Please turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. I'll just pick up reading in verse 15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death. to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in His sight. If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. Amen.
Let us pray. Father, we thank You for the Holy Scriptures and we just pray to You, our God and Father, that You would fill each one of us now with Your Spirit We thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have not left us as orphans in this lower world, but You have given another helper, even one just like Yourself. And we thank You for the ministry of the Spirit, so that You speak to Your churches even now. We pray, God, that You would forgive us and cleanse us from all sin and unrighteousness, that You would remove from us anything that would keep us from a proper understanding of this passage, And God, may these things promote in us a desire to worship and to serve You.
And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, remember that Paul has been speaking in categories concerning Jesus in verses 15 to 20 that are glorious indeed. He speaks of Christ as the One who created, Christ as the One who is sovereign in providence, and Christ who is the Redeemer or Reconciler of God's people. And now Paul moves from galaxies and the glory of Christ's creation to a very small place in this world, specifically to the Lycus Valley where the Colossian church was. He moves from cosmic reconciliation, verse 20, to very particular and specific reconciliation in verses 21 to 23.
And Paul uses a familiar way to highlight the work of God among these believers. We saw it at the outset of worship when our brother read from Ephesians 2, what you once were and what you have now become. The before and after, if you will, of Christianity. Why is this important?
Well, imagine if you were to have purchased a house, a fixer-upper, and you do the business of fixing it up, and then you invite everybody over, and they look at it and they say, boy, what an amazing job. It's certainly beautiful. And then you pull out some pictures of what it used to look like, and that just blows them away that much more. Wow!
You made it look like this when it looked like that before? In many respects, to appreciate where we are in Christ Jesus, we mustn't ever forget where we've come from, where God has brought us out of. And Paul uses that same convention here. And you, he says, who once were alienated, And then he moves on to say, yet now he has reconciled.
So there is a before and after picture here with reference to the Colossian church. In short, it tells us how they moved from alienation to reconciliation. And the larger structure of the passage is quite marvelous. I'm a firm believer that you should see the structure of a passage, just like you should look at a map from time to time.
If you're traveling in a new city, you ought to look at a map to see where you're at. Well, the structure of this passage is quite beautiful. Paul begins with prayer for the Colossians. Verses 9-12a, prayer then begins to recede to the background as he gets into theological instruction, as he begins to set before them the glory of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work.
Here in verses 21-23, he calls them to a bit of historical reflection, to consider what it is God has done in their lives and in their church. He will specify his purpose for ministry in verses 24 to 29, which all of this then sets the stage to confront the heresy that was plaguing the church in Colossae in chapter 2. So there is marvelous structure, there is marvelous order in the passage before us. Well,
Sermon Overview: Four Movements
I want to consider four things with reference from alienation to reconciliation.
Alienated and Enemies in the Mind
We need to notice, first of all, their previous state in verse 21. Secondly, their present condition, verses 21 and 22. Thirdly, future destiny, verse 22b at the very end there. And then in verse 23, fourthly, their present duty.
They move from the past to the present, to the future, and back to the present again. Hopefully you can follow that. It isn't too confusing, but it is important that the Bible doesn't minimize the place of the end times, but rather it uses the end times, specifically the judgment to come, as a motivator for our present conduct. Well,
Previous State: Alienation
notice first of all their previous state, verse 21, "...and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works." Not a very pleasant picture, is it? Very grim, actually. very bleak and very dark. And in many respects, this contains for us the answer to the mess that exists in the world around us. When we see the kinds of things that go on on a daily basis, the injustices and the ungodliness, the unrighteousness and the acts of wickedness, the Bible has the answer as to why it is the case.
The first thing Paul sets forth is that they were alienated from God. They were estranged from God. They were separate from Him. The passive form of the verb that Paul uses here does not mean primarily that we alienated God, but rather, God alienated us.
Because of our sins, because of our waywardness, because of our wickedness, The Lord God kept us from Himself. We see a similar usage in Romans 5 at verse 10. Now, I believe the Bible teaches that sinners keep God at arm's length. But the same Bible teaches us that God keeps sinners at arm's length as well.
Romans 5.10, For if, when we were enemies, We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. The thought is there that we were enemies of God. Now, the text will proceed in Colossians 1.21 to tell us that we treat God as enemies.
