For we went to bed last night, I went online and received a letter from the Dominican Republic. And as this is the prayer day, let me share with you that the news was good, it was encouraging, and we have much for which to thank God when we think about his work in the Dominican Republic today. Just a little while ago, we had another email that came from the Dominican Republic just outside of Puerto Plata. and they mentioned that in six months of last year there were over fifty conversions in that one church so as you go to prayer today please remember the Dominican Republic and thank God for what he is still doing and in his grace pray that he will even multiply more the blessings now this morning I want you to turn to Colossians chapter one Colossians chapter one. We've been in this portion before, and I would like you this morning to go back to Colossians chapter one, and we're going to continue our meditation in this portion of God's Word. Colossi was a city of great importance in the pre-Christian world. You can go right back to the times of Herodotus. He was the Greek historian. and some call him the father of history, probably the first man who tried systematically to write down the history of the world. And he referred to Colossi and he called it a great city of Phrygia. And a hundred years later, that's about four hundred years, three hundred and fifty years before the Lord Jesus was born, another man, Xenophon, he wrote about Colossi and he called it a large and populous city. But by New Testament times, Colossi was a very small city. Probably what contributed to the decline was the development of the other cities in the Likish Valley, like Heriopolis and Laodicea. And so this city declined and was no longer a very important city, and it wasn't a very large city. In New Testament times, just a few years before the Apostolic Era, who's another Greek historian, he referred to the city as a small town. So I mentioned that this morning because we're in a city that had a great past and a great glory. It has disappeared. It is now a very small city. And I wonder if there's a parallel between that and the church in Colossae. There's reason to believe from what Paul says it had a great beginning. He reminds them, I heard, and he tells them what he heard about them, their faith in Christ, their love for all God's people, and their hope of coming glory. He heard the story. It was a great story. But in a comparatively short time, there appears to have been a very serious decline. I even wonder if the church dwindled in size. Now, there's nothing in the Bible that could confirm that, but from history we know when there are controversies in the church, usually people leave the congregation. There's definitely tension in Colossi. There are new teachings. People are disturbed, and it's possible that even the church declined in numbers. So you have a parallel between the city and the church. And there's one other element that can be added. In the year sixty, there was a disastrous earthquake in that area, and the city was greatly destroyed. I mention that because we've heard about earthquakes in Turkey in recent times, and they can be horrendous. There's a long history of earthquakes in that area, and in the year sixty, one hit the city of Colossi. And I'm going to suggest this morning, just as a suggestion, that what was happening in the church was very similar to a theological or doctrinal earthquake. It was causing great concern. As the people really were confused, there was a sense of bewilderment. Now, in our first study, we noticed that Paul, who doesn't come in the spirit of confrontation, but it's very gently going to lead them to a place where they're going to have to ask the question, who is Jesus and what place does he have in the church? As he leads them along that gentle road to that moment where they have to make their minds up, he does raise two or three issues. And we noticed in our first study that he very gently reminded them, I want you to understand God's point of view. For God has a point of view on all things, and certainly about His Son, the Lord Jesus. But then immediately after that, in verse ten, you read these words, that you may walk worthy of the Lord. Now Paul has a knack. He does this quite often. He takes you right up into heaven. That's where you are in verse nine. You're filling your mind and your heart with a knowledge of God's will. You're in heaven, and you're listening to the heartbeat of God, the things that are important to Him. And then all of a sudden, Paul brings you down with a shuddering thud right down into the real world where you live. And he says, I want you to walk worthy of the Lord. One of the beautiful things about this man, Paul, is, He never divorced his theology, his doctrine from everyday life. He was not locked up in some type of religious ivory tower. He understood perhaps more than any other human being the wonders of God's mind and what he wants to do with human beings now and forever. And with all of those beautiful concepts, He always relates them to life here in the world. He never divorces theory from practice. So He takes you up into heaven and He says to you gently, Now I want you to be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. I want you to know His point of view. And then with a bang, He says, And I want you to walk it out in your life in the city of Colossae. He wants your life to be consistent with the character of God. Let me give you an illustration of this. Imagine that you're a young man in the city of Colossae and your father has a business. Now you know that every year, once or twice, he makes the journey up to the city of Ephesus. That's where he buys the supplies for the business he has in Colossae. You're about twenty years of age. And your father says to you one day, son, I want you to make the trip up to Ephesus. Well, you can't believe it. You've never been outside the city of Colossae. You probably don't even know Heriopolis and Laodicea, which are just down in the valley. And now your father's going to send you to the city of Ephesus. It's a shock. It's a pleasant surprise. and you get ready for the journey and you make your way up to