you you Welcome back to Bible time. Colossians four and verse three and verse four with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Father, in Jesus' name, this is what I ask you for this morning, that you would give me an open door of utterance, Lord, to speak the mystery of Christ, Lord, that I would make it manifest as I ought to speak. Help me today. Help those that hear this message and teach us from your word, I pray in Jesus' name. We worship you and we praise you and we love you. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, amen. All right, so here we are continuing from verse 2, which we studied yesterday. Now, I told you all yesterday that we probably would not go on and continue today, that I had a special webcast in mind, and I made a mistake. That special webcast was supposed to be for Friday morning. not Thursday morning, and we're still going to go ahead and do that. That's the plan. Sometime tomorrow morning, probably between seven and nine o'clock, somewhere in that range. I may post online once I know a better time frame, but we have a special webcast there. It will be a Bible time, but we have something special for you to see, an illustration the Lord has given. And so we'll do that as a webcast that you can see the illustration that God has given. and Lord willing that will be tomorrow morning. Yesterday we talked about continue in prayer and watching the same with thanksgiving from Colossians four and verse two. And as you continue in prayer then and watch in the same God the Holy Ghost prompted Paul to ask for prayer for himself. And here Paul by inspiration of the Holy Spirit said with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance. Now again, here is Paul asking a personal prayer request with all praying for us, he says, praying also for us. So here's a personal prayer request from the Apostle Paul. And so it's easy for a man to read this and to think that that because Paul is saying, pray for us, that Paul is not saying what God said. Now God, whenever we say that God inspired his word, one of the things, what we really mean is that God inspired his word. What we mean is that everything that God said is what God said, and God said what he said, and he meant what he said, and he meant to say what he said, and he wasn't, he's not apologizing about what he said. He doesn't need to rewrite what he said. He didn't have Paul say something and then God up in heaven says, oops, and start wringing his hands. Shoot, Paul shouldn't have said that. Now people are gonna get the wrong idea. I better hope that somebody smart enough gets a hold of the right books and writes the right things and maybe over the course of 2,000 years, enough smart people can correct the Bible that people will figure out what I really meant. That's absolutely not what God did. God inspired the Word of God. And when Paul says, with all praying for us, Paul meant with all praying for us and God the Holy Ghost meant with all praying also for us and God didn't miss a beat. Now I might miss a word, a misquote here and there, but God didn't miss a word and he didn't miss a meaning. God said exactly what he meant to say here and God said it through the Apostle Paul. Now you say, so did God mean that we're to pray for God? No, God meant for Paul to say praying for us so that we would hear Paul say from his own lips and his own personality and his own circumstances, something that God Almighty wanted to be said. God allowed the personalities of the authors to come through and he not only allowed it, he inspired the words that they spoke through their personalities, which allows us to see the humanity of the author and yet the divine nature of the word of God that came through the author. It's an incredible thing. Now whenever you use a pen on a piece of paper, different pens write differently. Some pens write with a bolder ink, some with a thinner, sharper, crisper ink, some make spots and on the paper will they write, and some never make anything but that thin, crisp line. So the pens will have an effect on the paper just by nature of the different pens that are used and God used different pen men and their personalities and their natures and their experiences came through in the message and God inspired the message with that in his holy mind. God knew Paul's personality would come through and God orchestrated the events of Paul's life to allow Paul's nature and Paul's circumstances, Paul's new nature and Paul's circumstances to come through in his writing so that while we have a personal letter from the Apostle Paul and he's asking us here with all praying for us, he's saying please pray for us So even while Paul is asking for prayer, we're getting the divinely inspired word of God. That God Almighty, through the Apostle Paul, is asking the people at Colossae to pray for the Apostle Paul and his evangelistic band. so that the people of churches today can hear this message from the Apostle Paul, the greatest preacher that ever lived as far as the Gentile church is concerned, and the Apostle Paul asking for prayer that inspires the church to pray. for its preachers. And this is something that every true preacher needs. And this is something every church should pray for, for their preachers. This is something that goes beyond even a preacher behind a pulpit. This is a preacher on the street, a preacher in his own house, a preacher that wants to tell the gospel to his people needs utterance from God. And this is what Paul asks for, with all praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. Now the word utter just means to open your mouth and let her fly. It means for words to come out of your mouth. He says that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds. So this mystery that would be spoken is therefore a mystery that is not easy to speak. That though Paul was a great speaker, this mystery was a mystery that apart from a divine opening, a divine utterance, this mystery would be blocked. And it's also a mystery for which he was in bonds. which we will look at all of this in a little more detail. So this mystery that he's asking for utterance to speak is a mystery for which he's in bonds. There's a cost for preaching this mystery. And then he says that I may make it manifest. as I