Welcome to this new episode of the Gospel for the Nations podcast. Our desire is to open the Word of God with you and to speak in a way that is clear, simple, and full of grace. Wherever you are listening from, we pray that the Holy Spirit will touch your heart through his word, strengthen your faith, and draw you closer to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Well, good morning. It's a joy to be here this morning. The church in Bangkok has been praying for you all, even this week, as we've heard the news of the building. Continue to pray for you and are just uh excited for gospel for the nations and what the Lord is doing through this church. Well, unlike Kareem, I am an introvert. I am not nearly as talkative as Kareem is. I'm a fairly quiet person. And I've gotten better with my people skills, but especially in high school when I was younger, I was particularly quiet. And I would remember growing up, every few months, my dad would come up to my room, he would sit on my bed, and he would say, Austin, I need you to do me a favor. I just need you to talk to your mom. Just tell her about your day, tell her a story, just say something to her, please. It would really help me out. And my sister also thought that I didn't like her because I was quiet and kept to myself. But the truth is, I always loved my mom. I loved my sister. I just didn't show it very well and do a good job showing them that I love them. That is until one day Kate and I had started dating. We were visiting my family. My mom asked me a question while we were in the car, and so I gave a typical one-word reply. And Kate said, Austin, that is not an answer. Respond to your mother. And so, like any shocked, surprised boyfriend would do, I gave a better response. And my mom thought, this is incredible. She can get him to talk. Kate didn't make me a son, she didn't make me a brother. She didn't even make me a loving son. I'd always been a loving son, but Kate pushed and lovingly forced me to do a significantly better job showing the love that I had to my family. And Paul, I think, in Colossians, prays with a similar idea. He knows that God has already saved the saints of the church in Colossae and He's welcomed them into the kingdom of Christ, but that's not enough. He never settles for the lowest standard of Christians. He doesn't save us and then leave us. He saves us and then he pushes and forces and urges us to be made into the image of his son. In that process, he makes us more faithful and patient and honoring to God, just as Christ is always faithful and patient and honoring to the Father. Our passage this morning is Colossians 1, 9 to 14. So I'm just going to continue where Matt left off a couple months ago when he was here. So let me read Colossians 1, starting in verse 9. Says, for this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven't stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints' inheritance in the light. He's rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I think the main point of this passage is that God has brought us into a new kingdom, and he is shaping us into worthy citizens. God has brought us into a new kingdom, and God is shaping us into worthy citizens of that kingdom. And you'll notice that neither our citizenship or our status or rank as citizens is dependent on us. God has brought us into his kingdom, and God is shaping us into worthy citizens of that kingdom. I think, or I hope even you'll see that in our outline this morning. That one, God gives knowledge, two, God gives fruit, and three, God gives redemption. God gives us knowledge, God gives us the fruit, and God gives us redemption. God gives knowledge. If you remember when Matt and I were here a few months ago, he preached the first uh verses of this book, and his main point or his points were something like these are true Christians, and Paul knows they're true Christians because they believe the true gospel. He's talking to true Christians, and he knows that because they believe the true gospel, and that's a foundational truth of every true Christian. Every true Christian will believe the true gospel. And they made man in their image. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, and he gave them dominion over all of the creation to rule and reign in the garden, but Adam and Eve sinned. They didn't accept being made in the image of God, but they wanted to be God themselves. They wanted God's throne. And so they ate from the tree, and in their rebellion, they were cast out of the garden and separated from God and from his presence. The relationship was broken. Adam and every man after Adam has continued to be unable to reconcile our relationship with God. We're unable and unwilling to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, pleasing to him. But God, by his grace and love for us, didn't leave us in this hopeless state. He didn't leave us to be ruled and dominated by the kingdom of darkness. He sent Jesus, his perfect son, who was fully God, to take the punishment that we deserve because of our sin and rebellion. He sent his son to be broken so that we might be made whole. And Jesus died on the cross and he rose from the grave so that through the loving election of God, that those of us in Christ might be raised out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of Christ. Those who believe this true gospel, those who respond with faith and obedience, those are the true Christians that Paul is writing to in this letter of Colossians. And so Paul knows that these are true Christians, those that are called and saved by God. And look at his response. It's not, we've heard this, so we wish you the best of luck. Carry on. Fight the good fight. Work hard. Don't fall into sin. Don't do this, but make sure you do that. All right, which are all good things to say, all true things. They're not wrong. All right, we as Christians, as the church, we should exhort one another not to fall into sin. We should help one another, encourage one another, hold fast to the faith. We should remind one another of the truth of the gospel. But this is what Paul says. He says, For this