Pauls Epistle to Colossians (2)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

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First, we read that Paul was always thanking God. But Paul becomes specific in saying that his prayer was directed to God the

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Father. He's always thanking God the Father. We always thank

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God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, in the manuscript evidence that we have, manuscripts down through the centuries, there are different readings here.

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There are variants here. Apparently some scribe at one time in history felt like it was maybe demeaning to the

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Lord Jesus to describe God as the God and Father of Jesus Christ, making

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God the God of Jesus Christ. And so we have it in this form,

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God, comma, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But actually, Paul, when he originally penned it, probably wrote the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's perfectly consistent with other places in the

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New Testament. Jesus Christ himself had told his disciples that God was his

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Father and God was their Father also. There's an important truth to that matter, but that's just a minor point that I thought

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I would draw attention to. And so here Paul addresses

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God the Father. However, it's biblical, it's lawful, that really we address any one of the three persons in prayer, and there are examples in Scripture for that.

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When we pray, we pray to our one God who is the triune God. And so sometimes in the

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Scriptures we read that the Lord Jesus is prayed to directly. It's not commonly found, but it is found.

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In fact, it was the common practice of Christians. We see this, for example, as we read

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Acts 9 of the Lord Jesus appearing to Ananias. You recall how Saul, you know, was going to Damascus to capture and imprison

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Christians. And then the Lord appeared to him on the road, struck him blind, and then the

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Lord came to Ananias in order for Ananias to come to Paul, restore sight, and baptize him.

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And so we read in Acts 9 of the Lord coming to Ananias, there was certain disciple of Damascus named

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Ananias. To him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Here I am,

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Lord. The Lord said to him, Arise, go to the street called Straight. I understand that street is still called

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Straight in Damascus, one of the longest existing cities in the world, Damascus.

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And inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is prey.

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And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in, putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight.

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And Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he's done to your saints in Jerusalem.

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And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. And that call on your name is an expression of prayer.

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They prayed to the Lord Jesus. This is what was characteristic of these Christians. It was commonly done.

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Christians were known as ones who pray to the Lord Jesus. That, of course, would have been blasphemous to a

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Jewish person, a non -Christian Jewish person. And then we can read in the New Testament of specific instances when people prayed to the

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Lord Jesus. For example, Stephen, when he was being stoned just before he died, he prayed to Christ.

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He, we read that they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

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There's a prayer to the Lord Jesus, a direct prayer. And then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,

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Lord, do not lay charge, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

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So Stephen prayed to Jesus, the very last words that he spoke as he was being martyred.

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John the Apostle prayed to the Lord Jesus in his last words of the Revelation, even the last words of the

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Holy Bible. John wrote, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book.

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If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy,

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God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the Holy City, from the things which are written in this book.

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He who testifies to these things says, surely I am come quickly. That's the

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Lord Jesus. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus. John is directing his prayer to Jesus.

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Even so come Lord Jesus. And then he concluded the Bible with the grace of our

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Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. So John prayed to Jesus. But Christians also pray to the

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Holy Spirit. Now you'll be hard -pressed to find a specific instance of that in the scriptures, but Christians pray for the grace that's bestowed by or through the

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Holy Spirit. I always pray to the Spirit, you know, before I stand up here, you know, may you bless me with your presence and your power and give me wisdom, help my mind be alert, help me communicate the word properly.

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That's a regular prayer and it's perfectly appropriate because the Holy Spirit, of course, is

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God fully, the third person of the Blessed Holy Trinity. We believe in one

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God and so it's proper to pray for his power, for wisdom, for peace, gifts of grace that he imparts to his people.

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But most often, of course, Christians address their prayer to God the Father, as Paul said that he did here in Colossians 1 3.

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We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so the

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Father in Scripture is commonly addressed to in prayer, singly and directly.

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Paul wrote, and if you call on the Father who, without partiality, judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves through the time of your stay or your sojourn here, literally, in fear.