ought to speak. So this utterance has to do with making something manifest, making something clear that would otherwise not be clear. So this utterance is a necessary attribute, a necessary gift, a necessary operation of the Holy Spirit of God in order to make the mystery of Christ manifest and in order to help the preacher To have the boldness to go through the trials and the tribulations that accompany the preaching of the gospel This preacher needs utterance He needs utterance so that he can count the cost and when he realizes I'm gonna lose family. I'm gonna lose friends I might lose my job I might go to jail Because I opened my mouth and I let the words of the mystery of Jesus Christ come forth from my lips and the Holy Spirit Spirit of God anoints those words and sets those words on fire. People are going to get under conviction and when people get under conviction they do crazy things because people don't like conviction and people that like in Acts chapter 7 whenever Stephen full of faith and power opened his mouth with utterance and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and made known the mystery. People got mad and they gnashed upon Stephen with their teeth and they ran upon him and they grabbed him and bodily threw him without the city upon the ground and they grabbed rocks and on every hand and they begin to throw the rocks at Stephen and the rocks destroyed his body as he sat there saying father forgive them but those rocks killed Stephen and that was because Stephen had utterance so Paul is here saying he's praying for utterance but he's at the same time as he's praying for utterance He says that he is in bonds for his preaching, that he has preached in utterance. And this utterance is needed because we know that whenever we go out and preach the gospel and God gives us utterance, the reaction may not always be roses. They may not throw roses at us. They may not send chocolate and flowers. They may be throwing rocks by the time you're done preaching with utterance. So he's called the church to prayer in Colossians 4.2 and here the Holy Spirit prompts him to ask prayer for himself and for his evangelistic band that God would open a door of utterance. Let's look at that utterance a little more closely. Go to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 and verse 4. Turn there quickly. I hope you have your Bibles open today. And if you're listening online, I hope that you can get a Bible and check this out and read these texts and don't just leave it up to me. And see what your Bible says and consider the fact that the King James Authorized Version Bible is the inspired Word of God. And if you've got anything else, you're going to see some pretty serious differences if you just open it up and look. and you can do the study out for yourself. If my Bible is not the word of God, then pray tell what is. Tell me which Bible is the word of God because God promised to preserve his word. And if you'll look at the evidence and look at the Bible with any kind of empirical study, it won't take you very long to find the real Bible, the only Bible that never contradicts itself, the authorized version Bible in English. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Here is a reference to utterance and it's given in direct context to the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost. Utterance is a gift from the Holy Spirit of God. Now here it says that there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So the cloven tongue of fire sat above upon their head, but their tongue was lit on fire by the Holy Spirit of God, and they spake with utterance as the Spirit gave them utterance, and they spake with other tongues. Now let's look at the reaction. Let's look first of all at what this means here, that they spoke with these other tongues. It says, And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded, because every man heard them speak in his own language. The Jesus said that the gospel should be preached to every tribe and tongue. And the Word of God is clear throughout the Word of God that tongues or languages go to verse 11, the Cretes and the Arabians, all these other people. And in verse 8 he says, and how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born. And the way that this was presented was that the tongue that you were born in is the native tongue, the native language that you speak. And here in verse 11, he says that all of these people, let's just read the list starting in verse nine, Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes. Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. So here the Holy Spirit gave them utterance to speak. And the incredible fact here is that he gave them utterance to speak the gospel in an understandable way in the language of the hearers. And this establishes the fact that God desires his word to be translated into every tribe's language. Because here the Holy Spirit of God translated the Word of God perfectly with inspiration and with preservation to every tribe and tongue that was there present. God hereby signifying that His Word is to be readily understood in a perfect and pure translation in every language, not a edited and abridged translation as is the going operation of Bible translating societies of our day that think that they have the right to dumb down the Bible and chop up the Bible and make it say what they want it to say. And if a language is less than adequate to carry the Word of God because the vocabulary is lacking, then some, for some reason, we're supposed to take a pair of scissors and cut out every word that that language doesn't have in the Bible and replace it with dumbed down words that lose the meaning. And that is not biblical translation. whenever the Bible was translated into English, and the English translators found that the English language was lacking a word, they stole the word from other languages, and they transliterated it, and they made new words in English, and they wrote them down anyway, and they put them out in dictionaries, and the English-speaking people who desired to have God's word and wanted and hungered and thirsted after God's word and who would settle for nothing less than the perfectly preserved and inspired word of God would then look up in dictionaries