Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Colossians, Paul's letter to the Colossians. We began to consider this letter together last Sunday, and we saw then that the church at Colossa Though it had been at one time flourishing, flourishing ever since it was planted by a man named Epaphras around the year 55 A.D., it had begun to fall on hard times in just a matter of five years by the year 60 A.D. These hard times came not as a result of a loose living or poor preaching, but as a result of false teaching. Apparently, some false teachers had arisen from within the church itself. And these men and perhaps these women had begun to disseminate and circulate their teaching among the congregation, this heresy among the church at Colossa. This was not a teaching that denied Jesus Christ outright, but rather it was one which denied the sufficiency of Christ. It denied the adequacy of Christ. In other words, these teachers were saying that, yes, Jesus Christ is good, yes, Jesus Christ is beneficial, but no, Jesus Christ is not all you need. As a matter of fact, if you really want to experience fellowship with God, if you really want to experience fellowship that is deep and rich and full and absolutely exhilarating, Then not only must you believe in Jesus Christ, but you must do these other things. First, you must obey various Old Testament ceremonial laws. For instance, these teachers were saying you mustn't eat certain foods and you mustn't drink certain drinks and you must observe special Old Testament religious holidays. Second, you must participate in the worship of angels. Just as Jesus Christ mediates between us and God, so angels mediate between us and Jesus, these teachers were saying. And if you worship these angelic beings, they will enable you to experience God on a whole new level. And then third, you must also practice what's called asceticism. That's to say you must treat your physical body in such a severe fashion by denying it the food that it needs. Because you see, when you do this, you will be able to stimulate your mind to perhaps sink and fall into kind of a dreamlike state. And in that state, you'll be able to experience all kinds of visions and revelations. So Jesus Christ is good, but Jesus Christ is not enough. Well, upon hearing all of this false teaching from his beloved and faithful servant Epaphras, the news of it, the Apostle Paul, he took pen in hand and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he wrote the letter that we are all looking at before us now, the letter to the Colossians. What he does in this letter is he combats the teaching that was being spread by these heretics. And by the way, that's exactly what these teachers were. They were heretics. That is, they were teaching a doctrine that was so false, so contrary to the gospel, that if you believed it, you couldn't be saved and you would go to hell. And so what the apostle does in realizing the gravity and the severity of the situation is he writes this letter to the church at Colossae and he combats this teaching. And he does so by setting forth in no uncertain terms the absolute sufficiency of Christ, the absolute adequacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I would like to point this out that the Apostle Paul, he does this in all of his New Testament letters. He wrote 13 letters in the New Testament. All of the epistles of Paul scream Christ is sufficient. The book of Colossians screams it the loudest. The drum that Paul beats over and over and over again is Christ is sufficient. Christ is sufficient. Christ is sufficient. He wanted these Colossians to know that because they were in Jesus Christ, they were 100% complete. And because they were 100% complete, dependence on anything outside of Christ was necessarily ruled out. That's the context that we come to this morning when we come to the verses three to eight. This is what we're going to focus on this morning, verses three to eight of Colossians, chapter one, before we read the word of God. And I'll begin by reading verse one. Before we read, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, your your word is open before us. And so we do ask that your your spirit would be so gracious as to come and to be our teacher, to be our comforter, to be our expositor. I pray that you would, Father, convict us of sin where we need to be convicted. I pray that you would comfort us with the comfort that only comes by the gospel on Jesus Christ. I pray that you would give us peace, give us forgiveness. I pray that you would speak to us loudly and clearly, Father, throughout this message. I pray that you would be with the hearts, the ears of My listeners, Lord, I pray that you would make them attentive and enable me to preach. In Christ's name we ask. Amen. Well, let's begin by reading verse one, I'll read down the verse eight of Colossians chapter one. 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. