In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Paul introductory words in Colossians 1:3-8. Pastor Babij explains how, in Paul’s words of thanks, Paul clarifies how the gospel of Jesus transforms believers to progress in three areas of living: thanksgiving, hope, and steadfastness in the one, true gospel.
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because take our Bibles again this morning and we’re looking this morning at Colossians chapter one [Music] Colossians chapter one we’ll be looking today at verse 3 through verse number eight let’s pray Lord thank you this morning for bringing us here today and Lord allowing us to have another breath to be able to be with your people in your church and I pray Lord as as we think of that I pray Lord that we would always have joyful thoughts when we think about the gathered Church and the word of God and how Lord we have very special things given to us from our Lord I pray Lord we’d never think lightly of those things or take for granted of those things but always it should well enough in US Lord a joyful and a thankful and a humble heart Lord so today make us people who are ready to hear and ready to put into practice the word of God and I pray this in Christ’s name amen so Colossians chapter 1 and I want to read verse 3 through 8.
it says we give thanks to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and love what you have for all the saints because of the Hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard the word of Truth The Gospel which has come to you just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been doing in you also since the day you’ve heard of it and understand the grace of God and Truth just as you learned it from a paparis our beloved fellow servant who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf and he also informed us of Your Love in the spirit now as I’ve been mentioning all along that there are some troubling things going on in this church that philosophical Hedonism in Judaism and elements of Christian teaching have been kind of mixed together in one pot uh usually actually from a just one teacher and that teacher was causing people to stray away from the faith and so a paparis comes and he tells Paul what’s going on and then Paul writes the book of Colossians and because one of the main things that are happening here in this book is that the root Doctrine being uh tipped over is it’s robbing Jesus of his central place and his um his first place in the church and so Paul actually the whole book is he’s dismantling this false teaching he’s doing it in a different way he’s not shooting from the hip he’s coming around the corner but it’s like a two machine guns just constantly being fired at this false teaching and he just dismantleds the whole thing by the time he gets to the end of the epistle now Christ is living in the body this new new body called The Church and this church forms a new humanity and in this new Humanity the Lord is transforming us that all the old ideas about life about God about everything actually and the way of Salvation is being turned over and God is replacing it with all things that are new so the gospel really does make all things new it really does if if you’ve experienced that already in your Christian life then you will continue to experience it the rest of your Christian life because it is that miraculous when the Lord does that and so from last time just to bring you up to speed we saw that the gospel instructs us in our new position that our new position is that we are Saints that we are set apart inwardly we are sent apart outwardly that in our new position we are faithful brethren in Christ verse number two and because we are Saints we have a manifold Grace that is heaped upon us as Believers and as Saints and faithful brethren we have also been granted multiple facets of God’s peace that it is available to us where we get the sense that God is our friend not our enemy any longer and that we have the peace now in this world and during this time of living and we also will have it in eternity that is something that brings great comfort also our new our positioning uh Christ has is that we have a new source and that source is in Christ our new identity uh in verse number two to the Saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are colossal thy Grace and peace from God our Father and the source of this new identity and this new creation is God himself we are all things are passing away and behold All Things become new so that in Christ we find ourselves in a new position in a new sphere in a new way of thinking in a new lifestyle and that God is not simply patching up the old he is creating new we are just he is discarding old things and we are too and it means that we are casting it aside so we don’t know no longer wanted to be part of our life anymore we we have left and turned from our old way of life and now we’re walking in this new new way of life so we’re newly created in Christ and that that continues our whole uh pilgrimage throughout this world so this false teacher and his teaching has made it possible for people to be comfortable in their old life in their old adamic nature so that they still remain in Adam they’re not in Christ there is no new things going on for the Disciples of this false teacher and so for to be Lord away from Something Old Something New back to something old could be very destructive and that’s the sense that we’re looking at in Colossians is that these people are being tempted to go back to the old way of life the old way of doing things and so he was writing and he’s saying to them no you have new things going on don’t go back to the old garbage heap stay walking on the path that God’s given you so we see today that the gospel really induces a new progression to life in other words progression means that there is spiritual movement going on in our life there’s new developments going on in our lives when since we came to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord there’s new things going on no some of the new things were surprising to me I remember when I first came and got involved in Ministry you know you you have your little groups of people that you hang out wait and you’re close to when you do a lot of things