But when he specifies here that we were alienated from God, he means that because of our sin and waywardness, God would have nothing to do with us. God didn't call us sons and daughters. God didn't call us friends. God did not invite us to pray and to fellowship and to commune and to enjoy with Him.
Not that we would have anyways, but that's the idea here. A parallel thought is in the passage that Cam read in Ephesians 2, or at least the parallel word. Ephesians 2.12, Paul says that at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. The same idea there is alienation.
But specifically here in Ephesians 2, alienation that exists between Jew and Gentile. Though it had its effects upon these Gentiles, they were without hope and without God in the world. The primary matter in Ephesians 2 is that Jesus has brought Jew and Gentile together as one new man in Christ. I believe more of a parallel is found in Ephesians 4 at verse 18.
Notice in Ephesians 4 at verse 18, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God. being alienated from the life of God, being estranged from it, not having participation in it, not enjoying the glory and the goodness of God. That's what these Colossians once were. And if we are in Christ now, that's what we once were. We were alienated from Him.
We had no interest in Him. We had no desire for Him. We didn't crave the knowledge or the understanding of God. We didn't want intimacy with God.
It's a very bleak place. It's a very bad state. It's a very horrible position to maintain in this world. Paul goes on to describe them in Colossians 1.21.
He says, we're once alienated and enemies in your mind. You see, you'll see that in the Bible. What we think about God always affects how we live for or against God. The mind here comes first.
Paul will deal with wicked works, to be sure. But primarily, the seat of affections is the mind or the heart. The Bible uses those things synonymously. And what a horrible description here.
You are alienated and enemies in your mind. Paul says that the thought process of the unbeliever is wrong. It is affected. It is darkened.
So we look around us and we say, man just needs a little bit of help. No, it's not like that old house that just needs a bit of TLC. That analogy breaks down. That old house needs to be bulldozed.
That old house needs to be obliterated. That old house needs to be devastated and remade. anew, and that's the glory of the Christian gospel. That's why Paul's argument in Romans 6 is that you died with Christ and you have risen again with Him. The old man has been crucified, the new man exists in Jesus Christ.
He says, you are enemies in your mind. That is absolutely amazing, but it certainly causes us to make sense of the world. The preacher in Ecclesiastes 9.3 said this, this is an evil that is done under the sun, that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts, and very often in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the same word Paul uses for mind here translates the word heart. in the Old Testament.
He says, truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil. Madness is in their hearts while they live. That's the description that Paul says was true of these Colossians. That's the description that is true of us if we are now in Christ Jesus.
That's what we once were. If you are not in Christ Jesus right now, this is true of you. I realize you don't think you're mad. I realize you don't think that you're crazy.
I realize that you don't think you're wicked and that God is your enemy and you are His. But whether you realize it or not doesn't change the fact. That's what happens when men sin. In Adam, we all die.
We are plunged into depravity and this is the result. Remember that when Jesus healed that man that was plagued by the legion of demons? Remember that man who lived among the tombs? No one would get near him because he was such a wretched cause.
He was such a strong, he would be able to break any chains that were placed upon him. He had his dwelling among the tombs. Let me just tell you, in Israel, you didn't purchase property near the graveyard. It was very unclean.
You certainly didn't live among the tombs. You didn't spend your nights crying out and cutting yourself. Jesus comes and He casts these demons out of this man. And I love Luke's account of this healing.
It says, then they went out to see what had happened, the people of the region. And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind." See, up until that point, he had been naked and mad. He had been naked and nuts. He had been naked and so given over to his sin that he was described as being out of his mind.
That's how the Bible depicts all men outside of Christ. It's not just reserved for a few psychologically disturbed people. It's not just a title reserved for those who have some chemical imbalance. The Bible sees that all men outside of Christ are mad.
They are in sin. These people come along and they see this man now. He's sitting at the feet of Jesus, where a worshipper ought to be. He's clothed and he's in his right mind.
And this caused the people there to be afraid. I mean, they were afraid of this man when he was demon-possessed and he would break chains. You would certainly think that they wouldn't be afraid any longer, except that he was now sitting with a stronger, a more mighty conqueror. One more powerful, more able to subdue, and that caused them to be fearful as well.
You see, as Paul is describing these people, he says, you were once alienated and you were enemies in your mind. In Romans 1.21, in Ephesians 4.17, we see the same thing. It's the mind, what we believe about God that affects our actions. This is why Paul has prayed for these Colossians.