what the new word meant that they didn't have before and we got words like baptized and baptizing that were not previously part of the English language and that is biblical translating. And by the way, if one of these languages was a dumbed down language with a lacking vocabulary, at the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God not only spoke the word, but he gave illumination as to the meaning of the word in the hearts and the minds. And that is biblical utterance. When the Holy Spirit of God takes the Word of Almighty God that in the original tongues was given in Hebrew and Greek, and he speaks it through the mouth of one of his messengers, possibly in any language on the face of the earth, and the people listening to that message get illumination and understanding of the perfect Word of God, and are able to have their minds and their hearts changed and dealt with by the Holy Ghost, they have experienced Holy Spirit utterance. This is something that we also talk about as unction and anointing whether we're right to use those words that way or not It's a that's a common way that the old gospel preachers and the old men of God would speak about the anointing the unction the utterance of God and they said pray for me I'm going to preach and I need utterance pray for me that God will give me the unction pray for me that the anointing of God will rest upon me while I So here in Acts chapter 2, the Spirit gave them utterance and the reaction to the utterance of the Spirit of God speaking the Word of God through these men and illuminating the minds of the hearers of this Word was that they said, we do hear them speak The wonderful works of God. We do hear them speak in our tongues. The wonderful works of God. Now before Pentecost came, many of these things had been spoken of. The gospel had been spoken of many times. The gospel was spoken of by the prison guards when they ran to the Sanhedrin and said, the tomb has been opened. An angel came. and pushed back the stone and Jesus Christ rose bodily from the grave and we fell down as dead men and didn't wake up for some time and the reaction of the Sanhedrin was have some money we'll pay you guys and so that you'll tell a lie and those men said okay we'll do it and took the money and went and started spreading lies about Christ that his disciples had carried him away in the night So you see the reaction of the Sanhedrin was to buy off the men who preached the gospel without utterance. Now the disciples had talked amongst themselves and possibly to other people and they had spoken of this gospel. It had been many days since Christ arose. the Holy Spirit of God had indwelt them before. Jesus had breathed upon them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. But they had lacked the utterance of God. Now at the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God came in power and filled these men and they preached the Word of God with utterance. And what happened now was that the people said, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God and they begin to comprehend that there was something here that was bigger than just a fancy order or somebody's fancy speech that they were trying to deliver. Now they're hearing the wonderful works of God. They're not just hearing somebody's ideas, somebody's opinions, somebody's stories, some hearsay that might be interesting. Now they're hearing the wonderful works of God and this is the reaction to the utterance, the results of utterance come in verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Men and brethren, what shall we do? The convicting power of Almighty God accompanies preaching that is delivered with utterance. Look at verse 41, and we see the reception of the word. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. So this is the result and the reception of the gospel given with utterance. In Acts chapter 3, the gospel was preached again with utterance, and when it was preached, the men again turned from their sin and were added to the church. But look at what happened. The Sanhedrin got angry. And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, we're in chapter four, verse two, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands upon them and put them in hold unto the next day, which is exactly what Paul experienced as he was in bonds because of preaching the gospel with utterance. Now before, when those old soldiers who didn't believe God anyway came to the Sanhedrin and said, the stone was rolled back, an angel whose countenance was like lightning appeared before us, Jesus Christ rose bodily from the grave. We fell as dead men on the ground. When we got up, the clothes were laying there in the grave, and we left and ran to come and tell you, and we couldn't stop it. There was nothing we could do to stop. Jesus Christ from raising from the dead, the Sanhedrin didn't get mad at them. Did you notice? Instead, those Pharisees, those Sadducees paid those soldiers and bought them off. They didn't get mad at them. But now, whenever they hear the Word of God preached with boldness, they're grieved that the people are taught. And they laid hands on these men and put them in hold until the next day. They were grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus. the resurrection from the dead. You see, the fact of the resurrection from the dead, just in and of itself as a historical novelty, as something that somebody once said, that a group of people, a bunch of fishermen, had came up, cooked up some kind of idea to try and keep their cult religion going, that idea is not offensive to the world, but whenever the resurrection of Jesus Christ is preached by a man, or even in the sense of a woman telling another person on the street or in her workplace about the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, she can have that utterance too. Old Philip had four virgins who were daughters that did prophesy. That means they proclaimed the Word of God, the resurrected, risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean that they were pastors in a church which the Word of God clearly forbids, but that they preached the Word of God in the venues and in the market and in the places where they could proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ. and