and turn with me to the book of Colossians, as I've been speaking over the last few weeks before vacation about. We're going to go to the book of Colossians and work our way through it. Today is going to be more an introduction, so the title to the message primarily is an introduction to Colossians, and I know that that is a really lofty title to give to this sermon. which as we dive in towards the end of the morning into verses one and two, the title there will be Faithful Saints. I'm just going to read verses one and two. And by the way, welcome to Grace Life Church. It's good to see all of your smiley faces. I know you're eager and anticipating the word of the Lord this morning. And so I'm thankful for that. And it is so good to be back in the pulpit. I'm so thankful for the four weeks rest. I'm so thankful at my age and I need that rest to reinvigorate for the next 11 months of laboring to be prepared for it and to be spiritually equipped for it. And so thank you for allowing that to take place. Let's start in verse 1. This is the Word of God, inspired by God, authoritative and sufficient. There's no lack in the Word of God. It is everything that God wants us to know about his persons and his salvation and his son. 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 at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. Let's go to the Lord and ask his blessing on this morning. Lord, we come to you because we're needy, we're beggars for the crumbs that fall from the master's table. So Lord, feed us the manna of the inspired word today. And as we're doing this introduction to the book of Colossians, Lord, help us to grasp the theme and the context so that we'll understand the verses more adequately and thoroughly as we delve into them in the weeks that are yet to come. We do ask for the presence and help of the Holy Spirit of the living God, the revealer of truth, to illumine the truth in our minds and in our hearts that we may know and do the will of our God. So, Lord, work in us today. Lord, we don't want to just have a big swollen theological head. Lord, may this truth go down into shoe leather. May we walk it out to the glory of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. We pray for those that are not with us this morning that you'd be with them and bring them back. We pray for those that are suffering that you would grant them grace and strength and reprieve those that are sick with ailments that you would cause them to recover. With those that are going through the tempest of trial that you'd grant them strength to endure to the end. And Lord, those, Lord God, that are apathetic, that you'd provoke them to godliness today. Work in us both the will and the work of your good pleasure. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, our Savior. And the church said, well, so whenever we come to a book, a new book like the book of Colossians, it's always a big temptation for me as a preacher to jump over the introduction and to go straight into the text because simply, I love the text. I love the word of God. And preaching the text is, as you probably can tell, one of the great joys in my life. I love the word of God. So whenever we come to a new book like we are today, the book of Colossians, I wrestle with whether or not it's valuable to exposition to include an introduction and to unveil the context into which this letter has been written. I always have to answer these questions in my own head. Does anyone even care who wrote this? I always have to face the reality, what benefit is there for the people of God to know the time, the date, and the where from which the letter was written? I have to answer questions like, is it helpful even to know the facts about the city, the facts about the Church of Colossae, or the letter that Paul wrote to them 2,000 years ago? Some of y'all were not even alive when this was written. And questions like this, are the central theme, is the troubles that was facing the church at Colossae important to the modern church? Or would there be any exegetical trauma if I just ignored these underlying realities and just began to plow headlong into the text itself? The answer is unquestionably yes. Yes, there would be exegetical trauma if I would forego an introduction. This letter that Paul has written to Colossae has a purpose. It was written to a particular people in a local church. They faced certain issues. They faced serious issues. The author has apostolic authority so in a real way it is pinned with the seal of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It has a key theme. All letters have themes. The letters that you write have themes. All letters have authors. All letters have recipients. All letters include at some level backgrounds and context. So if you would go and remove these, what I call necessaries, the interpretation of the letter then therefore becomes subject to whatever you want to read into it. We need thorough introductions to books of the Bible because our goal is clarity, our goal is understanding, and we need clarity and understanding if we are to give proper obedience to God. Amen. So it would be, in fact, detrimental for Grace Life Church to forego the facts, the historicity, the authorship, the theme, the context that characterize the letter that Paul wrote to the believers in Colossae. Because rightful application follows rightful interpretation, and interpretation being rightly divided, if we're to get it right with our interpretation, it is best made within the boundaries of context, Purpose and theme. And without a proper background analysis of the book of Colossians, our interpretation of the book, at best, becomes a shotgun blast instead of a sniper-accurate rifle shot. My goal is sniper-accurate placement with the interpretation of this book. And I wanna rightly divide the word of truth as it says in 2 Timothy 2 verse 15. So the background of this letter is indeed the lens through which the letter itself will be rightly interpreted and understood. And again, without it, we're shooting at a target with an inaccurate shotgun blast instead of an accurate sniper well-placed shot. We want to know what