Colossians 1:1-9 - The Symptoms of Salvation

How's everybody Good to see everyone today

Charlotte I she was talking to me while we were getting ready this morning. She said, you know, I Just love going to church and seeing everybody and getting to be with everybody and what a beautiful day, isn't it?

Little on the chilly side, but we needed that It was not nice when it gets hot and stuffy in Texas in the summer.

That's when you're gonna catch a cold, right? Need a little cool air, so it's great. Thank the Lord for that and for all of you.

Thank you for being here today We are going to start a new book the book of Colossians and It's shorter than Romans, so I wouldn't worry too much about the length of this one

Charlotte said well, how many verses you gonna cover tomorrow? I Didn't have the heart to tell her

Did you say words or verses All right, thank you

The rice family for being here today. They only drive two hours ten minutes. Not bad. I mean

I drive 40 minutes, so But we really appreciate you doing that and we love you being here.

Just come all the time That'd be great. You can come on Wednesday night if you want to But check with Katie first Because they're not always here

All right, let's go to Lord in prayer and we'll turn to Colossians chapter 1 verse 1

Lord. Thank you so much for your word and thank you for protecting us with your word and Thank you for your

Holy Spirit who wrote it and teaches it to us and thank you for connecting each of us together and together with you and the

Father and Bless us today with this amazing book that you've given us

Through the wonderful Apostle Paul. We all get to meet him someday and meet you someday

Lord And we thank you for that and bless the teaching of your word today in Jesus name.

Amen. Wow something We had Charlotte's sister had our family

Christmas party and Tyler So that's that's a couple hour drive from our house And I wrote over with Matt and Emily and we were listening to I guess a

YouTube Presentation is so funny because I had this sermon ready obviously

But when I listened to that, I thought wow this this book we're studying is going to talk about this very thing

But it was sad because it was a person that we all know it in our family a young man

I used to work for Tradeway brilliant Wonderful friendly great speaker great stock trader and he

I believe he loves the Lord, but I don't know how this works, but I Really do that.

I actually do know the mechanisms of it which we could discuss together probably will I was studied through this book, but He got off on some wrong doctrine and then he married a woman that was even farther out there whose mother is a preacher and Of course scripture says

I permit not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man So they're not supposed to be preachers.

But anyway, it just got worse and I heard a video Or a YouTube of them presenting their business where they kind of took some of our

Tradeway stuff, which is fine I mean he Acknowledged that he thanked the company that taught him everything.

He knows he didn't name us, which I'm kind of glad but So they're trying to use the business and Bible thing together

Which we were the first company to do that and I don't mind that but the problem is that They do not hold this book up as the highest authority they have something else up here and it's very very dangerous and I will tell you

The beginnings of it if you want to know The cause the root cause of this sort of amazingly terrible doctrine.

It's not even doctrine It's imaginations and well, it is doctrines Paul calls it doctrines of demons.

That's what it is But it starts By not believing the Holy Spirit when he writes in his word that tongues shall cease and words of knowledge shall cease and And prophecies shall cease

When that which is perfect is come and this is the only it's in the neuter in the Greek It means it's a thing.

This is the only thing on earth. That's perfect So when the Bible was completed those things ceased now if the

Holy Spirit says that and then in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 he says God spoke in time past which is

Old Testament through the fathers and the prophets And so forth But now he speaks to us differently then you have to go in the scripture and look and say, okay

How did he speak through the prophets? Well, how did he did it through visions through dreams? through words of knowledge words of wisdom that they could just speak and say

God told me to say this and Even transporting some of them into the heavenlies and back right

So those are the ways they spoke in Hebrews 1 1 says that's how he used to speak But now he speaks to us through his son

Jesus and this is the revelation of Jesus right here the written word so if you don't get that and You don't understand that the

Holy Spirit said I will not speak like that anymore. I'm speaking to you through this now

Then if you if you think okay Well, but I feel the Spirit teaching me things outside of this book beyond this book that are not even in this book

And I know that's God. We know you don't know that's God In fact, you know, it's not God because God won't lie and he will not contradict himself

And he said I don't if he says I don't do that anymore And then you think he does then let me tell you what else

Paul taught He said there are other Jesus's there other spirits and there are other Gospels So you're hearing a different spirit

It's not the Holy Spirit and these people that believe all this stuff They don't call it the Holy Spirit in him the

Holy Spirit anywhere. They call him the Spirit you just watch It's always the Spirit. Well, okay. It is a spirit and it is real and they all tell me well

You can't deny you can't tell me that what I'm happening in my life is not real. I said no No, no,

I do believe it's real. I just don't believe it's the Holy Spirit doing it I think it's a different spirit or it's your flesh

You just learned it from somebody's one of the two, but it's not the Holy Spirit And if you don't get that down, you don't have any idea how far you could go

In fact, I thought about playing part of it this morning and I thought you know what? I'm not gonna defile this building with that or these people with that.

It was so bad and I love the young man. Okay, there's no bitterness in my heart.

Nothing against him I had I let him go from the company because I said look

I know you love the Lord You love stock trading and I don't even mind you teaching some of the

Bible stuff like I do But make sure you don't teach something that you know I don't agree with and he knew what

I didn't agree with because I told well He just knew he's hung out with me a lot I said don't teach anything, you know,

I wouldn't agree with because these are my people and Then he did it three times after I told him not to so the third time

I had let him go Well now he's out there started his own company and teaching this bizarre stuff.

