Now open your Bibles again to
Colossians chapter 1. Paul wrote this epistle to the
church at Colossae from Rome, where he was in prison. He wrote
it about 60 A.D., just about 30 years after our Lord was crucified
and ascended back to the Father. If you'll turn to the book of
Acts chapter 28 for just a moment, I'll show you the type of prison
in which Paul was confined. It was in a home, in a hired
house. He had a guard, soldiers, but
this will help you understand something I'm going to say in
a moment. People came and heard him preach for two years. In
Acts 28 verse 30, Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired
house. and received all that came in
unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence and
no man forbidding him. And the pastor from Colossae
came to Rome. His name was Epiphas. You see
this down in verse 7. Paul says, As ye also learned
of Epiphas, our fellow servant, for you, a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit."
Epiphas came there and brought some things to Paul and declared
to Paul how these people loved Christ. And if you turn to the
book of Philemon, it's interesting here how Paul tells about Epiphas
being there in prison with him during this visit. Philemon lived down in Colossae,
had a church in his home in Colossae. Epiphas evidently was his pastor.
But here in Philemon, verse 23, Barth salute the Epiphas, my
fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus. When he wrote to Philemon down
in Colossae, he said, Epiphas is here with me. And he sends
his regards along with this letter. And he's my fellow prisoner in
Christ Jesus. in the bonds of the gospel. So
Paul is in Rome, in prison, in his own hired house, writing
to the saints in Colossae, as the Spirit of God gave him the
words. Holy men of God. You see, the
word of God was written by men, Moses and Isaiah and David and
Paul and James and John, as God told them to write. All holy
men of God spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of God to
write the scriptures. And all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God. This is the Word of God. Not
some of it. All of it is the Word of God.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. And all Scripture is
profitable for doctrine, teaching, correction, instruction, righteousness,
for rebuke. It's the Word of God. We bow
to the Word of God. So he starts this book here,
this epistle. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God. God made him an apostle. And
Timothy, my brother, and with him there was Onesimus, and with
him there was Epiphas, their apostle. And he's writing to
the saints. Who are saints? Well, every believer
is a saint. The scripture says we're sanctified
in Christ Jesus. We're sanctified by the Spirit
of God. We're sanctified by the Father.
We're sanctified by Christ Jesus. We're sanctified by the Word.
Our Lord prayed. Sanctify them, Lord, through
thy word. Thy word is truth. So every believer
is a saint. Not made a saint after he's dead
because somebody saw a miracle in his name. Every believer is
a saint. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who is made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. You're holy, not in yourself,
in him. You're sanctified, not in yourself,
We grow in grace, but we're not perfect by no means in ourselves,
but we are in Christ. We're sanctified in Christ. He's
writing to the sanctified and to the faithful brethren. Brethren,
this is a family, and a family of faithful people. Let me show
you that in two or three scriptures. First of all, turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4. I'm writing to the saints. 1
Corinthians chapter 4, to faithful brethren. Faithful. In 1 Corinthians
4 verse 2, what's required of God's people? Well, it says,
moreover, it's required in a steward that a man be found faithful. He's faithful. You be faithful
in a few things. I'll make thee ruler over many
things. Be thou faithful unto death.
I'll give you a crown of life." These all died in faithfulness,
faithful brethren. Let me show you another scripture,
Colossians 4, the last chapter of this book of Colossians, chapter
4, verse 7. Here he talks about two men.
He's down here in Rome, and with him is Epiphas, the pastor at
Colossae. And he says in Colossians 4,
verse 7, "...all my state shall titicus." declare unto you, who
is a beloved brother and a faithful minister." He's a brother. He's a faithful brother. A fellow
servant in the Lord. Look at verse 9. This will be
a blessing to you. With Onesimus. Do you know who
that is? That's that runaway slave. The
fellow that was the theme of the book of Philemon. He ran
away from Philemon. And Paul wrote this letter for
Philemon to accept him, not as a slave anymore, but as a brother.
