Paul is in prison. He's first in prison. He's under house arrest. He has much freedom. He's able to entertain guests. Ed Pafras, who was the pastor, most likely, of the Church of Colossae, takes a long trip to speak with the Apostle Paul because false doctrine had begun to infiltrate the church. Pagan false doctrine by way of what we call asceticism. People would begin to deny their bodies, neglect their bodies, and somehow think that this would earn them frowny points with God. the Gnostics who said, well, you know, we've arrived at a certain level of knowledge and so we're really in the upper echelon of being a Christian. And then the Jews came in and said, well, you've got to go back to the Old Testament, you know, somehow you've got to go back to those rules and regulations and those feasts and those Sabbath days. And then, of course, others would say, well, if you really want to be right with God, you know, the Lord Jesus is really not all that the Apostle Paul says he is. We've got to get angels in here. And somehow angels. Either Jesus is like an angel, a little bit above an angel, a little less than an angel. But the point of the Apostle is to show all of these things that are sneaking in through the back door of the Church of Colossians are ridiculous. And as he's heard of Epaphras, his report concerning the circumstances there in the Church of Colossians, he immediately does What he desires to do, he writes a letter as an apostle of Jesus Christ. And in writing that letter, he commends them. He wishes them well. He pronounces grace to them and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives thanks to God for the things he has heard about them. He always prays for them. When he heard about their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and their love for other saints and of the hope that was laid up for them in heaven, and he was thankful to see the fruit of the gospel come into their lives. And this is basically what the first number of verses speak of. And these things of which the Apostle Paul was speaking about, concerning the grace of God in truth, he says, as you also learn from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Jesus Christ on your behalf, who is declared to us of your love in the spirit. You have a very faithful pastor. A man who cares for you, a man who has instructed you, a man who commends you because he told us about your love in the Spirit. And so the Apostle Paul is putting a stamp of approval upon Epaphras. His doctrine, his theology, his preaching, the content of what he was bringing to the people was accurate. And what the false teachers were bringing in was inaccurate. And what he's saying is you ought to listen to your pastor, and obviously me as an Apostle, you must listen to me as an Apostle. I speak the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ. I speak with direct inspiration by the Holy Spirit. He that rejects me, rejects the Lord Jesus himself. But the Apostle brings in Epaphras, and she'll see your pastor who has traveled so many miles. You learn the things of the word of God from him. He speaks highly of you and we'll find out a bit later that he's very much concerned about you. And so Paul speaks to the Colossians he reminds them of all that he thanks God for them and what he remembers about them about their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ their love for all the saints and he reminds them of this hope that has been laid up for them in heaven and now Paul says in verse 9 for this reason we also since the days we heard of it do not cease to pray for you Paul does not stop praying for the Christians there at Colossus. Continual prayer is offered up for the Colossian Christians. And notice what Paul says in verse 9. For this reason we also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you. He says we, we Paul, who do you mean? You and who? Me and Epaphras? Your pastor? He's with him. So it seems like Paul and Epaphras were praying for the Colossian Christians. It's very possible that there were others there. I believe in chapter 4 of Colossians and verse 12 we also see Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you always laboring fervently for you in prayers. that you may stand perfect and complete in all of the will of God. So Paul is praying for them and Epaphras is praying for them and I believe that there were others there and I just can't seem to find the passage at this time but there were others there with Paul at this time and they were all engaged when they became aware of the need at Colossae they lift up their voices to God and that God would watch over the flock in the absence of the pastor, that God will watch over the flock in the threat of wolves surrounding the congregation with false doctrine, whether it was pagan or whether it was a Jewish element. Somehow saying that Christ Jesus is not enough. You need something in addition to Jesus Christ. Well since the Apostle Paul heard about all of these things and the grace of God in their lives, he's thankful But he immediately goes to prayer. He says, since we heard about these things, we do not cease to pray for you. And to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Now it may seem unnecessary in some ways because in some ways they were doing very well as a church. But in some ways they were not. The ways that they were not, they were beginning to entertain entertain false doctrine. And so the Apostle Paul, as much as he praises them, and commends them to God, and is thankful to God for them, because of the qualities that Epiphras related to him of what was going on in the church. And a faithful pastor will say the good and the bad about his congregation. A faithful mom and dad will say the good and the bad about their children. You watch out for a pastor who