The Truth of the Gospel

The speaker expresses gratitude for the psalm service and introduces the Scripture reading from Colossians chapter 1. They discuss the importance of the Gospel message and give thanks for the love and grace of God. They emphasize the need for thankfulness and prayer among Christians. The speaker highlights the connection between faith and love, drawing from the commandments given by Jesus. They encourage trusting and obeying God and loving others as a demonstration of faith. The passage in Colossians is referenced as an example of faith and love in action. Thank you for the psalm service this morning and the welcome and Scripture reading and the special at this moment. And if you have your Bibles this morning, turn to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, we'll be looking at verses 3 through 8 this morning, which is actually just one sentence. Just keep that in mind when you think about both. Brother Donny, you're long-winded. Well, Paul just did about six verses in one sentence. So we're going to look at that this morning. The truth of the Gospel is what I've entitled the message this morning. And in verse 3, Paul, after looking last week, we saw that Paul was the writer of Colossians. We saw that he had a companion, Timothy, with him. And he was writing to the church at Colossae. And so we come to verse 3 now. And Paul says, We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel, which is coming to you as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it does also in you, since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. As you also learned of Epiphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Father, we just thank You so much for Your love. We thank You for the grace that You have poured upon us. We thank You for the hope that we all have in the eternity before us. Father, today as we look at the Gospel message and just the simplicity of the Gospel and the truth of the Gospel, we ask You to guide me, to use me as an instrument, as a vessel to speak the words that You would have me to speak today. Father, we just pray that those that are here in our service, those that are on Facebook today, will have their eyes open and their ears open and their hearts open and receptive to the message today in Your Holy Spirit as He prompts for a response to the Gospel. In Your most precious name we pray, Amen. If you look at this passage of Scripture, Paul, just about no matter what letter Paul writes, he always starts off with basically three things. He starts off with a greeting. He greets his individuals. He usually tells who he is, who he's writing to, and he says, hello, just like any good person would do when they come into contact or writing a letter. Then, in all of his letters, the second thing that he does is he tends to give thanks. He finds something that is good, something that they're doing that he could be thankful for. And the third thing is he gives teaching. Then he goes into his teaching. And so we looked last week at the greeting. This week we're going to look at where he gives thanks and begins to give them some teaching. And I think two things of the most important things that we can do for each other is, number one, be thankful. Folks, we need to look around at somebody sitting next to you, and you need to be thankful. You ought to right now, why don't we just take just a moment to turn to somebody close to you and just tell them that you're thankful for them. Thankful that they're here this morning. Thankful that they are whatever you can say. It's a husband and a wife. Maybe they cooked breakfast for you this morning or whatever. But why are you thankful? You know, it's good to be thanked. And I always want to tell you as your pastor, I'm thankful for each and every one of you. It would be hard to preach. It would be hard to put on a service if we didn't have people here. And so if nothing else this morning, I thank you for being here. It's a beautiful day. And I know I thought this morning when I come into the sanctuary, and even between Sunday school and church, I stepped outside and I said, man, I wish we had some place outside that we could have service because today would be about the one day in Arkansas out of the 52 Sundays that we could meet outside. But it is gorgeous out there. But you are here, and I thank you for that. But the second thing that I think is very important for Christians is we need to pray for each other. We need to pray for each other. Man, we are living in a bad, wicked world. We are living in a world that is evil, a world that is run over with sin. We have so many problems because of sin. We have so many sicknesses and diseases and everything else. Folks, we need to be praying for each other. So this week, that person that you thanked this morning, this week when you have time and opportunity, why don't you pray for that individual? And just pray that God will bless and God will work in their life. So, we've got these two things behind us this morning. Paul said in verse 4, Since you have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints. When he mentions there, he mentions two things, and I didn't underline the other one, but he says, I heard of your faith in Jesus Christ and the love which you have to all saints. I was telling Brother Morris that he bounced all around it this morning in Sunday school, but he didn't get on my turf. I told him he better stay off of my turf this morning. And so he used Mark, and I'm going to use Matthew this morning. And so therefore, we're going to be in two different Gospels, but it's the same thing. And when I look at this word faith, and I look at that word love, it immediately this week responded a deal to one of the questions that was asked to Jesus Christ, which is what is the greatest commandment? What is the greatest