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Someday this will be worth a lot of money. It's the hook for the coat. Is this when I take the coat off? It's a little intimidating to be in James P. Butler's pulpit. I think I've known Jim longer than anyone in this room. And actually, Daryl and Tracy, I think you're second. And then David's third. Pastor David Charles, where's Santa? There he is. And I was wondering, why am I preaching first? I'm three months older than Pastor Charles, believe it or not. So I think they're deferring to antiquity. Is that right?

But it is great to be here. We pray often. We're very thankful. Our church has been blessed by your church in many, many ways. especially my salary by your financial support for many, many years, and we appreciate that very much. Our deacons do, all our saints do, over half our church knows Pastor Butler because of connections in the past.

The last few days have been wonderful. The conference was, well, the Ordination Council was a privilege to be a part of. The conference was a privilege to be a part of. Hanging out with Jim and David's been mostly good. A lot of counseling that I had to do. But this is the most important meeting so far since we've been here. And tonight will be equally important. The people of God under the banner of God's word with a special presence of Christ promised to us employing the church's means of grace because we are poor sinners who need a lot of grace.

This morning I'll be preaching from Colossians chapter one if you'd like to turn there. Just a small sliver of a larger section here in Colossians chapter 1, concentrating on verse 11. But I want to read from verse 9 through verse 14 to kind of set a context, and then I'll pray. Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 14.

For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, Do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy. Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light, who delivered us from the domain of darkness and who conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Let's pray. We come to your word, O Lord, and we ask that that blessing that is promised in the word when the words preached that the Son of God incarnate enthroned on high would execute his prophetic ministry through the proclamation of his word and speak to the souls of men and women and boys and girls here. Do much more than use my human voice, but may the word go forth through my voice and may the spirit bless it in the souls of hearers. We ask for your blessing on this this time of considering your word, and we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

So let me put Colossians 1 in context. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And God created Adam, created Eve in His own image, and both of them sinned. But Adam was appointed by God to be a unique public person, a federal or a covenant head.

And as he goes, the rest of us goes. Most of you, I assume, know the story. Adam sinned. God had threatened death as judgment, as infliction of punishment upon him. Upon his taking of this fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which God forbade him from doing, he did it anyway, death comes upon him. His human soul, his human body starts this corrosive, deformed form of existence.

We inherit all that. But before we inherited all that, his original guilt and the pollution that comes along with it, God judged the serpent who deceived the woman. God judged the woman, gave some stipulations of the content of that. This is all Genesis 3.

And the man. But in the pronouncement of the curse on the serpent, you have a judgment on the serpent and you got at least a veiled mercy coming to somebody because this seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The seed of the woman is a he, is a masculine person, is a man. And it says the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. A man will come from a woman without a man.

I think that's what's ultimately promised there. And the reason why I can tell you that is because God told me I'm right about interpreting that verse that way. Because I read the rest of the Bible, and then great theologians, and they all say the same thing.

That what Paul says in Galatians 4, 4, and 5, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, There it is, Genesis 3.15. Born under the law in order that he might redeem, the Son of God became man.

He assumes our nature, born of a woman, in accordance with the promise of Genesis 3.15.

He assumes our duties, born under the law, because we're sinners, we've transgressed it, we don't have a righteousness. But in order to be in God's safe presence, you've got to have a righteousness according to the law. And he assumed our liabilities in order that he might redeem us. We're guilty, we've sinned, and we are justly liable to punishment.

So what Paul announces in Galatians 4, 4, and 5 has happened, was actually first promised in Genesis 3, 15. This Paul guy that wrote Galatians also wrote Colossians. He was a Christ-hater for quite some time, and then suddenly He gets effectually called. He tells us later why he got effectually called. Because God had predestined him. And he tells us later in Romans 8 why he got predestined. Because God foreknew him. But he gets effectually called. He gets saved. He gets his life turned inside out.

He goes from dragging people into prison to preaching Christ and getting in trouble for that. And he was called to go on these missionary journeys. And during those missionary journeys, sometimes he writes. And then he was put in jail. You can lock up Christ's apostle. but Christ is still gonna use him to write some of the most precious letters that we've ever read. This is one of them he writes from prison.