reason, since the day we heard, we haven't stopped praying for you. Paul heard of the true faith of these true Christians and says, We haven't stopped praying for you. I've been praying day after day, he says, lifting you up before the Lord. Been praying since the day I heard of your faith and the situation in the church there. So, church, let me encourage you to do the same thing for one another. Pray often for one another. Maybe you have a membership directory, or maybe you have a list of the members of the church, or you make your own list and you pray for one or two church members every day. In your own time with the Lord and your family worship time, you take time to pray for one another. We have a member at BCBC who every week will pray through every member of the membership directory. We have 84 members, and he prays for each one every week. So on Mondays, he prays for my family. And every Monday I get a text that he prayed for us. All right, what an encouragement that is to me and to everyone in the church to know that he's every week praying for them and their family. And isn't it great that the Apostle Paul's response is to pray for them?
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SPEAKER_01Because that's something all of us can do. We can all take time to pray for one another. Maybe we can't go and meet with everyone. Maybe we can't have coffee with everyone every week. Maybe we might not be able to give the best or wisest counsel or help them through a difficult situation, but we can all take time to pray for one another. And not only can we pray to the same God as Paul prayed for the church in Colossae, we can pray the same request. Because Paul tells us in these verses what he prayed for. Says in verse 9, we are asking that you may be filled with all, filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This isn't the knowledge of his will to move to this place or to that place or to take this job or to take that job or some specific plan that we must follow or else we're in disobedience. Right? Certainly, God has a plan for our life. But more specifically, the knowledge of his will is his will for each one of us to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. Regardless of what our job is, regardless of who you marry or where you live or where you work, God's will is that you would live a godly life. That through wisdom and spiritual understanding you would obey what Scripture commands of us, and that you would worship God. That is primarily God's will for our life. So that's what Paul prayed for. Right? Proverbs in chapter 1 and 2 tells us the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And for the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. So we cannot and we will not obtain knowledge on our own. And we're dependent on the Lord to give us wisdom, to give us knowledge of his will. And he's done that primarily through his word. James tells us now, if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to him. The knowledge of God will always lead us to obey his commands. As God gives us knowledge, he also empowers us for obedience. As he gives us knowledge, he also gives us fruit. That's point two. God gives fruit. Paul prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will for this reason. Verse 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who enables you to share in the saints' inheritance in the light. Paul gives some very practical ways the Lord provides fruit. He tells us specifically what that fruit is. Paul gives us ways that we might grow in the Lord. He shows us that God not only saves us in justification, but he also sanctifies us. Again, he's not only brought us into a new kingdom, but he's also making us worthy citizens of that kingdom. He's heard of their salvation and their true faith in the gospel. And he asked the Lord to fill them with the knowledge so they might be pleasing to the Lord, walking in a manner worthy of God, that they might bear fruit for his glory. They might be strengthened and with power according to his glorious might. And that Christ might give them patience and endurance, joyfully giving thanks to the Father. God redeemed us with the precious blood of his only Son. And through Christ we are justified. Jesus came and welcomed us into the presence of God, and then he then clothed us with his righteousness. He made us righteous before God. Even while we were sinners, God sent his only beloved son to pay the price of our rebellion. Again, he didn't just save us, he also determined to make us more like his son. He didn't save us to leave us where we are, he saved us to sanctify us and to grow us and to transform us into the image of his son. And we aren't sanctified by our own efforts. We aren't made more like Christ because we work really, really hard, or because we know enough or do enough or say the right things or don't do the wrong things. We're made into the image of God because God has ordained it, just as He's ordained our salvation and our justification in Christ. It's only through Christ that we're saved, and it's only through Christ that we can live like we're saved, and we can live like true Christians. And praise God that it's not dependent on our work and our effort and what we can muster up from within ourselves, but through the work of the Spirit. So don't hear me say that we don't have a responsibility or any job to do. It's not that we pray a prayer one time or we at one point claim to be a Christian and then we can continue living however we want. If you truly believe through Christ and you've truly been justified, then you will be sanctified because again, it's not dependent on us, it's Christ. And we're dependent on Christ to save us and to transform us. Not by our beliefs or our wisdom or our efforts, but by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. For God's glory alone. So those who are truly saved will always be sanctified because it's God who does both. God doesn't justify us and save us without also promising to sanctify us. Right? Sanctification, it's the process in which we grow as a Christian. We become more like Christ. We grow