The epistle to the Colossians is presented as a defense of the sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ against the Gnostic heresy, which blended Jewish traditions, Greek dualism, and mystical angel worship. The sermon highlights Paul's thanksgiving for the Colossians' faith, love, and hope, emphasizing that true hope in God is a certainty based on Christ's work and His promised return. It illustrates the certainty of Christ's return with the story of Elijah's ascension and the scoffers, and connects current events in the Middle East to prophecies in Isaiah, underscoring the imminence of Christ's coming. The message further explores three stages of knowledge: the grace of God, the will of God (sanctification), and the personal knowledge of God, exemplified by the transformation of Jacob into Israel, urging listeners to open their hearts to Christ as their Savior and Lord.
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It will be a pleasure and a privilege to be with you. I was born and raised in Egypt and I ministered to the Lord in the land of Lebanon. And my only regret today is I am not able to speak to you in the Arabic language for obvious reasons. The Arabic language is the language we speak in the Middle East. It's not only one language, it's more than one language. It shows you how rich it is. We have about one hundred and fifty names for the camel. That's right. That's to encourage you to learn the language. However, we broadcast the message of salvation in Arabic twenty-eight times a week on short wave and on medium wave.
If you wish to ask me how the Arabic language sounds, I wish to quote you just one verse in Arabic to show you how it sounds. John three sixteen. How does it sound? Could you repeat it after me? Well, let me say to you that the Arabic language is really a good, easy language. They say it's the language of angels. I want to ask me which kind. But this is the language spoken by about one hundred and twenty-five million people in the Middle East.
And I can tell you on the authority of God's word, each and every one of them is precious in God's sight. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever, be he an Arab, or not an Arab, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. As I thought of what I should be talking to you about in these days, I think my thoughts were directed to the epistle to the Colossians. And we are going to take this epistle systematically every time and study God's word as is recorded to us.
in this epistle. I tried to summarize the whole epistle in one sentence and I found I was up against a big difficulty. Can we summarize the epistle to the Colossians in one sentence only? And I think the best thing I can do is to say that it deals with the sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ. The sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul attacks the problem with a problem, if I might say, in mind. He has what you call the Colossians heresy in mind.
And he wrote the epistle to combat this heresy. The heresy at Colossi, the city of Colossi, was really a sore problem. And the Apostle Paul treats the heresy in this epistle. Colossae was one of three cities situated in the eastern part of Asia Minor. The other two cities being Laodicea and Heropolis. And the three were within walking distance from each other, about one hundred miles east of Ephesus, the capital of Asia Minor. And there was a heresy there, as I said, in the form of Gnosticism.
Nosticism, not fully developed then, but dangerous enough to wreck an infant church. The Gnostic heresy had three branches of teaching. Jewish, in the form of traditions, the Jewish people were trying to impose upon the Gentile converts, Jewish traditions like Sabbath keeping, and abstaining from meats and so on. And Greek brand of teaching, the people from the Greek origin taught that the mind and the matter or the soul and the body were opposed to each other.
And the body was evil and was the prison house of the soul. And they taught of denying the body in an attempt, a vain attempt to gain mastery over the spirit. This teaching, this heresy, attacked the person of our Lord. Because if the body was evil, therefore was his body also evil, how could God be incarnate then? See the evil of the heresy then. Then there was also the third branch or branch of teaching was a mystic branch. It taught that the angels or angelic beings acted as mediator between God and man. and the knowledge of this was only to be initiated.
This false teaching, this heresy, was in the mind of the Apostle Paul as he wrote this epistle. I'm not going to go into the epistle verse by verse for obvious reasons, but please start at verse three with me. Verse three verses three to eight. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Praying always for you, since he heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which he have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid out for you in heaven, whereof he heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is in the world, and brings forth fruit, as it does also in you, since today he heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.
Have you also learned of it before that? our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love and the Spirit, for this God, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that he might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Right. Here we hear the apostle in verse three says, giving thanks to God and praying always for you. Those two always go together. Thankfulness, giving thanks, and praying.
The air you breathe in prayer, you breathe out in thanksgiving. Prayer and thanksgiving. Thanking the Lord for what? Look at three things here that the Apostle thanks God for. Verse four, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. He thanks the Lord for the faith that placed those believers in Jesus Christ. Remember, please, it is only through faith that you are saved. Nothing that you have done. All the work is done on the cross of Calvary. It is finished, the Lord Jesus Christ said. It is finished. It is faith in his precious blood.