So he's writing to fellow Christians, people who were guilty of sin, people who were born in sin, and then added their own transgressions to their list of guiltiness, and needed a change. And they got a change when somebody spoke the gospel to them, or they heard it, or they read it, He heard it preached or read about it. And God, the Spirit, blesses that word to the well-being of their soul. Paul's now in prison. He's writing back to this church of believers, sinners, poor sinners like us, who need the grace of Christ and need the righteousness of Christ, and they got it, and they're trying to live the Christian life. So it's like he's writing to us, right? Except we don't... We don't need the Apostle's words to help us live the Christian life, do we? Of course we do.

So what he does here, which is very interesting, while he's got chains on him, he opens up his bosom, his heart, and he says, oh, here's my prayer life for these ancient Christians. And so he gives us kind of a peek into his own prayer life concerning them. And what he wants, he tells us in verse nine, that he is praying, and what he is praying for, that you may be filled. You may be filled, okay? So he's praying that something would happen to them. Something they can't do to themselves. He wants them to be filled.

And then in Colossians 1 10a, Paul tells us the goal or desired outcome for which he is praying that I want you to be filled that you may walk. So I want something. I want you to be filled with all knowledge and wisdom or that you may walk, which is Paul's way of saying that you may live the Christian life. To walk means to live or to have a distinct lifestyle, to have an overall way of life that pleases God, which I take to be that is in line with God's revealed will. What we think, what we do, what we feel.

And then in Colossians 1 10b through 14 he's described for us what a worthy lifestyle that pleases God looks like. Or we could say four characteristics of a life that pleases God. And I think you can see him in verse 10. I'm trying to set verse 11 in its proper context here. I think we have here four characteristics of a life that pleases God.

First one is this, bearing fruit in every good work. You see that in verse 10, I'll call it 10B. Bearing fruit in every good work. What does a life that corresponds with God's revealed will to us look like? First of all, it's bearing fruit in every good work.

Secondly, it says in verse 10 toward the end, increasing in the knowledge of God. A life that is in line with God's revealed will for us, a life that pleases God in that sense, is one that is increasing in the knowledge of God. You're here, you can increase in the knowledge of God by virtue of what we sang, because there's some good stuff there, or what he's read, and maybe through what I'm preaching, hopefully. So that's a good thing. And then the third one is in verse 11. The third characteristic of a life that pleases God is in the New King James, and I think probably many versions, it's strengthened with all might. I'm going to argue that it should be, it's better kind of literally translated, being strengthened, and that's what we're going to focus on.

And the fourth characteristic of a life that pleases God Remember, the first one is bearing fruit in every good work. The second is increasing in the knowledge of God. The third is being strengthened with all might. The fourth is giving thanks to the Father. Okay, so we're gonna look at the third one.

And I said I'm gonna kind of tweak the translation a little and add an extra word. And the reason I'm doing that, being strengthened, is because if you notice, all the other characteristics are translated with ING on them, bearing fruit, increasing, giving thanks, and that's because it's the type of word Paul uses there, it's called a participle. And the third characteristic is also a participle. And so I think it should be some sort of an ING, plus it looks better, you know? If you have four participles and three of them are translated with ING and one isn't, it's like, I'm gonna talk to that translation committee.

Why did you do that? Which I don't know why they did that. I'd like to punch them in the throat though. If you have an older ESV, that was a joke. Security, get Jason out of here. If you have an older ESV, which I hope you don't, That was a joke too. Some of the older versions, I think a 2070 SV follows the 1952 RSV. It translated it this way, may you be strengthened. I'd really like to sit in on that translation committee. It's like, really guys? May you be strengthened? I think that's not a good translation.

I have learned since that they changed it and that's good. The NIV and the Net Bible say this, being strengthened with all power or might. I think that's a good translation. It reflects the original language better. And it makes the four characteristics of a life that please God more consistent, at least for our ears. But I think it's more faithful to the original as well.

