The Epistle to the Colossians, identifying it as a Christological letter written by Paul during his imprisonment. It highlights the frequent and significant mentions of Christ's name within the first four verses, emphasizing the dual authorship of Paul and Timothy and the dual description of believers as saints and faithful brethren. The message further details the benediction of grace and peace, originating from both the Father and the Son, and expresses gratitude for the internal fruit of faith, love, and hope, as well as the external fruit of wisdom, walk, and work in believers' lives. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the importance of fellowship with both the saints and the Son, urging listeners to appreciate and cultivate these aspects of Christian life.
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Now I think that this is the eighth time that I've stood here for a week of the conference. I think it's time that I was replaced. In thinking over these past years, I was thinking of the letters of the Apostle Paul and realized that there are four groups of letters that he wrote and at the conference I've spoken on one of them from the first group on two of them from the second group and one of them from the last group but I have never taken up one of Paul's epistles from the third group so that's what we're going to do this week now fortunately Some of those of you who don't run away during the summertime are going to steal a march on some of those who do.
About three years ago, I think it was, when all our visitors had left and gone north and a lot of our own folk had also escaped from the heat to the north. I made a suggestion concerning an outline for the book we're going to take up in the evenings of this week, and I'm going to take this week to develop that outline. So if any of you were here and had the outline, that's the skeleton. Now this week we're going to put the meat on the bones. Let's turn to the epistle of Paul the Apostle.
to the Colossians. Now in every other instance where we've taken up a Pauline letter, I've made it my business to go over the background. And I think that's always the way to start with any Bible book. Because if you know a little about the background, it certainly helps to make the content of the portion make that much more sense. We have in our New Testament, I wonder if you remember this. If you don't, then it's a good thing, I'm going to go over it again. If you do, you can feel so encouraged that you remembered it.
Your memory evidently is not like mine, which is a thing I forget with. In our New Testament, we have thirteen letters that came from Paul's pen. That's if we do not count Hebrews, and since the scholars can't agree on that one, I'm omitting it. But the thirteen letters that we have in the New Testament from Paul's pen, and mind you, watching the film last night, I thought maybe I ought to take up Second Timothy. But no, I'm going to stay with what I had originally chosen. These letters were written in a different order from that we have in the New Testament. So I'm going to give them to you in what is called their chronological order.
That is the order in time in which they were written. They were written in four groups, with two letters in the first group, and four letters in the second group, with four letters in the third group, and three in the last. And here they are. First and second Thessalonians. Now that's the first group of Pauline letters. in the order of time. Now it seems very significant to me that Paul chose to write first about last things, because this is what first and second Thessalonians have to do with. Now scholars you will remember, of course you will remember this from a past study probably, I hope.
I'm not too worried if you don't. But that first group has a long name. It is called Eschatological. Now, does that strike a bell? Does that sound a little bit familiar? Those of you who went to Bible school, you know what eschatology is. That's the doctrine of future things. I see some of you nodding. You remember that long word, and you haven't met it since your Bible school days. Well, I'm glad to heart you back to them. Escatology is the doctrine of future things, and first and second Thessalonians are eschatological. They deal with the future. There are two of them, because the first one, in a general sense, deals with the coming of the Lord Jesus for his people, the rapture, and the second deals with the coming of the Lord with his people, and that, of course, follows later on after the rapture.
Now the second group of letters written while Paul was on his great missionary journeys are these. First and second Thessalonians, I'm sorry, first and second Corinthians, Galatians and Romans. First and second Corinthians, Galatians and Romans. Now the scholars have a long name for this group too. These are the salvation letters. but scholars are never satisfied with a simple name like that. So having called the first group eschatological, do you know what they call the second group? They call it soteriological. Back to those Bible school days, soteri, of course, is a prefix that means safety.
These are the salvation letters, and so that group of four is called soteriological. Now the third group... were written when the Apostle Paul was in prison. Not in the dungeon that you saw pictured last night, but in his own hired house, but a prisoner in chains, nevertheless. He was imprisoned at Rome, and while he was in prison he wrote the letter to the Ephesians, the letter to the Colossians, the letter to Philemon, and after those three, just a little later, he wrote the letter to the Philippians.
Now Ephesians and Colossians and Philemon were written at the same time and sent out by the same messenger into the same general area. Then a little while after, the epistle to the Philippians followed. Now this group is called by the scholars Christological, and it's from these four that I've chosen a letter for this week. Now if there are two in the first group and four in the second and four in the third, two and four make six and four make ten, that leaves us with only three, which is very fortunate because that's all we have left. And they were written in this order, first Timothy and then Titus and then second Timothy.
