Colossians Lesson 2
Colossians · Mike Doyle · Jan 26, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 04
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926414204773

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we didn't quite finish the last question of Lesson 1, right? Or the last two? Lesson 2. No, Lesson 1, right? Am I right? No, there was Lesson 2 that we were on. Look at the bottom of the page. What's it say? 2013. On the left hand side, what does it say? I thought we were through with that. I did an introduction, then I did Lesson 1 and Lesson 2. Is that right? I think that's the way. Down here. Down here. Does yours say Lesson 1 or 2? No, mine says 2, but I left Lesson 1 at home because I thought we were through. That's okay. Actually, this leads into Lesson 2, really. really easily.

Did we talk about question 11, what is the word of truth of the gospel? I guess not. Okay, what is the word of truth of the gospel? It's found in verse 5. How about this idea that the word truth, the word truth itself looks at the dependability of the message and the word gospel looks at the content of the message. Do I need to repeat that? Good, you're waking up. The word truth looks at the dependability of the message. Is it real? And the word gospel looks at the content of the message.

Truth concerning the gospel is the whole subject, all the way down through verse 8. Okay? Now, having said that, Verse 12, and the reason I'm not going to stop and spend more time on this is because when we get to Lesson 2, we'll spend a lot more time on this issue. How is the Gospel spread according to verse 6? In verse 6, first part of it, the arrival of the Gospel has come to you.

So the words, has come to you, are a reminder that the gospel was not the product of their own thought or their own ingenuity. If you and I, if God called us up and said, okay, Courtney, you and Mike are going to sit down and you're going to come up with a plan of salvation, we could have worked for millenniums and never come up with what God did, because it's a grace message. The distribution of the gospel in 6B, it says the words, just as shown, that the gospel is not the product of human thought anywhere in the world. It's not a product of human thought. The world is a hyperbole expressing the rapid spread of the message that was taking place at the time. And then the last part is the power of the gospel.

This is interesting. We use these Christian terms that we all kind of get used to. I call it shop talk. Tuesday men's Bible study for those who have never had the privilege of going there. All the guys there are really up to speed on the Holly Hills shop talk. So I ask a question and they all say the same answer at one time, Jesus or whatever. And I have to say to them every time, can you explain that? Half of them can't, but they got the words down.

So why is the figure of fruit so appropriate when we talk about the power of the gospel? Why? Why is what? Why is the word fruit appropriate? What do you think I said? That's exactly right. The gospel reproduces. That's what gives it its power. It's not like a hammer and chisel and a saw. It's not like selling a product. But it is like planting a garden. What happens? It reproduces itself. That's power. The word increasing shows that the gospel never exhausts itself. Never.

Kind of cool, huh? Hey Mike, one thought that came to mind here, I think Vern kind of touched on in the Law of Grace series, was just the differentiation between the good news of substitution versus the good news of the kingdom. And that's one of those Christian-ese terms when we say gospel, we sometimes need to differentiate between which good news we're talking about. Obviously this has to do with substitution, But a lot of times when we take a teaching on the gospel and the good news and we go back to some of the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and we start seeing good news spread there, is that the same thing? Do the Colossians potentially have confusion around that? I don't see that in the context, but it's really easy as Christians to get confused about the gospel of substitution versus the kingdom.

We might talk about it in lessons to come. Which we will to some degree because that was one of the potential problems that the Colossians were going to face was philosophy and you know in Acts there's this story of Paul and the saints that he ran into in Ephesus and these guys, you know, they were believers but they didn't know that the Holy Spirit had been given.

Were they saved? Sure they were. But they didn't have all the information. Would you say they didn't have the good news? Well, they had the good news as far as it went because Paul said, well, what do you guys, what's the good news to you? And they said, well, John the Baptist. Well, was his news good news? Yeah, as far as it went.

But now we have what Paul was going to teach him was the advent of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection, the church, and all that goes with that. That's why I said last week, and Matt was saying, you know, what makes Paul the ultimate authority? It's because he was the one that got the final revelation about what God wanted to reveal to us.