Secondly, the love to all the saints. All the saints. Sometimes there are some saints that are not so lovable in our sight, but he says love to all the saints. Now, very particularly, he speaks of the hope that you have, the hope which is set for you in the heaven. Which hope? Now, the word hope in our modern usage does not mean very much. I hope it will be good weather. So I'm not sure. Therefore, I take my umbrella with me. Hope, but not so in the Word of God.
Hope in the Word of God is certainty, assurance, because it's not built on what I think or what I suppose or what I hope it will be. But it is built upon Jesus Christ our Lord and his perfect work on the cross. hope we build on the certainty of hope and especially the hope of his coming again the Lord promised I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also and friends this is the glorious fact that lies before you now As things move towards that wonderful fulfillment of that wonderful promise, it is the hope of his coming again.
Jesus Christ our Lord is coming again and he's coming again soon. I can't fix a day, an hour, a time, but I know he's coming again soon. Please turn with me to a very important passage well known to all of us. Second Kings chapter two. Second Kings and Chapter Two. You know very well the incident. Elijah was taken up to heaven, alive. And Elijah witnessed it. He saw what took place.
And he could not contain himself. He went about, speaking of what had taken place. And he went to a place called Jericho. I'm going to read to you just one or two verses. Look at verse twenty-three. And went up from thence unto Bethel. And as he was going up, by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up thou bold head. Go up thou bold head. And he turned back, and looked at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. There came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and there were forty and two children of them.
Now, you must have been puzzled at what took place, actually. Why? My Arabic Bible does not say children, but says teen ages. Lads, these were teenagers. And Elijah must have told them what took place in the ascension of Elijah and Elijah. in a chariot of fire. And they made fun of this idea. They didn't make fun of the fact that he was bold-headed. There's no shame in being bold-headed. No fun either. But they didn't make fun of his being bold-headed. Some people are blessed with hair.
Others are blessed with brains. I'm satisfied with my luck. However, they didn't say go away, you bold-headed. They said go up. You bold head. Show us. Go up, you bold head, and show us. They scorned the idea of a person going up to heaven, not through the gate of death. They scorned at the idea. And what is happening today? The Apostle Peter tells us that in the last days what happened? There would be scoffers, scoffers laughing at the idea of the rapture. But we know for sure that the day is coming near.
and every sign on our right hand and on our left hand says with unmistakable clarity, behold, he cometh. I've been asked by more than one dear brother and sister, what is happening today in the Middle East? in connection with the coming again of Jesus Christ our Lord. I have no time. I did not intend to go into this topic this morning. But I will go out of my way a little bit. Please turn with me to a well-known passage in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter nineteen. We're going to read just a few verses there.
Please note, as I always say, three words repeated over and over and over again in that chapter. The three words are, in that day, in that day. They occur a number of times. Look at verse sixteen. In that day. Look at verse eighteen. In that day. Look at verse nineteen. In that day. Look at verse twenty-two in the middle of the verse. In that day. Look at verse twenty-three. In that day. Look at verse twenty-four. In that day. Why does the Holy Spirit repeat those words over and over and over again?
There must be an important message. And an important message there is. In that day when the coming again of Jesus Christ will be near, things will take place. And he gave us at least nine things in this chapter which will take place in the world in general but in the Middle East in particular. I'm not going to go into these. Let me give you just one or two only. Look at verse eighteen. In that day there were five cities in the land of Egypt See, the language of Canaan and its words of the Lord of hosts, one shall be called the city of destruction.
In my Arabic Bible it reads the city of the sun, S-U-N. Shemish in Hebrew. Shemf in Arabic. City of the sun. Maybe you have marginal references and they will tell you also city of the sun, S-U-N. Well, friends, the city of the sun is there today. It lies about seven miles northeast of Cairo. Some time ago, a company from Belgium came to invest money in land in Egypt, and they purchased large areas in what we call the eastern desert between Egypt and Palestine.
And they built a very modern city. And I know the manager of the company was not an authority on Bible prophecy. But he chose the name for the city. What do you think the name was? Ben Lepton? No. Asheville? No. He called it Heliopolis. H-E-L-I-O-P-O-L-I-N. H-E-L-I-O-P-O-L-I-S. Heliopolis, which literally means city of the sun. Helio in Greek, it's sun. And the suffix opolis, city.
Heliopolis, city of the sun. Coincidence? No. There's no coincidence in the plan of God. As a matter of fact, in your life and my life, there are no accidents. No accident in the life or the child of God. All things that happen to you and to me are planned by His love. All things work together for good to them that love God. Heliopolis is there today. You would ask me where are the other four cities? I don't know. The names are not mentioned here. There are at least half a dozen new cities there. And I have no shadow of a doubt that the four are among them.
but I can't locate them because the names are not given here. Take another one. Please turn the page, same chapter, and I'm going to read to you one or two verses only. What great engineering project has been accomplished of late in the land of Egypt? That's right. I've heard right, you've said right. The Aswan Haidam. The Aswan Haidam. Well, what is the Aswan Haidam? Let me say something. Nine-tenths of the land of Egypt is desert land, and one-tenth only under cultivation. And we owe it to the River Nile, and there is any life in the land of Egypt.