Y 'all wouldn't even believe it You would not even believe it and So It was eye -opening and it was so weird because I was listening to it last night on the road and It's right in here in this sermon preparation.

Maybe not get to that part today But I mean, you know, I'm reading what the

Lord is telling us here and it's gonna touch on it Anyway, it's just it's sad, but I will tell you this that is the biggest

Heretical movement in the world is the charismatic movement and you can say well, they're friendly they are friendly

They seem to be loving But the Apostle Paul was never Super nice to people that were teaching false doctrine.

He was a little more serious than we get about it He would say things like don't wish them.

Godspeed. Don't even tell him. Goodbye He said don't let them in your church for as long as an hour

The Apostle Paul is very strict on things that contradict this Bible or things that people add to it because the there's two places in the

Bible once in the book of Revelation and once in The Old Testament where it says anyone who adds to or take away from the words of this book will be cursed

So when you start saying that, you know in the guise of Christianity you start teaching things

I'll just give you an example. I mean you won't believe it anyway But here's an example that the way that you're supposed to and don't

I'm not gonna quote it exactly, right? Because I didn't even get to this part on the tape last night But I heard this previously at the point when

I had let him go I heard this He said so what you'd and they're teaching Christians this that you you have to have an out -of -body experience that you want to leave your body and in the spirit go to heaven and Find Satan and confess your sins to Satan and Then something else after that, but I lost my attention at that point

Because show me that in this book anywhere It's totally what I would call not only unbiblical but extra biblical.

It ain't in the Bible, right? and Yet I heard him tell

The story last night on the thing. I was listening to he said, you know My wife was starting to tell me his new wife at the time was starting to tell me she was seeing visions and God and hearing

You know that she was transporting herself into heaven and seeing Yahweh. She didn't call him

God. She calls him Yahweh every time Like so many cult people like to do, you know, you know,

God is not good enough. Jesus is not good enough Jehovah's not even good enough. It's Yahweh, right?

So Yahweh was speaking to other personages and she was watching and they were saying should we reveal to them this stuff?

are they ready at this new stuff and She said I cut God off. I didn't let

God finish and I said no we're not ready But of course by the time they did this tape now, they're ready and they're teaching this stuff

Wow so There you have it. Now. How do you get that?

How do you get to that place? You believe there's still Apostles and there's still prophets and there are not now

Prophesying has two meanings in the Bible. One is just to speak forth God's Word and I do that Several people in our church to do that some of you do that But the key meaning of prophesying is that God will speak to you and tell you something that's gonna happen in the future

And you can tell God's people that that has ceased and the Bible says it ceased the Holy Spirit wrote it and said it ceased

And when you say it didn't you're calling the Holy Spirit a liar And when you do that the demonic spirits come in and say oh, well,

I'll teach you, you know I'll teach you you'd like like you don't like how God did it.

Let's do it this way and they know Enter in and make you believe all kinds of nonsense So there's a warning for us.

Let's go to Colossians 1 you'll see this throughout this book so I thought I'd give you a little slight introduction there

Colossians 1 chapter 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timotheus our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae Grace be unto you and peace from God our

Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ that last little phrase is Something that Paul says at the front end of almost all of his letters and it's almost always the same

Maybe one or two words different, but it's very similar in every letter So we know this is from Paul.

We know Paul is the author of this letter Verse 3 says we give thanks to God and the

Father our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you Since we heard of your faith, he's talking about the church at Colossae.

And by the way, this church was in a home It was a very small smaller group than this and it was in a person's house and Here the great apostle

Paul is giving thanks for this little bitty group of Christians All right, and he says

I Pray for you always since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ and of the love which you have for all believers all saints and for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel which is coming to you as it is in all the world and it brings forth fruit as It doth also in you since the day that you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth as You also learned of a papyrus which

This man is the local pastor. He is the local elder in this little house church

You heard the gospel from this man Our dear fellow servant. So Paul knew papyrus very well and Honored him here as an elder or pastor who is for you a faithful minister of Jesus Christ Who also declared unto us your love in the spirit talking about the pastor told me

Paul how much? the church loves Other Christians and loves the

Lord so love is a big word a bit a big adjective that describes this local church and For this cause we also since the day we heard of it do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and In all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

So Charlotte, I'm covering nine verses All right. Can you believe it not words verses?

So let's talk about what do we see so far in this passage and After we talk about what we see in that little portion of Scripture I do want to give you an overview of the background of this book who wrote it when it was written and I should say who penned it because we know the

Holy Spirit wrote it But who's the human author that penned it and the date and so forth and the town and the part of the world it was in We'll talk about that a little bit because it can help us to interpret some passages

If you understand what's going on in the people that Paul's preaching to in their lives their day -to -day lives

First what do we see in this passage? Well, let me ask you this Who is this?

book of the Bible written to you need whenever you're trying to interpret Scripture you want to ask who's it written to and What's the primary teaching in it to that person or group of people and is there a secondary application to me or not?

And so who is this written to can you tell look at the scripture if you need to you can cheat you can look at the scripture

Mm -hmm Okay The Saints and faithful brethren, is that how it words it?

