At this time, I will turn the podium over to our pastor, Pastor Gene Bronson. May the Lord bless the message and the hearing. Just two or three quick announcements which I neglected to make before we open up the Word of God. First of all, I appreciate your prayers for us in Manhattan Fellowship. Tonight, we're going back to what we did last summer. At 5.30, we're going to meet for tract distribution there on 57th Street between 9th and 10th Avenue. Pray for us. that God will help us to be faithful in giving our gospel tract, inviting people to the 6.30 service as we preach the Word of God. Tonight is my privilege to minister the Word of God. We appreciate your prayers for this ministry of evangelism as well as preaching. Secondly, we want to make the announcement as well. You notice it's the Lord's Supper today. We encourage every true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ to come and join us at the end of the service for a brief remembrance of our Savior in his dying love for us. As well as, if you're a member in good standing of an evangelical church where Christ's love is preached, we also would encourage you to come to the table. Now, if in any way you have been a member of a church, you find yourself in unusual circumstances, We invite you still to come. The Lord knows that sometimes we're in church transition, going from one church to another, and you're not necessarily a member of a church now, but we still welcome you to come to the Lord's table. Anyone else who's not a Christian, please stay and observe as we worship our Savior at the Lord's table, okay? Will you turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Colossians? I will begin to do today what I've never done in all of my life. begin to preach verse by verse through a book of the Bible, what we commonly call expository preaching, the book of Colossians. I've been getting encouraged by some here, as well as some up at Manhattan Fellowship, that I should undertake this ministry and with God's help. Because it is a difficult ministry. It's not an easy ministry. It is quite demanding for a preacher of the Word of God. And those of you who know, I work 25 hours a week in a secular job. I am your pastor here, and I am also the unofficial pastor up at the Church of Manhattan Fellowship. So you could well imagine, and I'm married with two sons, and a dog, and a house, and the class needs to be cut, so I'm a normal person, I work, I have to punch the clock in, so I face all of these pressures, and I've undertaken what I hope is not more than I can chew, the exposition of a book of the Bible, verse by verse, the book of Colossians. I sincerely, in all sincerity, please pray for me, that God will help me to be biblically accurate, to give you people just enough background information as essential to understanding the book and the passages, yet not overly too much as delusion. This is not a seminary class. Sometimes preachers preach as if they're in seminaries. Big, big words get into all minute details. And may I say, the people in the pew fall asleep. And frankly, I've been one of them. And there's a sense in which I wouldn't blame you. And so I'm going to be checking your spiritual temperature for weeks and weeks and asking you, brethren, am I getting involved in too many details? And I want you to let me, tell me, yes, Pastor Gabe, you lost me there for about 10 minutes, too many details. And I will keep that in mind, and so I'll back off on the details, because what I don't want to do is lose you. And listen, I'm very conscious, I sat in the pew many years, I know about the weather, I know the distractions that come to us, and so I don't want to lose you in any way. All right? Let us look at the book of Colossians, right after the book of Philippians, and before the book of 1 Thessalonians. Colossians. We will read the first two verses. All right? Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy our brother. To the saints and faithful brethren, or faithful in Christ, brethren in Christ, who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our first message is a message that I'm entitling Introduction and Background to the Book of Colossians. Now remember, the letters of the New Testament weren't just that. They were letters written by people, persons, to other persons, other people, other groups of people. Just like you get a letter in the mail addressed to so-and-so, from so-and-so, from this location to where you live. And in that letter you've got an introduction, you've got a body, and you've got a conclusion. May I say to you the letters of the New Testament are really no different than that. There's one big exception. These letters are divinely inspired by God the Holy Spirit. They are the words of the Living God through the human author, in this situation, the Apostle Paul. Now the Apostle Paul wrote this letter. As a matter of fact, he wanted to assure the brethren that it was really him when he says this. He says, this salutation by my own hand, Paul. By my own hand, I'm writing this with my own hand. Now sometimes Paul didn't write it actually