the book means. First of all, let's ask of the text, who is the author of Colossians? Well, look in verse one, it says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, and we know that he was one of Paul's associates, our brother. You know, in all of my years of study, both day in and day out, I cannot remember preparing to preach a book without reading scholarly rebuttals against the historic claims of the authorship by some liberal higher critic. I read myriads of reasons from these guys, though the reasons that the books cannot be written by the people that the Bible says that they're written by. I read some of the critical arguments against the Pauline authorship of the book of Colossians and I will just quite frankly tell you it is exhausting and it is absolutely unprofitable and frankly worthless and ridiculous. Amazing to me that none of these critics surfaced until the 19th century. So for 1800 years of church history, Christian scholarship and theologians have been in unanimous agreement to the Pauline authorship of the letter written to the Colossian church. And by the way, I'll just tell you where I'm at on it. If there was a consensus, an overwhelming consensus of agreement among scholastic theologians against the appalling authorship of the book of Colossians, I wouldn't be moved. Here's why. I believe in the sovereignty of God over history. I believe and trust in the sovereignty of God over the preservation of His inerrant Word." Listen, if God can thwart the plans of man, if God can frustrate them, why would I think that some man could dismantle God's inspired Word? Listen, if God is not able to thwart the plot of man in attempts to alter His truth, can I trust God on anything He says? So whenever I come to the book of Colossians and I read in the very first word, 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 at Colossae, I believe it. I believe that God's preserved it. I believe that God is not as the deists believe. He's sitting up there with his foot up on the moon, not really worried about the affairs of man, that he kind of spun the earth and got it into motion 6,000 years ago, and then he's kind of sitting up there picking his teeth with nothing to do. I don't believe that at all. I believe the Bible clearly presents a God that interacts with time and space and the creature and the creation that He has made, and that God is sovereign over the events of the heavens and the earth, and over men, over destinies, over kings that sit upon thrones. He puts them on the throne, He takes them off the throne, and if God is able to do that, He can preserve the integrity of His inerrant Word. I believe that it says here, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, because the Holy Spirit of God put it there, and there's not a man able to remove it. Grace Life Church, by the way, is a church that believes in a big God. We believe in a sovereign God. We believe in a God with all power and might. If He can preserve me to the end, can't He preserve this to the end? Unquestionably, yes. Unquestionably, yes. So I believe that God has indeed preserved miraculously and powerfully the purity of His Word. Now, people raise all kinds of fuss and questions, but listen, if there's any discrepancy, it's within the mind of fallen, wicked men and not with God's Word. Saints have been saved by the preaching of the gospel of Christ, preserved at the end for eons. and God's not about to abandon his people nor his word, that every jot and tittle of the scripture has been divinely kept and preserved in a pristine, pure way by God our Father, and that Paul is the author of this book because God says he is, and that puts an end to the questioning. Let the higher critics banter all they want to. I'm about to the point I could read another one of them. It just wears me out, it frustrates me. I can't figure out what's wrong with these guys. I just can't. Now let's talk about the date and place of the writing. There are two schools of thought on the place from which this letter is written. I have a strong opinion. And the reason I even bring this up, because the place from which it was written, the date upon which it was written, are coinciding one with another. So the first and the most common thought is that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter from a Roman prison from the year 60 AD to the year 62 AD. The Colossians is one of those what's been known as the prison epistles. The prison epistles are Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians, and Philemon. And also, by the way, Pastor Jason did a great job preaching the book of Philemon. I'm so thankful to listen to every sermon, every word he preached while I was on vacation, amening from afar. But there is a close connection between the book of Colossians and the book of Philemon. There is a sense by which there is a cross-pollination between the two letters and the key figures of those letters. Also, with regard to, we're talking about where the letter was written from, I believe this letter was written during Paul's imprisonment in Rome. I believe that Rome was a stronghold for runaway slaves and Onesimus would have more likely fled to Rome, which was a thousand miles away from Colossae. And it would have been easier for this runaway slave to blend in to a larger crowd. Rome was the Mecca of all power during this time when this letter was written. But I believe that Paul wrote this letter from prison in Rome from the year 60 to the year 62 AD. Now that was the first school of thought. The second one is this, that Paul wrote this letter from a prison in Ephesus. There is some scholarly support for that, but it is minor. But I don't believe that there is one whit of biblical support for this being written from a prison in Ephesus. In fact, the book of Acts is silent about that kind of event. You can flip over to the 19th chapter of Acts, where Paul there is describing his ministry and his labor at Ephesus. You know, Paul was there for a stance of three years, and there's not one hint of mention from the Apostle Paul that he was ever imprisoned in Ephesus. I believe that the letter is clearly written by