Okay, so Obviously born -again people now when he adds the phrase why would he say

Saints and faithful brethren does that sound redundant? It kind of does but it's really not if you think about it

Because wouldn't you agree if we had a much larger church if we had say 500 people

Which isn't big by today's standards That within that 500 people we'd have a few tears

Right, but wouldn't they call themselves Saints church members? Of course they would

So he adds faithful brethren because it's really hard to be faithful if you're a tear for very long because the

Bible says it's kind of like seeds that are sown on the rocky soil and And they spring up quickly because there's no depth of dirt but when the

Sun comes out which represents persecution and trials and tribulations and things that Christians have to go through with the

Lord and Learn of the Lord. They're going through those things. They wither up and dry away and die because they have no what?

Root and who's the root? Jesus so they don't really have Jesus It's religion that they got and it doesn't last long in a church that preaches the truth by it just preaches the

Bible They can't handle it for very long about nine months. No, I'm kidding You know a few months.

It's different with different people, but not very long so So here we see that this book is written to true genuine born -again

Christians period not anybody else It's not written to the world.

It's not written to the Dallas Cowboys. So I am praying for them today And It's they need it.

But anyway, so like it's not it's not written to Washington. It's not it's not written to our politicians

This letter is written to us us so you need to know that to interpret it properly because when it says things like we or you or things like that is

Talking to us not the whole world and it boy if you don't know that right there, you can really get off Some bad

Bible interpretation and bad doctrine. But anyway, we know that now, right? So that's first thing is that it's not written to everybody in the world.

It's reborn again people as versus one and two All right the second thing we notice is

That the older more mature Christians and I'm looking at verse 3 now if you want to glance at it But the older and more mature

Christians, especially the leaders in the church Must be thankful for the younger

Christians and pray for them all the time The the people that are newborn again people that are just starting to grow in the word

Why do you think it's so important for those of us that have been saved for a long time? And been in the word a long time to be thankful for the new ones and also to pray for them all the time

Because of what I talked about before I started the sermon the thing that the charismatic and Pentecostals are fantastic at is

Taking the new people that the Lord brings to us and grabbing them out of our church and pulling them into theirs

That's called proselyting Because they just love to grab new Christians that don't know much and pull them in because they can teach them false doctrine very

Easily, whereas they try to teach Dave Huber that or senior that are just about anyone in our pews here

Stuff that's not in this book. They're gonna have a major problem, aren't they? And that's why they don't stick around here long because if they come in there are people that come in I've done this 40 years

Okay, so trust me people come in unawares that you think are great people and they want to pull people off into their house

And teach them something that's not being taught here. And what's being taught here is like the Apostle Paul said he said look

He's gonna say that in this book too. I'm getting ahead of myself He says look the things that I have taught stick with that The things you have learned of me stick with that because he says there will be

False teachers unawares that will come into your church privilege Which means secretly to take your liberty away and a lot of times they'll get into legalism and rules and things like that They are just false doctrine or things like you've got to have an out -of -body experience

Float around in heaven and talk to Satan when you wanted to you know to get rid of your sins

Okay, really? Really and that's biblical Christianity. I haven't seen that in any

Commentator in 2 ,000 years and I've read them back that far I've never seen one Christian teacher that believed that other than the

Gnostics and I will tell you this There is nothing new under the Sun because what I heard on that tape last night is nothing but Gnosticism Which was the very first false group in Bible history in the

New Testament And it happened to be in Colossae. We'll get to that too. It was the first group

It's exactly what I heard on that tape and they think that they have new revelation and it's new and they're teaching something new

They said it probably five times. Oh, yeah, this is new and we're so happy to share with people. No, it's like 2 ,000 years old and They're just too ignorant of church history to know that and that's how they got deceived

And by the way, most of the people in their group are female teachers and the Bible says

I permit not a woman To teach the man and then it tells you why it says because the woman in the

Garden of Eden was deceived By Satan and the man was not so she's more apt to get involved in false doctrine

So gentlemen do not sit under female teachers. I don't care who it is You just don't do it.

It's unbiblical Now if you're at home, that's different. There are examples in the

Bible where Couples the man and the woman can disciple a new believer But in the church scenario where we're where we're protecting the doctrine.

We're protecting the truth In our Sunday school our church or Wednesday night services

Women are not to teach men and men are not to sit under women as far as teaching doctrine and yet here they go

That's I mean what you guys listen to it with me. Wouldn't you agree that 90 % of time?

The woman who was sponsoring was a female but then the guy's wife we're doing the talking

And and so much that everyone's why she'd have to say honey Would you like to bring something in and he would talk for like 20 seconds and then the women would take back over now

Women you need men in your life to protect you from demonic things

You don't hear that in church hardly much anymore at all. But the Bible holds the man responsible Protecting the what protecting the wife and the children from demonic influence and false teaching and if there is no man in the home

The wife has to do it and she can if she has one of these Might not have exactly this kind with a nice electrical tape holding it together.

But you any good Bible will work and So there you have it.

So Now this is interesting. So the older more mature Christians.

