Admonition Podcast

Good morning.

Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Colossians.

We'll be spending the majority of our time in Colossians chapter 1 this morning as we
consider the nature of the message of that which causes us to become a Christian.

As you look at this text, Paul is going to write to a church that by all indications of
the text, he had never visited the church at Colossae.

This was not like the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, the church at uh Philippi,
where he is writing to them having been there.

Now there's some indicators that point us to that conclusion, and one of the primary ones
is right here at the beginning of book, he says all of the things he has heard about them,

but unlike many of the other writings where Paul writes to a church,

he doesn't begin by talking about his relationship with them.

Really the only other time you find that type of situation is in the book of Romans where
Paul is writing to the church at Rome, which also he had never visited before at the time

of the writing.

The likelihood is that Paul is writing to the church at Colossae having never been there
and yet having heard concerning them.

and being directed by inspiration by the Holy Spirit to write to this church.

He is going to write about things that he has heard that, of course, the Holy Spirit has
confirmed are true.

But as he does so, he sets out seven principles that are an aspect of that which is
preached and that which makes a person a Christian.

So I want us to examine those seven principles as we go through the text this morning.

So we're going to begin in Colossians chapter one.

You're not going, if you're a note taker, you're gonna have more thoughts to write down
than external passages, because we're not gonna go very many places.

We're gonna stay right here and examine what it is that Paul has to say to these Colossian
brethren.

But notice in chapter one and verse one, Paul writes, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

by the will of God and Timothy our brother.

The very first thing that you're going to notice concerning that which saves us, that
which brings us to God, is that the message is that which is sent by God.

As Paul describes himself, he describes himself as an apostle.

Now the word in the original language means

one cent, but I don't want you to focus so much on the term apostle, though that is
certainly what Paul's function was, as much as I want you to notice that he was sent by...

Paul is going to describe that his work and the work of Timothy, his work and the work of
Timothy in declaring the gospel and preaching the gospel was by the will of God.

If we are going to be saved, if we are going to be redeemed, if we are going to be saved
from our sins and washed in the blood of the Lamb, we are going to have to be saved by a

message that originates by the will of God and not by the will of men.

It is a challenge when you sit down with someone and they have been taught their entire
life to obey the commandments of men.

They have been taught to be saved by the commandments of men and they have never opened
the Word of God and actually looked at the text and said, what does God tell me to do?

But if on the judgment day we are going to stand before God and be held account for the
things that we do, if on the judgment day it is going to be determined whether or not we

have been uh living in a way that is acceptable to God or in a way that is condemned by
God, I would suggest to you that it is very, very important that we obey the will of God

and not the will of men.

Jesus in Matthew chapter 7, as He will speak to those individuals, as He closes out the
Sermon on the Mount, as we have so described it, Jesus will describe the one who is

accepted by God.

And He says, it's not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, but those who do the will of My
Father who is in heaven.

If we're going to understand how to be saved and if we're going to understand what we must
do in order to be pleasing to God, we must first understand that we must obey the will of

God and not substitute it with the will of men.

But then consider as you continue down through the text, Paul writes, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy our brother,

to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossi.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now grace and peace was a common greeting in that day, but Paul meant more out of it than
just what common people meant.

Paul meant that they as part of the body of Christ, those who were in Christ,

Those who were a part of the church were those who had grace and peace in their
relationship with God, which meant they had been reconciled to God.

Isaiah 59, 1 and 2 tells us that sin separates us from God.

But Christ in His work reconciled humanity to God if they would be obedient to the will of
God.

So as Paul writes to these brethren, he points out by desiring that they receive grace and
peace from God that they are one with God.

In John chapter 17, Jesus as he is praying to the Father, prays that those who hear the
words of the disciples will be one with him as he is with God.

and that they might be one with one another.

You see, if we're going to be saved, if we're going to be those who stand before God in
judgment and are right and in a right relationship with Him, we must have access to grace

and we must have access to peace and those are found only if we are reconciled to God.