the Apostle Paul from an imprisonment in Rome. from 60 to 62 AD. Now let's talk about the city of Colossae and some of the facts about it. It was one of the vibrant cities there. There were three of them that were kind of in close proximity one to another in the region of Phrygia in the Roman province of Asia. The country of Turkey now is the location where this was then. The three cities were Colossae and Hiopolis and Laodicea. And each of these were very vibrant, busy cities that were in the Lycus Valley about a hundred miles to the east of Ephesus. The population of Colossae was mainly Gentile with a large community of Jewish people. The cultural religion of Colossae was paganism. That was the cultural religion, kind of like the cultural religion America is laxadaisical Christianity. It has all the terms of Christian jargon without any of the footwork and heartfelt love for Christ. You know, in America, that there is a forum with a courage to godliness, but it's void of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, it wasn't like that in Colossae because they were a pagan culture, a religious pagan culture, but there were around 7,500, and this is according to Josephus, Jewish people in this same region And so there became a blend or a syncretism of Judaism that was melted together with paganism, and that became a vogue religion in that culture, and it began to seep into the church, and that's one of the reasons the apostle Paul is writing, and we'll get to that more in just a moment. So that kind of helps us understand the heresy that was so strong in that area. Also too, by the way, that by the time Paul wrote the letter to Colossae, the city of Colossae was in decline. Laodicea and Hierapolis was still abounding and they were thriving and that they were mega trade routes and were hustle bustle communities. But Colossae sat right in a very geothermal area and it had horrible earthquakes. In fact, the matter is, historically, that there was a major earthquake that took place, and the city of Colossae was absolutely destroyed, never to be rebuilt. And there is some archaeological work that has been going on, and they think they have been discovering where the city actually sat. But the city came to nothing. And by the time Paul's writing the letter to Colossae, the city itself was in rapid decline. And I'm talking about in its commerce and in its financial situation and in its population. But there was a church there, and the church itself probably was beginning to dwindle numerically and financially because the financial climate and the situation of the city itself was in rapid decline. So the city itself was one of three cities in the Lycus Valley, about 100 miles on the other side of Ephesus. At one time, it was a powerful city. At one time, it was a major trade route. There was a church that was planted there called the Church at Colossae, and let's talk about them. I found it funny what scholar William Barclay said about Colossae. He says, it is an unimportant city. His premise is that, as I mentioned already, that Laodicea and Hiapolis became cities of prominence, but all these cities were all closely related. They were all at one time very closely connected and really about even kill one with another with regard to commerce, with regard to population and wealth, on and on and on. But as I said, Colossae began to decline while these other two cities continued to succeed. Cambridge scholar J.B. Lightfoot called Colossae the most unimportant town to which Paul ever wrote a letter. It's the little dot on the map. It's the two-horse town. That's Colossae. And as I said, a city in decline would have meant that the church would have lost membership, people moving away because they didn't have a place to work, and that those that remained were under the threat of heresy that was beginning to seep into the church. Also an interesting figure, the Apostle Paul did not plant the church at Colossae. If you'll turn over to chapter 2, verse 1, it says that Paul says, I've never seen these people face to face. So after Paul's three-year stay in Ephesus, which was only 100 miles down the road, on his third missionary journey, the gospel, preaching, and effect, and power began to spread globally. In fact, in Acts 19.10, it says that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. So we see that these three churches in the valley of Lycus, Laodicea, Hippolysis, and Colossae were the effect of this move of God through the preaching ministry of the Apostle Paul as the gospel is taking root, the power of the Holy Spirit is moving, and churches are being established. And it's more than likely, and I believe it's clearly evident, that the church of Colossae was planted by the godly man, Epaphras, that is mentioned in verse 7, and in chapter 4, verse 12. In fact, Philemon mentions him in in his letter. In verse 23 of Philemon, Paul says, Epaphras is my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, a faithful laborer, a faithful warrior in the gospel cause and in the kingdom. Now here's something that I found intriguing. Paul wrote a letter to a little town church with a city that was in decline, that was facing the seeds of heresy, that Paul took time out of his busy ministry and wrote to encourage them to continue in the faith and to turn away from these heretical ideas that were creeping into the church. Paul understood the importance of a little church as it relates to the instrumentality of God's purposes and grace, Paul understood that Colossae by the will of God was to be a great light in a dark pagan world. Barclay wrote, the fact remains that in this town of Colossae there had arisen a heresy which if it had been allowed to develop unchecked might well have been the ruination of the Christian faith. This really struck me that there are no insignificant biblical churches. Epaphras, Paul, can't say enough good things about him. He's a faithful laborer. He's a brother in Christ. He's a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he's shepherding a small church that is financially struggling now and numerically inferior to the other churches and inferior to what it once was. But