with his own hand. Sometimes he would dictate the letter to people like Pitykus. We were traveling companions of the Apostle. He would quote, say, here's a letter, dictate it. He would speak it, they would write it. But the point is that he wrote this with his own hand, it seems like. So Paul the Apostle Now I don't know how much you know about the Apostle Paul, we're all at different levels of understanding in reference to this man, this strange individual on the history of the church calendar if you will. Saul of Tarsus, that's what he was known before he was converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. On the road to Damascus in Acts chapter 9, he had an encounter of the most amazing kind He met the living Son of God. This man, Saul of Tarsus, had lived most of his life with a passion, an ambition to eradicate, to remove Christians from the face of Palestine. He did everything in his human power to get them thrown into jail, to be killed. As a matter of fact, he was instrumental in giving his consent to the first Christian martyr of the church and that was Stephen in Acts chapter 6 and 7. So Saul of Carthage who was vehement and angry at Jesus of Nazareth and his followers. Well, God had a different plan for Saul of Tarsus. God knocked him off his horse, God converted him, and the Apostle Paul, that's what he became. He became not only a Christian, but he became an Apostle. What's an Apostle? According to the strictest sense of the biblical word, it means this. An Apostle was a unique individual, chosen by Jesus Christ to speak his mind to the churches. And when he was speaking and primarily right, what he wrote was under the divine inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. So what he wrote was the actual words of Jesus Christ. It was no different when Jesus spoke and when Paul spoke. He said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 14, 37, I want you to know that the commandments which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. Paul was very conscious of the fact that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ when he spoke. Jesus spoke through him. Infallibly so. So the letters of the New Testament are the infallible Word of God given to us through human authors and particularly the Apostles. In particular Paul. Paul wrote 13 letters of the 27 books of the New Testament. He wrote more letters than any other apostle. John wrote 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. He wrote the Gospel of John. He wrote also Revelation. That's five. John is probably, yes, the second. Peter would be the next, I believe. First and second Peter. So, to the Apostle Paul was given this tremendous privilege of going around and preaching the gospel which he had once persecuted. And under his ministry of preaching, God the Holy Spirit would come down and would cause to happen to others what happened to him on the road to Damascus. They were converted. They were given new hearts. They were given the gift of repentance, the gift of faith. They began to realize for the first time why I'm here. The meaning and the purpose of life is to worship God, to love Him with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind. They began to realize for the first time in their lives that they had sinned against this God, broken His laws. They were therefore under the divine judgment of God. And the only way that that judgment could be removed from them was through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. that Jesus of Nazareth, which Paul sought to persecute, was the only way to get to God. And so Paul preached salvation through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And whenever he preached that simple gospel message, it came forth a tremendous demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit. People got converted. In the first two or three centuries of the church, there were so many Christians that were converted from the Roman Empire, whereby the Roman Emperor felt threatened by this sect of the Jesus way of the way. These followers of Jesus of Nazareth, Christians began to crop up all over the Roman Empire. Caesar began to feel threatened. Why? They were, if you pardon the expression, they were singing a new tune. The old tune was, Caesar is Lord. The new tune of the Christian, Jesus is Lord. And you can see why Caesar would feel threatened. Oh, there's someone who's giving me competition. I thought I was master of the whole Roman Empire. No, Christian says, no, you're not. The Lord Jesus, he sits upon a throne. He is above you. You are under his control there, Caesar, there in Rome. And so when you find the Apostle Paul preaching this glorious gospel which, if you will, turned the whole Roman world upside down. See, you and I find that difficult to believe here in the new millennium. Why? Christianity, true, biblical, historic, Bible-centered Christianity is on a downswing. We seem to be on almost an all-time low. See, we keep losing faithful preachers and we keep getting in their place false preachers. Preachers who tell the people what they want