that great city. Now, those of you who've gone to Ephesus, even in recent times, know that you can come up on a slight incline to the top of a hill and then you look down over the ruins of Ephesus. Even in ruins, the city is still impressive. So imagine the young man coming for the first time and he walks up the slope, comes to the brow of that hill, And he looks down on one of the major cities in the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. And right in the center is the great Temple of Diana. It was considered one of the seven wonders of the world. And you just stand in awe. You'd heard about it, but you'd never seen it. Those of you who've gone to Athens, you've seen the Parthenon up on the Acropolis. They tell us that the Temple of Diana was four times that size, an enormous building. The roof was supported by a forest of pillars, and many of them were covered in gold and in silver. Use your imagination. You go up to the brow of that hill early in the morning when the sun is coming up, and those temple columns with gold and silver, it would be a dazzling sight. Now in your pocket you have a slip of paper and on it are the things that your father asked you to do. Well you decide to leave it in your pocket and you go down into the city to spend an hour or two and you walk around the great temple of Diana. There's one thing you will never, never forget. Around that temple there would be hundreds of young men and young women dedicated to what they then called religious prostitution. It would be a shocking thing to know what was going on, but in a sense that lifestyle reflected the character of the goddess Diana. Now Paul's writing to people who know about that, and he's telling them, I want you to understand God's point of view, God's character, And then I want you to live it out in your life. Your lives as Christians are going to be consistent with the character of God. Walk worthy of the Lord. The more you think about that, you'll find, I'm sure it'll come to your mind that right through Paul's writings, over and over he emphasizes this important truth. For instance, here is one illustration. He writes to the church in Corinth And sometimes we're reluctant to read some of these things in public. But let's listen this morning because in these words, he takes you right into the environment of the world in which he lived and in which he served God. He said to his Corinthian friends, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. Now that's a long list, but Paul is describing what life was like in Corinth. This was the usual common type of life. He even goes on to say, And such were some of you. These were converts. from the city of Corinth. But then he adds, But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. The latter words mean there was a radical change in your life when you met the Lord Jesus. You used to be like that. You met the Lord Jesus, and there's something about knowing him and knowing who he is. that you and I together, out of love and reverence and respect for Him, it changes the way we live. It happened in Corinth. It happened in Thessalonica. In the world in which we live today, to bring it right up to our times, there are two basic world views. And I think all of us are conscious of that. If you move in the academic world, even in the secular world, in the business world, You're going to find there are two great world concepts. One is there is no creator. There is no God. When that is true, then there's no design or purpose to the cosmos. There are no moral values. There's no life after death. And that means there's no accountability. Doesn't matter what you do in this life. you will never be held accountable in some afterlife. In that type of a world view, then you find it very difficult to make a commitment for marriage for your whole life. We were walking down a street in Toronto, Young Street. We were down between King and Queen Streets. It was a beautiful sunny day in the month of June. It's around four o'clock in the afternoon and people were coming out of the great towers And coming towards us was this massive people. Now, Grace and I are not overly sentimental or emotional, perhaps not even romantic, but we were holding hands that day. And we were talking to each other. There must have been a smile on our face. And a young woman with a briefcase smartly dressed, coming in the opposite direction, just as she passed Grace, she said, you two deserve a medal. And I remember we looked at each other and wondered what we had done to merit a medal. And then it hit us. She looked at two senior citizens who seemed to have a long relationship and were still happy together. And we wondered how many affairs she had been through, how many marriages maybe had started and broken, and then another one started and broken And that was probably the background against which she said, you too deserve a medal. Well, if there's no God, no accountability, no moral values, not very likely you're going to make a commitment with someone for the rest of your life. The other worldview is that there is a God and a creator. There is a purpose and a design to this great universe we find ourselves in, and so there are moral values. And there is life after death and there is accountability. And in that worldview, you make a commitment for marriage, for your whole life. You make other commitments and you're responsible, you're caring. You think of those who are in need, you are helpful. It all depends what your worldview is. Well, in Colossi, there would be the usual worldview There would be many idols, many temples. People were weary of that two thousand years ago. There are scholars today who suggest that when Paul writes, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, in that phrase, in the fullness of time, one of the elements of meaning in that phrase is that the world was weary of all of the gods and the superstition. They were ready to hear the truth. And when it came in the form of the gospel, great and marvelous things happened around the Mediterranean base. So Paul says to his Colossian friends, I want you to walk worthy of the Lord right in the city of Colossae. How do you do that? Well, when