Paul understands that size and wealth have nothing to do with the importance of a church. A church's importance is premised upon fidelity to God, fidelity to the revealed truth God's given to us in Scripture. The Church of Colossae was the very possession of Christ that he shed his blood for, and despite their declining numerically and financially, Paul deemed the Church of Colossae worthy of his apostolic attention, and he wrote, Listen, this situation, it was so important to Paul and so important to the pastor who was a Paphras, he deemed it critical to travel, now listen, this is before they had American Airlines, 1,000 miles on foot to report these circumstances to the Apostle Paul as he was imprisoned in Rome. Think about that. So the letter that we have in these chapters is Paul's response to Epaphras reporting the circumstance to the Apostle Paul. So what was the danger facing the church? This is another important question. Even though we find Epaphras, this faithful laborer in the vineyard of the Colossian church, heresy was beginning to seep in. A little leaven does what? It leavens the whole lump, it says in Galatians 5.9. And now was the time to act. Dr. John MacArthur calls Colossians a preventative letter. The heresy was infantile in seed form. And although the letter itself does not name the particular genre or brand of heresy, it appears from what Paul wrote to be a syncretism or a blend of elements of paganism and Judaism. As I mentioned in my introduction, paganism was the religion of culture. It was in vogue. Pagan gods such as, I find this interesting, Isis. Or have you heard that before? Isis was a pagan god that was part of this pagan worship system. Not only Isis, but Serapis, Helios, Demeter, and Artemis. These were all popular pagan gods in that cultural society. And by the way, the pull of culture is always strong, isn't it? It is. The pull of culture is strong against me and you. And it was against these believers as well who were called upon by scripture to die daily and to stay steadfast with Christ even though the culture was beckoning them to come back and to return. To go back and to practice what was perverse. And Paul in this letter was warning them not to go back to their corrupt lifestyles. And the letter, by the way, will warn you and I not to go back to our perverse lifestyles, not go back to culture, not go back to the way that we once were and to practice what we once practiced. In fact, in chapter 1, verse 23, Paul says, talking about the gospel and the power of God that change hearts and lives and the glorious inheritance and wait for us, if you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you've heard. And then again, over in chapter two, verse six, therefore, as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, walk in him, continue in him. And then over in chapter three, the Apostle Paul says to these same Christians, set your minds on the things above and not on the things of this earth. The world, my friend, always tempts and taunts and compels us to come back underneath its control. And here we are exhorted by the Word of God, the Holy Spirit of God, to resist steadfastly in the faith. But there was more than just that facing the believers in this Church of Colossae, that the main thrust of Paul's letter is to counteract the influence of false doctrine. And as I've said, there are two main themes of error that Paul addresses, and it's the legalism that stems from Judaism, and then the futility of false philosophy. False philosophy. The beginnings of what is known now as Gnosticism were probably coming out of Greek philosophic thought and these false ideas was beginning to make their way into the membership of the church. There's nothing really changed. We, to this day, at Grace Life Power, we always are battling against the nuances of culture that rob us of inheritance and rob Christ of his glory. We're constantly preaching about faithfulness in the Lord's church and staying, standing steadfast in the faith, being unmoved away from the hope of the gospel because there is a vacuum out there sucking and pulling, trying to lure us away, and Satan's behind all of it. Sometime he disguises himself as an angel of light. He looks so good in the beginning. But here, as I mentioned, that the proto or the seed form of Gnosticism seems to be in view here, at least at some level, because the Apostle Paul seems to make a very strong statement to the corporal or the physical nature of Christ's humanity. You see, because Gnosticism and all the premature additions of Gnosticism correlated all created physical matter as something evil. Gnosticism would develop into the absolute forthright denial of the fleshly humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ because of this faulty belief system that everything that God made, all the physical realm, is intrinsically evil. So the physical and material properties of Christ were rejected and Paul seems to fervently and dogmatically and with apostolic thunder began to preach upon the humanity of Christ like we see in verse 22. You can look at it with me. He has now reconciled you in his fleshly body. Why would he say it that way? He reconciled you in his fleshly body, substance, touchable, you can handle him. through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach." Flip the page to chapter 2, verse 9. Paul says, for in him, he's talking about Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And Paul here seems to be reaffirming the hypostatic union that he is fully God and fully man, that he is indeed God and he is indeed man, that he is indeed flesh and blood, but yet without sin, you see. And you might make a mental note of this, my friend, that every heretical sect attacks the doctrine of Christ. the Gnostics denying the humanity of Christ, the Arians, the modern day Jehovah Witnesses denying the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But a denial of either cuts the heart out of the Christian faith. It's that important. You know, and at the end of the day, all of this attacks the sufficiency of Christ. And you see that, and Paul responds with apostolic thunder throughout