Chapter 1, verse 3 through 7, but the sermon again is going to be on verses 5 and 6. Here, for this is the word of the Lord. We also 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 truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. As the outside world looks in the church, and maybe even among some of you here today, there lingers the question, what is the point of this gathering? What is the point in going to church every Sunday? Well, you don't have to look too hard or think too long before you can conclude that the world is hopeless. The world has plummeted into chaos. It is decaying before our very eyes. And all of it is because of the sinful rebellion of man after being deceived by the enemy. So we can say that the hopelessness of the world is evidence of the judgment of God. We face the curse that God has placed on the world every day. And many of us react in anger either toward others or toward God because we don't want to take the brunt of the blame. As if this curse that we face wasn't a self-inflicted wound. But what we learn from the scriptures is that God still holds out hope. We come to church and gather together to hear what Paul calls the hope of heaven. Now, that is not at all to say that you need to just deal with all these problems in the world, then die, and then go to heaven. That sounds pretty depressing, doesn't it? but rather we must deal with it a different way. We must understand it in a different way. We can say that the hope of heaven has intruded this world and it is to be found in the church. When we gather, outsiders and unbelievers who enter ought to get a taste of heaven. Then when we go out and live in the world as faithful believers in Christ, the world ought to witness a walk of heaven among God's people. Yet today, the church is competing with many other hopes out there. What has led many away from the church is believing the lie that we can find our own hope in our own way. What is true of almost every false teaching is that they all teach that you can reach heaven on your own or on your own terms. They say that the hope of heaven is found in each and every person. All you need to do is tap into it somehow. Maybe it's through some ritual or some meditation or finding your true self by uncovering some mystery in the Bible or in the spiritual realm. You don't need to go somewhere to hear some guy teach or preach. You can do this all from home and in your own way, on your own time, making a god of your own image. This false teaching is along the lines of what Paul was facing in the Colossian church. This was in many ways exactly what Paul was teaching against. The false teaching in the Colossian church had elements of what is called Gnosticism. which is a mystery religion that taught that everyone has a divine spark within them and they are supposed to just tap into it somehow, maybe through some spiritual meditation to uncover this mystery that is deep within everybody. But how did Paul counter this teaching? He countered against this sort of teaching with the gospel, with the gospel. The word gospel is a word translated from the Greek word for good news. And the gospel was a mystery indeed in the Old Testament, but this mystery was revealed in the New Testament in Jesus Christ. We can say the gospel good news is Jesus Christ. You ever ask someone, what is the gospel? Simple, Jesus Christ. His miraculous birth, his perfect life, his Passover sacrifice, and his resurrection to glory. Why is this good news? Well, because it secured a people for himself. A people who were once condemned under the wrath of God, But now they have the hope of heaven. That is the good news. That is the good news. So today we're going to study some of the characteristics of the gospel. Bear with me, I have quite a few points here. We will see how the gospel is the word of truth. The gospel is both local and universal. The gospel bears fruit and is increasing. The gospel is to be preached and heard. The gospel is to be heard and understood. And the gospel teaches the grace of God in truth. From understanding these characteristics, we will understand the hope that God holds out to all who believe in this gospel. First, we come to church to hear the word of truth, which is the gospel. He said this to counter the other truths of false teaching, which were all lies. One way to point out false teaching is the fact that false teaching is based on human speculation and opinion. Just like all mystery religions, the false teaching in Colossae originated in man's opinions and speculations of God's word. But it did not originate from God, nor from His Word. Speculation is just a theory without hard evidence. While the Gospel is the word of truth. The gospel comes from God. It is not based on man's opinions, speculations, or theories. It is firm, and it is based on hard evidence. Remember 1 Corinthians 15, the famous summary of the gospel and early evidence that the church has always been confessional. It was a confession of faith that Paul stated the hard evidence of Christ's resurrection. He said that Jesus appeared to Peter and the apostles than to 500 brothers at one time after he was raised. And Thomas was even told to touch Jesus' body after he was raised. It was a physical, bodily resurrection. And there were over 500 witnesses. Paul is saying this gospel is based on hard evidence, and it is the word of truth. Another way to point out false teaching is that it is based on half-truths. So often, false teaching