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Colossians chapter 1 verse 1, the Bible reads, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So as we start out the book of Colossians, brand new book tonight in our Bible study, let me first of all just explain to you what the book is. The book is an epistle. An epistle is a long letter. This letter is being written from Paul and Timotheus, or Timothy, unto all of the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae. Now when the Bible uses the word saint, if you look at every time the word saint is used, and it's used many times in the New Testament, scores of times, it's always referring to those who are saved every time. The Bible does not use the word saint to talk about a special type of Christian. For example, the Catholic Church, they will elevate certain people to sainthood and say that long after someone's died, we're going to declare them to be a saint. But in reality, all throughout the New Testament, all throughout the Bible, the word saints is used just to refer to those that are sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. And over and over again he talks about the saints. Now here he says, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae. So Colossae is a place that people who live there are called the Colossians, that's why the book's called The Epistle Unto the Colossians. Now let me point out to you first of all something about the word and. Often in the Bible people are confused by the word and because they think that whenever they see the word and, we're talking about two different things when we see and. Look at verse 3, it says we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you. Now I don't think anyone here would dispute that God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ are one and the same, right? Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So when the Bible says God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we're talking about the same person. And often the word and can be talking about two different things, but often in the Bible, as is the case here, and is used to talk about two of the same thing, just to restate who we're talking about, okay? And sometimes that confuses people. So if we look at verse 2, the Bible says to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae, that is again a restatement of the same thing. So in verse 2, the saints and the faithful brethren are the same people. And in verse 3, God is the same person as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Does everybody see that? Does that make sense? See, the word faithful in the Bible has two different meanings. As the word faithful means someone who has faith. Anyone who believes, anyone who is saved, anyone who is a believer is faithful, meaning that they have faith, they believe. But the word faithful can also, in other contexts, refer to someone who is worthy of putting your faith in, someone who is reliable or trustworthy. So a lot of times when we hear the word faithful, we think of it as someone who's reliable, someone who's trustworthy, someone who's always there for you. That's a faithful person. But faithful also in the Bible can refer to someone who believes, someone who is a believer, who has faith. The opposite of the faithful would be the faithless, the infidel, the non-believer. So this is an epistle of Paul unto the Colossians. Now let me say this about the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul wrote 14 books of the New Testament. More than half of the books of the New Testament are written by the Apostle Paul. Obviously we know that God is the author of all scripture and that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, but Paul was the human instrument by which this book was penned. Now there's today that subscribe to a false doctrine or false teaching of elevating the epistles of Paul above other scripture and basically saying that, you know, if it's not in the epistles of Paul, it's not for us. Who's ever been exposed to that doctrine? A lot of hands are going up because a lot of people have heard of this where they say, you know, oh first and second Peter, not for us. James, not for us. And then they'll say, you know, the four gospels, not for us. I mean it's just the epistles of Paul are the teaching for the New Testament Gentile church, you know. This doctrine, often known as hyper-dispensationalism or just dispensationalism, that teaches that Paul is for us, and they'll often say this, well Paul is our apostle. We're Gentiles so Paul is our apostle. You know, this other stuff, you know, we don't worry about that. Well okay, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, because if you think about how ridiculous it is to say that certain New Testament scriptures don't apply to us just because they didn't come from Paul. Just because Paul at one point said, you know what, I'm the apostle, he said I'm the apostle of the Gentiles, all he meant by that was that he spent his life bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. He spent his life taking the gospel to distant countries as a missionary, bringing the gospel into foreign nations, and he basically said to Peter, look Peter, you know, you're taking the gospel to the Jews here in Jerusalem, I'm going to take the gospel to the Gentiles. These two men were preaching the same gospel. They're preaching the same message. They're just bringing it to two different geographical areas. The proof of that is that the apostle Paul in Romans 1 said, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it to the Jew first and also to the Greek. It's not two different messages for two different groups. No, the same gospel for the Jews is the same gospel for the Gentiles, the same God will save the Jews by faith, the same God will save the Gentiles by faith. There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, the Bible tells us, and so to sit there and say, well, Paul is our apostle, no, he's not your apostle, because let me tell you something. You are not a Gentile living hundreds of years ago to whom Paul brought the gospel specifically. Therefore, he's not your personal apostle. No more than Peter, James, and John are your personal apostles. I mean, they are the apostles of Jesus Christ and all of what they preached, all of what they wrote for us in the Bible is applicable. And to sit there and say, well, what James wrote is not for me, only what Paul wrote is for me. That is a false doctrine. What Paul wrote is for the Jew, it's for the Gentile, what James wrote is for the Jew, it's for the Gentile, it's for all of God's people, there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. So to sit there and say, well, because James, the book of James is addressed to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, that means it's not for us as Gentiles. Well, if you're going to say that, then I guess you're saying that the epistle of Paul to the Colossians is not for the Jews, or that the epistle of Paul to the Romans is not for the Jews, but yet Paul specifically said that the gospel that he preached and the mess he preached was for both Jew and Gentile. And he reiterates that later in the book of Colossians itself. We're just not there yet tonight. But look at 1 Corinthians 1, let me show you the error and ridiculousness of that doctrine. Look what the Bible says in verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 1. For it hath been declared unto me of you my brethren by them which are of the house of Chloe that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or are you baptized in the name of Paul? Look, to sit there and say, well Paul's my apostle, you're basically like these carnal Christians in Corinth. Because Cephas, do you see the person there at the end of verse 12, Cephas? That's Peter. So some people are saying, well Peter's my apostle. And then some people are saying, well Paul's my apostle. He said, look, Paul didn't die on the cross for you. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. There's one gospel, so don't sit there and try to divide Christ. And don't try to divide the body of Christ. Don't try to divide between Peter and Paul. They preach the same gospel of the same Christ. There's one gospel, it's salvation through the blood, through faith, by grace. It's the same, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Go back to Colossians, I just wanted to cover that. Just so we understand that the epistles of Paul, they are God's word, they are scriptures, but they're not any more or less God's word than anything else in the Bible. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. And so Colossians is no different than anything else. So let's see what we can learn tonight from Colossians chapter 1. First of all we saw God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. We saw that the saints and the faithful brethren are who this is being written unto. Look at verse 3, it says, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And look at these last four words, praying always for you. So Paul and Timothy are basically saying that they've been praying a lot for the saints in Colossae. If you go down a little bit to verse 9 there, it says, for this cause we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Two times here Paul is mentioning that he's praying for the Colossians and that Timothy is praying for them also. But I want to say this, I think sometimes there's a tendency to tell people that we're praying for them and we're not really praying for them. You know, you ever just say to somebody, and sometimes I've caught myself saying, you know, I'll pray for you, and I always just say to myself, you know, I need to pray for this person right away because I don't want to be that guy who says I'm going to pray for them and then doesn't do it. You know, and we definitely shouldn't deceive or lie and say, yeah, I've been praying for you brother, when in reality you haven't spent any time praying for that person. Because sometimes it just becomes something that comes out of our mouth. Now here's the thing, we know that the Scriptures are true. So we know that Paul and Timothy really were praying for them. And I notice when I'm reading Romans, he's talking about praying for them. You know, Galatians, he's talking about praying for them. Over and over again, Paul, he says he's praying for Philemon, he's praying for Titus, he's praying for Timothy. Paul did a lot of praying, is what I gather from this, because we see all these different groups and Paul was praying for all of them and we know that Paul was telling the truth here because it's in Scripture. You know, that tells me that we should be praying for one another and not just dissimulating and just acting like we're praying for people and saying that we're praying for people, but actually spend time praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially our fellow church members here. And a lot of times Paul even specifically says, making mention of you in my prayers, Paul talks about praying for people by name. And I think that we as Christians should pray for one another by name and love the brotherhood, love our brothers and sisters in Christ that are part of our church, and to pray for them by name and not to just give lip service to it, just praying for you brother, God bless your brother, you know. And it's just meaningless. You know, actually, you say, well what do I pray for? You know, if you get to know people and meet people, you'll figure out what needs to be prayed for in their lives by getting to know them. And that's part of why going to a website or watching TV or listening to the radio is not a substitute for church. Because a lot of people just listen to preaching through one of those electronic formats, but that's not church, because church is a place where you go, you meet people, you have friends, you pray for them, you love them, and there's a fellowship there. And that's what Paul had with the Colossians and with so many other people, and he talks about praying for them. He says in verse 4 that he's been praying always for them, verse 4, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, wherever 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 bring it forth fruit as it doth also in you, since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God and truth. So there's so much packed in here. I've got to hurry, because Colossians is so jam-packed with doctrine. But here we see the Bible teaching us that at the time that this is being written, the gospel was already going out throughout all the whole world. Do you see that? Because he's talking about the word of God coming to them, them learning about the grace of God and truth, and he says it's bringing forth fruit, but he said it's going into all the world and it's bringing forth fruit everywhere. A lot of people will say, oh, there's so many parts of the world that have never heard the gospel, and they've just never really been exposed to it. But even back then, God made sure that the gospel was getting out all around the world and it was already happening. And today the gospel is being preached in every nation in the world. And according to the Bible, in Revelation, there will be people in heaven out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. Here he said, look, the word of God is being preached in all parts of the world and is bringing forth fruit. Now look, you say, well, does that mean we don't need to send missionaries? No, because we need more preaching of the word of God. We need more gospel preaching. We need more men to take the gospel to places where it is not as represented, but we also need to do a lot of soul winning right here at home. Just because somebody's heard the gospel one time doesn't mean that they're saved, and we need to go back and give it to them again. And there are a lot of people even in America that haven't heard the gospel, and we need to get the gospel to the regions beyond, to foreign nations, also here at home. We need to preach it as much as we can. We need to be used of God in whatever area God puts us. But this attitude that says, well there are huge parts of the world where the gospel's never been, that's just simply not true. The name of Jesus Christ is known on every