Title: A Growing Gospel
Scripture: Colossians 1:3-14
Speaker: Mike Rattin
Take your Bibles and turn to, it's page 1178, it's Colossians chapter one, we'll be looking at verses three through 14 today. 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 which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in 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 since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.
Just as you learned it from Epiphras, our fellow bondservant, who is faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he has also informed us of your love in the spirit. For this reasons also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Let us pray. Father, we do thank you for these ancient words that speak of the gift of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. For he is our redemption, he is our justification.
May our hearts long more and more this morning for you. Bless our pastor and bless all your people who are gathered to hear your word this morning. May your Holy Spirit move in power and might to change and transform us into the image of your Son.
I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, back in my days of grade school and high school, many, many, many moons ago, my jobs were always in the context of a farmhand. I worked for various number of Dutch farmers.
I would leave grade school and the end of the day and spend a couple of hours feeding the pigs and cleaning their pens. In the springtime, the farmers planted the corn and the soybeans, this is in Illinois, and the farmers I worked with planted thousands of gladiola bulbs, they were Dutch. As they planted them, we would follow them, straightening the bulbs out so the pointy end was always facing up.
As time progressed, the farmers invented machines and did most of the planting, the weeding, the harvesting. But in the end of harvest time, the fields of gladiolas would become oceans of red and yellows and white and all different colors of flowers. The corn would stand seven to eight feet tall and loaded with ears of corn, beans laded with beans.
In the fall, fields would become just a ready harvest with bushels and bushels of corn and bushels and bushels of beans. My point and the point of this message is this this morning, there will always be an expectation that when you plant a seed, at least I hope there is, what is that expectation? That the seed will sprout and plant grow, ultimately leading to a fruitful harvest. No one plants a seed expecting it to just wither, die and rot away, certainly not God.
Even Jesus told a parable of the four soils, only the one planted in the good soil bore fruit. If I remember rightly, talking to one of my farmer friends many years ago, his name was Don DeYoung, every kernel of corn planted is expected to produce 400 to 600 more kernels of corn. One kernel, 400 to 600 more kernels.
Sunday afternoon, Pastor Nate has been teaching from Genesis that everything bears fruit after its kind. There's something very wrong with the seed, with the care of that seed or the soil if it doesn't produce fruit. I remember seeing pictures of dust bowls over 100 years ago in the Midwest where nothing grew for lack of rain.
When God creates, or in our case, creates a new creation in Christ through the gospel of Jesus Christ, he too looks for harvest. As I view the landscape of the church today, some churches resemble dust bowl days. Little life of Christ, fruitless.
Churches once planted with a powerful seed of the gospel, once producing much fruit over time become simply a dust bowl, lacking true life of Christ. As Pastor Nate preached back in, I think it was June, of the church of Laodicea, a church that was lukewarm, it was sick and dying, it was fruitless. And like so many, the shell of the church buildings remain, but the fruit is all but nonexistent.
Like Laodicea, rich in this world, but spiritually dead and dying. Again, no one plants a seed expecting it to stagnate, to wither, to fail, to just rot away. There is no planting without hoping, without expecting.
There's no harvest festival or pumpkin festival without a harvest. That would be a strange thing to have a pumpkin festival with no pumpkins. And this letter, Paul is a sort of grandfather farmer.
Actually, this letter is written from prison, but he is still attending the places this gospel seed has been planted and churches have been born out of that. And through his and others planting of the gospel, there's fruit bearing churches rising up, people are coming to faith in Christ, they're growing to biblical maturity, faithful and fruitful Christians growing more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. In our text today, Paul is witnessing and evaluating and thanking and praying for one such church in this place called Colossae.
There is no dust bowl happening there. For Paul, the gospel planted will bear gospel fruit. But here at the church at Colossae, Paul isn't the one who planted the seed, at least not directly or personally.
In fact, we read Paul had never seen and been to Colossae. In chapter one, verse two, we read these words. I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not yet met me personally.