Why do you think I mean, it's clear Why you got to pray for the new babies because people don't try to snatch them away just like little lambs

You know lions like to get the little ones and the sick ones They don't come at the ones that can fight them and you think well sheep can't fight him

Well cows can I've I used to be a shepherd of cattle whatever you call that I won't say cowboy because I ain't gonna claim to be a cowboy

But I took care of my grandfather's cattle from the time. I was eight till I went to college The only job

I ever had till I went to college so I know how it works with cows is a wolf could come in and they can get a sick cow or at one that's nearly dead or a

One just born that's all they can get and that's who they go for it You know what because a wolf does not want to fight a full -grown healthy cow mama cow.

He won't do it Did you know Satan is like that? It says he roams around seeking whom he may devour which means he can't devour everybody in this room

So he's gonna get the weak ones and the babies so that's why we pray for them and that's in verse 3

But why do you think it says we're supposed to be thankful for them the baby Christians? Because if you're not thankful for them you get a little bit tired of changing diapers sometimes

But we're all thankful for our babies, aren't we? We don't even think about it that way We just change the diaper because we want to see that smile when you hold them up, right and it's worth it.

I Love changing diapers, you know, I I called up Ben one day not too long ago. I said, can

I come over there and Bathe some babies and change some diapers and he said yeah, you can come do that But but with baby

Christians, they can create some problems and ask some weird questions and all this stuff and he said well You should already know that well, they don't know that so you've got to be thankful that the

Lord brings them and you got to Help start discipling them and it's a great honor

To be able to do that Anyone in this room is equipped to be a disciple er of almost any new

Christian I mean because you know so much and you think they're gonna know it. They don't know it All right.

So what's the next thing we learn? I call it symptoms of salvation You know how when you have a cold you get a scratchy throat or runny nose and red eyes and all that stuff

Someone comes up to you and says I got a terrible cold Can I get off work or not go to school today, but they don't have a runny nose.

They don't have a scratchy throat They're not coughing their eyes look fine. You just kind of think they want to skip they don't have any of the symptoms

So you don't really think they have a cold Well, there are symptoms of Christianity that if people don't have them,

I don't really think they're saved now I don't know that but I don't think they're saved you see the difference

I'm not judging. I'm discerning if they don't have the symptoms. I don't think they're saved now.

I Try to guard my tongue and not talk about that to other people if I think that but unless it's an elder or a deacon

That need to know it like the leadership of the church, but but what are these symptoms?

We'll look at verse 4 first of all Since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ.

So the first symptom is they're a believer Well, that's kind of basic, isn't it?

But did you know there's not a man woman boy or girl in this world that is capable of believing on their own because of the depravity of man

They're so blinded by their own sinful state that they were born in they did they cannot believe on their own

So the Holy Spirit and this book the water the water and the Spirit had to bring that faith to them

So I want to see some faith, right? secondly Since we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ, that's the object of the faith not

Buddha not Muhammad Jesus Christ and We're not all trying to get to heaven through different methods that that's false doctrine

Jesus said I'm the only way the truth in life. No man comes to the Father, but by me It's a very exclusive Teaching in the

Bible about Jesus So it's faith in Jesus Christ the second symptom is love what you have for all other believers now

That's the biggie for me because I can't see their faith if I just met him I mean, I might watch them five ten years and figure out they've got faith

You know because I can see the fruits over time Maybe not five years, but you know months long months and years so you can see the faith

But the love I mean you can tell kind of immediately if a person is kind general

Gentle -hearted and loving other people or if they're not Like are they trying to cause division and hurt people or do they love people want to edify people with their words?

Say words that lift them up or do they cut people down or you know? What is that like that when you can see pretty early on?

And if you don't see love you need to be really wary of that person. It's still okay to pray for them It's okay to love them

But don't don't show them the soft underbelly of your heart because they'll rip it out

Sometimes if you don't see love that is the top symptom symptom of Salvation my mouth is so dry today

Paul You got that love key symptom faith and love and then

It goes on and says love what they have for each other and then look at verse 5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven

Rob you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel so hope which is laid up in heaven

Which you know by the Bible is a symptom of salvation now. What is that now?

That's a long phrase hope which is laid up in this person in heaven, which they know

By the Bible that tells me something else. They're reading their Bible. They used to hate the

Bible. It was boring It was too big. It was too boring didn't like it didn't want to mess with it Didn't want to be around God's people didn't want to be in church and all sudden boom

The Bible is interesting may not understand much of it But it's interesting and they're looking for the stuff they can understand and they're asking you questions

Symptom of salvation I saw that Noah so big when he got saved.

I mean gosh every five seconds Oh, what does this mean? How does that work? Well, how do you put that together and before he figured it all out?

He's already preaching to his family back home his mom and dad and making sure they get it great symptom of Salvation now, what's the next one verse 6 talks about fruit.

Do you see that? Fruit so they start to grow they start you know What some of the fruits are the fruits of the

Spirit love joy peace long -suffering Which means patience because I didn't get any natural natural

My brain cannot go as fast as my mouth today or backwards. I don't know which is which I Know what it is that tape

I listened to last night. I'm speaking in tongues Bought a

Kawasaki should have bought a Honda Did that pretty well If you want to learn that come on up later, we'll have the children come up I'll teach the children to speak in tongues.

Don't you think it's funny that they have to teach people what supposedly is a spiritual gift? Isn't that funny?

