But we're in the book of Colossians. This morning, we're going to begin a series of sermons on this epistle written by the Apostle Paul, and we're going to start by examining just the first two verses, the greeting of this letter. Before we... Well, let me go ahead and read the Word of God, and then we'll pray. Hear the Word of God, Colossians chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossa, grace to you and peace from God our Father. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning in seek of a word from you. We have just read your word, it's opened before us, and now I pray that, Father, you would come and instruct us in it, teach us in it, implant the word of God into our hearts that we might love you more that we might die to our sin and live to righteousness as your people. Father, I pray that you would be with me as I preach and be with the listeners as they hear. Lord, I pray that you would be with all of us. May the Word of God find root in our lives and grow up to make beautiful fruit. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. The book of Colossians is about the sufficiency of Christ. It's about the centrality, the supremacy, and the adequacy of Jesus Christ. More so than any other book in the Bible, the letter to the Colossians drives home the truth that Jesus Christ is everything we have as Christians, and indeed He's everything we need as Christians. The letter to the Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul, but the Apostle Paul was not the one who brought the gospel to the Colossians, at least not by first hand. No, that privilege belonged to a man by the name of Epaphras. We learned of this earlier this morning from our scripture reading. Verse seven, chapter one, tells us that the Colossians learned the gospel, heard the gospel from Epaphras. What most likely happened was this. Sometime around the year 55 AD, Epaphras had been in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus lay 120 miles to the west of Colossa. And while he was there, he heard the gospel preached by the Apostle Paul. And Epaphras, by the grace of God, he was converted. He became a follower of Jesus Christ. Epaphras evidently spent some time with the apostle there in Ephesus, and then he returned to his hometown of Colossae with the gospel. And he began to preach, and he began to teach the gospel in the city to the people there of Colossae. As a result, evidently a number of Colossians were converted by the grace of God. They believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and a church was planted. For the next several years, the gospel continued to bear fruit in that church and to bear fruit in the city. A number of unbelievers were coming to Jesus Christ and all of the believers, it seems, in the church at Colossae were growing in Christ. They were bearing fruit. The church was strong. The church was healthy. The church was doing very, very well. It was doing very well up until the point some false teachers began to arise from their very own midst. Some false teachers began to spring up, it seems, from within the church at Colossa and began to disseminate their teaching among the congregation and confuse the members. What were they teaching? Of what did their false teaching consist? It consisted of a conglomeration of things. Three things to be in fact. In fact, it consisted of elements from these three particular religions. Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism. At really the root of this teaching was Christianity. These false teachers proclaimed Jesus Christ. That's what made it so alluring, you see. And they believed in Jesus Christ, at least they proclaimed Jesus Christ. They professed Jesus Christ. They had some understanding of Jesus Christ. But then, you see, they took a little bit of Old Testament Judaism with regard to the ceremonial law, and they added that to Jesus Christ. And then they also took a little bit of paganism and they added that to Jesus Christ and in the end what you had was a hodgepodge. You had a stew, you had a mishmash of religion. It was syncretism. For those of us perhaps who have gone on mission trips, I've gone on mission trips to a number of Indian reservations. Reservations with Native Americans are known for being syncretistic. You lead them to Christ, but then they have a terrible time getting rid of all of that religious baggage. And they begin to blend it, you see. They begin to blend. Well, that's exactly what happened here in Colossa. These men in the church profess Christ, but they also brought in a lot of baggage and a lot of paganism, Judaism, and they were mixing it together with Jesus Christ. They were saying, you've got to believe in Jesus Christ, you see, but you've got to believe in Jesus Christ plus these other things. For instance, chapter 2. In chapter 2 of this book, the Apostle Paul, he gets a little bit descriptive of this particular kind of false teaching that was being circulated among the church at Colossae. For instance, chapter 2, verses 11 and 16 and 17. In these verses, the Apostle implies that these teachers were requiring that Gentile Christians obey various Jewish ceremonial laws. Laws which God had commanded His Old Testament people to follow, but laws that were abrogated, laws that were ended in the coming and the death and the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why, for instance, Paul says in verse 17, he says, these are a shadow of the things to come, referring to the ceremonial laws. He says, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. In other words, the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, laws dealing with the sacrificial system, for instance, laws dealing with food and drink, laws dealing with the observance of particular days like festival days, those kinds of laws, not the moral law, the ceremonial laws, The ceremonial laws, Paul says, were a shadow of the things to come. Namely, they were a shadow of Jesus Christ. Christ is the substance, not the shadow. He has come. The ceremonial law