In Colossians 1.10, that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Why? So that you may walk worthy of Him. Fully pleasing Him.
What we believe about God affects how we live for God. That's why doctrine matters. That's why teaching is important. That's why instruction from the Word of God takes a place of priority in the church.
Because if we don't think right thoughts about God, we will never live for God. And that's what Paul goes on to say, you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind, buy wicked works. The mind produces action consistent with it. John Eady said, the apostle charges them not merely with spiritual and latent hostility to God, but with the manifestation of that hostility in open acts of unnatural rebellion.
It is not a neutral alienation, but one characterized by positive enmity. It's not just a bunch of sinners walking around there hating God, but keeping it private. Keeping it a private, personal thing. No, it manifests itself.
People walking around hating God manifest it. They manifest it in abortion clinics. They manifest it in theft. They manifest it through addictions.
They manifest it through the way they talk to each other. They manifest it in the way they are entertained. They manifest it in the way they think. They manifest it.
It comes out. What we believe about God comes out to play in our actions, in our activities.
Romans 1: Depravity Manifested
Turn to Romans 1.21 for a moment. Romans chapter 1. Specifically, we'll look at verse 20 and following. Remember, in that section, Paul is highlighting the fact that all men everywhere are under sin.
That's the summary statement of Romans 3. But this feeds into that. The universal condemnation of sin. He begins with the Gentiles, or what we might call the heathen, or the pagans in Romans chapter 1.
And notice what he says in verse 20. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. No one can claim there's not enough evidence. There's no sinner out there that can legitimately say, well, there's just not enough evidence to believe in the existence of God.
Wrong. There is evidence. You just suppress that truth in unrighteousness. The evidence is everywhere.
You just choose not to accept it. You just choose to try and argue it away. The doctrine of evolution is more pleasing to you, so you'll believe that. Not because of compelling evidence, but because of an axe to grind against God.
So this is what Paul says. Notice verse 21. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile, get this, in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Same thing, right?
The mind, the heart, the thoughts, the inner man. comes first. When it's estranged from God, now notice what happens. Verse 22, professing to be wise, they became fools and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Isn't that disgusting?
We will change or exchange the glory of the incorruptible God so that we can worship those things our hands have made. What a sad and miserable indictment on the state of man. This doesn't just apply to the heathen in the bush who's worshipping his pole. It applies to the heathen in North America that's worshipping his money, who's worshipping his family, who's worshipping himself, who's worshipping his spare time, who's worshipping his entertainment. who is worshipping anything and everything that is not God.
We profess ourselves to be wise, but we have shown ourselves to be idolaters. This is what Paul says. And because of this, verse 24, Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, and the lust of their hearts to dishonour their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another. Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, you see what a man thinks affects the way he lives. God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whisperers, backbiters.
Haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undisturbing, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them." It's a bleak picture. Doesn't that bring into focus the glory and the majesty of our God. That's what we've been saved of. That's not just true of some heathen in the first century.
That's true of you and me. Oh, well, I was never a sodomite. You were a hater of your parents. I was never a murderer.
You were an adulterer in your heart. You know, when you put a ribbon on something that's disgusting, it's still disgusting. You put one slug into a nice garden salad, and the whole salad is affected. You may not have done a whole bunch of other things, but you did enough sin to find your place in hell forever and ever and ever and ever.
But God, yet now, You see, the glory of the Gospel, it's about those buts. But God. It's about the neverthelesss. I love that time in Ezekiel's prophecy in chapter 16, where God gives them a history lesson.
I came to you, Israel, and you were lying in your blood. I said to you, live, live. I decked you with ornaments. I put clothes on you.
I treated you as one lovely. I gave and I gave and I gave. You plunged yourself into sin. You have found all manner of depravity.
He uses some of the most vivid language in all of the prophets. So much so that most of our English translations shy away from giving the literal interpretation. He uses language that is offensive to our delicate ears. I often wish our sinning was as offensive to our delicate ears as that language is.
God uses the language in Ezekiel 16. He said, you spread your legs to every passerby to multiply your harlotry. And I'm sorry if that offends your delicacies, but that's God's indictment against covenant breaking. God says, you're not even like other people.