That doesn't make Peter a second-class citizen or Matthew. It's a progressive revelation, especially about the church. Cool. Lesson two. I was going to talk about that, about Paul. You had said Paul was the final answer and the final authority, and you said we'd talk more today about his being the final authority. We will. Okay. The final authority. Wanda and I are going to hearing a guy together. And you're coming, too. Oh, you've got yours on.

The first question on lesson two is, what's the difference between intellectual groping and the words sent to them? Now, do I need to explain what intellectual groping is? My mother-in-law called me up, and she's sitting behind a couple of people, and said, you must mean grouping. So she called me back and left another message and said, I think it is groping.

I came up with this word, I don't know where I got it, but I think it fits. It's intellectual, like reaching for it. Yeah, reaching and just grasping at thoughts and stuff in the air, in your own mind. You know, groping is kind of walking around in the dark trying to find some place and you've got your arms out and you're groping around and touching and trying to figure out where you are. Intellectual groping. Groping is on the outside and the living word is Well, it's just the truth itself, yeah.

That's good. That's really good. Well, it's like I've decided that I'm going to find the truth. So I start searching. And I'm groping around, reading any and everything I can get my hands on, to come up with what I think truth is. One of the best lines about this was our boy, Pontius Pilate.

He says, what is truth? He'd been searching, he couldn't figure out what it is. Turn on the news tonight, you'll see a bunch of gropers talking. They don't know what the truth is. So I would say this, that the truth of the gospel was from God's revelation and didn't have anything to do with its source being in man's mind. Because every man that's conceived on this earth and born is born with a sin nature and what I call a sin mind. You're in abject darkness. I wish Craig Case was up here.

His definition of philosophy is really funny. Someday I'll have to write it down so I have it. But it's very interesting. He's got a minor in philosophy. Until he became a believer, that was his intellectual groping. And now he rejects the whole thing. Why? Because where's the source of philosophy? In the mind of man. That was one of the huge problems that Paul was going to deal with and is dealing with, with the saints of Colossae. Philosophy.

But doesn't that intellectualism make you, I think it makes people egotistical? Yeah, yeah. Well if I think I know more than you then I'm a little proud about that. Yeah. The gospel is a display of God's goodness. and not the measure of human duty, nor a system of religious shadows. The words have come to you as a reminder that the gospel was not the product of their own thought or their own ingenuity.

Turn on your TV and you want to talk about intellectual groping, watch this song and dance. That's intellectual groping. Those idiots in Washington, all 500 and whatever are, that's what they do. They grope. They don't have the gospel. And if they do have it, they don't use it as the implement to install policy. They don't do it that way. They grope about themselves.

The Gospel is a revelation and an illumination coming from God to man, and how do you get it? What's the vehicle that he uses? The Word. That's why the Word is so important to us, especially you gropers. Yeah. So one of the questions that I had for myself a long time ago and I thought about what What is the mind like when we're sharing the gospel, when we're communicating the word of truth to someone? Romans 1, 18-23, kind of gives us the standard by which all men start from. And so, if we're using the analogy of it being really dark and pitch black, Romans 1, kind of tells us a little bit more about what they do have and what they've done with it. Maybe I'll just read it and we can talk about it.

It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and righteousness. So there's a suppression factor that all men start with. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, so they know certain things about God. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse.

And then it goes on, for even though they knew God and did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, that's where they start groping, and their foolish heart was darkened, that's where they get stuck in the pitch black, professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged, and that's where the great exchange happens. the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of a corruptible man, and that's where philosophy starts to take root. huge exchange about what each man knows about God, and they exchange the truth of God for a lie, and they stop worshipping the Creator, or recognizing the Creator, and start focusing on the creature itself.

And that's the context where the Gospel has to penetrate. It has to reverse the great exchange. And we know that the Holy Spirit's job is to do that. I have to work really hard in my mind to remember how there's been a great exchange for every proud and egotistical philosopher. They have already made this exchange prior to even coming to the truth of the gospel. So they're choosing to grope, in other words.

Could you say, based on those verses, that every single human being who will stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgment, God will say, you should have known better. Right? Will that be a right statement? To all the world. So what happens is, man sees, because of the revelation of God in his creation and in his conscience, he knows God exists and God requires two things from him. One, that he be thankful. Ooh, that goes against my ego, because I think I'm God. And two, that I honor him as God. Now if I don't do that, well, put it this way, if I do do it, I'm not saved. But every man is required to do that, because God laid it out to him, and he said, look, I've given you this, here's your response. Here's what your response needs to be. If you don't respond, what does he do? This is the part I really like. He doesn't, you know, pull the lever and down the hole you go.