never has anything to say bad about his congregation. That's not realistic. Just like a mother and a father talking to someone just this past week. This person says, when my son does something wrong, I praise him. When he does something right, excuse me, when he does something wrong, I rebuke him. When he does something right, I praise him. Epiphras was a faithful pastor. He was a true pastor who speaks what needs to be spoken at the appropriate time. And so the Apostle Paul says, we've heard the report. We don't stop praying for you. And we're going to go to God in prayer. And not only do we thank God, but we're going to petition him. We're going to ask him for something. Notice what he said. We ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom. and spiritual understanding. Literally, the Greek would read this way, that you may be filled to the full knowledge of his will. That you may be filled to the full knowledge of his will. With the added preposition, one man said, it intensifies the meaning. The knowledge Paul wants the Colossians to have is a deep and a thorough knowledge. So said John MacArthur. And that is the prayer. He wants them to be filled with the full. Paul is tripping over his words. He wants them to be filled with the full knowledge of God's will. And you see that is the desire of any pastor, of any apostle obviously. They desire the best for the people of God. And they desire that they would be filled with the knowledge of His will. The scripture says in another place, do not be unwise but understand what the will of the Lord is. You see, if you go to Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10 with me. The importance of knowing the will of God. The importance of knowing the will of God. Now that's not the passage I want. I believe it's in Colossians chapter 4, yes? Yes, verse 12. that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will. Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you always laboring for fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect, complete in all the will of God. The importance that they would stand complete in the will of God, they would know the will of God and Paul's passion is that the Colossians Christians would be filled to overflowing with the knowledge of God's will as revealed in Old Testament scripture and as revealed by apostolic letters. They would be filled. That they might be knowing, intelligent Christians, said Matthew Henry. The fear of the law promises the beginning of knowledge. No doubt we have here an intentional allusion, said a man by the name of Hendrickson, to the Gnostic era. with which false teachers were striving to lead the Colossians astray. Paul was saying the clear knowledge of God's will which is our basic petition for you is incomparably richer and more satisfying than the knowledge that is held out to you by the advocates of heresy. They give me knowledge and they're saying with this knowledge you're going to be a real real Christian, a real McCoy Christian. Paul says no, the knowledge that we desire for you, the knowledge that we want you to have and we ask God to give it to you is far more satisfying, it's far more pleasing to God, it's far more beneficial to you. The clear knowledge of God's will is far richer and more satisfying than the knowledge of the false teachers. And so he trips over his words. We pray, I'm praying, Epiphras is praying, and some of the others who were visiting Paul. We're praying together that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will to overflowing. No abstract, no theoretical, no mysterious knowledge of the elite. Rather, a penetrating insight into God's wonderful revelation in Christ's redemption and salvation. That's what Paul prays. having a pastor's heart and Epiphras being their actual pastor. Together they join. We pray that you may be filled with the full knowledge of his will so that you won't have any desire for this knowledge that these other four teachers want you to have. You've got it all in the Lord Jesus Christ. In him I hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You don't need anything else but Christ and the knowledge of his will. He goes on to say that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That is such wisdom which is the ability to use the best means in order to reach the highest goal of life to God's glory, said one man. That is to have such an understanding of the Word of God, such an understanding of the doctrines of scripture, the truths of scripture, the knowledge of Christ and His Word, so that we will have the wisdom to be able to put it into practice. Now here's the Word of God, here's the teaching of His will. Now how do we apply it in everyday living? How do we put the word of God in the sense that when the rubber meets the road? How does that actually apply? Paul says we want you to be filled with the knowledge of his will to the full. But not so that you're so inflated in your head, so you're so heavenly minded that you're ignorantly good. No, that you will have such a knowledge of his will in all kind of practical wisdom. The kind of wisdom that knows how to use the best means in order to reach the highest goal. a life to God's glory. In all spiritual understanding, one man has put it this way, wisdom is the practical ability to regulate conduct in the light of God's requirements, while understanding is the capacity to apply wisdom in every situation which demands a moral decision. In other words, it's putting your religion into practice. That's what it is. Putting it down into the nitty-gritty of everyday experience. Wives, mothers, we wash dishes on Monday morning and the word of God and the knowledge of His will is to be practical. It's to give you instruction. Even in those mundane duties of everyday housewife and living in