Okay, here we go. Good evening, everybody. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for the spirit of prayer and supplication, that you not only incite and motivate and solve the problems that we have, but you also incite, motivate the prayer, and then answer it on our behalf. For you, Lord Jesus, are all in all. You are the great I am, everything we need you to be. the one that heals, saves, helps, delivers, and preserves. We ask you to do all of those things tonight according to your perfect, omniscient, and all-knowing plan. In our lives and in the lives of those that we care about and are concerned for, and those that we're praying for, that you would work on their behalf, act on their behalf mightily for your honor and glory, for the honor and glory of God for all eternity. that souls would be saved, that men would come to know Jesus Christ, enter into that beautiful love relationship that You intend to have for each one of us, as we really come to know You, Lord Jesus, through the Word of God, which is the mind of the thinking of Christ. Give us another increment of that this evening, for we pray it in the matchless name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. I've entitled the message, More Greetings. These are greetings at the end of Colossians. And of course, the author of Colossians is the Apostle Paul. He has written two-thirds of the New Testament, 13 epistles, and he writes to churches and to people that can read. If you look, I was looking at the literacy rate of the world at the time. when Jesus was upon the earth in the time that Paul wrote these epistles. And I don't think history has it correct. They said in Israel, only 10% of adults were literate. I don't think that was true. First of all, The Hebrew language, which was the native language of Israel, was 1,850 years old. So was their alphabet. So they had a written language for 1,850 years before Christ came. And all of these things that were written, the instruction that was written, the warning that was written, had to be read by somebody. And Paul continually says, when you read these things to those that he's writing to, then you'll understand. When you read and reread—anagnosis is the word that means to read and reread—so he's writing to people who can read. And of course the pastors can read, because he's writing to the pastors. And there's even those who say that Peter was illiterate. And Peter wasn't illiterate. They said, well, why did Mark then write the account of Peter? I think Mark wrote his own account, but some of the things that he wrote about Peter certainly was his reference, and took the testimony of Peter, who was there for all of those events. And so was Mark. Mark was there from the earliest of time. And we see Mark, even in the gospel of Mark and in Acts, in several instances where he's there right from the very beginning, actually was around and alive as a teenager when Jesus was still here. So he wrote those things. And Peter was not illiterate. Peter was very literate. He said, well, he was a dumb fisherman. Well, you're a dumb what? Whatever you are. And he's no dumber than you, no smarter than you. But he was an apostle, and he was chosen to see and to witness, to be eyewitness to all of these things. So, more greetings here in the final chapter of Colossians. Tuesday, January 14th, 2020. When I said on Sunday that I didn't have anything after studying, what I meant is that I didn't have any script or specific theme as I usually do, as is most often the case. So, we're going to continue on the same theme, not having a theme, not much of a theme anyway, but just more greetings, final greetings in Colossians, Paul's epistle to the Colossians. So, the theme was, loosely, Team Jesus. Those who are on the team with Paul. Paul's the primus pilus, or the tip of the spear. And Paul takes all the hit for everybody so that the others can go free. Smite the shepherd. and the sheep are scattered, and so Paul here takes the hit for those who are not strong enough to take it, and they go free. Even as Jesus said in the garden, he said, I'm the one you're looking for, take me and let them go free. he's done that with all of us. He's taken the hit for us. Jesus Christ has, and Paul does that. In representation of Christ, in imitation of Christ, he's a great imitator of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul is. As a matter of fact, he's hupotiposus, which means he is the paradigm, and the representative man, and the representative of what a man looks like, who's sold out to grace and truth. And Paul is certainly sold out to grace and truth, as we are to be also. So, here, the ones that are greeting the believers that Paul mentions in a letter that are with him in prison in Rome, as he writes this letter to the Colossians, are always men of humility and objectivity, solid grace believers, without one thread, shred, or stitch of legalism or condemnation in their approach to others or in their message, like the instruction and warning of Jesus and the Apostle Paul, always devoid of condemnation in regard to secondary issues and practices that are not forbidden by the Word of God. They don't find fault or judge others. These do not find fault but only encourage those who turn from idols to the living God. Jesus Christ for salvation, and to some degree or another, sanctification by the Word and the Spirit. We're going to 1 Thessalonians next, and some of these people are from Thessalonica, and so they do really represent these very principles, these things and these very principles of spiritual life. In 1 Thessalonians 1.8, The Apostle Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says, That's when Paul first came to them. cold, he says, and how you turn from God to idols, how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven. Is