The River Nile is a big, long river that flows from south to north. And each year, it rises during two months, August and September because of the torrential rain that falls on the mountains of Ethiopia and they run in the River Nile to the Mediterranean Sea. Well, this water, most of it, is wasted into the sea. They thought of making use of it and to make use of it, to bring land on the cultivation from the desert. And what did they do? They said, well, we'll build The Aswan high dam, huge wall behind the reservoir, a man-made lake, huge lake to store the water of the river Nile during those two months, to use as the need arose.
All right. But to dig a lake of that size would cost billions of dollars. There was already what you call the depression of Abu Simbel. which could be used as a lake. And they built a wall behind the lake. All right. To use it, they had to transport or transfer the monuments from Abu Sambul elsewhere, which they did. And they actually diverted the course of the River Nile from its natural course into that lake and then out of that lake to the course to the Mediterranean Sea. Look, for instance, at verse six. Chapter nineteen, verse six.
and they shall turn the rivers far away. They shall turn the rivers far away. At the time this prophecy was uttered, the river Nile was a deity to the Egyptian. They worshipped the river Nile. Who could touch the river Nile? Who could turn the river Nile far away? But Isaiah with the eye of prophecy spoke of days to come. when a great thing will take place, when Jesus Christ will come again to the world, and he gave us a number of things which will happen before then, and they will turn the rivers far away.
What is more, when that water came on the mountains of Ethiopia, it brought along a lot of silt with it, which was an excellent fertilizer for the land, and at the same time an excellent seed for the sardines, so much so that Thousands of tons of sardines were caught from the Mediterranean Sea during those months. The sardines came to feed over the silt. But when the wall was built, the silt deposited, sedimented, behind the wall, settled down behind the wall. It doesn't run anymore with the river Nile. So much so, there's no feed for the sardines and there are no sardines now. Nothing. Thousands of workers were out of work because of what took place.
Look at verse eight. The fishermen also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brook shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish, which they actually do today. Why? No sardines. How could Isaiah know this, where he spoke as he was moved by the Spirit of God? What is the message you take to you and I from this? Jesus Christ, our Lord, is coming again. He's coming again soon. The hope that you set before you. Turn back, please, to Colossians chapter one. The hope of the coming again of Jesus Christ our Lord.
So the Apostle Paul thanks God for their faith in Christ, for their love to all the saints, and for their hope. in Jesus Christ for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. Now verse six is a tremendous verse. Speaking of the gospel of Christ which has come unto you as it is in all the world and bring forth fruit as it does also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. Now the Apostle Paul is going to give us now three stages of knowledge. Three stages of knowledge.
The first stage is the knowledge of the grace of God. Let me say something to you. Man's desire in the east, in the west, in the north, in the south, the educated, the uneducated, is to find favor with God. How? How? Through many ways, man has tried. But it is not many ways, my friends. This is the difference, the great difference between Christianity and other religions. Other religions show you man's search after God. Christianity shows you God's search after man. The Son of God has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
And he's seeking you this morning. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you rest. Turn with me to Psalm one hundred and eighteen. See the cry of all the ages. Psalm one hundred and eighteen. I'm going to read to you just two verses of this wonderful Psalm. It really summarizes the cry of the ages of people everywhere. At Psalm one hundred and eighteen verse nineteen. Open to me the gates of righteousness.
Please note the S, the plural number in gates. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them and I will praise the Lord. That's what man says. To man there are gates of righteousness given to the poor, trying to be good, going to church, all sorts of rituals, prayer, all these are gates, man-man gates. But will these take you to the righteousness of God? No. Look at verse twenty, please. This is God's answer. This gate in the singular number, this gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter.
This gate, only one gate, One gate to God, one way. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me, says Christ our Lord. I am the way, the truth and life. Have you entered by that gate? I am the door of the sheep. The Lord said, by me if any man enters, he shall be saved. He shall go in and come out and find pasture. Have you found him? Have you found him or the Holy Lord? Jesus Christ, the only Savior. Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am the Lord, and there is none other. Have you found him? If you have not found him, come unto me today.