Because otherwise we're separated from Him.

We don't have grace, we don't have peace, we are

enemies of God, Ephesians chapter 2.

So if we're going to understand the message, have us to understand, we're going to
understand that message because it originates with the will of God and it is the message

which reconciles man to God.

But then consider, he says, we give thanks to God.

To the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of
your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints.

Two things here, the first one comes from verse three.

When you consider the power of God connected to the message of God.

Paul writes, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always
for you.

Now don't know if you've ever thought about this, but if you are thanking someone for
something, it probably means they did something.

Generally speaking, in society, we don't go around thanking people who did nothing.

Sometimes we will sarcastically to make a point, thank someone who did nothing, to point
out they did nothing.

But that's not what we have here.

Paul is thanking God for them, praying for them, because God has done something for them.

If we're going to be saved by God, if we're going to be reconciled to God, it is going to
be because we have been obedient to God.

In John chapter 3, Jesus will say, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.

In Romans chapter 5, Paul will point out that God loved humanity enough to send His Son to
die for them when they were enemies of God.

1 John chapter 2 will point out that Christ was the propitiation.

He was the substitutionary sacrifice that was actually worthy and capable of taking away
our sins.

All of these things are true, but the point is God did all of those things when we were
completely incapable of doing anything.

Now some will say, and some have said recently, that we preach a gospel that is all about
working your way to heaven.

They will claim that if you are buried in a watery grave of baptism, you're trying to be
saved by works.

That's nonsense.

That's obedience.

That's not works.

Works in the biblical sense is when someone tries to

do something so as to show that God owes them something.

This is how this works, by the way.

If you get up tomorrow morning and you go to your job and you work until the end of the
work day and you come home, as of the end of that work day, your employer owes you because

of your work.

And if they refuse to pay you, you can take them to court and show that, according to the
law, that they owe you.

There will never be a time, There will never be a work you can do, there will never be a
thing that you can accomplish on this earth whereby you can stand before God and say, God,

you owe me salvation.

And that has nothing to do with whether or not you have to obey the commands he actually
gave you.

When you obey his commands, Jesus will tell us that when the unprofitable servant does
everything that he was commanded to do, he is still an unprofitable servant.

He has simply done that which he was commanded to do.

So when Christ tells His disciples as He is about to ascend to heaven, go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature, He that believeth and is baptized shall be

saved.

He has simply set God's conditions.

He has simply told humanity what God said they must do because God's grace has always been
conditional.

from the days of Adam until this world is over, God's grace will always be conditional
upon obedience to God's commandments.

But then consider, not only do you see the power of God enacted in that salvation, and
that's why Paul is thanking God, it's because God is the one who's doing

the thing that needs to be done in order for them to have salvation in the form of sending
Christ and giving His word and commandments, but then also verse four, since we heard of

your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love to all the saints.

Twice already in this text, Paul has mentioned the saints, the saints.

Back in verse one, the saints and the faithful brethren.

The saints, by the way, saints and faithful brethren aren't two different categories of
people.

It is two descriptions of the same people.

The word saint comes from the idea of to be made holy, to be separated, to be sanctified
by God.

Paul says, I'm writing to the people, not that we've been dead for 400 years and somebody
voted them into sainthood.

Writing to the people who have been set apart by God.

I'm writing to the faithful brethren.

By the way, that means they're obedient people.

They're doing what God said.

He says, I'm writing to the sanctified, set apart, holy ones who are faithful to God,
which by the way, was the church.

You say, Aaron, I don't see the word church here.

Really?

Who's he writing to

to the church in Colossae.

And he's writing to the saints and the faithful brethren who are in the church in
Colossae.

You cannot have the message of salvation, the message of reconciliation, the power of God
to salvation without the church.

Because when you are sanctified, when you are made holy, when you are set apart by God,
you are set apart into an assembly of the called out people of God.

That's what the word ecclesia or church means.