There's a lots of funny stuff about that movement That is not in this book right here If you want to talk to an authority about it talk to me

It has been my favorite subject for 40 years and my daughters will tell you that Katie and Jenny used to tease me out

I'm bad your favorite thing is tongues tongue -speaking, you know, but study to show yourself approved

I mean, you can always learn something new What else what else they have besides Kawasaki and Honda see you

Yamaha you could add that got something new. All right So The third thing

I see is The thing that brings the faith and hope and fruit to Christians is hearing the truth which is the gospel and Knowing the grace of God in truth in other words not salvation by works but by grace

All right, so we see that in verse 6 Which all of the this these things that Paul says these symptoms that you have he said it comes to you and The Gospels gone to you like it did in the whole world

That means the world of the day that they lived in the Roman Empire, basically and that gospel which is the

Bible brought fruit as It does in you and since the day you heard it and knew the grace of God very important because the

Bible is concise But it picked it emphasized that as you read that Bible you heard grace.

You did not hear legalism if You're a goat Or even a lost sheep

You're gonna pick up on the rules and like it Because now I can be more spiritual than you because I can do more stuff than you can do and I can prove it by Showing the stuff and that's real either real baby

Christian or lost person That's in the church that likes to bleep our false teacher that comes in unawares.

It wants to teach legalism But the Bible says that as far as these symptoms of salvation that these people read the

Bible they had fruit They had love but they knew the grace of God in that truth. Well, where's the truth?

It's right here So as they read this Bible, they saw grace They saw that you're saved by grace without and apart from the works of the law

That the works of the law have nothing to do with the cause of your salvation

Now, yeah read the book of James It says we're supposed to obey the Lord and walk with him and be doing the stuff we believe but those are the effects of the

Salvation not the cause of it and and people don't get that right, but we have to help people get that right

So that's what I mean by grace. They see the grace of God as they read the

Bible Most people learn the truth by hearing it preached by faithful elders such as a papyrus the pastor at Colossae and I see that in verse 7 as you also learn from this faithful pastor it says

So they they didn't just pick that up on their own. They heard a faithful pastor preaching this book

Not extra new stuff that some demon told him in his head and he thought it was the Holy Spirit not that But the

Word of God the very Word of God, you know why it's so important that tongue ceased

Do you know why it's so important that prophesying and telling the future and all of these Old Testament concepts ceased?

Because all of that is subjective if I come up to you and say hey God told me that you need to have an out -of -body experience even though I've never seen a

Christian in 2 ,000 years that taught that but Buddha taught it and the Hindus believe it and Maybe Islamics believe but I know witches and warlocks believe it, but I don't know any

Christians that believe it But so if I come up to you and say hey God told me though God told me to tell you that you need to go out of your body and travel into heaven

Talk to Satan confess your sins to him and then maybe and come hopefully you make it back to your body in time for lunch

And if I were to teach you that sort of thing You need to ask me.

Where did you get that in the Bible, right? Where did you see that from the

Bible? and You're not going to see it in a church with a faithful preacher who's in the word.

You just he's not gonna see that So all of these things fit together Most people learn the truth by hearing it preached by faithful elders and by faithful I mean they want to preserve the truth.

They will not let anything come into the church. That is false it's not in the Bible and from the

Holy Spirit and By the way, if it's from the Holy Spirit, it will never contradict the scripture

Well, so when someone is telling you that God told them that well there's still Apostles and still prophets and I am one and and therefore

I'm telling you new information you need to Cut the cords of you know, take take a sword out of your mouth

This is quoting from what they teach take a sword out of your mouth and cut the cords That tie you to the demons and free yourself in your out -of -body experience in heaven you go up there and you do that Then you come back and you'll be fine.

So you like you hear someone teaching that let me tell you what you do You take these shoes right here

I need two For flat feet

You think they smell bad now wait till I get done with them Now you got these old puppies on and you head for that door as fast as you can run

Are you come to my house as a brother David they're picking on me. Give me some ammo. I have got ammo

Right Noah, I got ammo right Paul Well, so it's just Bible These are nice.

I'm gonna keep these I was wearing your blue jeans last night, by the way to party True. It's true the fifth symptom of salvation is

Agape love and I find that in verses 7 and so forth where it talks about love

Only in the spirit verse 8 Who also declared unto me your love in the spirit?

That's the word agape which you can't even have that if you're not born again You won't you there's no way to have agape without being born again.

So there's another symptom of Salvation that's the kind of love that like you can treat me bad and I still love you

That's from God that is not human. Okay, and then the sixth thing I see is for this cause

We also since the day we heard it do not cease to pray for you so you begin to pray for your brothers and sisters and Then the seventh thing and desire that you might be filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding

So those are the symptoms of salvation All right, so for me some of the most awe -inspiring

Revelation from God to us his children is found in this book that we're about to start studying the book of Colossians in fact the very cause of your regeneration the thing that made it happen the

Cause of it is Nowhere laid out more clearly than in this book. We're going to start studying

It is crystal clear what causes your regeneration Now I don't say salvation because salvation is a bigger topic regeneration is one thing in the whole of the teachings on salvation because Salvation includes growing in the spirit walking in the spirit

You know, it includes Jesus being our intercessor in heaven and keeping us going it includes many things

Sanctification justification propitiation. I mean, it's cute salvation is a big set with a lot of subsets the most important subset if you put it as the heart of the target the bullseye of the target is your

Regeneration and usually when we say sound like a Baptist anyway And I have a Baptist background when

I say I got saved what I mean is I got regenerated Because I'm not I didn't get saved.