that what we're doing? Is that what you're doing? I hope so, because that's what you're here for. You're here to wait and to turn, keep turning, keep turning, keep turning, turning to the Lord, keep turning around, changing the course, making the decisions to change the course, of your daily walk and your life. Change the course of your life and follow the way that he leads. And everything will be far better than it is now because he's the only one that knows where you're going to end up. You can't see where you're going to end up until it's too late. And sometimes you don't like where you are, where you end up. So turn to idols, turn to God from idols, and serve the living and true God, and wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. Thank God for that. So next here, go to verse 10. You can go to Colossians chapter 4, verse 10, where he's going to have the final greetings. of those who were with him, and close the letter off so that we can go to Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians. And then the final. So we got 7, 8, 9, and then we'll have 1 and 2 Timothy. And then we'll have Titus. And then we'll have Philemon. And we'll be done with the 13 epistles of the 13th apostle. So he starts out here with Aristarchus. If you'll remember Aristarchus in Acts 20, verse 4, he accompanied Paul from Corinth and went to Ephesus. He's in Ephesus with Paul. And along with some of the other ones that are here also, like Tychicus. Not Trophimus. Trophimus wasn't there. Gaius of Derbe wasn't there either. But Tychicus was. And here we have Aristarchus. So Aristarchus. He says, my fellow prisoner, evidently he was in prison with Paul, or was admitted in prison with Paul, as an aide or an assistant to Paul, send you his greetings and also Barnabas's cousin Mark, we know all about him, I just mentioned him briefly, that he wrote the gospel of Mark. His name's John Mark. He's the cousin of Barnabas, or he could actually be the nephew of Barnabas. Depends on how you translate the Greek verb, or the Greek noun for cousin or nephew. And he says, my fellow prisoners send you his greetings and also Barnabas' cousin, or nephew, Mark, about whom you received instruction. If he comes to you, welcome him. Here he says, Aristarchus sends greetings to you all. He's the fellow prisoner of me. And then he says, and Mark, the cousin. Here we have anapsios, anapsios, which means son of a sister, literally. But it can mean also cousin. It can mean nephew or cousin. So we don't know if he's his nephew or his cousin. It seems to me that he's a cousin because they're fairly close in age, Barnabas at the time. John Mark was a little bit younger than Barnabas, but he also accompanied Paul and Barnabas, Mark did, Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey. And then Mark decided that he wanted to go home to mommy, so he left them in the midst of the first missionary journey. And then when it was time to go on a second missionary journey, Paul didn't want Mark to go. And Barnabas did, so they split. That's where they split, Barnabas and Paul. And Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus, and Paul took Silas and went on the second missionary journey, and where we see them going to various places in Asia Minor, like, and in Greece, and Macedonia, like Philippi. Paul and Silas in prison in Philippi. So he says, the cousin of Barnabas, He says, concerning, that is with Mark, concerning, who I gave instruction. He says, commandment, entoles, which is commandment. It says, if he should come to you, welcome him. The rest here in league send their personal greetings. Individuals who are known to the Colossians and others like Mark concerning whom they have received instruction. It may very well be that Mark still has a bad rap from the earlier days when he deserted Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. It seems some of this still follows him around, though according to Paul, here and elsewhere, Mark has Paul's endorsement as a valuable team member who should be welcomed by the churches because of his portion and his testimony, which would be a benefit built up, one and all, in the churches. It seems Mark turned out to be a team player after all, because the Lord worked in his heart to do that, even as he has with some of us that you couldn't rely on. hardly at all, if at all, in the past and now have become very faithful and reliable because of the work of Jesus Christ in our hearts. And he does it. That's something he's good at. He can take those who aren't reliable and make them very reliable, aren't reliable at all, and make them reliable all the time. He does it. So, After spending time with Barnabas, after his split, I told you they went to Cyprus, didn't say how long, for how long they were there, he would then show up again and be a support to Peter, 1 Peter 5.13, and then Paul in his imprisonment. He's mentioned several times here and also in 1 Timothy, as indeed he proved to be valuable in assisting the two most eminent apostles, that is Peter and Paul, who, it appears, were sometimes at odds, and so much so that they agreed to go their separate ways. Peter said, we'll go to the Jews, and you go to the Gentiles in Acts chapter 15. It's possible that Mark may have been, may have even acted as a liaison between the two, between Peter and Paul. So he was a very valuable disciple indeed and did a wonderful work there and was very useful to both apostles in spreading the gospel throughout the Roman Empire in those days. Most scholars agree that the Gospel of Mark is Peter's account of the life and times of Jesus and many miraculous deeds performed by Jesus, some of which Mark was witness to even as Peter was eyewitness to all of them, all the events that are contained in