continent and in every nation of this world. Talk to people from India, talk to people from China, Africa, they've heard of Jesus. Now they may not have heard a clear presentation of the gospel, that's why we do need spirit filled soul winners and spirit filled missionaries to give them the gospel, but you know what? The word of God has gone into all nations and brought forth fruit in all parts of the world. That's what we see in this passage also. He says that they have love to all the saints, they love God's people, they love the brotherhood, they love the saved is what that's referring to. It says in verse 7, as you also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the spirit. For this cause we also, since the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in 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. Now as we read this, we can get an idea of what some of the strong points were of the Colossians and some of the things that Paul wanted them to work on. The strength that we see of the saints at Colossae was their love. Because over and over again, Paul is praising them for being loving, for loving people, for loving the saints, for loving others, and he said look, Epaphras told us of your love. We'd already heard before about your love from other people. And over and over again, he talks about what a loving church they were, and what loving people they were, but the thing that he wants them to work on, and the thing that he's praying for them to have is knowledge. Because he says in verse 9, for this cause we also since the day we heard of it, heard of what? Their great love, what a loving church they were. And to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So here we have three words, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Those are three words that come up a lot in the book of Proverbs. God talks about the importance of those three elements, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. They all have to do with learning. And then in the next verse, he says that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and then he brings it up again, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Now go to 2 Peter chapter 1 if you would. So Paul's saying you are a very loving church, you have a lot of love, and I'm hearing about your love from all different people, how loving you are. But he says look, you need to also have knowledge with that. If you're going to be fruitful, if you're going to abound in every good work, if you're going to walk worthy of the Lord, love is important. Love is critical. Love is crucial. I mean, Paul said, you know, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And so we know that love is key, but he says look, love's not enough. Add to that some knowledge. You need to get knowledge. You need wisdom. You need understanding. He says, man, I'm thrilled to hear how loving you are. I don't want to see that love go to waste. Get the knowledge and if you can combine knowledge and love, it's going to produce action that's the right action, that's going to be what God wants to happen. Where did I have you turn, 2 Peter? Look at 2 Peter, it talks about some of the same things as Colossians. Now of course this is not coming from our apostle, but it does mention some of the same things. Just kidding. But anyway, in 2 Peter chapter 1, he talks about the same thing about being fruitful and he ties in knowledge once again and he also ties in love because look what it says in verse number 5, it says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. Now the reason he says add to your faith is because that's what even saves you is faith. The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. I mean we know that anybody who's saved has faith or they're not even saved because the Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. So he says look, it's great that you have faith, you're saved, but you need to add to your faith virtue. Okay what does virtue mean? Well virtue has to do with living a good life. It also has to do with power, you know, and look what it says next, it says add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. So he's saying look, you need to grow in knowledge, you need to learn new things, you need to gain knowledge. He says then add to knowledge temperance. Temperance is basically being able to control yourself, being tempered or under control. Talk about someone having a bad temper, it means they're constantly getting out of control, they blow up, they lose their temper, and they become angry over insignificant things. He says add to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you, that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge. Knowledge is again emphasized of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he says look, you need to not only just have faith, but you need to have the life to back it up if you're going to be fruitful, have the virtue, the temperance, you know those are things that have to do with the way that you live your life. Living a life of virtue, living a life of temperance, not a life of sin and gratifying the flesh. And he says you're also going to need knowledge, but then the final bond of perfectness, that last element that's the most important is charity or love. That's the final icing on the cake that's going to make you very fruitful in the knowledge. So he says look, if you just have knowledge but you don't have love, you don't have charity, you're nothing. Because in 1 Corinthians 13, as I quoted a little bit earlier, the next thing he goes on to say is, and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, but have not charity, I'm nothing. So we're not saying that love's not important. We're not saying that charity's not important, but what we're saying is that in order to serve God effectively, you must have both knowledge and love, both. And you'll run into a lot of people today, in fact a whole movement today, of churches that are very lean in the knowledge department, but oh the love flows. And look, that's great, but they need the book of Colossians to tell them look, it's great that you're so loving that you care about people, but you need to get in the book, you need to get in the Bible, you need to study to show thyself approved unto God, you need to add to your faith, virtue and to virtue knowledge, because you don't want to be unfruitful in the knowledge, you need to have knowledge, you need to have wisdom, you need to have understanding. Oh and by the way, did I say you need knowledge? I mean that's basically what Paul said in Colossians 1. Over and over again he's telling them that they need to learn more. And this is downplayed today in churches. Churches today often are more interested in giving you an experience. You go to the church, you have a religious experience or an emotional experience. Maybe you come out feeling very close to God or you come out just really feeling like you've recharged your spiritual battery. Hey that's great, but what did you learn? I'm not against the feeling. I'm not against you feeling close to God, but you know what, if you're really going to be close to God, you