I'm still being saved You do know that right because salvation in the Bible is taught in the past present future tense

So it's ongoing it saves you to eternity put to age unto age. You're saved

By the blood of Jesus plus nothing by the way so it's age unto age and when

I say plus nothing I'm saying that in the in the sense that the Puritans minute when they used it there really are things in addition to the blood because if you think about it his his advocacy right now before the father is is

Ongoing now it's because of the blood he couldn't do that if he didn't sprinkle the blood could he but he's still doing more for us

He didn't just die for us He's living for us right now And when Satan comes and attacks you and in your conscience and says how did you do that if you're saved you're not even saved

You don't listen to him You just say get behind me Satan and Lord send him away

Rebuke him and send him away bind him up send him away Because I know you saved me because your word says you did and it says you saved me to the uttermost how much is that you can't get any more most than uttermost and You remind

Satan of that and you ask the Lord to send him away So the cause of our regeneration is nowhere laid out more clearly than in this book and Everything else beyond that cause is an effect.

It doesn't other words. It doesn't Regenerate you it happens because you are regenerated.

So the cause is really important to understand in fact, it may be the difference between Between this church and churches similar to this church around and around the country the difference between churches like this and the typical big line denomination of the day like Southern Baptist and bad was because most for the most part they

Do not understand the difference between the cause and the effects. They honestly don't I talked to preachers off quite a bit

I read what they write quite a bit and Or I listened on YouTube to stuff

Ben sends me quite a bit and and I can tell you they have lost the true gospel and What it is that is the cause of salvation and by that I mean regeneration they've lost the cause of it and they've added some of the effects and made them to be the cause and that is the first Fall in the cycle of the demise of a church group through history.

You can see it again again they get through a cycle from sovereignty of God to humanism and when they get to humanism and it's all the stuff we do that saves us and Most groups are into that now believe it or not.

That's why we took Baptist off the sign You were asking that's why we took it off the side. I love the Baptist history.

I love Charles Spurgeon my favorite Christian that ever lived Since Paul since the

Apostle Paul, I mean And he was a Baptist, but they were different back then They understood the things of Scripture back then and now boy, you could spend a whole day debating things.

It shouldn't be debated. Isn't that true? Just you really could and we don't like doing that too much

It's kind of a waste of time. I'd rather find new people and teaching the truth and Instead of arguing with some pastor that's doesn't see this.

So these these wonderful truths on the cause of salvation the cause of regeneration are

Right out of the book of Colossians It took me many years to see this by the way

Because I grew up Southern Baptist here in the south and I was taught that you know Well, Jesus died and he provided a gift and he holds it out

But it's up to you to come take the gift and if you do you've determined your eternal destiny You'll go to heaven and if you don't you determined your destiny and you're gonna go to hell

It's you that determined it not God and I don't find that in the Bible now that I've studied for 40 years But when

I first got saved that's what I was taught and that's what I believed and I even taught it for a while as a young preacher and God forbid and forgive me

Lord, but I didn't know better but even this I Learned better really quickly on that by the way, but as far as really nailing down this concept of the actual cause of Regeneration, I honestly didn't see that till a couple years ago

I was over 65 years old and been in the ministry, you know Right at 40 years before I saw it in the way that you're gonna see it here in the book of Colossians now

I understood it through other scriptures But I didn't see what you're gonna see in this book until maybe a couple of years ago and understand what it meant when we talk about the difference between the cause of Regeneration and the effects of it.

So you're gonna see that as we as we go through this also So Let's look at verse 13

In Colossians chapter 2 just skip over there. I just want to kind of end this little this little portion of Opening up the book with this

Colossians 2 Colossians 2 13 This is a this is a really good

I mean this shows you where we're headed in this book This is just such high high

Magnificent truth that you could never have from a humanistic brain of a human

You could only have it from revelation from heaven to earth Which is this is the only way you could have this knowledge and look what it says and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, that's the doctrine

Just forgot the name of it of depravity of man That is the doctrine of the depravity of man right there and very briefly, but succinctly described you

Who were dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh, so let me ask you this what can a dead person decide to do nothing

So he's influenced by either Satan the Holy Spirit his mom and his dad his grandma. He's influenced by something

He didn't just in and of himself figure stuff out Okay, so he's depraved and he needs revelation.

That's how we were before we got saved, isn't it? And You her were like that Hath he who is he?

Oh It's not the pastor. It's not that Roman Catholic Church. It's not the Roman Baptist Church.

It's you know, it's not methodo -catholicism It's he who is that name his name?

It's Jesus Christ Hath he quickened you together with him?

so when you got Regenerated it happened at the same time Jesus rose from the dead

When was that a couple of thousand years ago when he was resurrected says right here you were raised with him

So, how did you have anything to do with it? See how many preachers do you hear teach that today?