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God and truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the spirit Well, it's evident that in the opening of his letter, the Apostle Paul, he seeks to reassure the Christians at Colossae. He reassures them of the fact that God has indeed done, and is indeed doing, a saving work among them through the gospel, and that in turn they must persevere in that gospel and not swerve from it. For instance, verse 2, we considered verses 1 and 2 last Sunday. Verse 2, Paul assures the Colossian Christians of their salvation. He calls them saints. In other words, he says you're set apart by God, Colossians. That's the word saints. You're chosen by God for salvation. Again, whenever you come across that word saints in the Bible, the meaning there is chosen of God. It's not so much such a holy Christian as it is set apart by God. A person set apart, chosen by God. You're saints. He goes on and he calls them faithful. In other words, he says, you are loyal to Christ. This is who you are. You are loyal to the gospel. And then thirdly, he calls them brothers. In other words, he says, by the grace of God, you're a family now. By the grace of God, you are all brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is who they are, Paul says. They're chosen, they're faithful, they're a family. Of course, these identifiers describe you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are chosen, you are faithful, and you're a family. Of course, the implied application is, now act like it. Know that you're chosen. Know that you're faithful. Be faithful. Know that you're a family. Act like a family. He assures them. Well, as Paul moves from verses 1 and 2 to verses 3 to 8, he still goes with this message of assurance. He continues to give them strong words of assurance. He does this in verse 3 by thanking God for what he's done in them and continues. to do in them. He does this second in verses 4 and 5 by describing what I'm calling the triad of faith, love, and hope, which God has so graciously worked in them. And then he does this thirdly in verses 5 to 8 by testifying that the gospel they learned from Epaphras was the true gospel, the whole gospel, and therefore a gospel that doesn't need to be added to. So these are the three points that we're going to consider together this morning. First, Paul's thanksgiving to God. Second, Paul's triad of faith, love and hope. And third, Paul's testimony concerning the gospel. And so first, Paul's thanksgiving to God. You'll notice Paul's thanksgiving in verse three. He writes, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. Paul begins here by announcing a prayer of thanksgiving. He thanks God for the Colossians and specifically for what God is doing in the lives of the Colossians. Now, I believe this to be a point worth noting. Just the very fact that Paul is expressing thanks to God here. You see, Paul could have very easily come with words of rebuke. He could have come with words of criticism. He could have started something like this. Brothers, you're blowing it. Brothers, how could you be so foolish as to even entertain these lies that are being perpetrated by these false teachers? But Paul doesn't say anything like that. Instead, he says, I thank God for you, Colossians. I thank God for what he's doing in you. I thank God for what he's continuing to do in you. And I just want to stop and ask you the question, is this your attitude? Is this your mindset? Are you always looking to give thanks to God for what he's doing in your midst? Are you always looking to give thanks to God for what he's doing in the lives of your family members? your friends, the family members that you belong to in this church. Are you always looking to give thanks to God for what he's doing in them? You and I both know that there are going to be things, always going to be things that we can be depressed about. There are always going to be things that discourage us, always going to be things that bring us down. And yet, Paul, Paul finds reason for Thanksgiving here. Think about Paul for a moment. Think about his particular situation. When Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians, he didn't write it in the comfort of his own home. He wrote it from prison. Paul was in Rome, he was in A prison, he was in a house, he was probably chained to at least one prison guard. He was there for two years. He wrote this letter sometime between the year 60 and 62 AD. That's when Paul was in prison in Rome. And so Paul was not writing this letter from the comfort of his bedroom. He's writing from the comfort of prison. Secondly, virtually every ministry of the apostle Paul was under attack. Every ministry, his ministries were being attacked from the outside by those who held to the Jewish faith. His ministries were being attacked from the inside by false teachers who dressed up and posed as Christians. What's more, because of both of these things, some of the churches that Paul had planted had begun to disintegrate. This was Paul's life. This is Paul's daily situation. This was not the exception for the apostle Paul. This was the rule. I say this to say that it would have been very easy for the apostle to have been bitter. It would have been very easy for the apostle to become angry with these Colossian Christians. It would have been very easy for Paul to wallow in discouragement like a pig in the mud. But Paul doesn't do that. What does he do? The apostle Paul, he chooses to fix his eyes on the glorious things that God was doing in the lives of his people. In the end, the apostle always had reason for thanks. He always had reason for thanks. My question is, again, is this your attitude? Is this your mindset? Do you look at your family members? Do you look at the members of this church? And despite the discouragements, do you thank God for the glorious things that He's doing in their lives? There's always reason to give thanks. Now that brings us to the question, what does the apostle thank God for when he prays for the Colossians? Or to be exact, what does