And these are called ecclesiological. Now you know what an ecclesiastic is, don't you? You know what things ecclesiastical are? These are things that have to do with the church. Now it's a good idea to get that background in your mind or even to jot it down and then copy it very carefully somewhere in your Bible so that whenever you turn to one of Paul's letters, you'll know where about in his life it fits. And that always gives a special meaning to what you're reading. You will understand a lot more about Ephesians and Colossians and Philemon and Philippians as you read them if you remember that Paul was in prison.
That's why he writes about my bond. That's why he writes about my chain. That's why he writes about them of Caesar's household. All of this makes a special sense when you realize at that time Paul was a prisoner. so it's necessary for us to grasp a little of the background. Now you learned last night that Second Timothy, which was for the very last letter, was also written in prison, but this time in the common dungeon before he was taken out and beheaded with the sword. Now our official for this week is the Letter to the Colossians.
I wonder whether any of our summer crowd from three years ago remembers the outline. Well, just in case you don't, I'm going to ask Mr. Pell and Mr. Murray to just distribute the first of four that we're going to get during the week. That is four pages, the first part of the outline. Would you do that, please? Just hand a few at the end of each row and they'll pass them along. And then if you run out, we'll have them collected at the end. and supply your need. Now, in my Bible it says the epistle of Paul the Apostle. You remember what the schoolboy said an epistle was?
Yes, he said an epistle was the wife of an apostle. But you're much more learned than that. You know that the epistle is simply a letter. Some letters are longer than others. Isn't it? strange, that though I've preached from four of Paul's letters at different times during the conference down through years, the one section I've neglected is the Christological section. That's why I want a remedy at this time. Because of these four Christological letters, if there's one in which we find more of Christ, then the other three, it is this one.
the letter to the Colossians. Now as soon as you have the first part of your outline, that page one, we are going to read together from the letter. And we are going to read responsibly. Now unlike the learned preachers before me, I do not have here the new international version. And I'm not going to be reading from the authorised just simply the King James. And so here it is. I read verse one, you read verse two, I read verse three, and we'll just read the first four verses.
So the first verse four will be yours. Now I want you to notice these phrases as we read them. I'm going to emphasize them in the reading because every one of them... has a special significance. Would you act as usher there, Mr. Pell? We have friends just coming in, and we'd like to be able to squeeze them into the main auditorium here. That's fine. We're getting to the place where we're running out of seats. I can't get over this, you know. I thought the Bible was always true.
It says a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and yet you fill the auditorium for me this evening. I really do appreciate that. In fact, I'll tell you what we're going to do tonight, just to be a little different. I'm going to read, instead of reading a verse about, I'm going to read to the first mark of punctuation, and you're going to read to the next one. Now you've got to be wide awake for this one. A mark of punctuation is a comma, a period, a colon, a semicolon, an exclamation mark, a question mark, or whatever.
And when Mr. Murray sits down, we'll start the reading. Thank you. I appreciate that help. I really do. Now, are you very careful? Here it is. and Timotheus our brother. Grace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying always for you and of the love which ye have to all the saints.
Now there's a comma there, but that's where we're going to stop for the moment. We'll go on a little bit later. Now let's have a word of prayer together, shall we? Our Heavenly Father, we verily believe that what we have in our hands is thy word, undiluted and absolutely accurate. We realize that we are reading an English translation but we pray that thou wilt make it a blessing to us that we might get the sense from these verses that thou hast in mind to bring to our hearts. Bless us then as we study together in Jesus' name.
Amen. Now we're going to divide the epistle into four parts. Unfortunately, the divisions do not fall where the chapter divisions fall, because there are four chapters, and we have four parts, but three of those parts, or the greater part of three of them, or at least the whole of two and part of the third, are found in chapter one. We are going to notice that the first fourteen verses indicate a definite section in the letter. And then the verses fifteen through nineteen a second section.
And then beginning at verse twenty and going all through what is left of chapter one, all of chapter two, all of chapter three and the first six verses we have the third very long section. And then from verse seven to the end in chapter four the section number four. In our first section which we're entitling here the name of Christ brought before the church, we're going to see that name associated with two things. Now why did we read four verses and stop at a comma? Take a look at these four verses, will you?
Is the name of Christ brought before the church in the first section? Why it certainly is in the first four verses. How many times? Let's look at verse one. An apostle of Jesus Christ. Verse two. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae. Grace be unto you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse three. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which ye have to all the saints.