is no more. That's why we're not still practicing the slaughtering of goats and sheep and bulls today, because those laws have been abrogated. Ceremonial laws are done. What these teachers were doing, you see, So, as they were saying, you've got to go back to various kinds of these ceremonial laws. And in essence, what they were saying is, you've got to go back to the shadows. Well, in going back to the shadows, what the apostle is saying is, what these teachers, what they're really saying is, you've got to desert Christ. You've got to exchange the substance, you see, for the shadows. And Paul says, may you never exchange the substance for the shadows. So they were saying, you've got to blend in a little bit of this ceremonial wall. Not only this, verse 18, we learn that these teachers insisted that angelic beings be worshiped. They practiced angel worship. Apparently, these teachers believed that in addition to needing Christ to mediate for us, in addition to needing Christ to mediate between us and God, we needed angels to mediate between us and Jesus, you see. And so what they probably said to these converts in Colossa was this, if you really want to experience fellowship with God, if you really want to experience fellowship with God that is full, fellowship with God that is pure, fellowship with God that is best, then you've got to just, you've got to worship angels too. You see, angels mediate between us and Jesus. You see, and if you really want to know God, if you really want to experience the Lord, then I promise you that if you worship these angels, you see, they'll make the experience of worshiping God and knowing God all the more full. You can see perhaps how some newly converted people, especially newly converted people who came out of paganism might be attracted to such a thing. Some of you may be attracted to such a thing. Man, if I could only know God better. Jesus isn't enough. I've got to worship angels as well. And if I worship angels, then they'll assist me in knowing the Lord. And Paul says, no, they won't. No, they won't. Ceremonial law, angel worship third. Paul talks about asceticism. Asceticism. Asceticism is the belief that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial. Paul mentions that asceticism is part of this false teaching in verse 18, and then in verses 20 to 23 of chapter 2, he goes on to describe the particular form that this asceticism took. Apparently, these teachers were saying that, again, if you really want to experience fellowship with God at its fullest, then as a believer, you must deny yourself certain physical needs to the point of causing yourself a degree of physical harm. And so they would see, they would starve themselves. They would go on extended fast. They would deny themselves water even, because they believe that in doing damage and harm and causing their bodies to suffer, God would bless them and they would experience an elevation of God. As a matter of fact, you see, these false teachers would work themselves into a, in kind of a hypnotic state because they were so dehydrated and hungry that they would see visions. And they would say, oh, if you really want to see visions, then starve yourself. Deny yourself food. Deny yourself water. You'll see angels and you'll worship those angels just as we are. This is what this false teaching consisted of. It was a hodgepodge of things. Well, Epaphras, who planted this church, Epaphras, who no doubt was one of the elders of this church, what he decides to do is he decides to seek out the older and wiser Apostle Paul for assistance. The year now is approximately A.D. 60. Five years have passed. The Apostle Paul is no longer in Ephesus, which was only 120 miles away. He's now in Rome, which is 1,500 miles away by sea. Epaphras realizes that the teaching is so dangerous, he says it's worth the trip. And so he gets into a ship, evidently. He travels to Rome. Paul is on house arrest there for preaching the gospel in Rome. He's living in a house. There's a soldier in the house. Epaphras gets to Rome, finds Paul in that house, and has a very lengthy conversation with the apostle. He tells the apostle how things are going at the church at Colossae. He tells him of the good. The people are receiving the gospel. They're growing in their faith. But there is this false teaching being spread about by some of the members of this church. After hearing the kind of false teaching it was, the Apostle Paul is obviously prompted and inspired by the Spirit of God to write the letter to the Colossians. This is how we got the letter to the Colossians. Paul writes to combat this heretical teaching, this false teaching. This teaching which, in addition to Christ, insisted upon the observance of Old Testament ceremonial law and angel worship and asceticism. This teaching which promised that through these additional religious observances, one could experience the highest degree of spirituality known to man. This teaching which claimed a special insight into the powers of evil and the ability to protect people from those powers. This teaching which offered a deeper knowledge of God and a deeper experience of His power. This teaching which inclined its proponents to think of themselves as being superior to the other believers. And this teaching, which in the end was throwing the entire Colossian church into spiritual upheaval through doctrinal confusion and practical division. So Paul addresses this error. This is why he writes the letter to the Colossians. How does he address this error? by pressing home one truth and then applying that truth over and over again in a variety of ways. What is that truth? That Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ by himself is 100% sufficient. That Jesus Christ is 100% sufficient. Paul makes clear in this letter that Jesus is sufficient. because Jesus is sovereign, that Jesus is sufficient because he's supreme, that Jesus is sufficient because he is central, that Jesus is sufficient because he is saving. Think of it, Paul says in this letter. He