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And so we call on the Father in prayer. And then, of course, Ephesians 1 says, therefore

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I also, after I heard of your faith, he's writing to the church at Ephesus, after I heard of your faith in the

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Lord Jesus, your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers that the

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God of our Lord Jesus Christ, see there's the, there's the teaching, isn't it? The God of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you, to you, the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him.

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And so most commonly we address God the Father in prayer, and our Lord Jesus, of course, instructed his disciples to do so in this manner.

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Therefore, pray our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And so we pray to the

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Father, and yet it's perfectly appropriate, given a situation, to pray directly to Jesus Christ or even to the

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Holy Spirit. But we commonly pray to the Father. Now we read that Paul thanked

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God for the salvation of these ones in the Church of Colossae. Now why did Paul thank God?

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Well, Paul knew, of course, understood that his sovereign God had bestowed his saving grace upon the people of this church.

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He thanked God because he knew God was responsible for their salvation. They were

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Christians, but they were only Christians because God had purposed to be merciful and gracious to them.

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And so every time Paul thought of them, he thanked God for them. Clearly, we see the sovereignty of God in salvation.

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It wouldn't make sense for Paul to pray, thanking God, if people were saved by their own free will.

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They'd be congratulated, wouldn't they? But no, he thanks God because God brought them salvation.

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Paul thanked God for having saved them. And so we could even say that Paul was

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Calvinistic or Reformed. I put that in quotation marks, of course, in his understanding of the sovereign grace of God that brings salvation to sinners, and the

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Bible teaches that throughout. Salvation is of the Lord. God himself declared that to the prophet

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Jonah. And so Paul thanked the Lord for their salvation. Why, if Paul taught and believed as Arminians do, that salvation is a cooperative effort of both

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God and man. God makes the plan, but you save yourself through your free will. Paul would not only be thanking

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God for their salvation, but he'd be congratulating them, wouldn't he? Congratulating them for their part, for their contribution to the matter.

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And so if the Arminian gospel were true, you could not give sole glory to God for the salvation of sinners.

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You would take some of this glory and confer it on to sinful man. And so Paul would have written something like this, congratulations for your wise and sensible decision to be saved.

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For although God offered salvation to all, you were wise enough and good enough to choose him of your own free will, whereas all others were not.

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They did not rise to your level of righteousness, to your wise deliberation.

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You were to be commended, regarded highly for having brought yourself to salvation. As Charles Spurgeon once gave a similar prayer of an

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Arminian in that form, he said, that's the prayer of a devil, not a Christian. It takes glory away from the

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Lord. So one should be able to see immediately the terrible error and egregious affront to the glory of God by believing such a way of salvation.

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Paul thanked God alone for their salvation, for God alone was responsible for imparting to them their salvation.

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Clearly. Notice also this was not a one -time act of Paul praying or thanking

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God for them. Paul wrote that he was always thanking

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God. This ought to be always our kind of praying, shouldn't it be?

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Whenever we think of a Christian, thank you God that he's a Christian, that she's a

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Christian. He or she is a product of your grace. I thank you Father for that one.

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He was always thanking God, for God having purpose and acted to save them from their sins.

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And he was always thanking God in this way. Philippians 1, 3 through 7, writing to the

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Church of Philippi, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Think about that.

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You know, when you think of some of your Christian friends, say in another church within our region that's preaching

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Christ, you immediately thank God. Thank you God for being merciful and gracious to them.

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You've brought them to know you. Always in every prayer of mine,

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Paul was thanking God. That was the first thing that came out of his mouth, even as he requested

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God would be merciful and gracious to them. And so Paul was always thanking God whenever he thought of the

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Christians he knew. And this should be the practice that every Christian should incorporate in his thinking and express in his praying.

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When we hear or think of a Christian or a church containing Christians, we should offer a prayer of thanksgiving to God for having brought them to know him through faith in Jesus Christ.