Mark's gospel. I said some say that Peter was illiterate and therefore needed a scribe to pen his testimony, the things that Jesus did and taught, and that Mark was that instrument. Somehow I doubt this is true. Why? Because we're not told that, so we don't speculate about these things. But I doubt it's true since Paul and Peter wrote letters to the people and intended them to be read, and intended them to study them, so they must have been able to read. Now if the pastors could read, then surely the apostles who wrote the epistles could communicate with articulate speech and read and write in one or more languages as they did Paul spoke at least five languages with great intelligence and insight provided by the Holy Spirit. History records that the first century world was 3% literate. I don't know where they get these things. I don't know how they could know this. Even some of the historians who address the literacy don't say that or give percentages, but indicate that people could read and write. And in Israel, they said, may have been 10% literate, because I told you about the history of the Hebrew language. But all of these people spoke Greek, that was the universal language, the international language of the day, throughout the Roman Empire. You say, didn't the Romans speak Latin? No, they did not. That was their native language for Italy and Rome, but they all spoke Koine Greek, which is common Greek, a language developed by Alexander the Great, who was, besides a brilliant general, a brilliant linguist as well. Created a military language that was so articulate, so clear, and so precise that nobody could misunderstand it. And God raised that language up so he could communicate his word, his holy word, through it to the world in the New Testament scriptures, all of them. Do you think Jesus and his brothers and sisters could read? I think. Jesus studied the scriptures as a small child. He was taught to read. They were taught to read in the synagogue. They were taught to read by their parents. So it was a homeschooling in most instances. It wasn't public education as such, except in the synagogues. That's what the synagogues were raised up for, to teach Hebrew and to teach reading and writing and basic skills, academic skills. so that they could be educated people and understand and learn many things and master many skills. They were very skillful and talented and intelligent people. The Jews were then and still are remarkable people. If you ever knew any, you would know what I mean. If you ever knew any, you know, up close and personal, you know exactly what I mean. They are remarkable people. God gave them special abilities and personalities that there's very few people that have what they have been given and demonstrate. So, Who taught them? Well, their parents taught them, and the synagogues were places of education. They had schools. They had their own schools. So, if this was not so, how then could the apostles communicate by epistle? Why would they write, why would God have them write epistles if nobody could read, if only 10% of the people, 3 to 10% of the people could read? And how could the average believer anagnosis in Ephesians 3, 4, which is read and study, read and read again. So, verse 11. Then he says, these are final greetings, so we have Aristarchus and Marcus, or Mark. And now we have also Jesus. Jesus who? This isn't Jesus the Lord Jesus, this isn't Jesus of Nazareth, this is Jesus who is also called Eustas, or Justice. And he was a Jew, a disciple that was a Jew. He says also Jesus, who being called justice, who being out from the circumcision, that is, they were from the Jewish body of believers in Jerusalem that followed after or ministered to and were used for, used by Paul to do the things that he needed to do to establish, to found and establish the the many churches throughout the Roman Empire at that time. And so, just as who being out from the circumcision, he was a Jew, he says, who are the only are only fellow workers unto the kingdom that is from among the Jews." That's what he's saying. So there's only two of them are from the Jews. The rest of them are from the Gentiles, or from the nations of the Roman Empire. Not necessarily Jewish, although many of them are from the Diaspora, or the dispersion that occurred in the centuries prior to the coming of Christ, and were mingled and melded and amalgamated throughout the nations of the Middle East and Europe, all the way to the coast of Europe, and eventually from there into the United States of America. So he says, these two only were from among the circumcision, and they were a comfort to me. Mark and justice only. The others are non-Jews. These are from the Jews, which is a rare exception at this time until the final days of Israel's national existence in 70 AD. Paul's teaching is far too radical for most Jews. And the mystery of the true identity of Jesus Christ as God Almighty, manifest in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, viewed by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory is a little too radical for them. That is the mystery of Christ and the mystery of the body of Christ. A little too radical for most of the Jews. They want Christianity to be Judaism, it adds Jesus. and add salvation, even salvation by grace and through faith, and they're not ready for the mystery. And that all distinctions, they're not ready for the truth, that all distinctions between Jews and Gentiles have been forever erased, that's much too radical for them. They still have that air of superiority, and it doesn't exist. There are no Jews, no Gentiles, no free, no slave, no free, no rich, high-born, low-born, not even male or female distinction, but all are complete in Christ, each and every one of us, without any distinctions, without