to hear instead of telling them what they need to hear. And so Christianity, true Christianity, is way low down here in the new millennium. And so you and I can't relate to this fact that in the first two or three centuries of the Christian Church, there was a tremendous work of God the Spirit. Sinners getting saved by the thousands and thousands. Yes. These same Christians were being thrown to the lions, yes. They were being burned at the stake, yes. And they did it with tremendous Christian joy. Because they realized, the only thing they can do is kill my body. But they can't kill my soul. The moment they take away my body from the soul, so to speak, my soul quickly runs to the Lord Jesus Christ and I'll be in heaven with Christ. And so therefore, the Roman Empire did not handle these people. The more you kill them and persecute them, the more they multiply. So Paul went around preaching this gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever he went, one of the places Many of the places he had been was Corinth. He had been to Ephesus. These are different times there in that day. He had wanted to go to Rome. He had never gotten to Rome. He did wind up in Rome, but he winded up there as a prisoner. Then eventually, in his second imprisonment, he was there and he probably gave his life there and was killed for his faith in Jesus Christ. Paul is the one who wrote this letter. I've taken a bit more time, and if we don't finish the material, we'll get to it next week. No problem. We're very conscious also of the weather. I want to have you be attentive and if I see any of you sleeping, I will realize that it's difficult and we'll shorten the message appropriately, alright? Paul is the one who wrote this message, this letter to the Colossians. Where was Paul when he wrote this letter? Right? When you get a letter, somebody's writing it to you, right? They're in Pennsylvania, they're in California, they're in Alaska, they're in Italy, they're in England, they're in South, they're somebody, they're writing a letter from a destination. Where was Paul? Paul, according to the evidence of the scripture, seemed to have been in jail. Look at chapter 4, verse 18. Chapter 4, verse 18. This salutation by my own hand, Paul, remember my what? My chains. Remember my chains. Paul was in chains at this time. He was in chains. So he says there in chapter 4 and verse 18. Paul seemed to have been suffering for the cause of Christ. According to chapter 1 and verse 24. For I now rejoice in my sufferings for you. Paul was suffering in a Roman prison at this time. Paul had two imprisonments, as I said. His first imprisonment, eventually he was released, from the second he was not. His first imprisonment was such that he had quite a bit of liberty, and time fails us to go to Acts chapter 28, he was under house arrest. And being under house arrest, he was allowed to have a lot of freedom. People could come and go as they pleased, as long as the Roman soldiers would keep track, but he had a lot of freedom. He did. You read that in the last part of Acts chapter 28. And under his first imprisonment Paul the Apostle is there in Rome and he writes this letter of Colossians. He writes also most likely Philemon. He writes most likely Philippians and he writes most likely Ephesians. Alright. Because from the book of Philippians we also conclude that Paul is in jail. And to me, it's always amazing how Paul the Apostle is in jail, chained, he's tied up. Let me tell you, the Roman prisons of that day were nothing like the air-conditioned, you know, easy chair television, Kool-Aid, you know, nice coffee, you know, all kinds of You ever been in a jail? I hope you never been in jail, but you get the point, right? You even get a college education now. And you can sue the government if they give you the wrong pair of shoes. Yes, I heard a story that certain prisoners wanted to sue the government. The shoes hurt my feet, so I'm going to sue the government. What ridiculous nonsense. Everybody's suing everybody, even prisoners. But anyway, the prisons of this day are nothing like the prisons of that day. Paul was in prison, and he writes this letter. All right, now the first imprisonment he had a lot of liberty. The second time he was in prison, he was waiting to die. You could find that out in Second Timothy. Second Timothy, the book of Second Timothy, when Paul was there for the second time in prison, all right, when Paul was there for the first time, he was approximately released a certain time, and he wrote this letter about 60 to 62 AD, all right? Believe me, brethren, I can give you a lot more. I'm holding back. I've got to give you just enough for you to understand Who Paul was? Where was he? He's in Rome. He's in prison. And he's writing this letter. He writes also Philemon. He writes Philippians. And he writes most likely Ephesians. And he sends those letters out on the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That's what they were. They were infallible letters. When the churches received these letters, they were under divine obligation to obey the apostle just