says the Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign and supreme and central to the cosmos. He's sovereign and supreme and central to the entire physical world, the entire universe. He's sovereign, supreme and central. And think of it, Paul says, Jesus Christ is sovereign and supreme and central and saving for his church. For His church, the new creation you see, the creation that God has made out of dead humans, spiritually speaking, and united them to Jesus Christ and made them new creatures in Jesus Christ. Jesus is at the very heart and soul of that creation. And so Paul, in this letter, he points out the all-sufficiency of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He says you need not add anything to Him. You need not add anything to him, believer, because if you are in Christ, you have everything you need. Everything you need. This morning, what we're going to do, and actually for the next several weeks, next several months, until we finish this letter, we're going to explore this letter and explore the soul sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is everything that you, believer, need. Everything you need. And this morning we're just going to examine verses 1 and 2 of Colossians. Let me read them again. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. In this brief greeting, the apostle Paul does just that. He greets the church at Colossa. He gives them a salutation. In fact, he does this in all of his New Testament letters, all 13 of Paul's letters he opens with a greeting. Now, when we read the letters of Paul, we don't spend much time considering the greeting because we believe that, well, the greeting isn't that important. We think that all there is to a greeting is it's a polite ritual, a courteous gesture. But I can assure you that Paul's greetings are much more than that. All of the greetings of the New Testament letters are much more than that. And my hope is that you will see this. The greetings of the letters that we read in the New Testament are far more than just courteous gestures. What I want you to see from this point forward, especially after this message, is that the greetings of the New Testament letters are powerful messages which contain rich theological content written for the purpose of ministering to our souls. And so this being said, what I want you to notice from the greeting of Colossians are three things. First, I want you to notice that Paul declares his authority. Paul declares his authority. Second, I want you to notice that Paul describes who believers are. And then third, I want you to notice that Paul delivers to believers a blessing. And so first, Paul declares his authority. He opens in verse one. an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. This is the declaration of Paul's authority. Remember, Paul had never been to this church before. He'd never even been to this city before. He didn't know these people personally. They didn't know him personally. This is the first interaction he has with them. He meets the Colossians by letter. And the very first thing he does is he tells them who he is. He says, I am Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. Now, even though the Colossians had never met Paul personally, they were quite familiar with who Paul was. By this time, Paul had been a Christian for nearly 30 years. The story, therefore, of his extraordinary conversion and his remarkable call to the apostleship by Christ had circulated throughout Christendom. He had been preaching the gospel ever since he'd become a Christian. And for the past 20 years or so, he'd been traveling throughout the entire Roman world, spreading the gospel, planting the churches, and writing the very word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so make no mistake about it, the Colossians knew who Paul was. They knew that he was an apostle. They knew that he was an apostle, not based on his own will, but they knew that he was an apostle by the will of God, by the sovereign choosing of God. My point is, because they knew that he was a true apostle, They knew that God Himself, through the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, had given Paul the authority to speak for Christ and to write for Christ. I say this to say that when the Colossians opened this letter up one Sunday morning, when one of the elders of that church stood up, rolled out the scroll, and he read, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, Well, the whole congregation immediately straightened up because you knew, they knew, you see, they knew that what they were hearing and what they were about to hear was not the words of man, but the very Word of God. And they received it as such. They received it as the Word of God because that's what it was. I say this to say this should cause us to ask ourselves this question. How do I receive the Word of God? How do I receive Scripture? Do I receive it as it really is? Do I receive it as the Word of God? Do I receive it as authoritative? Do I receive the Word of God as the only infallible rule of what to believe and how to live? Or when I hear the Word of God, do I think of it just as another book? Now, I doubt that there are many here this morning who would openly reject the Scripture. If we did, the very last thing we would do is talk about it amongst ourselves, talk about it amongst the church members. Now, most of us don't struggle in the area of openly rejecting the Scripture. Rather, our struggle is apathy towards the Scripture, indifference towards the Scripture. coldness toward the Word of God. We're just not that interested personally in coming to be believers who truly know the Word of God, who desire the Word of God, who hunger for Scripture, who thirst for Scripture, who desire to drink in the Scripture day in and day out in private and with our families and corporately as we come together for fellowship. Our struggle, you see, is not an intellectual denial of the Scripture. It's a practical denial of Scripture. We deny the Scripture not