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And by the way, it would be certainly good, a good practice on the part of each of us as Christians, when someone inquires of us about our faith, that we express our thanksgiving before them and before God for having saved us.

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And so if someone asks you, are you a Christian? Do not respond by saying something like this, yes

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I came to faith in Jesus Christ when I heard the gospel back in January of 1972. That may be a true statement, but wouldn't it be better to respond with something like Paul would have probably done?

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Yes, I thank God for God's mercy and kindness that he bestowed upon me when he called me unto

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Jesus Christ by his grace. Give God the glory for it. Immediately get them to direct their thoughts and their attention to God who is the author, the bringer of our salvation.

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But actually when Paul prayed for these Christians, his thanksgiving was only one aspect of his prayer for them.

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Paul wrote, we always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you. That was just one aspect of his prayer.

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Later in chapter 1, beginning with verse 9, that's next Lord's Day, Lord willing,

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Paul declared the content of his prayer for them and essentially he was praying that the love of God would abound in their lives toward one another.

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And so whenever he prayed for them he would pray to this end, but initially he would thank God immediately upon remembrance of them.

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I think he expressed this here in chapter 1 verses 3 to 8 that he thanked

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God always, suggesting that they too, the Christians at Colossae, always be thanking

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God. And I think this is very practical and good instruction for each of us.

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Let's do it. Paul then declared how long he'd been praying for these Christians.

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He wrote that he had done so since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

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In other words, when Paul had learned that they had become Christians, he had begun to pray for them and had continued to pray for them.

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Now take note of this. Christians need to have prayer offered to God the Father on their behalf.

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We do not always follow Paul's example. Oftentimes we pray most for those who are not

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Christians, praying that God would bring them salvation. And this is good that we do so, but all too often upon people becoming

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Christians the prayer on their behalf is not offered as frequently or fervently. We kind of tail off.

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Thank the Lord they became Christians. But Paul said it was when he learned they become

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Christians, that's when he began to pray for them. Notice that? He began to pray and continued to pray on their behalf.

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Christians need to be prayed for, don't they? It's one of the chief responsibilities of an elder. Yes, to stand and proclaim the word, but to be in the matter of prayer.

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Paul identified two evidences that convinced them these people had been truly converted to Jesus Christ. Again, Paul wrote to them, he prayed for them, since he first heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and secondly, secondarily, of the love that you have for all the saints.

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And it was with these two evidences Paul was convinced these people are Christians. Both are essential evidences of the true grace of God that brings salvation to his people.

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In other words, they're produced by God in converts. First and most certainly salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ.

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We must trust him, he who alone could do for us that which we could not do for ourselves. He was born without the guilt of Adam's sin, which all of us have, and was incurred upon us by the progenitor of our race,

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Adam. We're guilty for the sin he committed, and we would be damned for that sin. Children are not born into this world innocent, they are born into this world guilty for Adam's sin.

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Not the Lord Jesus, however. By the way, most commonly we would say, most evangelicals say,

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I don't even know if I should bring this up, but I will because it was an interest to me, most evangelicals would say he of course was born into the world without the guilt of Adam's sin because he was virgin -born.

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That would be my knee -jerk reaction, probably most people's reaction. I was reading Louis Burkhoff's systematic theology, and he reasoned that Jesus was not born with the guilt of Adam's sin because he was a divine person who took upon himself human nature.

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And so as a divine person, and that he's not two people, he's one person with two natures, he's the eternal divine person who took upon himself human nature.

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And Burkhoff argued, whether he's right or wrong, that's another matter, we'll work through it, but he argued because Jesus was a divine person, he did not have the guilt of fallen man.

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Interesting. All kinds of nuances when you start getting down to reading some of these things that are that are set forth.

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At any rate, he was not born with the guilt of Adam's original sin.

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He lived a life, therefore, that God demands of each of us, even a life of obedience to all of God's law that none of us can do.

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And then of course he died on behalf of his people, died in their place as a substitute for them, thereby paying the penalty that they owe to God's justice.