Laodicea is the area of Colossians, where Colossians is or Colossae is. Though he is not present, he kind of has those spiritual bib overhauls on and is doing some watering and some weeding through this letter to the church. It is clear in the text that a man named Epaphras had met Paul in Ephesus.
He had returned to his home area of Laodicea to this town called Colossae with the seed of the gospel. And Paul is hearing reports of that harvest from Epaphras, who has returned to Paul, who then writes this letter to the church. Did I already say that where seed of the gospel is sown, there will be expectations of growth personally, and even as a fellowship of believers.
We will witness in our passage as Paul gives thanks for the gospel growth and then prayer for their continued growth in Christ, ending with what I can only call as an exaltation of Christ, who is the gospel. So Thanksgiving is first. He says, I am always struck at, I am personally always struck at how kind of Paul's prayers are different than my own.
How does Paul, who has never been to Colossae, pray for this church? Clearly this man named Epaphras has been bringing testimony of gospel harvest there. I've been privileged to hear such reports in my time as a pastor. I got to meet along with Nate a few months ago, missionary Phil Hunt, a missionary to Africa.
He's training pastors to go throughout Africa, starting churches. I mean, there's a harvest for you. This last week, I was privileged to go with Josh and Abby to Louisville, to their conference, their main conference, and I heard missionaries to Italy.
Bringing the gospel to Italy, isn't that great? I heard one fellow from the slums of Costa Rica, incredible missionaries. When I was a pastor in Hollis, when Josh and Abby would give FaceTime reports on the field of Uganda from Uganda, one of the pastors, their pastor there in Chiruli, Uganda would stand on a termite hill, I think they are anthill or whatever they're called, and he'd hold up his phone so he could get reception and we could talk to him here in the States. So let me ask you this.
How is the gospel growing in you, in your world? How's the gospel growing in your family? How's the gospel growing in us and our fellowship together at harvest? So Paul begins with offering this note of thanks, and it's a note for thanks for gospel growth. Let me read those verses again. Verse three, we give thanks to God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and love you have for the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you just as it 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 heard of it and understood the gospel of God in truth. This gospel is bearing fruit and increasing in them. Now Paul has amazing prayer ethic, doesn't he? Praying always for you.
If Paul sees gospel growth and then he gives thanks for their growing in three ways here, faith in Christ, their love for one another, I believe clearly reflecting their love for Christ, and thirdly, in their hope laid up for them in heaven. This for Paul in verse six is the gospel bearing fruit and increasing. The essential fruit of the gospel that is Christ in you since you understood the grace of God, the gospel in truth, since the gospel has taken root, you believe by faith the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as payment for your sin.
One put it like this. These are clear expectations of genuine church with a heartbeat and a love for Christ. It is the vital life of Christ being lived out, expressly witnessed and seen in evidencing their faith in Christ, growing love for Christ, hope in Christ.
So first, Paul gives thanks for their faith in Christ. Faith is not only how we enter into the kingdom, but it is how we live as citizens of the kingdom, how we become in Christ and how we live our lives that we are now in Christ, we live out of that. So Paul gives thanks to the Father for their faith.
It is by faith that we come to God through Jesus Christ, Romans 5, one, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus. Salvation is always by faith alone, always by his grace alone, always through the Lord Jesus Christ alone. But as another person put it, the gospel of Jesus Christ like a seed is a dynamic force that shatters the hard, stony soil of sin and takes root as new life.
We see that in the farm, if you have a garden in New England, right? Some hard soil here. I came from Illinois where the soil was actually really good and sandy and we had to look for rocks. Faith is being persuaded or convinced that something is true and trusting in it with your life.
Faith in Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransom for sinners and it is by faith that we live out our Christian life as pilgrims here. Our lives of faith look like trusting, believing, waiting, resting, worshiping, rejoicing, sometimes suffering, yet serving in Christ's name, even loving and hope grow out of this faith in Christ. It is a heart that is leaning, that is trusting, the one who is the seed, who is the gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And tell us scripture says we see him in glory. Let me ask, is there anyone giving thanks to God for God's work and growing faith in you? Any fruit coming on? Paul who had never visited the church, yet he heard evidence of their genuine and growing faith in Christ and in hearing, he gives thanks to God. There is nothing so awesome as going into the garden and finding a big old tomato.
