Book of Colossians - Ch. 4, Vs. 1-18 (11/11/2001)

Good afternoon. We are in Colossians chapter four and shall finish the book today.

And we'll go elsewhere next time. So Colossians chapter four, verse one.

Let us pray and we'll begin. Lord, thank you for our fellowship time today, our services, your presence with us and the way you speak to our hearts through your word and by your

Holy Spirit. And we ask you to do the same now in Jesus' name, amen. It says, masters given to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

Continue in prayer and watching in the same with thanksgiving with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which

I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak.

Let's stop there a minute. This passage begins by reminding those who are in authority to be generous to people who work for them because they also have a master in heaven.

And it's an interesting reminder in verse one to those who are in positions of authority to be merciful leaders and good to their people that are working with them.

And then when he starts with verse two and goes down through about verse four, there is a parallel passage in Ephesians chapter six.

If you'd like to look at it, if not, I'll read it. It starts with about verse 18, Ephesians 6, 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, watching there into with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.

Well, that parallels this passage in Colossians four very well, especially starting with verse three, where it says pray also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which

I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. We should be praying for one another that as we go about our lives, our day -to -day walk,

Monday through, till we come back here to meet together the next time, that as we walk our day -to -day walks, we might have the right door opened to speak the gospel.

Now, there are some things we can learn from this. First of all, it implies very strongly that doors are not always open to speak the gospel.

Now, there are some who have the opinion that you should witness everywhere you go all the time to everybody, buttonhole them, get them up against the wall where they can't move and say, now,

I'm gonna give you the gospel starting in Genesis and going through Revelation. And you can even learn techniques.

Myron and I, when we were younger, we knew how to, in fact, I've seen Myron, he had four people on a street corner in Mahea and won them all to the

Lord in two minutes. Four salvations in two minutes. And he and I both now, looking back at that, wonder if anything at all really happened spiritually.

And the wonderful thing is, one of them or more of them may have been saved, but you can't make that happen.

And so it's very instructive to look in both of these passages in Colossians 4 and Ephesians 6, where he says, praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance, that God would show us, grant us the wisdom to know when the door is open.

What door? The ear door, the door of hearing, where the other person or people, and now this door can be opened in a one -to -one basis, it could be opened on a one -to -a -small -group basis, or for some people, it can be opened where there's perhaps a football stadium full of people who are there to listen to you speak the gospel, perhaps.

But only God could open something like that. And if God does not open it, they won't hear a thing you said anyway, and you wasted the whole time.

You may have even led someone to believe they were saved when they weren't yet. And so we would be responsible for such things.

So Paul very appropriately says, pray for us for two things, that God would open the door, and secondly, that we would know when the door is open and then speak, and then speak, so that we would speak the mystery of Christ for which

I am in bonds. Now isn't it interesting that Paul says, I'm a bondservant, and my whole purpose is to be able to adequately articulate the gospel accurately, but I can't do that unless you open the door, and only when you open the door.

And yet that's what I'm here for. So don't ever be too frustrated if you feel like you are not witnessing enough.

Satan can use that as the accuser in your own heart to make you feel like you're backslidden when in fact God hadn't opened the door yet.

On the other hand, always examine our hearts to make sure that if the door were open, we would speak, and that we are equipped to say the right things.

Now, how do you know the right thing? The Holy Spirit will tell you, but he will only use what you've put into your memory banks, and so it'll go back to how much you've studied.

Do you remember in Ephesians 6 where it mentions all the armor? Can anybody remember what the shoes were called?

When you go out to battle, what are the shoes called? Jesse. Right, have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Now, careful with that, because it does not say have your feet shod with the gospel. It says have your feet shod with the preparation.

So the armor is you prepare to be able to tell the smallest child to the nuclear physicist, to whoever

God would bring in your life, and only you can know how he's preparing you. You may not be the one who's gonna speak to the nuclear physicist.