commandment? And as I was studying this week and I was praying, it was amazing that all of a sudden God showed me this, and it just opened up something that I have not seen in a really long time. Somebody came to Jesus Christ in Matthew 22, 36 and said, Which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. When I look at that commandment that Jesus Christ gave, the first thing that I think about is faith. I think about faith. And Paul said, I heard of your faith. What is there faith? Faith is trusting and obeying God. You have to have both. We hear a lot of times that faith is trusting God, and we hear a lot of times that faith is obeying God, and depending on the context, both of them can be true. But when you're talking about the simplicity and the truth of the Gospel, faith is trusting and believing. There has to be both. And so what do we do? We love the Lord thy God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and all of our strength. Why do we love Him that way? Because we trust Him. We trust Him. How many times did Jesus Christ say, if you love Me, keep My commandments? Because I loved you is why you love Me. Because I sent My Son for you. Because I've done this. Because I've adopted you. Because I've proved Myself over and over. That's faith. That's learning to trust in God. He tells us in Hebrews 11, in verse 1, it's not a definition of faith, but it's a description of faith. In Hebrews 11, verse 1, it says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now in two phrases, the substance of things hoped for is trust. You know, it's what I'm hoping. What am I hoping for? What is the hope of a Christian? It's eternity, right? We hope to be with Jesus Christ. And so that's trust. I trust that what Jesus Christ has promised me, as a believer, He is going to come through. That is the first part of faith is trust. The second part is the evidence of things not seen. That's obedience. As we obey God because we trust God, then God begins to reveal and show us things that does what? It comes back and supports our trust in Him. Just like with Peyton and Parker, you know, they're young and they've got to trust Papa. And I did a bad thing. I played a joke on them the night before last. And so I killed a little bit of my trust. But yesterday I was trying to get Parker to float on his back and he's trying to learn to swim. And I was getting there and I said, Do you trust Papa? And he said, Not right now. And so we had to work on that a little bit. But guess what? I finally convinced him to relax and just trust me that my hands was going to be there and I was going to hold him up. And the more that I did that, what happened? The more he became comfortable and relaxed because I proved what was going to do. And that's what Hebrews 11 in verse 1 talks about. Now go back to Matthew where it says what? Faith is loving the Lord. We love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. But Jesus didn't stop there. He went on and He said, and here is the second greatest command. And it's kind of similar to the first command. He said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love your neighbor is the obedience part. If you trust God who loves you, then you will in return love others. That's the obedience. That's the part that we sometimes have problems with, right? I love God, but God, You don't know my neighbor. I love You, God, but You don't know the one sitting next to me. I love You, God, but... There's no but in it. He said, love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself. That is the obedience part. In Colossians 1 and verse 4, notice what Paul says when he introduces us to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, Since we have heard of your what? Your faith. Not only faith, but not only did you trust God, but there was obedience in God. How do I know there was obedience in God? Because of the love which you have to all the saints. And so there is the trust, but then there's also the obedience that's there. When you have faith in God and you obey and love for others, it will lead to a hope. And that's where we get the hope. Now in Colossians 1 and verse 5, look at what he says. He says, For the hope. Trust in God leads to loving others, which guarantees our hope. And he said the hope is what? Laid up for you in the heavens. As Brother Moore said, the Holy Spirit is given to us as a earnest, as a guarantee. My ticket has been approved. And so when the Holy Spirit convicts me, and the Holy Spirit guides me and directs me, and the Holy Spirit speaks into my heart and into my life, it is proving me that what? My hope is real. It's not a fantasy. It's not a wishful thinking. It is a reality that God has given to me. And so Paul goes on to say, where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel? And so when we trust God, we develop faith. The development of faith leads us to love our neighbors. And when we do those two things, the result, the equal sign, when you have faith plus love, equals hope. Now where in the world have we ever heard that before? Do you remember 1 Corinthians 13? Chapter 12, 13, and 14 in 1 Corinthians deals with spiritual gifts. How do we get spiritual gifts? They're gifts from the Holy Spirit that is in us, right? That earnest, that guarantees. And so what are the fruits of the Holy Spirit? If you remember, in the church at Corinth, they were arguing over, I want the gift of tongues. I want the gift of prophecy. I want these gifts that people will know that the Holy Spirit is in my life, right? I want to be seen. I want to be recognized. And Paul goes through and he says, guess what? You can be out there in front, and you can speak in tongues, you can prophesy, you can do all of these things, but if you don't have love, then you have forfeited your faith, and guess what? You're not a very good