Two of the old elders, my dad and one of the other elders in my home church would, I think it was bragging, they would come with, one had a paper plate and a pepper filled it and my dad brought the tomato that was about as big and they would give each other a hard time over who could get the biggest fruit. Verse six, for in Christ Jesus near the circumcision, this is Galatians chapter five verse six, for in Christ Jesus near the circumcision or uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. What of the love of the brethren? Love in scripture is not just a feeling that's fading away, it is something we can see daily being lived out in the gospel and growing in us.
In chapter one of Ephesians, in love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intention of his will. It is God's love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter five which turns into love for the brethren. Here specifically Colossians one verse four, in love which you have for all the saints.
This is evidence that the gospel seed is sprouted. By far the greatest blessing or gift you can give to a church or a family is a growing faith and a growing love for God's people. I could give testimony of love that surrounded Lorraine in Fred's passing, Carrero's at Forrest's passing.
It's quite telling, wasn't it? A love for the saints. So many scriptures bear this out. First John three verse 14, we know that we have passed from death into life because we love the brethren.
Gospel sprouted. He who does not love abides in death. That's pretty clear.
Didn't Jesus say in John 13 verse 35, by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another? I think Epaphras has been telling of visible acts of love, of loving sacrifices being made to care for the weak or widows, these are people acquainted with suffering yet the gospel is growing. The gift's being used for the glory of God. Words and deeds of encouragement and care.
It's first John four verse 10, says and this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins and then he says this. Beloved, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. If we've been loved, we can't help but love.
Wouldn't it be a strange way for someone evaluating a church, any church, instead of looking for the quality of their programs, rather than looking for the size of the youth group or that sort of thing or children's ministries, rather to look at the ways the church actually loves each other. Wouldn't that be novel? It would be biblical. So the display of our faith is most clearly seen, I think, in our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, evidencing a true redeemed heart.
It is the most profound mark of a believer in Christ. Galatians five verse six says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision, none of our works means anything but faith working through love. So as Paul is apt to do, he commends them for their love, but he's going to later challenge them to love more.
In Colossians three verse 12, he says this, so as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved, put on the heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. Whoever has a complaint against one another, anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And then verse 14, beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
That gospel sprouts, faith, love shows up. Thirdly, Paul gives thanks for their hope laid up in heaven. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and love you have for those saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you have previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, just as in all the world, constantly bearing fruit and increasing.
This is the gospel of the Father's love to us, but this gospel is also a gospel of hope to us. There's no limp maybes, no possible, not a hope of a child for a toy, but a hope that is anchored so deep in the very promise of God that when we face death, we face it with assurance. That is a door that leads us to Jesus.
There's, again, no possible here. This is a hope that is far more than wishful thinking. It's a hope laid up in heaven, secure, founded in the very words, these ancient words of Christ.
Thank you for picking that song this morning. That where I am, as he makes and prepares this place for us, he says that where I am, there you might be also. It's a promise made.
It'll be a promise kept, and you can count on it. It is what gives us confidence and joy today, even through trials, because our hope promises a future that is steadfast, sure, frankly, forever, and most importantly, it's with our Savior. In Paul's thanksgiving, he is saying, I see life here.
I see gospel life. The seed of the gospel has been planted, and now harvest a gospel fruit, a growing faith, a growing love for the brothers, a growing hope in Christ. This gospel is growing.
It has come to you. It is bearing fruit. It is increasing, he says, just as you learned it, verse seven, from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.
He's telling on him. Isn't that great? Do people tell on you like that? Oh, man, they just, they just are so loving. What a loving couple.
I've heard that sometimes, not often, I guess. How loving are they? Paul hears reports of their love in the Spirit. It sounds like this church knew how to love each other, maybe self-sacrificing ministry, service to the body, which is a vital evidence of their faith, their health.