Most men pay the harlot. He says, Israel, you got it all backwards. You're paying the man to commit harlotry with you. But you know what God does in there?
Nevertheless. Nevertheless. Nevertheless, is the but God of the Old Testament. That's what Paul's doing here.
That's why it's important for us to traverse some of this bleak ground. To consider what we were, so that we will see the glory of God in reconciliation. Reconciliation presupposes God's wrath. We don't need to be reconciled to friends, do we?
No two people that have ever been getting along swimmingly have ever come to me and said, can you help us to get along? No, you're already getting along. Why would you need reconciliation? Reconciliation presupposes an axe to grind.
According to this text, God's axe to grind with us and our axe to grind with Him. And
Present Condition: Reconciliation
that brings us to consider their present condition. Their present condition in Colossians 1.21. And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled. Isn't that amazing?
Not only did this Christ make everything, not only does in this Christ all things consist, not only are galaxies set there by Him, but He's actually come to you in the Lycus Valley in the first century to a city that at one time was pretty popular, pretty big, and pretty prestigious, but now is just a two-bit town. Very, very insignificant at the time that this letter was written. He says, yet now He has reconciled. And that He here should be seen as God the Father.
We've already seen that in verses 19 and 20. Yet please the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. And by Him, we could read, it pleased the Father, to reconcile all things to Himself. God the Father is the One who is seen as reconciling.
He does it through the means of Christ to be sure. But we ought to see in this particular instance, yet now He has reconciled. It is the God of Heaven. The One who at one time we held as our enemy, that God has now reconciled.
He didn't just leave it there. He sought us out. I was just reading in 1 Chronicles 17, the rehearsing of the Davidic covenant. God, through the prophet Nathan, is speaking about his dynasty, speaking about how he's going to bless David's household.
David returns thanks and praise and worship to his God. And he says in verse 21 of 1 Chronicles 17, And who is like your people Israel? The one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people. I love that language.
It almost looks like God left heaven, went on a journey to redeem them for Himself. And of course, we know that's the case in the Gospels, because Jesus left Heaven, came into this world to redeem us for Himself.
Divine Initiative in Reconciliation
The divine initiative and reconciliation must be appreciated. It wasn't like one day we woke up and we said, my, things aren't right with me in Heaven. Absolutely not the case. God said, things aren't right with you and heaven, and I'm going to reconcile you.
I'm going to save you. I'm going to redeem you. I am going to take you for myself. Praise God for His pushiness.
Praise God for irresistible grace. Praise God for His persistence. Praise God for His initiative. This is what you were in your strength.
This is what God has done for you. He has reconciled you. He has brought you to Himself. And the means by which He has done this, according to our text, is in the body of His flesh through death.
It is through the body of Christ, His physical body, contra His mystical body, which has been spoken of in chapter 1 and verse 18, which is the church. If the church in Colossae was being affected by some doctrine that Christ wasn't really a man, will Paul uphold the doctrine of incarnation here? And he is highlighting that it was a physical death on the part of the Savior that brought you to this place of reconciliation. You don't get out of that mess by your good works.
You don't get out of that mess by moral reform. You don't get out of that mess by having a few new thoughts. You get out of that mess by one way, and it is the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. The prophet Zechariah was not kidding.
He said, there will be a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. And that fountain, as Calper would later write, is drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. That's how we get out of the mess.
That's how we got into this present condition. Man does not win his way back to the divine favor by either costly offering or profound penitence. God reunites man to Himself. He has not only provided for such an alliance, but actually forms and cements it according to John 80.
Romans 5: Helpless, Sinners, Enemies
Turn to Romans 5 for just a moment. Romans 5, we've already reflected on verse 10, but just to see the larger context and how it relates to this idea of reconciliation. Romans chapter 5 at verse 6, Paul says, we were helpless. Paul says in verse 8, we were sinners.
Paul says in verse 10, we were enemies. See, this text is good. Helps us not to get puffed up. Helps us not to get proud.
You know, there's that thought sometimes, you know, I'm doing pretty good. I don't yell at my wife. My kids are happy. I'm working hard.
My lawn is cut. I've got a decent church. You know, whatever. I'm doing pretty well.
That's because of God. It's not because of you. Here's what you are by nature. Here's what I am by nature.
Verse 6 of Romans 5. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's the helplessness. We were without strength.