in godliness. It comes from the work of the Spirit in our lives, particularly through the ordinary means of grace, the ordinary ways in which God grows his people. As you sit under faithful preaching of God's word, Spirit is faithful to grow you and mature you and convict you and equip you. As you read the Bible, as you go to church, as you pray, as you confess sin, as you do these ordinary things that Christians do, Spirit works through those things for your sanctification. It's through these ordinary means of grace, these spiritual disciplines that the Spirit transforms us after we've already been transferred into the new kingdom, the kingdom of his son. There's a reason Paul prays for the saints in Colossae. And he tells them a number of these reasons. He tells them why he's praying for them and what he's praying for. And these again are things that we can and should pray for one another. Things that we can use to foster love within our own church, to foster faithfulness in our own Christian lives. So first, Paul prays, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. Worthy of Christ Jesus, who came as a man and lived a perfect life, in which there was no area of his life in which he failed or slipped or kept hidden, or no spiritual discipline he couldn't do. He was in very nature God. So for us to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, means that we walk in the same way in which Christ walked. But how do we do that? I'm not perfect. My suspicion is that none of you are perfect. Right? And though I try, though I'm sure each of you tries, we don't walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. We do sin and fall. But with all these pictures of the wisdom and spiritual understanding that Paul gives, all these ways in which we might walk in. In a manner worthy of the Lord. Paul doesn't have in mind the strength of those in the church. Spirit doesn't have in mind your own strength and desire and ability to do good. Right? He has Christ in mind. We can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord only because we are united with Christ. And we've been given his righteousness. We are sons and daughters of the living God, co-heirs with Christ, brothers and sisters with the perfect Son. And when the Father looks on us, for those in Christ, he no longer sees our rebellion, no longer sees our sin. He sees the righteousness of his son that was given to us on the cross. His righteousness, his reward, his salvation, the manner in which he walked in Christ, we have, and therefore can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Paul also prays, so that you may bear fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. Again, it's in Christ that we bear fruit. And not in us or our work. We don't produce fruit. We're not saving people. We're not making one another mature in Christ by what we do. We aren't growing in the knowledge of God because we're smarter or have more understanding on our own, but because the Spirit is revealing Christ to us as we sit under the preaching of the Word, as we read the Word, as we pray it and study it and meditate and memorize it. As we fellowship with one another, as we pray and as we're faithful to observe the ordinances as a church, as we do these things, these ordinary things, the Spirit continues to work in us to make us more like Christ. Spirit continues to grow us and sanctify us and change us. And while we're not free from any responsibility to practice the spiritual disciplines, it's also not dependent on us. We're not completely responsible. We rely on Christ to work in and through us as we sit under the word, as we hear it preached, as we pray, as we study it, as we read it, as we share it with one another. The Spirit works. We rely on Christ as we pray for ourselves, as we pray for others. We rely on Christ to make us more like Him, to help us to fight and flee from temptation and sin, to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. We rely on Christ to produce fruit as we faithfully share the gospel and water seeds of evangelism. Paul prays also so that they may be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. In Christ, we're strengthened according to his glorious might. And I hope you're starting to see that we're totally dependent on Christ for our own sanctification. Not only are we dependent on Christ for our salvation to be transferred into a new kingdom, we're also dependent on Christ to be made into worthy citizens of that kingdom. It's only Christ that saves, and it's only Christ that gives growth and sanctifies us. We're strengthened according to his glorious might, but we also have a responsibility to train ourselves for godliness. We're being strengthened by the Lord, but we also must work hard to build one another up and to help one another grow. As the Lord works in us and provides the fruit of his own labor, we must work even harder alongside him. Paul prays so that they may have great endurance and patience. Those who endure, those are the ones that are truly saved. Because again, it's not dependent on us, but Christ has called us, and Christ is holding us fast. He is faithful to complete a good work in us after he's called us. The Lord who saves us is the Lord who will keep us. He won't call us to himself in salvation and then make us carry on on our own strength to the end. In Christ, all that is Christ's is ours. And oh was Jesus patient and enduring on the cross. Knowing that at any moment he could have stepped down and he could have had an army of angels come down to defend him and to care for him. And yet he endured. He stayed on the cross because he knew that we would not endure without him. He endured on our behalf because we won't endure. The trials and the temptations of this world without Christ will pull us away. But Christ endured for us. He remained on the cross until his very last breath, and then the curtain was torn. The Holy of Holies was opened, and we were welcomed back into the presence of God through the work of Christ. He endured on the cross, even to the point of death, but he was not defeated. He rose again from the grave. And