Let us open our Bibles again
today to the letter of Colossians. This morning we are going to
look at an apostle's prayer. Before we read the text, I would
like to remind us that last week we looked at the first eight
verses of Paul's letter, his salutation to, if you notice
in verse two, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. the definite article before saints,
to the saints, but no definite article before and brethren,
to the saints and faithful brethren. I wanted to point this out that
every brother in Christ is a saint. Every believer, every child of
God is a saint. The idea of some church or some
group making a person or declaring a person to be a saint after
he or she has died and then praying to that individual, that doesn't
come, that teaching doesn't come from the word of God. Every believer
is sanctified, set apart by God the Holy Spirit in the new birth. And so I wanted to bring that
out. And there's two other things I wanted to mention that I didn't
last week as we looked at the first eight verses. We looked
at the Christian's hope, which is laid up for him or her in
heaven, verse five. But I wanted to mention also
that the Apostle Paul, mentions in these eight verses each person
in the Trinity. I didn't want to leave that out. You notice in verse three, we
give thanks to God and the Father. First of all, the Father. God
the Father. And the Lord Jesus Christ, which
we know is the eternal Son of God, who was made manifest in
the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then down in verse 8, who
also declared unto us your love in the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit. It's important that we point
these things out because there's much error in so-called Christian
assemblies today, not understanding that there's one God, and the
scripture's very emphatic, there's one God, and yet he exists in
a trinity of persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
each equal, each eternal, and each possessing every attribute
of deity. And it's important to recognize
that each person in the Blessed Trinity has a work in the salvation
of his people. We like to say it like this,
God the Father planned salvation, God the Son purchased salvation,
and God the Holy Spirit applies salvation. But I wanted to mention
that before we go on. And then one other thing. I want
us to see in the last part of verse 5 and verse 6 how the gospel
brought forth fruit. The apostle says, Whereof you
heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is
common to 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 and knew the grace of God in truth." The
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ brings forth fruit. It had been
preached Colossae was a city of Asia Minor, but the Apostle
Paul tells us he spent several months in Ephesus, a city of
Asia Minor, and he says that all of Asia heard the gospel.
Now, it's difficult, impossible, I should say, to determine the
world's population at this time. And if you look for that, you're
going to find all kinds of numbers. But at the end of the apostolic
age, which would have been about 70 to 80 years after the Lord
Jesus Christ died, One of the historians says there were 500,000
Christians. Now, that may not sound like
a big number. But remember, there was only
120 on the day of Pentecost. And in just 70 to 80 years, the
number, the gospel, had brought forth fruit in all the world
where it was taken. And I believe the apostle Paul
mentions this here. because he's going to deal with
some problems, some false teaching that was being brought into the
church at Colossae. And what he is emphasizing is
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Don't add anything
to it. And it's not the preacher. You
see, Paul, he had not seen these people. The gospel had been brought
to them by this man by the name of Ephephus, and it's not the
man who brings the gospel that's the power of God into salvation,
and nothing needs to be added to it. What is the gospel? Well, the gospel is good news
of great joy, glad tidings, as the scripture says. And the gospel
is the truth of what Christ has done for us, what God has done
for us in Christ. It's not what we do for God.
You know, that's a fallacy. And so many people are deceived
and thinking the way to be saved is by my doing. I've got to do
certain things. No. Christ came into this world
to save sinners. He does the saving. It's His
person and His work. that a person must believe in
order to be saved. But we don't add anything to
his work. His work is finished. When he
cried from the cross, it's finished. Everything that God requires
of you and of me as sinners, and that's what we all are, we
find in Jesus Christ and in him alone. Now, the gospel had brought
forth fruit. That's what he's emphasizing.
Justin Martyr, who lived in the middle part of the second century,
I want to read you just a short quotation of what he said at
that time. And I quote, There is no people,
Greek or barbarian, or of any other race, by whatever appellation
or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture,
whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons. Now listen, among whom, this
is a second part of the second century AD, He said, there's
no group of people you can find among whom prayers and thanksgiving
are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus to the Father
and creator of all things. That's such a blessing. The pagan temples were emptied. The pagan temples were emptied. by the gospel that God the Holy
Spirit poured out upon His church and the gospel being spread in
the known world at that time. Oh, we see the power of God.