I'm not gonna be. Brother Bill will probably be that person. But is Bill prepared for that?

Well, part of his armor is doing that, preparing. All of us need to be preparing as God leads in our life, because there are certain people that will hear from us that won't hear from Bill, or will hear from Bill that wouldn't hear from me.

Each of us are here, not only is the end predetermined, but so is the means.

That's exciting. That tells you you're not on the bench. You're getting to play. You're in the game.

Are you prepared? Well, normally you don't get in the game if you're not prepared, do you? You get to sit on the bench.

But you're in the game, and part of what you're supposed to do is prepare to present the gospel clearly to whoever

God will bring into your life and open the door for you to speak to them. Now, there are those of us in the room,

I shouldn't say those of us, it makes it sound like I think I'm one of them, and I don't know that, but there are people in this room who have, quote, the gift of evangelism, and they're gonna find it much easier to witness.

They may feel that the door's just, I mean, if I can get my foot in that door, it's open, because they're gifted in that area.

There are others who it's like the hardest, it's the last thing in the world you'd wanna do is speak to anybody about anything, let alone about how to be saved, because you're afraid you might not say it just right.

Well, the interesting thing is that we're all called to give the gospel whether we're gifted at it or not.

It's just like the Bible speaks of the gift of giving. Does that mean the rest of us don't have to give gifts and tithes and offerings and the plate, because we don't have the gift of giving?

How far would that go? I'm sorry, pastor, I don't give, because God hasn't gifted me in that area. I don't think that would fly.

Well, it doesn't fly in the world of evangelism either. You can't say, well, I'm not a gifted evangelist, so I don't ever witness.

Well, Paul says we are to pray that the door would be open, the door of utterance, that we might speak the mystery of Christ, the good news.

And he calls himself a bondservant to that end. Well, we're all bondservants to that end in a sense, maybe not like Paul, maybe not like some who are in fact called into the gospel ministry and some who have other callings, but we are all called in the sense that we are witnesses.

I think the thing to be learned in verses three and four is number one, you can't just go out spouting it off.

Have you ever asked yourself, well, Lord, should I just go get a box and stick it up down to Walmart parking lot and preach?

I mean, is that what I'm supposed to do? I have honestly asked myself that. I mean, I've done that before when

I was younger and there is a truth to the verse that says they will turn and rend you if you're casting your pearls before the swine, so you have to be careful.

But have you ever asked yourself, should I be doing that? I mean, should I go in the grocery store if I'm a lady?

Should I just go in there and I just drop my groceries and just stand there and say, listen to me, please. I'm gonna tell you something you all have to know.

Well, would that be right? I'll tell you what, it might be, but it's not right for everyone at every time.

And the only way you know is if you're sensitive to the Holy Spirit. You see how he says there has to be a door open for that to take place?

You can't just force the door open, it'll be totally ineffectual. In fact, they'll think you're an idiot.

They'll think you're an absolute fanatic, that you will lose your testimony in this city if you force that door open.

But there could very well be a time when something like that happened, and if God did it, you would not lose your testimony.

I mean, you have people that hate you, yes, but there would be people who would respect you and they're not gonna think you're one of those idiots.

Well, they might. But I'll tell you this, don't take the chance.

Don't force the door open. If God opens the door and gives you a door of utterance to a person, a group, or a large group, then step through it.

You will know if God has opened it. Those doors are not that easy to open. Trust me.

It's not every day that you get a group of people to collect around you and they wanna hear what you and I have to say.

So if that happens, the whole point is be prepared. Have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel so that you will have in your heart that which the

Holy Spirit can bring out. And then just do what he leads. And this is, even

Paul did it this way. Paul didn't just go in and speak to every group. In fact, do you remember one time, there was a young woman following him down the street saying, listen to this man, he's telling the truth.

He's telling you the gospel, he's from God. What did Paul do? He turned and he said, come out from her, you demon.