like they would obey Jesus himself. Because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now, the next question is, to whom was the letter written? To the Church of Colossae. To the Church of Colossae. Now, where was Colossae? Very quickly. Colossi had a neighboring two other towns called Laodicea and Hierapolis. Alright? They were the cities of Phrygia, I know this is not going to mean much to you, Asia Mone, which is today modern day Turkey. So you have three places, Colossi, Hierapolis, Laodicea, one, two, three like this, and then a hundred miles east you have Ephesus. Ephesus. Alright? Now Colossi was a very, had been a very prosperous town, excuse me, city. And most likely that the Church of Colossae got started through a man by the name of Epiphas. Look at chapter 1 verse 5 through 7. Look at chapter 1 verse 5 through 7. Actually look at verse 7 only for the sake of time. As you also learn from Epiphas, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. It seems like there was a lot of things that the Colossians were learning from this man Epaphras, our dear fellow servant who was a faithful minister of Christ. He was a preacher, he was a gospel pastor. And evidence seems to conclude that it was most likely Epaphras Who most likely? Now see I didn't say definitely. A preacher knows to know when to say it. Emphatically this is what it definitely was. It says most likely Epaphras got converted when Paul was preaching in Acts 19 in Ephesus. Most likely he went back to Colossae, began to preach. Sinners got converted. He was recognized as one as the pastor. We know that Paul was not the one who started the church of Colossae because, most likely, according to chapter 2 verse 1, look right in your Bible, chapter 2 verse 1, notice what it says. For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. See what Paul is saying, nobody has ever seen me in the flesh. He was saying that you never actually saw me. You know, I never face to face we saw each other. So most likely commentators will say that Paul was not the one who started the church when I say Paul was the one. You understand what I mean by that. God the Holy Spirit through the efforts of the Apostle Paul. That's what I mean by that. And most likely it was Epaphras, this man who was most likely the pastor of the church. Why was the letter written? It seemed like that false doctrine had crept into the church, Epaphras, the pastor of the church, made the apostle Paul aware of what was going on, because remember now, remember now, according to chapter 4, look with me to chapter 4, verse 12, when Paul is in prison there in Rome, who's there with him? Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, greets you. Epaphras was in Rome at this time with the Apostle Paul, okay? He's there with the Apostle Paul, and most likely, he went to see the Apostle Paul, because as the pastor of the church, he began to tell Pope Paul, false teachers have crept into the church, most likely. And what were the false teachings? Paul, the moment he found out from the pastor, the epitaph of what was going on in the church, he wrote the letter of Colossians to instruct him about this false doctrine. Now the false doctrine and the false teachings which crept into the church came under two headings. One, there was a Jewish element of false doctrine. And secondly, there was a pagan element of false doctrine. First of all, look at chapter 2, verse 11. Beginning at verse 11. Brethren, I'm being very, very brief for the sake of the time. Chapter 2, verse 11. Actually, let's look at verse 16 and 17 for our purposes. Therefore, let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come But the substance is of Christ. Now what is this saying? When we get to these passages we'll unpack them in much more detail. But this is language that finds its source back in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament you had new moons, you had Sabbaths, you had festivals. Everything that was in the Old Testament was a shadow of things to come. It seems like that some people had come into the church, and by the way, the church was comprised of a great amount of Jews. The Jews had come into the town, so to speak. So you had the Jews and Gentiles, and some of them had probably gotten converted, and some of them began to bring into the doctrine of the church that you've got to, besides trusting Christ, you've got to go back to the Old Testament, you've got to keep some of the festivals. Some of the new moon. Certain kinds of food you're not allowed to eat. Certain kinds of drinks you're not allowed to drink. And so what it was, was, is going back to the Old Testament with this Jewish element of false doctrine. In other words, in some ways, it was somewhat similar with the problems of the churches of Galatia. What was the problem with the churches of Galatia? Christ is not enough. You need something else besides Jesus Christ. You gotta get circumcised. You got to eat certain kinds of food. You can't eat certain other kinds of food. You got to keep certain kinds of festivals. And so this Jewish element of false doctrine had snuck into the church. This Jewish element. Secondly, there was a pagan element and this is much more difficult to describe. It was a pagan element of false doctrine. All the commentators say it's difficult, it's not easy. But let's just look at a couple of passages. Verse 20 to verse 23 of chapter 2. I'm just going to read them and just make some comments. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourself to regulations? Paul is saying, why do you put yourself under certain rules and regulations? What were some of these rules? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and the doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility and the neglect of the body but of no value against the indulgence of the flesh." What in the world is that all saying? Whatever it's saying, it seems like this pagan influence of false doctrine which began to creep into the church saying that Christ is not enough. The Jews said you need a little Old Testament religion in addition to Christ. These, quote, pagans, Gentiles if you will, they came in and said, oh you need a little bit of this modern day kind of religion. What was that religion? Well, I'm not going to go into it. But basically, it could have been this. I'm going to use a couple of big words. That's what I'm going to do, quickly define it. There's a big word called asceticism. An ascetic is a person who practices a tremendous, severe amount of self-denial. A person who's an ascetic, he beats himself. He kind of, he doesn't want to eat, he doesn't want to sleep, he just bruises his body, almost like what Luther did, back in the days of the Reformation, while he was trying to find peace with God. He would go up the stairs on his knees. God, look what I'm doing God, see? Self-denial. He would work his hands to the bones, a person who would abuse their body. That's what Paul may mean, when he says in verse 23, the neglect of the body. See, the body, Though the body must not be pampered. You know what I mean by pampered? Whatever the body wants, you give the body. No. There is a legitimate doctrine of self-denial according to the Bible. But the body must not be abused. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit. It was given to you by God. The body must not be unduly, severely, hurt and neglected. By way of hygiene, the body must be kept clean. By way of physical health, you must make sure that your blood is circulating and high cholesterol is not there. You know what I mean by that. The body must not be neglected. So it seems like a certain kind of religious pagan influence came in where the body was neglected. The body was treated with severe, severe activity and stress. And these people are saying, that's what it means to be a Christian. Christ is not enough, you got to live the way I'm living. Okay, that's one element. Another element seems to have been what we're calling... Oh, it's a big word, but I don't know what else to do. When we get to it, maybe we'll define it a bit better. Gnosticism. What is that? Gnosticism is a view of how people have got knowledge. Oh, I've got superior knowledge. I got such wonderful heavenly religious knowledge, you know, all the way up there. You poor Christians, you're way down there, you know. We're up here. We're on cloud 99 with the spiritual insights that we've got. And unless you get the spiritual insight, oh, what do you got? Oh, we got Christ. Well, Christ is not enough. You gotta have the spiritual insight. Now, I know that's very simplistic. But really, and it even got involved into the area of worshipping angels. Notice what it says there. Worshipping angels. It says it right there, I have it right in front of me there. Verse 18, yes, I'm sorry. Let no one defraud you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and the worship of angels. Now here's the situation, somehow angels began to be worshipped. Angels began to be looked upon as somehow necessary for me to get to God, and somehow my relationship with angels is going to improve my relationship with God. Jesus is not enough. See the point? I know that's elementary, very simplistic, but it gives you something of the flavor. As God gives us more light and understanding as we go through the book, we'll give you just enough that's helpful, but not too much as to lose you. All right? So these false religions had come into the church. A little bit of the Jewish religion. Christ is not enough. You need a little bit of the Old Testament. A little bit of pagan false doctrine. Christ is not enough. You need a little bit of the modern day. What should we put in the language of today? The New Age movement. You've got to have a new concept of Christianity, you know? You Christians down there, you worship a book of Christ who died and rose again from the dead? That's not sufficient. We actually believe we're going to become gods. I believe that's something of the New Age movement. I'm not exactly sure. But whatever it is, it's something new. Christ is not enough. People are always inventing new religions. The old-fashioned religion, remember the old Negro