Because here's what you do. You say, you know, God, I would rather have me than you. And he says, okay, you got you. You got you. And you start to slide into, you know, darkness. And God just says, okay, you picked, you got you. You gropers you. So that's what happens. I mean, it's a pretty simple thing that God does.

And so when I meet people who say they're an atheist, I always say to them, you weren't always that. Because you had to make this decision at some point. And when you did, now you can say you're an atheist. But, you know, we used to laugh in a Marine Corps that there weren't any atheists in foxholes. When you hear those bullets whistling past your head, you think, oh, gee. You know, oh God save me.

Okay, now, question two. In verse six, it's in there, so take a look at it. How did they come to know grace? I'm going to read a couple other verses to you which line up with this. Ephesians 4.20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have learned him and have been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus.

Romans 5.15 But not as the trespass, so also is the free gift. For if by the trespass of one many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of God of the one man Jesus Christ has abounded unto many.

Titus 2.11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. Instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly.

That's Titus 2.11 and 12. So, what's our generic definition of grace?

And don't tell me. That the debt is paid in full by Christ and that it was his gift to us. Perfect. Okay. Does grace have a limit to it? No. It's unlimited. Do you have to sort of do a couple of things to maybe get God to turn on the grace spigot? No. So it's totally unmerited and it's totally unlimited, right?

And it's based on what Christ did on the cross. So, number one, when you're groping around, you have to understand that grace is unlimited. And when you think you're going to do some spiritual push-ups to get God to notice you more, you're going to find out that it's totally unmerited. So, this says, why does Paul have to tell us, or tell the Colossians, or you and me, that we are under grace? Why does he have to tell us?

Because we always want to do something. We always want to be under the law. We want our fingerprints on it. What did I hear? Who else? I was saying we want our fingerprints on it. That's right. Even more basic than that. We don't know it. That's exactly right. We do not know it. We don't know what grace is.

If we're not taught grace, we don't know what it is. There's nothing in your experience, go back to what Jim was talking about, when you read out of Romans 1 there, there's no grace in those verses, no grace at all. God has revealed himself that you could say that's gracious, but then he expects something back from man, right? But when the gospel comes, when grace is taught, the principle of grace has to be taught because we have no experience with grace until the gospel is presented.

Right? When in your life, for those of you who probably met the Lord after you were age 2 or 3 or something, old guys like me, met him at 35, when grace came, it was totally foreign to me. And I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to do my thing. Because this was going to be a cooperative deal between me and God. And God said, no it's not.

It's all me. It's all me. That is really hard for us to get our minds around because we think that we are a contributor. Even Romans chapter 1, we contribute to that. We accept God as God, we honor Him as God, and we're thankful. But that's not the same thing as grace.

Grace being unlimited and unmerited, and here it comes towards you, what do you do with it? What do you do with it? Accept it and give thanks. Now you just took it away. What if I decide not to give thanks? Well, accept it. What if I decide not to accept it? There it is. Huh?

What do I do with the grace? It doesn't change the grace. What? It doesn't change the grace. That's right. You can't change the grace, so what do you do with it? I'm messing with words. But you just take it. You just take it. Go ahead. No, I'll let you interrupt, Courtney.

That is something that, for me, I think it was just I have come to this church that I know grace, amazing grace, but then you learn a little bit more, don't you? It isn't just like that's grace and you've got it. Well the principle comes at you that way. I think when you first realize that, wait a minute, my salvation is something that was totally God's deal, and he just said, here it is, and your responsibility is to believe it.

Right? It's the only thing he requires of you. And oh, by the way, how much credit do you get for believing? You get zipped. Why? Where's the value? Is the value in the fact that you believed, or is the value in what you believed? It's in what you believed. It's not in the fact that you did believe, but like the man back in Romans chapter 1. What was God really asking him to do there? To believe. I just wanted to add to what Wanda was saying just first. It's not like you get grace and then you're done.