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And true saving faith, of course, involves abandoning confidence in oneself and embracing wholly and solely

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Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior. Saving faith.

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But true faith is not always present when someone claims to have faith in Jesus Christ. Someone can have all this understanding that we've just recited, they can stand up and teach it, they can stand up and teach justification from the

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Bible and yet not be converted if they don't have the second evidence also accompanying that faith.

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And that, of course, is salvation is evident when there exists true love for other Christians because they are

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Christians. That's true of every true Christian. There is an affinity, there's an attraction that we have with true

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Christians. We're brethren. They're part of the family of God.

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They love Christ. We love Christ. We love them. And it's something that God creates in us.

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Most of us that were not raised in church never loved church. It was kind of an icky place to go.

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A bunch of old people there. I was 19 years old. I had nothing in common with them.

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That all changed when I was converted. They were lovely people. I remember

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Ernie, one of the old members of the church, I was helping him drain out the basement.

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It was a weird construction. This building, church building, was set over this open crawl space and it all got flooded.

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So the windows were misting up and everything. And so I was up there in a rainstorm with Ernie digging out at the end of the foundation to try and drain this water out.

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I remember him telling me, what are you doing here? Why aren't you out doing what other young men do?

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How do you respond? I don't know. But I wanted to be there with him and with them.

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And certainly from my past life I couldn't find any reason or source there as to why

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I wanted to be there. A work of grace was done. And so I believed on the

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Lord Jesus Christ and this too was evident. A love for the Saints.

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Both are essential evidences of the true grace of God that has brought salvation to his people.

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And so the one who truly believes in Jesus Christ will also have this second evidence of conversion manifest in his life.

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Every true believer possesses love for all the Saints. That is, when he meets or hears another

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Christian, his heart resonates with that Christian. They have a common understanding of the truth and value of the truth.

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They both have interests and desires that are the same. They both love the Lord Jesus. They both have full confidence in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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They both see one another as brethren in the Lord. They are of the same spiritual family.

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They have the same basis of fellowship with one another. They both desire that Jesus Christ be exalted and served with all their heart and strength.

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Now this love for the Saints, that is love for true Christians, is a love again that God creates and imparts to every true child of God.

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Paul declared this, we read it not long ago, the church at Thessalonica, but concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write you.

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Why? Why doesn't Paul have any need to write to the church at Thessalonica about love? For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.

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See, it comes with salvation. And then some decades after Paul wrote these words, the

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Apostle John declared that loving other Christians is one of the distinguishing marks of being a true Christian. John lived toward the end of the first century.

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The Gnostic heresy was in its incipient form, and so there were heretics within the church.

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They claimed to believe on Jesus, but he wasn't the Jesus of the Bible. He was a Jesus a lot like the

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Jehovah's Witnesses teach, not the Jesus of the Bible. And they were within the church, and everybody was confused.

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Who's a true Christian? Who's not? And so John set forth three tests. This is how you tell who's a true

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Christian, and one other way you tell who a true Christian is, if they love true Christians.

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And so in numbers of different ways he wrote, in this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.

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Some say you can't tell the difference between a Christian and non -Christian. No, what John wrote, in this way the children of God and the children of the devil become very apparent.

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They're manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

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If they are out there proclaiming they know Jesus and love Jesus, but they have no affection for us, but rather they despise us, well that tells you something about them, doesn't it?

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First John 3 .14, we know that we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren. So that's a basis of assurance of salvation.

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Do you love the brethren? Do you have an affection for them? It takes grace, doesn't it, to love one another.

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It must be of God, right? Because many of us aren't always lovable, are we? We give one another the benefit of the doubt.

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He must be undergoing some real strain, or he wouldn't have talked that way, wouldn't have acted that way, wouldn't have had that attitude.

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Let's pray for him. First John 4 .7,

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Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows

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God. The Bible defines it. First John 4 .12, No one has seen God at any time.