spiritual? Give me that old-time religion. That's the only religion that has ever stood the test of time. And yet people always want to come up with new religions. Christianity is not enough. But I'm sorry, according to the Bible, all we need from beginning, middle and end is historic True Christ-centered Christianity. That's all we ever need as Christians. Alright? Now the purpose of this book is to show the supremacy of Jesus Christ above everything else. Look at chapter 1, verse 16 with me, rather verse 18. chapter 1 verse 18 and he is the head of the body whatever that means we won't go into it now the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence that Christ may have the preeminence you mean Christ is central Christ is supreme Christ is number one look at chapter 2 verse 3 in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge Chapter 2 verse 9, for in Him, that is Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him. See what these passages are saying? All you need is Jesus Christ. You don't need anything else. You don't need man-made self-imposed religion where you neglect your body to an excess. You don't need the Old Testament. Christ fulfilled everything that the Old Testament says. We can eat everything we want. We don't have any more religious feasts. We don't have to go to Jerusalem three times a year. No! None of that is necessary. We're complete. Christ has done it all. Everything that our Savior accomplished is for us. And the book of Colossians is to show you the supremacy and the centrality and the preciousness and the finality of Jesus Christ and Him alone. We don't need anything else. We don't need angels. We don't need religion to get to God. Jesus, the way, the truth and the life, He has done everything necessary. Colossians 1 verse 20. He made peace by the blood of His cross. That's all we need. We don't need angels. And there's an interesting thing about angels, right? What's one of the favorite shows on television? Touched by an angel. Somehow when you're touched by an angel, oh, I feel so holy. I feel so inspired. I feel like I've met God. You come around with a halo over your head, a glow on your face, and you just feel so good about yourself. What a bunch of hogwash. The worship of angels? How are the angels going to help you to get to heaven? How are the saints going to help you to go to heaven? How are the works going to help you to go to heaven? How are what you eat or don't eat going to help you to go to heaven using the Jewish element? No way! There is no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. That's all we need. That's all we need. And so the purpose of this book is to lift up the person of Jesus Christ. The book of Philippians stresses the Christian. The book of Ephesians stresses the church. Not at the expense of Christ, but that's the main theme of the book. The book of Colossians, the main theme of the book, the supremacy of Jesus and Him alone above everything else. That's all we need. Very quick applications, all right? That, my brethren, is something of a background of the book and you can tell I've been racing against time not to lose you in the sweat and the weather. I'm very conscious of that, my dear brethren. Very quick applications, number one. What are we learning? Beware of the danger of false doctrine. False doctrine does not knock at the door. Hi folks, false doctrine is here. I'm here to infiltrate the church. It doesn't happen that way. Would you turn with me to Acts chapter 20? How does false doctrine begin to influence the church? Very, very subtly and sneakily Acts chapter 20, look at verse 29. The Apostle Paul, excuse me, I'm sorry. Yes, Acts 20, 29. The Apostle Paul is talking to the Ephesian elders. He has just told them. Let's look at verse 28. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock of God, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Notice what Paul says in Acts 20, 29. For I know this, Paul, what do you know Paul? That after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after themselves. Therefore watch. See what the apostle is saying? When I leave, you Ephesian elders, I'm concerned about something. False teachers from the outside are going to circle the flock in sheep. The imagery of sheep, that's what the church is called, the flock. And from inside the church, people are going to rise up. Maybe they came in through the back door. They got through the interview with the elders and now maybe really converted. And they begin to preach things that the Bible doesn't teach. And Paul says, watch out, beware. False doctrine doesn't come very obviously. Just like in the church of Ephesus, in Revelation chapter 2, it wasn't false doctrine necessarily in this case, but something happened. After 40 years, the church of Ephesus, which had been a very strong church, you know what happened to that church? They began to lose their first love. They began to get very cold to Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus says to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2 verse 4, Thou has left thy first love. And