We in the Reformed community speak of total inability. We are totally unable to merit favor with God. We are without strength. We don't have the power.
We don't have the ability. We are like those dead bones in Ezekiel 37. The spirit must breathe. The spirit must revive.
We are like Lazarus rotting and stinking in the grave. The powerful voice of Christ must penetrate. There is nothing that man offers in terms of salvation, except as Luther said, the sin that he needs to be saved from. That's what we contribute.
That's what we get. Paul says we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. He uses this argument for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5 opens up this doctrine of reconciliation as well. We see the divine initiative.
God has reconciled us. We see the means of accomplishment in the body of His flesh through death. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin. That's Christ.
He made Him who knew no sin. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. He always kept God's law. He always did what was pleasing to the Father.
He always, always obeyed. And God made Him who knew no sin. To do what? To be sin.
For us. Isn't that amazing? For us? How do we ever get proud?
Convinced. The proudest of us are the most biblically illiterate of us. Because if we understand the truth, it should keep us in the proper place. Sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in our right minds.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Beautiful language from our brother Paul, telling the Colossians of their previous state, their present condition, and then
Future Destiny: Holy and Blameless
he says thirdly, their future destiny. Verse 22, in the body of his flesh through death, notice, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight.
Purpose Not Reason: Grace Alone
The fundamental problem with biblical interpretation, if we don't understand the difference between a reason and a purpose, a reason and a purpose. Paul does not say he reconciled you because reason. You were holy, blameless, and without reproach. Paul says he has reconciled for a purpose in order to become holy and blameless and without reproach.
Some would heretically teach that if we just conjure up some holiness, some blamelessness and some above reproachfulness, God will save us. No, God saves us in order to present us in this way. In Ephesians 1, Paul says God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should become holy and blameless. Not because we're holy and blameless.
You see that? Fundamental difference between reason and purpose. If I tell my wife, I'm going to give you this because you did this. It's a little bit different than, I'm going to give you this so that you'll just be incredibly happy.
Wow. Purpose and reason. Man is about reason. Man is about, you do this, that and the other and God will reward you.
God is about grace. God says, I reconcile you so that I can present you to myself, holy and blameless and above reproach. And I don't think Paul is meaning here for just right now. I think he has in view the judgment to come.
I think he is envisioning that day when the whole church of Christ, who has been redeemed through precious blood, on that final judgment will stand before Him holy and blameless and above reproach. Not because they're good, but because Christ is good. Not because they've accomplished, but because Christ has accomplished. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become what?
The righteousness of God in Him. That's all talking about God's treatment of us. It's not talking about we have somehow become better people. Now, hopefully the Gospel promotes in us a betterness, but that's not what God is looking at on that day of judgment.
We better hope not. We better hope all He's looking at is what Christ has accomplished. And so He takes the future judgment, that day when we shall stand before God, that day when all men will be summoned before the High King of heaven and earth. And Paul says, He has reconciled you so that on that day you will be holy and blameless and above reproach.
That you, in your hearing, will hear Jesus say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Jesus is not going to say that because you've been incredible. He's going to say that because He's been incredible. It's all about imputation, babe.
You learned that. You got it down. He made Him who knew no sin. It doesn't mean Jesus actually sinned.
It's that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It doesn't mean we actually have done all of the righteousness. It's been imputed. It's been given.
It's been constituted. It's a legal declaration. That's one of the blessings of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformers said it isn't about God making us better.
It's about God declaring us better. It's about not guilty, a pronouncement from the bar of heaven. And with that pronouncement, then we actually do want to live for His glory and for His honor.
Forensic Justification and Imputation
Praise God for forensic justification. Praise God that He'll look at us and see holiness. and blamelessness and above reproachness in us. It's amazing. So you see, Paul says, there's a reason here.
And very often, Paul uses this day of judgment to spur the people of God on to holiness, to cause them to think through what they have in Jesus Christ. And then
Present Duty: Perseverance in Faith
that brings us, fourthly, to consider the present duty based on these things. Based on what you once were, what God has now done in you, what you're going to be in the future, this then is how you ought to live. You see, biblical ethics is that way. We are to function and do because of what God has done.
That's another thing very important to get. The Bible, unlike man, teaches the indicative, or what has been accomplished, and then the imperative, or what is to be done. See, man teaches the imperative. Go and do this, and then you'll get that.