the home. Washing dishes, washing clothes, cleaning the house. And so men going to work, doing things around the house, even the most mundane things. The knowledge of his will is to be so effective and effectual in our lives that God gives us an ability to wisely, with understanding, apply it in this area, in that area, in the choices that we must make. in everyday living. Proverbs 16 says, He that handleth the matter wisely shall find good. Wisdom may be the broader of the two terms. It refers to the ability to collect and concisely organize principles from scripture, understanding the application of those principles to everyday life, said John MacArthur. We desire that you would be filled with the full knowledge of His will. With that keen discernment and understanding of how to apply the Word of God to the nitty-gritty situations of everyday living. He wished them to be able to distinguish between things that differed from each other. to have an intelligent apprehension of what was right and what was wrong, what was good and what was bad and what our brother said so correctly concerning the Pharisees. They were so unwise, they lacked such understanding, they were insensible. They made ridiculous comparisons. They made big things out of little things And little things out of big things. They just got anything topsy-turvy, upside down. Surely they did not have much wisdom or understanding. They lacked the knowledge of His will with all of their religiosity. And so having said this, the Apostle says, our prayer is that you may be filled with the knowledge, with the full knowledge of His will. in such a way that you will manifest wisdom and understanding in the application of that knowledge of God's will in everyday living, and you'll make the right choices. You'll apply the Word of God in a proper way that God the Spirit will direct you. through his scriptures knowing the scriptures and applying those scriptures in everyday living now quickly what is the goal of their prayers notice the text goes on to say that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding in order that in order that you may walk worthy of the Lord now the goal and the intention the goal and the intention of them being filled with the knowledge of his will is that they will live a life worthy of the Lord. Now I trust we know that the Bible teaches emphatically None of us are worthy of God's salvation. None of us are worthy of the least of his mercies. Does that remind you of Jacob? I'm not worthy of the least of your mercies. And in the book, in the Gospels, it talks about certain servants. When Jesus says, I believe, to those who, when they've done all what they were supposed to do, we're still unprofitable servants. You see, and the point is that we're not worthy of anything. And so the Bible is not stressing here that as we're filled with the knowledge of His will, so that we will walk a life worthy of the Lord, somehow implying God sees how worthily we are, and then He blesses us, He shall bless us, because we're living lives of worthiness. Well, no. Not worthy in the sense that we merit anything from God. One man has put it this way, the Greek word has the root meaning of balancing the scales. What is on one side of the scale should be equal in weight to what is on the other side of the scale. The word came to be applied to anything that was expected to correspond to something else. A person worthy of his pay was one whose day's work corresponded to his day's wages. The laborer is worthy of his hire, Luke 10. The believer walks in a manner worthy of the calling with which he has been called, is one whose daily life corresponds to his high position as a child of God. His practical living matches his spiritual position. You see that? And in that sense, we must understand the word worthy. In other words, you're a child of God. Live and act like one. When you live and act in a different way, that's not worthy of the Lord. That's not worthy of being a child of God. But the reflection is not really upon you. It's whose child you are. Who you belong. You're a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're the child of the Heavenly King. of our Father, the Lord, and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the point of the Apostle is to stress that the reason why, the reason why we pray that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will in such a way that you'll know how to practically, wisely, in an understanding way apply it in everyday living so that the goal intended in these prayers is so that you will live a life worthy of the Lord. worthy in such a way that you'll act like children of God in every circumstance that God put you in. You see? Salvation is not based upon our worthiness. And it has to do with the fact that we need to live life that reflect That we have been made worthy in the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ has done it all and we have to reflect that we are the children of the king children of our God and we belong to him all of our actions bring a reflection like him when a Christian acts in a certain way that does not show the character of the Lord Jesus Christ does not show the image of his Heavenly Father That's inconsistent. Is this my son? In certain families. My son doesn't act that way. That's not reflective of me. I didn't bring him up that way. I didn't teach him those things. You're not worthy. You're not acting like your father's child. And so it is. To walk in a manner worthy of the Lord is to act like what we are. Children of God. Not worthy in the sense that we merit and earn any kind of salvation. We are all unprofitable servants. I'm not worthy of the least of all thy mercies. For all the truth which you have shown your servant." Again said Jacob to God in Genesis 32 and verse 10. You