so in that church, over a period of time, they began to get very cool towards Jesus Christ. It didn't happen overnight, it took 40 years. Now it could happen that way with false doctrine. False doctrine doesn't come in all at once. And that's why you've got the letters of the apostles, they're warning the Christians. Paul can say to Timothy, I want you to preach the word, be in season, out of season, for the time will come where they will not endure sound doctrine. People will come in and they'll want to have their ears tickled. That's what it says. You read in 2 Timothy chapter 4. So false doctrine is the first beware in the application, beware of false doctrine. And don't get upset with your pastors when your pastors are very careful to pronounce and to explain and to qualify and to guard and to balance the doctrines of the Bible. Why? It doesn't take much to change the doctrines of the Bible. The Bible doctrines, some of them, you're walking on a tightrope. A little bit to the right and you fall. A little bit to the left and you fall. You gotta go straight down the road, right down, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. 2 Timothy 2.15. And so we as pastors in particular, and every Christian has this responsibility to protect ourselves, to ask the Lord that He will protect us from the sneakily subtle false doctrine that comes to the church. The church of Colossae started good. Epiphras, most likely, got saved and he became the pastor and God raised up a church. But somewhere along the line, and by the way, Epiphras traveled from Colossae all the way to Rome. That's how serious it was. He said, I gotta find Paul. Paul, you gotta help me, Paul. False doctrine is coming to the church. You got the Jewish element. You got the pagan element. Paul. Help me, give me counsel. You're the inspired apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the pastors of the church are very concerned that false doctrine will not sneak in. So don't be upset with your pastors. If they labor in Sunday school, if they labor in the pulpit and say, beware of this, beware of that, false doctrine will destroy your soul and will destroy our church. If we don't deal with false doctrine, the moment we see it, show its ugly head. And some of us, may I say, some of us as members of the church may not be perceptive of that. So you have to allow your elders a little, what shall I say, flexibility. They may see things you may not see. That's why God put them in charge, right? They're not infallible. Maybe sometimes you're gonna see things and you say, pastor, brother so-and-so, the member of the congregation, you know, he was talking about the doctrine of the Trinity as if they were not really three persons in one God, you know, he said some dangerous things. Pastor, I don't know what to do with this. You see, the point is force doctrine will sneak into the life of the church and we've got to be very, very careful. Most likely, secondly, we need to be aware of false doctrine. And then we also need to be aware of the fact that Epiphas, who was the pastor most likely of this church. Notice the love he had for his church. Look at chapter 4 of Colossians 12 and 13. Notice how much Epiphas loved the church of Colossae. He loved the brethren there so much. He was willing to take a trip all the way to Rome. And you know, in those days, you didn't have protection. You had robbers all over the place. But notice what it says in Colossians chapter 4, verse 12 and 13. When Paul writes to the people and ends the letter, notice what he says, verse 12. And Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in your prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God for I bear a witness, I'm a witness that he has great zeal for you and those who are also in Laodicea and Hierapolis. Here's what is this saying, Pastor Epaphras loved the church, he loved the people, he was a true shepherd, he was willing to travel all the way to Rome to talk to Paul, Paul I'm willing to jeopardize my life and by the way let me tell you something, by him going to Paul the possibility is that he will be also arrested, yes Because according to scripture, Timothy was also arrested when he went to visit Paul. And why was he arrested? Oh, you're one of them. We're going to lock you up also. So the Epiphas, the pastor of the church of Colossae, was willing to make great sacrifices for the sake of protecting the flock by going to Paul. Paul, help me. Pray for me. Pray for us. Paul, how do we deal with these false doctrines? The Jewish doctrine. The false pagan doctrine. Paul, help me. Here's the point. Notice the love of a true pastor for the church. A pastor who's not thinking about himself. A pastor who labors in the word and doctrine. A pastor who's willing to jeopardize his time, his energy, even his own physical health. He put himself in physical danger by going to Rome. Why did he do all this? He loved the church of Christ there at Colossae. He loved the members of the church, the Christians of the church. He loved them so much he was willing to sacrifice anything to protect the