I shall never, never forget an experience of mine. It was my yearly habit or experience or practice, if you wish to call it, to take boys from my high school and other high schools for a summer camp. by the seaside every year, two weeks under canvas, on the seaside. Oh, perfect time. Good meals, not as good as the meals you have here, but good meals, good games, fun, wonderful time, and of course, meetings in the Word of God. One year I had fifty-two students, a number of helpers too.
And next to us was a camp for the Faculty of Engineering. And I received one day an invitation from them, challenging us to a volleyball match. They came to play on our grounds. And you can imagine the two teams. Their team, age twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four are the most. Our team, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen in the most. And they had the grandest time. The grandest time in their life. They enjoyed themselves immensely. The game ended by twelve noon. and the visiting team went to their tents. And our team came to our tents for lunch. But about fifteen minutes later, no more, I heard whistling and shouting and running.
So I dashed out of my tent to see what was happening. I found people running, I ran with them. You know why I was running. I was running because they were running. Until I came to a group of people standing by the seashore. I pushed my way through. I can close my eyes now and see with horror what I saw then. Two of them said one to the other. Instead of walking back to our tents, let us swim back. One of them was not a good swimmer and he fell in trouble. The other came to his rescue. He also wasn't a good swimmer and he fell in trouble too. And both literally were drowned.
were drowned. I saw them with my own eyes, drowned lifeless on the beach. Fifteen minutes ago, only fifteen minutes ago, they were full of life. Fifteen minutes later, they were dead. What is your life? Young man, what is your life? A puff of smoke, vapor vanished away. If I had come to them and said, Listen, prepare to meet your God, what do you think they would have said to me? Nonsense. I have a long life ahead of me.
I'm still young in the prime of youth. It was not a long life ahead of them. It was only fifteen minutes. Have you found Jesus Christ, your Lord? Is he your Savior? Can you say I have entered by the gate? I know I was blind, but now I can see. I know him as my Savior. He is calling unto you now. Come unto me. Behold, I stand that the door unlocks. If any man hears my voice and open the door, I will come in. Stop with him and he with me. Open the door of your heart now.
Turn with me back to first Colossians, chapter one, please. Go on chapter one. The first stage of knowledge is in verse six, the grace of God in truth. Then he offers a prayer in verse nine. For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that he might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. The knowledge of God's will.
Christian brother and sister, the only safe place for you, the only blessed place for you is the center of God's will for you. Step out of that place and you're in for trouble. You're in for trouble. The difference today between Christian and Christian is someone is in the will of God, someone is out of the will of God. That tragic thing in the lives of many people today is they have stepped out of the will of God. Paul is praying for the believers that they may increase and be filled with their knowledge. of the will of God.
What is the will of God? Well, to answer this question briefly, I find the will of God expressed generally for every believer in two ways. The apostle says, this is the will of God, even your what? Sanctification. Even your sanctification. This is the will of God. Even your sanctification. And what does sanctification mean? Set apart. I'm set apart for Christ. I don't belong to myself as I said in the morning. Listen. Behold, I stand the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and stop with him.
He's still my guest. But what is the rest of the earth? And he with me. He with me. You will be his guest. He will take over. He would be your Lord. He will stop with me first. when I'm saved. But afterwards, I suffer with him. Is he your Lord? Your sanctification? Is there anything in your life and my life that is not according to his will? Pray today as you sit and hear these words, the dearest idol I have known, whatever that I will be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee, a holy life.
a set aside life for Christ, I think of a young man. He was away from home, betrayed by his own brethren, sold into slavery, but he knew the will of God. He knew the will of God. He was a man of destiny, and he knew that he was a man of destiny. This was God's will for him. He gave it to him a number of dreams. His name was Joseph. Young people, you are people of destiny. Destiny in Christ, eternal life, belonging to him. And he knew he was a man of destiny.
And he stood up to it. I'm sold as a slave. Never mind. I will be the best slave. I will be the best slave. He was a man of destiny. Not only that, but he was a man of excellence. I will be the best slave. And he was, because we read that his master delivered everything into his hand. What happened? You know the temptation. It came his way. And what most of us don't realize is the fact that the temptation came to him day after day. Day after day she spoke to him. I wonder if he reasoned within himself, I'm far away from home.
Nobody will hear about it. My father will not know of it. My brother will not know of it. No one will know of it. And after all, I didn't ask for it, she did. Day after day. But what did he do? He was not only a man of destiny and a man of excellence, he was a man of purity. Young people, young people, listen to what he said. How can I do this great evil and sin against God? If he had given in to temptation, Could God have used him to interpret the dreams to Pharaoh? No. He stood firm. He knew the will of God for him. Sanctification. How can I do this great evil and sin against God?