2 Peter 3.18, you grow into grace and knowledge. It's a growth.

To accept and understand grace, I think that's something we're going to do until we step into eternity. But I still go back to, I don't think you can fully understand and appreciate grace If you don't understand that separation between Adam and our new creation and that separation, the old man is always wanting to do something. And that negates grace every time. Even if you do understand that he wants to do something. And that's the growing in grace and knowledge.

If you don't understand, the old man isn't always wanting to do something or feeling guilty You invited me over to dinner. Tomorrow I'm going to have to have you over for dinner. One of the reasons I tease you so much is just to keep you on the grace wagon. Yeah, that's why we meet each other. The grace punching bag. Until you understand that, I think you're still trying to fight that. I always want to do something back for God. And I have to give back because He did that. Grace is unmerited. You don't have to do anything. How many of you think that grace comes in a jar? Or in a bag. Or in a container. Don't you think that that way? It comes in a river. It comes into some sort of confined space. It's not right.

You know what grace is? It's an operating system. When that verse, grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, you're already in it and you grow in it. Grace, my definition of grace is like those of you who have ever been to Cape Kennedy and ever watched that shuttle go off, Pad 39A, when they pull the trigger on that thing and that energy starts coming out the bottom of that spacecraft, They have to flood the washing pad with water to keep the vibration from just wiping it out. That's what living under grace is like, being on that pad when they light that sucker off. And we live under that kind of grace and it's so foreign to us early on, we don't know what to do with it.

Because our old man is always saying, oh, you've got to get credit here somewhere. You've got to do something. You've got to study more, pray more, memorize more, write bigger checks, something. We have to be taught. If we're not taught grace, we're not going to ever learn it. One of the biggest problems with contemporary Christianity is they don't teach this. They don't teach the principle of grace. Really important stuff.

Where do you find out about grace? You find out about it in the Word. And your study of the Word of God is a gracious activity, not a study to pass the test kind of activity. The grace of God will take you to the Word because that's where you start to find out about. Those of you who have been in my class before can't answer. In answering that question, I got to Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 9, I guess, and it had all of it.

And in that, in the end, it says, by grace you are saved and not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. But it also has all those steps that is something that's been anyway that you talk about but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead and our sins have quickened us together with Christ by grace you have been saved and have raised us up together and made us together in the heavenly, sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and that he might show exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. That was what?

Ephesians 2 and it's 4-7. Don't you find it interesting that in Paul's epistles God owns all the verbs? He does everything. Everything. When you said we live under grace as a operating system, it occurred to me that it's not just an operating system that you can choose. You know, as an example, I want to take only A, B, and C of grace, not D, E, or whatever. Sure. There's a sovereignty there, there's an absoluteness there with grace, that we can't operate outside of it. And God doesn't operate outside of it either. I know, but our participation is to rest in His Word, rather than just take part of it, or I don't reject this part, but I like that part. Okay, trick question. And those of you who have been in my class before don't get the answer. Why?

What's the design of grace? What's it designed to do? Make you fat, happy Christians? What's it designed to do? What's it really designed to do? It really reconciled us with God. It's more than that. When Jesus died on the cross and forgave our sins. More than that. The glory by Him. More than that.

Go to Romans 6.14. Whoever gets there first can say it.

So sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under the law. So you might be able to make a correct statement and say it's to prevent sin from being the reigning principle in your life. Right? So all of you who do all these really difficult spiritual push-ups all the time, and you have this regimen that you go through every day, And yet you're still sinning.

Grace is designed to prevent you from sinning. And it's the only thing in the Bible that will prevent you from sinning. Grace is. How does that work? Because I know what Wanda's thinking. She's thinking that grace is a license to sin. Rather than a system to prevent you from sinning.

Well, grace is such an amazing gift that if one accepts it and understands it, then you will respond to the Lord out of obedience because it's just like a love exchange. Grace because He loves you so much. So my only response should be just to love Him back and then therefore obeying. See, that's the thing that people look at grace and they think, oh, it means I can do what I want. What's interesting about grace is that when you begin to understand it, it is the greatest motivator ever. It is the greatest controller of conduct ever. And it comes right out of your heart. You can't. Donna?