the book, affirming the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. You know, the Gnostics were seeking wisdom, and they'd had this special knowledge. They had, and Paul talks about it here, even having visions, and angel worship, and having these experiences that were, well, Gnostic. We would call it charismatic. But he says that in Christ, in chapter 2, verse 3, that all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Not a Gnostic experience, but if you want wisdom and knowledge, it's found in the person of Jesus Christ. And then in verse nine it says, for in Christ all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And then in chapter two, verse 10, and in him you have been made complete. You don't need all this. You don't need angel worship. You don't need higher knowledge. You don't need mystical experiences. You are made complete in Christ and he is the head over all rule and authority. But this agnostic nonsense and perverse Christology were not everything that the Colossian believers was facing because there was a large faction of Jewish believers that were being threatened with legalism. Make a mental note of this, that Satan has a skillful plan of attack for every member in the church. If he can't get you with Gnosticism, he'll get you with legalism. One of his premier tactics, meaning the devil, is to undermine the grace of God and to divert God's people into a works-based salvation. That whenever man's doing and man's accomplishing and man's striving is necessary for salvation, it's legalism. It's legalism. There were some at the Church of Colossae that were infiltrating that were saying that you've got to be circumcised to be saved. It's a Jesus plus theology. Yeah, Jesus saves, but you still have to be circumcised to be saved. But what is that? It's an undermining of the sufficiency of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, and it makes salvation dependent upon what we do instead of what Christ has done. You see? Listen to verse 11 of chapter two. You can look at it yourself, flip the page. And in him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands and the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Turn the page to chapter three, verse 11. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free man, but Christ is all and end. There was another emphasis within this Jewish order by which dietary laws and the observing of certain holy days, sabbaths, new moons, festivals, you had to do and observe these if you're going to become a Christian. Jewish works-based salvation. And then look at chapter 2, verse 16 and 17, just right there in front of us. Look at this. Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Listen, you're doing all this thinking that in doing them, which are the shadow, that you got salvation, but salvation isn't by observation of days and new moons and festivals and Sabbaths, it's by Christ and Christ alone, you see. And by the way, if that weren't enough, this is just a hodgepodge of heretical Nonsense. The church was facing all kinds of devils were coming out from every stone. They were battling also the error of asceticism. Well, pastor, that sounds pretty fancy. What's asceticism? Well, it's simple. It's a falsehood that pursues self-abasement as a means of spirituality. Meaning you're only spiritual if you can fast to near starvation. You're only spiritual if you never have any enjoyment in life. If you have a monastic view of reality, that's asceticism. You can only be spiritual if you deny all forms of pleasure, right? Paul addresses it in verse 18 of chapter two. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement. and the worship of angels and taking his stand on visions which he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind." It's very clear that the heresies were many and the heresies detrimental We see here that there were challenges and it was creeping into the church and seed form of angel worship, the seeing of visions, there's an idea of spiritual elitism that God only blesses us for and no more, and then all of these other sorts of heresy. And Grace Life Church, note this, heresy is not benign, it is the cancer of the Christian faith. We're to be dogmatic upon God revealed truth. were not to be given over to these lies. And I said this already, but if it was important enough for Epaphras, the pastor of this church, to travel over a thousand miles to solicit the help of the Apostle Paul, who was imprisoned in Rome, it's critical. This is a red light flashing and a loud siren sounding. And Paul finds it so critical he takes the time out of his busy imprisonment schedule to pen an apostolic letter and to send it to the Church of Colossae to be read and then obeyed. And we all know this as we've been through 2 Peter 2, that the warnings against those that purport false doctrine are everywhere in the Bible, and the most vivid curses, the most detrimental destructions under the wrath of God are in way for those who purport it, those that teach and preach it. The Bible in both Testaments, old and new, warn against false teaching. So let's progress to the theme of Colossians. Is everybody alive still? Heresy always gnaws at the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ, but apostolic truth heralds it, heralds the sufficiency of Christ. Apostolic truth proclaims the supremacy of Christ. So the dominant book of the Colossians is the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the answer for their errors. Whether it be Gnosticism, seeking wisdom, we find that Paul says Christ is the hidden treasure of wisdom and knowledge, or whether it's the arists who are worshiping angels, thinking that angels can help them attain salvation. Paul says in chapter two, verse 10, you're made complete in Christ and only in Christ. Those that were holding to rigid asceticism or the observance of Jewish holy days, he says they are the substance, or the shadow, but the substance belongs only to Christ. Do you see what he's doing? They're going that way, he's taking everybody back to the cross. He's taking everybody back to the empty tomb. They're going away from Christ in his