any separation or segregation. All of it goes a little too far for their liking, as is seen in the book of Hebrews, where there would be many who would shrink back and even crucify afresh by going back and offering sacrifices, the Son of God putting Him to an open shame, resulting in great losses of life. That's going to happen when these things are not set apart as holy and set apart as importance and sanctified truths from the Word of God, resulting in great losses of life and In the end, believer rewards, even though there are many who indeed possessed eternal salvation, though they lack the important perspective of mystery-truth which dawns. by the communication of the Apostle Paul. He's the only one that received the mystery revelation in 31 increments throughout the New Testament. By the gift, and then communicated by the gift of pastor-teacher, the continuous intake of categorical truth in the local assembly under the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Yes, that's how it comes. little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept. The mystery is Jesus is God Almighty. Do you know that? Maker of heaven and earth, the one called the Son, who is God in manifestation of incarnation, while at the same time controlling all that exists, administering the temporal and eternal events of a perfect plan to reveal himself to man and to angels by humiliation unto death, followed by exaltation through resurrection unto glory. Did you get that? You listened to the message. Again, you'll get it. And then you can write it down and put it on your refrigerator and look at it every day until you get it. Go and learn what that means. Jesus said that often. You say, Jesus, what about this? Go and learn what that means. You heard what I said. Now go and learn what it means. Because nobody can explain everything to you ad nauseum. Nobody can. And that's not what most of you want. But some people think that's how you get it, and you don't. God gives it to you. God teaches you. The Spirit teaches you these things. And they dawn over time. What have we here? Is that some kind of an announcement coming from another sphere? Okay. Answer that, would you? So, it might be the Lord. Likewise with Christ. Listen to this. This is important. I didn't do this on Sunday. I had this on Sunday, but I didn't do it on Sunday. Likewise with Christ. All who believe in his true identity as God in the flesh and the one and only Savior of mankind are saved in a moment by grace and through faith, apart from which no one is saved or will see God, know God, or come to the Father." You can't come to the Father except through Him. You can't know God. There's no other name. There's salvation in no one else. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. See, Jesus Christ put on flesh and became a man so that through his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and present session, and the salvation that he wrought through his finished work sacrificed on the cross, man could become a god in the end. And we will, as God indwells mankind. God put on mankind so that he could indwell mankind. He came to save the seed of Abraham, and that's us. Oh, we will be shocked and amazed when we see what He has made us to be in the end. I assure you that's true. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the mind, the imagination of men, the thing that God's prepared for those who love it. We have no idea what it'll be, except it'll be far better, greater, more magnificent than we could ever begin to conceive of. As God-men, that's what we're going to be. God-men. God became a man. so that men could become gods. Okay? You say, you don't believe me? Listen to what Jesus said in John 10 30. He said to those who are asking him, who are you really? And he said, I'm who I told you I was. I am. I am everything you ever need me to be the covenant name of God given to Moses at the burning bush he says I and the father are one that means we are exactly the same one in the same that's what it means I and the father are one in the same can you get that can you wrap your head around it no we can't only by the spirit can we glimpse it I and the father are one in the same The Jews therefore picked up stones to stone him. They're going to kill him. They'll probably try to do that to me because of what I'm saying here. Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you stoning me? The Jews answered him, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. because you being a man being only a man make yourself out to be God Jesus answered them has it not be been written in your law I said your gods if he called them gods to whom the Word of God came and the scriptures cannot be broken Do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you're blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, though you Do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I and the Father, I and the Father are one and the same. How about that? In the end, all will see that Christ is God, and that God is Jesus, and that God became a man so that man could become a God. The Word that has been given to you contains this truth encoded, encrypted, taught and revealed by God the Spirit. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God. In the end, in unification and consolidation, will be manifest as one. You will know one God. He'll look an awful lot like Jesus. He is Jesus. Verse 12, 412. Now Epaphras is going to say, Hadidu, to the Colossians. Paphris, he says, who is one of your own, one of your number, he's from the same region where you're from, that's Macedonia, a born slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you. We read about a Paphris, what did we read about him? Philippians. He's gonna deliver the letter. He got very sick, almost died, and then got the letter from Paul and took it to the Philippians. And he's one who delivered their monetary gift, their large monetary gift, an offering that they collected, which paid all Paul's expenses and the expenses of the ongoing missionary enterprise that was directed by Paul from Roman prison into all of the Roman Empire. by those that he would send, and some of them forsook him. Very shortly after he arrived at prison, so it was never anything but very trying and difficult, but at the same time the Lord stood with Paul, and the Word of God rolled through the Roman Empire by word of mouth. from the testimony that Paul gave as he went to court on a daily or weekly or bi-weekly basis to testify and to give testimony to the charges that were laid against him for sedition and blasphemy that were laid upon him by the Jews and by the Romans as he appealed to Caesar. And it was God's plan that he would speak to the highest levels of government and that the Word of God would roll through the Roman Empire and roll westward through Europe, to the extremity of the European continent, and eventually into a new world, and then from that world into all the world, every nation on earth, through the client nation, the United States of America, who God gave as a respite to Israel, and as an experiment in grace. He poured out his grace on us, and if you don't think that's true, then you know nothing about American history. Oh, it's so gracious, supernatural, God did it. And so, that's how it would happen, that's how it would get here, that's how I'd get to Houston, PA, in 2020. And we need to know all these things and understand them, begin to understand them, and then put them to use. That is in our thinking and our decisions and our participation in the life of true holiness and righteousness for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. So that you may stand perfect, fully assured, he says, in all the will of God, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, who? Epaphras, or Epaphroditus is his full name, nickname Epaphras. That you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God, he too sends his greeting to the Colossians. He says, one who is out from you, he's a servant of Christ, who always agonizes over you. That is, agonizes in prayer over you. By these things, each one of these is significant, even as each one is slated for glory and honor in Christ for all eternity, in the unification and consolidation of all things, which I told you will happen in the end. Even at that time, the consolidation was taking place as those who inhabited the Roman Empire, many of whom had some Jewish roots dating back to the millennium preceding—that's a thousand years preceding—the first advent of Christ, when the ten northern tribes were removed from the land and deported, never to return, replaced, as it were, by heathen people, those who became known as the Samaritans, who were shifted there in the plan of God by Christ. God Almighty in order that he might meet the woman at the well. He did all that just so he might meet the woman at the well. Think that's true? I know it is. And when the city of Sychar John chapter 4, and prepare the way for a great revival when finally his team of apostles, evangelists, and pastors would come in following his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension through Philip and others in order to save many in Acts chapter 8, verses 6 to 13, tells you how the Samaritans were evangelized, and how many were saved there. Just multitudes were saved because Jesus met with the woman at the well. And God moved the people out of Samaria, the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, into the areas of foreign conquest of the Assyrians, and then into the European continent, and took people from there and put them into the land of Israel so that he could evangelize them. Otherwise, they'd probably never hear the gospel. And he did that graciously, and then saved so many of them. So, later it would occur in the 1300s and the 1400s, 1500s, even up until the 1600s, great plagues of sickness and death would sweep over the civilized world. And by 1400 AD, more than a third of the population of Europe would succumb to the Black Death. More than 35 million just in Europe, 150 million people in Europe, Asia, started in China actually, and Africa died by the Black Death, the bubonic plague. And it took four days to die. You got it four days later, you were dead. You were dead rotten. with buboes all over you, which is big swollen glands sticking out of your groin and your neck. Horrible thing. God killed him. Everybody that dies, God kills them. He kills and he makes alive. So don't mess with God who killed you. Don't fear those who killed the body, or the one who can destroy body and soul again. That's who you fear. That's proper fear. That's wise fear. So this corresponds to the Church of Thyatira addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ in the seven churches addressed by him to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos in Revelation 2 and 3, where many who were involved in the resurgence. This is what occurred in a church, even after all these wonderful things by the Apostle Paul in the Gospel, going throughout the regions of the Roman Empire and beyond, and would even go to the New World in the 1400s. God had to purge the evil out of the church before he could send the pilgrims to the New World and to establish the client nation. through whom he would grace out and evangelize the world. So he had to wipe out the Baal worship, as it was in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. This all comes back and recycles, and therefore everything had to be purged and wiped out, making way for a much purer practice of New Testament