This is the Scripture-Driven Church broadcast brought to you by Teaching the Word Ministries. The Church of Jesus Christ must be the Scripture-Driven Church, relying on God's inspired and inerrant Word as our sole authority and our infallible critic in every area of life and ministry. And now, here's author, Bible teacher and Teaching the Word president, Dr. Paul Elliott, to introduce today's program. Today we are taking a break from our present broadcast series for a special message on a very vital subject. We live in a time when many preachers and churches are proclaiming a counterfeit gospel of so-called social justice, instead of the one true biblical gospel of salvation from sin and from God's eternal wrath by faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this false gospel seeks to manufacture some of the earthly results of the true gospel without the regenerated hearts that only the Holy Spirit can give. Dear friends, only the biblical gospel can truly change everything. And that is our theme today. We're going to see this in the opening verses of Paul's epistle to the Colossians. So if you are able to do so, I hope you will open your own Bible to the book of Colossians and follow along. Before we look into God's word, let's look to him in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we live in a time, as you tell us in your word, when many false prophets have gone out into the world. Father, I pray that you will give each believer in Christ who is listening today a discerning heart to test the spirits, to be sure that the people they are listening to are speaking according to your word and not according to their own philosophies. And if there is anyone listening today who has never experienced the saving power of the gospel, I pray that now would be the time when your spirit would do his saving work in that person's heart. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. As you also learn from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. Last time I mentioned three particular reasons why Paul wrote this letter to the Colossian believers, and I think it would be well for us to remind ourselves of those reasons as we begin our study of these verses today. The Colossian Church was facing three particular challenges to the faith. First of all, Colossae was located in a region where the people practiced a particularly fanatical form of paganism. the Colossian culture was saturated with this. And secondly, in the region where Colossae was located, there were Jewish legalizers who professed to believe in Jesus Christ, but they said that you had to add the keeping of the Jewish law to the gospel in order to be saved. And thirdly, there were the influences of various kinds of worldly philosophies in this part of the Roman world. And we're going to look at those in more detail when we get to Colossians chapter 2. But it's with these three things in mind, paganism, legalism, and worldly philosophies, that Paul now begins his letter to the Colossians, and he begins with words of thanksgiving. But they're words that also form a reminder to the Colossian church of what they are and what they have in Jesus Christ, that the gospel has changed everything. In verses 3 through 8, Paul expresses his thanks to God for the Colossian believers, but he does this in a very purposeful way. He wants to build them up in the faith in the face of these challenges. He wants to remind them of the preeminence of Christ, and that, as we have said, is the theme of this book. And he wants to remind them that it is the gospel of Christ and the gospel alone that has changed everything for them. And here in chapter 1, Paul is going to first of all remind them that Christ is preeminent in the gospel. And so he uses very encouraging words that remind them of the most vital things about the nature of the gospel. What Paul is doing here is laying a foundation. He's reminding them of the doctrine that they already know, so that he can then establish them more deeply in sound doctrine. and then building on that doctrinal foundation. In chapters three and four, he can then address some vital matters of Christian living and conduct. He reminds them in chapter 1 verse 4 that their faith is in Jesus Christ. We, Timothy and I, he says, have been giving thanks to God the Father continually ever since we heard of your faith, your belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin. He's reminding them that Christ is the sole object of saving faith. And he says in verse 4, we've also been giving thanks because we heard about something else. We heard about the evidence of saving faith in your lives. We have heard about the love which you have for all the saints. We've heard about your agape love, your self-sacrificial brotherly love, not only for believers in Colossae, but for all the saints. And the idea in the original is that this love is for all the saints, both individually and collectively. And Paul reminds them in verse five of why they have this love for all the saints. It is, he says, on account of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. The idea in the original language is the hope that is reserved and awaiting you when you get to heaven. And what is that hope? While Paul tells them more specifically in verse 27 of chapter 1, he calls it, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Because of Christ you have the hope, he says, not just a hopeful feeling, but the confident reasoned expectation, the guarantee of an eternal inheritance. And he will repeat this when we get to verse 12 of chapter 1. Giving thanks, he says, to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. You have the right, Paul says, to the benefits of salvation because you are in Christ, and Christ is in you. Redemption through his blood. And Paul reminds them, beginning in verse 5, that this confident expectation, this guarantee in Christ, is based on hearing and knowing. Since the day, he says, that you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, In other words, Paul's saying, I'm thankful for you because there came a point in time, a definite point, when you not only heard the gospel, but you gave heed to it, you