I was wondering if you could make the connection between grace and life versus sin and death. that grace gives you entrance in this world where you can actually experience life with the Lord. Yeah, that's pretty good. The life of the Lord Jesus, the resurrected glorified life of the Lord Jesus functions under the grace umbrella. Don and I went for a walk this morning and we got to talking about how the world functions. which isn't very good, but that we live under grace. And no matter what the circumstances are that may or may not come into our lives or kids' lives or anybody's life, that if you've been taught grace and you understand it, then it doesn't matter what goes on around you other than how God would have you interact with it. You see that? It's like your dad's situation tomorrow. Your dad lives under grace. He's in Christ. He's going to win either way. And he's going to live under and experience the grace of God either way. He can't lose. That's the great thing about being under grace. You can't lose. No matter what.

But you have to learn it. You have to be taught grace. And I think if there's anything that teachers in the Word of God are negligent. Right here is where it is. Grace needs to be taught. We don't know. We don't know anything about grace unless someone comes along and says, hey, here's grace and here's how. You see this?

I still go back to the 2 Peter 3.18. Growing the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. As we know who we are in Christ, we begin to understand grace and we can understand grace more. the old man whispering to do something, we're in Christ.

Yeah. And you begin to understand that it's not a payback system. It's not a debt. You know, if I give you a gift and you pay me a penny back, it's not a gift. That's right. And we've got to get to that point where, you know, I was going to go to actually the Ephesians, the verse right beyond what Francis said, for by grace you've been saved through the gift. It is not of yourself, it is the gift of God. And if it's a gift, there's no payment. That's right. Like I said, if I give you a gift and you give me a penny back, it's not a gift. That's right.

It's a debt. And we have to understand that the grace is there's nothing we can give to pay for it or do anything. And the only way I think we do that is if we understand we're in Christ. And if we're in Christ, it makes sense. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. Well, he's swerved into the next question.

What were Epaphras' roles in the local church at Colossae? What did he do? The first thing he did was he accurately communicated the truth. Here comes the teacher of grace. Accuracy as is shown by the word just as. The second thing he did is that they had learned shows that Epaphras was a teacher. He was a teacher. And third, Epaphras was, I hate this word, committed to the truth. Under grace he was a purveyor of the truth as shown by his close association with Paul. This is like Morgan was talking about. It shows a positive attitude that Epaphras had towards those that he taught.

This is a good description of a guy who is a teacher. Where's his focus? And what's he concerned with? He's concerned with communicating the truth and the spiritual health of the people he's working with. It has nothing to do with him. It has everything to do with them. And he understood what Courtney was just talking about.

You must learn this. You must learn what grace is so you know how to live under it. Imagine if we, in this room, for twenty minutes this afternoon, we all functioned under grace only. Just for 20 minutes. Wouldn't it be cool? I mean it would be incredibly cool. Any questions about our boy Epaphras? 20 minutes, you mean like meditate?

No, just function in life under grace. where your attitude was gracious, your interaction with other people was gracious, and it was all about you understanding, without any hesitation, the unlimited, unmerited blessing that you lived under. And so there would never be any of this, oh Lord, buy me a Mercedes-Benz. There would be none of that. And oh, so-and-so wasn't nice to me. I'll tell you how my relationship is with him. I sent him a text on Tuesday at the Men's Bible Study. I said, you know, how are you doing? He texted me back.

He said, I'm checking out of the hospital as we speak. And I said, well, I guess that means we don't have to pray for you. So I'm going into the surgery. So everybody else praying for me now, Mike, Mike, I was talking about the lesson and Mike then goes, well, If you die on the table, can I do your service for you?

So that's his compassionate heart. But actually, you know, it wasn't. I actually had to say, I was telling him it's a win-win. It really doesn't matter. I think that's what brought it up. If I die on the table, I'm home with the Lord. It doesn't make any difference.

If I have the surgery, it's great. So he said yes, I could. How did Paul know that these people in Colossae were believers? How did he know? Because of their love for one another. That's exactly right. He knew of their faith and the love which they had to all sides. Yeah, and what did he tell them? These guys are Christians? No. Yeah, they all have pocket cards that says I are a Christian.