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If we love one another, God abides in us. His love has been perfected in us. First John 4 .20,

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If someone says, I love God, hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he is seeing, how can he love

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God whom he's not seeing? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also.

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And God sees to it by his grace that they do, that we do. Now the

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Apostle declared in verse 5, the basis or main reason of his prayer for them. Colossians 1 verse 5,

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We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

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This is a causal clause. It gives the reason why he was praying for them, because of the hope that was laid up for them for you in heaven.

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Here we see Paul describing their salvation that was to be received in the future.

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It's laid up for you in heaven. Even when they depart from this world to be with Jesus Christ, their salvation was secure for them in heaven.

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No doubt about that, for it was an object of their hope. We talked about that, this matter of hope, this grace of hope, frequently in this church.

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If you haven't been in this church, it's probably a matter you're not familiar with, because I believe the common way salvation is presented in the evangelical world leaves no room for hope.

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Hope by biblical definition must be in something you haven't got yet. Paul argues that, and although the scriptures do speak about us being saved, we were justified fully.

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The Bible most frequently says that our salvation is yet to be inherited, yet to be received, and if you take that future aspect of salvation, you remove it and project it all into the past,

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I'm saved, it's all done, it's all over, you take away the basis of hope, and hope is an essential grace for living the

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Christian life. And this is characteristic, this is a real problem, in my opinion, of evangelicalism.

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I've gotten away from my notes, I need to get back in it directly, specifically, so I don't miss anything.

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And so their salvation was secure for them in heaven, it was an object of their hope. They were recipients of God's promise that he would save them from their sin, both when they were raised from the dead and when they stood before Jesus Christ on the day of judgment.

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Their salvation was yet future in their experience, but it was certain. Making a future does not put it in doubt, it was certain, and therefore they possessed a hope that could not be shaken.

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Hope, by the way, in the New Testament is a noun, not a verb. We talk about hope as hope like a wish.

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I wish it'll happen, I hope it'll happen, but that is not how it's used. Hope is not a verb, it's a noun.

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We have a hope, a fixed hope that sustains us and secures us.

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And so we always thank God because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. By definition, hope must be based on something not yet realized.

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Paul described it in Romans 8 24, we are saved in this hope, and then he explains the nature of hope.

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But hope that is seen is not hope. In other words, you don't hope in something you have already, you can only hope in something you don't have yet.

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For why does one still hope for what he sees? You see, you don't. But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance, and that's the issue, is that we should be eagerly waiting for the salvation that will be revealed at the last time when

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Jesus returns. Very important for the Christian life. Again, we've pointed this out in the past, and it's an all -important matter, somewhat neglected among present -day evangelicals, because in these days salvation is presented almost exclusively as something that is a present possession.

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We're almost always told, or it's almost always assumed, that salvation was received in full when we first believed.

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Now it's true that we came into certain possession of it when we first believed, no doubt about that, and it's certainly true we were fully justified before God when we believed the gospel.

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We came into a right standing with God due to our forgiveness of sins, and due to the righteousness of Christ being credited to us, but it does not do justice to the whole of Scripture to say that we receive salvation in full.

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And so coming to faith sets us on a course on which we journey to receive what has been promised.

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Thank Pilgrim's Progress. Christian had to get from the city of destruction to the celestial city, and he was given a scroll which was his title to enter that city, and this guarded his heart and gave him assurance and knew he would make it because God had promised him.

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But if you say, hey, you got your salvation in full, well he could just settle down and live the rest of his life in the city of destruction.

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Hey, I'm forgiven. I'm saved. And that's not how the Scriptures present salvation, and yet there are multitudes in our churches that think just that.

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I believed on Christ, and that's all that's involved. After all, it's not of works, and so I'll just believe on Christ and his works, and they think they have salvation.

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But salvation transforms a person, doesn't it? And salvation sets a person on a course, a way of life that leads to glory, and so hope is so important.

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The Apostle Peter wrote of our salvation being an inheritance. We looked at this several times just recently.