The Bible says God has already done this at Calvary. Now this is how you're supposed to live according to that. And this brings Paul to say, if indeed you continue in the faith. He moves from the future back to the present.
Douglas Moos says, the future prospect of judgment is one that Paul holds before the Colossians in order to stimulate their continuing growth in the true gospel of God. This, if indeed you continue, is not to be seen as a negative thing. It's not as if Paul's throwing the dice and saying, I don't know about y'all, If indeed, I'm not sure. No, Paul has a confidence here.
Paul says, if indeed you continue in the faith. The emphasis in this is on what we call the perseverance of the saints. Genuine perseverance in the Christian life gives the validity or the legitimacy to our faith, doesn't it? He's not trying to scare him.
He's not trying to freak him out. He's not saying you can undo your reconciliation. No, he's saying, if you've been reconciled, you will do this. If you've been reconciled, you will continue in the faith.
And this faith here is not their subjective hold of Christ, but it is the Christian truth. It is doctrine. It is the Christian faith. You continue in it.
You don't apostatize. You don't turn away from it. You don't go, wow, it's getting hard, I'm going to go back to being a pagan. Wow, this is difficult, I want to go back to the city of destruction.
Wow, I don't like how people are treating me now that I'm a Christian, so I'm going to stop. No, if you continue in the faith. If you continue in the faith, you will show that God has, in fact, reconciled you. This is not contrary to New Testament Christianity.
This is not contrary to the Bible. This is consistent.
Perseverance of the Saints
This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. God has reconciled you, so you will persevere. God has reconciled you, so you will move forward. God has reconciled you, so you will do this.
And he's very specific here with reference to the particulars. If indeed you continue in the faith grounded and steadfast. I love that. We live in a namby-pamby, wishy-washy, feeling-saturated age.
We need a big dose of grounding and steadfastness. Well, it sounds so contrary to the spontaneity of the New Covenant Christian. Grounded and steadfast. Jesus used this word grounded when he spoke about the man who built his house on the rock.
He wasn't some namby-pamby builder that just wanted a good deal. He found rock and he put his house on it. Jesus says, this was founded on the rock. That's what God wants from His people.
He doesn't want you to be the wishy-washy, feeling-oriented, experience-seeking, jellyfish Christian of 21st century North America. He wants you to dig in. He wants you to grab hold and not let go. That's what He wants.
He wants you to be grounded in the truth. He wants you to understand doctrine. He wants you to apply your mind. He wants you to use your head more than just for box scores or more than just for whatever your desire is in life.
Use your head, first and foremost, to be grounded in the truth. Oh, it's so hard. You know what? Just read.
God's not calling us to massive performance. He's really not. He's calling us to a life of principled obedience. So be grounded, be steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.
You're not moved away. easily shake it. You are not going to go away. You're going to say with Luther, even if Jesus has a sword pointed at my head, I will still go to Him. Remember Peter in John 6, Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life. You are not getting rid of me that easy. I realize there's tribulation. I realize there's trouble.
I realize there's difficulty in the Christian life. I realize that not everybody is going to see me as their favorite person. But I'm not being moved away. I'm not going to go away.
We're not fair weather fans. I don't root for God only when good things come. I'm not like Job's wife who says, curse God and die. We're like Job.
Shall we accept the good from His hand but not adversity? You speak like one of the wicked women. We will accept adversity from God. We will say, naked I came into this world and naked I shall return.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's the kind of Christianity Paul envisions here. That's the kind of Christianity we are calling people to. We're not calling people, oh, just say this prayer and get saved and just do whatever you want.
Dig in, man. Get your Bible. Read it. Pray.
Be in church. Be with the people of God. Use your mind for something other than what you used it for for all that time. You were alienated from God and you were enemies in your mind.
You see, we're good at using our mind for those things we are interested in. I mean, something that just blew me away when I was stationed in England was people that would sit outside of the gates and they would have notepads and a pen and they would record tail numbers off the planes. Whoa, okay, whatever floats your boat, man. If that makes you happy, I just can't see it.
Well, I heard that this had some rich heritage in train spotting. People would do this with trains. You would see a train, write it down, compare wherever you would compare to see where that train had been, where it was going, when it was made, all that. Well, they could do the same thing with planes.