sounds a lot like the truth. They even use the Bible. Anyone can use the Bible for whatever they wanna prove. But oftentimes, their error is found in the way they isolate one text from its original context and from the broader context of the whole Bible. What is the context of the whole Bible? Jesus Christ. That's what the whole Bible is about. It is about Jesus Christ. I'll give you just one example. Gnostics and those devoted to mystery religion often go to John chapter 1. The context of John chapter 1 has to do with Jesus. And remember, the whole Bible has to do with Jesus. But that is the main focus of John chapter 1, who Jesus is and what he came to do. But for the Gnostics, they isolate John chapter 1 verse 9, speaking of Jesus being the true light, which gives light to everyone. So it is from this text that they say, see, everyone has the light. All you need to do is to find that light within. But if you continue to read, their misunderstanding is exposed. It says he, the light, which is Jesus, was in the world and the world was made through him, meaning he is the creator of the world. Yet the world did not know him. How did they not know him? Did he not introduce himself? He came to his own, that is his own creation, and his own people, the Jews, did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. So what this text is really saying is that everyone does not have the light naturally. We are all children of wrath. In order to have the light, you must believe in Jesus and He gives you the light because He is the source of the light. It says He gave the right to all who believe in His name to become children of God. We don't give ourselves the right to become children of God. You did not do this on your own. The light does not originate in you. Rather, it originates in Jesus, and everyone else is in darkness without Jesus. That is what John chapter one is telling us. In that same chapter, John chapter one, verse 17 to 18, it says, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He, the only God, that is Jesus, made him known. In fact, later on in John, Jesus calls himself the truth. And he tells his disciples that if they abide in his word, they will know the truth. Why? His word is the word of truth because he is the truth come in the flesh. And before we misunderstand this text, Paul is not limiting the word of truth to the gospel in the New Testament. See, some limit the gospel to the New Testament, and they believe there is no gospel in the Old Testament. That is not at all what Paul is communicating here. The gospel is found throughout the entire Bible. It is on every page from Genesis to Revelation. Remember, the Bible that the apostles used in their day was not the New Testament. The New Testament wasn't even compiled yet. They used the Old Testament. They preached Jesus from the Old Testament, not the New. This is what Jesus taught two of his disciples. on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, 27. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. The entire Bible contains this word of truth, which is the gospel. It was in seed form, veiled in mystery in the Old Testament, but then it grew to full bloom. unveiled and revealed in the New Testament. In the old, the gospel was found in types and shadows like Israel, the temple, the ceremonial and civil laws. While in the new, Christ is the substance, the fulfillment of those types and shadows. So everything we hear that is proposed as Christian doctrine, must be weighed against the word of truth in the word of God. That is what Paul is getting at here. Secondly, the gospel is both local as well as universal. It says that this is the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world. This is the nature of the gospel. The gospel is not reserved for the local church only. The gospel is to go out into the world, into all people groups. At this time, Paul was appointed as a minister to the Gentiles, or non-Jewish people. And this was the plan from the beginning. This wasn't plan B. The gospel was never meant to remain isolated to one group of people. Because another characteristic of false teaching is that it tends to be local only. That is, it is isolationist and divisive. False teaching isolates and takes advantage of classes and groups of people in order to carry out its own will. We see this today in the various nationalist movements that have hijacked Christianity. These are very popular and very persuasive. They consist of separatists who separate along national, cultural, or ethnic lines. They pit one group of people against another group of people. Black versus white, Jew versus Gentile, Democrat, Republican. All these churches need to stay in their own place. Now, according to the gospel, that is wrong, and it is to be opposed firmly. Now, it is very appealing to the masses, especially today, and many have fallen for it. But it is the result of false teaching. Because it is only evidence that these churches either do not know the gospel or they're not bearing fruit in accord with the gospel. Because the gospel speaks to all men in all ages because it addresses the same problem. Sin and the fallen, corrupted nature of man. Sin is a universal problem that every man knows intimately and personally, no matter your background, no matter your status in life, no matter the time period you lived in, no one is inferior nor superior to another because of nationality, culture, class, political party, or ethnicity, because sin has left everyone