Paul and his associates thank God for when they pray for the Colossians? I say associates because, of course, in verse three, Paul uses the pronoun we, doesn't he? He says, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. The we here refers to Paul and at the very least, Timothy, who he names in verse one, and probably refers to a host of Paul's ministerial associates, such as Epaphras, who he names in verse seven. And so my question is, what do all of these faithful ministers thank God for when they pray for the Colossians? A couple of things, we see them in verse 4. Specifically, they thank God for the faith of the Colossians and they thank God for the love of the Colossians. Paul says, we always thank God when we pray for you, verse 4, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. Now, you may find it a bit strange that Paul thanks God. for the faith of the Colossians and not the Colossians themselves. I mean, after all, it is the Colossians who are doing the trusting here. It is the Colossians who are doing the believing in Christ, not God. And so you would think that the apostle would thank them for their faith, not the Lord. Or at the very least, you would think that the apostle would congratulate them for their faith. and not the Lord, but that's not what he does. He gives all of the thanks and all of the congratulatory remarks to God. And this, of course, is because faith, saving faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the faith that saves you from your sins, saves you from the wrath of God, that is a gift of God. Faith, saving faith, is a gift of God. God grants people the ability to believe, and he not only grants it, he gives people the gift of faith. Philippians 1.29, it says this. It has been granted to you for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. The apostle in Philippians 1.29, he says, if you're a believer, It's been granted to you to believe. That word grant there, it means to give freely as a favor. In the case of the Colossians, God freely gave them the ability to believe. God has no obligation to impart the ability to believe. It's His for the granting. Philippians 1.29, not only does God grant the ability to believe, He also gives those people, He grants that ability to, He gives them the gift of faith. The gift of faith. Ephesians 2.8, by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it's the gift of God. And so, of course, faith in Christ is a gift of God. This is why the apostle and his associates thank God and not the Colossians for their faith. All of it is from God. They also, however, thank God for the love of the Colossians, the love they showed to one another. Now, the question, of course, is why they thank God for this. Well, for the very same reason. They thank God for the love of the Colossians, for the very same reason they thank God for the faith of the Colossians, and that is because love is a gift as well. Love is a saving gift. Love is a sanctifying, Holy Spirit-given gift. It comes from God. A few weeks ago, I preached the message from 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7 says this, Beloved, let us love one another. For love, John writes, is from God. In other words, God is the origin of love. God is the starting place of love. He is the source and spring from which all true love flows. John goes on to say in the same verse that whoever loves has been born of God. and knows God. Now, applying this truth to the Colossians, what it means is the only reason they loved one another, the only reason they truly loved one another, that is, that is the only reason they love one another to the glory of God. Is because God graciously made them born again and God graciously caused them to know him, to know he who is the origin, the source of love. Second Thessalonians 1 3. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Compare 2 Thessalonians 1-3 to Colossians chapter 1 verses 3 and 4. They're virtually identical. He thanks God for the faith and the love of the Thessalonican believers. He thanks God for the faith and the love of the Colossian believers. My question, of course, is this. Do you do this? Does this characterize your prayer life? Do you thank God for the saving faith He's given you and the Christian love He's imparted to you? Do you always thank God for these things? Paul says we always thank God for your saving faith and your Christian love. Do you thank God for this? Do you thank God for your own faith, for your own love? Understand that you would never believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Understand that you could never believe in the Lord Jesus Christ had God not granted you the ability to believe and given you the gift of faith. And so all of the thanks goes directly to God the giver. Same thing with love. True biblical agape love. God is the origin, the source, the spring of love. The only reason you've ever loved anyone And the way God commands you to love is because He's given you the ability to do it by making you born of Him and causing you to know Him. Do you thank God for the faith that He's given to your wife? Do you thank God for the faith that He's given to your husband? Do you thank God for the faith and the love that He's given to the members of this congregation? When we think about The gifts that God has given us. We always have reason for thanksgiving. Always. We should be thanking God daily. He's given us amazing gifts. Not just gifts in quantity, but qualitative gifts. He's given you faith. You