knew it accurately, and you recognized and accepted the grace of God, his unmerited favor toward you because of Christ, and you received it in a true and genuine way. And at that point in time, a change took place. and the gospel began to bear fruit among you and it continues to do so. And Paul reminds them in the face of those who would try to lead them into error that their faith in Christ was based on a faithful, accurate proclamation of the truth. Notice verse 7, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. I want to point out a couple of things here. The first is that word also. The indication here is that when the Colossians learned these things from Epaphras, they were not hearing them for the first time. Paul says they also learned from Epaphras. This is another reason why I'm inclined to think that Paul and Timothy had visited Colossae at a previous time and had planted the seeds of the gospel which later bore fruit. Or as we said last time, the gospel may have come to that part of Asia in other ways or in a combination of ways. But by whatever means, these people at Colossae heard the truth of the gospel. They took it to heart and received it as the truth. And they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and were saved from their sins and were brought into newness of life. And then as Epaphras came and preached to them, he confirmed the things that they had already learned. The second thing I want to point out from this verse is that there was faithful, accurate proclamation of the truth. That's the force of the language here. What they received, Paul is reminding them, was genuine, not a counterfeit. It was not what he calls in Galatians, another gospel, which is really no gospel at all, has no power to save. Dear friends, how much we need the faithful, accurate proclamation of the truth of the gospel in our time. There are so many counterfeits in our day. One of the key marks of a scripture-driven church is that it preaches the one true gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from anything or anyone else. That is the gospel you believe, Paul says. He's reminding them in these verses. that they should not depart from that gospel. And Paul also reminds them that the one true gospel produces results. It produces changed lives. Love for all the saints, verse 4. Love in the Holy Spirit, verse 8. The truth of the gospel bringing forth fruit, verse 6. And I want to mention something else in verse 6. The force of the language here. is that the truth of the gospel was bringing forth fruit of itself, independent of anything else. It is what is called in grammar the middle voice, which means that the subject is acting upon itself. The subject is the cause of the result upon itself. And what this means in this context is that there's a clear indication in the Greek grammar that it is the truth of the gospel that was the exclusive cause of the spiritual fruit that had become evident among the Colossian believers. Nothing else in the world can bring this kind of change about, only the gospel of Jesus Christ. So in expressing his thanks to God for them in verses 3 through 8, Paul declares and reminds the Colossian believers of the nature of the gospel, that Christ is preeminent in the gospel, and that the gospel changes everything. And in these verses Paul also shows us the nature of the kinds of spiritual relationships. that God desires for believers to have with one another. And the keynote of those relationships is loving care for one another. Paul tells the Colossians, first of all, that there can only be this kind of relationship among true believers, among those who have genuinely been brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the gospel and the working of the Holy Spirit through the accurate proclamation of the truth. And secondly, Paul shows us that this is a relationship of two kinds. It is, first of all, a relationship of loving care and concern on the part of spiritual parents for their spiritual children. We, Timothy and I, Paul says, your fathers in the faith, so to speak, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. We're continually in prayer for you as our spiritual offspring. as those who have come to faith in Christ because of our labors in the gospel. And the kind of relationship God desires for believers to have is also a relationship of all true believers to one another. Paul commends the Colossians for the love which you have for all the saints, all the holy ones of God, all those who have been set apart by God in Christ. And thirdly, in these verses, Paul also shows us by his own example and also by reminding the Colossian believers of their godly example, he shows us that it is a relationship characterized by two things. First of all, it's motivated by love. And Paul repeats this thought in many places in his epistles. Romans chapter 13, verse 8, owe no one anything except to love one another. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, beginning at verse 1, that entire chapter on love, Paul begins by saying, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 16.14, let all that you do be done with love. Galatians 5.22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and so on. And Paul says to the church at Philippi, Philippians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11, he says, This I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. And secondly, the relationship among true believers is to be one that is characterized by continual prayer for one another. We give thanks to God, praying always for you, Paul says in verse 3. And he also expresses this thought in many other places in his epistles, I'll just mention two. In Romans chapter 1, verse 9, he tells those believers, that God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers." And Paul tells us that prayer for the saints is part of our spiritual warfare. In Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, notice, praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." So in expressing his thanks to God for them in verses 3 through 8, Paul declares and reminds the Colossian believers, of the nature of the gospel, that Christ is preeminent