And here he is, verse 9 of chapter 4 of Colossians, with Onesimus. What kind of brother is he? A
faithful and beloved brother who's one of you. He's from down
there in Colossians. They'll make known unto you all
things which are done here. Paul says they're coming, but
I'm writing to saints. Believers, accepted in the Beloved,
sanctified in Christ. Brethren, believers, brethren,
who are brothers in the Lord, who are faithful. Faithful. And then Paul gives these three
crowning graces. Look at verse 3 of Colossians
1. I give thanks to God. I give
thanks unto our Lord Jesus Christ, pray for you, ever since I heard
three things about you. And one old writer called them
the three crowning graces. The three crowning graces. All
other graces just sprang from these. I heard about your faith
in Christ Jesus. Your faith in Christ Jesus. I
heard about your love which you have for one another. And I heard
about the hope. The hope that you have which
is laid up for you in heaven. You know, the reason this man
called these the three crowning graces is Paul mentions them
quite frequently. Turn to 1 Corinthians 13. These
three graces are mentioned frequently in the epistles of Paul. Here
in 1 Corinthians 13, you're familiar with this. You're so familiar
with it. And now about it. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13. Faith in Christ Jesus. Hope of
eternal life, a living hope. a blessed hope, a sure hope,
and love, charity. These three, these three, the
greatest of these is love, love. And then in 1 Thessalonians,
1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul mentions these three graces again.
These are found in you. Paul said, I just give thanks
to God that these graces are found in you. faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, love for one another, and a blessed hope of eternal
life. First Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 2, I give thanks to God
always for you all, making mention of you in my prayers, remembering
without ceasing, here they are, listen, your work of faith, your
labor of love, and your patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. in the sight of God and our Father.
I thank God. You see what he's saying? That's
the three crowning graces. I believe Christ. I love Christ
and love his people. And I have a blessed hope of
eternal life only in him. One more. Galatians, back in
Galatians 5, these same three graces are mentioned by Paul
again. And I covet growth in all three, don't you? I covet
growth in all three. Oh, Lord, that Centurion says,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Lord, increase our faith, the
disciples pray. Oh, that we might grow in grace
and the knowledge of Christ and the love of Christ. Look at Galatians
5, verse 5. Galatians 5, verse 5. For we
through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness. by faith,
for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which works by love." There they are. We wait for that
blessed revelation of the mercies of God in Christ, eternal life,
and we wait, believe in Christ, and we have a faith which works.
And love is the evidence of that faith. "...By this shall all
men know you, my disciples, if you love each other." That's
the evidence of that faith. But you know, if you notice my
text carefully, verse 3, and we talk about believing God,
loving one another, and having a blessed hope, where did you
get these graces? These are the three crowning
graces, but where did they come from? Did you produce them? Did
they come out of you through your efforts and work and determination? They're gifts of God. Read verse
3 again. We give thanks to God. and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying for you, since we heard
of your faith, and your hope, and your love." When I heard
you believed on God, I said, thank God. For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. Face the gift of God. That's the reason the disciples
said, Lord, increase our faith. Face the gift of God. That's
the reason the centurion turned to the right source. He said,
Lord, help my unbelief. You help it. You help it. Faith is the gift of God. I thank
God for your faith. I thank God he gave you faith.
I thank God he gave me faith. And not only faith, but hope
is the gift of God. Turn back to 1 Thessalonians,
chapter 2. Hope is the gift of God. In 2
Thessalonians 2, listen to this. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 16. Now
our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 16, who loved us and had given us everlasting comfort. and has given us a good hope
through grace. May he comfort your heart. Who
gave you that hope? Our Lord Jesus Christ and God,
even our Father who loved us. We love him because he first
loved us. Herein is love, not that we love God, he loved us
and gave his Son to be a perpetuation of our sins. Our love is a response
to his love. The moon has no light in itself.
It reflects light. We don't produce light. We reflect
it. We don't produce love. It's a
gift of God. Let me show you that in Romans
chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. All grace is
the gift of God. Romans 5 verse 5. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Paul said,
I thank God who's given us a good hope through grace and now love. Romans 5 verse 5. and hope make
it not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." Oh, my. Paul said, I'm writing to the
saints, sanctified in Christ. I'm writing to faithful, faithful
brethren, believers, to whom God has given such precious crowning
graces, faith in Christ, love for one another, and a blessed,
living, sure, certain hope of eternal life in Christ Jesus. And here in verse 5, the last
line says, "...the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
whereof you heard before in the word of truth of the gospel."