Bearing fruit, increasing in knowledge, being strengthened, and I'll tell you why it's being strengthened in a moment, and giving thanks. There's a bunch of other translational technical things, but I won't bore you with the details. So let's just look at verse 11. where I'm calling this the third characteristic of a life that pleases God or a life that is corresponding with what God requires with us will look this way, okay? And this third characteristic is being strengthened. I'll talk about that in a moment. And I have in this sermon to expound this verse four points, the action, the gift, the measure of the gift, and the goal of the gift. So what's the action?

Being strengthened, okay? So first of all, what do I not mean by being strengthened? Notice, this is not an action produced by us, right? If we're being strengthened, I'm gonna argue, this is not a self-strengthening, Some sort of thing, power, invigoration, is being brought to us as a gift. So it's not an action produced by us. We are not called to, in this case, strengthen ourselves.

This text teaches that being strengthened is something that happens to us. in our walk of sanctification, in our fight against remaining corruption, against the devil, and against the way the world thinks. It's something done in us, to us, in us, and for us. Like, if we don't have this, we're in big trouble. If we get this, we're in less trouble. But if we're in Christ, we're in no trouble at all, except the difficulties of this life. So it's not something done by us, right? If we're being strengthened, Paul isn't saying strengthen yourself, you weak, pitiful, which we are, weak, pitiful.

How many great Christians do we have here today? Don't raise your hand, because you're not one. And if you do raise your hand, you just proved you're not one. There are no great Christians here. We're just poor sinners who have a great Savior, right? So it doesn't mean strengthen yourself. It doesn't mean we are authors of our own strengthening. This is not one of those, you know, bite the bullet, get tough, deal with it kind of verses.

The first two characteristics of a life that pleases God involve our efforts, though, bearing fruit. Okay, so engaging our intellects and will together and living in such a way that our lifestyle is corresponding with what God describes as a good work, basically. And then increasing in the knowledge of God, so there we have to do something in order to increase. And of course, we're not gonna increase effectually without God blessing it, but you gotta read your Bible, By the way, if you didn't read your Bible six days last week, what are you doing here?

We're getting the word. You probably should. I didn't read my Bible six days. Sorry. I stayed up real late arguing with my friends. And I had to get up and teach and preach and all that stuff. Should you read your Bible six days? Yeah, if you can. Great. Wonderful. Marvelous. Do it.

And pray too. But especially pray. Increasing in the knowledge of God, how do you do that? Read your Bible, listen to sermons, but the most important way is come and hear the preaching and the singing and the reading and all that, and then engage with the fellowship of the saints and you'll increase. So the first two involve our conscious, deliberate, volition, intellect and volition.

But this one says being strengthened, which involves believers as, I'm going to say, passive recipients of something from outside of themselves. So that the change agent here is not us, but there is an agent who is changing us. And it's not your pastor. That's one of the frustrating things of the ministry, right?

I say this, I can't fix it. When I was a kid, I was raised on a farm. When something broke, my dad said, take it to the shop and he fixed it like that. And I can't consciously remember something that was beyond my dad's ability to fix it. So when you get in the ministry, that doesn't, it doesn't work. Like I've known Jason for like 10 or 15 years. I haven't been able to fix him. God fixes sinners, though. And I don't want to rain on my own sermon parade, so we'll stop there.

But this is something from outside, or someone, is the change agent within the souls of believers. So we are passive recipients being strengthened. Boxers can deliver punches or receive them, right? When they're delivering, they're the active intending to be a change agent, they want to bust your chops. And if you're receiving that blow, you are then passive, right? In this case, we are receiving something from the outside.

Not a punch from God or anything like that, but this text is not about, therefore, believers acting upon believers, believers acting within themselves for the benefit of themselves. This text is about something way better than that, okay? So what is this action that I'm trying to expound?

Being strengthened. So the form of the word demands that we understand this as something that happens to us and in us. That is, being strengthened, we could say being empowered, being fortified, being invigorated, being endowed with some sort of help. Or maybe even being made strong. You realize that the best of saints is a saint. Saved is a poor sinner, saved by grace at best, right? We all need grace. I remember my wife telling a story when she was a new convert.

She was going to Bible study on Thursday night. She was going to the youth meeting on Wednesday night to help with the high school people. Going to the college or singles meeting on Thursday night so she could meet me. because that's where we met. She was going Sunday school, morning and evening. And my dear departed mother-in-law says, Mija, only Hector knows what that means. Mija, are you that bad that you have to go to church that many times? And I think my wife said, yeah.