with but when you come into the church all of a sudden there’s all kinds of groups of people they’re all there’s all kinds of cultures they’re all all kinds of people that come from different races and so for most of us that’s new because usually we don’t necessarily mingle with people that are different from us we don’t do it it’s not that we consciously say oh I’m not going to do that it’s just that we naturally just don’t do it we gravitate to people that are like us and so one day I get invited to a meal from a family that was from Ghana and I never had plantain and I never had a meal from somebody who lived in Ghana and that was in the United States and they’re Believers and I I’m sitting there and I’m thinking myself wow this is new I’ve never had this before I never thought the Christian Life would bring those kind of new things in it to to meet people I would never have met or even had anything to do with somebody from Ghana because I don’t even know anybody from there and now I come to the church and I meet people from this culture and from that culture and from this culture and from that background and from this race and that’s exciting that’s exciting and that is new and that is part of the newness that comes into the church is that we have relationships with people now we would never have had if we didn’t come to Christ because Christ what he does is he breaks down all those barriers so we don’t see each other as oh you’re from that culture and you’re from that race and oh you do those things and you have that kind of dress we don’t look God breaks all that down so we look at people as just people who have red blood running through their veins they were Sinners just like us they met Christ they were changed were changed and now we’re family we’re brothers and sisters in Christ see that’s new and you know what that’s radically new and you know what that brings to us a thankful heart so the first progression that happens when somebody truly gets saved is they progress into a life of thankfulness look what it says in verse number three it says we thank God we it says we give thanks to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you now on the surface that would seem just like a regular greeting the main verb of that text is give thanks and the present tense points to the ongoing nature of the gratitude this is not just giving thanks once this is giving thanks all the time every day in gratitude is a great sin gratitude is also a good test to examine how well you and I are doing spiritually Saints are distinguished in their character by giving thanks for all things when there was in Hobby Lobby and I saw a sign that says whining whining five dollars I bought that I point that to my grandkids some people are going to be broke because all they do is wine you know that’s one thing you ought to cut out your dictionary as a Christian because there’s no room for whining it’s quite amazing quite amazing when you have a group of people that have such extreme differences in their social economic cultural and religious standing in this world and then you come together as one unified group which holds to one common faith because of Jesus Christ that is impossible in a sinful world what groups am I referring to referring to as as far as the text this morning I’m referring to the groups so different they most likely would have nothing at all to do with each other if it wasn’t for the gospel groups that go out of their way to make very distinct boundaries among themselves so that they will have no dealings or contacts with another group of people if you look at Colossians chapter 3 and verse number 11 I want you to think this morning this morning and how radical this scripture is if you notice what it says it re and matter of fact this scripture remains radical even in any cultural where there’s a Melting Pot of different people groups look at verse 11 chapter 3 it says a renewal in which there is no distinction between Jew and Greek are you kidding Jew in Greek they never come together I read we read the passage of scripture this morning and acts about Paul going to Macedonia a lot of work had to be done on Paul before he would go there and that he would go to Gentiles and bring the gospel see Paul was a work of God and then again in our passage circumcised and uncircumcised Barbarian cynthian slave and free but all are in Christ and in all see this it shows how radical and how powerful and how miraculous and how Superior the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is and still is and this very thought is is going against this false teacher and what he’s teaching to make these one unified body in Christ is impossible so the Apostle Paul what does he do the Apostle Paul gives thanks and he prays for people he once hated he once dragged to jail he once approved of it if they were being sentenced to death and stood by watching The People’s garments as people threw stones at Stephen and stoned him to death that was in the approval of the council and Paul who was driving their method of how to get rid of the way or the church so how does such a change happen in someone it surely doesn’t happen by itself there has to be a power that can change the dark and the dead human heart into something that is living and something that is newly thankful for the things for things they would have never been thankful for before and that is especially in the area of people being thankful for people created in the image of God now newly brought into the family of God your whole mindset has to change there is no room for racism in that mindset it must be cast out you cannot hold on to that at all anymore We Are All One in Christ and you would think that to be thankful should be something easy to do but it is not it is easy when all is going well but what happens when the bottom drops out and it’s not going so well there’s a famous painting depicting a subject on it in gratitude and it shows a large statue which has inscribed at the base of it in gratitude surrounding this gigantic statue are men and women throwing stones at it and yet if you look closer at this picture you this painting you’ll notice that each of the people that are throwing stones at this statue named in gratitude has cradled or gratitude has cradled