You're the separated ones.

You're the ones set apart for holiness, for God's work.

In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, are His workmanship in Christ Jesus.

So Paul says, if we're going to be obedient to God and be found faithful to God, we're
going to obey His will, we're going to be reconciled to Him, we're going to obey and act

according to the power of God, we are going to be part of the Church of God.

Verse 5 he says, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you
heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel.

consider that Paul also points out that those who are saved, those who are sanctified,
those who are made holy, those who are reconciled with God, are those who have received a

message of hope beyond this life.

If we do everything we can to make people comfortable, happy, thrilled with their life,
and we don't prepare them for eternity, we've done them no good.

If we solve all of the world's problems, if we help every mental disorder, if we ail every
sick individual, or if we make well every ailing individual, if we bring to...

uh prosperity everyone who is poor and we leave them unprepared for eternity we've done
them no good

And yet Paul says that the message which these Colossian brethren had heard, though he had
never met them, the message they had heard, though he wasn't the one that preached to

them, was the truth of the gospel.

And the truth of the gospel declared a message concerning the hope of heaven.

In John chapter 14, Jesus will say to His disciples, if you believe in God, believe also
in Me.

In My Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, that I may receive you to
Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Jesus never intended for us to dwell on this earth perpetually.

Jesus never intended for us to be left behind.

Jesus never intended for us to be separated from Him and from His power and from His glory
and from His reign in His kingdom.

He intended for us to use our time on this earth to become ready for that time, to become
ready for eternity.

Paul says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the
saints because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before

in the word of the truth of the gospel which has come to you as it has also in all the
world.

and is bringing forth fruit.

that you find here number six.

I had to count them again because I didn't have them numbered.

Number six, that the message which brings salvation is that of grace and truth.

Some individuals in the religious world want a whole lot of grace.

They want grace everywhere.

They want grace, so much grace, that there's no obedience, there's no faithfulness,
there's no conditions, there's nothing.

There's just grace.

And yet John will write in John chapter 1 as he writes concerning the Messiah, the Savior,
the one who came into the world, the one who took on flesh, the one who was God by whom

all things were made.

He says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

You can't have grace without truth.

You can't have reconciliation with God without the message of God.

You can't have reconciliation with God without obedience to God.

As a matter of fact in Titus chapter 2 and verse 11 Titus is being told by Paul that grace
teaches us to do certain things, to be obedient to God.

to change our lives, to mold them to the message and the character of God, to set aside
the things of the world and be remade in the image of God's holiness.

as Paul writes to these brethren.

He tells them and reminds them of the grace and the truth that they've received.

But he also points out that the grace and the truth is universally available.

God did not send Christ to save the Jew.

God did not send Christ to save the Arab.

God did not send Christ to save the American.

You say, Aaron, are the Jews, the Arabs, and the Americans, are they all excluded?

No, no.

You need to understand those sentences with the word only on the end.

God didn't send Christ to save the Jew only.

God didn't send Christ to save the Arab only.

God didn't send Christ to save the American only.

God didn't send Christ to save the Chinese only.

God sent Christ because He loved the world.

So Paul would write in Romans chapter 1 verse 15 that the gospel is the power of God and
salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

That's the Jew and the non-Jew.

The gospel, the grace and the truth that came by Jesus Christ is universal in its nature,
which is why Paul says, gospel has come to you as it has also in all the world and is

bringing forth fruit.

If there is a person alive today that you say, know what, I don't like that person's
background, I don't like that person's origin, I don't like that person's country, I don't

like that person's disposition, I don't like the way that person looks, I sure hope God's
not going to save them so I don't have to spend eternity with them, you're going to be

woefully mistaken.

But if that is your attitude, there's a good chance you won't have to worry about it.

Because while they might be in heaven, you won't be.

God's message is universal.

God's message is not bound by territory.

It is not bound by borders.

It is not bound by politics.

It is bound by grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ.

