then he says in verse six, it rejoices not in iniquity,
You know, charity never rejoices in someone being exposed. Charity
never rejoices in someone being falling, in the fall of somebody
else. Well, they had it coming. They
had it coming. That's not charity. Charity doesn't rejoice in iniquity. There's no secret sense of pleasure
in the fall of somebody else. Charity rejoices in the truth. And I love this, verse 7. Charity
beareth all things, and what that means is it covers with
silence all things. You know, I can say, if you mess
up, I don't want anybody to know about it. I don't want anybody
to know about it. If I mess up, I don't want you
to tell anybody. I mean, not if we love each other. Love covereth
a transgression, doesn't it? Love, aren't you glad his love
covers the transgression? I'm so thankful for that. And
love covers all things. And then next
it says in verse seven, love believes all things. You know what that means? It
puts the best construction on all things. It doesn't twist
everything around to be negative. It believes. It puts the best
construction on all things. Don't you want to manifest this
charity in every way? I sure want to. It's so beautiful.
It's of the Lord. See, this is not human, is it?
This is divine. He says, it hopes all things. What it can't see, it hopes for. It endures all things. It never
quits. You know, if you're really, this
kind of love, is different from any other kind of love. Because
there are men and women who have got married and been smitten
in love with each other, just crazy about each other, and they
wind up hating each other's guts. Now, somebody says, that means
they never loved anybody in the first place. Yeah, they did. Yeah,
they did. They really did. But no more. But this love, this
charity, never fails. It never ceases. It's never reduced
to inactivity. Never is. That's what charity
never fails means. It's never reduced to inactivity. Now this is the love that came
from the preaching where these people
believe the gospel of God's grace. Love in the spirit. Let's go
on reading verse 8. Charity never fails, but whether
they be prophecies, they're going to fail. They're going to cease.
They're going to be reduced. It doesn't mean God's going to
make a prophecy. It's wrong. They're going to be reduced to inactivity.
Whether they be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away for we know in part and we prophesy
in part. Don't you know that so? Our knowledge
is just partial knowledge. And we realize that we know in
part, we prophesy in part, but When that which is perfect is
come, that which is in part shall be done away. And I have no doubt
that that's talking about the full canon of scripture. Don't
need tongues, don't need miracles, don't need these. We got something
better. We got the Bible, the inspired
word of God. We need nothing else to buttress
anything. Verse 11, he said, When I was
a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought
as a child, and we did. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things, immature things. For now, we see through
a glass darkly. My marginal reading says in a
riddle or an enigma. You know what an enigma is? Don't
even know how to explain it, do you? Don't even know how to
put a proper definition. It's an enigma to me. I mean,
he's an enigma. Yeah, that's true. We see through a glass
darkly. As far as that goes, we can't
see the whole picture. We just can't. I can't see what
you're going through. You can't see what I'm going through. We
don't really have any idea. We see through a glass darkly. Don't you just know that's so? But then, face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith,
hope, and charity, these three. And when he's saying that, he's
saying all these other things are no longer. Now abideth faith,
hope, and charity, these three. But you know what? Charity is
the greatest. You know why? Faith will one
day be turned aside. And hope will be turned to experience. But you know what we'll have
left? Charity. Love to God, love to his son,
love to his spirit, love to one another eternally. The greatest
of these is charity. And so Paul says in chapter 14,
verse one, follow, pursue, make charity your And may God enable
all of us to do just that. So the Lord gives us a picture
of a pastor. He was a dear friend of the Apostle
Paul. Paul called him a dear fellow
servant. We know what his preaching was.
He preached the grace of God in truth. And what did the Lord
use it for? To produce love, charity in the
spirit, which is a new man in Christ Jesus. Let's pray together. Lord, I ask in Christ's blessed
name that you would give each one of us the grace to pursue
charity. Lord, give us hearts to love
you as you are, to love you supremely. Give us the grace to love all
your glorious attributes. Lord, how we love your way of
saving sinners. How we love your son and Lord,
we, by your grace, how we love those who love you. And Lord,
give us a love to all men that causes us to preach the gospel
to every creature. Now, bless this message for Christ's
sake. And Lord, we pray for your blessing
and your grace upon us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
We got Mitch.