in the gospel, and that it is the gospel that has changed everything. And he also reminds them of the nature of the kinds of spiritual relationships that God desires for believers to have with one another. And the keynote of those relationships is loving care for one another, coupled with intercessory prayer for one another. I'd like to ask today as we close, how do you measure up to these things today? Are you thanking God the Father through Christ for other believers? Are you engaging in intercessory prayer for your fellow believers, both seen and unseen? Are you thanking God and praying for your fellow saints on account of your expectation of heaven and all its glories, our great inheritance in Christ? and the fact that we're all going to be together for eternity in the presence of Christ. Are you personally, and is your church, proclaiming the fact that Christ alone is the object of saving faith, that saving faith is believing, as Paul writes here, the word of the truth of the gospel? We must be proclaiming the fact that saving faith produces a changed life just as surely as day follows night. and is your life, and the life of your church as a body of believers demonstrating that fact. Dear friends, if there isn't that kind of spiritual fruit, God's Word tells us that we have reason to question whether there is in fact spiritual life. We must be proclaiming that the gospel is the answer to every problem, every challenge, every evil in the lives of individuals, in the life of the church as a body, and in the life of the nation. Jesus Christ is the only hope for this world. Politics cannot save this world. Economics cannot save this world. Social action cannot save this world, cannot change this world. Jesus told us that this world and its system is passing away. Our only hope is to be prepared for the world to come. And the only way to be prepared for the world to come is to be washed and cleansed of your sins by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, today a lot of Christians and churches are getting that backwards. Christians are trying to change the culture without proclaiming and standing upon the only thing that can change the culture. And that is what happens when people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. and their changed lives exert a positive influence. You can't have the effect without the cause. You can't have changed lives. You can't have a changed church. You can't have a changed nation unless the truth of the gospel is fully and accurately proclaimed and believed. You can't have changed lives or a changed church or a changed nation unless people receive Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit and their lives and their thinking are changed by the power of God's Word illuminated by His Spirit. Today many Christians are busy in the kind of political and social activity that tries to bring about the fruit of the Spirit without first seeking after the saving work of the Spirit through the Word of God and the power of the gospel. It is only the gospel, the gospel alone, that changes everything. Today perhaps there's someone listening to this program who has never truly believed the gospel. You may have heard it many times. You may even know intellectually that the facts of the gospel are true, but you've never acted upon that knowledge. You've never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as the only one. who can save you from eternal damnation because of your sins. You've never received grace and peace from God. You've never admitted to God that you are a sinner, that you cannot save yourself. You have no claim upon the rich eternal inheritance in the new heavens and new earth that is the right of every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. If God is speaking to you through this message today, and you understand that you need to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin, and that you need to experience the changed life that God will bring about as you walk in newness of life in Him. then I encourage you to stop where you are right now. Let nothing stand in your way. Do not delay. And call upon the Lord and ask Him to save you. And if you're taking that step today, we'd love to hear from you. And we'd be happy to provide you with a Bible and other free resources that will help you grow in your newfound faith. Here once again is Dr. Paul Elliott with some closing comments. When you visit our website at teachingtheword.org, we encourage you to explore the resources you will find there. You'll find thousands of pages of Bible teaching materials, devotional material for every day of the year, and recordings and transcripts of every radio broadcast. Many of you have been blessed by our Bible Reading Kit. This is a free resource that is designed to help you and your family read the Bible regularly and systematically, to understand it better, and to grow spiritually. If you haven't yet received a copy, we would be happy to send one to you. We will send our Bible Reading Kit anywhere in the world without cost or obligation to anyone who requests it. To request the Bible Reading Kit, you can go to our website, teachingtheword.org, and click the Free Resources link on our homepage. Once again, that's the Free Resources link on our homepage at teachingtheword.org. Or if you're listening in North America, you can call us toll-free anytime 24 hours a day at 888-804-9655. Once again, our toll-free number for listeners in North America is 888-804-9655. If you hear a recorded message when you call, please leave a voicemail message telling us that you would like to receive the Bible reading kit and how we can contact you, and we will return your call as soon as possible. Or you can request the kit by writing to us at Teaching the Word Ministries, Box 2533, Westminster, Maryland, 21158 USA. Again, that's Teaching the Word Ministries, Box 2533, Westminster, Maryland, 21158 USA. Thanks for listening today. We're glad that you joined us, and we hope that you'll join us again on our next broadcast. Until then, may God richly bless your personal study of His inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word. I'll see you then.