And listen, His power is not diminished. He's the same today
as He was yesterday and the day before. And the thing this world
needs today, once again, is the Gospel being preached and proclaimed,
pure and simple as it is. The gospel changed the world. And it's so sad to see so much
of so-called Christianity today that wants to add to and subtract
from the truth of the gospel. Preach the gospel. That's what
Paul told Timothy. Preach the word. Preach the word. We're never going to improve
upon it. And we're not going to add to it. Preach the word. We take the word of God and proclaim
it, preach it, live it, believe it. The word of God. Now let's begin with verse nine
this morning. And we begin a sentence, now
listen. With verse 9, we begin a sentence
that has 195 words. I don't know if Paul had ever
heard about run-on sentences or not, but he takes off here
and he doesn't stop until the end. We don't see a period to
the end of verse 17. Now I'm going to divide the sentence
into two parts this morning, but let's begin reading in verse
nine. For this cause we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and
all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of
the Lord unto all pleasing. being fruitful in every good
work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all
might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and
long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints and like, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. We're just going to
look at the first part of this sentence, verses 9 through 14,
this morning, which deals with prayer, an apostle's prayer. And I have three points I want
to make. First of all, Paul, singular, and others prayed
for those in the church at Colossae. Now Paul, we know, wrote this
letter. He was a prisoner in Rome. As he said about the gospel,
now Paul never confessed himself to be a prisoner of Caesar. He
never confessed himself to be a prisoner of Rome. Five times
in his letters, he mentions the fact that when he wrote that
letter, he was a prisoner, but he always says a prisoner of
Jesus Christ. A prisoner of Jesus Christ. And
like he said about the gospel, he might be bound. He might be
a prisoner. He might be in chains. But the
gospel's not bound. The gospel is free. And I would
say the same thing about prayer. While he was a prisoner, but
his prayer couldn't be kept within a cell or in a rented house. No, his prayer ascended unto
the throne room of God, to the ear of God. And what I notice
here as I looked over this passage this past week several times
is he said we, notice that in verse nine, for this cause we. He mentions the fact that others
joined with him in praying. Since the day that we heard,
do not cease to pray for you. What did they heard? Well, they
had heard that they had received the gospel. Paul, this man, this
minister, Ephraphus, had brought the gospel to them, and then
he came to Paul and informed him what had taken place there
at Colossae, and Paul says, from that very day, I didn't cease
to pray for you. But he uses that term we, plural,
we. Who is he speaking about? Well,
remember in verse one he said Timothy, Timotheus, Paul and
Timothy. What a privilege it is, isn't
it? To have a brother or sister that you can pray with. That's
what's so beautiful about a family, a home, where the husband and
wife pray together. read the word of God together,
pray together. What a blessing that is. I tell
you, and this is not in my notes, but children who are raised in
homes where they're reared up under the word of God are so
blessed. Now you may be here this morning
and you may not think that's true. But take my word for it,
you are so blessed. If you have parents who pray
with you, pray for you, bring you to hear the word of God proclaimed,
and read the word of God in your home, and speak to you from the
word of God, what a tremendous blessing that is. What every
home in America could experience that. I believe most of the problems
that society deals with in this country today could be solved,
easily solved, if people would just get back to the Bible, what
they used to call the family altar, when husband and wife, father
and mother prayed together. What a blessing. Paul, he didn't
have a wife, but he had this young man, this young preacher,
Timothy, with him. And if you turn to chapter four,
you find out it wasn't just Timothy either that he includes in this
we. Since the day that we heard,
do not cease to pray for you, beginning with verse seven, In
chapter 4, at the end of the letter, notice he names all these
other men, not only Timothy and Epiphas. But look, in verse 7,
we read of Tychus. And then later on, you follow
on down there, you read of Onesimus. We're all familiar with Onesimus,
aren't we? Paul wrote the letter of Philemon.
Concerning Onesimus, who was he? He was a runaway slave who had
defrauded his master. But the Lord met him, the Lord
met him and saved him. He's with Paul, Onesimus. And then there's others. Aritarchus, Marcus, that is John
Mark. Luke, the physician, Luke, and
then Demas also is mentioned. Prayer is a great blessing that
God has given you if you're one of his children. What if you,
let me ask you something, think with me. What if you all of a
sudden just decided, I'd like to talk to President Biden today.
I'm going to call him up. How far do you think you'd get?