you walk worthy of the Lord, it's pleasing to him, and you're going to bring forth good fruit, which is for his glory and honor, And then, and most important at the end of verse ten, you're going to increase in the knowledge of God. Now let's go back to verse nine. Paul says, I want you to understand to be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Then he brings you back down into the world. Walk worthy of the Lord here in Colossae. I want you to do that which is right. Bring forth good fruits for God's glory. And then as you do that, you increase, not in theory, but in practice in the knowledge of God. And you complete the circle. We began in heaven, listening to God's will. You work it out in your life day by day. And in practice, you grow. You increase in the knowledge of God. Again, Paul never divorces theory from practice. One last illustration about this when he writes to the Thessalonians, he was there for a short time in Thessalonica, and he reminds them, and these words to me are very powerful, for he says, You know what kind of men we were among you for your sake, and you became followers of us and of the Lord. I don't know how you understand that phrase, but can't you imagine Paul and his companions, some street corner in Thessalonica, they began in the synagogues, but then they had to leave, and they're preaching and talking about the Lord Jesus, and people are listening. They're also observing. They watch these men. They see when they go for lunch. They see how they walk down the streets. They see the things they have interest in and the things they avoid. They're watching them. And then all of a sudden in their minds they come to the conclusion, these men are like the person they're speaking about. And so Paul says, you know what kind of men we were and you became followers of us and of the Lord, because they saw the Lord in the way they lived. They were walking worthy of the Lord. Paul is even more specific with the friends in Thessalonica, and I, with reserve this morning, would like to read this portion to you, because it describes the society then, it describes our society today. Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more just as you receive from us how you ought to walk and please God, the same subject as Colossians chapter one. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. They came from him to the people in Thessalonica. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality. You have to define in this verse that word sanctification. If you take it as some type of theoretical concept without any practical meaning, it really just hangs in the air without meaning. Paul is talking about their sexual lives. And when he uses the word sanctification, he's telling them there is a right and proper place for sexual activities. There is a wrong way to do it. And so he adds at the end of that verse that you should abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter. And probably I wouldn't read this verse this morning if it was not that we have been made acutely aware in recent years that even in our church fellowships, there are men and women who have defrauded other men and women in this sense, that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter. Because, and this is certainly a solemn word, the Lord is the avenger. of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, He who rejects this does not reject men, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit." Paul is outlining the two worldviews. One is characterized by immorality, uncleanness, and perversion. defrauding one another in these matters, the other one is a life of activity in the right sense and of holiness and of dedication to God. Now, if you're in Colossae and you know what the city is like where you live and you hear this letter that comes from Paul, walk worthy of the Lord. You might say to yourself quietly, just where you're seated, well, Paul, it's nice to write like that, but you don't live in Colossae. You don't know what the world is like here in Colossae. Now, if you said that, and I say this gently this morning, that's because you don't know very much about Paul. Paul lived in the real world. We've already read a number of portions this morning when he can describe it vividly. He knew exactly what the world was like. So he might have understood that you would raise a question like that. So you find in verse eleven, These words, strengthened with all might, according to His, God's glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy. You think it's going to be difficult? Well, it will be difficult. But Paul is telling you, there is a power at your disposal that will enable you, in the midst of a society like that, to live a life of holiness, that is pleasing to God. Now, what type of power is this? Well, Paul deals with this subject of power often. Two years ago, we went into Ephesians chapter one, where he speaks about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And you remember the words, what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ. when He raised Him from the dead. He brings together four powerful nouns, unites them under one exceptional adjective. He's speaking about the power of God, and it was released when God raised His Son from the dead. Now to the Colossians, Paul will say this in chapter two and verse eleven. In Him you were also circumcised, with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. And in that language, Paul is saying, the power of God that raised His Son from the dead is at our disposal so that we can live in this world in a way that is well pleasing to God. Well, now, if you were in Colossi, when you read those words, you might have said a quiet, hallelujah. That's exactly what we need. We need that type of power that comes from God. Well, when you say that, I want to remind you this is not a bulldozer type of power. You might think that's the type of power it is. It's a power that will come down and clear away all the problems in our lives and give us a straight and beautiful path. Then we can walk worthy of the Lord. We'll bring forth fruit. We'll do those things that are pleasing to God. Well, God can do that, but He