Did you notice that? Five times in four verses the name of Christ is brought before the church. And those are not the only mentions of the name of Christ in the first fourteen verses. Our first section. But did you notice the different forms of his name? I don't have time to go over this, but I want to suggest to you that there is real significance here. He is called Jesus Christ. He is called Christ. He is called our Lord Jesus Christ. He is called the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is called Christ Jesus.
Now every one of those forms has a special significance. And I think that you ought to try to find out what that is. Some of them are very obvious. Others not quite so. But I don't think there can be any question about the fact that the Apostle Paul is very, very anxious to impress upon our hearts the name of the Lord Jesus. Now you'll notice in verses one and two that name is associated with greetings to the saints. Paul speaks of himself as being an apostle of Jesus Christ and then in greeting the saints he speaks of them as being in Christ and he sends to them a greeting through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now will you notice the duos in the first two verses? Now if we only go this slow for the week, we might get through a first half of chapter one. But we're going to hasten along after the first two verses. But I'm always struck when I find God using duos or trios or quartets. And God does this from time to time. Now notice the twos here, will you? Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother.
Now the little word and is the clue here. Paul and Timotheus. So you see the letter has a dual authorship. It comes from both Paul and Timotheus. Now I always find this couplets especially precious because Paul was an older man and Timothy was a younger man. Let me see how many of you men in the congregation ever go out preaching. Let me see. Don't be afraid to admit it.
All right, very good. I wonder how many of you take a younger man with you when you go preaching now i'm not going to ask you to put up your hands but you know some of us come from england and we can remember it was the practice of english preachers to take younger men with them when they went preaching somewhere along the line i've fallen down on the job and yet i owe a great debt to men of god who when i was fourteen fifteen sixteen took me to this little church that little assembly this place that place so that i might stand beside them and in my own faltering and halting way take a little part read the scripture i've had some of these preachers say to me now look you just preach as long as you want to and i'll take whatever time is left They knew that after five minutes I would have exhausted everything I had to say, so they were on the safe side.
But you know, they got me used to hearing the sound of my own voice. They got me started on the preaching track. And there are young men that need to be helped in this way, and I believe what we have here is a scriptural example and pattern. Now it's pretty tough when you're traveling to the west coast to preach, to take a young man with you, but we can do it when we are preaching locally, maybe just a little trip away. It'd be something to resurrect. It would be something good to restart, I think. The Apostle Paul was not only found from time to time with this young man beside him, but with others like Titus and so on.
Paul made it his practice. to join with a younger man in bringing the word of God to the people. So this letter comes from both of them. It has a dual authorship, just as they stood side to side to preach, or side by side to preach, so they stand side by side in the sending out of this missive. That's the first and. Now the second one is at the beginning of verse two. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. Now we see that the letter not only has a dual authorship, but the reader has a dual description. He's called a saint and a faithful brother.
Now I don't know whether there's anybody here who doesn't realize, but the moment you become converted, the moment you're saved, the moment you become a child of God and through conversion are brought into the true church, that very moment, although you don't have a halo, You become a saint. You don't have to die to become a saint, you know. The moment you're saved, you're a saint. And this is the way God in his word addresses you. Every believer is a saint. Now their lives don't always seem to be saintly, but however this is the title that God has given to us.
Now these believers to whom Paul and Timothy are writing were not only saints, but they were faithful brethren. Would to God that every saint was a faithful brother? But it isn't so. Some saints go their own way. Some saints do their own will. Some believers want to do their own things, no matter what God has in mind for them. That's not being a faithful brother or a faithful sister. But Paul knew those to whom he was writing, and he addressed them as saints, which indicated their new birth and faithful brethren, which pointed up their obedience to the Word of God.
I wonder whether in writing to us Paul would be able to say unto the saints and faithful brethren. And of course that includes the sisters. They were all commended in this way by the writers. But there's another end. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae, grace be unto you and peace. Now the benediction here has a dual character. He is calling down upon their heads grace and peace.
Grace, you know, basically, is a New Testament word. And peace is an Old Testament word. And so the writer is joining the two Testaments in bringing down in his praying upon the heads of these believers grace and peace. Now, we wouldn't be here tonight if it were not for the grace of God. And if it were not for that grace, we wouldn't be enjoying the peace that is ours. Grace and peace. What a lovely benediction. I know the benediction usually comes at the end, or at least that's how we refer to it, but here's a benediction at the beginning, grace and peace.
But there's another end, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So the blessing has a dual origin, coming down upon their heads from the Father and the Son. Now that doesn't exhaust the first two verses, but it's as much as we're going to try to extract from it this evening. But you can see that the name of Christ is brought before the church and in the first two verses is associated with greetings to the saints. But now notice how verse three opens. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which ye have to all the saints for the hope which is made up for you in heaven.