know that apart from faith in Christ, you go to hell. And God has been merciful enough to give you that saving, justifying and sanctifying faith in Christ. He's also given you love. Amazing gifts, genuine, true, agape love. He didn't have to do it, but he did it. Amazing grace. The amazing grace of God. We always have reason to thank the Lord. Well, Paul goes from thanking God to speaking about this great triad of faith, love and hope. Faith, love and hope. As a matter of fact, he speaks of these characteristics in this order. Verses four and five, he speaks of faith, then love, then hope. Now, there are, as many of you well know, a number of other places in the writings of Paul where he speaks of faith, love, and hope. Just to name a few, 1 Corinthians 13.13, 1 Thessalonians 1.3, 1 Thessalonians 5.8. Faith, love, and hope. Now, the way we're going to consider these three characteristics this morning is just by examining them, not very long here, one at a time. And so let's begin where Paul begins, and that's with faith. Paul says in verse four, we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. Faith. This word, it means reliance, trust. It means belief and commitment. And notice that Paul stresses the object of the Colossians faith here. He stresses Christ. He says, we heard of your faith in Christ. We heard of your reliance on Christ. We heard of your trust and your belief in Christ. We heard of your commitment to Christ. Furthermore, I'd like to point out that the Colossians' faith was in Christ and only Christ. These were sola Christus people. These were people who believed in Christ alone for salvation. The Colossians did not trust in Jesus plus something else to save them from their sins and to save them from the wrath of God. No, they trusted in Jesus and only Jesus to save them from their sins and the wrath of God. Jesus Christ was the sole object of the Colossians' faith. Quick application question. Is Jesus Christ the sole object of your faith? Sole object. You were not trusting in any other thing. except the Lord Jesus Christ. You do understand that you are not saved by faith expressly. You are saved by Christ. And faith is the instrument that unites you to that saving person. So we're not saved by faith apart from Christ. We're saved by faith only when it's attached to Jesus Christ. So are you trusting? Are you relying? Are you depending solely and wholly on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ? We all have to ask ourselves this question. What's your answer? Paul goes from talking of faith, he talks to love. Look again at verse four, he says, he speaks of the love that you have for all the saints. Now the love that's referred to here is not simply a human affection. It's a sacrificial concern. It's a concern which puts the best interest of others as a priority in our relationships to them. True biblical agape love says, I will look out for the best interest of my friends and my family members and my neighbors. In order to engage in true biblical love, you must deliberately look out for the best interest of others. Now, notice the object of this love, which Paul emphasizes here. He emphasizes, he doesn't emphasize, rather, love to parents. He doesn't emphasize love to spouses. He doesn't emphasize love to children. Where's the emphasis lie? He emphasizes love to the saints. He emphasizes love to the chosen ones, to the set apart ones, to the people of God. Specifically, notice he emphasizes love to all the saints. One commentator says this about this word all here, and this is very important. He says the remarkable repetition of the word all in the letter to the Colossians is evidently directed against the exclusiveness and caste feeling which is fostered by the false teachers claim in superior knowledge. You see what these false teachers were doing, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it doesn't matter, is they were making the entire church feel like second class citizens. They were making the entire congregation feel inferior to them. They were saying things like this. We have found the real truth. You haven't found it yet. Well, of course, all this does is cause dissension among the membership and division in the body. On the one hand, you have a group of supposed elites. people who think themselves better than everyone else, and on the other hand, you have everyone else who either, unfortunately, despises that group or desires to join it. But it seems, thanks to the grace of God, that the church at Colossa hadn't yet reached this point, even though the false teachers among them, they were making the Christians feel inferior to them. The Christians at Colossa did not allow that feeling to prevent them from practicing love to one another. They didn't let it happen. There's a powerful lesson here. There is no room whatsoever in the church for any kind of elitism. There is no room whatsoever for people thinking themselves to be intellectually elite. People thinking themselves to be spiritually elite. People thinking themselves to be socially elite. There is no room whatsoever for men looking down upon women. There is no room whatsoever for for women looking down upon men. There is no room whatsoever for adults to look down upon children. There is no room for whatsoever for children to disrespect adults. You see, there is no room whatsoever for elitism. Galatians chapter three, verse 28. Listen to this verse. Paul says there is neither Jew nor Greek. neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." In