Romans 6, 4 tells us, therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. It is through Christ's death and burial and resurrection that we might walk in newness of life. There is no other religion in which a God would endure for the sake of the people that serve Him. Every other religion expects those followers to serve their God, to sustain their God, to bring food to the temples, to offer things for their ancestors, to provide money, to give them what they need. Other gods would never sacrifice themselves for mere humans. But not so with Christ. He endured and suffers and serves those that he calls to himself. The king has patiently endured the consequences of the citizens of his kingdom so that we wouldn't have to, because we couldn't do it if we tried. Just as Christ endured and was raised to glory, so too in Christ we might endure. We might be raised to walk in newness of life. Our godliness and your faithful Christian life serves as a witness to the world around you. Not of what you're able to do or what you can do in your own power, but what Christ has done and is doing and will do in and through you. Finally, Paul prays so that they may joyfully give thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the saints' inheritance and the light. And the response to these things happening is exactly what we would expect, right? Giving thanks to the source of our endurance and our faithfulness in our Christian walk, giving thanks to God the Father in Christ. God has enabled us to share in the saints' inheritance. And we join with all the saints in the inheritance that we have as co-heirs with Christ because of his work on the cross. Not because of who we are, but because of the status we've been given in Christ. Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the living God. It would be silly for us to be filled with pride because of what we can do. Since God has given us salvation and God is giving us sanctification. God is growing us and equipping us and transforming us. So we should give thanks to the Father, not find pride in ourselves. So when we examine our lives as we often should as Christians, when we see some of these things, when we see fruit, when we see endurance and faithfulness and walking in a manner worthy of the Lord and knowledge of his will, we should praise God who's given us those things, not be proud of ourselves. We should also thank God for the saints with whom we share the inheritance of the light. Yes, those saints of old, the global church of every Christian from every time. I think that's one reason I love to sing old hymns, because they're not only so often theologically rich, but you're singing the same words as hundreds and thousands of saints who sang them for hundreds and hundreds of years before. But we should also praise God for the church, for the saints in this room this morning, for your church members, for one another. Because it's not a stretch to say that your church, each one of you, are a significant reason that you are the Christian that you are today, because of one another. God has given us the local church to grow us and equip us and to work out our sanctification. We have commit ourselves to a local church as every Christian should, since the first churches in the New Testament. We confess as we do that that we cannot walk in a manner worthy of the Lord on our own. We need other people, we need other Christians to hold us accountable, to encourage us, to equip us, help us grow in our sanctification. Thank God that He has given us the church, that it might hold us accountable, that it might provide a safety net for us in our Christian walk to help us fight sin, confess sin and temptation, to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And all of this, God gives, God sanctifies, God gathers the saints together in the local church. And so we must pray without stopping, right? That God would bring more faithful saints to this church, that he would continue to grow each one of you into the image of his son, that he would continue to provide and sanctify people in Samoy. Right? And through all of the work that God is doing, we don't sit idle. We don't sit and watch. We must walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fleeing sin and walking in the light. We must be patient and endure. We must grow in the knowledge of God as we study his word and as we hear it preached. We must be patient, we must do these things, but without Christ, we will not. So we must depend on Christ. And church, I confess at times this truth doesn't make sense. God does all the work, but we must work hard to make sure the work is done. Right? It seems to be an oxymoron. Right? But he has allowed us to be part of his plan of redemption in our own lives and in the lives of one another. He's allowed us to take part in one another's sanctification, to help one another grow in Christ. Our redemption is so much more than one moment that we're justified. Our redemption includes all of our sanctification. And it's hard work, but it's worth it. Number three, God gives redemption. As we labor to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, we do so as a response for his great love for us. God's love for us is so glorious and great. How can we not respond with worship and obedience and praise to him? It should be clear by now that God doesn't love us because of what we do. Or we're loved because Christ loved us. Even as children, we we can recognize the amazement of being loved for no other reason other than that we are loved. I love ice cream, and I have passed that love on to my children. And so this week, when I told them that we should go to the freezy cow for ice cream, and I told them that they could get two scoops of ice cream instead of the normal one scoop, they were overjoyed. And even for just a moment, attitudes were better. People were more respectful and obedient and kinder for one scoop of ice cream. Attitudes and personalities changed. Church, how much more have we been given in Christ? He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and he transferred us into the kingdom of his son that