The church has never intended to be this kind of spectator sport, and even this Epaphras. There's very little written about him, but here he is away from them. He's serving them.
He's loving. At the end of the book, it says that Epaphras, in chapter four, verse 12, Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus, sends you greetings, always laboring earnestly in his prayers that you may stand perfectly and fully assured in the will of God, for I testify for him. Now, he's telling on Epaphras, right? Epaphras has been telling on them.
Now, Paul is telling on Epaphras. He says, testify that he has a deep concern for you and for those Laodicea. Isn't that awesome? And so, as Paul is wont to do, he switches from thanksgiving to a prayer for God to continually grow them in Christ.
This should be an ongoing prayer for the church. What is that prayer? Well, Colossians one, verse nine, he says, for this reason, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask. For this reason, because of the life, the gospel seed has sprouted.
There's faith, hope, and love taking place. Paul gives thanks, he prays for them. In a very similar way, he does in many of his letters.
Really, what he's gonna say, as I look at this, I'm looking at it as one prayer request with many effects that come from it. What is that request? To be always growing and knowing God's will. That's basically what it is.
Or to be always knowing Christ more and more as well. We see this unfold before us here in Colossians. Verse nine, he says, for this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased to pray for you and ask that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that there is this kind of cascading effect flowing from this knowing, flows from this beholding of Christ, flows from this kind of meditating and abiding on Christ, beginning with that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.
So this knowledge of God, MacArthur suggests knowledge is a deep knowing, a thorough, not intellectual. This is not what we're talking here. It's not got anything, it's really not that.
It's a thorough, accurate, experiential knowledge of God. Not some kind of abstract facts. There's no list to check off here for some kind of test.
This is a deep relational knowing that comes from a time with someone. It is what Paul wanted for himself. He said that I may know him in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering.
He said, I haven't attained it yet, but I'm pressing more and more to so know Jesus. In Philippians, he identifies this knowing as in all wisdom and understanding. It's the same word used in 2 Timothy 2, verse seven, consider what I think and consider what I say, think on it or meditate on it, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything, wisdom and understanding that is so much more than just a list.
Paul will continue to speak about this kind of knowing in chapter three, verse 10, he will say, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. It is putting on this, so knowing Christ that you're putting on Christ, that you're becoming like Christ. The end goal is to bear the image of the one who created you, that is Christ.
There is a knowing that is far more than a set of intellectual facts, but is this relational? No, the essence of sanctification is so that you become like Jesus. Last week, I was able to attend a couple of conferences and the first, I really knew only my son and Josh and Abby and my grandkids that were there. The second was held in New England.
I knew quite a few people that were there, some by name, some by sight. The speaker was a man named Scott Hubbard. I knew literally nothing about him except on his biography, a little thing that I knew he was somehow connected with Desiring God ministry.
It was later at lunchtime. Sue and I had sat on a table, by a table, by ourselves, and when this Scott Hubbard asked if he could join us, he did, and then we got to know Scott relationally in a much deeper way, in an understanding way. I later found out he was a pastor in Minneapolis.
He was married. I learned of his children and his father of three, his love for his wife, and more and more. Sitting down and talking, we got to know him more and better and relationally.
If we were close, we would continue to grow knowing Scott Hubbard better and better. It would take many more sit-downs to say I really know Scott. How many sit-downs have you had this week with Jesus? I wonder.
Getting to know him better? Have you heard his ancient words this week? When we sit down with Jesus through his word, when we meditate and commune with him in person, I feel far more connected, though I can't say I yet know him perfectly. I want to know him more. I'm growing to know him relationally better with understanding and with wisdom.
If we have the privilege of knowing our Lord Jesus Christ, if we will sit down with him, walk with him, commune with him, read and meditate upon these words of Christ as the Spirit instructs and deepens our relationship with him. It's desiring God who says this word will, or the lemma, refers to God's revealed moral purposes, redemptive design centered in Christ. The whole of Colossians is so Christ-centered.