We need help. We need grace. So this is God acting upon and within us. We're passive recipients to the operation of God that comes from Him to us, in us, and for us. This is almost like, I've said this before, this is like a second gospel. You mean once you come to Jesus, you get help afterwards? Yeah, and you're gonna, if you're tracking with me, you're gonna say something like this. Then why am I so carnal? I say that quite often, and my wife says, that's a good question.

I've been studying the Bible since 1984. I have a kindergarten diploma, and an eighth grade diploma, and a high school diploma, and a junior college, or community college diploma, and I have a bachelor's degree, and I have two master's degree and a PhD, and I've been reading John Owen since 1990. And David's going, then why aren't you holier? I have an argument for why I'm not holier and why you're not holier, and I'll tell you about it in a minute here.

But again, this action is a received action of another who operates and then tinkers with our souls. Second point in exposition of this little third characteristic is the gift. With all might, could be translated with all power, I think it's signifying the same thing. It's something, this is something granted to us, this is something given to us, this is something we are endowed with from God. Power, strength, vigor, enablement, fortification, something like that. And it says all power.

And don't take this to mean, wow, I can have all power like I can fly. Or I can have all power from God in order to be sinless, sinless perfectionism. We're not going there. I'll prove to you that sinless perfectionism is impossible by having you just hang out with me for about 10 minutes.

All power, I think, means the ability to overcome in any and every circumstance of life. So I'm gonna say, I think all power should be understood this way. All needed power, all needed ability, all needed strength, all needed empowerment, all needed fortification, all needed internal invigoration to suit us for the circumstance that we're going through. And then once we get through it, it's kind of like, it's not like you're on your own, but I'll talk about what I mean by that in a moment.

Let's look at third, the measure of the gift. That's where I get this language of measure. This refers to the standard of measure whereby God empowers his people, his glorious power, or the might of his glory. His glorious power would refer to something like this. God's glorious power in this case is the outshining, the radiance of who he is and is seen by what he does. God's power, God's might is another way of saying his omnipotence in action the soul-altering, effective power of God, and in this case, aimed at the invigoration of the soul of believers in Christ.

How can I know that I'm living a life that pleases God, that's living up to God's preceptive will for us? You're being strengthened to live. You say, well, I feel pretty carnal right now. You're at church. That's good, right? It's better to be at church than not. I'm sounding like Jim Butler. You're at church. Is this when I do the. I did it two years ago and I had to go to the chiropractor when I got home. I have to take a nap after I watch his sermons because I'm going. Just being at church means sustaining grace has been enacted in your soul or deposited in your soul by the Lord to give you enough desire to be here.

Now, this is not true of anybody here, but sometimes people fight on the way to church. You've never done that. I think the first fight we had on the way to church, I was driving in, do you remember that white Toyota we had? Yeah. I was going to Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada to preach there for the first time in my life. And we had a spat. And I pulled over illegally on the freeway. I said, I can't do this until we pray.

But I know that's happened to none of you. But just suppose you did. Sometimes you're not able to sort all that stuff out, but you still come because you got it in you. Not because you're good, but because the Lord's good. And even though we might come icky to church, We still come and maybe God exposes our ickiness and reminds us that when you're icky, feel guilty. And if you are really guilty, you know what you should do?

Go right to God in prayer and say, I know why I feel this way, because I'm guilty. I sinned. I was mean to my husband or my wife or whatever. Please forgive me. What you don't do is you say, you know what, in order to get strengthened from you, I got to prove to you that I'm bearing fruit in every good work. So I'm going to clean my life up first. And then I'll come and say, Lord, look what I did with my sin. I cleaned it up first. Now help me. It's like, that's not the way it works. Foul eye to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. It's not just for lost people. It's for saved people too.

So the measure of this gift is God's... glorious power. The measuring rod, we might say, for the power God infuses into the souls of His children is God's own dazzling, inexhaustible might. In other words, the limit of the strengthening is set by the extent of God's might, meaning that there is no limit.