better learn the Bible and learn the Word of God and get the knowledge and the wisdom and the understanding that God tells us hundreds of times are important to us. He says wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom with all that getting and understanding. You say well what do these words mean? Well knowledge is when you know things. Look at the first four letters of knowledge, no. You know when you don't know what the Bible says, you don't know what Genesis is about, you don't know what Exodus is about, you don't know what Leviticus is about, oh that doesn't matter it's just about love. No, you're not going to be fruitful. You're not going to be fruitful. You'll go well yes I will. Well no you won't because the Bible says you need to learn and have knowledge. Because you know what, a lot of people who have a lot of love and not a lot of knowledge, they go out and do a lot of work for God and they do all the wrong things because they don't even know what God told them to do. But really loving preachers that preach a lot of false doctrine. And not even because they want to preach false doctrine, not even because they're trying to preach false doctrine, but because they are a lean on knowledge. They just didn't do the reading. They just didn't do the studying of the Word of God and studying of the Bible. It's important to us to know the Bible. I remember one time I was a teenager and back then I was in a really liberal watered down church, I was in a new evangelical church, and I remember sitting in the youth group and it was a discussion, the Sunday School class was a discussion on whether it were better to have been brought up in a Christian home your whole life, or whether it were better if you had lived a life of sin and then got saved so that you'd have a better testimony. You'd have more radical testimony where you'd be like, man I was into drugs, I was drunk, I was partying, I got saved, everything changed. And that was the discussion. I thought to myself, man this is ridiculous. So everybody liked the testimony, everybody wanted, a person like that is going to be more powerful used by God because of the radical change in their life. And I raised my hand and I said, well I think you're going to be used by God in a greater way if you're brought up. Brought up, saved is better. Brought up is in a Christian home. And they said, well why do you say that? And I said, well because when you grow up in a Christian home and you've been in church your whole life and reading the Bible, you're going to have so much more knowledge of the future, you know, you're going to really be able to use that knowledge to serve God. Whereas somebody who gets saved later in life, in their 30s and 40s, they're having to play catch up, you know, of all the stuff that they could have learned for all those decades. They got to go back and read and say, and they're not going to have as much. And then they're just, oh man, it's not, what, it's just about how much you know? Is that what you think it's about? You know, just how much knowledge you can have. I mean, what good is that, man? It's just about telling people about Jesus, man. Just Christ crucified and nothing else, man. And I'm just sitting there thinking, what are you talking about? What's the whole rest of this book? I thought we're supposed to know this. I thought we need this. And you say, well, look at the Apostle Paul, greatly used by God. Yeah, I know the Apostle Paul got saved later in life, but here's the difference with the Apostle Paul. He studied the Bible since he was a little kid at the feet of Gamaliel being brought up as a Pharisee. He still memorized huge chunks of the Old Testament, but even once he got saved, he spent a whole bunch of time in the desert just reading the Bible. He went into Arabia and just studied the Bible and just learned it and read the Bible. And he knew the scripture. He knew what he was talking about. He knew the Bible. And look, I'm not down on people who get saved later in life, but why would it be better to get saved later than sooner? The sooner the better. I mean, you know, the sooner you can get saved and the less dumb things you can do. I mean, look, why would you want to do a bunch of dumb things that later you could talk about how, yeah, I used to do all this stuff. And you know what's a more powerful testimony? Here's a powerful testimony. Jesus saves. Jesus died for all our sins and was buried and rose again. Oh, but was your life dramatically changed? No? You know, I got saved when I was six, so I hadn't really hit rock bottom yet. You know what I mean? Oh man, if you could have seen me before I was saved, I mean, good night. Stealing cookies from the cookie jar. I was eating fruit snacks, unauthorized, and hiding the wrappers under my mattress. I mean, I was pushing little girls on the playground off of the swing, but Jesus changed it all. But you know what? That's not what the Gospel is. The Gospel's not about you, the Gospel's about Jesus. And the Gospel's the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. I can preach that no matter whether I was a junkie or not. And here's the thing, it's great if your testimony can help someone get saved, great, but you know what? If you're thinking of just downplaying knowledge, knowledge doesn't matter, knowledge isn't important, you know what? Then what we have is a generation of dumbed down churches, dumbed down Christians, and you know what? They are easily deceived. Because the one who does not have knowledge is carried about with every wind of doctrine. They're tossed to and fro. They're not grounded and rooted in what they believe because they don't know the Scriptures. But when you know the Scriptures and you hear false doctrine, preach, you're going, wait a minute, and verses are popping in your mind, you're saying, what this preacher's saying is not right because the Bible, not because you don't feel like it's right, but because the Bible says, and the verses are coming in your mind because you know the Scripture. But when you don't know the Scripture and a preacher gets up and says, the Bible says, you go, oh, okay, I guess that's what the Bible says, because you don't know. Knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. Knowledge is knowing things. Yes, that's important, to know things, just to know what the Bible says. Wisdom is when you not only know things, but you can actually apply those things in your life. And that's what preaching is meant to do is to take things that are in the Bible and try to apply them to today's world, apply them to our daily lives, apply them to situations. You see, somebody might know that drinking is something that the Bible warns against, the Bible explains all the things that are going to happen when you drink, and how your eyes will behold strange women, your mouth will utter perverse things. Somebody might know what the Bible says about that, but if you see a person then turn around and go out and start drinking, that person lacks wisdom. Because they're not applying what they've known and what they've learned, they're not applying it to daily life and to decisions that they're making. They know the facts, but they're not able to apply them. Then understanding is when we not only know things, we not only apply things, but we also understand them. Now it's possible to know something and apply it without necessarily fully understanding it. I might tell my children, children, do not drink alcohol, because here's what the Bible says. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy mouth shall utter perverse things, when you drink alcohol. And they might look at that and say, okay, well now I know that the Bible's warning me of alcohol. I know that now. Wisdom tells me I'm going to heed the Bible's warning, and I'm going to abstain from alcohol. But then understanding is when they actually understand what it means to behold strange women. You know, if I'm telling that to a six year old or an eight year old or a ten year old, they might not really fully comprehend what the Bible's saying there. Or when the Bible says your mouth's going to utter perverse things. You know, later on they might understand and comprehend, oh, now I understand. And look, when I was growing up, I didn't necessarily fully understand why I wasn't supposed to commit fornication. I didn't fully understand why I wasn't supposed to do a lot of things, but you know what? I still obeyed it anyway just because the Bible said so. And I said, well, whether I understand it or not, God said don't do it. God punished people who did it all throughout the Bible, so I'm not going to do it. Then later, you know, after I'm married and after I've lived my life, I look back and I say, oh wow, now I really understand why God didn't want me to commit fornication. Now I understand why God told me not to commit fornication. I'm glad that I listened. At the time I didn't fully understand it, but I just trusted and obeyed. So we see here in the Scripture, knowledge is being emphasized. If you're going to be fruitful, if you're going to win people to Christ, if you're going to do a lot of good work for God, you need to be a loving person. No question, 1 Corinthians 13 makes that clear, but you also need to have knowledge. Okay, let's keep reading. It says 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 longsuffering with joyfulness. So now he's explaining some other attributes that need to be a part of our life. He says not only do you need love, not only do you need knowledge, but he's saying, you know, you want to be a strong person. What's the opposite of strength? Weakness. Strong. The Bible says be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Okay, weakness is when we give in unto sin because Jesus Christ said, watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak. So when our flesh is weak, when we walk in the flesh, when we walk in that weakness, we're going to be likely to give in unto temptation. Strength is when we resist temptation. You know, temptation is before us, whether it's to look at something that we shouldn't look at or participate in something we shouldn't participate in. Strength is when we stand firm, hold our ground, and do not give in unto temptation. It takes strength to watch and pray. Weakness is when we say, I'm too tired to pray, I don't have the will to pray, I don't have the energy to pray, I don't have the discipline to even sit still and just pray. Strength overcomes those obstacles. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience. What is patience? Patience is when we don't have an attitude that says I want everything right now. Patience is similar in the Bible to endurance and diligence. We're willing to continue and wait and not expect to be gratified with everything right now. If you're impatient, what does it mean? Give me my food right now, I need to eat right now. You know, patience is willing to wait a little while if necessary. He says long suffering, what does long suffering mean? It means that we don't just blow up at people who do or say something that we don't like. Suffering long with someone means putting up with someone. Someone who's long suffering is one who puts up with others. Look, are you a person where just anybody who's around you who's not just like you, who doesn't act just like you want them to act, you just, I just don't have any patience with these people, I just can't. But that's not long suffering, is it? Long suffering is where maybe our husband or wife does something that annoys us or acts a certain way that we don't like and we don't just flip out, we don't just instantly blow a gasket but instead we just put up with things and just pass over certain transgressions and just not get so rattled and angry about things that don't matter. I mean if you just get so angry about some little thing, that's the opposite of long suffering. Long suffering is where somebody does something you don't like and you basically just relax. And again I'm not talking about correcting people that are under your authority. Obviously you need to correct your children that are under your authority, but you know what, you can correct your children without blowing up at them, without just instantly losing your temper. You can still be patient and still correct them. You can be long suffering, put up with them, and be patient with them. You know, why do marriages end in divorce? Because of a lack of long suffering. Right? Just, oh I just can't put up with him anymore, I just can't take her anymore. You know what, you need to have long suffering. You need to be patient with people. And you know what, sometimes there are people who have serious faults. You know, and I'm sure that everyone in our church has faults. And there might be another church member that irritates you. There could be someone else in this church that irritates you. You need to be long suffering and be patient with that person and just say, well you know what, whatever, that's how they are, I'm going to be patient. Long suffering. You know, and sometimes people change. You know, and maybe your husband has a serious problem, a serious fault. Maybe your wife has a serious problem, serious fault, serious sin in their life. It doesn't mean that they're never going to change. You need to be patient, long suffering, pray for them, love them, try to help them. And you know what, over time things can change, but we need to have long suffering, meaning that we put up with people. We're patient with people. We don't expect everyone to be exactly like us and do everything exactly the way we want it, otherwise we're just going to cloud up and rain on them. Okay, that's the opposite of long suffering. And then he says with joyfulness. So don't long suffer with a bad attitude of, I guess I'll just put it here. Like a pastor said to just let them be an idiot, whatever. No, he says long suffering with joyfulness. You know, be cheerful about it, have joy in doing what's right. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He said look, you're going to have patience and long suffering toward others because keep in mind that the only reason that you're even meet to be a partaker of the inheritance is because God has made you meet to be a partaker of the inheritance. Basically what he's saying is in your flesh you're not worthy of going to heaven. You're not worthy of the inheritance that the saints will inherit. That's something that God has given unto you. And so you ought to be patient with others who are not as far along the trail. And you know what, there's a tendency in a church like ours for people not to have patience and not to have long suffering. Because our church preaches the Word of God pretty straight and we're pretty strict and we cross the T and dot the I, then people will sometimes get this attitude of, you know, somebody comes in and they're not just like us, man, let's just straighten them out. You don't believe exactly like us, get out. You know, and that is a bad attitude. Because you know what, you and I didn't just get where we are today overnight, did we? I mean did you just get here overnight, just overnight? I mean one day you were just unsaved, one day you were living an ungodly life, and then just boom, you got saved, you were in church, you were dressed right, you acted right, you talked right, you read the Bible every day, you prayed every day, you had all your doctrine right. And then these people come in here and they don't even know, they don't even know about the rapture and the tribulation, they've got it all made, get out! You know, look, you need to understand that people are at all different stages of growth as Christians. Some people have been saved for decades, some people have been saved for a few weeks or a few months, some people have been saved for one year, two years, and here's how I judge people. I don't judge people based on, you know, how good they are and how righteous they are and how knowledgeable they are. You know what I like to judge people on, just which direction are they going? You know, and if I see somebody who's growing and who's trying, you know, even if they're very worldly, don't have knowledge, they're wrong on a lot of doctrine, but you know what, if their heart's in the right place, be patient with people. Be long-suffering. Because you know what, if you would have met me when I was 17, I'd have been the person you were calling an idiot. And I know Brother Worling did meet me when I was 17, so he was nice enough not to think I was an idiot though. But anyway, I'm just saying, if you would have met me when I was, okay, 16, you didn't meet me when I was 16, buddy, you would have thought I was an idiot. But I'm saying, you know, if you would have met me when I was 15 or 16, I'm sure I would have said a lot of dumb things about the Bible. Because I hadn't read the Bible cover to cover at that point. And I would have had a lot of dumb doctrines, I would have believed a lot of stupid things, I would have been dressed like an idiot, you know, and there were so many things that would have been wrong with me. And I didn't just change overnight, I mean I spent years and years reading the Bible, listening to the preaching of God's Word, slowly changing in one area after another, learning new things, getting my doctrine in conformity with God's Word. You can't just expect everybody to just be there. And I guarantee you were the same way. It's taking you a process to get where you're at. Salvation happens in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, but the Christian life and growth is a process. And so don't you dare be rude to people and just jump down people's throats and alienate people. You know, and we work hard to invite people to church and get people to come to church. Don't then just turn around and turn people away from our church by your rudeness. You know, and I understand if somebody hears the preaching of God's Word and it's straight from the Bible, they might just get offended and not come back and that's their problem. But I would hate for somebody not to come back just because you're rude. Just because you rudely correct someone or rudely tell someone that they're wrong about something that really isn't even that important or something that they're probably going to eventually learn. Just focus on being nice to people also. While you have knowledge, while you are straight down the line, while you are fundamental and cross every T and dot every I, you should also be nice to people though and be long-suffering and patient with people. And people are often surprised by sometimes the type of people that I'll talk to and get along with and hang around with, you know, just, huh, what? But because they're good people that are learning. You know, it's not like they're bad people just because they are at a different stage of the journey. You know, and so keep that in mind. But he says here in verse 13, who had delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. So the forgiveness of sins comes through the blood of Christ. Says in verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him, and remember this is all going back to the dear son, right? This is all about Jesus. The dear son at the end of verse 13, the sentence is not ending. So you see how at the end of 13 there's a semicolon, then another semicolon at the end of 14, and then a comma. See how that works? It's all one sentence. So we're talking about Jesus, and it's saying that we have redemption through the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God. Because the Bible says no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. So basically no one has seen God the Father at this time. But we have seen Jesus Christ. Now you say, well is Jesus God in the flesh? Well 1 Timothy 3.16 tells us Jesus is God in the flesh. But if we keep reading here, it says, for by him were all things created. Do you see that in verse 16? So the Bible here says that all things were created by Jesus. And what does it say in Genesis 1.1? In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Here it says, by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth. Visible and invisible. Whether it 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, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. So look, we know that the Father is God, but also the Son is God also. And by the way, the Holy Spirit is God. Because the Bible says there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. That's what people mean when they use the word Trinity. The Trinity simply means the three in one. You say, well the word Trinity is not in the Bible, true. But the term three in one is in the Bible, and that's all that Trinity means. That's just a word that we use today to express it in a way where people understand. The proper way of stating it is that, you know, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, these three are one. So we only believe in one God, but he exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That's why the Bible says in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You say, well I don't understand that. That's why the Bible says great is the mystery of godliness. It's something hard for us to wrap our mind around. But one way to help you understand this is to think that we as human beings are also in three parts. The body, the soul, and the spirit. Now can those parts be separated? Absolutely, because the