hear whenever someone with the anointing power and fire of Almighty God in their bosom preaches and says to their neighbor, to their co-worker, Jesus Christ is alive. He is alive today. He died, He was buried, and He rose again, and He is alive today. And if you will repent of your sin and believe the gospel, you will be saved. The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. When that is given with the utterance of Almighty God, the hearer cannot help but react. The hearer cannot help but to either reject or to receive the gospel. Because when it is preached with utterance, the Holy Spirit of God is taking the Word of God and piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. And any man, woman, or child who comes under the sound of preaching that is given with utterance is forced into a corner. I had a man tell me not too long ago, I was talking to him about a gospel presentation where a man who believes in works salvation was angry and began to yell and began to shout and began to become irate. because the messenger that carried the gospel to him had utterance that day and God was moving and giving him scripture and making manifest the gospel and this other party who heard about the gospel being preached with utterance he felt offended for the man who was irate apparently and he said that's because He told this other guy, he said, that's because you backed him into a corner. Anybody will fight when you back him into a corner. Well, bless God Almighty, when the Holy Spirit of God gives a preacher utterance, it backs people into corners. That's what preaching with utterance does. Now in our day, in our generation, we don't want preachers with utterance. We don't want to get backed into a corner. We don't want the mystery to be made manifest. We don't want the Holy Spirit to divide between soul and spirit because we have soul religion in this nation and not spirit religion. And when a preacher starts to preach with the utterance and the Word of God begins to divide, and do surgery and separate soul from spirit a man who has a soul religion is going to get pretty offended pretty fast and that is what happens and it's what happened here in the word of God and they told these disciples do not preach again in his name so those disciples all got back together and they needed some fresh oil they needed some fresh utterance and they gathered together in one place and it says with one accord in chapter 4 verse 24 they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said Lord thou art God and they prayed a beautiful prayer I encourage you to read the whole thing it says down there in verse 29 and now Lord behold their threatenings and granted to thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness they got a baptism with of the Holy Ghost not with the or baptism with the Holy Ghost there at the day of Pentecost and when the going got rough they got back together and they started praying again for more of what they got the first time and God granted them their request and poured out his spirit upon them again and the manifestation was and multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one accord and it goes on and says and with great power gave the Apostle witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon all and as you go on and read in chapter 6 chapter 7 you read about the power of God and the boldness with which they spake and the boldness with which they preached and they carried on and carried the gospel this is the utterance that we're asked to pray for in Colossians 4 3 do you want to know how to pray for preachers do you want to know how to pray for revival pray that God will raise up preachers with Holy Ghost utterance to make manifest the mysteries of God in this day, that they would preach the Word of God with power that divides between soul and spirit, because our soul religion in this nation is about to kill us. They that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Now we've looked at the call to prayer. We've looked at the door of utterance that's been requested. Let's look quickly at the mystery of Christ. He says, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ. Now, whereas the, But modern misuse of so-called tongues confuses the masses. Utterance brings illumination of the mystery of Christ. 1 Corinthians 14. Go there quickly. We're going to keep moving as fast as we can here. 1 Corinthians 14. The modern misuse of so-called tongues confuses the masses. 1 Corinthians 14 says, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. For no man understandeth him. How be it in this spirit he speaketh mysteries, but he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. Now we don't have time to teach on this whole chapter today, but it's a pretty plain speaking chapter. If you don't have preconceived notions and you're willing to just believe the Word of God and obey it, you can read 1 Corinthians 14 and it'll unconfuse and uncharismaticize the churches and they'll come out all together in unity of the Spirit and bonds of peace without a bunch of anti-doctrines and other religious shows that are going on today. The word prophecy clearly means, by definition, in the English and also in the Greek. You don't need the Greek to get the understanding, but I happen to know that this also means in the Greek. The word prophesy means to proclaim the word of God, both in English and in Greek. And whether that proclamation of the Word of God is a past tense proclamation, a present tense proclamation of what God said, or a future tense proclamation of what God is going to do, the word prophecy in the Bible has nothing to do with the tense as much unless the tense is given in context. For example, when the prophet Joel or another prophet says, it shall come to pass in that day, they just gave you the tense. They say, thus saith the Lord. And now you know it's the word of God, so it's prophecy. And then they say, in that day, Zion shall be plowed as a field or whatever else they say. They just gave you the context of the tense. Is this a past tense thing that God said? And God said, let there be light. There's past tense, future tense. Thus saith the Lord, Zion shall be plowed like a field. And you get the tense from the context. And you understand