see? So the scripture speaks of this desire here of Paul and the other pastors who are praying for the church of Colossae. We ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, to the full knowledge of his will, so that you'll have wisdom and understanding in applying it, so that you'll have a life that is worthy of the Lord. You'll walk worthy of God in a number of areas. Notice what the text says. Number one, fully pleasing him Number two, being fruitful in every good work. And number three, increasing in the knowledge of God. In other words, to walk a life that is worthy of the Lord, a child of God who accurately reflects his Heavenly Father, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ who accurately reflects his Master whom he follows, A life of being worthy in that sense, walking that kind of a life, will manifest in these three ways. It will manifest itself fully pleasing it, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. In the knowledge of God. And what I want to do tonight, is this, since in the past, in this place, I spent some time on dealing with the aspect of being fully pleasing to Him, and I dealt with, in a different kind of way, being fruitful in every good work, we dealt with that when we dealt with Titus chapter 2, that God's people, those for whom Christ died, are zealous for good works, I want to dwell on this aspect, the third one, increasing in the knowledge of God. to walk a walk that is worthy of the Lord. It manifests itself in these three ways. Number one, you are fully pleasing, you're seeking to please God. Turn with me just for a moment in Hebrews 11. But our emphasis will not be on the first two, it will be on the last one. Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6. Notice what it says. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. To please Him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So you and I must seek to be pleasing. We cannot even please God unless we come to God. with faith, believing that He is. And the important thing is that we need to realize that our God expects of us to please Him. Paul could say in another passage that our ambition is to be well-pleasing unto Him. To be well-pleasing, to please God in all that we do. And I believe it says of Enoch, and I can't seem to find a passage, that he pleased God in his life. He pleased God, his action, his lifestyle, it was pleasing to God. It was not worthy in the sense that he earned anything from God, but he earned a commendation. God commended him. God praised him, if you will. Alright? And so the point of walking a life that is worthy of the Lord, it will manifest itself in a lifestyle of seeking to fully please Him in every area of our lives, and to be fruitful in every Good work. Turn back to Philippians chapter 1. To be so fruitful in our spiritual lives that it can be said of us in this way. Philippians 1 beginning in verse 7. Actually, it's verse 9. In 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, here it is, with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and to the praise of God. That is, we are to be fruitful in every good work. We are to be filled with fruits of righteousness. A life that is filled with many, many, many, many good works. We're so fruitful in good works, they're just overflowing. It's like a tree. It's like a tree that has so many apples on the branches that it becomes, if you will, like a weeping willow because it's putting so much pressure. which are so fully pleased the Lord in every area of our lives. Which are so seek to please him. And as we do those things, that manifests something. We're living a life that is worthy of being a child of the King. Not worthy in the sense that we earn anything, but that's the way a child of the King is supposed to act. That's like a child is supposed to respect his parents. He's supposed to be an image of his father. He's supposed to reflect and act in his place in a way that is worthy and a disciple. So it is with the Master. It can truly be said, that we represent the Lord Jesus Christ. When people look upon us, it's a reflection of what Jesus is. If we live godly and holy lives, if we're righteous people, it commands Christ. If we wind up being the kind of Christians, at least in periods of our lives, where we live very shabby, slothful, lazy, Plain with sin kind of lies? That reflects upon the Lord Jesus. That's very unworthy. That's not a true reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. Well, anyway, a life worthy of the Lord. That's the goal of being filled with the knowledge of his will, with all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And that life worthy of the Lord will manifest itself fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work. And here's the text that I want to dwell on tonight. Increasing in the knowledge of God, increasing in the knowledge of God. See the importance of knowledge in the Christian life. First of all, the text goes on to say, that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will. It is said in scripture, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Knowledge is absolutely essential in the Christian life. Now there's two kinds of knowledge. There is intimate personal knowledge, and what we would say there is factual knowledge. Knowledge that we receive by way of information. When the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 17 and verse 3, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and thy son Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, he definitely meant to know my father and to know me in an intimate way and the scripture does speak of an intimate knowledge of God On the day of judgment, it will be said to those who are workers of iniquity, depart from me, I never knew you. Does that mean I never had an information about you? Of course not. I never knew you intimately. You were never one of my own. And so the Bible speaks of knowledge in the sense of intimacy, intimacy. Adam knew his wife and she conceived. intimate sexual relations, holy, blessed by God in the context of holy marriage. The intimacy of that relationship. And so it is in scripture that we are to increase in the knowledge of God. That is we are to increase in a deep experiential knowledge of the living God. We just don't want to have facts and information about God and I'll get that in a minute. It's absolutely essential that we will be increasing in the deep knowledge of God. That is, we study God. We want to know what God is like. We just don't want to be the kind of people who just have such little sense of the presence of God. A little appreciation for his character. We want to be the kind of people, and Paul is praying for that, for me and you too. He's praying that we would increase in the knowledge of God. That is what it means to live a life worthy of the Lord. That we would be the kind of people to have such a spiritual hunger to know God, to know Him intimately, to know Him as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To get to know Him intimately in reference to some of His attributes. That He's a God of love, He's a God of wrath, He's a God of justice, He's a God of omnipotence and omniscience and omnipresence. He's a God who's infinite. and eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, justice, wholeness, goodness and truth. So says the Catechism. What is God? We want to know this God. We just don't want to have a little information, a few crumbs off the table. Paul says you need to increase. Increasing in an intimate personal knowledge of God. Where your heart is going after God. Where your heart is so thirsty for God as we were saying last week. It is never going to be satisfied until you get quenched. And your thirst is quenched. Hear the word of the Lord in the book of Psalms. We read in Psalm 63 these words. We read where David is crying out for God and he says this in Psalm 63. Oh God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. Paul is saying, I want you to live a life that is worthy of the Lord. That's why we pray that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will. And you will manifest that in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, applying the knowledge of His will in practical details of life. And you will manifest that life of walking worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. There's a book, I believe it's written by A.W. Tozer, I think it's called The Pursuit of God. The Pursuit of God. Going after God. So passionate that we want to know God. We want to know more intimately what He's like. He's our Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit has become a bit more real and precious to me in recent days as I've been preaching in the Reformation School of Preaching about The Holy Spirit's work in the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation. And I've become aware just a bit more of how necessary His work is in our lives. And He's not a force. He is a person. He is God the Holy Spirit. And as we pray, Come, O Come, Thou Quickening Spirit, God from all eternity. And so there ought to be this longing, this passion to know God intimately and personally. We should never get to the point that we say we've arrived. Eternity will be one continual experience of getting to know God more and more intimately. And Paul could say, concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, or that I might know Him. Paul, don't you know Him? Yes, I know Him. But I know Him so little that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection in Philippians 3 times. The scripture says, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see what Paul is praying? And I profess, we pray that you be filled with the knowledge of His will, so that you will walk a life that is worthy of the Lord, and it will manifest itself, fully pleasing Him, fulfilled in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. You have such a passion to know God, intimately and personally, that your soul thirst is never, never satisfied. God says open your mouth wide and I will fill it. And God is so infinitely great and majestic and powerful. He can meet all of our needs. There's never a time that we will arrive where we can know everything there is to know about God in an intimate way. Well, he's infinite and we are finite. We can know God truly, but always in a finite way. But nevertheless, the point is we have to yearn for him and long for him. And Paul says, this is my desire for you. Well, let me just deal with the other aspect now. The Bible's conception of knowledge is primarily intimacy, intimate knowledge, to know God in an intimate way. And that's why I believe Paul is stressing to increase in the knowledge of God in an intimate way. But, we cannot exclude the factual way, if you will. We should be yearning to know things about God, proper understanding about God, so that our knowledge of God is factual, it's accurate, it's biblical, it's balanced. You see, those two things really go hand in hand. Our intimate knowledge of God, personally, is really based upon what we know about God and His Holy Word. We need to know what God is like. Is he one or is he three? Well, he's really one God but three persons. See, we need to know that. And then the father, he is the one who planned salvation. The son is the one who accomplished salvation in this plan that they made back in eternity. the Holy Spirit, he regenerates and applies the work that Christ accomplished at Calvary on the behalf of those whom he did it for, the elect, and he regenerates those sinners throughout the history of the world. We