witness for Jesus Christ anyway. And he gets to the end of verse 13, and look what he says. He says, Now abideth faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is what? Charity. Love. Faith and hope. But where is faith and hope? The foundation to all of these gifts is found right there in verse 5. Love is the key to proving your faith in order to experience the hope. Do you remember James when he was talking about works and faith? What did James say? James said, show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works, right? How is he going to prove it? Love is love for others. He said when somebody comes to you with a need, don't tell them be warmed and filled and I'll pray for you. Give them some food and some clothes. That's how you prove because you love your neighbor. You want to help them out. And so that is the key to the Gospel. That is the foundation. And we come back to verse 5 and we see the communication of the Gospel by Jesus Christ. When you read the Gospels, you find out that Jesus Christ preached the Gospel. In Colossians 1 and verse 5, look, it says, "...for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel." That word Gospel is the Greek word evangelion. It is a big, fancy word, but it really is the word that we get, our English word, to evangelize or to evangel. And that's where we used to get revivals. We would invite a what? An evangelist. What was the evangelist supposed to do? The evangelist's job was to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so today, we don't do many revivals where we invite an evangelist, someone to come and preach and serve the hearts of people for the Gospel. Now we want to assign subjects or teaching and things like that, and then we wonder why are we not having revival services like we used to? And so evangelism basically is a technical term for the good news. It's a term used in relationship to a battle. When you study that word evangelion outside of the Bible in biblical realms, you find out that it was used most in a city when war was taking place. And what would happen is these guys would go off to war and everybody else is left back at home. And they're sitting there in town wondering. I wonder how the war's going. I wonder how my father's doing. I wonder how my husband is doing. I wonder how my son is doing. And so they're sitting there and they're worried. But all of a sudden, at the end of the victory, at the end of the war, one of two things would happen. A guy would come riding into town. And when he'd come riding back into town, the people just by looking at him would automatically know whether the war was going good or the war was going real bad. Because see, when he rode up, if he had his spear out, and he had a laurel that was on the end of his spear, and he had a big smile on his face, then guess what? That was good news. They won the war. And so what would happen? They would shout and they would be excited for the victory. And so that's what that word evangelize has come from. And Paul used it. The gospel, the good news, is literally what the gospel is. It's the good news, but the gospel is the good news about the victory. The victory. And see, when we talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we're talking about the victory over sin, death, and the grave. God conquered that. Jesus Christ. That's good news. Amen? That ought to get us excited this morning. If that don't excite you, then you need to pray. You need to step to the Holy Spirit, because listen, the death and sin has been conquered. That's my hope. One of these days, He's going to wipe away my tears. One of these days, He's going to wipe away all of my sickness and ailments and problems and aches and pains. That is my hope. And it was because of what Jesus Christ did in the tomb. What He did on the cross of Calvary. And so that is the victory. That is the news of the gospel. Jesus, during His ministry, proclaimed this gospel. He said in Matthew 4.23, Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in the synagogues. Why teaching in the synagogues? Because that's where all the smart religious people were, right? So He went in there to teach them, to show them what they're missing, what they're doing. But notice He didn't just teach. He didn't just teach, but what did He also do? He preached the gospel of the Kingdom. And He healed in all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases among the people. Why did He heal the sickness and disease? So that they would understand the gospel. That Jesus Christ, guess what, is destined to defeat sin, death, and the grave. And so Jesus Christ, while proclaiming the gospel, actually looked at His disciples, the start of the church, the beginning of the church, and He commanded them to preach the gospel. He told them in Mark 16, verse 15, He said unto them, Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Listen, as a Christian, it is our responsibility that as we go, we are shouting, Christ won the victory! He won the war! It's our job to share that Jesus Christ has defeated sin, death, and the grave. That is our message. That is our marching order. Yes, you might not be able to quote a lot of Scriptures. You may not be able to do that. But every one of you can tell how Jesus Christ defeated sin in your life if you're a Christian. If you can't, then you may need to deal with that here in a little bit in the invitation. But Jesus preached the gospel. Jesus commanded that we preach the gospel. But not only are we commanded to preach the gospel, but do you know that Paul told us that we are to protect the gospel? You see, the gospel today is being perverted. It's being changed because you have to believe in God, but you also have to do something. We saw that last week. Remember? There was two problems that was going on in the church at Colossians. One, there was salvation, but you had to know something. That took some knowledge from Gnosticism. There was also the problem of those that had salvation, but they also had to have philosophy. They had to have reason and an understanding about the gospel. And Paul is confronting both of these in Colossians. And he's saying, guess what? It is our job to protect the gospel. In Philippians 1, verse 17, Paul said, "...but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel." If you cannot defend anything else about what we believe, you ought to be able to defend the gospel. You ought to be able to defend the gospel, especially if you are a Christian. But not only are we supposed to protect the gospel, but we're supposed to pour on the gospel. We're supposed to pour it on. What do we mean by that? Well, Paul explained it to us in Philippians 1, verse 27. He said, "...Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of your Christ." What is our conversation? It's not just what you say, but it's what you do. The conversation is body language and everything. It's your lifestyle. "...Be as it becometh..." The what? "...the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else I may be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast..." What? "...in one Spirit, that Spirit that is the guarantee of your salvation, that Spirit that gives you the hope with one mind, striving together..." For what? "...the faith of the gospel." Your job is to get people to trust in God and obey God. To love the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their might, with all their strength. And then if they trust God, then guess what? They're going to love their neighbors, their self in obedience. That is our job. That's what we are supposed to do. He tells us in Philippians 1, verse 5, your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. We have a lot of fellowship in Baptist churches. We have a lot of get-togethers and a lot of eating. But do we honestly say we fellowship in the gospel? That that's a part of our life and a part of our conversation? When was the last time we sat down for a meal on Wednesday night, or on a Sunday afternoon, or a fifth Sunday, and we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ in our conversation as we sat around the table? See, he says your fellowship in the gospel produces thankfulness. When we think about the gospel, man, we ought to be thankful. And he says in Philippians 1-3, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. What was he remembering? What they stood in the fellowship of their gospel. Paul told 2 Timothy 1-8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. We are to put up with suffering because of the gospel. Do you see the process? You receive the gospel, and when you receive the gospel, you are to preach the gospel. And as you preach the gospel, it is your responsibility to protect the gospel. That we are saved by faith and faith alone by grace through faith. And so we are to protect the gospel, but you're also to pour into the gospel. And then lastly, you may have pain for the gospel. It may cause you some suffering. But you ought to be like Paul and suffer for joy. Because you're doing it not for your sake, not unneedfully, but you're doing it for the sake of the gospel. On the flip side of that, we are also commanded not to prevent the gospel. What do we mean by prevent the gospel? That's what he says in 1 Corinthians 9. If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless, we have not used this power, but suffer all things lest we should... what? Hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you realize you could be the greatest person and the greatest orator in this world and still hinder the gospel of Jesus Christ? We are to protect. We're not to prevent the gospel. And so, man, we do everything. Why don't we take up mission offerings? And give to missionaries? Because they are out there preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're not to hinder the gospel. We are to help the gospel. We are to spread the gospel. In Romans 1 and verse 16, Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. What? Unto salvation. To who? Everyone that believeth. To the Jew first, but also to the Greek. He said in 1 Thessalonians 1.5, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power. Do you realize there's only one gospel? It's not my gospel. It's not your gospel. It's our gospel. It's Jesus Christ's gospel. It's the good news about what Jesus Christ did. And it comes when we stick to the simplicity and the truth of the gospel. The gospel has power. And in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit comes in and gives us that assurance, that earnest, that security, that payment, as we know what men are of men we were among you for your sake. If you're going to understand the book of Colossians over the next several weeks and maybe month that we go through the book of Colossians, you are going to have to understand your spiritual gift. And you're going to have to understand why we should be thankful and praying for one another. We have to understand the gospel. We are thankful to each other for the gospel's sake. We pray for each other for the gospel's sake. When Paul and them was arrested, read the book of Acts, when they would be arrested, they would be beaten, but then God would let them out, what would they do? They would tell the people, please pray for us that we don't ever get arrested again. Please pray for us that people will like the Word of God. No, they said pray for us that we will have boldness to what? Preach the gospel. Suffer pain because of the gospel. And so now that we understand that this gospel and this completeness of the gospel, notice the comprehension of the gospel. Because I want you to make sure that you do not leave here today without