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First Peter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten to us again to a living hope.

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See, we're born again into this living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance.

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It's secure. God's got a reserve there. It's an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

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God's got it there. He's keeping it. It's safe. You're not gonna lose it. And then he says, and you are kept by God's power through faith unto the end.

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The two haven't come together yet. You will, he sees to it. Therefore, you can have confidence. But because you know what's coming, and you know you're gonna realize that, you have hope that sustains you and strengthens you and encourages you through all the trials and difficulties between here and there.

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And if you take away that hope, you will not be able to be sustained when trial comes.

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We read about difficulties throughout the world, and I think that most people fully expect they're gonna get worse probably before they get better.

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And what's gonna happen to all the professing Christians, you know, when their world comes crashing down, and you know, and there may be, you know, food not easily gotten.

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We think we're Americans, you know, and we're immune to this kind of thing. That's not the case. You know, yes, we've been immune because of God's mercy and grace to us, but no other generation, no other nation has gone on for very long in this world without encountering these kind of things.

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Is that not right? Why should we think that we're somehow exempt? Are we better than anybody else?

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I think not. And when those times get very hard and difficult, when everybody else is falling by the wayside, it's gonna be your

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Christian hope that's gonna keep you from following them, because God has set forth a course before you that you must pursue.

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And so if we only speak in terms of salvation as a present possession, there'll be no need perceived for running the race, enduring the trials, persevering in faith in the end, under the end.

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Take away the future aspect of salvation from a Christian's thinking, and you're to take away a primary motive for holy living, and you deny him the source of strength he needs for trials, to endure trials.

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He is left without desire to strive to be holy before the Lord. How is this? Because if believers see they have salvation in its completeness now, they remove any place or role of hope.

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And that's where the strength of the Christian is found. Hope, in what

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God has promised that you will one day receive. The grace of hope is critical for Christians, if they are to endure through difficult trials between the time they first believe, and the time when they experience their full salvation at the end of their pilgrimage, when they reach their heavenly home of Zion.

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Two apostles made this truth evident. Paul first, again, wrote of the depiction, the role of this hope in Romans 8.

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Again, notice the future glory that was in anticipation of Paul, and he was in trying to instill in these

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Christians in this church at Rome. Romans 8 18, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.

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See that future prospect that he's holding out in front of them. For the earnest expectation the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

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For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

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Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

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For we know the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only that, but we also, who have the first fruits of the

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Spirit, we ourselves groan. The creation's groaning, we're groaning. Everybody's groaning. We want

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Christ to come. We want to see this wicked world come to its end. We want to see the eternal state opened up.

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New heavens and a new earth. Righteousness delivered from these bodies of sin. And so we're groaning together, groaning within ourselves, eagerly waiting the adoption, even the redemption of our body.

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And then he reasons, we read this earlier, for we are saved in this hope. Here you have it.

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But hope that's seen is not hope, for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

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This is how, this is how he gives us grace to persevere, through the grace of hope.

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Paul wrote at the end of 1st Corinthians 13, now abideth these three faith, hope, and love.

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The greatest of these is love, but hope's up there, isn't it? Faith, hope, and love.

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So here Paul personifies creation itself, having suffered the ill effects of mankind's fall into sin.

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The creation's waiting for the day it'll be delivered from its corruption. And so the expectation of the creation is what

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Paul describes as the creation's hope, in verse 20. And similarly, we too are in this condition.

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We're longing for our deliverance, and so we have a certain hope, verse 24.

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We do not presently have what's been promised to us. If we currently possessed all that salvation is, if we've already realized or seen all that we ever received, then where is the place for hope?

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It's not there. But on the other hand, if we've not received all that God has promised, but have only some of what

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God has promised, the firstfruits of the Spirit described here, then we live in such a manner as to long to expect it, work toward its realization, a work of faith, and endure hardship until the promises are fully realized.

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We'll have a motivation to persevere. We eagerly wait for it.