need to know things like that. We need to know that he's triune. We know that the God of the Bible is a God of love. We need to know what that means. What does it mean to be a God of love? A God of holiness? A God of wrath? A God of justice? A God of truth? A God of wisdom? These are things and information that we ought to see to get into our mind which we trust will affect our hearts. We need to know these things. We have to increase in our knowledge of God. The apostles say, we want you to get to know God intimately, yes, but also we want you to be filled with the knowledge of His will. And where do you and I learn what God is like? In His will, in His word. You and I ought to study the scriptures in such a way, in such a way that our knowledge of God, our understanding of what God is like is constantly being affected and molded and directed and moved and if you will, molded. by the scriptures. You know what happens sometimes? Sometimes I fear that Christians, and they could be Christians for many years, bring into the Christian life from their unconverted days or from the other church that they may have come from, which their conception of God was not really biblically accurate, they bring that into the Christian life And their conception of God is exactly that way. So everything that they hear the preacher say about God, they put it through this filtering system. No, no, no. That's not the God I know. That's not the information I got about the God that I believe in the Bible. And we've got to make sure. We've got to really make sure that our concepts of the deity, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are accurate. It's based upon His Word, an understanding of His Word. You know, it would not be really bad for us to become serious Bible students in the sense that I want to do a study of what God is like. You know what theology is? The study of God. We study what God is like. What is He like? What is He? He's holy, He's just, He's righteous in all of His ways. And you see, my point is you and I We spend so much time increasing in our knowledge of computer skills. We spend so much time increasing in our knowledge of the stock market. So much time increasing in the skills that will help us to get ahead on our job. So much time in learning skills to acquire this job or to acquire this degree or to accomplish this task and they're not necessarily wrong. There's nothing really wrong with those things but the point is Where, where do we take some real genuine time to say, I really want to learn more about God. I want to know Him intimately. And the way I get to know Him intimately, I've got to have accurate information about Him. I need to know what He's like. I need to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the Bible says He's 100% God. And yet He's 100% man. And yet there's two distinct natures and they never mix up. It's one person, but two natures. How could that be? Well, study the scriptures and find out if that's really his life. And then the Holy Spirit. Is he a force? Or is he a person? Or is he God? What does he do? Well, He dwells believers. How does He guide us? He guides us through the scriptures. What's the principal job of the Holy Spirit, if I could put it that way? He always brings attention to the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says, He shall testify of me, He'll take what is mine, He'll declare unto you. So therefore, therefore, you see how this would be practical? You go into a church, down the block, somebody invites you over. And the whole sermon, and almost the whole service is dwelling on the Holy Spirit, dwelling on the Holy Spirit, dwelling on the Holy Spirit. Now you're going to come away from that place, you're going to say, there's something wrong there. You know what's wrong? That's not what the Holy Spirit does. You know what the Holy Spirit does? He shines the attention on the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't bring attention to himself, though he's God and deserves worship and praise. He dwells in us, we're not to grieve him, that's all true. But the attention of the Holy Spirit or the desire and ministry of the Holy Spirit is to put the attention upon the Lord Jesus Christ. If we had that information from the Scriptures, we would see that the person of the Holy Spirit is only shining the light on the Lord Jesus that he's man and he's God, he's prophet, he's priest, he's king, the worthiness of the person of Jesus Christ. Right away you would say, I'm not going back to that place. Even though they claim to be Christians, even though they're saying they're worshiping God, maybe to some degree they are, maybe they're not. All I know there's something wrong there. What's wrong? The constant attention throughout the whole service is on the Holy Spirit and his gifts. By the way, you know that there's something wrong with that. If you don't have that knowledge from the Bible, you're going to be fooled. And Paul says, I want you to increase in your knowledge of God. Excuse me. I know this is not a glass, but you understand. My dear brother, when I'm asking what the apostle Paul is saying to us, we're praying for you. He was praying for the Colossians. And in a sense, it's the kind of prayer that Paul would pray for every Christian. Yes, absolutely. He's praying for every Christian that way. We're praying that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will. And the knowledge of God's Word, the knowledge of His will, and the knowledge of His will in regard to what God is like, doesn't come to us by osmosis. You know what you've got to do? And what I have to do? You've got to roll up your sleeves, You got to sit down at your desk, prayerfully, with an open Bible, steady God's Word. I mean steady. Just like, just like, now hear me now, just like, just