There's people who spend a lot of effort and a lot of money and a lot of their time on pursuits that, to me, just seem like, whoa. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not saying it's evil. If you want to stand outside a gate and write down tail numbers, more power to you.
What I am saying, brethren, is that to do what Paul says here takes a bit of effort. See, we're saved by grace through faith, not of words. We all get that. We all know that.
We're all there. You know, when God saves us by grace, not of words, through faith so that it's all of him, he doesn't call us just to lay on the couch. You say, I'm saved. He says, get grounded.
Be steadfast. Because there's a lot of attacks. There's a lot of rains and a lot of tempests and a lot of things that are going to beat against the foundation of your house. And if you're going to build on sand and you're going to be happy with the bare minimum, you're going to have difficulty.
And you may show that you were never one of His to begin with. Paul says, if indeed you dig in, You get grounded. You're steadfast. You're not moved away.
Someone's going to come along and say, oh, come with me. Let's go do this. I'm not moving away from the gospel. Are you kidding?
I want you to come here. This is going to be great. No, I'm not moving. Not me, man.
Oh, you're just so stubborn. Yes. Yes, when it comes to the gospel, I'm stubborn. That's fine.
Okay. You can not like me. You can say whatever you want, but I ain't moving. I'm holding on.
I'm always mindful of that scene of Polycarp, the early church father, who when he was martyred, I think he was like 82, they said, you ought to renounce your faith in Jesus Christ. They're going to burn him. They're going to burn him for his faith. He says, Jesus has never let me down for these two and 80 years.
I am certainly not going to renounce him now. Praise God. How does Polycarp say that? Because he's faithful before that.
Praise God for polycarpish faith. Praise God for Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Praise God for the Thomas Hoxes. Praise God for the heroes of the faith.
What makes them heroes of the faith? They persevere. You know, one of the reasons we should love Spurgeon is not just because he preached and a lot of people got saved and came to his church. He maintained a faithful ministry for several centuries.
That's why. See, because if we only look at what he did, we'll look at someone else who maintained a faithful ministry for several years, but didn't have quite as much blessing, and somehow would judge that Spurgeon was better. No, man. I can't tell you any more.
A Christian who makes it to the end is a hero. A pastor who makes it to the end is a hero. And every time around us, or all the time, we can read, oh, this pastor fell into sexual sin, this pastor this, this Christian that, this person that. Let's not be moved away from the gospel.
I'm going to have a big tombstone, because sometimes I say, I'd like to have that on my tombstone. Someone here is going to say, hey, he's dead. What did he want on his tombstone? Oh, he wanted that, he wanted that, he wanted that.
What would be a good thing for our tombstones? They were not moved away from the gospel. Well, that doesn't have the pizzazz. He was not moved away from the gospel.
Do you understand that? When so many are? When so many will compromise? When so many will just say, well, that's really not important?
How can we not insist on the sinfulness of sodomy? Not because we hate them, but because God says it's wrong. How can we not insist upon an inerrant and infallible word when God says it's infallible and inerrant? How can we not insist upon those insistences that God made?
That's what it means to not be moved away from the gospel. He says, the gospel which you heard, the gospel which was preached to every creature under heaven. You say, well, how is that the case here? Probably throughout the whole creation.
The inhabited earth, the oikoumene of Paul's time. In Acts 2.5 we read that men from every nation were gathered on the day of Pentecost to hear the gospel. We see here in Colossians 1.6, which has come to you, as it has also come in all the world and is bringing forth truth. Does that mean that distributively every single human being has already heard the gospel?
No, it means the gospel is being proclaimed. It has universal significance. This heresy that is plaguing the Colossian church is small and minute. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the glorious truth, is marching on through the ages and it will not stop.
It will not go away. It will not be shut up. And then he says, of which I, Paul, became a minister. He highlights himself here.
Why? Because he started off by saying Paul and Timothy. Now he is getting into this very specific purpose for his ministry and how he has been instrumental in the hand of God, specifically with reference to the Gentile churches. As Edy says, with reference to this statement of which I, Paul, became a minister, his solemn inauguration, his past course of active service, and the authority under which he had acted, this brief and distinct intimation forms a special introduction to the second section of the epistle and the warning against seduction by false teachers.
So Paul, in a sense, is going to throw his weight around. You don't listen to those bums. You listen to me. You listen to one whom God has set apart for this particular reason.