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That is our salvation, full and final, with perseverance. And it's hope that produces that grace of perseverance within us.

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But not only does hope motivate us, but hope purifies us also. As John wrote in 1

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John 3, 1 through 3, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God, and therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him.

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Beloved, now we are children of God, but it is not yet revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we should be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

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And everyone who has this hope, there it is, in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

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John first exclaims, With wonder and joy what believers should possess, knowing that God has destined us, or called us, as sons.

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This means we'll be like him in holiness, living before him in love and devotion, obedience. And because we're destined to be so associated with our

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Father, to receive us, that the fallen world doesn't understand this love, or love of the

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Father. The fallen world will not understand or love the Father's children. But we have not yet fully realized our sonship.

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Yes, we have in a sense already been adopted. We became children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, but we still wait for the adoption of our bodies, the full realization of our sonship.

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And again, John declared, everyone who has this hope purifies himself. We see, therefore, that hope not only provides power to endure,

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Romans 8, but it provides motivation to become holy, sanctified by the grace of God.

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One of the problems that living in a secure, comfortable society brings to the believer is a tendency to be quite content with life as we currently have it.

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For most of us, life is pretty good, compared to what others experience.

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Because we suffer little, we do not long for the day that our suffering will come to an end. Oh, we'll get through it.

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We'll be all right. And this is one reason God has called us to suffer trials, as we've spoken about at other times.

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Moreover, because we do not fix our hope principally on what God has promised us at the resurrection, we lack motivation to purify ourselves.

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Parents, why is it your children lack motivation to live godly? Why is it that so many professing believers seem to care little for holiness?

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One reason might be is they have little concern for eternity. Many of us probably struggle with that.

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Lord, please come, but hold off a little while. You know, I've still got some things I want to experience and do.

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They think little of the coming of Christ, little of his judgment, little of the glories that will be bestowed upon those who live for him.

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They don't desire preeminently the things of Christ, but rather the things of the world allures them.

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They want those things. They live in hope of the glory of this world, the fun, the fame, the fortune.

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They want the pleasure and the popularity that the world offers. They do not long to be clothed in holiness and win the approval of Christ.

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They would sooner clothe themselves in whatever will gain approval of their friends. They do not live for the world to come, but they long for and live for the things of this present, fallen, and condemned world.

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And, of course, the devil will be ever ready to give it to them if they will simply bow down and serve him as he offered

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King Jesus in the wilderness. And so this matter of hope and a future realization of salvation is so important, foundational to a true understanding of the

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Christian life. We just have a few minutes, but I really want to get through this paragraph quickly.

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Back to our text, Colossians 1. Again, we read verses 3 through 5. We always thank God the

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Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. Love you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

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Now, Paul elsewhere, again, had written of the principal graces God gives his people. First Corinthians 13, 13.

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Now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. And if you'll notice carefully, if you were reading carefully,

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Colossians 1, 3 through 5, these three graces are listed, aren't they? Since I heard of your faith, since I heard of your love, and then he speaks about hope.

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All three, faith, hope, and love. He's got them in a different order here, rather than, you know, love, faith, and hope.

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Here he's got faith, love, and hope. But they're here, and you'll be able to find this, by the way, in a number of different places in the

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New Testament, these three graces. I'm not going to read Matthew Henry's comments, but he underscores that.

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Read that at your own convenience. And then we have, lastly, verses 5b through 7.

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Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it's bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God and truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant.

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We see here the message of our salvation is in the gospel, and here the gospel is referred to as the word of truth.

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See that? In the word of truth, even the gospel. The gospel, of course, is truth from God of who he is, what he's done in history, what he intends to do in the future.

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The gospel sets forth the Lord Jesus as the basis of the believer's salvation. It declares that faith must be placed in him, even as we turn from sin, repent, and believe on him.

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And this gospel had come to them at Colossae, and it was through this gospel they were brought to hear, believe, and commit themselves to live for Jesus Christ.