But then number seven, he says in verse six, which is come to you as it has also in all
the world and is bringing forth fruit, as it is.

you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

As you also learn from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of
Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

When you consider the message of God,

when you consider the doctrine of Christ, when you consider that which saves us, that
which prepares us for eternity, that which reconciles us to God and makes us acceptable

before Him, that which sets us apart from the world and establishes our righteousness
before God, not because of our righteousness, but because of His.

you should be reminded that the message doesn't change no matter who the messenger is.

Paul had not been to Colossae, but Apaphras had.

And when Apaphras showed up, Apaphras preached the same gospel Paul did.

When Apaphras arrived and taught these brethren the truth, Apaphras didn't change it to be
his version of the gospel.

He didn't change it to be his version of the religion.

He didn't change it to where he could have people call themselves Apaphrites.

He declared the gospel so that they could be Christians.

There is no such thing as Church of Christ doctrine.

There is Christ doctrine.

And we agree with it or we don't.

We're in alignment with it or we're not.

But there's never a point someone should have to ask, what do I have to do to join the
Church of Christ?

The answer is you can't.

You can be added to the body of Christ.

Because that's what the Church is.

It is the body of Christ.

Turn to Ephesians chapter one.

In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul writes, verse 19, and what is the exceeding greatness of His
power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked

in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion in every name

that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

and he put all things under his feet and he gave him to be head over all things to the
church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

If you were to ask the first century church...

How do I join your church?

They would have been very confused.

They would have been very, very confused.

Why you would ask such a question?

Because it's the wrong question.

The question is, what must I do to be saved?

And in Acts chapter 2, they asked that question.

In Acts chapter 2 and in verse 36,

Peter, as he is preaching, says, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of
the apostles, Ben and Brethren, what shall we do?

Peter responded and said, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and your
children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.

And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this
perverse generation.

then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about three thousand
souls were what?

Added to them.

Added to who?

The disciples.

Added to who?

The church.

Added to who?

Added to the called out, sanctified ones.

When they did what?

When they were baptized.

When they were immersed in water for the remission of their sins, because that's exactly
what they had been told they must do.

but then notice what happened.

And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers.

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the Apostles.

Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their
possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need.

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and in breaking of bread from house to
house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.

Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily
those who were being saved.

You don't join the Church of Christ.

You don't join the Church of Christ by obeying Church of Christ doctrine.

You are added to the body of Christ, which is the Church, when you obey Christ's commands
to obey God in order to be saved.

When your sins are remitted and washed away,

in the blood of the Lamb in contact with that blood through the command of obedience to be
baptized.

and have your sins remitted.

And when you come up out of that watery grave of baptism, you don't fill out a form to
join the church.

You're added to the body of Christ by God.

But then, Paul as he's writing to the church at Colossi said, I noticed that after you
received those things, after you heard that gospel, after you were obedient to that truth,

you didn't then walk away, but you continued in these things and you showed your love to
the other saints and you bore fruit in the form of souls throughout the world.

You see, when a person is saved, their work has not ended.

It's only just begun.

If you're outside the body of Christ this morning, we encourage you do not stay there.

There was a time when the people who were in the church in Colossae were outside of
Christ.

They were aliens from God and separated.

They were sinners.

but then they obeyed the command of Christ to believe and to be baptized, to repent of
their sins and confess His name and be immersed in water for the remission of their sins,

to lay aside their sin, to be separated by God, made holy and sanctified, to become saints
and faithful brethren.

And we call upon you to do the same thing today.

you're outside the body of Christ, why stay there?

If you have questions, if you don't understand everything you think you need to
understand, that's fine.

We'll study with you.

Just let us know.

If you're a member of the body of Christ and you say, you know what?

I was once sanctified.

I was once faithful.

But now I've turned back.

I've no longer walked with Him.

And I need to come home.

You can do that this morning.

You have need of the invitation in any way for any reason.

Why not come now as we stand and as we sing.