understanding what is the gospel. And right off the get-go, Paul wants to make sure that the church at Colossae understand the gospel. Number one, there's seven things that we're going to go through. We're going to go through them very fast this morning. I could probably spend a week on each one of them. We're going to go through them very, very quickly this morning. Because hopefully, you understand the gospel. So I'm just supporting what you should already know. The gospel is received by faith. Look at what Paul said in v. 4. Since we have heard of your what? Faith. Where? In Christ Jesus. The gospel is received by faith. In Christ Jesus. What does it mean to believe? What does it mean when we talk about faith and we talk about believing? What does it mean? What does He say? How do you become a Christian? How do you receive the good news? And the simple answer of that is by believing. When you heard of Jesus Christ, when you heard of your faith, remember what is faith? Trusting God and obeying. But who did you trust and obey? In Christ Jesus. So that's salvation. We heard of your salvation. We heard of your believing. How did they believe? The word in the Greek is pasteo, which means to believe or to have faith. And I put it on the sign this morning. It says believing is to be persuaded. To be convinced that something is true and to trust it. And so when you look at faith, faith is simply believing. You remember what the psalmist David said? He said, taste and see that the Lord is good. I don't ask anybody to blindly accept Jesus Christ. There has to be a reason. There has to be something that substantiates their reasoning for Jesus Christ. When somebody comes up at the invitation and says, Brother Donny, I want to be saved, the first thing I ask is why? Why? Well, I saw so-and-so do it. Or you said whoever wants to be saved, come forward. No, I need you to be persuaded that you are a sinner and that Jesus Christ died for your sins. You trust God. You believe that what He did, He made the payment, the propitiation for your sin, and He put it to your account. That is believing. We saw Hebrews 11 earlier in the message and faith is not just wishful longing. Faith is actually knowing with absolute authority. Absolute certainty. It's taking something that you cannot see and some way out of there, giving it substance. Making it make sense. And the longer I serve Him, guess what? The greater I trust God and I believe God. In Acts 16 and verse 31, it simply says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It uses the preposition there, epi, which literally, own, is kind of a good word there, but it goes on for just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. What that epi, what that word own literally means is resting on a foundation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a foundation there. What is the foundation? That Jesus Christ came to save sinners. How do we believe on Him? We accept that when He cried, it is finished on the cross of Calvary, He paid the debt for my sins because He was sinless. See, there's a foundation there. It's not just so many people believe that Jesus Christ was a good man or He was a good prophet or He was a good teacher. That's not a foundation for believing Him and trusting Him with your eternal life. And so there has to be this foundation that is there in Acts 20 and verse 21. We said testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. What? Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, in order to get to Jesus Christ, you have to understand that you have sinned against God. You have to know that you are not holy as God is holy. You're not good. And Paul goes on to explain that in Romans 3. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. There is none that seeketh after God. There is none that is righteous. For all have sinned... and notice the next phrase of that. For all have sinned in what comes short of the glory of God. God, I'm not holy like You. I'm sorry. But it's not just repenting because we've messed up. It's not just looking at God, but then what happens? Repentance is literally turning from one direction to the other. God, I have not been following You God, I have not been obeying You. I have not been trusting You. But guess what? I am going to repent and I am going to turn and now I am going to trust Your Son, Jesus Christ, who what? Was the One that was chosen to be slain before the foundation of the world. See, God said, I'm sending My Son to take care of your sinfulness. And so you have to put your faith toward Jesus Christ. In John 1 and verse 12, He says, as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Believe what? On His name. That is the beginning of the Gospel. That's all there is to it. It starts with recognizing that you have sinned against God, but that you accept Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. That's the bottom foundation of the Gospel. But look, Paul goes into the second thing. The Gospel reproduces love. This is part of the obedience. Since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and... what is and? And is not in addition to. And is a connection. These are equal. Not only have we heard of your faith in Jesus Christ, but we have also and... there is a connection there because of your faith in Jesus Christ and what? The love which you have for the saints. See, there's the faith. There's the trusting part. But then there's the obedience part. There's the love part. And we'll explain that here in just a little bit. But faith... and listen to me very carefully because this is where so many Christians are going wrong today. Faith does not lead to isolation. We live in a society today, oh, I have faith so I can stay at home and read my Bible and that's good enough. No, what did he say? He said you have proved your faith because of what? The love that you have for the saints. Who are the saints? Those that have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ just like you. Folks, we are led to love and to be with each other. If you love someone, you want to be around them, right? Right? I love my wife, so what? I come home at night. Right? Because I love her. And so that's what he's talking about here. That's that obedience part. You ought to feel sad. You ought to be heartbroken. God will tear you apart if you can't come to church. But now we use everything else as an excuse. Well, if I didn't have this going on, preacher, I'd have been at church. I'm just really to the point to where I'm almost sick and tired of calling people and checking up on them for missing church. Why were you not here? Because you get some lame excuse. Well, I had this going on. Or I overslept. Or whatever. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints. I love what it says here. I think this is very practical. Practical. Since we have heard of your love to all the saints. Isn't that something? It's a non-selective love. They loved everybody. Now that's a beautiful concept, isn't it? That God created us and saved us that we do what? Love everybody. Go back to Philippians that we just went through. Paul said, Fulfill my joy. What, Paul, is going to make you have joy? Paul, what are you going to get excited about? That you be like-minded. Having what? The same love being of one accord of one mind. Listen, you cannot be in a cord of wood and be stuck over at the side. One accord means we have to be in fellowship. We have to be together. Isn't that what the writer of Hebrews said? Forsaking not yourselves together as the manner of some is, and much more as you see what? The day of Jesus Christ returning and approaching. Folks, we live in a wicked, evil day. And there are so many things that are pulling Christians away and pulling them away from church and from us and everything else. Folks, we ought to be concerned. But we ought to be concerned enough that we love them that we go and talk to them. That we share with them. That we try to get them to come back. There's two crucial sides to the Christian life. One is faith, and the other is love. What does that say? One is sound doctrine. The other is experiential love. We are saved by faith, but we are saved to do what? To love. We are saved by faith in order that we might love. Love toward each other. Love toward people simply means the act of self-sacrificing service to one another. But then notice the third thing. The Gospel rests in hope. Faith, love, and hope. Look at what he says in v. 5. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of truth of the Gospel. Remember, 1 Corinthians 13 is what? Now abideth what? Faith, hope, and love. But what is the greatest of these? The greatest of these is love. Because why? You don't have faith if you're not exempted in love. That's not faith. That's not believing and obeying. And so there has to be the love, and the love is what ties us to this hope. What is this hope? Well, Paul says right here in our text this morning that it's laid up for you in heaven. It's laid up for you in heaven. As a matter of fact, Peter in 1 Peter 1, verse 4 calls it this. He says it is an inheritance. And not just any inheritance. You know, we all look forward to that inheritance that we might receive one day. But listen to what Peter said about the inheritance for the Christian. He said it is incorruptible, it is undefiled, and it fadeth not away. And then notice that word? Reserved in heaven for you. How do we know it's there? How do we know it's reserved? Because of the earnestness of the Holy Spirit. The payment of the Holy Spirit. When I think about our hope, it really excites me. I get excited when we think about hope. Think about it this way. God established our hope by making us sons. See, we made us sons. God established our hope by making us sons. When you're saved, you're not just saved and cast over to the side, but God adopts you into His family. You become a son of God. And John said it this way in 1 John 3, verse 1, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called what? The sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew Him not. But then look at what 1 John 3, 2 says. Beloved, since now we are the sons of God, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that. This is our hope. We know that. When He shall appear, He's coming to get us. He's coming for us. We will see Jesus Christ again. That is our hope. And guess what? We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Why? Because we're sons of God. That is our hope. Number four, the Gospel reaches worldwide. The Gospel reaches worldwide. He says in Colossians 1, 6, He says, "...which is come unto you as it is..." What? "...in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth." When you're talking about, especially here in the context, He's writing to who? The church at Colossae. Why is this Gospel so important that it has not changed in all of the world? Remember that Colossae was right outside an hour and a half outside of Ephesus. And how did Epaphras find out the Gospel? He went to Ephesus. And he learned the Gospel from Paul. He went back to Colossae and shared it with the people. They received the Gospel and they were saved. But listen, it was the same Gospel. Remember, they had other people and other religions that worshipped all these other gods that was trying to bring philosophy into the Gospel. That was bringing knowledge into the Gospel. And what Paul is telling them, of all of these mystery religions of the Roman Empire, the Gospel is just not one of a local sect. The Gospel is not something that is just for us here at Kentucky. The Gospel is the same all through the world. It never changes. When I go to Mexico, guess