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It all came through the gospel. Take note of the extent to which the gospel had gone.

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Verse 6, of this you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world.

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As far as Paul was concerned, the gospel had gone out into the whole world. When we went through the book of Romans, we saw the same thing.

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Rome, the heart of the Roman Empire, he saw as the world being given the gospel.

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He saw this as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy regarding Israel, taking the glory of God to the nations.

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He also, I think, had in mind perhaps the words of our Lord in the Olivet Discourse. This gospel will go out into all the world, and then the end will come.

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And I believe what the Lord was talking about was the end of Jerusalem in A .D. 70.

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Before Rome would destroy Jerusalem in A .D. 70, the gospel would go out into all the

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Gentile world. And here in A .D. 60 or 62, he's declaring the gospel has gone out into all the world, and it's bearing fruit and increasing.

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And it was within eight to ten years that Jerusalem fell at the Roman armies. Many people take our

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Lord's words, where he says this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world, and the end will come.

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They actually say that's a different gospel than what we preach. That'll be a future gospel of the kingdom during the

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Tribulation, and after that gospel goes into all the world, proclaimed by Jewish people, then

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Jesus Christ will return. It's not the gospel of the kingdom that the church preaches. It'll be raptured out before the

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Tribulation, is what it said. It's strange when you think about it. Paul reasons, no, the gospel has gone out into all the world, and it's bearing fruit and it's increasing.

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Perhaps bearing fruit speaks of its inward transformation of people, increasing maybe speaks of its geographical expansion.

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But it's going out in all the world, and so it was a glorious thing as far as Paul was concerned.

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And these people at Colossae, although he'd never been there, he says you're recipients of this great work of grace.

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And then again, of course, he spoke about the gospel and how that it was their experience since the day they heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

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You have to hear it, right? And frankly, people, I don't hear it a lot. There's a lot of radio programs, a lot of television

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Christian programs, but I don't hear a lot of sound preaching regarding the gospel.

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It's simple things, like we're talking about today. They're not all that profound. They're pretty simple, straightforward, but I don't hear it.

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You got to hear it. We got to proclaim it, and then people have to understand it. You heard it, you understood the grace of God in truth, and as a result of hearing and understanding, then it begins to bear fruit and increase.

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And so they learned it from Epaphras. He was a faithful minister of Christ on behalf, on your behalf, and has made known to us that is your love in the

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Spirit. May the Lord use our church as a faithful minister of Christ, as Epaphras was, and may the

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Lord help us proclaim this gospel in all of its truth and glory, faithfully in our world today, in our generation, to the degree and extent

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God enables us, and let us pray that the Lord will bring increase, that he will enable it to bear fruit and see increase in our day.

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We would see many people come to true salvation in Christ. That should be our desire and prayer, should it not?

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And I think that's been our effort in and through this church, to do whatever we can to sow as much seed of the word as we possibly can, as God enables us, but we need to be praying faithfully for the

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Lord's blessing upon it. Raymond's been asking for volunteers to pray for our radio program as it goes forth.

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It's one thing to produce it, people have to hear it, but the Spirit has to give them understanding.

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We need to pray to that end. Let us do so, please. The other day I sat down, it took me an hour to put together 30 programs for the next two weeks, and we're putting it a lot out there now.

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You know, let's pray that the Lord would bless that, wherever it goes, to strengthen other churches and to help

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Christians as we seek to grow in Christ. Amen? Let's pray.

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Thank you, Father, for your word. We thank you for its clarity that is laid out before us here in Colossians 1.

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We pray for us to embrace these matters wholly and completely and apply them.

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We pray, our God, that the grace of hope would sustain your people that are going through difficulty, trials, as they wait,

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Lord, for answers to prayer, and as they continue in faith, even through their difficulties.

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May you encourage them and give them joy in believing, and we pray, our God, that our hope will soon be realized with the coming of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray that you would help us, Lord, to bring many souls with us into your presence.