And the demon came out of her. You see, so she was opening doors Paul knew weren't supposed to be opening.

He was not supposed to be walking down that particular street preaching at that particular time.

And she was out of, she was in the way. Well, we have to be very sensitive that it is

God's business and we're helpers together with him. We are not the main thing, we are helpers.

And as he moves, then we speak. Pray for one another that the door of utterance would be open and that we then would have the right words to speak.

That I might make it manifest as I ought to speak. What a prayer. Isn't that important that we pray and ask,

Lord, if you open this door, let me say the right things. Let me have utterances I ought to speak.

Not as I want to perhaps, or as I would think, but let me say exactly what this person needs to hear in your overall plan for his life, whether it's gonna be used for salvation or whether it's gonna be used for judgment.

It'll be used for one of the two. So just let me say the right thing because I don't know what's gonna come of it.

Okay, then we go down to Colossians chapter four, verse five. Walk in wisdom for them that are without, redeeming the time.

It's interesting, that has a parallel passage in Ephesians as well. Ephesians chapter five, verse 16 says, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time for the days are evil.

Young people, that's a word for you because when you're young, when you're late high school age, early college age, on into early adult life, it is so easy to waste time.

You know why? Because you think you got so much of it left. And I don't know where you cross the line where you know you don't, but somewhere in there between your age and mine.

Because I'm so aware that I've just got a very limited time left. And when you get to that place, you don't stop working, you don't even wanna sleep.

You just wanna work all the time. And yet the strongest time in your life is when you're young.

And sometimes we don't work when we're young because we just, I can do it tomorrow.

Be careful with that. The Bible says redeem today because it's the only time you know you have.

And the days are evil. You know what that means? That means if you procrastinate, more than likely the enemy will sow some tears right in the middle of your little field.

Like let's say you've got some project you know you're supposed to do or some person that you know you're supposed to witness to or whatever realm you put it in in your life.

Say, well, I just, I don't feel like that today. I'll do that next week. I'll do that next week. And you put it off, put it out there a month, maybe a couple, three months.

All of a sudden when you really get around to do it, all of a sudden you find out it's impossible to do because tears have been sown.

Weeds are grown up. Thorns and thistles are in the way now. And you had a little window of opportunity where you could have done that thing and it's passed now and it's closed.

And we procrastinated. That's what he means when he says the days are evil. There is an evil force that is working against God and against his children, against everything for God so that if God opens that door and we don't move on through it, the enemy is allowed to close it.

And then all of a sudden we find out that can't be done and then we start worrying about it. We start worrying about it.

Well, that's all the enemy's work. And his main thing he'll do is come in then with the guilt feelings and tell you what a fool you were and how lazy you are and what a sorry child of God.

In fact, you might even not be saved or you would have gone ahead and done that. And he'll do a big number on you. And so God warns us the days are evil, the evil one is at work, so redeem the time.

What does redeem mean? Let me tell you my, it's good to buy back.

Let me tell you my favorite definition that I don't remember who I got it from, but it was to set free by paying a price.

That's what Jesus did when he died on the cross. He set us free by paying the price.

But now if you use that definition in the context of your own life, of doing the work that God puts in your hand for that day, redeem the time, what does that say?

You've got to buy back some time by paying a price. Now what does that mean? You gotta give up some of the other stuff you wanted to do.

Some of the fun stuff, you know, some of the self stuff. You got to, that's the price you pay.

You have to pay a price to redeem something. So if you want to get involved in good biblical time management, realize you have to give up selfish things in order to free up time to do

God's things and things for others. Redeem the time because the days are evil.

Try to get as much done with your day that you can because the evil forces are working against everything God would do and do through you.

Wherefore, be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, et cetera. Be not drunk with wine, be filled with the

Holy Spirit, it says over in Ephesians 5. All of that's in regard to redeeming the time. So now let's jump back into Colossians 4, verse 6.

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man.