Christianity, unto the Reformation and beyond, to literacy, full literacy, and biblical Christianity, and to the mass exodus to the New World in search of freedom from religious tyranny and the Black Death that ravaged Europe. Listen to Revelation 2.18. And go take this, listen to it, read it, and learn what it means. Go learn what it means. Revelation 2.18. The angel of the church of Thyatira write, the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire. and his feet like burnished bronze. He stood in the fires of judgment and has the right to critique his believers, his church, and to do what's necessary to purge and purify the motives of men's hearts. I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. You're doing some good things. But I have this against you. You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she doesn't want to repent. her of her immorality behold I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation not talking about the tribulation the great tribulation is talking about into great difficulty and turmoil unless they repent of her deeds and I will kill her children with pestilence And all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and the hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them, that is the false religion or the religion of works and deeds and hypocrisy that so many practice, and even in the last days in the church of Laodicea, those who have a gospel of prosperity, or the prosperity gospel, thinking that riches is the verification or certification and validation of God's acceptance and approval. And it's not. Just the opposite may be true. So, they have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them. I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes, he who keeps my deeds until the end. Those are the works of faith, the labors of love, and the steady production of hope. These three abide. To him I will give the authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, even as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces. We talked about that, right, Matt, this evening. I also have received authority from my father that is in the millennial kingdom, and I will give him the morning star Morning stars a great decoration a great reward to receive he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches so Paul says about those who are with him. He says I testify for him that that he has a deep concern for you, that's Epaphras, those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. So Laodicea comes into view here, because that's one that's addressed also. The final one, the final one of seven, the one that we live in, the lukewarm church, lukewarm, half-hearted, double-minded believers who are sold out. to the world, not sold out to the Lord or His Word, but sold out to the world and to wealth and riches and prosperity, thinking that that is the validation of God, of His acceptance and approval of believers. For I testify of him that he has a deep concern for you, for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis." Hierapolis is a neighboring city to Laodicea. And they probably share the same communicators and pastors and circuit preachers and are hearing the same things there. And they need to, and they have one, who is, they're told in the final verses here to tell him, make sure that he fulfills his ministry because he's not doing so. He's caving in. And he says, and for those in Hierapolis, then he says in verse 14, we'll finish this up, Luke, the beloved physician, send you his greetings and also Demas. He greets you, Luke greets you. Don't you like to be greeted by Luke? I would like to be greeted by Luke. Luke says, hey, hey Luke, how you doing? He's a doctor. He's a physician. He's a historian He is the author of two fantastic New Testament treatises called the gospel according to Luke and independent verification, eyewitness testimony, and every fact verified, certified by Luke as a historian, and done as a commissioned individual and a commissioned collaborator, not collaborator, but author of the epistle by one called Theophilus, who is a high-ranking and very wealthy patron of the gospel. And so, he says, then he says, for Demas, well, Demas, he later has a few problems in 2 Timothy 4.10, but we won't even go there. So finally, he says here, greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha in the church that is in her house. Remember, numbers don't matter in the church. In the last days, People wish to be entertained rather than educated. And the fact is there will be a low tolerance for biblical instruction unless it is accompanied by glitz and glamour, by sight and sound extravaganzas, by a multimedia circus, a gymnasium, swimming pool, activity center, fitness center, daycare center, seminars, concerts, Christian comedy club. There's a new one. Oh, they love those Christian comedy clubs. They're funny. Coffee house? Need more caffeine. Programs of every kind and every kind of life category. Programs for every kind of life category. It wasn't so at Nympha's house. Nympha's house church. There were lots of house churches and this is like one too. This is a storefront church. They had house churches even smaller than this and then this is a storefront church. And so numbers are not important. What's important is not quantity. Quality is important, not quantity. So then he says, finally, when this is read among you, have it also read in the church of Laodiceans. He wants the Laodiceans to hear the same things because they're having the same problems and the same false doctrines are trying to permeate or penetrate the church. And you, on your part, read my letter. He said it was coming from Laodicea. We don't know what letter that is. There is no epistle to the Laodiceans. There's probably another