This morning we looked at the three cardinal virtues. Here they are again, faith and love and hope, a beautiful trio that we find together time and time again. When we read in verse three, we give thanks to God. What is it that's in the heart of the Apostle Paul? If you don't know, look on your outline. For here the name of the Lord Jesus is associated with gratitude to God. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's his name again, and it's associated with Paul's gratitude.
You know, gratitude was something that seemed to come very readily to the Apostle Paul. He was a very, very grateful man. Even in the times of his testing, in the times of his affliction and suffering, we find the Apostle Paul giving thanks to God. It's very easy for us as Christians to take from the hand of God what he so constantly showers upon us. It's very easy for us as Christians when our backs are to the wall for us to fly to God and to pray. But somehow it slips our minds to come back and say thank you.
Do you ever feel guilty that you've taken so much from the hand of God? and taken so much for granted come so seldom to say thank you and yet we know that God expects us to be grateful and God expects us to express our gratitude Paul was a grateful man and that's the reason why he was a great man he didn't take things for granted he came and made sure that God knew He was thankful for the many things that he enjoyed. I think that tonight we ought to be challenged, and we ought to begin to pray that God would make us, obviously, more grateful people.
But you know, it's wonderful to see what the Apostle Paul was grateful for. He says, we, that is Timothy and I, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For what? Not for that which we can lavish on ourselves. Now here is Paul in prison. His liberty has been taken away from him. There's so much he could be complaining about, but you've learned, even though you still do it, that you really don't get anywhere complaining. It doesn't do very much for you except to make you unhappy and depressed.
Being grateful, on the other hand, lifts the heart and makes a happy Christian out of you. I grumbled, said the poet, that I had no shoes. until I met a man who had no feet. If you want to be grateful, all you've got to do is glance around, and it won't take very long to find somebody who's much worse up than you are. I wonder how many of you saw that television program, was it last week? About all of those hungry people. Those pictures of starving babies. and people are actually lying dead on the street.
How many of you saw that program last week? Yes, it was a very moving, a very touching thing. You know, as I sat there, it was very hard sometimes to keep the tears back actually. But you know, there was one thing it did for me, and that was made me appreciate what I have. I don't know why God has been so gracious. But Paul is not here grateful for what God has given him. He's grateful for what he sees in the life of other believers. Isn't it a marvelous thing to be able to revel in the spiritual success of other people?
He says, we heard of your faith, and we heard of your love, and we saw the enjoyment of your hope, and that's what we thank God for. I want you to look at verse six. There's a little word in the middle of verse six. It says, And bring forth fruit. Now look at the middle of verse ten, will you? Being fruitful in every good work. Do you know what the Apostle Paul is expressing his gratitude to God for? Fruit in the lives of these believers. Now you'll notice that there are two kinds of fruit here.
The first is fruit on the inside. Love, flanked by faith, and hope. Now these are things that arise and develop in the heart. No believer is going to have fruit on the outside who doesn't first of all have fruit. on the inside when God looks at you he sees what you are on the inside and if he sees you as a believer who has faith a believer who is truly loving and a believer who lives every moment in hope God sees in you a believer that is very very fruitful and producing the kind of fruit that honors them and that delights them, fruit on the inside, faith and love and hope.
So those three things are associated in verses four, five and six with the word fruit, because fruit is what they are. Let's go down to verse nine. For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, Do not cease to pray for you and to desire that she might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom, notice that word, and spiritual understanding. But she might walk, notice that word, worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work.
Notice that word. Now here are three words that indicate outward fruit. One is wisdom. One is work, and one is work. And these three are associated with the word fruitful. So again they are fruit, and they are fruit on the outside. Now wisdom is more than knowledge. Lots of believers have knowledge, but they are not wise. It is when the knowledge that they have is rightly applied and made practical that they become wise people. And wisdom is an outward fruit, because it benefits everybody that comes into contact with it.
And walking, of course, is an outward exercise, and it's not surprising to me that God uses the word walk as being illustrative of the believer's progress. If you are growing as a Christian, as far as God is concerned, you are walking. Now there are certain things that are essential to this business of walking. Why is it that infants find it difficult to walk? I have a movie picture taken of the first of my offspring when he took his second step. I've always regretted that I never got his first step in the camera.
But you know, he did exactly after the second step what he did after the first step. He sat down in a hurry. Why? Because walking calls for balance. And balance is something that's very hard to learn. You see the child as he struggles from one piece of furniture to another piece of furniture. How tenaciously he hangs on because something in here tells him if you lose, you're going to fall. And so he hangs on. And when eventually he takes the first step, it's such an accomplishment that just in case he falls, he sits down.