what? The Gospel is the same in Mexico that the Gospel is here. The Gospel is the same in Israel that it is here. Wherever you go, it's not merely in addition to the cults of the cities of Asia Minor, but it's true good news and it's the good news that for the entire world, for everybody, that is the power of the Gospel. But then number five, the Gospel reproduces fruit. The Gospel reproduces fruit. Look at what he says. He says not only is it presented in all the world and it's the same Gospel everywhere, but it bringeth forth fruit. The Word of God is alive and powerful. It's productive. It's reproductive. Divine energy produces fruit. When the Holy Spirit comes in you, you will bear fruit. What is the fruit of the Spirit? Number one is love, right? That obedience. He gives you the ability to love. Because when we're sinners and without God, we have no ability to love because it's not in us. Oh, we might be nice every once in a while, because why? Somebody was nice to us or whatever, so we're just retaliating, but within our nature, we don't have the nature to love everyone. But the Holy Spirit gives that love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control. That's the fruit. That's what God reproduces. The things that are in God now begins to come out of our life. And so this Gospel is kind of like an inner energy. When the Holy Spirit comes and the Holy Spirit is referred to all the time in the Bible as the energy, if you go back to creation, it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was blown to the face of the evil. And the Holy Spirit did what? He moved. He energized creation. In Galatians 4, it says that the Bible came about as holy men of God were moved by the Spirit. And so when the Holy Spirit gets inside of you, listen, it ought to energize you to serve God, to produce fruit for God. The very first idea of being fruit has an inward concept. You cannot have... Where does that... On my trees this year, I had some of my peach trees finally put on peaches. But the doggone birds, they're not going to do it next year, but the birds and squirrels got all my peaches before I got one. But where did that peach come from? It didn't just all of a sudden one day fly in on that tree and just attach itself. No, it came from within the tree. But you know what also about that peach was? It came from within that tree, but then inside of that peach was a seed. It does what? It spreads more peach trees. See, because you can take that seed and you can plant it, and it'll make more peaches. And the more peaches it makes, the more seeds you have. And so the Gospel has this idea of being inward energy, but then this spreading idea. The Gospel gets into somebody. It grows. It begins to mature. And it spreads. And what happens? The church begins to grow. The church has to grow because why? If we are loving people the way that Jesus Christ loved us, and we are being kind, and we are being patient with people, and we're being long-suffering with people, and we're being gentle with people, and we're having joy with people, then guess what? That's someplace I want to go and hang out. Right? I want to be with that kind of people. And so you're going to grow. And there's going to be this spiritual transformation that is going to take place. But the Gospel also has to be rooted in grace. And I think we as Christians, we're too legalized. We focus on works too much. We need to get back to grace. That amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. Look at what he says in the last part of v. 6. Since the day you heard of it and knew what? The grace of God in truth. He cannot get through the paragraph here. Remember, this is one sentence. V. 3-8. We get to v. 6, and we're saying where's your period, Paul? And Paul said I can't put a period here on the Gospel because I need to also mention to you about grace. And so he says, man, I've got to share you about the grace of Jesus Christ. Grace is at the heart of the Gospel. Grace is unmerited gift. It's something that you don't deserve. And so it's rooted. God's love for us is not something that we deserve. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Paul is always, forever, in every one of his letters, is taking an ax and he is chopping at the root of legalism. He's trying to get it out of people. He's trying to get it out of the churches. Remember, the church at Colossae is pretty much made up of Gentiles, but there are some Jews there. And what is he doing? He's trying to already in his introduction, in his greeting, in his thankfulness, he is taking a whack at legalism. The Gospel is rooted in grace. Grace. None of us deserve it. He says another thing about the Gospel, by faith results in love. It rests in hope. It reaches the world. It reproduces. And it is rooted in grace. And he gives them one last thing and we'll close. The Gospel is reported by men. Look at what he says in v. 7. As you also learned of who? Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ. And then look at v. 8. Epaphras heard the Gospel. We know that he had to have heard it in Ephesus because there's no record anywhere that shows that Paul ever went to the church at Colossae. So most likely, Epaphras had to get the Gospel when he went to Ephesus when Paul was there. And he says not only did Epaphras get the Gospel and receive the Gospel, but what did he do? He declared it unto you. He came back to Colossae and shared it with you. And so, this love, what? He declared unto us your love in the Spirit. Someone has to take the Gospel to people. And it's not just the pastor's job. Amen? It's all of us' job. What did you learn? You know, when he looks at Colossae, what did they learn from Epaphras? They learned the Gospel of the grace and truth. The Gospel. He's the one that gave it to you. And he's my fellow slave. Fellow minister. He