How far do you think you'd get? Even to the Vice President or
the Speaker of the House, how far would you get? Not very far. But here, God has given us, his
children, if we know him, the privilege to come before him
anytime, anywhere, with any need that we have, and speak directly
to our Father Our Father. Many times when I'm praying,
I remind, and some of you may not understand this, but I remind
God. You say, He doesn't need any
reminding. I know that, but He tells us to remind Him. What
do you mean by that? I mean, I take His word, His
promises, and I just quote them back to Him. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, if you being evil know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give
good things in one gospel and the Holy Spirit in another gospel
unto you? That's his word. That's his word. He's not gonna go back on his
word. Pray, what a privilege we have. Look, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter four just a minute, over a few pages. Hebrews chapter four and verse
14. The apostle says, seeing then
that we have a great high priest, that's Jesus Christ our Lord. That's my priest. That's my high
priest. You know, you are a priest, too,
if you're one of his children. He's made you a priest unto God. But we have a great high priest,
a sumo. Right? Amen. Yes, we have a great
high priest. There were many high priests
under the law. Aaron was the first high priest.
There's only one great high priest. Seeing that, we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore, because we
have such a great high priest, therefore, let us therefore come
boldly, now boldly, is not irreverently. We don't come irreverently into
the presence of God. We remember who He is and who
we are, but we do come boldly. We have assurance. We have a
right. We have a right to be here through the blood of Jesus
Christ because we have a great high priest. We have a right,
the privilege, yes, but the right. be here. Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and
that's something we need every day, every hour. The scripture says his mercies
are new every morning, that you may obtain mercy and
find grace. Oh, we love that word grace.
Unmerited favor. Find grace to help in the time
of need. So that's my first point here.
Paul, he was a man who prayed, and he had others that he gathered
with him to pray. And what a privilege it is. We're
not on an island out in the Pacific somewhere alone. Nowhere here
we have brothers and sisters in this church family. we pray
with and pray for, what a blessing that is. And we should never
take that lightly, never take it for granted. All right, let's
look at the second part of my message, supplications and thanksgiving. And I use that because in Philippians
chapter four and verse six, Paul wrote this, to believers now,
be careful for nothing. That word careful means anxious.
Don't be anxious. Are we ever guilty of that? Sure
we are. Don't be anxious. God's got this,
right? Yes. Don't be anxious, Paul said. Be careful for nothing. But now
listen, but in everything, by prayer, and supplication, now
notice, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known
unto God. So we see two parts of prayer,
request, asking, petitions, but we should never forget this other
part, thanksgiving. Thanksgiving thanks unto the
Father. And I see that here in this prayer
of Paul. First of all, the request, and
I see at least three requests. In verse 9, he requests that
the believers there in the church at Colossae be filled, be filled
with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual
understanding. Now, as believers, as believers,
they had knowledge of God's will. They had knowledge of God's will.
Remember our Lord said this, this is the will, or this is
the Father's will which has sent me that of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise him up again
at the last day. How much is involved in that?
This is the Father's will, the Lord Jesus Christ said, that
of all which he hath given me, God the Father, in eternity,
in sovereign election, gave His Son a people, a people that He
would come to redeem. And it is the Father's will,
the Lord Jesus Christ declared, that of all which He hath given
me, every last one, every last one which He has given me, this
is God's will, that I should lose nothing, but should raise
him up at the last day. Paul prays that they would become,
be filled with knowledge of God's will. They knew God's will. They would not have been believers. This is the will of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, that you believe on him whom he has
sent. But that doesn't mean that believers
ever come to a place in this world where we reach a certain
plateau and we can't learn more, we can't know more. I started
to put this in my notes. That's one of the problems I
have in preaching. God's word is so rich, it's so
full. You start looking at one verse
and you've got an hour already. You can't keep people that long.
God's Word. And the more we study and the
more God blesses us and teaches us, the more we grow in grace
and knowledge of the Lord. And notice he says, growing in
this knowledge in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
knowing how to use the knowledge that God gives us. Wisdom. James, the apostle, tells us
this about the wisdom that God gives. It's peaceable. It's peaceable. It's pure. It's gentle. That's the wisdom that God gives
us. I saw on the news someone threw
a Molotov cocktail into a a Buddhist temple or something, one of these
cities around Houston. And I couldn't help but think,
how does any religious person ever think that God's will is
done by hatred and by killing and destroying? What an awful abuse of religion,
right? The wisdom which is from above
is, first of all, gentle. It's pure. It's gentle. And that's what Paul is praying.