He gives in full measure. I think I was quoting John Eady there. He gives in full measure. Now listen to this. Oh, this is me now. all we need, when we need it, and yet never exhausts His pool of power or might. God executes His power, terminating on our souls in order to sustain us and invigorate us without exhausting power. That's weird. God executes power without exhausting power?

I know nothing about that, right? We don't, because when we execute power, when the powers of intellect and volition or will conspire together to move our bodies to do something, like I did last week at Hector's, I ran stairs. And then by the end of the week, I only walked them as a form of exercise.

And I had to take a nap afterwards, because as I execute my powers, I'm, I'm, what's the word? I'm depleting or depleting my powers. It's another E word. What's the word I was using? Nobody's gonna help me. I guess I could look at my notes. Exhausting my power. Okay, it's going out of me. And it needs to be replenished. That's us, right? We eat food, we go to sleep, we drink water, we exercise, then we gotta do the same thing, even if you don't exercise. And still, even without exercise, we gotta replenish ourselves, right? That's the way we're made.

God executes power in the souls of what, millions? I don't know how many Christians there are living on the earth at this moment, Billions? I don't know. He executes power, terminating on the souls of all of his people in the process of sanctification, without exhausting power.

The Lord our God doesn't get tired. He doesn't go to sleep. Hold on, can't help you with that one? Gotta sleep. You know, your pastor sometimes will be sleeping, because he needs to be, and he can't help you. God is not like that. It's like God has, you know, a bucket of mercy and grace for us that's bottomless.

I have this illustration I've used before because we live in the desert. High desert. So it's not a hundred and it's not like Phoenix or anything. It's not like hell on earth. It's still warm, okay? And you're out there, you're lost, and let's say you have a bucket of water, but it's only going to get you so far, right? Because it's got a bottom to it, and your mouth's going to be parched, and you're going to die because you have to have water to sustain you, especially in heat like this.

This is not the case with God. There is no end. There is no bottom to the bucket of God's power. Or we might say his resources. I hate that word. are inexhaustible. It's almost like there's a shelf of things over there and God's going to, this is what you need, but it's like outside of God.

God's resources are just God for us in Christ. The benefits of Christ are for the people of Christ. He's the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So the might of His glory is like Him. We could say eternal, infinite, inexhaustible. How about this one? He strengthens us without losing strength in Him. I want a God like that.

And you can have the God, through Christ, who does that very thing for you, if you come to Jesus. And if you've come to Jesus, that's the mechanism, that's the tinkering with your heart that God has promised to do, because if you're called, you're justified. And if you're justified, you're glorified.

I always want to talk to Paul about that. But what if I don't feel very sanctified? Because he doesn't say called, justified, sanctified, glorified. He just jumps from justification to glorification. But if you've been called, you're justified. And if you're justified, you're gonna be glorified, and we know you're gonna be sanctified as well.

God is, sanctification is the work of God's grace, right? In us, bringing the benefits of Christ to us. Once we've come to Christ, we don't get all the benefits, you know, justifying faith. If you haven't figured it out yet, you need Jesus after you repent and believe, right? All the way to glory. So he strengthens us without losing strength in him.

This is a quote by John Eadie. So here's what Eadie says. He says, if we survey the glory of God in creation, the immensity of its architectural power overwhelms us. The heavens are telling of the glory of God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He spoke and it was done.

I remember Genesis 1, 14, copying my now mentor. And he made the stars also. I think one time I heard you say that it was about 140 degrees and everybody was sweating and Jim was preaching one time and he did this with his glasses. They went out in the second row. He says, and he made the stars also. And he made the stars also. It's like, have you ever looked at the stars?

There's a lot of stars up there and we don't even see just the fringes of the whole body of stars. So he says, or in his providence, it's exhaustless and versatile energy perplexes us. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and in earth or in redemption. It's moral achievements delight and amaze us. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. If the spiritual strength given to believers be after the measure of the might of this glory, With what courage and ability shall they be armed?

If he's able to do all that, and he is and has, he's able to make the things out of nothing, and he spoke, and it stood fast, it's like, What is he doing? He's bringing being into being that had no being. But then he brings things that had no being into being and he sustains them and moves them to an end. If he can do all that, he can get you through a hard week.