like you were steady of treasure, a map that someone told you. And truthfully so. In the backyard, there's a tremendous a big chest of gold, rubies, and all kinds of sapphires. And all you got to do is study the map. I would bet you, we'd both be in the same boat. We'd be looking at that map with a magnifying glass. Honey, come to bed. No, no, two o'clock, three o'clock in the morning, we'd be studying that map. We want to find out where the treasure is. You see, we give intense attention to something which perishes. Where is the intense, brethren, the intense passion to know God and to know things about God. Every one of us should want to go to seminary. And you can go to seminary even if you're a woman. Study the Bible and study our confession of faith. That confession of faith is not the Bible. But that confession of faith, let me put it this way, our unofficial confession of faith is a valuable tool in understanding the Holy Scriptures. And so if you want to know the scriptures and learn about God, take the confession, read the statements and then find every verse that's given for that statement, and you'll be amazed. You won't find perfection, but you'll find close to it, maybe about 95%. You'll say, wow, I never knew this about God. God's like that? Yes. And if you're a true child of God, and I trust you are, as you learn those things about God, you'll be attracted to Him. Oh, I love him for being the way he is. I'm so glad God is omnipotent. I'm so glad God is omniscient. I'm so glad God is omnipresent. That is, he's everywhere. He knows all and has all power. I'm so glad that God is so wise. I'm so glad that God is so holy. I'm so glad that he's so loving. And I'm so glad, hear me now, that he's a wrathful God. In what sense? Because nobody gets away with anything with God. And we can rejoice in that. Yes, there's a sense in which we can rejoice. Nobody pulls the wool over with God. Nobody gets away with anything. That's why you never have to get revenge with anybody. Leave it to the justice of God. God catches up to people, even though they're unjust to you. Nobody gets away with anything. And when you find out about that God that God says, vengeance is mine, say it to the Lord, I will repay. When you find out that characteristic in God, Oh, thank you God. I don't have to take matters into my own hands. You see what my point is? The more you know about God, the more you're attracted to Him, the more the wrong concepts of God are moved out of your skull, if you will. The excess baggage of ignorance and incorrect use of the God of the Bible. We've got to get rid of that. And Paul says, that's why we pray for you. We want you to increase in the knowledge of God. And the more you increase in the knowledge of God, hear me, Paul is saying, you'll be manifesting that you're living a life worthy of the Lord. That's what he's saying. Because those are the three ways that you manifest living a life worthy of the Lord. Fully pleasing Him, fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. My dear brethren, and we have to stop in a minute here. My dear brethren, do you yearn, do you long to increase in the knowledge of God? I know it's hard brethren, I feel it myself. but they learn, they yearn, they long for the knowledge of God. And again, I want to go back to the full, that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will. By the way, there's another clear application of it. When we make decisions in everyday living, those decisions are based upon what? an accurate assessment or the lack thereof of the knowledge of the word of God, right? Yes? If you understand the Bible and I mean really have a working knowledge of the Bible what we mean by that is you know your way around the Bible so well that you know the principles of the word of God in reference to his will and you're able to know it so well so that when you've got to make decisions Your decisions are based upon the scriptures. You and I are constantly having to make decisions, day in and day out. Economic decisions, moral decisions, family decisions, all kinds of decisions. I have a question for you. How do you know your decisions are pleasing to the Lord? There's only one way we can know. if you're so filled with the full knowledge of his will and you can actually go to the verses and say, oh here's what God told me, without a voice, he speaks to you in the scripture. He told me this in 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Okay, I remember now that Paul is talking to certain people, and certain people are saying you're not an apostle anymore, and in the context, here's what Paul has been dealing with, and I get the flow of thought, and that applies to me in my situation. We've got to learn how to study the Bible and from the Bible be filled with the knowledge of His will with prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit. And may I give a word in reference to us as a congregation? There is no way any church will have a reach and a certain amount of spiritual unity or like-mindedness in our minds in reference to the truth of God unless all of us, all of us, are prayerfully studying the scriptures, prayerfully reading the scriptures, prayerfully increasing in our knowledge of the scriptures and in his will. Because if you have only some in the congregation who are in the scriptures and others who are in the scriptures only in a superficial way, There's not going to be much unity. Is there? Because those people who have very little knowledge of the Bible, superficial, they're going to make choices based upon a superficial knowledge of the Bible. And will that be, will they be wise decisions? No. It's the people who understand the scriptures prayerfully and have taken a lot of time to really study their Bible. Just like we study computer technology