Yes, increase in knowledge, but God give us wisdom to know how
to use the knowledge that he gives us. I think that's especially
needful for us preachers, that God give us wisdom. as to how
to use the knowledge that he gives unto us as we study his
word. The second petition, first of
all, to be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and
spiritual understanding. Notice verse 10, that you might
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work. Now, you know this, but let me
remind us a lost person. Here's a person who doesn't know
like all of us were and you may still be lost. Never be never
having been born of the Spirit of God, not knowing God. There's
nothing a lost person can do that will please God. Because the scripture says without
faith, it's impossible to please him. That is, without faith in
Christ, there's no work that any lost person can do that will
please God. But there are works that believers
can do which will displease God. You say, really? Yeah. Let me
read you a verse from, I believe it's 1 Chronicles or 2 Chronicles,
but the words are these. The thing that David had done
displeased the Lord. You say, what had he done? Well,
he committed adultery, first of all. He had a man murdered. That's what he had done. And
that didn't please God. The other things that believers
can do which are displeasing, our conduct is what I'm saying,
our conduct in this world. Our conduct should be that which
glorifies God. Whatsoever you do, Paul said,
whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all for the glory
of God. And I see how these requests
here, that first request, being filled with the knowledge of
God's will, and then secondly, walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing, how they build upon each other. Conduct which glorifies God will
be the result of being filled with the knowledge of his will.
One of the early reformers got it right, I believe, in many
ways, but this especially when he said, to know God is to love
God. And the more we know about God,
you see, begins being filled with the knowledge of his will,
the more we know about God, the more we will love God, and the
more we love God, the more we will want our conduct to please
God, in thought and word and deed. The third request, to be
strengthened with all might. All might? Who has all might? The only one I know is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has all might. Christ has
all might. And Paul prays that they may
be given strength to practice, practice what they know. of God,
which glorifies God. Remember, he said, I can do all
things through Christ, which strengthens me. The strength
is Christ's strength. We're given a wonderful promise
in the book of Deuteronomy, and we sing this promise. We sing
this promise every time we sing that hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness. Because part of the hymn is strength
for today. Strength for today and bright
hope for tomorrow. Strength for today is part of
this promise that God gave his people in the book of Deuteronomy. Let me read it to you. As thy day, so shall thy strength
be. Many times we're looking to God
give us strength for something we're going to deal with a week
from today, or a month from today, or a year from today. No, as
your day, as your day, so shall thy strength be. Now I said that's
a promise, and it is. But I want to read us the first
part of that verse. We probably never paid any attention
to that. But the first part of that verse
is this. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass. Have you ever had any iron shoes?
Any brass shoes? I never have. What does he mean
by that? Thy shoes shall be iron and brass,
and as thy day, so shall thy strength be. Isn't he telling
us people who need iron shoes and brass shoes probably walking
on a pretty rough road. You see, God has never promised
us an easy road. He never promised any of his
children an easy road through this life. But he has promised
strength for each day. Now, almost in closing, I see
three thanksgivings, three requests, and now three thanksgivings. First of all, notice we thank
God. In verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father which hath made us meet, qualified us, that's what
that word meet, he qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. Now that inheritance is that
hope which is laid up for us in heaven but he qualifies us
for that. You've all probably read or seen
stories of people who received a large inheritance and they
weren't qualified for it. They didn't have an idea. They
didn't have a clue as to how to how to use that inheritance. And many times they just run
through it like water and end up without anything. No, God
qualifies us for the inheritance. the inheritance that he has for
us, for heaven. He qualifies us. How does he
do that? He gives us a new nature, a new
heart to love God and to love the things of God. He qualifies
us for this. He adopts us. You know, God has
one son who is not an adopted son. God the eternal son, he's
always been his son, equal with the father. But each of us, those
that he saves, we are adopted sons. He qualifies us. A second
thing he gave thanks for, he has delivered us, verse 13. delivered
us, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet, qualified
us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us. That's what salvation is, it's
deliverance. It's what the word salvation
means, deliverance. And if we could get the picture
here, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Here we were
in chains of darkness. We couldn't free ourselves. We
were taken captive by Satan at his will. And he delivered us. He saved
us from the chains, from the power of darkness. And the third,
he has redeemed us. Notice that. He has redeemed
us, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of our sins. We can never praise God enough
for any of those three blessings, but we think about that last
one. He redeemed us, and oh, what it cost Him to redeem us. It cost the blood of His dear
Son. And that results in what? Our
sins are forgiven. Our sins are paid for. Now, in
closing, the third point. What's God's purpose? What do
you think God's purpose is in recording this prayer, writing
this in the word? Well, I'm just going to say this,
that we, that you and I, that we might learn how to pray. We
might learn how to pray for one another. Just look over these
three requests, if you will, this week and think about them
and how you can use them as you pray for me and you pray for
others in the church family. Yes, God has us recorded this
prayer for our learning, no doubt. Well, I pray the Lord make this
message a blessing to all of us here today.