This is the beginning of this sanctification, of this faithfulness,
of this brotherhood. It has a start. You see, we weren't
born believers naturally. We were born sons of Adam. We
were born in sin. We were born flesh. As he's born
of the flesh, he's flesh. But there came a time when we
became sanctified saints, when we became brethren. We're born
into God's family, born of God, born of the Spirit of God, born
of the Word of God, born of the will of God, born again. Came
that time when we became faithful, when God spoke to our hearts
and gave that grace of faith and love and hope. When did that
happen? When did it start? You heard before in the word
of the truth of the gospel. That's when it started, when
you heard the gospel. And faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Romans chapter 10 verse 13 says,
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The
name of the Lord. Jehovah the Provider, Jehovah
the Righteousness, Jehovah the Holiness. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And I shall be here
with our preacher." And Paul says, you heard. You heard the
word of the truth of the gospel. You heard it. Look at the next
line, verse 6, which is, come to you. This gospel came to you. You didn't come to it, it came
to you. You were changed by God bringing
his gospel to you, his word to you. That's when it took place.
You heard the word. You heard the word. John chapter
6. Turn to John 6. Thought of God. John chapter 6. Listen to this.
Sixth chapter of John. Some of these fellows, these
religious fellows, they said, when our Lord talked about his
deity, they said in John 6, 42, is this not Jesus? This is the son of Joseph, whose
father and mother we know. How is it that he saith, I came
down from heaven? How can he be from heaven and
be from Nazareth? How can he be from God and be
from Mary? We know his mother. Jesus therefore
answered and said unto him, murmur not among yourselves. No man
can come to me except my father which sent me. And I raise him
up at the last day. It's written in the prophets,
and they shall be taught of God. And every man, therefore, that
hath heard and hath learned, he comes to me. Oh, I come to
God, don't I? Yes, because he came to me. I
come to Christ, yes I do, willingly, lovingly, obediently, but I come
to Christ because he came to me. It's written in the prophets,
they shall be taught of God. And every man that hears and
is taught of God, he'll come to me. And that's what Paul says
about these people here that have that faith in Christ, that
love for Christ, and that hope of eternal life. They heard! They heard the gospel. It came
to you. It came to you. As it is in all
the world, as it goes out in all the world, go into all the
world and preach the gospel, preach the truth. And it brings
forth fruit. It came to you, you heard it,
and it brought forth fruit. When did it start bringing forth
fruit? When you heard it, and when you received it, when you
believed it. You were made willing, you were
changed by that gospel. You brought forth fruit. You
heard, and you brought forth fruit. What kind of fruit? Well, turn to Galatians 5. Here's
the fruit. Here's the fruit here. It's a
heart fruit. It's a spiritual fruit. And it's
a fruit. It's not plural. It's not fruits.
It's not works. It's a fruit of the Spirit. It's
the produce of the Spirit. It's the evidence of the Spirit's
presence. You hear. The gospel comes to
you and you hear it. And it brings forth fruit, if
you hear it. And here's the fruit, the fruit of the Spirit's love.
Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no love.
That's the fruit. That's the fruit. When does this
change occur? All right, listen. The day you
heard it. It brought forth fruit. Listen
to this. as it does in you since the day you heard it." Do you
see that in verse 6? This gospel has come to you,
as it is in all the world, and brings forth fruit, as it does
also in you since the day you heard it. And one more word,
and knew the grace of God. The day you heard it, but you
knew it. This is the grace of God. You
know, I urge people, come in here. It's like one of the disciples
found his brother and he said, we found the Messiah, Jesus of
Nazareth. And the brother said, well, can
any good thing come out of Nazareth? He said, you come. You come and sit down and listen
and see. The gospel will come to you. God will send it to you. And
you'll hear it. You'll hear it with these ears
first. This way you hear it first. Gospel is a hard work. Faith
is a hard work. Repentance is a hard work. A man forsakes his
thoughts. His thoughts and his ways. That's repentance is a hard work.
Faith is a hard work. And he believes on Christ. And
he receives Christ, and he loves Christ, and he walks with Christ.