That's almost like the feet shod with the preparation, isn't it? Know how to answer every man.

It doesn't say go out and answer every man. It says know how to answer them if they ask you. Well, they're not hardly ever gonna ask you, but when they do, they say, well, why do you believe that?

Please be able to answer it. Why do you believe, you don't believe this once saved, always saved stuff, do you?

Why do you believe that? Well, man, if anybody, one lady asked me that. My whole life, I've been asked that one time.

And I sat back in that chair and I said, well, I'm glad you asked. And I was there another three hours. And you know that she got, when

I left, she told me later that she got saved after I left. She stood up and looked out the window and prayed and got saved because she had always believed you could lose your salvation.

So really, she was in unbelief. She was believing in a works system. And when she saw that Jesus did it all, and I thought, she's such a sweet little old lady,

I thought she's already saved. I didn't even ask her if she's saved or not. Good preacher, aren't I? Well, it never occurred to me to say, well, you know, she might not be saved.

And so I left and went home and she got saved because she saw it was all Jesus. But what if she had said, well, why do you believe, and she didn't, you don't believe that stuff, do you?

What if that frightened me and I said, well, I don't know, you know? Or what if I didn't even have any verses to give her?

See, if you're gonna say you believe something, be prepared to tell why you believe it. And that's what this says, let your grace be seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man, how you ought to answer him, how

God wants you to answer him. So 1 Peter 4 11 says, if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

I mean, if you're gonna talk at all, God says it should be according to principles that are in God's word.

Ephesians 4 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, except that which is good to the use of building the saints, that it may minister grace to the hearers and grieve not the

Holy Spirit, which implies that if you say wrong things with your mouth, it grieves the Holy Spirit. If it's not something that'll build somebody, you're grieving the

Holy Spirit. Now back to verse seven in chapter four, in all of this passage from verse seven through 18,

I will not read it, you can read it later, but let me show you the characteristics of the saints that were around Paul.

He mentions names, wouldn't you like to have been one of the persons he mentioned? Some of them just mentioned, you never hear them again, but look at the traits of these saints, just the everyday people of God were around Paul.

He called them beloved brother, he called them a faithful minister, a fellow servant in the

Lord, there are 14 traits here. He said that they've come to comfort your hearts, they're comforters, they're little, who is the comforter?

The Holy Spirit, but we as Christians are little comforters, just like we're little Christ, we're little Jesuses, we're little comforters, we're supposed to comfort one another's hearts.

Faithful and beloved is how we're supposed to be, like a faithful and beloved brother. Now listen,

I think of Clarence and Bill sometimes, and when I think of brothers, because I didn't have one, so I was an only child, and then when

I went to college, my roommate Mark McClellan was an only child, so I guess we became a little bit like brothers for the first time at that age, but sometimes

I'll see Clarence and Bill just go do something together, just to be with each other. Now not all brothers are this way from what

I hear, but I think that as much as they love the rest of us, and trust the rest of us, you know what they really, really know?

When all of us are gone, they'll be there for each other. That's what they really, really know. Now, that is how we should be to each other spiritually.

Faithful, which means you're there in any time of need that the brother has, you're always there.

Charlotte mentioned to somebody last night that she said she'd be that way for me if I ever needed her.

She's sitting on the back row back there. And that's the way we should be. A faithful and beloved brothers and sisters for each other.

Now, that doesn't mean that we all have to like every little attribute that the other person has.

That's not what it's all about. Although love covers a lot of that. What it is all about is when the chips are down, any one of us would be there for the other one.

If you don't have a church like that, you don't have a church. You just don't have anything. You really don't.

It's not real. But the real kind of love that comes from God, Paul said they're faithful and beloved brother.

And then another one he says, make known unto you all things. So there are brothers who are supposed to come in anything that they've learned by word or by experience from the

Holy Spirit, they make known that to the rest of us. Well, here's what I've learned. God did this in my life once.