in their left arm a tiny replica of the statue also marked in gratitude in other words the lesson of course of this picture is that each of us made this detest ingratitude in general and in principle and in others but there is an element of ingratitude in all of us and that is one of the things the spirit of God is going to drive from us and he’s going to replace it with something quite new and it’s this word being thankful we may need to conclude that there is much ingratitude in our life than there is genuine gratitude But be sure of this that the gospel received by faith and rightly understood causes one to be thankful in ways they are not common that it’s not common actually to Sinners especially in areas that we once were hostile in mind and in conduct so the Apostle Paul being a great example of this had a new heart he had new eyes to see he saw people differently now he no longer saw people through the lens of Social and economic and cultural and their religious standing in the world since he met Christ he saw people as lost people who needed compassion because they were helpless they were in darkness and they they needed the Glorious light of the Gospel to shine in their hearts that’s how he saw the Lost that means there was no more no more categories to put him in there because the scripture said to us there’s no more distinction he began to understand that that’s why he’s writing this now it seems like the false teachers were keeping those distinctions not allowing other groups to be part of that group and Paul is obliterating what they are teaching and when he saw genuine evidence of the transforming results of the Gospel in a person’s life no matter who they were or where they’re where they came from or what their background was what he had one response you know what that response is thankfulness now this is a changed person this is a new person this is even new for Paul and it’s new for us too and so here are a couple of good reasons to offer up Thanksgiving to God we find them right here in our text verse number three it says we give thanks to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you in other words evidence of the continuous work of the father is good reason to give expressions of thanks to him that the Gratitude is directed to God The Giver all of all good gifts as father he Delights to give good things to his children and so the gift of his son is the ultimate expression of goodness and that should produce in anyone’s heart in ourselves and when we see it in others thankfulness for saving that person and then you find out that it’s a frequent theme shared by the Apostle Paul and Timothy and others since they all became Christians be what since All Things become new look at chapter 1 verse 12 it says this giving thanks to the father who qualified us to share in the inheritance of the Saints in light so the father is receiving this thanks from this these newly born-again Believers and they are thanking him because he has given them life he is maintaining their being he has saved their souls he has brought them out of Darkness into light and into the church and now they’re his children and then he gives them he makes them the air of eternal glory nothing to be whining about there and then notice in Chapter 2 and verse number seven it says having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with what gratitude now just think about that in your own life to to be so thankful it’s running over the cup I don’t know about you but there’s no room in that cup for anything else but thankfulness see is that going on in your life or do you find yourself often grumbling and complaining and whining about what’s happening in your life see this is new to us and it is so new to us that we desire to have it in our heart and then look at chapter 3 verse 15 through 17. again it comes up and of course this is the passage of scripture in Ephesians words talk about it talks about being Spirit-filled here it’s talking about being word filled look what it says in verse number 15 it says Let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful verse 16 let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God now can you sing without thankfulness in your heart if you do it’s probably all wrong you’re just mouthing words you’re just pushing air around the room and then notice in verse number 17 whatever you do in word indeed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks through him to through him to God the father in other words you have an inward thankfulness that’s working out in outward evidence that I’m doing this thing whatever is my hands are are finding to do I’m doing with with a heart that’s thankful to God that I’m able to use my hands and do this work no matter how dirty and messy it is that God’s given it to me so I can pay the bills and I can dig the ditch and pay the bills that’s what God does but I tell you what for a Christian who’s new there’s something going on inside of them they are thankful and they’re thankful is running over the top that’s what we ought to be that’s that’s the newness of the Christian Life and then notice back in chapter one verse number three it says this at the end of verse number he’s now praying for them always meaning that thankfulness and dependence on God In Prayer are closely linked together that if you are thankful about something you are going to be praying for something if you are think of thankful about someone you’re going to be praying for them so a second evidence that we find in verse number four of the reality of the new life that we have in Christ and the second good reason to be thankful if you notice there are two points which occasion Paul’s thankfulness is this in verse number four that it is the sign of faith and love in them it says since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints he’s he’s actually saying listen what happened to me is happening to you you have now love for Christ and because you have love for Christ you have love for notice all the saints there’s no distinctions anymore it’s all the people all the people get saved no matter who they are no matter what color skin they are no matter what culture they are no matter what social economic Stratus strategic fear they’re in all right if that’s a word