whether it's a future prophecy or a past prophecy that has been fulfilled or a present prophecy that's being fulfilled by the context. Now, when the Bible talks about prophecy in the New Testament, The Word of God was closed in the book of Revelation. And God said, if any man adds to these things, I will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. The Word of God is finished. The revelation of the Word of God is complete in the 66 books that we have in our King James Authorized Version Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And there is no new revelation of the Word of God being given today. If God wants to add anything, He'll add it in the millennial reign or after, and He'll make it pretty clear with His rod of iron in His right hand, and it coming out of His own mouth, exactly how much it is a revelation of God, and there'll be no question about it. But as far as prophets running around and adding revelations of God's Word, no such thing is happening in our day. But the biblical use of the word prophecy is applied to the preacher. And the preacher that proclaims the Word of God Takes the Bible that we have that's already written and preaches it particularly with utterance now He can proclaim the Word of God without utterance and it be prophesying but it won't be prophesying with the spirit of prophecy You get the spirit of prophecy on you and you'll preach with utterance. You'll preach with power You'll preach with understanding and you'll make manifest and make known the mystery of God using the revelation of God the 66 books of the Bible and in direct obedience and submission to those books. Now, here in verse 4 he says, He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. And this prophecy is what we're told to look for. He says, I would that ye all speak with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied. For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret that the church may receive edified. Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine? And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle? Now unknown blibber blabber and blibber blubber and unknown tongues, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, is an uncertain sound, and it brings confusion. God is not the author of confusion, but of a sound mind. It says the Lord has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of soundness of mind. And he here, we don't have time to study this out today. I hope and pray that you will. He very clearly lays this out that if you're going to speak in an unknown tongue, keep it to yourself and shut your mouth unless there's an interpreter. Now, if there's an interpreter, then that gives us the reality that it is a known tongue. Where there's a known tongue, there's an interpreter. Where there's an unknown tongue, there's not an interpreter. You say, well, what about the Spirit speaking expressly, speaking mysteries in the Spirit? If somebody were to do this, it would line up 100% with the Word of God. It says in verse 28, verse 27, if any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two or at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. And then he goes on and speaks to the prophets, and he says in verse 33, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints, let your women keep Keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in a church. Now, if that rankled you, it's because you're not of God. You've got another spirit. You don't even know what spirit you're of if you're all for all this woman pastor stuff. Totally another spirit. God has forbidden it. Now we're talking about utterance. We're talking about the utterance of the mystery. The mystery is not speaking mysterious languages. The mystery is revealed in Christ. So if you think that your mystery is going to help the church, it's not. It's going to bring confusion. We need the revelation, the manifestation of the mystery of Jesus Christ in our churches and in our land. 1 Corinthians 15 51. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Now Paul there just revealed a mystery and he did it in a plain tongue that could be understood and that could be translated to another language. And then guess what he did? He not only reveals that there is a mystery, he preaches on it, and we don't have time to get into that mystery right now, but he talks about how we shall all be changed. And there's the mystery of the resurrection. Go to the book of Ephesians. Quickly, Ephesians chapter one and verse nine. He says, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. He's talking about Jesus Christ in verse five and verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. So here is the mystery of God's will made known unto us. God is giving us the revelation of the known mystery, what was once completely unable to be understood, now revealed and expounded on in a plain language that can be understood by the spirit of prophecy. And this is what we're looking for. This is what the church at Colossae is being told to pray for, is that Paul will have the utterance to make known the mystery of his will. It says, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. And he goes on and on in the book of Ephesians preaching the mystery of Christ. Go to Ephesians 3 and verse 3. Now let's start in verse one. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, word, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore, in few words, whereby when ye read, get this, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, whereby when ye read, ye may understand My knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Paul was saying, I'm giving you everything I've got here. I'm giving you my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. And I'm giving it to you in a letter, and I'm writing it down in a way that when you read it, you may understand. My knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ, by the gospel whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. This is what we're praying for. You want to know how to pray for America? Pray that God will raise up ministers and pour out his spirit upon them and give them the gift of the grace of God by the effectual working of His power that they might make known the mystery of Christ in our