No, you don't know my circumstances. I know them probably better than you realize. By personal experience. If we can do, this is what E.D. said, if we just look and then we go, oh my, Lord, forgive me. A lot of my sins this last week, a lot of my doubts were because I was a walking atheist. I was functioning like an atheist. I forgot that you hung the stars.

And that you have promises in your word. that even though I go through the valley of shadow of death, thou art with me, sustaining, helping. So he says, will they not resist evil, overcome temptation, banish fear, surmount difficulties, embrace opportunities of well-doing, and prove that they are able to rise above everything before which unaided humanity sinks and succumbs. Unaided humanity. Christianity is not a religion of unaided humanity. You can't get into Christ unaided, and you can't stay in Christ unaided, and you won't get glorified unaided.

The goal of the gift is the fourth point here. It says, for all patience and longsuffering. And so it's a twofold goal. being strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience, endurance, steadfastness, synonyms, and long-suffering or possibly patience. These two terms kind of bleed over. They share a portion of a semantic domain. They're cousins.

So God is pleased when his children are empowered by him to live for Him under any and all circumstances. I know that I'm living in accordance with God's revealed will. I know that I'm pleasing God by looking at my life and saying, I know it was ugly and bad, and I know my heart at the moment was very wicked, but I repented and God took me through it. I was being strengthened.

Patience, endurance, or steadfastness. It literally means something like to abide or remain under difficult circumstances, to possess a calm tenacity of soul amidst trials, to persevere, to not lose heart. James 5 11. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. That's the word you have heard of the perseverance of Job. Long suffering. means something like to put up with wrongs done to you by others, to not retaliate, to restrain yourself while under pressure, to possess your soul for a long time under difficulties. Now, somebody's gonna be here going, I failed the test, that's not me. What do you do? Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. Foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I'm gonna be miserable. Because the only way to be happy in, it's true, the only way to be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey.

There was a time when I didn't like that hymn. I think I know why. But I actually love it now. It is true. You wanna be happy in Jesus? Trust and obey. You say, well, look what I did. If you confess your sins as a believer, God will forgive you and cleanse you. And the faster you go back to the fountain of justification for sanctifying grace, the better it will be for your soul. So the point here is that God, this is like my proposition statement for this sermon. It's one sentence, too, and it's five lines, I think, only because it's an 18-font on my notes. Can you believe that? 18 font. It makes me at least 44.

God strengthens his people with all necessary power in accordance with his power, which shows forth his glory for this reason, that we might live for him under any and all circumstances and thus glorify him. I think that's a summary statement of what Paul intends by these words.

You remember Moses. He thought he could not speak for God, that he was not eloquent enough. God said to him, who made man's mouth? I will be with your mouth. I can't do this. I just don't have it in me. I know. That's why I give you these promises. Go latch your soul onto the promises. Believe the word of God. You can't do it on your own. This is not an unaided human religion.

David in Psalm 23, four, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil because I read the Puritans. For you, I love it, thou art with me. Thou art with me in a comforting and an invigorating way. You are with me, tinkering with my soul to make me willing to do what's right. Listen to Paul in 2 Timothy 4, 16 and 17.

At my first defense, no one supported me, but all deserted me, may it not be counted against them. Man, you know what that's like? I don't. Give me the grace to say that. But the Lord. Stood with me. And strengthened me. So when it feels like even believers might be against you and you're all alone and you feel lonesome and you're you're you're looking at what you did or said or wanted to do or say and didn't do, but it was in your heart to do it. You just didn't engage your limbs in doing it and you feel terrible, the Lord's with you and the Lord's for you in Christ.

So, I'm finished with the exposition and I want to do some contemplations now, which means if you haven't been using your brain I'm going to ask you to use it now. So wake up if you're asleep. Well actually if you were asleep you might as well just go sleep because everything I'm going to say now depends on if you're listening at least a little, okay? So now we're going to say, all right, so what? How does this kind of work itself out? Let me just say this first of all.