he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And this was a costly redemption. It costs God his son for us because he loves us. And saved us, not because of who we are, but because of who we now are in Christ. We don't have to find endurance and patience before sharing in the saints' inheritance and the light. Church, you can respond to the true gospel this morning with faith and obedience. You can pray that the Lord would open your own eyes to see the truth, to believe what Christ has done for you. You can read the Bible with another church member to know and understand the gospel. You can turn through Christ from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. To repent, to turn away from your sin and to turn toward Christ alone. Not anything else or any other combination of things, but Christ alone. He is the one that paid the price that you cannot. Not other gods, not other religions, not a combination. Christ alone. He has authority to welcome you into a new kingdom. Believe and obey. Christians, what more could we ask or hope for? We were all living in the kingdom of darkness under the domain of sin. We were lost and hopeless, and God rescued us. He transferred us into a new kingdom, the kingdom of his son. And in this kingdom we have redemption through Christ. We have the forgiveness of our sins. Not because of we've earned it, not because we're good enough or we try hard enough. No, we have this because our sin was placed on Christ, so that his righteousness might be placed on us. Do you believe that? Do you believe that Christ came and died on the cross for your sin, for your rebellion? Do you believe that because of Christ you are now righteous? That through his patience, you now have patience. That through his endurance, we have endurance. Brothers and sisters, if we believe this truth, and it certainly is true, if we truly believe this, then by God's grace, we will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Fully pleasing to God. Not because we're sinless, we no longer fall into temptation, not because we're able on our own, but because he who started a good work in us is faithful to carry it on to completion till the day of Christ Jesus. Church, I want to encourage you to do two things. The first is to pray often for important things. Pray often for important things. If you want to spend time praying that the paper cut on your finger goes away quickly, if you want to spend time praying that your car doesn't break down or that it doesn't rain on the day you plan to go to the beach, that's fine if you want to pray for those things. But be sure to pray for important good things. Pray for yourself, for other church members, just as Paul has prayed for the church in Colossae. Pray that each of you would be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and understanding. Pray that you would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. Pray that you would bear fruit in every good work. Pray that you would grow in the knowledge of God. Pray these verses. It is good for us to pray scripture back to God, to pray the promises He's already made and ask them with confidence. Pray these verses. Read them out loud and insert the names of your family or yourself or other church members. Pray these things. And pray also for the lost. Pray for the lost in Samoy, that they would hear and see and believe the truth. Pray that they would know Christ and the redemption and forgiveness that is found only in Him. Pray that the Lord would open their hearts and they that you would have opportunities to share the gospel with Him and that you would be faithful and bold to take those opportunities. And secondly, be diligent to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. God promises to sanctify his people. It's not like a moving sidewalk at the airport where we get on and stand still until the end of the sidewalk. We don't get a free ride to stand and do nothing. We must labor to serve the Lord. And thankfully, you have the church. You have the church to encourage and to equip one another, to help one another grow, right? To help you understand the truth of scripture, to help you apply it to your life here. You have one another to address sin in your life and confess where you're struggling. Praise God for the gift of sharing in the saints' inheritance and delight. Even in the midst of trials and uncertainty with this church and the future of where you will meet, you have the fellowship of the saints. You have one another. Don't underestimate that. Work hard to love and to serve and to rejoice and to weep with one another. As you're united in Christ, be united to one another as well. God has called us into his kingdom alongside other citizens. And he's using the local church, this local church, to sanctify each one of you. Rejoice in that. Pray for one another. Pray for your pastor. Pray for your church. That God would continue to grow you into the image of his son, filling you with knowledge of his will so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. For he's rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his son, he loves. Praise God for that. Let me pray for us this morning. God, we love you and we praise you that you have saved us, that you've rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son. That in Christ we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. We would grow in our love and understanding of the gospel, that we would grow in our faithfulness to share the gospel with the lost around us. And God, we pray that we would have patience and endurance. Even in the midst of trials and uncertainties moving forward, we pray that you would provide for this church, for your people. We pray that they would not forget that the church is them, one another, growing in sanctification together for your glory and your kingdom. Your name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening today. If the Lord used this message to bless you, feel free to share it. So others can also be encouraged and strengthened for the coming days. Keep seeking Him, keep reading His Word, and keep trusting His grace every single day.