You don't go chasing these heretics. You don't get seduced to false doctrine. You don't play games with ideas that are damning because you will get hurt. He probably didn't have it that way in his mind.
I sound a little bit harsher. Then I think Paul would have, but that's the whole point. Verses 24 to 29, he's going to highlight what he's about, and then he's going to get into cautioning them very specifically in chapter 2 against seduction to heresy. Well,
Application
brethren, hopefully this move or this blessed movement from alienation to reconciliation will be something you think on in your own life. Yes, I said there, there, there, there, but we could just as easily say ours. our former condition, our present state, our future destiny, and our present duty. Brethren, hopefully this kind of stuff promotes praise and worship and thankfulness. I mean, when we consider what we once were and what God has done with us, I mean, would you be as benevolent as God?
Somebody was alienated from you by choice. Somebody was an enemy. Somebody looked at you as their enemy and somebody that engaged in wicked works. Would you be about reconciling them?
Boy, if somebody looks at us wrong, we're ready to write them off our kindness list. Kind of something we talked about this morning. Somebody offends me, whoa, boy, don't ever offend me. I'm neat.
You know what happens if you offend me? I'm going to treat you differently. I'm going to avoid you. I'm not going to say hi to you.
When I walk around you, you get a little bent out of shape, we start treating everybody differently. God reconciled us through the blood of Jesus. Let that be a pattern for us in our dealings with one another. I like to see and hear the practical importance of eschatology.
Eschatology is the big word, kids, that means the study of or the doctrine of the last things. What's going to happen then? It's not a thing just to satisfy our carnal curiosity, to put our posters up and our charts and all that sort of thing. It is to promote holiness.
It is to promote watchfulness. I love John's words in 1 John 3. He says, everyone who has this hope in him, speaking about Jesus' second coming, purifies himself even as he is pure. If our eschatology is making us obnoxious, unkind, uncharitable, or otherwise ungodly, we're not understanding it the way the Bible teaches it.
It is to promote in us a watchfulness, a holiness, a charity, and a genuine desire to do good to others because Jesus is coming. Thirdly, our present duty, perseverance. I know you like to come here and hear something shot in the arm. Go out there and just be happy.
Go out there and be happy, but be grounded and steadfast, and don't be moved away from the gospel. Again, I was just thinking about this this morning. Why are the heroes of the faith our heroes? Because they persevere.
I know that answer. I know it's simple. I know it's easy. But, man, it's hard.
I was just reading in James 5 this morning. James uses Job this way. Not uses in a sinful way, but Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. I'm sorry, let's just back up here.
Where is Job? Oh, I'm sorry. Verse 9. Do not grumble against one another.
James 5. Brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience.
Indeed, we count them blessed to endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord. that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. That's what makes Job a hero. What about Isaiah?
He persevered. What about Hosea? He persevered. What about Habakkuk?
He persevered. What about Paul? He persevered. That's what we're supposed to do.
That's what it's about. Persevering. If indeed you continue steadfast in faith. are in the faith steadfast, are grounded in steadfast, not being moved away from the gospel. And finally, there is great hope in this section.
Believers are encouraged in this passage to not be moved away from the hope of the gospel. If there's anybody here that does not know Jesus, I implore you to move toward the hope of the gospel. You talk about God's sovereign, reconciling, redeeming. He does, He does, He does.
Well, what does that mean for me? It means great hope. I hate that idea that if we preach a sovereign God, we are making it difficult for man. No, if we preach a sovereign man, we are putting them in the grave.
Because God is sovereign. Because God redeems. Because God reconciles. Because the Spirit causes the new birth.
That is the foundation for gospel hope. You see, God actually likes to do this. God is about this. God is, as we saw in 2 Corinthians 5, reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus Christ.
So if you're sitting here, you say, wait a minute, I don't know Jesus. Go toward the Gospel. Go to the light. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
This God who reconciled the Colossians, this God who has reconciled those in here that were just like what He said, alienated enemies, wicked works, that God will reconcile you through Jesus Christ. as well. That is hope.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Father, we thank you for your word and for your grace, and we thank you for Jesus Christ and the blood that he shed at Calvary's cross so that we might know this reconciliation, this peace between heaven and earth. God, truly, we praise You that God and sinners are reconciled through our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that You would go with us now.
We pray that You'd help us to take these things to heart. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.