ruined, depraved, and condemned. Everyone. No one is outside of it. Sin does not discriminate. So the gospel message does not discriminate. And the message of the gospel is simply that man needs a savior. Man needs a savior from sin and he has only one in Jesus Christ. So what is he trying to say here? He is trying to say that the gospel in Colossae is the same gospel everywhere else in the world. There is a Catholic or universal consensus on what the gospel is. Jude calls on all Christians to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Now this is why many pastors and church leaders over the centuries codified what they believed in creeds and confessions. If you want a simple back to the basics of what Christians are to believe, consider the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed. These are basic biblical truths that all Christians must believe, and they unite Christians across denominational lines. And the warning that Paul has for us here is that we are to reject all teaching that contradicts this faith that was once delivered to us. Thirdly, the gospel bears fruit and increases. How does the gospel bear fruit? Well, it's by God's grace. It is by God's grace. And the gospel is the means that God uses to convert sinners, and it is the means that he uses to produce the fruit of the spirit in the lives of the converted. So we can say that the gospel bears fruit in the local church as well as in our own personal lives. This is why Paul said, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. This is where the mystery still remains. The gospel is revealed to us in Jesus Christ and what he accomplished in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. But we don't see. Nor do we know how and when God works in the hearts of men. But we know that the means he uses is the gospel. We don't see all the ways and to what extent exactly that believers grow in their faith. But we know that the means he uses is the preaching of the gospel. Take, for instance, the Lord's Supper. We don't see all the mystery behind it, how it builds up our faith, but we trust the promise of the gospel, which is proclaimed every time we partake of it. So the working of the gospel in the lives of God's people remains a mystery, but it is a mystery founded on the truth. And this truth bears fruit. False teaching does the exact opposite. False teaching only produces temporary, plastic, or dead fruit. False teaching doesn't give life, even though it may have the appearance of giving life. But the appearance doesn't last. Think of our cultural climate today. Professing Christians are beginning to show their true colors. Because false teaching has no power. It is man-made, dreamt up in their minds. It is not from God. So if the gospel is not making you more like Jesus, maybe you need to reevaluate which gospel you're believing. This may be a symptom that you are believing a false gospel because the true gospel bears fruit. It bears fruit. Also, the gospel bears fruit not only in the local church and not only in our own personal lives, but it bears fruit in the world as it is increasing. Jesus promised to build his church and hell shall not prevail against it. As the gospel goes out into the world, it shall not return empty, Isaiah 55, 11, that we read from earlier. God's word will accomplish his purposes in drawing his people to himself. Jesus said this, all that the father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life. And I will raise Him up on the last day." After Christ was raised from the dead and He walked with His disciples, He gave them the great commission to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So with God's blessing and God's presence, the gospel goes forth into the world to gather the elect. This is why The gospel bears fruit. This is the way that the gospel bears fruit and increases in the world. This is Paul's reminder to the Colossians to prove that the gospel will triumph over false teaching. It will triumph. What a great encouragement for us. as we go forth in the gospel. It is Jesus who is with us and makes sure that in some way, shape, or form, it will bear fruit, even if we don't see it in our lifetimes. The gospel's going forth, and by the Spirit's presence, it will bear fruit, and no one will stop it. Now, the wording in verse six, I wanna focus on that just for a little, of how the gospel is in the world, bearing fruit and increasing is a direct allusion to the cultural or dominion mandate in Genesis 128, where God commanded Adam to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Unlike many in the Reformed church today, I don't believe that we as New Testament believers are still bound by this mandate in Genesis 128. Now, don't get me wrong. Having lots of children is a great blessing. And our children are to be considered holy seed in the world. And that is one way that the gospel indeed increases. But I really hope that we're not thinking that the reason we're having lots of children is because we're trying to fulfill Genesis 128, to be fruitful and multiply. Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 7, when he spoke of singleness in the Christian life is actually a good thing, and that our singleness is to be used to serve the Lord completely, and to what? Bear fruits according to the gospel. The bearing fruit of the gospel is the priority of the Christian today. There's that old joke that the way to Presbyterian church growth is through having lots of kids. Now, I'm thankful for lots of children. We have a record-breaking number here. But what this joke may be exposing is that we don't have a good record to talking to new people and being a gospel witness to the world that we're not familiar with. In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded the disciples to go forth, not to keep the gospel among themselves. So we're no longer bound by that mandate in Genesis 1. And we're not called to bind others to that mandate in Genesis 1.28. We have a different mandate now. We are to bind others to the gospel. Because that mandate of being fruitful and multiplying was replaced by the Great Commission in Matthew 28. and it is to be fulfilled by the power of the second Adam. Remember, all authority was given to Jesus. God commanded the first Adam to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, but now in Christ, in the second Adam or the last Adam as Paul calls him, we as his people have been commissioned to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with gospel fruits. And it is Christ working through the ministry of the gospel where he calls his people to himself. And guess what? That gospel proclaims that Christ has taken dominion of all things. Nowhere in the New Testament are we called to take dominion. Not of this earth right now. We will not have dominion. Christ has taken dominion and he has done what Adam failed to do and what we have failed to do. That is why he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He has been given the dominion that was once given to Adam, but Adam failed. Paul said in two other letters that God has subjected all things under Christ's feet. Christ has fulfilled that dominion, cultural mandate in Genesis 1. And so now all we do is proclaim it. We proclaim that Christ shall have dominion. And he has dominion right now even though we do not see it. And one day, One day, when all this ends, God will crush Satan under our feet. Romans 16, 20. Because the gospel is to fill the whole earth so it may bear fruit and increase, so that there would be more converts and people living godly lives by his grace until he comes. Isn't it amazing? that the evidence that Christ really walked this earth and that Christ really rose from the dead is found in the gathering of the saints right here. This is the hard evidence that our gospel is the word of truth. Because we are still passing down this faith that was once delivered to the saints. What an encouragement to keep sharing the gospel. His word will not return empty. Why? Because Christ reigns over all things. But also, fourthly, the only way the gospel increases is if the gospel is preached and heard. Remember what Paul said in Romans 10, 14 to 15. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent. This is the verse that undergirds the reason why the church is supposed to or expected to put our full support between preaching, we put our full support for ministers and home and foreign missionaries. This is why we spend our time in prayer, praying for them. and money to support their lives. Because this is how the Great Commission is fulfilled. We know that through Paul's efforts to the Colossians, they heard it. They heard the gospel. Paul said back in verse five, of this, that is the hope of heaven, you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel. Hearing the gospel proclaimed is necessary for both the conversion of sinners and the spiritual growth of saints. But false teaching goes forth through claims of visions, mystical experiences, and legalistic practices, while the gospel is preached to sinners, proclaiming a faithful Savior to everyone who hears and believes. This should fill us with excitement and anticipation when we prepare to come here on the Lord's day. We are coming to hear of the only way of salvation. God has appointed the means of the preaching of the gospel to save your soul, to sanctify you, and to one day glorify you in heaven. So on the flip side of this, I would say never go to a church which doesn't preach the true gospel. Although this is not the only qualification for a good church, but it is the ultimate qualification. The true gospel is to be preached in the church. So ask yourself of any church, Is the gospel embedded in the worship service? Is the gospel there from the call to worship to the benediction? Is the gospel preached in the sermon? It is not to be just a list of do's and don'ts and cultural commentary. Is the gospel applied personally to your life so that you would bear good fruits? and where you find the true gospel preached, be sure that you never waste a good sermon. Never waste a good sermon. There is never a sermon that is not worth listening to with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. Every sermon ought to apply to you wherever you are in your walk. If you miss a sermon here, we print them out. Or we have books in the foyer, books containing sermons, just take one. And don't bring it back, please. Never waste the sermon because it is for your edification and growth in grace. That is what the teaching ministry is for here at the church. All I need is to read my Bible. It's not biblical. It's not biblical. No, it is great. to read your Bible and to discern the truth, just as the Bereans did in Acts 17. But also, Paul said, you need to be taught the gospel. You need to be taught. That is what ministers are here for, and that is why we come to church. But not only is the gospel to be preached and heard, but it is to be