Because it's all like you come down here and he's given the gift now You need to decide will you take this gift or not? And if you decide if you just say yes and say dear

Jesus come on save me shave my hand shake my hand now We're gonna baptize you and you're going to heaven That's not what this verse says

This verse says he Quickened you he brought you alive

Together with his son Jesus when he brought him to life, which was 2 ,000 years ago

Wow, I mean that's an interesting revelation of the cause of self of Regeneration so he hath quickened you together with him

Having forgiven you all your trespasses Now your conscience finds that hard to believe and you've got to pray about that and you've got to go read 1st

John 1 9 Probably a lot even as a mature Christian and believe the big thing is you can you've memorized 1st

John 1 9 Okay, but you got to believe it even as a mature Christian because as sure as you mess up this week

I hope you don't but if you do and you sin You're gonna feel dirty and You should feel dirty and so should

I but you don't want Satan to use that bad conscience To cause you to quit or to give up So you go to 1st

John 1 9 and you find out that he says wait a minute if you agree with me that that was A sin that it was sinful

Then I am faithful and just to forgive you your sins faithful means he'll do it every time just means it's right for Jesus to Do that because he died for you in your place and it's paid for and you're ransomed

And I'll forgive your sins and cleanse you from how many unrighteousnesses. Oh Wow, now my conscience is clean, even though it may not feel clean

It'll get to feel clean really quick. If you will just believe that verse is true. I Mean, do you believe it's true or not it either true or not true?

So if it's true, then your conscience needs to be put behind you. It's part of your flesh probably it's your brain, right?

So put it behind you and just walk with Jesus get up and go ahead go again. So that's that's it

So he has quickened us together with Christ and when he did it He forgave us of all the sins we would do in our entire lifetime because you have to remember this happened 2 ,000 years ago you haven't done any sins at that point

But in God's mind he could see your whole life span and every sin you ever do your whole life and they were all forgiven already before you were born into this world and Before you knew you were his and I love the way brother

Otis used to say it Although I didn't used to say it from the pulpit because I don't find it to be biblical language But he put it this way.

He said when you say you got saved What really happened was you got notified? Because you were his child before the foundation of the world the book of Ephesians in Romans chapter 8 many other places say

You were his already. You just didn't know it And so when the Holy Spirit called you and awakened you he notified you that you belong to the

Lord now live like it, right? I like that concept. It is exactly what happened and so You're forgiven now look look look at how forgiven you are

Being dead in your you were dead in your sins Now he's brought you alive.

That's what quicken means. He's brought you alive from the dead Together with Christ as he resurrected him.

He resurrected you having forgiven you all Trespasses now look at this.

He didn't just forgive him He blots him out and not only does he blot him out he blots out all legalism

There is no legalistic set of rules that can bind you or hold you anymore in this whole life

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against you when people try to sneak in This church or any other church with Christians in it and start teaching me

Yeah, but you got to worship on Saturday because that's really the Sabbath that's legalism Yeah, but you need to do this.

That's legalism. Well, yeah, it's good We believe in Jesus and you're saved by grace But you got to do this this and this if you're a man you got a really short hair if you're a woman you never wear

Pants you wear only dresses and things up to here But the men go out and wear Bermuda shorts and wear whatever they want to it's always the women that take the brunt of Legalism and then what you see in legalistic churches is you always find immorality and adultery it goes hand in hand

It doesn't work. You cannot tame this body with rules or yours either You gotta think we need to tame that one up there, but you can't do yours either

You have to count it dead You have to count it crucified buried and Resurrected with Christ 2 ,000 years ago.

So I live like that because that's the truth in my life and Dave you taught it So that's called positional truth

Positional righteousness and we have that and you can't take it away and you can't get rid of it

So blotting out the handwriting of ordinances rules don't have anything to do with you Paul said all things are lawful for me and all these all of these

I get a little tired of Commentary sometimes because they're all try to you know, they'll all try to say well, it doesn't really mean that It means what it says all things are lawful for us as Christians.

We're not bound by any law They don't keep us. They don't bind us, but it wasn't a period after that He said all things are lawful to me, but yet not all things are expedient

That means not all things are good for me Not all things make me a better light and salt in this world Some things make me so dark people won't even know

I'm a Christian So I need to stay away from those and he said and even though they're all lawful.

I Will not be bound by one of them Paul did not have a A Habit problem just lost my voice again.

What do you call a habit problem? Hmm? What do we call him today?

An addiction Paul did not have one and yet everything was lawful for him.

He could smoke a cigar if he wanted to Now back then they might not have known he'd give you throat cancer

I Don't tell Charlotte I've been sneak sneaking him out in the barn

No and all kidding aside I quit smoking when I was 13, so 12 actually so This you know the ordinances in the handwriting of the law was against us

Which was contrary to us. Would you agree that the Apostle Paul said look? I would I would have probably never coveted if God hadn't said thou shall not covet didn't he say that So the very law itself will make you sin now.