came and he shared this with you. There's got to be a human channel. When it comes to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God made it this way. And you know, it doesn't make sense to us, but so did in the way that he destroyed Jericho. Because I'm like, God, as precious as the Gospel is, why are You going to leave it in my hands? Why are You going to put that responsibility on my back? But in Acts 1 and verse 8, what did He tell His disciples? Go to Jerusalem and wait. Wait. And you shall receive power. Power what? After the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be what? Witnesses. Witnesses. There was 11 disciples in that upper room. There was also 70 minus 11 is 59. There was 59 other Christians that were there together. There were 70 in that upper room. Or 120 in the upper room. 120. Even more. He told all of them, every one of you, you will be witnesses. You'll be witnesses. We are His witnesses. That's us. To the disciples, He said, you go out and testify of Me. And so, go to Romans 10. I've got it up here on the screen. We're going to close with this. This human element of the Gospel. He says, what saith it? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is what? The Word of faith which we preach. It's a message that is in you and I. Jesus Christ paid the debt, but He gave us the opportunity and the command to preach the faith of Jesus Christ, preach the Gospel, protect the Gospel, provide the Gospel to everyone, and He said this Word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus, I trust you. I trust your sacrifice. I believe in what you did. And believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's the Gospel. That's what you have to do. But then look what He says. He explains it for us. For with the heart, men believeth under righteousness. How do I do that in the heart? Because I trust God. I trust God that Jesus Christ was the propitiation of sin. Jesus Christ was perfect. He had no sin. He didn't deserve to die. He died in order that I might have eternal life, that I might be righteous, that I might be holy. We have to believe that in our heart, but then look what He says. But with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Now how do we confess our salvation? By showing love. By showing love. By showing fruit. The fruit that the Holy Spirit is now in us. Look what He says. For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on Him shall not be what? Ashamed. Jesus Christ said in the Gospels, if you deny Me before men, I'm going to deny you before the Father. If you're ashamed of Me with your neighbors, why in the world am I going to go and petition to God on your behalf? Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. But look what He says, for there is no difference between the Jew or the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. Why do I go into the prison every single Thursday night to teach for two hours to a bunch of criminals, thugs, murderers? Because of this right here. The same Lord that came in and changed my life is, guess what, is also rich unto them if they will call upon Him. For whosoever... whosoever, me, you, or them prisoners down there in the jail, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now here's a question, then how in the world shall they call on Him and who they've not believed? How can they call on Him? How can they exhibit faith if they've never believed on Jesus Christ, if they haven't heard? And how shall they believe on Him if they've not heard? And how shall they hear without a what? A preacher. And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, and look at what Paul says. He goes back and he quotes the Old Testament. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. Do you remember a part of our armor when we went through the book of Ephesians? Do you remember what was the armor that was on our feet? Our feet shod with what? The gospel of peace. Of peace. Peace bringing glad tidings of good news. But, and this is the sad part, but I can't share the gospel and be truthful about the gospel without giving you the but. They have not all obeyed the gospel. Not everybody you share the gospel with and present the gospel with is going to receive the gospel. You're going to have people who are going to get mad at you. You're going to have people who are going to slam the door in your face. You're going to have people who are going to say, you know what, I don't want to talk about this Jesus stuff. I don't want to listen to that. But you remember what Paul said? It's our responsibility to suffer for the gospel. When they slam the door in my face, that's not my responsibility. I did what I was supposed to do and let Jesus take care of the rest. Let Him handle the rest. So I want to ask you three questions as we stand for a verse of invitation. Have you, first of all, received the gospel? You've got to receive it first. Have you received the gospel? That's faith. Do you trust God enough to receive the sacrifice of His Son on the cross of Calvary? And then the second question is, what about your love? Have you shared the gospel? Have you shared the gospel? Shy, bashful, all of that, introvert, none of that matters when it comes to the gospel because if you have the Holy Spirit in you, He has given you the power of God to preach and to share and to be witnesses. If you have faith, and if you have love, and you're sharing the gospel, then guess what? You ought to have a hope that is set before you. We have a lot of Christians today that don't have hope. Why? Because number one, they don't have any faith in God. Number two, they don't love everybody else the way God loves them. And so, what kind of hope do I have of an eternity if I don't even love the people that God's put in my life? As we sing and have a verse of invitation, what hymn?