with our brains, we deny it with our hearts. We accept the Scripture as the Word of God, but we live in a way, perhaps, that contradicts the Word of God. But the Scripture says that the mark of a Christian is that a Christian loves That a Christian doesn't just listen to the Word of God, but he loves it. That a Christian doesn't just hear the Word of God, he heeds it. A Christian loves the Word of God. A Christian does, as James says, in James chapter 1, verse 22. He's a doer of the Word, and not a hearer only. deceiving himself. A Christian agrees with what David writes in Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. A Christian listens to what Solomon says in Proverbs chapter four, verses 20 to 22. Be attentive to my words, Solomon writes. Incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart, for they are light. to those who find them. A Christian says amen to what Peter writes in first Peter 2 2. Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up to salvation. I don't know about you, but when my daughters don't get the milk from their mother, they scream and they don't stop screaming. until they get it. And the Apostle Paul is saying, be like that with regard to the Word of God. Like newborn infants. Crave it. Long for it. Scream when you can't get it. Last but not least, a Christian knows by experience what Jesus means when Jesus says in Matthew 4, 4, does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Christians are those who desire the Scripture. They desire it not just for learning, they desire it for living. As a matter of fact, that's why we learn it. We learn the Scripture to live the Scripture. John Calvin said a very long time ago, he said, the Bible is the scepter by which the heavenly king rules his church. And so I ask you today, what is the attitude of your heart towards Scripture? Do you have the right attitude? Do you have the attitude which the Apostle Paul expected the Colossians to have to his letter? Do you come to the Scripture humbly? bowing the knee and ready to do everything that you're told. Do you come to the scripture expectantly, ready to be changed, ready to be corrected, ready to be encouraged and strengthened and directed? Is this the posture of your soul towards scripture? Do you believe and receive the scripture as authoritative, as the only infallible rule of what to believe and how to live? Understand that whenever you hear the words, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, you are hearing the very word of God. And so take up, stand up and take notice. Be attentive. Don't just be hearers of the word, but be doers of the word. And so, first of all in this greeting, Paul declares his authority. Second, Paul describes who believers are. He does this in verse 2. He describes us as three things. He describes us as saints, faithful, and brothers. First of all, he describes us as saints. Believers are saints. He writes, to the saints, referring to the saints at Colossae. Now, when Paul writes to the saints, he doesn't mean to those extraordinarily holy people who are members of the congregation, or to those super spiritual Christians who make up a small portion of the body, or to those members who are most involved in the activities of the church. Now, when Paul writes to the saints, he's referring to all the members of the church. That is, all the members who profess to be Christians, all the members who are in Christ, Paul says, and are members of the church at Colossae. Now, before I go on and talk about the meaning of the word saint, I want to touch very briefly upon the meaning of the phrase in Christ. You read this phrase, in Christ, all over the Pauline epistles. It's a phrase that he uses about 80 times in the New Testament. In Christ, he uses it in verse 2. To the saints, in Christ, at Colossae. Know this, that all those and only those who are in Christ are saints. As soon as a person, as a matter of fact, becomes in Christ, He becomes a saint. And that's because Jesus Christ is the only one who makes people saints. To be sure, this phrase, in Christ, it means to be in union with Christ. That's it at its essence. It means to be in union with Christ, and therefore in communion with Christ. It means to be in relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore in fellowship with Christ. How do I become united with Christ? That's the work of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit, He takes a dead man, and through the preaching of the Word, He unites him to Jesus Christ. But He uses an instrument. He uses a tool, and that instrument is faith. He gives that person faith. And as soon as that person receives faith, that person is forever united, forever related, forever in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if you are in Jesus Christ, you're going to be a believer in Jesus Christ. You're going to trust in Jesus Christ. You will have fled to Jesus Christ for refuge. You will be resting in Jesus Christ if you're in Christ. Now, as to the meaning of the word saint. The word saint, it simply means holy. Holy. And holy, essentially, means to be set apart. And so when Paul writes to the saints, what he's saying is to the holy ones, to the set apart ones. to those who have been set apart by God for God. In other words, to those who have been chosen by God for God. What I'm saying here is whenever you come across this word saints in the Bible, you are to think of one of the most glorious doctrines in scripture, the doctrine of election. I know you may have never heard this before. When I think of the word saints, election? Yes. That's what the word saints means. Set apart, holy, chosen, dedicated to God. The doctrine of election. The doctrine that is literally all over the pages of the Old and New Testament. The doctrine that teaches that God Before the creation of the world, he chose to save a host of Adam's fallen race. A host! A multitude of people. A people larger than all of the particles of grain of sand on the seashore. A multitude of people. A host. A people from