No. He said you should see how they love one another. They couldn't help but be. Nobody else on the planet does that. Nobody does. Do you know two non-believers who love each other this way? Do you? I don't know. That brings up an interesting thought. Can you determine if someone is a believer based on how they love another person? Yes. Yes? Yes, I think you can. And here's how I think you can do it. If they are a believer, not only do they love them sacrificially, unconditionally, but their whole focus is that person growing in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. That's the focus.

See, anybody who's a teacher who is involved in any ministry, what are they doing? What they really are doing is they're pointing you to Christ. And they do it because they love you. And they do it because they know what the love of Christ is all about. Where the mistake is that you watch the guys, well, if you want something from Christ, you've got to go through me to get it. That's what you normally get.

It's really subtle. But if you have someone like Jim here, who you know is a believer because he loves you and he points you to Christ, that's all I need to know. I'm always interested when I meet a new believer. I have one little sort of measuring stick in the back of my mind.

You know what it is? How well do you know him? You can give me all the doctrine you want. I want to know how well you know Christ. How intimate are you with Him? Can we talk about Him in such a way that you can tell me some wonderful things about the Lord Jesus that I don't know?

Does that make sense? If I flip the question around and said, can you determine if someone is a believer by how they don't love? Oh boy. What if they're not loving? Oh, I see where you're going. Let's say they're walking in the flesh and they are a believer. It's just the flip side of the conversation. I don't think you can. If they say they are, take them at their word, I guess. James addresses that. I say that I believe God. I'm not exhibiting love. Then what good is your testimony? I mean, it's worthless.

You shall know them by their fruits. Even the Romans, where it's in Acts someplace, even the Romans would write about how these Christians loved one another. They were just amazed. And if we don't, I mean Jim's brought up a really interesting point, if we're haughty and proud and whatever we are, walking around as Christians and you can't really tell, then something's wrong. One of the things that we have in scripture about the church, they're first called Christians in Antioch, right? Well, that's Christ-like ones, which manifest love. His life is love. Originally they were called People of the Way or something like that.

Yeah, first called Christians in Antioch, in Syria. I'm thinking about the scenario where They're not making the connection between a person being saved and their behavior, because love is that. And so you've got a new believer who doesn't know how to behave in love yet, but are they a good believer? And so what is the, if we say, what determines belief?

Well, for these guys, they heard. the gospel. They understood it, so they weren't confused about it. They became a believer at that moment, but they were now growing in the grace and knowledge, which led to the love and behavior that represented their belief. That's good.

Sometimes it's hard to determine the belief of someone based on their love for one another. Let's go back and make sure you understand the gospel that was sent to you. Let's make sure you understand the grace of you being saved from who you were in Adam to who you are in Christ. And then love grows as they continue to understand. No question.

When we were studying 2 Corinthians on Wednesday night, there was a whole discussion one night about if you have a weak believer and a strong believer in the same room, they have a responsibility to each other. What is it? What's the strong believer's, and I laugh because whenever I say that you all think you're strong. What's the strong believer's responsibility to the weak one? Teaching. That's exactly what you're talking about. What's the weak believer's responsibility to the strong believer?

To acknowledge his lack of understanding. Acknowledge his lack of understanding and not to discredit him. To listen. That's his job. So that doesn't mean that you come down and you pick somebody up by the scruff of the collar and say, I'm a mature Christian and you're going to listen. No, there's this cool thing that's called coming alongside.

You know, Courtney. Yeah, to some degree I think, maybe we're blowing this out, the only one who knows is the Lord. Just because you love, we know you're a Christian. There's nothing like that. I think in this instance, it's not the contrast, who is, who isn't, who isn't.

It was demonstrated by the love. He's identifying them because he sees their love. It's not, oh, they're not, so they're not. You understand? He's identifying them because he sees them loving each other and they're demonstrating it. You know, the James, they're proving their love. And he's just acknowledging the fact that they're acting as who they are in Christ.

That's right. That's exactly what he's doing. He's identifying that trait. He's not saying, oh, you're not. I think he's just identifying they're acting as who they are in Christ. Yeah. And saying, yeah, I can see that manifestation of Christ through you. That's what he's saying. He's not saying, well, you know. It's a demonstration. He's acknowledging it. That's definitely, I agree. That's what's going on here.