You remember I gave you the context. Let me give you a context for Colossians. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and I went all the way to Paul's conversion to Christ, and these people's conversion to Christ, and Paul's in prison. Paul is writing to believers in Christ about the benefits that believers in Christ have in Christ. Okay, so I'm going to say this.

This text commends Christ to anyone and everyone that's hearing my voice. I want to commend my Savior to you as a good Savior. Once you come to Him for forgiveness, You can't ever shake Him. And lo, I am with you always. I will never leave you nor forsake you. But it feels as if He's forsaken me.

Read your confession. It talks about when we feel that way. Sometimes it's God kind of saying to us, you've got some sins to deal with. Or God kind of saying to us, you're a little proud. I need you to feel your need for me a little more. And so there's this sense of distance.

But if Jesus says, I will never leave you. What does that hymn say? Never, no, never, no, never forsake you. At my church, when I quote that, if my daughter was here, she'd be going, Dad, you always quote that. You always quote, foul eye to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. And never, no, never, no, never forsake. But she's not here, so I'm going to say it anyway. Don't tell her. Never, no, never, no, never forsake.

Why does he say never, no, never? Maybe for poetic, you know, but why does he say never, no, never, no, never? Maybe because we're numbskulls, kind of thick sometimes, and we need to be reminded never. But it feels like it sometimes, never. But it's really deep, that sense of distance from the Lord, never forsake. He won't do it.

It is possible, we could say, because of this kind of a promise, and I'm commending the Savior to sinners who haven't come to the Savior yet. It's possible to weather the storms of life in such a way as to please the Lord, but only if you've come to the Lord Jesus in the first place. And I could say this, I know, without even knowing all the gory details.

There are many people in this room will tell you that though they are in themselves weak and very often pitifully weak, the Lord is mighty to save and the Lord Jesus upholds his people by his spirit as he was upheld by the Spirit of God to endure sufferings for us and to enter into His glory. And all those who are Christ's first endure sufferings for His name's sake, then one day will enter into His glory, all cleaned up in body and soul. If you want to get there, you've got to come to the source of salvation here. If you want to get in glory in the special presence of God, all cleaned up, body and soul, blameless in His presence with, this is the new American standard, great joy, that's Jude 24, If you're a Christian, you know what joy is. The happy, quiet sense of soul that all is right with me and God because of Christ. Something like that. And it makes my soul happy, even in the midst of things. What in the world is great joy, though?

Don't tell me what's like me last Tuesday when I was floating six inches off the ground. And my friend said, there's this glow about your face. Anybody ever sing that song? I can hear the brush of angels' wings. I see glory on each face. Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. We used to sing that one as a new convert. And the single guys, we'd all go with our wings. It's a weird hymn. No, last Tuesday you didn't have the glow on your face, you weren't floating.

You don't know what great joy is. We know what intermittent joy, bits and pieces are, but our joy can be challenged and, in a sense, in our sense of it, be obliterated in a moment. by reading a text. He died. She died. Give me a, I hate, I'm going to get a text one day or a message from my, one of my brothers. You need to call me. And I know exactly what it means. Because last time I got that, My mom passed away a few hours later. I'm going to get one for my dad someday. Our joy can be challenged, or the sense of it can be gone really quick. We don't know what great joy is.

But the gospel promises blameless, in his presence, with great joy. But in order to get there, foul eye to the fountain, fly, wash me. You've got to go to Jesus. Because he's got the goods. He's got everything you need to not only get there, but to get you through this as well.

Does this go to one o'clock? A second contemplation is this. This text forces believers to ask and answer this question. OK, so I'm assuming most of you are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm asking you a question. In light of all that you have been through in this life, How is it that you made it through everything you've gone through? And why are you still here walking with God, professing faith in Christ, desiring to learn and obey? Why is it? Don't answer it out loud, OK?

I am speaking to people in this room. I don't know everything about your life's details. I know people. I'm one of them. I am speaking to people in this room who have gone through many trials, some of them horrendous, unspeakable. Some of you have signed divorce papers.

Some of you have buried loved ones, children, spouses. Some of you have suffered for the name of Christ in ways only you and God knows. Some of you know what it means to be slandered for the sake of the gospel. Some of you have agonized due to your own faults and sins. This text forces you to ask the question, how did I make it through all that? And why am I still here? Never, no, never, no, never forsake. I'll never leave you. That's how you got here.