He was a man of purity. And as I said, he was a man of destiny and he was a man of excellence. He knew the will of God for him. What was the end result? He was cast into prison. Into prison? As a result, What did he do? Did he shake his fist to God in defiance that I was honest to you and is this my reward? No. He knew the will of God and he rejoiced in the will of God. I am sold into slavery. I would be the best slave. I am sent to prison. I would be the best prisoner. I would be the best prisoner because he was so successful in prison. God gave him grace in the eyes of the man in charge of the prison.
Them that honor me. I will also honor. Are you honoring God, young people, in your lives? Him that honor me, I will also honor? Yes, He was the best prisoner. And when He was called before Pharaoh, He was the best interpreter. He was a man of excellence. Yours is excellence in Christ Jesus. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. This is the will of God for you, even your sanctification. Even your sanctification. There is a third state of knowledge I am told that I have only forty minutes to speak or else.
Therefore I have to stick to forty minutes. Yes. Look at verse ten, please. That he might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. A third stage of knowledge, the knowledge of God. We have seen the knowledge of the grace of God, the knowledge of the will of God, and the knowledge now of God himself. This is actually what took place at the moment of crisis in the life of Jacob.
You read Genesis chapter two. Up till that moment, He was given up to trickery. He was successful in many ways. He became rich, but let me tell you something. Riches have not a sign of God's favor, or rather not a sign of a holy life. But a holy life is known in the secret place when you have communion with God and you spend time with Him. That's what Jacob experienced in Genesis chapter two. He was ordered by God to go back to his homeland.
But he dreaded to meet his brother Esau because of what had taken place. Jacob means supplantor. We in the Middle East give great importance to names. Names have meanings. Most names. As a matter of fact, all names in the olden times had meanings and were given for specific purpose. Today, most people summarize their hopes and aspirations in the Middle East in the names they give to their children. Our son is called Samir, S-A-M-I-R, which means good friends, and there's a reason for it.
We had two daughters, and when our eldest daughter was five years old, five and a half, She came home for school one day and she was really miserable, really miserable. And she almost cried. And we tried to talk to her, no, she was pouting and sulky and she wouldn't answer. At last he opened up and said, in tears, each girl in my classroom had a brother, but I don't have a brother. I said, bless your heart. I was saying, almost saying, I was going to say, bless your gizzard. I won't say it. I've said it anyway. However, I said, well, bless your heart. Why don't you pray? Pray the Lord to give you brother.
Why do you want a brother? I said, I want the brother to be a friend to me, a good friend to me. I said, well, all right, pray for the Lord to give you a brother, to be a good friend to you. I said, really, Daddy, if I pray to God, will he give me a brother? And what should I say? She put me on the spot. I said, well, you know, if it's God's will, he would give you a brother. He said, all right, and very sincerely and simply, she started to pray that the Lord will give her a brother. And you know, when my wife was expecting, we had no shadow of a doubt that he was going to be a son. And he was. And we called him Shamir, which means good friend. S-A-M-I-R. You call his name Jesus because he saves his people from the sin.
Well, Jacob means trickery. A person given trickery. It's a planter. It's not a good name. Not a very good name. And I'm sure you choose good names for your children too. I hear a number of names, good names, Violet, Rose, Iris, all sorts of good names, forget me not. All sorts of good names you give to your children. But Jacob was not a good name, you know. Soplanta, trickery, cheater, deceivers. And the Lord knew what he needed. He did not need protection from Esau.
He did not need another plan. He needed a meeting place with God to know God personally. And the Lord appeared to him in the form of man who wrestled with him all night. And you know what to place. He touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of his thigh was out of joints. And he held on to him, I will not leave thee except thou bless me. You want a blessing, Jacob? Yes, please. And then came the question, the far-reaching question. The thirsting question. What is your name? What is your name? I'm sure you want a blessing today. I'm sure each one of us wants a blessing today. But the question comes, what is your name?
What is your name? Cheater? Slothful? prayerless, doubtful, unfaithful. What is your name? You know it. Oh, friends, the man with the capital M is standing in our midst this morning, and he's asking this question to you personally. What is your name? Would you know God personally? Tell him your name. And the answer will come if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just. To forgive us our sins and cleanse us from how many?
All unrighteousness. Your name shall no more be called Jacob but Israel. Prince with God. And friends, the knowledge of God himself will be the blessed experience of each and every one of you. Let us pray. Our loving Heavenly Father, we bow in thy presence in the quietness of this hour. We praise thee and we thank thee for Jesus Christ our Lord, for the knowledge of his grace, the unmerited favor, for the knowledge of his will and for the knowledge of thee.