I believe one of the reasons why God uses walking as an illustration of the Christian life is because the Christian life that makes progress has to be always a balanced way of living. Have you noticed how Christians will swing to one extreme like the pendulum and then when they suddenly realize they're off base then they swing again and the next time you look they're on the other at the other extreme and that's very natural. That's the way we we react to things. Balance is not easy to accomplish.
There are some people who will criticize you because you enjoy a sport. There are others who say, well, the Bible says bodily exercise property. And it says. But, you know, there are those who will not do it. They're the one extreme. And then there are the others, and they spend their time, all their time doing it. They're the other extreme. There is a moderate course. There is a balance. I know Christians, I know very spiritual men and women who are most interested in sports. And they observe them.
Don't tell anybody they may even go to an occasional football game. But the fact is they know how to put things in their proper perspective and to keep them in their place. Happy is that Christian who has his priority straight and who puts first things first. but who also knows that moderation is what God looks for. Balance. That's how you walk. And when you walk, you're being fruitful. You're making progress. You're traveling one step at a time, but you're moving forward.
You realize that no Christian can ever spiritually stand still. If you don't go forward, you'll go backwards. Somebody has said that good Christianity is like riding a bicycle. You don't keep going, you'll fall out. I think there's something there. Balance. I mustn't take up any more time there. There's another word here, and it's the word work. That's a horrible word. Somebody has asked the question. Why should the working man work when you've got the health and strength to lie in bed? Nobody ever came up with an answer that one. But do you realize that the believer is expected to be a worker?
A friend of mine used to say there are three kinds of Christians. There are the workers and there are the jerkers and there are the shirkers. Somebody else used to put it this way. There are those that are out and out. There are those who are in and out. And there are those who are down and out. Now, I don't know where you come, I don't know where in the scale you lie, or into which category you would put yourself, but if you're not a worker, then you're messing the boat. And somebody is having to do your job. You realize that when the work that God has for you to do is finished, he'll take you home. So while he's left you here, he obviously has something in mind for you to do.
That should encourage the heart of those of you who sense your limitation. You can't do what you used to be able to do. Somehow you're not as nimble and as spry as you used to be. Somehow it seems a little bit tougher to go any faster than a slow walk, but you're here. And God has left you here. And God has a work for you to do. And God is surely going to bless you and use you as you do it. Don't give up on things that everything is over. It isn't, because when it is, God's going to take you home. So he counts you among his workers. But are you a working worker, or are you leaving it for George to do?
This is outward fruit, wisdom, and walk, and work. So the writer associates the name of the Lord Jesus. with gratitude to God for fruit in the lives of these believers, fruit of two kinds, fruit on the inside, faith and love and hope, faith and fruit on the outside, wisdom, walk and work. But if you go on, and I'm through, if you look at verse twelve, and we'll be coming to the end of the first section here, we have again that word giving thanks unto the Father. He is that grateful man again.
What's he giving thanks for now? Not now for fruit. He's already done that. But now he's giving thanks for fellowship. Look, giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. There it is. Fellowship with the saints. who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, this fellowship with the Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." So he is grateful for fruit, and just as the fruit is of two kinds, he's faithful for fellowship, and the fellowship is of two kinds.
Fellowship with the saints, and fellowship with the Son, partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, and translating into the kingdom of His dear Son. You know, among the things we take for granted is our fellowship with one another. You never miss the water till the well runs dry. And I visited missionaries on the mission field, some of them in solitary places. And the thing they miss more than anything else is not not being able to turn on the tap and get fresh water. It's not the comforts of a divan and a reclining chair.
What they miss is the fellowship of other believers. God help us to appreciate it increasingly. There's one thing that's obvious to visitors who come to the park at the ponds We folk who live here enjoy each other's fellowship. That's why you ought to come and join us. We've still got some apartments available. And we're going to build some more. So you have your opportunity. It's not unlimited, but we love the fellowship of one another. And the reason is we love our fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Shall we pray?
Our Heavenly Father, once again we thank thee for thy word and we pray that as we sing about the preciousness of the name of the Lord Jesus, we might mean every word that we sing. And as we think of the name of the Lord Jesus and those things with which it is associated here in our epistle, we ask that we might appreciate them more. and that we might want them to be obvious, more obvious, in our lives as individuals, fruit and fellowship. We ask it in that same name, the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. Will you please remember to bring your outline with you? You can go over it tonight, and you'll see we're only halfway through it. So please bring it back on Tuesday. Don't lose it between now and then. We'll continue on Tuesday night if the Lord will. Now a moment of quiet meditation while the instrument is