generation and in our day. You want to know how to pray for your pastor? That's how you pray for your pastor. You want to know how to pray for the preacher? That's how you pray for the preacher. That the effectual working of the power of God would open unto them a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which he says, I am also in bonds. And you got to recognize if you've got a real preacher, he's going to go through some persecution and you better be ready to pray for him and help him when he does. Help him as best you can. Look at verse 9. He says this is what he's trying to do. Let's just go ahead and read on down through it. Verse 8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ. That I should preach it. He says, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now under the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God. The mystery of Jesus Christ, when preached with utterance, is preached with understanding. It's preached to edification. It's preached to the acknowledgement of the church and to the understanding of the church, not to the confusion of the church. He says, in which, for which I am also in bonds. Go to 2 Corinthians and we'll look at that real quick and then we'll move on. 2 Corinthians 6 and then back to Ephesians and we'll be wrapping it up. 2 Corinthians 6. Hallelujah, thank you, Lord. Verse four, he says, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience and afflictions and necessities and distresses and stripes and imprisonments and tumults and labors and watchings and fastings. The gospel will send you to jail. And America is about to see, unless God sends a major mighty reviving that changes the social and political face of this land drastically. Unless God changes everything. Very quickly, America is about to see the day again, and America has seen this day many times, where godly, God-filled preachers who are full of the Spirit of God, making known the mystery of God, will be bound and imprisoned and punished and put through all kinds of persecution for making known the mystery of Jesus Christ. This has never changed. America was founded on godly principles. But if you study American history in detail, you'll find out that in the days of the formation of this nation, there were men, there were godly preachers being thrown in jail all across this land throughout the 1700s. There were preachers, if you were not a Congregationalist preacher, you were not allowed to preach in a Congregationalist state without a license, and that only came through the Congregationalist church. So if you didn't line up with them, you got thrown in jail. And many Baptist and non-conformist preachers, including men like Quakers and such, were thrown into jail for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in this land and not marching to the beat of the denominational drum. Other places were Presbyterian, and if you were not a Presbyterian, you'd get thrown in jail for preaching without a license, and you couldn't get a license in that colony without being a Presbyterian, and so on it went. Same as all the junk that was happening in England through the Anglican churches, which is the Church of England. He was in bonds because of the gospel. And this has always been the case and always will be the case. Yea, and all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now go to Ephesians chapter 1. Again. And verse 17. Turn there quickly. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 and verse 17. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him I should have started in verse uh... fifteen or sixteen here he said wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Notice the all-inclusive use of the word saints for Christians that we keep running into throughout the New Testament. He says, I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. And this is what Paul prays for the church at Ephesus. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So here Paul prays for an opening of the understanding, an enlightenment of the understanding that ye may know. The Bible is full of references of God willing you to know. These things were written that you might know that you have eternal life. God desires you to know. That's why God has given us the manifestation of his will, the revelation of the mystery of Christ in these days. It's not designed by God to be hard to understand unless you're proud and arrogant and full of your own preconceived ideas. If you come to the Bible as a plow boy, having never learned letters, and you start working and you learn your alphabet, and you learn to read, and you learn functional fourth grade English, you can read an authorized version Bible and understand it. And with the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit of God, you can go out and preach the gospel. The last thing you probably need as a preacher is a seminary or a Bible school education. It'll kill you deader than a rock. What you need is to get in the Word of God and believe the Word of God and get on your face and pray for utterance and unction and then go out and preach the Bible. This nation needs, as my pastor has said many times, 10,000 Holy Spirit-filled anointed preachers preaching the Word of God and power. That's what this nation needs. Ephesians 3 in verse 9. We looked at this before. That's actually not the verse I wanted, Ephesians 619. Ephesians 619 as we close. He says, let's look at verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. This is almost verbatim, almost exactly what he tells the church at Colossae, praying always for me. He's exhorting the church at Ephesus. Excuse me. He says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there into with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, the utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador and bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. This is the prayer for the preacher. This is the prayer for the preacher. How to pray for your preacher right here. Let's read that one more time. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there into with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly. to make known the mystery of the gospel. Colossians 4.3, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Amen. The End