Did you know that the best teacher is experience? I mean, we can study the word of God academically and we ought to every day.

But as we go out into the world and we experience trials and tribulation and God takes us through these things by the power of his word, then we learn what his word really meant, don't we?

So we're limited in to the extent that we can learn if we can only learn by our own experiences.

But if we share our collective experiences with each other, we are a far brighter church.

If we share, well, here's what God taught me when I walked through this experience and based upon this portion of scripture, here's what he showed me in my life.

And we share that with each other. That's what this is saying. They make known unto you all things.

And then the next thing is, one of them's called a fellow prisoner. What's that mean? Well, Paul is not the only bond servant.

We're all fellow prisoners of Christ. I mean, we're gonna, like somebody said this morning,

I guess Russ said, you're gonna serve somebody. I guess Bob Dylan said that, wasn't he?

You're gonna serve somebody. Russ was quoting him. And the truth is you are.

But the one we're supposed to serve has set us free from all the others. Free from the urge to smoke a cigarette.

Free from the urge to cuss. Free from the urge to whoop somebody when they pull in front of us in their car.

Jenny. So, no, just kidding. I don't even know why I said Jenny. She's not like that.

She wouldn't for other stuff though, but anyway. Servants of Christ.

Fellow prisoners. How about fellow workers unto the kingdom of God? Paul is not the only one who's called into quote, full -time service.

You know, that's a modern conception that we talk about there where, you know, cause you hire the professional and he goes and does all the visits.

You know, oh, he's not. I've heard this so many times. Not about me because I wouldn't hear this. It would be said behind my back, but I've heard it said a pastor.

Oh, he's a marvelous teacher, but he's just not a pastor. Not a pastor because he doesn't go make all the visits.

Did you know one man can't go make all the visits and it's not his job anyway? It's his job to equip the saints to do the ministry.

Who's supposed to do the visits? You. Not me. You. The only reason

I do is because I'm a Christian too like you are, so then I'm supposed to too. So if we all together go and visit an elderly person or someone in the hospital, when

God leads us personally to do it, did you know that this church will minister that way?

But if what we do is we hire the pastor and we say, okay, it's his job and if he doesn't make them all, he's not very good.

That's ridiculous. That's insane. I'm not the body. I'm not even the head.

I don't know, you know, maybe I'm a toenail. I don't know, but you're something and I'm something. And if all of us work together, everybody will get a visit when they need one.

Everybody will be comforted when they need to be comforted. You know what? We're fellow workers under the kingdom of God.

Part of my job happens to be to equip the workers, but it doesn't mean I'm the worker. We're all being equipped to do what

God, the Holy Spirit individually leads us to do, to go visit that person that he leads us to visit and then don't neglect that when he leads you to do it.

And all the needs will be met that way. Fellow workers under the kingdom of God. How about this?

Comfort, a comfort unto me. Another one already mentioned, comfort your hearts. A comfort, we're little comforters.

If we're exhibiting the fruits of the spirit, we are comforters.

So we have to remember that the overwhelming thing that we should be to each other is that. We comfort one another.

Servant of Christ, a fellow servant. This is another phrase that I find in this passage.

All of these are mentioned from verse seven all the way through the end of the book, verse 18. Always laboring fervently for you in prayers.

Prayer servants. Now let me ask you this. Is it the pastor's job to create a master database of all of the members and all the prayer requests that are on that sheet that June does and to spend his days in prayer over those people?

Is it his job any more than anyone else's? Not unless God calls him to do that, but unless that happens, it's not my job any more than your job.

It is our job together to pray fervently for each other. And I don't know any one of us that has a good enough memory or list where we never miss anyone.

And I put it in a positive sense, where we don't neglect. I mean, we neglect to pray for everyone on any given day.

But if we're all together praying, we don't know, who's to say that the Holy Spirit doesn't lay each need on at least one of our hearts every given day or week or whenever it's supposed to happen so that collectively, as we as a church pray, we are meeting that part of our ministry, of the prayer ministry.