I'm not blaming it on the law It's it's our fallen nature the flesh the old man just as contrary to us when

God makes rules as contrary We're just not going to keep them Adam and Eve didn't keep them. We got their genes in The flesh

I'm glad we have a new man. It's resurrected Bible says he won't sin, but look at this

It was contrary to us, and he took it out of the way, and what did he do with legalism? He nailed it to the cross

He nailed your sins your bad conscience Every rule that you can't keep that other super righteous

Christians say you have to still keep he nailed all that to the cross And that's what the

Bible says You don't have to transport your spirit into heaven and go talk to the devil about your sins

That is nowhere in the Bible what the Bible that says is Jesus nailed it to the cross and when he did it

He defeated Satan and there's no way in the world I'm ever gonna talk to Satan and you'll see these charismatic and Pentecostal town

They'll say I demand you to come out from this person last time I saw somebody do that in the Bible the demon jumped on him and said

I know Paul and Who was the other one Steve was it Peter? I know Peter and I know Paul, but you

I don't know and they jumped on he almost destroyed this man I mean you don't you don't command

Satan or demons to do anything you say Lord Jesus Would you please bind them and rebuke him and send them away you let

Jesus do it, right? And so all of it is right here. It's so clear But it's not enough it's kind of like the manna the

Jews just They just whined and said Lord give us meat The manna which pictures this book is just not enough.

We need more So he sends so many quails it made him sick they dropped out of heaven all over him almost killed him like hail, but there were quails and That's a funny thing that God did but but you see the charismatic and Pentecostals and people that want to believe that I will be dead honest with you.

This is not enough for them In fact Christianity is not enough. They need new age movement stuff

On the tape they even called it, you know, the mystical part mysticism, that's first century

Gnosticism I was going to get to that today, but I'm using too much time preaching through the scripture here

So blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us Which was contrary to us and took it out of the way

Nailing it to the cross and listen to this when he did that When he put his hands on that cross and they drove those nails into those hands and those feet

He spoiled Principalities and power and spiritual wickedness in high places and defeated them

He made a show of them openly to all of the invisible

Created universe which means the heavenlies the angels the demons Everything that could see what was going on and a few humans that could see it

He made a show of Satan in front of all of them as a loser He did it.

I don't have to do it. I can't do it. I cannot defeat him I can stand against him though.

And that's what the Bible says to do Resisting you resisting with this book.

He will use it against you and try to get you to make this say stuff. It doesn't say Do you know when that young man asked his wife?

Well, this is all so weird so different than what anything I've ever been taught Can you show me anywhere in the Bible where it says that she said?

Oh, yeah, just check out Ezekiel He transported into heavenly Look at Paul.

He Prince transported into heaven and looked around came back. Look at John He wrote the whole book of Revelation after he went to heaven saw that stuff.

That's what I'm doing So what does she think she is? She is a prophet or an

Apostle, thank you. You can see that brain of mine going slow today an apostle Right.

That's what she thinks she is So therefore she's now free to just make up anything She wants to make up and make her little mind think

God put that in her little mind, but my mentor dr Freeman said you know what? I don't care how strong you are and how long you've been in the word and how tough you are as a

Christian I Defy you to prove to me that a thought pops in your mind that that's from God not from the devil

He said you cannot know Demons are smarter than you they can appear as God as angels of righteousness and their preachers can too

And they can put a thought in your mind and convince you God put that there How many times do you and I say in our homes?

I think the Lord's moving me to do this I just think the Lord's telling me to do this. How do you know? Yeah, I think it's an important question to ask

This young couple that was on this tape. They're convinced God gave them this stuff They are convinced God gave them something new that no one ever had and this right here just was not enough now you've got to have them in their ministry and send them money and You've got to have that too with this it's just so creepy and so evil

Having spoiled all of that principalities and powers he made a show of them openly

Triumphing over them in it means through their death through his death on the cross and so then the passage goes on at that point to show all of the

Legalistic systems in the world and how they have zero power over Christians and we'll get to that stuff later

But before we do that, we'll have to go back to chapter 1 now what we'll do next time I just wanted to get into chapter 1 so we made our way through Verse 3rd was at 13

Yeah through 9 oh, yeah that was chapter 2 where I went in 13 so chapter 1 1 through 9 so that's covered

But next time before we go into any more of the scripture I'm gonna give you some background historical information about Colossae and it will be meaningful as we move on through these

Scriptures to understand the audience that the man Paul was speaking to in the

Holy Spirit used that man's Personality his knowledge. I mean he was the Jew of Jews He knew the law better than the other

Pharisees knew him when he got saved. He knew this book already Now he didn't know it

Like he did after he got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and then it opened up to him but man

Scholastically, there was no one more intellectual than Paul as a man But he said, you know what?

I don't speak with big words and flowery language. He said I speak in the power of the Holy Ghost and That's what

I love about Paul. But anyway as we get into the audience He was speaking to it's going to be helpful

To understand some of the minute details of some of the meanings in these phrases in these verses

So we'll we'll come back and do that next time and probably have time to do a two three verses also So let's stand and have prayer together

Lord we thank you so much for your word and how it guides us is the light to our feet and Lord it guides us down the path of our life.

We need never be Taken by false preachers or teachers Lord every wind of doctrine is out there.

We don't be tossed to and fro by those because we have the book and thank you for making us people of the book and Lord we thank you that you lifted your word higher

Than your name and we thank you Lord that you have given us the Holy Spirit to help us interpret in Each other to keep each other straight and correct one another when we get outside the bounds of Holy Scripture and Lord, we ask you to help us to be salt light for our friends that don't understand these things yet to maybe be an influence for Good Lord go with us into our time of fellowship and bless the meal.