It's just today in Christendom, we have this idea that if you continue to love people, they'll come to know Christ. But it's based on a clear understanding, and that's what preceded their love, a clear understanding of what Epaphras had taught, which was the good news. And so, we can't love somebody to Christ, and that's a big factor in today's Christian world, is let's just love on them, we'll just take them in, and we'll care for them, and we won't necessarily have to talk about the specifics, they'll come to grow and understand it as we love them, and they'll see it. And so that's all very accurate except for the fact that there is a choice of believing something specific that is the gospel message itself. So just connecting the fact that there is an objective amount of truth that has to be understood that leads to this love and attention that believers give to one another.

I think Ephrus was very concerned that they had been misguided by these teachers who thought that the angels had a part in creation and redemption. Why was he concerned? Because he loved them. I just got out of my bible of introducing Colossians but they said that there were Jews there who had misguided them because they thought that the mosaic ordinances should still be observed.

They weren't just for grace and yet they understood it and that as well. The person who doesn't understand grace, but understands that there ought to be fruit in the Christian life, instantly reverts back to the mosaic law. They instantly do. Because if I do this, then God will bless me. Where the grace guy says, wait a minute, here's who you are, here's what you have, I'm teaching you, and as a result of that, you're going to live this way. It's the life that comes through.

Q verses further, he mentions not only the love, but that they were walking worthy and that they were increasing in knowledge. It was evident to Epaphras or to her that it wasn't just an initial knowledge kind of thing. It was increasing, which meant that they were leaning on the Lord. listening to this teaching. Yeah, and you know what's interesting enough, I'll just... Has the second bell gone off? No. In the Old Testament, God would criticize the Jews for one really interesting thing. You know what he would say to them?

You don't know my ways. You don't know me and you don't know my ways. Yeah. You don't know my ways. How do you get to know somebody's ways? You hang out with them, right? You get to know them. You get to hang out. Do you think God's working on the same plan? When you get to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, what are you really finding out? His ways. What is He like? How does He think? What's valuable to Him and what isn't? What is He like? What is He not like? What makes Him happy? What grieves Him?

That's what the study is all about. It's not an academic pursuit. If Don and I pursued each other academically, we'd have been divorced a long time ago. I'm interested in her ways. I want to know what, you know, you know, she just does stuff and I want to know. Same with my daughter. I want to know. I want to know their ways. That's the cool part. Isn't that cool? I didn't think of that. That's awesome. That's who you are. So that means that if I get to know Jim, he's like me. I'm like him.

Yeah, because we share the same life. I was just thinking that when I first became a believer, there were a lot of years. I really was saved, I'm sure of it, but you were talking about how you tell it. a strong believer from a weak believer and that type of an idea and that I was working in the church and gee we were missionaries and all kinds of stuff you know and yet I think my dreams were fairly revealing because I used to dream that I would miss a rapture And in the dream I'm standing there and everybody's going up and Roy's going up. And I'm still there because...

And you're looking for your ticket. I wasn't good enough. Oh yeah. You know, I'd fall short. And I think that was revealing to me that, and I didn't figure it out for a lot of years probably, but an insecurity. And then we went to a different church eventually.

And the pastor was teaching on the character of God. You know, the ten things. and all that and it drug on for months but that was good for me because it put the focus on the right place with on God and it's like he grew in my mind and then when we finally got here especially in the later years there was all this teaching on what grace is and which is part of his character It's who he is entirely.

And so then the grace grows. And he said in John 17 that your joy might be full. Or maybe he said that elsewhere too. But that's his goal, is that we have full joy. And I don't think we have full joy until we begin to grow in our understanding of what grace is and how extensive what grace is and who he is.

Yeah. And then it's like, wow, the focus is over there and he's doing all of it and I'm free. I don't have to be good enough to get into the rapture to make sure that I'm going to get rapture. And somebody said to me, did it ever occur to you that Roy wouldn't get rapture? Of course not. The great liberty we have as believers is to be free from ourselves. Let's close.

Father, how we thank you for your word, how we thank you for the grace that we live under, and the love that you not only demonstrate to us, but through us. I ask that we would continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, and I pray in his name. Amen.