heard and understood. Paul said to the Colossians, as the gospel was bearing fruit and increasing among them, since the day you heard it and understood the gospel. See, the gospel is to be so clear and perspicuous, as our confession says, that even a child can hear and understand its truth. So that requires our teachers, our ministers, that they make the gospel clear in their teaching and there is a certain level of understanding and knowledge required for salvation. So the responsibility is not only on the preacher, but it is also on those being preached to. This is what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 and how people will no longer endure sound teaching and have itching ears. In the end, It is on them, not on Timothy. Timothy was to keep preaching and teaching the gospel. And what is it you need to understand? What is it that you need to understand in the gospel? You need to know that first and foremost, you're a sinner. You're a sinner. You have sinned against a holy and righteous God who is justified in condemning you to hell forever. Psalm 51, David confessed as a believer that God was justified in condemning him. But this is where the gospel comes in. You also have a Savior who justifies you so that you would never be condemned. That's the gospel. What a great mystery. What great grace we find in the gospel. So the question naturally becomes, what did they hear and understand? What are you to hear and understand? Well, I just mentioned it earlier, they heard the word of truth. The gospel is the word of truth. But not only is it the truth, but also it preaches and teaches the grace of God in truth. Many of us are so intent on teaching the truth, yet at the same time, some of us leave out the most important part, which is the grace of God. It is the grace of God in truth. If you were to get one thing from the sermon, it should be that God is gracious, and he extends his grace to you in the gospel. But this grace is to be taught in truth. See, false teaching teaches God's grace in other ways. They teach that God doesn't really care about sin. And the only way to defeat sin is either to ignore it or defeat it by some inner power that you already possess. While the gospel teaches that it is only and all by grace. It's only and all by grace, not by works, not by effort, but resting solely on the work of Christ for you. Grace is unmerited, or as I've said before, better, demerited favor. We can't earn His favor. In fact, what we have done, even our good works, merit only His judgment. We earned only His wrath, but because of Jesus, His wrath passes over us, because the blood of the Lamb of God has covered us all by His grace and mercy. Finally, as we have covered so far, The gospel is the word of truth. The gospel is both local and universal. The gospel bears fruit and is increasing. The gospel is to be preached and heard. The gospel is to be heard and understood. And the gospel teaches the grace of God and truth. We now should understand the hope that the gospel holds out for everyone who believes. The gospel, as Paul said in verse five, holds out the hope of heaven. The gospel reveals the mystery of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Now this is the promise that God holds out to us. It is the hope of heaven. Paul's teaching holds out the hope, which is truly hopeless, that if you work hard enough, you will get to heaven on your own. False teaching is always performance-based. And this performance only results in death, because all the performance you perform will still come up short of God's standards, even those who are being sanctified. But this gospel holds out a different kind of hope. The gospel doesn't say work. The gospel says believe. And if you believe, if you receive and rest in the promises of the gospel, then it is through the gospel that God establishes a true communion between you and himself. His grace is poured out to you practically in his relationship to you. It is through this gospel that you are convicted of sin, that you are convicted whenever you fall short, yet the comfort comes in when His Spirit speaks to you intimately through the word of truth. It is through this gospel that we begin this fellowship with God. And in many ways, it is not a perfect fellowship. There are many days when we feel discouraged, alone, depressed, or disconnected from God. But for the Christian, that is not the reality. Just allow those moments to be opportunities for growth. Allow those moments to direct you back to his word where you feed and enrich your souls with the gospel truth of forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ and the promise of a true relationship that begins here and now. It begins here and now. False teaching cannot unite your soul to Christ or establish a relationship with God. Not only false teaching, but your works cannot establish a relationship with God. And not only does the gospel establish the fellowship, but it is only the gospel that will help improve your faith into glory, where your fellowship will be perfected. So the ultimate question that Paul has for anyone, and what I would have for you, is do you believe in this gospel? Do you believe in this gospel? That Jesus, the Son of God, was born in the flesh, he lived a perfect life, died as the perfect sacrifice for your sins, and was raised to seal your entrance into heaven. That is the hope laid out before you. For it is the power of God for salvation for all who believe, Jew or Gentile. Amen.