epistle. I'll bet you it's the epistle of Ephesians, which was encyclical. It wasn't written to Ephesus. It was written to all the churches. The one that they found said written to Ephesus. So it got the name Ephesians. So he said, read the one that's coming from Ephesus. Read them all over and over. He's saying to read them so they must be able to read, right? As you continue to learn the Word, line by line, by categorical exposition, through spoken messages that are declarative, correlative, and explanatory. That's what pastors do. Then he says in verse 7, say to Archippus, he's the pastor in Laodicea, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. He's not fulfilling his ministry, he's not teaching the mystery, he's not teaching them the full counsel of God's Word. and with emphasis upon the mystery, the true identity of Christ and the body of Christ, the plan of God for the end times. All that is unique, distinct, and unprecedented that belongs to church age, believers only. And that which has been hidden from ages and generations past now revealed through one man, the apostle Paul, who received the heavenly revelation in the third heaven when he was taken up, which corresponds to the event of his being stoned to death in Lystra. on his first missionary journey, and then afterwards to preach his gospel, which he calls the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. And he had it more precisely and in depth and in detail than anybody else in any way had it, including Peter, who was not the first pope. He wasn't the first pope. There were never any popes, and there still aren't any. So, he says, then finally he says, I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. I think Paul could write, he's writing it in his own hand, long hand. Remember my imprisonment. And he says, Grace be with you. And so that's the end of our epistle, generally speaking. Unfortunately, these warnings and greetings and well wishes of the apostles and others must have been somehow overlooked or dismissed, and or went unheeded, and therefore, by and large, with few too many exceptions, far too few exceptions, the Church of Europe entered the Dark Ages, leaving generations without revival, but only scant survival, unto a tiny remnant. And guess what? The same will occur in our time. when those who are warned and should know better do the same things in indifference and apathy and disregarding the sanctification of the Word and the Spirit through the daily intake of Bible truth and are led by and large by pretenders. who are sold out to the world to self-indulgence, gratifying the flesh, neglecting the Word by putting all kinds of other things in first place or ahead of the Word, neglecting the source of all blessing and wondering why there's no real and resident contentment, peace or happiness, no recognizable progress, and no stability. They wonder why. Well, that's why. When's the last time you sat quietly and read or meditated upon the Word of God? I hope you say today. Did you? There is nothing else that takes the place of that. That's what you're here for. That's what the rest of your life should consist of. When's the last time you went apart to communicate or commune with God and to pray? Went in a place all by yourself, closed the door. Went into your closet, as it were. To pray in secret. When's the last time? Today? Did you do that today? I doubt it. For so many. Did I? I didn't. Not today. Do you have a war room? Do you have one of those? That's where the battles won. In the war room. What do we do with the war room? I had the war room here somewhere. Where's it at? Oh, you have a war room. Here, give me the war room. Oh, there it is. You steal that, Danny. Oh, he's a thief, but you can steal stuff like that. That's good. Oh here, give me my war room thing. This is the war room. Remember the movie, did you see the movie The War Room? Don't forget about that, it's an important movie. That's where the battle's on, in the war room, through prayer. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of struggle. There's my war room. I got my daughter and my grandkids, and I got Dave Quinn and my neighbors on there. This is for going to the war, this is in the war room. That goes in the war room. God's going to win the victory. He's going to fight and win. The battle is the Lord's. So get your war room set up. These are the days to pray and go to war every day. There is no threat. But what do you think you'll get at the Bema? when there's nothing to reward. What do believers think they're going to get when there's nothing to reward? No morning stars, no accolades, no attaboys, only homemade, homespun, you know what you get? Shimonyas, that's all. Pasted on glorified bodies. That won't look good. Luke 18.8, however, Jesus said, When the Son of Man comes, and He's coming, will He find any faith on the earth at all? Wonder. The church will be able to see it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word, for stammering and stumbling and probably some things that are very hard to hear or listen to, and the way of speaking, not very clear, but You know how to do that and how to break through all that. And so we commit this to you and to your safekeeping and to your emphasis and to your power to implement the necessary things and necessary changes in accordance with your perfect will by your Holy Spirit. And Father, we just thank you that you've given us your Word and it has everything in it, all the information that we need to succeed. in your perfect plan. All we have to do is open our ears. Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit communicates to the church as we thank you for these things. If I could have my shifts please, Father, bless the offering. In Jesus' holy and precious name, Amen. Yes, sir.