church. You see? If we had time, we would go into Timothy, we don't have time. How Timothy was such a faithful man, like Epiphas. Faithful men of God, pastors of churches, who loved the congregation, who were willing to be offended and even get the congregation angry at them. Why? Because he wants to protect them, he loves them. He wants the congregation, a faithful pastor does according to the Bible, like Epiphas was. He wanted all the Christians to get to heaven, what? safely. And while they're living on earth to be spiritually what? Healthy. Right? That's what a pastor wants for the congregation. Spiritual health for the congregation. Everyone so healthy, showing the real fruit of salvation. Proving that they're real Christians, so that when they die, they'll safely hear those words. Jesus said, come. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world instead of those most horrible words depart from me I never knew you you see the point a pastor he labors With pain in his heart for the congregation and on the day of judgment Epiphas was concerned Who else is here with me? Where are the other members of the congregation? see He wants to go to heaven with all the members of the church. He doesn't want to find out there were some almost hypocrites, there were some Judas's galleys, you know. Wolves in sheep's clothing, Judas's, two faces, hypocrites. That's not what he wants. He wants people to be genuine Christians. So on the day of judgment, we're all standing before the Lord Jesus. Jesus says, come on in, come into heaven. and epiphanies. Oh here's all the members. We didn't lose one on the way. That's a pastor's love for the people of God. So dear brethren, learn the lesson. Value faithful pastors in whatever church you find yourself. They are not a dime a dozen. They are not. They're rare creatures in the United States. They're rare. Value them. Pray for them, appreciate them, respectfully disagree with them when you believe they're wrong, but thank God for them. And pray that they would ever be like Epiphan, who was willing to deny himself such, quote, leisurely comfort. He could have said, well, listen, I'm doing everything possible. What else can I do for the church there? I'll tell you what I can do. Paul is in prison. I'm going to take that long distance, travel. I'm going to go there. I'm going to talk to Paul. I'm going to pray with Paul. Paul give me some counsel. He writes the letter. That's how much I love the church. Value, appreciate, pray for your pastor. Final application. Final application. The supremacy of Christ. Christian brother and Christian sister, don't look to your prayers. Don't look to your Bible reading. I as a preacher, don't look to your preaching. Don't look to your Bible knowledge, don't look to your seminary education, don't look to anything for salvation. Don't look to anything that you do or will ever do, children. Whatever you do in reference to obeying the commandments of God, in the eyes of God, they don't matter a hill of beans. You know what matters to God? What matters to God you've said to your sins. I'm sorry for my sins God. Give me the strength to turn away from my sins. And oh God I look to Jesus Christ who died on the cross for sinners. God I trust Jesus to be saved God. Please God give me a new heart. That's what God is concerned about. Look to Jesus. Don't look to your prayers. Don't look to your good works. Don't look to anything you do. Don't look at the money in the offering plate. Don't look to the Lord's Supper. Look to Jesus and Jesus alone and you will be saved. The supremacy of Jesus Christ cries out all over the book of Colossians. You see that? Colossians is a precious book. Why? Jesus and the preciousness of Jesus is ever put before us. Oh, I hope and pray that God the Holy Spirit will come down upon us week by week and as He opens up to us and takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. That Christ may become precious as we said in the Sunday School to every one of us believers. But if you're not a believer, Christ can be yours. Yes, He can. Children, Christ can be yours. Visitor, Christ can be yours. And He doesn't cost anything. Bow at the foot of the cross. Confess your sins to Him and ask Him to save you and to be merciful to you. And Christ will be your all and all. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for ministering to us this morning. We bless you for the Holy Spirit's ministry amongst us. And we ask you that all that we do in the preaching of the Book of Colossians, Jesus Christ will be praised and lifted up. Christians will be more assured of their salvation, more strengthened in their faith, they would be built up. We pray for those who are not converted this morning. Lord, help them to see that their works cannot save them. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can. We ask you to be merciful to us as a congregation as well. Keep false doctrine from coming and sneaking into the doors of this church and in every church where Christ is faithfully preached. Hear our prayers, our Father. and bless us for Jesus' sake. Amen.