or not but you know what I mean it’s it’s all obliterated and he’s what he saw in him he’s seeing in them you know what he’s saying this is God’s work because nobody can do this no religious system could do this only God can do this God is the only one who could break down the barriers he’s the only could do it and notice what here it says he’s thankful for their faith because their faith is Christ centered not false teachers centered because everything depended on the what the teacher said most religions uh pretty much can can actually function without their main teacher but in Christianity you must have Christ as sinner or you don’t have Christianity see Christianity is Christ here’s he’s the he is the center of it all so you don’t need an endless list of angels who have that you have to go through to be between man and God as a false as the false teacher here taught no Christ can bring you to God because he is God and Christ will give you a thankful heart so he’s thanking them always for their faith in Christ secondly he is thanking them for their love because their love is practical and that’s what love is it’s a it’s a verb it’s an action word that love what you have for all the saints and love is the identifying Mark of God’s presence in those who have come to experience God’s salvation in Christ Jesus as John Rhoden first John chapter 4 beloved let us love one another for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God so love is that is divine holds people together it holds the church together that’s what holds the church together Jesus said you will know them by their love and that means it doesn’t mean what we think in America America love has been so abused that word in America nobody even knows what it means anymore but here the love is going to mean that they love Christ and his way of Salvation and they love people my heart’s been changed to love people see that is the work of God in the heart if you look at chapter 3 verse number 14 it says this it says beyond all these things put on love which is the perfect Bond of unity I like it better what it says in the ESV it says which binds everything together in Perfect Harmony what does that love does that so love takes all this this unity and this Discord and these differences and makes Harmony everybody’s in tune because of what Christ has done and then we find in verse number five it says faith and love have one great basis and that is the believer’s Hope now if you notice this morning that Paul is dealing with what is called the Triads of virtue here you know what the Triads of virtue are First Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13 faith hope and love and the greatest of these in is love right but in this epistle he does not use that order he uses Faith Love and Hope hope so secondly we see that those who are in Christ have a progression of a life of Hope we sang about hope this morning but if you notice in verse number 5 what it says it says because of the Hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of Truth The Gospel so we believe we must believe in other words before we can have hope for the enjoyment of Heaven and no person can have can hope for that which he does not believe so hope is the basis for Faith and love and so it is the third of the Triads of virtue that Paul mentions in a different order because of what is he what he is attacking against these false teachers that the cause of the Apostles thanks is the hope that awaits the Believers in heaven the objective hope of eternal life in God’s presence in heaven is the Fertile fertile soil in which Faith grows so hope here is defined as a mighty certainty which makes Christian hope so strong that it cannot be broken and it gets stronger as we grow in the knowledge of God that hope here is the realization that you have been called to be Saints and faithful Christians and the call came from the offer of the Gospel in which you responded and repented in faith so God brings his children from an empty false deceptive dead hope to a strong active Living Hope that this hope rests on God’s power and God’s promise because Jesus was raised to life we will live with him because of that not only now receiving good things from him but in eternity so hope speaks of our response to God’s promise in other words he offers us hope and we can have hope in him and his guarantees that go with the hope so then hope here is not I hope so I hope it happens that’s just wishful thinking biblical hope looks forward with other conviction and expectancy it is not a hope mingled with uncertainty and doubt and those who live in doubt is the opposite of living in faith our essential and essentially denying the hope that God gives that is actually true so some might have hope in purgatory if there is such a place there is not There Is Only Heaven and Hell for the real Christian there is no need to fear heaven or purgatory because heaven awaits all believers hope always has the future in mind it points eagerly ahead to the consummation of salvation’s plan that a Christian’s hope is connected with the first end time event that has already taken place you say well what’s that well it says in Peter to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that’s the first in Time Event because he is the first fruit so what’s going to happen and what’s going to happen we’re raising from the dead and we’re going to be with him forever so Jesus who voluntarily left his home and descended to end exec like existence on this Earth alien and a stranger here accomplished his res his Redemptive work on the cross defeated Satan in death and has returned to heaven and where he is we will be also that’s the promise and the hope that we have and it’s a reminder that our ability to arrive safely at God’s home is rooted in God’s mercy and it is grounded in this great truth again in First Peter chapter one verse 3 we are born again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that this past End Time Event accomplished solely by the power of God helps us to hold fast to our hope for the future the hope of complete salvation the author of that hope being God himself now turning back to chapter one again looking at verse number five but did you know you probably didn’t know this as a Believer you’re enrolled