He wants us to know him, Christ, and know his will. In chapter two, he's gonna even further explain this. He said, for I want you to know what a great struggle I have for you on behalf of those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, or who is Christ himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Go treasure hunting this week. Sit down with Jesus. Here is ancient words to you.
Know him personally, relationally. It's knowing in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. It's knowing how the truth relates to life, discerning application of that truth to life, real-life situations.
I know that I've been married to Sue for 51. One. Two.
51. 51 years. And we kind of answer each other's questions sometimes.
You know, we've been together for so long, it's like if somebody asks her a question, I know what she's gonna answer. Because we relationally know her. She knows me.
Sometimes she doesn't even let me answer. This kind of knowing has a purpose and a fulfillment. It produces, here it is, verse 10, so that the effect of this knowing is that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects.
Bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. It is the walk, it's our daily conduct, our lifestyle, our behavior. This word worthy, walk worthy, worthy is, it comes from the root of weigh as much, or a matching balance of weight.
As much as God is worthy, walk accordingly. Does that make sense? As much as he is worthy, that should be my walk. My worthy walk.
It is knowing Christ in such a way that we are to reflect his glory in life, in our walk in this world. It is Christ being glorified through my walk. Christ being my treasure reflected in my life.
Oh, to know Christ like that. Is that your heart, that you're longing? To please him in all respects. Again, this is a life focused on how can I honor him? How can I please him? How will he be glorified in my life? Unless you've lived with somebody long enough, you don't know what really pleases him.
Unless you've been with him, you've walked with him. You don't know what pleases him or her. It begins with knowing one intimately.
There used to be an old saying, I haven't heard it for a long time, but distance makes the heart grow fonder. Really, distance makes the heart grow yonder. We want intimacy, intimacy.
Henry Scogle, in a book, The Life of God and the Soul of Man, a long time ago, he said this, true religion is more than just the right belief or intellectual belief or moral behavior. It's a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections, which makes the soul resign and sacrifice it wholly to him, worthy of him. Desiring above all things to please him and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with him and being ready to do or suffer anything for his sake or at his pleasure.
I long for that to be true of me. I'm still in process there. And bearing fruit in every good work, this also comes from knowing Christ deeply.
Galatians speaks of the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of the flesh. The fruit of the spirit comes from nearness, from abiding. John 15, five, I am the vine, you are the branches.
He abides in me and I in him. He bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Bearing much fruit in every good work.
This is what we are made for, created to do. In Ephesians two, we often quote the first two verses, for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. We're to be a fruitful vine. We're to be fruitful people.
Yes, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, but that faith will never remain alone. O to so know Christ like that. Verse 10 ends interestingly with increasing in the knowledge of God.
Increasing in the knowledge of God. When I read it, I go like, what do you mean? You just said know Christ. Now you're saying you're increasing in knowing him.
And I think that's true. The more I walk with God, the more I know him. The more I know him, the more I know him.
So not intellectualism, certainly not that. Rather a deep knowing of the character and glory and grace and love of God. A knowing that ends with worship, with glory, with fruitfulness.
But what if you're only a Sunday learner? You're not going to be living in a way that you understand his will or walk worthy of him or know what it is even to please him. Sundays may become a burden. But does your knowing of his will, knowing Christ, cause your heart to long for him more, to live worthy of him? Jeremiah ends, it says in chapter nine, he says, let not the wise men boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understand and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, righteousness on earth.
For I delight to do these things. Do you know him? Do you know him? There's more. Strengthened, verse 11, that word strengthened is passive, we're being strengthened by God with all power, according to the might of his glory.
Glory being all his excellencies, his majesty, his might, his power, as creator, sustainer, his beauty, a glory that is frankly beyond our comprehension. Being strengthened according to his glory. I can't even grasp that level of power.
Pose and praying, now lay me down to sleep. He wants us to experience all that God is for us in Christ Jesus. It is power through his spirit.
He prays this in Ephesians, he says that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened, that you may know what the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance and his saints and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. In chapter three, the same book of Ephesians, he'll pray that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit and inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. You need that power? I need that power every day.