sufficiency and supremacy, and the apostles is diverting them back to Christ. And that's the job of a preacher, isn't it? We sing that song, Show Us Christ. That should be your heart cry, and that should be my full-time occupation. You should be crying as you come in here, show me Christ, and I should be preaching. Christ is all and in all, chapter three, verse 11. The purpose of the book is given in chapter one, verse 18, when Paul says that Jesus Christ would come to have first place in everything, that he would have preeminence. Colossians is a book of high Christology. The apostle Paul, reveals Christ and then reveals it with a megaphone. He throws it open and shows Christ in all of his glory and supremacy. This is a very rich book of Christ. There is high doctrine that is here. There is high robust Christology. Listen to me, the answer to bad doctrine and falsehood is truth. The truth of Christ. The truth about Jesus Christ, Christ exalted, Christ supreme. That's what it takes to dispel heresy. A heresy that would diminish the glories of Christ. We preach Christ. Christ is all and in all. My prayer as we go into the book is that our view of Christ will be pushed to new limits in its heightened breadth. Let's look at verses one and two. That is the sum and the substance of my weak endeavor to give an introduction. The verse here, one and two, says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers, brethren in Christ, who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God, our Father. This is basically, as we come to the introduction, and verses one and two is nothing more than that, it's a salutation. But note this, note the Pauling ring to it. If you've been a student of scripture, if you've read Paul's salutations and other letters that he has written, it sounds identical, doesn't it? I mean, it just blows my mind that these higher critics can find other authors other than Paul for the book of Colossians. Whenever you read it, Paul jumps off the pages and punches you in the nose. It's so clear you'd have to be a blind man not to see that Paul wrote this, even in the introduction of it. But I want you to note that in this short two verses that there is precious truth that is deserving of much attention that Paul here is writing to a family of faith that he loves. He respects them. It says in chapter two, verse one, he's never visited them face to face, although he's been a hundred miles down the road, but he knows them. He knows all about them. Epaphras has brought him up to speed about the congregation. Paul literally, in verse 3, tells us he's been wrestling with God on his knees in prayer for them. He's intimately familiar with each of them. And to be sure, the man of God has kept the apostle in the loop about the progress of the saints of God. We find that in verse 8. We also see in verse 6 that the church here, Colossae, was a fruitful body. They were under the leadership of a godly man by the name of Epaphras. And Paul loved and respected this man of God. It's very evident in Scripture the kind of relationship they have. You see that in verse 7 of chapter 1, verse 12 of chapter 4, and then over in Philemon 23. There's also a truth here that needs to be thought about deeply and longingly, that godly congregations are the result of godly leaders. Godly saints are led by godly shepherds. Can you say amen? And Epaphras is this kind of a godly leader. And I want you to know, this is a link that's irrevocable. You'll never find a healthy church without a healthy pastor. They go hand in hand. Sure, it's a work of God's grace, but listen, God in His wisdom and God in His purpose and grace has chosen to use godly men in the cultivation of healthy churches. And that there is indeed some semblance of correlation between the leadership of Epaphras and the character of this man of God and the church's vibrancy in Christ that cannot be ignored. Paul tells us, first of all here, that the saints of Colossae were faithful to Christ. You see it in verses one and two. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, who to? To the saints, agios, and the faithful brethren, adelphos, in Christ, who are at Colossae. Faithful brothers, saints. You might mark this down in the first Roman numeral one, that saints are those who are faithful to Christ. Here we see that these are saints, Haggios, as I mentioned. It refers to the holy ones in the NIV, the holy people of God. This term holy is a term that refers primarily to the nature of God, describing the transcendent, distinctive, unique, majestic, perfect, pure nature of our holy God, but here in the sense he's addressing this church, it describes those, it's really not in this context describing a morality issue, but a work of God that set them apart for service. Not to be sure they're not to live like devils, that's not even in question here. But the term itself primarily means that they've been set apart by God to the service of God and to be consecrated to God. And Paul here unflinchingly calls them saints. What is it that comes to mind whenever you think in terms of saying, I listened to a Steve Lawson sermon on this text this last week, just kind of getting impregnated into my bones. And he said, this is not talking about the names of people you name hospitals after. It's talking about you. People that have been set apart by God. Those that are consecrated to the service of God, and here Paul calls these saints faithful brothers, adelphos, in Christ. This word faithful comes from a very familiar Greek term, pistos. It literally has the idea of someone who is trustworthy and faithful. It can have the idea of trusting or believing, but the context here has the idea of someone who is trustworthy and faithful. Now listen. It shows to us that those who belong to God are those who are committed to the person of Jesus Christ and his revealed will. These are those that the gospel has changed their hearts. Look at verse five. You heard the word of truth, the gospel. These are a people that used to be self-centered, but now their identity has become Christ-centered. They are not who they used to be. And by the way, Paul's going to go on to further