in a layaway plan did you know that now a layaway plan this may be dating me a bit but a layaway plan uh and the reason why I know about it because I went to the store with my mother and she did this often uh they were offered by stores to those who usually had good credit and so I remembered my mom had a layaway plan in the store called Corvettes that’s really dating me and it is similar to today’s Bradley’s or targets she would uh of course drag me to the store and she would go and put a down payment and let’s say she bought a comforter for a king-sized bed and after the down payment was received the store would store it away in their layaway storage area and once the last payment was made and the purchase item was paid in full you would take your receipt and go that was stamp paid in full and the stored would would retrieve your goods from the store away stowaway area and they would bring it out to you and you would become its new owner now of course that is a long process today we have credit cards and it’s right there uh into the next day or the next the same day sometimes with Amazon right it doesn’t take this long but of course there’s a vast difference between a store layaway plan and God’s Plan of Salvation you don’t pay for anything and you don’t pay anyone salvation is a free gift Romans chapter 6 verse 23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord they said Well why’d you bring that up look at our passage this morning right here in Scripture it tells us that God stored away an inheritance for us in heaven verse number five because of the Hope laid up for you in heaven that means it is set before us it is awaiting us it is kept for a later unveiling and for our future Joy this is not the only place that the apostles mentioned this in Scripture I think of second Peter chapter 4 verse 8 for it says in the future there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness but not only for me Paul says for all those who love his appearing who are waiting and anticipating this inheritance that we have and if we are joint heirs with Christ as Romans says we have this inheritance in other words Christ owns everything we own everything it’s reserved in heaven First Peter 1 4 says to obtain an inheritance which is an imperishable undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you and then he goes on to say not only Reserve there but it’s protected by the power of God this is the power only the godhead chairs that God is the one who guards and keeps our inheritance for us that God is the guardian who keeps it safe for us and keeps us safe to receive its fullness it is treasured that is perfectly secure that no enemy or Thief can reach it it is laid up for where none of the changes of time can ever affect it the Lord knows that if we were to carry it we would probably lose it but no it is safe in heaven Out Of Reach of all that could do it violence it’s protected there so Heaven remember is a holy place and that God is Holy the inhabitants of Heaven Are Holy you must be holy in heaven or you’ll not be there and if you are not holy then you will not receive what is reserved for you there so see this is the progression that’s going on in the newness of the Christian Life and then there’s one last thing that I’ll mention and it’s this the progression uh a third thing for those who are in Christ a progression of life that clings to One Superior source and what is that Source chapter 5 verse number one that the believer’s Hope has one great Superior source and what is it look what it says let me read the whole verse 5 it says because of the Hope laid up for you in heaven of which you were previously of which you previously heard in the word of Truth here it is the gospel that is it that’s the superior source for all this stuff comes to us the word of God the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Gospel of Jesus Christ the superior superiority of the Gospel is seen in several ways in Scripture it is seen in the whole subject and content of it and what is that it is true the gospel is true it is not a word of a guess it is not a probable in inference it is not uh anything but infallible truth that’s what we have that is the basis of everything we believe there may be other things in the world that are true but God’s word is the essence of everything that is true and the gospel reveals to us the truth of God’s grace so these Believers at colossi heard the gospel before they heard the false teaching so the point is abandoning abandoning the gospel that they have heard that they have believed that they have embraced would be completely disastrous and foolish why would you do that you have these new things going on in your life why would you go back to the old way unless there was nothing doing you in the in the first place so these colossian Believers having experienced being transformed in mind and knowing the good and the acceptable and even the perfect will of God that the gospel had already taken root and was bearing fruit in their life to abandon it would be eternally foolish and it’s sad to see when somebody walks away from the faith is it not have you not all saw that seen that in your life sometime or another when you saw somebody it looked like life was there they were gone they were coming to church they were studying the word of God things were changing and also they’re gone and then you find back they went back to their old system their old church their old life right it’s sad to see it’s heartbreaking actually it’s heartbreaking but we see it all the time but it does prove and does show that if there is no new life there and it has just little root in the ground when the person when the Troubles of Life the trials of Life come up it shines on that looks like that new green shoot it just Withers away like the parable of the sower says right and there’s no fruit at last they were never saved they were never saved they felt the power of the Gospel they felt the newness but there was no change in the heart there was no repentance where God’s spirit lived in them and now he was giving them new life and then notice back in chapter one verse number five the superiority of the Gospel is also seen in uh in individuals notice what it says of which you previously heard the