and we study economics and we study whatever we study in college. Because it's for our career. We pour over the test with great intensity. We get the late night cup of coffee because we want to cram. We've got to pass the test. Why don't we want to pass the test in God's Word in reference to how we apply the scriptures in our everyday living? Well, as I bring the message to a close, I want to say to us as Christians, I as your unofficial oversight pastor, I pray for you and I pray that God would fill you with the knowledge of His will. I pray recently, not as much as I should have been, but before that much more consistently and regularly, that God would watch over you as a congregation, that God would bless you, that God would fill you with the knowledge of His will, that God would help you to hate sin and love the Lord Jesus Christ, that God would give you such a passion to know the Lord Jesus Christ, that you may be the kind of person who's constantly increasing in the knowledge of God intimately and factually and filled with the full knowledge of his will. That is the way Paul prayed for the Colossian Christians. That is, I hope, the way I want to pray for you, brethren, and the way we ought to pray for one another, that God would enable us to be the kind of people that he would fill us with the knowledge of his will and then we would increase in the knowledge of God. Now if you're not a Christian, see one of the things that when a person is not a Christian, we're not really filled with the knowledge of his will. You know what we're filled with? Some people are filled with the knowledge of who's going to win the World Series. I like the World Series. I'm looking forward to the World Series. But my life is not filled with the knowledge of the World Series. My life is filled with the knowledge of Christ and His Word. At least that's what I want. Some people, they have their knowledge, their lives filled with the knowledge of going to college, and they want to make sure they get the best grades. Straight A student, this way when the employee comes around and says, we're going to hire, oh, straight A, we're going to get him and her, oh, we're going to hire you. And then some people spend so much time filling their life with the knowledge of this and the knowledge of that, and you know who gets crowded out? God, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is pushed to the side. We're so filled. We take so much time to fill our minds with some of the ladies, with good housekeeping magazines, with the latest diets and with the latest foods and herbs, which are not necessarily wrong. But do you fill your life with that? Is that what consumes your mind? Is that what you spend all your time doing? herbs and vitamins and food and clothing and interior decorating and shopping. The word of God acknowledges those things are appropriate in their proper place. But where is that filling? in our lives with the Lord Jesus Christ, with God, and with a passion to know his will. See, that's why we need to be converted. Because when we're not converted, everything else fills our lives except Christ. But when you are converted, your life is filled with a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, I'm a sinner. Jesus is my hope of heaven. I'm trusting him. and he sends his Holy Spirit into you, and he lives in you. You become a temple of the Holy Spirit. And in that sense, you're already filled with the Spirit. And then God tells you, keep getting filled, because there's so much of me, there's so much of me to know, and there's so much that I can satisfy you. To become a Christian means to get rid of everything else that fills your life, fills your mind. Acknowledge your sin to God and say, God, I've been putting other things in my mind and in my life other than you, Lord. That's sin, by the way. That's having another God. And you say, God, I bow down in repentance and I confess my sin for putting something other in my life. And you should be there, number one. Lord, fill me with yourself. Forgive me my sins because Jesus Christ died. And the Lord Jesus Christ will answer that prayer if that prayer is truly from the heart. Our Father, we thank you for your word tonight. We ask you that you will not allow it to fall to the ground and not accomplish anything, but, O Lord, we pray that your word will not return unto you void. We pray for those of us who, by your grace, have good hearts, hearts that have been renewed by the Holy Spirit, that that word would germinate and bring forth more fruit, 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. O, our Father, we pray that we would never be satisfied with our present understanding and our knowledge of God and his word. We pray that the prayers of the Lord Jesus himself, who prays for us, that we might grow in grace, who prays for us, that we might be kept from sin, those prayers will be answered, our Father. We pray that you make us the kind of people who so thirst and yearn and long to know the Lord Jesus Christ, to know Him factually and intimately, to know His will, so that we can make wise choices in our everyday lives. Choices that are worthy of the Master that we serve. Hear our prayer on our behalf, for the sake of your son, and we pray for anyone who is not converted, under somewhat unusual circumstances, O Father, manifest Your sovereign power. Your word says that the Spirit blows, the wind blows where it wishes, and you do not know the sound thereof. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Lord, could it be under these unusual circumstances that you will blow upon someone's heart tonight by your Holy Spirit and bring them to repentance and faith? Oh, this is our prayer, our Father. Hear us and dismiss us with your blessing. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.