every tribe and language and people group and nation. A people, get this, who are no different in and of themselves than all the rest of the people. That is, there are people who are dead in their sins. There are people who are darkened in their understanding. There are people who are disobedient in their living. There are people who are doomed for hell. In other words, there are hopeless and helpless people, just like the entire human race. And God says, I'm going to spare those people. I'm going to set my electing love on those people and all the individuals who make up those people, and I'm going to send my son to die for those people. Election. This is what you're to think of when you come across this word saints. You're to think of the love of God in Christ for you in election. Don't deny the doctrine of election. If you deny the doctrine of election, you are denying one of the most glorious doctrines, one of the most securing doctrines of all the Bible. I stand secure eternally because of God's election. And He chose me before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. And if you're in Christ, He chose you to be holy and blameless in His sight. Whenever you come across this word saint, you're to think of Deuteronomy 7, 7 to 8. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you. For you are fewer of all the peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you. That's why He chose you. Now you may ask, why? Why did he love me? I have no other answer to give you except it pleased him to love you. He loved you because he loved you, he loved you because he loved you, he loved you because he loved you, and that's it. You brought nothing to the table. He didn't say, I've got to have this one. I've got to have that one. This one offers more than this one. This one's better looking than this one. This one's a little bit better than that one." No. No. We are all dead in our sins and God says, I'm going to be pleased to set my affection, my love on that soul. Election. John 15, 16, Jesus says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. fruit that will last. He tells his disciples, but his disciples chose Christ. Ah, but they didn't choose Christ before Christ chose them, did they? He says, you didn't choose me. I chose you. Believer. God chose you. Romans 918, God has mercy. On whomever he wills. Ephesians 1.4, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. C.S. Lewis, he said a very long time ago, he said, amicable agnostics will talk cheerfully about man's search for God. But for me, they might as well talk about the mouse's search for the cat. I've never in my life seen a mouse go after a cat. Lewis closes and he says, as for me, God closed in on me. You see, he knew his own heart. He knew that he would never seek for God. God had to seek for him. understand that the only reason we are Christians is because God closed in on us. That's it. That's the truth of our sainthood. That before we were born, before God laid the foundations of the world, He chose to set His saving, electing love on you. Before we came to Him, He came to us. The reason we came to Him is because He came to us. The implications this has for our security. After the message today, we're gonna be singing a hymn and I wanna quote to you the first stanza of this hymn because it's awesome. I found a friend, oh such a friend, he loved me before I knew him. He drew me with the cords of love and thus he bound me to him. and around my heart still closely twine those ties which none can sever. For I am his and he is mine forever and forever. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to know that God loved you way before you even knew him. He set you apart. He chose you. You are a saint. The second thing which Paul describes us as believers is faithful. He says believers are faithful. To the saints and faithful brothers, Paul writes. In other words, in response to God's love for us in election and making us his saints, Christians are faithful to their calling. This word faithful, it means to be loyal. It means to be committed, obedient, trusting. I'd like to point out to you that as often as Paul uses the word saints in all of his greetings, see, and not all of his greetings, but like 10 out of 13 of his letters, Paul uses the word saints in his greetings. This is the only letter with the greeting that has the word faithful. The reason I think he does this is because of the particular problem that again was brewing in the church at Colossal. Remember the Colossians were being tempted to abandon gospel truth for a lie. They were being told that Christ is not enough for your spiritual growth. Christ is not enough to experience rich, fulfilling fellowship with God. That instead you had to do all these other things in addition to Jesus Christ. And so Paul uses the word faithful here. He's not just telling them that they are faithful. He's telling them to be faithful. He says, be faithful to the gospel, Christian. Be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. Be faithful to God. Do not waver, Paul says, from the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints. Be faithful. And so my question for you this morning as a Christian is, are you being faithful? to God. God has elected you. God has made you one of His saints. Are you being loyal to Christ? Are you being obedient to the Gospel? As Christians, we're to be faithful in everything that we believe. We're to believe everything this book says, as sometimes difficult as it is to believe various doctrines. For instance, even the last doctrine that I spoke about, the doctrine of election, so many believers reject that doctrine, not because they have scriptural basis, because it just doesn't feel right to them. We can't do that with the word of God. God holds us accountable, not just for the way we live, he actually holds us accountable for what we believe, the doctrines, because doctrine changes life. And so what do you believe about this book? And how are you living your life? A.W. Tozer, he once wrote,