Bible says the body without the spirit is dead. So the moment that we die, our body and spirit are separated. Now, if someone were to look at the dead body, let's say I were to die tonight, physically. If someone went to that dead body and identified it to the coroner and said, that is Steven Anderson, would they be telling the truth? Yes. Is this Steven Anderson? Yes it is. Okay, but my spirit would be somewhere else, wouldn't it? It would be in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ, because the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5. Paul said I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. So therefore, my soul and spirit is in heaven with the Lord Jesus. Is that me? Is that the real me? Is that Steven Anderson? Yes. Would it be accurate to say Steven Anderson is in heaven? Yes. But would it be accurate to say that the body they're left behind is also? That's Steven Anderson. Yes. So you see how they could be in two different places, but it's one person. But would you say, well that's two different people? No. So, you know, maybe that helps you understand a little bit to say, okay, the Lord God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Father could be up in heaven, right? The Lord Jesus Christ down on this earth, but they're one person in the sense that there's only one God. It's not two different gods, okay. So maybe that helps you understand. Really Colossians 1 is really strengthening the fact that Jesus Christ is God. Because he's telling us, look, Jesus is the creator of everything, everything. It says he is before all things. So in the beginning, God. I mean, and then it even says he is the beginning. As he said in Revelation 1 where he said, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. And he's referring to Jesus, it's Jesus speaking there. Which is proven by the fact that he then says, I'm he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. So look, he says he was dead. That's Jesus. Jesus died and rose again. But then he also says, I'm the Almighty. That proves from Revelation 1 that the Almighty God is Jesus, okay. And we see it in Colossians 1 here that he's the creator, it's a strong statement. It says in verse 18, he's the head of the body, the church. Okay, now a lot of people will look at this and say, see there's only one church. But the Bible used the word church as more often than it used the word church. The church is a congregation and the Bible says the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Is there only one wife? Is there only one wife? The universal wife. The Catholic wife. No, there are multiple wives, multiple husbands, right? Well guess what, there are multiple churches. Church at Ephesus, church at Smyrna, church at Pergamos, and Christ the head of the church, it means as an institution. That means each church has Christ as its head of that local body. Just as each husband is the head of that wife. There doesn't have to be one. Perfect illustration. Okay, it says he's the head of the church and it says in verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime 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 holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. Now Romans 5 teaches the same thing. And if you would quickly turn there, I'm almost done tonight, but go to Romans 5 because this is a great parallel passage here in Romans 5. Romans 5 is a verse that we often use when we give someone the Gospel. But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And a lot of people use that verse but they don't really fully understand what that verse is saying. Now the modern versions all change this verse, clearly showing that they don't understand the verse based on how they change it. But then I've heard a lot of people change this verse out solely. They'll say, God commended his love toward us. That means God demonstrated his love. No that's not what it means. It's what the NIV says, and that's where you got that by the way, but that's not what it means because look what it says in verse 7. Look what it says in verse 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Do you see that? For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure, peradventure means maybe, for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commanded his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So what the Bible is saying is look, someone might die for someone else if they're a really good person. Like somebody might die for someone that they really love. For example, a parent might be willing to die for their child. A husband might be willing to die for his wife. Or maybe if there's a man that I know is a great man, a godly man, he's serving God, he's a righteous man who I have great respect for, I'm willing to lay down my life for that guy. But he says scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Some people are like, no I'm not willing to die for anybody. I want to stay alive. Scarcely meaning hardly ever is one willing to die for someone else. But if they are willing to die for someone, it's for a righteous man. It's for someone that they like. It's for someone good. He's saying look, you're not going to lay down your life for somebody that you don't like. Somebody that you consider a bad person, an ungodly person, you're not going to sacrifice your life for an ungodly person. He says scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure, maybe for a good man some would even dare to die. God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. What he's saying is that God's love goes so far beyond our love. Our love might compel us to die for someone that's good. Jesus Christ on the other hand died for the ungodly, for us, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Look at the next verse. Much more than being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him. As if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also join in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. He's saying look, we can have such great assurance of our salvation, because a lot of people believe you can lose your salvation, of course we don't believe that. Because he says look, you can have so much assurance of your salvation because when Christ died for you when he reconciled you were a complete enemy. He died for you when you were an enemy. He saved you when you were ungodly, when you were at enmity with Christ. Well look, he can keep you saved once you're reconciled. You know, now that you've been saved by the blood he's even more likely, he loves you even more. Look, if he accepted you when you were ungodly, why would he reject you after you're saved after you've already received Christ, you know? I'm not explaining it as well as the Bible does in Romans 5, but you know what I'm saying. It's a strong assurance there that now that we're saved, now that we're reconciled, we're going to be spared from wrath. God's wrath is not going to be upon us, even if we sin. And that's why at the end of the same chapter, chapter 5, he says look, where sin abounded grace did much more abound. Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. But if we sin, grace will abound. We've been reconciled. We will not lose our salvation. Back to Colossians, let me finish up quickly. That's basically what he's saying here in Colossians when he says in verse 21, you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath ye reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight if you continue in the faith. He's saying look, you're only going to be unblameable and unreproveable in his sight if you continue in the faith. You'll still be saved no matter how you live, but you'll be blamed, you'll be reproved, you'll be punished on this earth. He says if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you've heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven. Again, remember we talked about earlier in the sermon how the gospel's gone to all the world? People try to say that there are huge parts of the world where they've never even heard of Jesus. Is that what the Bible says? It says that the gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the affliction of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church, whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Oh, see, the word dispensation. We must be a dispensat- no. Look, just because the word dispensation is in the Bible, that don't make me a dispensationalist. And just because the word presbytery is in the Bible, that don't make me a presbyterian. And just because the church of Christ is in the Bible, that doesn't make me a member of the church of Christ. And just because the Bible says the word Nazarene, that doesn't make me a Nazarene. People take good words in the Bible and twist them. Nazarene's a great word. Teaching that you can lose your salvation is not great. Presbytery is a great word. Teaching Calvinism isn't great. Church of Christ is a great term. Teaching that you have to be baptized to be saved, that's not great. And on and on. And so what we see here when the Bible says dispensation, the word dispense basically means to, like for example, a Pez dispenser. What does it do? What does a Pez dispenser do? It gives you Pez. I mean, you open it up, R2D2's mouth or whatever, and you get Pez. Whether it be C3PO or whatever, that gives you Pez, it dispenses Pez. To dispense means to give. The other meaning of the word dispense is to use something up. To dispense with something is to use up. So what we see here, it says, wherever I made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me. So the dispensation of God is what God gave him. Because to dispense something is to give something. The soda dispenser gives you soda. And so you'll notice that if you look up the four times that the word dispensation is used, it's never referring to the seven dispensations, periods of time where people are saved in different methods or periods of time where God is dealing with Israel or God is dealing with the Gentiles, he goes back to dealing with Israel. None of those mentions will teach that. They never teach it as a period of time, it's always something that is given. That's what dispensation means. And then there's a third meaning of dispensation that is not a Biblical meaning. And if you study the word dispensation, sometimes it means to give and sometimes it means to be used up. The dispensation of the fullness of times is where he says there shall be time no longer. Okay? Revelation 10. But there's a term dispensation that the Catholics would use where if somebody gets a dispensation, it basically means that we're going to let you off the hook of following God's commandments. You know, like, you're not supposed to, you know, kill your wife, but we're going to give you a dispensation because you paid us. And you say, well that sounds weird. Well it's funny, we were just, we were at that Bible Museum, this guy had pricing sheets. Remember they used to sell indulgences where you could get your sins forgiven by the Catholics if you bought an indulgence? I saw the price list and one of the things was killing your wife. And it was like $2.50. Now back then, hold on, that was a lot more money back then than it is now. Okay, that was like thousands of dollars back then. But literally, killing your wife, you could buy, you know, an indulgence, you could get a dispensation on that. You know, and there were other things about, you know, the priest, he could have a concubine. He could have a woman that he goes to bed with, the priest can, for like $2.25 or whatever. You know, it was like he can have a concubine. He can have a live-in girlfriend. I mean can you believe that? I mean they had this in writing, it was just spelled out. You know, all these Catholic priests, they all, you know, they're not married, right? Vow of celibacy, right? But they could have a woman that they're shacking up with, they just have to pay money to the church. And it's paid for. Look it up, I mean this pricing sheet was amazing. I mean when King Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife, it's like you can kill her, but you can't divorce her. Literally. Because if he killed her, then he could just basically pay the church at Rome and get it absolved, get a dispensation or whatever, you know, and I might be using the word dispensation not exactly right, but thank God I'm not an expert on buying your way into heaven. So in case I got that wrong, in case I got that price wrong, forgive me for not being an expert on buying my way into heaven because I'm just trying to go to heaven by faith. And in fact, succeeding. That's where I'm going because I believe on Christ. It's that simple. So anyway, it says here, dispensation of God which is given to me to fulfill the Word of God. Great mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The fact that Christ lives inside of us. That we have Christ in our hearts. Great mystery that was not revealed in the Old Testament, you know, and is now made manifest unto us. Whom we preach. We preach Christ, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ, whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily. Look, I got to hurry, but part of our preaching is warning. When we go out soul winning, we're also going soul warning because we're warning people of hell if they're not saved. And that's why you should always teach people of hell when you give the Gospel. But not only that, in church we need to warn the believers that if they don't live right, that God's going to chastise them on this earth. They're not going to lose their salvation, but God will punish. God will chastise, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. We need to warn people with the Word of God. Not preach a positive only sugar coated message, but a warning message to the lost and a warning message to the saved. Warning them of the judgment of God on sin. To the unsaved it's hell. To the saved it's earthly consequences for our sinful actions. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the book of Colossians. Help us to study it and read it. I pray that everyone will go home and read it even more on their own. Go back over chapter 1 and understand it, learn it, study it. Help us to grow in knowledge and in wisdom and in understanding and in Jesus' name.