other words, everyone who believes in Jesus is on the same plane. You're on the same level. You are all seated in Christ. No one higher than the next. You're all in Christ together. Men and women. Jews and Gentiles, slaves, freemen, all in Christ together. My question is this, does your love for the saints reflect that reality? Do you love every Christian as if he or she is on the same level as everyone else? Same level as you? Do you treat everyone equally? Or do you show favoritism? It's very easy. For people in a particular intellectual class, social class, whatever, to love the people in that class and look down upon those who are not in that class. But the bottom line is in the church, there are no class distinctions. The Lord Jesus Christ has abolished them. By his cross. You were to love all men and women the same, no favoritism at all. And so let me ask you, is there anyone in this room that you have neglected? Is there anyone in this room that you perhaps have overlooked in your love? You've got to be intentional with your love, intentional. It's very easy, for instance, to walk right past somebody in the hallway and not even acknowledge their existence. Have you overlooked? Have you neglected? Are you inclusive in your love for the saints or are you in some way exclusive in your love for the saints? My hope and my prayer is that this church. Would be a body of believers where all the saints are loved. Highly and equally. No favoritism. Well, that's love. Let's move on and talk about hope. Hope. Paul refers to the hope laid up for you in heaven. Now, before I read to you a number of scripture passages which describe the wonder, the glory, the beauty of this hope. I want you to notice two important things about it. First, these are important. I want you to notice that the hope to which Paul refers is actually the basis. Of faith and love. It's the basis, the grounds in this, the cause. of saving faith in Christian love. Look with me at the beginning of verse four. We'll move, I think, right into verse five. Paul writes, we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. This word because, you see, is what tells us that the hope laid up for us in heaven is the basis, the cause, of our faith in Christ and our love for the saints. Now, you might not think about hope that way or faith that way. You might think that faith is the cause of hope. The apostle says that hope is the cause of faith. It's the exact opposite, that hope is the cause of faith. The second thing I want you to notice about this hope to which Paul refers here. This is important. This particular use of the word hope, this place, does not so much pertain to the attitude of hope on our parts as believers, but actually it refers to the content of the hope itself. It refers to that which is contained in the hope, that which makes up the hope, that which actually has been laid up for you as children of God in heaven. Of course, that begs the question, what has been laid up for the children of God in heaven? What is the hope which God, the Holy Spirit, uses to generate and grow saving faith and Christian love among the saints? Titus 1-2 calls this particular hope the hope of eternal life. That's part of it. The hope of eternal life. Jesus in John 17 says that eternal life is to know God and to know His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not predominantly living forever and ever and ever and ever and not dying. Eternal life is more of a quality. It's a qualitative state. I am in relationship with God. Because I'm in relationship with God, I have eternal life now. And yet there's this future aspect. see of a of a far more glorious communion with God, the hope of eternal life. Titus 1.2. 1 Peter 1.4 calls this hope the inheritance. Listen to these adjectives. The inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. 1st John 3.2 says that when Jesus appears, we will be like him because we shall see him as he is. 1st Corinthians 13.12 tells us that now, this current day as believers, we see the Lord Jesus Christ as in a mirror dimly. On that day though, we will see him face to face. The face of the resurrected Christ. Isaiah 33 verse 17 says that in that day, our eyes will behold the King in His beauty. Revelation 21 verse 4, God promises here that He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, that death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. I love the words of John 14, verses 2 and 3. Jesus says in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And where I am, you will be also. 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 and 17. Listen to this incredible portion of Scripture. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Picture this. This is literal. This is what's going to happen. The Lord Jesus Christ, He descends. There's a loud shout, the voice of the archangel. Dead people rise out of their tombs. They go to meet the Lord in the air. And then, after that, we who are still alive and are left, meaning we haven't yet died physically, We will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. One of the interesting things about heaven, as you look through the scriptures, it rarely talks about dying and going to heaven, but dying and going to Jesus. Heaven and Jesus are almost synonymous in the Bible. Heaven and God are virtually identical in scripture. This is the hope that is laid up for those who believe in Christ. This is the hope laid up in heaven. This is the truth that the Spirit