I need to be strengthened, verse 11, with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of steadfastness, patience, just those two even, joyously giving thanks to the Father as qualified me to share, us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, for the attaining of all steadfastness, endurance, lasting power. If you live worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know you're gonna face opposition. You're gonna face struggle.
People in your own family is gonna not like what you're doing. They're gonna give you a hard time. But boy, you have the power of God.
I mean, the hurricanes of life will land. Opposition is gonna come. Are you steadfast? Do you have that lasting power? It's promised here.
This is what Paul is praying for. If you're growing and knowing Christ, your roots will deepen, and so patience will deepen, so will steadfastness and trial. And all that with joy? Man, Paul, pray for me.
People, would you pray for me that I would know that? I'm a fellow learner here. I'm with you traveling this journey. I wanna know Jesus like this.
This is how we should be praying for each other, amen? This is so knowing the Savior that even in the darkest hour, you know, Paul and Silas are in prison, remember that? And they're joyfully singing songs of praise. And that works great as a child story when I was a kid. But as I've gotten older, the experience of that joy when you're in a prison, when life is throwing stuff at you, a different thing.
Giving thanks to the Father, verse 12, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. So Paul began with thanksgiving for the gospel, growing in this body of believers and beyond. Now Paul wants the Colossians to so know Jesus, and in knowing Him, know the hope that is ours as adopted children of God, the inheritance of the saints in light.
It was a father that sent his son to be the Savior of the world. He wants them to know that and give thanks with joy. I mean, this is not telling your child after he gets a cookie, you know, say thank you.
Look at what's happened here, verse 12. It's the Father who's qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. How did he do that? For he, that is the Father, rescued us from the domain of darkness, the real prison, that anyone who does not know Jesus Christ as personal Savior is in today.
If you're here today, you don't know Jesus Christ, that's, you're in darkness. And it says, for he, the Father, rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He opened the door.
He removed us from the domain of darkness, the kingdom of darkness, of death and bondage to sin. And he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. So we are now citizens of his kingdom.
We now serve the King. We are under his divine authority. I mean, this says so much that it would take us hours to walk through this.
Let me just say this, that this says that our salvation is the work of the Father, God, the Father's plan. The Son executed the plan. The Spirit applies the finished work of the Son to his chosen people.
It is a Father who imputes the righteousness of the Son to us, crediting his Christ righteousness on our behalf. And in doing so, we are justified, made fit for heaven itself, citizens of a different kingdom. Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.
Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so rich and free. Romans says believers are justified freely by his grace to the redemption that came through Jesus Christ.
Corinthians, he says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. So how's the gospel growing in you? How's it growing? Can anybody tell? There's a song written that, I think it was the first time I met Abby, actually, when Josh and Abby were dating, or actually they hadn't dated yet. They were singing in a group together.
It says this, how deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he should give his only Son to make a wretch his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss. The Father turns his face away as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory.
The gospel grows. How's, again, the gospel growing? I can ask it this way. How are you growing in knowing your Savior? Paul wants us to know Christ.
He's driving us into the arms of Christ. The next five verses, Colossians 1, 15 through 20, he sings one of the first Christian hymns. He just bursts forth in song on paper of Christ the firstborn, the one who holds all things together, who is preeminent and reconciles all things to himself, making peace by the blood of his cross, the one in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.
Know him. For in Christ, Colossians 2, 3, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Know him.
Chapter three, when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, you will be revealed with him in glory. I will just end with one last quote. This is Robert Murray McShane.
He said, learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take 10 looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely.
Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief of sinners. Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams.
Feel his all-seeing eye settle on you in love and repose in the almighty arms. Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in him. Let's pray.
Our Father, thank you for sending your Son, our Savior. Thank you for adopting us as sons and daughters of tearing the veil so that we can enter in, for transferring us from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. May we know this Jesus, your Son.
May we find peace and joy in your amazing grace. Make your gospel grow in us. Grant us grace to know your Son.
In Jesus' name, amen.