word of Truth The Gospel which has come to you that the pivotal moment when the spirit of God illuminates the heart of a person and they not only hear the gospel but they begin to see the kingdom of God and the spirit of God comes in them grants them faith and repentance and they believe the gospel that’s the effectual call of the Gospel where you cannot resist it and you come and that at that moment someone becomes a real believer and then everything changes about that person and then there’s a third thing about the superiority of the gospel and it’s seen in its Universal Outreach notice what it says in verse number six it says which you have which has come to you just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing now so the in other words the superiority of the Gospel as opposed to the Limit nature and local nature of false teachers the gospel is going everywhere it’s Universal it’s all over the world it’s in tribes you’ve never heard of the Moke tribe in in Indonesia Papua New Guinea one of them but these people never heard the gospel new tribes missionaries come in there it takes five years to get the language get in the alphabet first of all and then to get language and then teach them their own language and then preach the gospel and the whole tribe gets saved see God the gospel is going everywhere don’t think the gospel is limited you cannot put a cap on the gospel and hold it down it explodes all throughout the world it’s still doing that right now the gospel was never contained to one locale biblical Christianity spread rapidly through the known world at that time that’s when Paul says you go into all the world go into all the world with gospel the world of course was smaller it wasn’t the whole globe yeah because the whole globe was unpopulated yet but Rome probably all those areas around the known world were infiltrated by the gospel of Christ it went everywhere to everyone as it does today it’s not restricted to a culture it’s not restricted to a tribe it’s not restricted to a nation it has it is a powerful influence on all sorts of people groups past present and future and we know historically all schisms and heresies are partial and local that’s how they start they stay local usually they may transform but it’s under one false leader that everything that leader says You must follow them and then of course you add another book onto it the Bible plus something else of course we want to we don’t throw the Bible out completely we’ll just put you know the book of this and the Book of that and and the traditions of that church and the traditions of these people and they added on no the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is going out it is not localized it’s not kept and contained in one place it’s going throughout the whole world and this gospel goes through the whole world and draws I said all kinds of people the gospel is intended for everyone not just the educated or the religious Elite or some special group with special or Superior knowledge it’s even for the great thinker and the philosopher and the fool and the naive and the scoffer it’s for everybody and it should go out to everybody but the gospel truth is in direct opposition to the false teachers that they’re teaching is just the same old reheated repackaged religious system infiltrated with and synchronized with Commandments and teachings of men filled with philosophical mumbo jumbo nobody can really understand and packed with empty deception and laced with Notions of dietary rules and harsh treatment of the bodies this is what you do to to make it to God see like a big air balloon all one needs to do is take the gospel pin and prick it once and it will Slither through the air and finally come falling down to the ground a thousand and one pieces and only to be placed in the scrap yard of the enemy awaiting the next repackaging and the next renaming of some other novel and cool religious and political political project and he’s really good at that and so that’s why when we come to Colossians we find that Paul says to them let no one take you captive by philosophy and empty deception and then he says let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels which people who are inflated in their mind by visions and then he says to them listen don’t obey the Commandments and the teachings of men they will just lead you to hell ‘s the gospel is the old message one that we should never get tired of hearing the only way to be saved to be forgiven is to believe this message to believe on the son of God and that justification is by faith only our works will never save us all our Good Deeds are not enough it is the gospel and then there’s one other thing the gospel does in verse number five and six you know what it does of which you previously heard in the word of Truth The Gospel which has come to you just as in all the world also is constantly bearing fruit and increasing you know what it does it produces fruit in your life that’s what it does that’s the power of the Gospel that’s the progression that’s the newness Holiness and godliness Christian character good works passion for others to come to Christ the use of spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ the giving and sharing of what you have with others and thanking and praising God and even sinning less and persevering in your Christian walk no matter what happens you know one thing I’m not walking away from this because as the disciple says in the gospel Lord you have the words of eternal life where are we going to go back to Judaism no there’s nowhere to go but you know why that’s the best place to be because if you have the truth where else there’s to go there’s only other one place you’re going to go and that’s heaven and there you have an inheritance waiting for you see this these are the new things that are happening are they happening to you are they still happening today they should be because that shows that you’re really a Christian if they’re not happening to you may have to work on some of these things of course no nobody’s at the same place spiritually but if they’re not happening to you then you may have to say maybe I’m not a Believer and I need to become one today if that’s you I want you I want you to talk with me after the service today