of God uses both to create and cultivate faith and love in the lives of his people. My question is this to those of you who are believers in Christ. Do you meditate on this? Do you think about the hope laid up for you in heaven? Do you long for heaven? Namely, do you long for the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you long to behold Him? Do you desire to see the King in all of His splendor and His beauty? Do you long to be with Christ in the most intimate communion and fellowship that can ever exist? Do you long to be like Christ as soon as you see Him? Do you long to experience perfect communion with the angels, perfect communion with the saints, perfect communion with Christ? Can you imagine conversing with angels? You're going to be doing it for eternity. They're going to ask you how you came to Christ. They're going to be interested in that. You're going to tell them. You're going to be having perfect communion with all of the saints, all of your loved ones that have died in Christ. You're going to be reunited. All of you women who have lost children, reunited all together again in Christ. Best of all, perfect communion with God. Better than perfect communion with the angels and perfect communion with the saints. Perfect communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. No more sin, no more barriers, no more repenting, no more going back to Jesus and saying, forgive me, I'm sorry. No more of that. You're perfect. You're with the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. This is the hope laid out for you in heaven. My question is. Do you meditate on these things? Do you think about them? The take of scripture is you're to think about these things all the time. All the time. Turn with me a page to Colossians chapter 3. I just want to read a couple of verses here from Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 and 2. The Apostle Paul here, he tells us exactly what we hear as Christians on earth living in this still sinful body. What we're called to fix our minds on. Colossians 3, 1 to 2, he says, if then you have been raised with Christ, of course here, speaking of the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been spiritually reborn. If you've been raised with Christ, here's the command. Seek the things that are above where Christ is. Seated on the right hand of God, he says, set your minds on things that are above, not on things on earth. We've all heard the saying, it's possible for a Christian to be so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good. I've never met such a Christian. They don't exist. There's no such thing as a Christian who can be so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good. The most mature Christians I've ever met in my life are the people who are more heavenly minded than anyone I've ever met. Are you a heavenly minded man? A heavenly minded woman? Is this who you are? The more you meditate on the glories of heaven, this is where the hope comes in. The more you meditate on the glories of heaven, the more you think and dwell upon the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is now interceding for you at the right hand of God, the Father in heaven, the more you meditate upon Him and long for Him. The more you will believe in Him now, the more you will obey Him now, the more you will love the saints now, the more you will serve the saints now. You see, that is the present power of the future hope that is ours in heaven. The future hope of glory has present power. This is Paul's triad of faith, love and hope. One more point to go thirdly and lastly, I want us to briefly consider Paul's testimony concerning the gospel. Paul's testimony concerning the gospel and verses five to eight, the apostle lays out five points, testifies to five points concerning the gospel. We're going to consider each of those five points very, very briefly. Point number one, in verse five, Paul testifies that the gospel was heard. That's his testimony. The gospel was heard. He says it was heard by the Colossians. Verse five, he says, of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel. In other words, Paul comes to the Colossians here and he says, look, you've already heard the word of truth. He says, you've heard the gospel, the whole gospel and nothing but the gospel. Therefore, don't let anyone come to you and tell you that you need something more because you've heard it all already. You see, these false teachers, they were coming, they were arising from within the church and they were saying the gospel isn't enough. Here's some more good news. Paul says, listen, we backed the truck up. We drunk the whole truckload on you, the gospel. You can't get any more. Epaphras gave you the whole thing. He got the whole truckload. Second, Paul testifies that the gospel is universal. Not only has the gospel been heard by the Colossians, the gospel has been heard by the world, Paul says. It's universal. He says in verse 6, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and growing. In other words, the gospel is not some secret code that is only discernible by a few people. The whole world knows about this gospel. The gospel is being spread everywhere, the apostle says. This gospel, the gospel of God, is not a local gospel. It's a universal gospel. You see, the heresy that was being circulated by these false teachers was a local and non-universal gospel, a false gospel. Three, Paul testifies that the gospel is powerful. He testifies that the gospel is