Laboring fervently for you in prayers. How about this? Now you see, that wasn't just Paul doing that.

That was Paul, but it was also one of these names that he named.

It happened to be Epaphras. Okay, so how about this?

He hath a great zeal for you. Think about that for a moment.

It's a really interesting idea. It's a whole sermon, maybe. It's one thing to put up with each other.

In other words, let love cover the bad stuff and put up with each other. It's another thing to kind of love each other.

It's another thing to have a zeal for one another. To have a zeal for being with each other, for helping each other, for helping the other be strong.

A zeal for when the group meets for whatever purpose, to be there. It's a whole different thing.

Not everybody has that, because Paul is mentioning just a few names here. I mean, he could have mentioned hundreds or thousands of people that his life crossed the paths of, but just a handful of people he names here.

Yet, these are the people that he names. These are the workers. These are the ones that, you know, they don't just put their own things first.

They put the things of the other first. They put the things of Christ out there as very important.

And this particular person, he commends him because he has a zeal for these people.

He has enough zeal where he's gonna come in Paul's place and minister to these people. Out of love, an unusual, zealous love for the people.

And then, let's see. He said to take these words and read them also in the church of the

Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the epistle that I wrote them, and you read it.

Now, that's an interesting bit of information. Here you have the church at Colossae, and Paul writes them a letter and says, now, look, don't just keep this letter for yourself.

Let the church over here next door, the Laodicean church, read the letter I wrote you, but I want you to go read the letter

I wrote them. I want both of you to know all the information that's in both of those letters. And so now, of course, we have the canon.

We have all the letters. But back then, they didn't. But I read into this something that it is a warning to churches, especially independent churches, not to be so independent that you never hear anything any other person or group might have to say.

If you draw too inward, you truly become a cult. If you're afraid of the challenges, whether they be intellectual or doctrinal challenges that come from outside, then you must not have a very good basis for your own argument.

Never fear hearing what someone that came from a different background than you or a different place or even a different denomination from you has to say.

Now, listen, if their argument can be sunk, sink it with Scripture.

Just sink it. And I'm not saying be ugly to them. I'm just saying in your own heart and mind, don't accept what they're trying to get you to believe.

If it's sinkable. But if you find that what they say bears up under the light of all the

Scriptures, you just learned something. You learned something you didn't know that God had revealed to them that he hadn't shown you yet.

And this is a warning about being too inward as a church. There were churches all over this part of the countryside.

Paul went into them, and there was even one where he rebuked a guy. I don't remember his name.

Started with a D, I think. I really don't remember, though. There was a pastor that he rebuked by name.

And he said, this man won't let anybody come preach in his church. And Paul said, he won't even let me come.

And he rebuked him for being inward like that and being that kind of a cultish situation.

So I think that sheds a little bit of light on that. And then lastly, it says that thou fulfill it, and the it there had to do with the mystery that had been received of the

Lord. He says in verse 17, and I say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the

Lord that you fulfill it. So whatever God has gifted you with, whatever he's granted you to have, whether it be knowledge, insight, the ability to tell the gospel clearly, the ability to sing praises to him, the ability to lead the singing, the ability to teach, the ability to be a good steward of finances, all of it's in the realm of God because we're

God's children. Whatever it is, he says, take heed that you fulfill it.

Find it and then fulfill it. Don't neglect it. Because if you do, it'll hurt the whole body.

The salutation by the hand of me, Paul, remember my bonds, grace be with you, amen.

And thus ends this little book of Colossians. Let's stand and pray together. Father, we thank you for your word, for the clear direction you give us on any page that we choose to read on any given day, how we could get into the meat of your word and glean from it and enjoy it and be motivated by it and be energized and even empowered to do your will and to walk before you the days of our lives while we're left on this earth.

Lord, we sense that the time is short and that the days are evil. So may you teach us to redeem the time and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.