It starts right here, hearing. But sometimes there's a long
time between what happens here and what happens here. And that's
what he's saying here. This gospel, he says, this gospel
came to you, it came to you as it is in all the world, and it
brought forth fruit. What kind of fruit? Love. joy,
peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, belief, hope, brought
forth all these fruits in here. Since the day you heard it and
knew the grace of God. That's what happens next, knowledge. And I see what's happening. I've
been preaching a long time and I know a lot of people. a lot
of people, and I've ministered to a lot of people. And I see
people come, and they listen. They're religious. Everybody's
religious. This town's been saved 14 times. Everybody in this town's
been saved at least 14 times. Now I've rededicated and gone
through all the washings and the and all the carrying on and
the vows and the renewals and the rededications and all. But
some people are really saved. They're really saved. And I watch
it take place. I see a person come and sit.
And they're here. It's different. I preach salvation,
not what you do for God. It's what God does for you. It's
a permanent work. It's a hard work. It's a miracle. It took a miracle to put the
stars in place. It took a miracle to put the
world in space, but when God saved my soul, cleansed and made
me whole, it was a miracle, His love and grace. And I watch,
and you say, well, do you know when they're beginning to know? Yes, when they're changing, when
they change. And you can tell by your children
or by your husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend, whomever,
come and hear this gospel. They'll hear it for a while,
and then they'll begin to change. Their language will change. Their
attitude will change. Their desire to hear the word
will change. Their talk will change. A lot of things will
begin to change. That's right. God can't come
into a man's heart and him not change. That's just so. And you'll notice it. When that
person begins to know, it's like a man sitting here, I've told
this many times, he came to hear me preach a dozens of times,
and I kept inviting him back, come back. He said, I might.
One Sunday, the Lord preached here, not just me, but he preached.
And that man came out the door, and I took him by the hand, I
said, come back. He said, I'll be back, I see what you're saying,
I see what you're saying, I see it! I was preaching down in Mexico,
and a crowd of people down there was preaching to a translator
in Spanish, Milton Howard. And God gave me some power to
preach. A big crowd of people out under
the stars. Oh, I loved that night. They
came from miles. And after the service, I was
watching people talk, and I couldn't hear a word or understand a word
they said. But one man, a great big fella, talking to Brother
Howard. And he's just talking away, talking
away. And when they got through, Howard came over, and I said,
what did he say? He said, I've heard you fellas
lots of times. Tonight, I heard you. That's the difference. I heard
you. Argued, debated, quarreled, reasoned,
what I think, what my mama thinks, what somebody else thinks, but
the gospel shuts his mouth and changes him. That's right. It came to you, you heard it,
and you knew it. And that brings forth fruit.
It's grace of God. Knew it in truth. You'll never be the same. I heard
a preacher yesterday on television, he said, now, some preachers
preach once in grace, always in grace. He said, that Bible
doesn't teach that. No, but it teaches this, once in Christ,
always in Christ. Once in Christ. Once in Christ. Because there's nothing better.
The disciples said, well, to whom shall we go? I'll ask the
words of life. Well, he said in verse 7, you
learn this from Epaphras. I'm not the first man to tell
you this. Our dear fellow servant, which is for you a faithful minister
in Christ, who declared unto us your love in the Spirit for
this cause. We also, since the day we heard
it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire four things."
Paul says, I desire four things for you, you saints, you faithful
brethren who believe Christ, who love one another, who have heard the gospel, who
know the gospel. who bear the fruit of the Spirit,
bear the fruit of the Spirit. I desire four things for you.
Number one, that you might be filled to overflowing with the
knowledge of His will in wisdom and spiritual understanding. Oh, boy. Oh, to watch people
grow in wisdom, in the knowledge of the will of God, in spiritual
understanding. Lord Moses says, show me your
way. Show me your way. I've seen your
acts and your judgments and your creation. Show me your way. Lead
me in a plain path, David said. Lord, teach me your way. Lead
me in a plain path. Christ said that when the Holy
Spirit comes, he'll guide you into truth, the rich, deep, precious
truth of Christ. I pray that you might walk worthy
of the Lord, worthy of your calling, that your conversation and conduct
might become the gospel. You've heard somebody say, that's
not becoming to you. Well, our lives ought to be becoming
to the gospel. Our talk ought to be seasoned
with grace. It ought to point men to God,
not away from God. Walk worthy of him that called.