does that rarely. One great example is the story of the Exodus. Over two million slaves are down in Egypt. The slavery is beyond description. The cruelty goes beyond your imagination. And God stands up, stretches out his arm, and with a mighty hand, he brings out over two million slaves from under the most powerful monarch in the world. God can do that. But he does that rarely. Let's listen carefully now to our portion in the closing moments that we have this morning. What kind of power is this? Well, take that word patience. He talks about the power, the mighty power of God, for all patience. Now, you may not think about power related to patience. But that's what Paul is talking about. He's not saying God is going to remove the obstacles in the city of Colossae, but he is saying to the Christians, the power of God, in spite of the problems, will give you the strength to go on and on right to the end of your life. You will be a faithful servant of God. Some of you from Scotland will remember Sir Harry Lauder, And as far as I know, he lost a son in the First World War, and he penned that hymn or that song that became so popular, Keep right on to the end of the road. Keep right on to the end. While there were men and women who lost sons and daughters in the wars of our lifetime, it was a devastating blow, but in the midst of the crisis, they kept right on to the end of the road. Well, we're not talking about wars of that nature. We're talking about living for God in a corrupt society. And Paul says, God has the power to give you the patience so that you'll go on and on in spite of the difficulties. There are illustrations that come to mind, I think of Paul and Listera. And do you remember they stoned him, they thought, to death. And then they dragged his body out of the city and threw it on the garbage heap. Well, they hadn't killed Paul, and he revived. I know it may sound comical, but I sometimes think what would have happened to me under those circumstances, I might have said something like this, well, maybe I should change my vocation, or maybe I should try and do the same thing but in a different way. Paul revived and he went right on. in the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus in spite of the problems. And you ask, how do you do that? You're strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power for all patience. And you just keep going, and you keep going in spite of the obstacles. Then you have the word long suffering. There are those that cause us problems Maybe I ought not to tell you this, but all Christians come through those growing years. There was a way out, a place, a way out near the Haitian border. And we were out there many, many years ago with some young men. And we had an open-air meeting. And we were announcing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. and there were hecklers. Now we very seldom had that in the Dominican Republic, but they stood there and they mocked us. And finally we had to stop the service. And as we just quietly moved away, one of the young men, just a young Christian said, if I had a machine gun, well, that would be a natural reaction. Paul says there are problems, but the power of God will give you long suffering. You'll just go on And you'll remember that you're to love even your enemies and work to bring them into the kingdom of God. I wonder if by that time in the church in Colossae, if they listened to the letter, someone might have said, well, the Christian life must be a boring life. And then Paul adds up right at the end with joy, with joy. How can you have joy in circumstances like that? How can you have joy today, even in North America, when you look at our secular society? No, the outcome eventually will be for God's glory. There's no other way to explain how Paul and Silas, their bodies beaten, their feet are in the stalks, and they're in a most uncomfortable position. They've been through a harrowing experience. And at midnight, they're singing the praises of God. And they're singing so lustily that Luke tells us everybody in the prison heard them singing. If you ask, how can you do that in those circumstances, again you come back strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power. Now, as we finish, let's remember that the issue in Colossae has to do with who the Lord Jesus is. And if you know Him and love Him, you're going to be deeply saddened today by the things that are being said about the Lord Jesus. Please note that in Colossi, they never rejected Him. They simply downgraded Him. It's happening in our world today. And how can you go on in situations like that while you go on to strengthen with all might according to God's glorious power, and you'll have patience. You'll stand for the truth right to the end of your life. You will treat those who seek sometimes to cause us these problems with long suffering, not with bitterness. And in all, you're going to keep singing. In your heart there will be joy because you know the Lord and you know the outcome is sure. Let's bow our heads this morning as we conclude our service just in a moment of prayer. Our Father, we thank you that so long ago, in a little town called Colossi, where this problem took place, your servant Paul took the time to sit down and write them a letter. And it's the letter that just really touches our situation today. So we're not talking about what happened a long time ago. We're looking out in our world, even in Christian circles, and we are saddened when we hear what people are saying about the Lord Jesus. So we come back and we pray that you will fill our minds and hearts with the knowledge of your will, your point of view. We want to hear afresh those beautiful words, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And then we pray that you will strengthen us with all might according to your glorious power, so that in our generation we will have patience and long-suffering and above all joy as we sing praises to the Lord Jesus day by day. And now to him who is able to establish us according to the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, To God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ our Lord forever and ever. Amen.