The Lord Jesus is with his people. The answer is this. the Lord Jesus, but that Christianity is not like any other religion. All other religions demand unaided human effort to get into the religion and to stay in the religion. That's borrowing from the Scottish Presbyterian John Eady there. Remember, unaided There's nothing in Christianity, in the Christian life, to get into the Christian life to be sustained in the Christian life. It's just mere unaided human effort. Christianity is unique. It's a religion all of grace. Grace gets us in and gracious power keeps us all the way until the end, even when it's ugly.

We have to say that because you can't sin your way out of Jesus. Somebody said, if I could, that would have happened a long time ago. But I would have known better that I can't save myself, so I would have gone back to Jesus and I'd sin my way out of Jesus again. And I hope that I don't get hit by a bus between sending my way out of Jesus and coming back to Jesus, because then I'll go to hell.

Some people teach that. Grace gets us in and gracious power keeps us all the way to the end. Not that we don't exert effort, but all our efforts are laced with and empowered by his glorious power. So there is no such thing as unaided human effort that pleases God in the Christian life. We had a good week. Praise God. We had a bad week.

Lord, forgive me. And our hymnal, I don't know if it's in your hymnal. It's in your old hymnal, the Trinity hymnal. Hymn 479, listen to these words, because it says what I'm trying to say. Off in danger, off in woe, onward Christians, onward go. Fight the fight, maintain the strife, strengthened with the bread of life. Onward Christians, onward go, join Join the war and face the foe. Faint not, much doth yet remain. Dreary is the long campaign. Shrink not, Christians. Will ye yield? Will ye quit the painful field? Will ye flee in dangerous hour? Know ye not your captain's power? That's a great line there. Don't you know your captain's power? What are you doing giving up? Stop it, you know, soul. Speaking to myself, not to you.

Let your drooping hearts be glad. I love these old hymns that speak about experiential religion. You know, this is real. Let your drooping hearts be glad. Now, not for pastors where our hearts never droop because we're holy. You don't want to see the droopingness of my heart. Let your drooping hearts be glad.

March in heavenly armor clad. Fight, nor think the battle long. Victory soon shall tune your song. Let not sorrow dim your eye. Soon shall every tear be dry. Let not woe your course impede. And here it is. Great your strength, if great your need. All needed power, timely power, onward then to battle move. More than conquerors he shall prove. Though opposed by many a foe, Christian soldiers onward go.

I'll close with an illustration that kind of illustrates this thing. I hope it does. Many years ago, I lived in another part of the country of the United States. And a friend of mine came over on a Lord's Day. We had these folks over a long time. They're still good friends of ours. And I know this guy well enough. Just his countenance was dragging to the ground. And I said, his name's Jim. I said, Jim. It's not Jim Bowler. It's not Jim Renahan either. I said, Jim, what's wrong?

He said, I went and visited Sister So-and-so yesterday, a dear sister in the church. Ron Miller's first wife was dying of cancer. And he said, there she is on her deathbed, quoting scripture, encouraging me to persevere and love my wife and raise my kids in the fear and admonition of the Lord, go to church on the Lord's day, be a faithful husband, be a faithful father. You know, all this stuff, quoting scripture, quoting him, singing. And he said something like this. That visit made me wonder if I have ever really tasted of the grace of Christ. And I said, why? He says, I'm not like her. And I didn't say this at the time, but I said something like this. Great your strength, if great your need. You don't get dying grace now, you get dying grace then. You get all needed power at the moments you need it the most.

And I think that's what Paul is saying here. God invigorates, God strengthens his people. We don't get the kind of grace that people die with until we're on our deathbeds. May the Lord strengthen us by invigorating our hearts, blessing his word to our souls. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. We pray that it would as to the degree that it was accurately explained, that you would bless it to our often weary hearts, our unbelieving hearts. We ask your blessing for your glory so that we would praise you even more and be gladder, be happier to be Christians. more thankful to the Father for qualifying us, for rescuing us and delivering us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of all of our sins. Bless your word we ask in Jesus' name, amen.