You're the king's son. You're the king's daughter. King's
daughters, every one of your kings, the king, not a king,
the king's daughters, live like it, dress like it, talk like
it, act like it. My Father is the King. My Lord
is Jesus Christ. My gospel is the truth. Does
it bear evidence? Well, walk worthy. I pray for
you that you might be fruitful in every good work, that you
might bear the fruit of the Spirit. fruitful in good works, with
trees of righteousness. Let me show you a scripture I
read last night, over here in Luke 13. This scripture is powerful. It just does something to you
when you read it. We're talking about fruit now,
bare fruit. That you might be fruitful in every good work. In Luke 13, verse 6, the Lord
Jesus spake a parable, this parable. A certain man had a fig tree
planted in his vineyard. And he came and sought fruit
there, and he didn't find any. He said to the dresser of the
vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on
this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Cut it down. Why does it come by the ground?
No fruit. And he answered him and said,
Lord, Lord, leave it alone. Leave this little tree alone.
Let me dig around it. Let me fertilize it. And if it
bears fruit, well, but if it doesn't, cut it down. Paul prays for this church, that
you might increase in the knowledge of his will, that you might walk
worthy of the Lord who calls you, and that your life might
bear fruit. And you won't be a tree that
God says, cut it down. And the pastor says, Lord, leave
it there just a little while longer. Let me dig around it
a little bit. Let me preach to him. Let me
preach to him. Let me put some fertilizer of
the word. And if he doesn't bear fruit,
then you go ahead and cut him down. Just go ahead. Because a non-bearing
fruit An unbearing tree, a fruit-bearing
tree is not good. All right, verse 11, that you
might be strengthened with all might according to his power. Now, you know, all these things
I've been saying, this is not things we produce. It's his fruit. Did you notice when I read the
fruit of the Spirit? It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's the
gift of God. And we're not expected to walk
and to grow and to bear fruit in our own strength, but strengthened
with all might according to his power. Give me grace. Give me faith. Give me love.
Give me the opportunity to glorify your name. Give me overcoming
strength and power. Lord, don't leave me alone. That's
what he's praying for them. We're not expected to produce
fruit of ourselves or walk and grow and bear witness of ourselves,
but in his strength, his power. Who's sufficient for what I'm
trying to do? Preach the gospel. Who's sufficient for these things?
Paul exclaimed that. He said, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, this gospel. I'm not sufficient for these
things, but I know who he is. He is, and He can give me grace
and give me strength and give me power and teach me. Strengthen
with His might. We're not expected to bear trials. Some of you, our people, are
going through some deep water right now. Some heartbreaking
struggles and trials. How can they bear up under it
with patience and grace and faith and a good witness? Only by His
strength. Paul had a thorn in the flesh,
and he prayed three times. God would remove it, and God
said, I'm not going to do it. But I'll give you grace. My grace
is sufficient. You can't do it. I was sitting
out close to preaching a Bible conference in Detroit one time,
and I tell you, the older I get, the harder it is to preach, honestly,
because it's such a burden of the Word, the weight of the Word,
Be true to God. Operating on hearts is awesome.
And I was sitting there holding my message and my Bible on the
front row, two or three preachers around me, and praying for some
help. And a man came by, a fellow aspiring
to be a preacher, and he said, are you ready? I said, well,
I've got something down here I hope I can preach to. He said,
well, if you're not, I am. I'll take your place if you want
me to. I didn't want to listen to him. If anybody's that anxious to
get up here, I don't want to hear him. I don't want to hear him. I don't want to hear him. And
I don't want to hear about what you're doing, but I would like
to hear about what he's doing through you. I don't want to
hear about what you used to do or is going to do. I want to
hear about what he has done for you. He gets the glory, doesn't he?
That you might be strengthened. with all might, according to
the glorious power, under patience and long-suffering with joyfulness,
giving thanks to the Father." Giving thanks to the Father. My time's up. I'll pick up with
that tonight. I'll be back if you will. And
we'll go on with this, giving thanks to the Father. He's done
some wonderful things for us. Done some wonderful things. Delivered
us from the power of darkness. Translated us into the Kingdom
of His Son. Written our names in the Book
of Life. Given us the presence of His
Spirit. Made us partakers. qualified
to be a partaker of eternal glory in Christ.