powerful. You can imagine, can't you? These false teachers, they're saying something like this. Listen, Colossians, what you heard from Epaphras, that's fine and all, but you've got to see what we have here is what really works. We've got the real deal. What we've got will absolutely revolutionize your experience with God. It's revolutionary. Paul writes in verse six, however, that the gospel is bearing fruit. He writes that the gospel is growing. In other words, the apostle kind of stands back, he says, OK, let's compare the two, you false teachers, you heretics. Let's compare the two. The message of the false teachers is embraced by only a small, select few, a small, very small minority, very small. Let's compare that to the gospel. The gospel that even in Paul's day had already been embraced by probably hundreds of thousands of people. Even more powerful an argument. Not only this, the message of the false teacher produces no spiritual fruit. None. Zero. Compare that to the message of the gospel. Produces an abundance of spiritual fruit. Fruit such as faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. fruit such as faith or love, Christian love for the saints. The false teaching that these guys were perpetrating was not producing anything like that, anything. Fourth, Paul testifies that the gospel was taught faithfully. He testifies that the gospel was taught faithfully, that it was taught faithfully by Epaphras. Notice what he writes in verse 7. He says that the Colossians learned the gospel from Epaphras. our beloved fellow servant. In other words, Paul says, when these false teachers come to you, Colossians, and tell you that Epaphras hasn't told you the whole story, respond right to their face. He has told us the whole story. He's taught us faithfully the whole story. He is a beloved fellow servant of an apostle of Jesus Christ. Finally, fifth, Paul testifies that the gospel was understood. It was understood by the Colossians. Verse 7 tells us that they learned the gospel. They really learned it from Epaphras. Again, Paul says, don't be tricked, Colossians. Don't be fooled. Don't be misled. You don't need some new and improved, some fancy teaching. You've heard the gospel. Not only have you heard the gospel, but because of your faith in Christ, because of your love for all the saints, I'm confident that you've understood the gospel. So these are the five points, very briefly, that Paul testifies to concerning the gospel. And with that, I want to close by asking a series of questions. Let me ask you, do you believe? Do you believe personally? Paul's testimony to be true. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is absolutely sufficient? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is, yes, the answer to every spiritual question you have? Do you believe that the Christian life ought to be characterized by faith in Christ and love for all the saints? Are you marked by giving thanks to God for his gifts of saving faith in Christian love? Are you marked by longing for the hope that is laid up for you in heaven? Are you are you marked by longing for the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who in Colossians, I think it's 127, is called the hope of glory. Are you excited by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ at the very end of the book of Revelation when he says, surely I am coming soon? Does that excite you? Can you say right along with the Apostle John in response to Jesus? Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Does this describe you? Does this line up with the person you are? If it does, then I thank God for the faith in Christ that he's given you and the love for all the saints that he's given you because of the hope that he's laid up for you in heaven. If, however, this doesn't describe you, this doesn't describe the person, the man, the woman, the boy, the girl that you are, you need to know that this can describe you this very minute. It can describe you. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what you've done. God says that today is the day of salvation. He calls all men, believers and unbelievers, to repent of their sin and believe, trust, rely, depend on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're sitting there in your seat and you are an unbeliever, up to this point, you have not confessed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God says this to you now. He says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. He follows it up by saying, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Call on him. He is ready and willing to save you. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for this passage of your holy word. We do thank you, Lord, for the gifts of faith, the gifts of love that you impart to those whom you choose. Father, for those of us who do know the Lord Jesus Christ, we praise you for all of your grace, all of your unmerited favor. Father, you gave us the exact opposite of what we deserved and we praise you for it. Lord, I pray that we would abound in faith in Christ and love for all the saints because of the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. You've laid a hope for us in heaven, namely the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the hope of glory. Father, I pray that we would be motivated to fix our minds on the things of heaven. May we be heavenly minded people, heavenly minded men and women. I ask this in and through the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.