develop this in verse 13, where he tells the believers at Colossae they have been rescued by Christ from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of his beloved Son. Christ has acted upon you. Christ has performed a radical rescue mission when you were saved. It's literally speaking of deliverance, but it's more than deliverance. It's a transfer into a new kingdom, that you're now a kingdom of heaven. You're now a citizen of another realm. You are now, although your feet are on earth in a fallen world, you belong to Christ and you're seated with him in heavenly places. This is very important. In verse 13, take a look at it with me. For he rescued us from the domain of darkness. And we're talking about how these people became saints. They're faithful. They weren't before. What happened? What was the change? He rescued them out of the domain of darkness. Underline that word transferred. He transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. Interesting term, metistomy. It literally means to cause a change of state. This is regeneration. we've been acted upon. These saints at Colossae are faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ because they've been changed at the root of who they are. They're faithful because Christ has claimed them as his own. This is a king liberating his people out of bondage. They are changed by the liberating power of God and the sufficiency of the grace of Jesus Christ. And by the way, the title saint is not distinctly Colossian, it's distinctly Christian. You see. That Jesus' brothers and sisters are characterized by faithfulness. The evidence that they are his, the evidence that they are in the faith is that they are committed to Christ, they're the possession of Christ, that they are the very reward of the labors of Christ and the suffering merits of Christ, and faithfulness is their return of love. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey me. John 14, 21. So here's my question. I know the hour is late, I know the clock is soon to strike noon, and I transform from a preacher back to a normal guy. Does this describe you? Can that be written about me and you? Are we faithful, brethren? Oh, we like these Colossians. Can the Holy Spirit, who discerns and knows the heart and will of man, can he say of us, faithful, brethren? saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae. Are we separated unto Christ? Listen, this is critical you get this. This is not a time to go get a drink. This is a time to listen to the Word. Are we joyfully bearing our cross? Are we joyfully following the Lord Jesus Christ? Because the Christian life is a union with the divine person, but more than that, it is communion with the divine person. that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, that I might genosko, that I might know, that I might have intimate knowledge of Christ and taste of that power in communion with Him. I've been raised to new life with Him. Dead to self, but alive unto Christ, Romans 6, 11. Crucified to Christ, but yet I live, Galatians 2, 20. Listen. A union together with Jesus Christ leaves no room for dual loyalties. It's a good spot for an amen or an oh me. Listen, he's the head of the union. He calls for no competing interests. He has supremacy over us. His will trumps ours, not our will, but his will be done. And by the way, his preeminence, his having first place in everything is not a title, it's a takeover. It's a takeover. It's an assertion of ownership. It's an assertion of divine rights. The saints are faithful because Christ has taken over. He has preeminence and he is the head of the body, verse 18, the church, so that he himself will come to have first place, preeminence of the King James, first place in everything. Are our lives ordered that way? Are we faithful saints? Is Christ's honor, is the glory of Christ at the forefront of our pursuits? What is it that has my passion? What is it that quenches my thirst? What is it that satisfies my hunger? Is it preeminent Christ? What is it that drains my moments, my hours, my weeks? Is it the rule and preeminence of Jesus Christ? I want you to know the church at Colossae was ginormous in the eyes of Christ. They were his faithful saints. They were very significant in the eyes of Christ, insomuch he put the apostle to put his pen to paper to write to them, to instruct them, to encourage them, to equip them. He loves his church. And by the way, their faithfulness has been penned and preserved for millennia. What about ours? Will Grace Life Church be the kind of church that we remember when our grandkids are alive in the church? We're the kind of saints that we are. Now listen, in many, many ways, we've never done this before, right? We're all together in the narrow way trying to become a healthy church. Will our fidelity to the scripture, our faithfulness to Christ, will this characterize us as we go forward so that we will be remembered when our great-grandchildren are here at Grace Life Church that I was told a story about my great-uncle, Seth who was here, or my great uncle Ishmael who was here, or Mike Kenyon, or Mark Fox, or put your name in there, or Vernon Barnes, that they were working and co-laboring with this pastor, I forget his name, but he was a pastor there, and they were co-laboring, and that they laid the foundation for the glories of Christ that we're experiencing today. In our elders meetings, we talk about these things, that's what we're striving after. Not that we can become something so that Christ will have preeminence in all things. Does that characterize you? Faithful in Christ. The second truth is, and this is my shorter one, I'll let you go soon. Saints are faithful to the church. It says, faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae. There's something that is reverberating here about the deep commitment of these godly people to the local church. And by the way, this is a letter that was directed to a local church under the authority of a God-called pastor. And to me, it's very glorious that Paul unites faithful brothers and the local church at Colossae. Now buckle up for a moment. And listen, they're faithful to Christ the head as they are connected to the hands and feet of Christ on earth, which is the church. Paul here mentions his prayer of thanksgiving to them. By the way, saints and all these pronouns are all plural. These are the members of the Church of Colossae. These are individuals that are faithful in the context of a church, in the context of a whole. This is not talking about the citizens of Colossae. This is not talking about those outside this sphere of the church. This is talking about those, verse 13 tells us, that have been transferred into the kingdom of God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ. These are citizens in particular. Each one of these has been rescued. Each one of them have been regenerated. Each one of them has been added by the Lord to the church one by one. Uniquely gifted, uniquely graced by the Lord for the common good, 1 Corinthians 12, 7. And here I believe the text makes a very powerful, a descriptive, a poignant argument for faithfulness to Christ. Now hear me out. Faithfulness to Christ is manifest in the context of faithfulness to a local church. Faithful Adelphos, brothers in Christ at Colossae in the church. This is Christianity 101. They're in the church, they're in Christ, but they're in the church and they're faithful there. And no, they get that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her as we find in Ephesians 5, 25, that these are those who are in union with Christ and they have a shared interest with Christ. Christ loves his church and they love his church. They love the interest of the Redeemer. They're committed to the passions and purposes of the Redeemer. My friend and brother and sister in Jesus Christ, faithfulness to Jesus Christ cannot be separated from faithfulness to the Lord's church. It cannot. And this is what sets the tone for the whole letter. This is the magnifying glass through which we examine every word and phrase. Adelphos, faithful. Pistos, faithful saints. in Christ in the church at Colossae. This is not something that's sublime. This is not something that is vague. This is something that is very central to the scriptures, central to the word of God. And here's the question, can it be said of you and me that we are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ at Grace Life Church? Is that true of us? Because some here have lagged on membership. Some sparsely attend the services. Listen, there are some here that have rejected our midweek service as a pattern of life. Here we're talking about being faithful brothers in the church. And my friend, these are fearful blights upon faithful service. Listen to me, I'm summonsing us to faithfulness. I'm pleading for you to take your calling and election sure. Make it sure. It's my prayer that our epitaph would be to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Grace Life Church. Martyr missionary Jim Elliott once said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Let me ask you, what is it that's won your loyalty? What is it that has beckoned your commitments? What is it that has quenched your thirst, satisfied your hunger? Is it your hobbies? Is it your homesteads? Your riches? your entertainment, your prominence, your sleep, your lethargy, your selfishness, 1 John 2, 17, that the world is passing away, also its lust, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. God's word is inerrant. It cannot lie. And let's not make investments that fail. in the grand scheme of things. I call you to faithfulness. I call you to faithfulness in the church. I call you to faithfulness at Grace Life Church. I call you to give it up that you might inherit all. I call you to lay all down that you may win Christ. I call you to live as a walking corpse, a walking dead man, that you can be alive in Christ. Paul begins this salutation with a call and a praise for their faithfulness, a call to our faithfulness in Christ in the church. There's a lot to be said about faithfulness to our small group ministry, by the way, which is thoroughly biblical. I'm wearing out with some of these fringe ideas surfacing in the reform camp that it's the axis of all evil to be in a small group. Listen, put that to the grave, that's from the enemy. Give me a verse. Well, you're trying to separate my family. Listen, you send your kids everywhere. You send them to the neighbor that doesn't even know Christ, you send them to family members, you're not with them, but we wanna come to church and to bring them, to teach them the gospel, the word of God by equipped teachers. Like, no, you're trying to separate my family. No, we're not. We're trying to teach them the word of God. And some of these things need to be said. You may want me to go on vacation again. But it's the truth, isn't it? There are two things I wanted to drill at the end of this message. And I hope you weren't bored with the details of the introduction. But the praise in them because they're faithful saints in Christ. And they're at a local church being faithful. This is Christianity. And if you want something other than that, you don't want Christianity. Because that's Christianity. Serving Christ faithfully in the context of a church. Amen. May the Lord be honored, praised, and glorified by his saints. Lord, would you take these feeble words and rantings and stir our hearts and souls afresh with them? that you would receive the reward of your suffering, a faithful, fervent church. Lord, work in our hearts, work in this church. Lord, let your glorious, precious presence be among us and with us. Let your truth lead and guide us, your Holy Spirit empower us, save our lost friends and our lost children and grandchildren, be honored and glorified in their salvation. Lord, bless us, Lord, as we go. Strengthen us and keep your glories and kingdom at the forefront of our minds. May we be faithful in the workplace this week to proclaim Christ, to be examples to others, to teach and train our children in the ways of God. And Lord, may Christ be all in all. May he have preeminence in everything, including our lives. And we ask all this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the church said, amen. Let's all stand.