In the sermon titled 'Faith evidenced by love', Steve Hopkins reflects on Colossians 1:1-14, highlighting the link between faith and love among believers. The sermon underscores Paul's gratitude for the Colossians' faith in Jesus and their love for all the saints, driven by the hope of salvation. The speaker notes that true faith is manifested through love for others, especially fellow believers, and emphasizes that this love is a sign of genuine transformation brought about by God's grace. Paul's letter to the Colossians is contextualized as a response to heresies threatening the church's understanding of Christ's supremacy. The sermon encourages believers to grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthy of Christ, and to be fruitful in good works. It also highlights the importance of patience, joy, and thanksgiving as aspects of a Christian life empowered by God's strength. The speaker calls on listeners to see themselves as recipients of Paul's message, encouraging them to embrace their identity in Christ as set apart by grace, leading to gratitude for the eternal inheritance secured for them.

If you would, stand with me as I read Colossians chapter 1 verses 1 through 14. Colossians 1 chapter 1 verses 1 through 14. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossi, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Let's pray. Oh Lord our God, we come before you today, oh God, with grateful hearts to praise and to thank you for the love wherewith you loved us before time began, and for calling us in time and drawing us to your Son, for granting us grace, oh God, to repent and to believe on his name, for making us partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, for delivering us from the dominion and domain of darkness and transferring us to the kingdom of your dear Son, the kingdom of light, in whom we have redemption as we just read, O Lord, through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Lord, we once again humbly come before You asking that You might be pleased as we open Your holy word to set Christ before us in all his exaltation and give the spirit and power to work within us and upon us and to open our hearts and minds to the truth that is in Christ, that we might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, for we ask it in His most blessed and holy name. Amen. Let's be seated. The book of the Colossians for just a little quick introduction is one of the four letters known as the prison epistles. The four letters written from prison while the Apostle Paul was incarcerated in Rome between AD 60 and 62.

Paul had never visited Colossae. We know this from what he says in chapter 2 and verse 1, but a convert of the Apostle Paul, Apaphras, whom the Apostle first mentions in verse 7, is believed to have founded the church and to have expressed his concerns concerning the church to Paul while imprisoned with him in Rome. This same epaphras will later return to Colossae and minister there according to tradition until he is executed under the reign of Nero. Paul's letter to the church at Colossae was written in response to heresies that had arisen in the church that were a threat to the church's understanding of Christ, his person and his work, the gospel. And we'll see this in the weeks to come.

The antidote to those heresies and the theme of Paul's letter to the church at Colossae, the supremacy of Christ over all creation, the supremacy of Christ over the new creation, which is the church, the supremacy of Christ over all. In verses 1 through 14, before he begins to launch into this doctrine of the supremacy of Christ, the verses that we're looking at this afternoon, Paul thanks God. He thanks God upon hearing of the Colossians' faith in Christ Jesus, and of their love for the saints, and for the hope that is laid up for them in heaven. And he prays that the believers at Colossi will be filled with the knowledge of God's will for them, so that they may walk worthy of Christ and be fruitful unto every good work, as they increase in the knowledge of God and grow in the wisdom and spiritual understanding that is in Christ. And that's my prayer this afternoon as well for every one of us here who is under this roof that every one of us would be filled with the knowledge of God's will that we might walk worthy of Christ, that we might be fruitful unto every good work, and that we might increase in the knowledge of God and of Christ, of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The address you will notice in your Bibles that is delivered to the church is Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossi. And I would ask everyone here today to take this as a letter, this letter, as though it were a letter that were written to you personally. As though you had gone out to your mailbox this morning to check the mail, and this letter was in the mailbox with your name on it. At the outset, Paul identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, called by Christ, not by the will of men, not ordained. Paul was not ordained or commissioned by any man or group, but by the will of God.

He writes, by the will of God, by Christ Himself, commissioned by Christ Himself. You remember what happened to him on the road to Damascus when he met the crucified, resurrected, ascended Savior, and he was commissioned. And he writes the letter to the saints. This is the address on the envelope from Paul, apostle, not by the will of men, by the will of God, to the saints, literally the holy ones. The word holy means set apart.

The apostle is writing to the set apart ones, to those separated from the world and set apart unto God. In a word, to the believers at Colossi, to the faithful brethren in Christ. And again, I just want to say, as we open this letter and the content of this letter, as I said in our last session on Romans 12, when I cited about 20 passages of scripture that communicate the reality of the unchangeable state of grace and an alterable position in Christ that believers have, that these words are written not only to the saints and the faithful brethren at Colossi, but they are written to you personally. Glory to God, glory to God in union with Christ by faith in Christ you have been separated from the world and from your former life and identity in the world and set apart unto God for God forever. Brothers and sisters, the greeting the apostle uses is one that he begins with so many times in his letters.

It is the apostolic greeting that speaks to them, to you again, as well as to them. Grace to you, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace, grace to you. Faithful brothers and sisters, Grace is the free, unmerited love and favor of God that set you apart. By grace you were saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man or woman should boast about it. We saw the doctrine of the grace of God so clearly set before us in our study of Romans chapter 4 many months ago where the apostle Paul said, to the one who works, listen to this, this is his definition of grace, the apostolic definition of grace. To the one who works, his wages are reckoned as a gift, but as that which, his wages are not reckoned a gift, but as that which is due him, but to the one who does not work, " listen to this, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted as righteousness. Then he quotes the Old Testament just as David speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God counts righteousness, the righteousness of Christ, apart from works, saying, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's the definition of grace. That's the apostolic biblical definition of the grace of God. Grace means your sins are forgiven you for Christ's sake. Grace means the mercies of God are yours in Christ, unmerited, unearned, undeserved, because of Christ and what Christ has done for you in His life and in His death and in His resurrection from the dead.

And listen to this, the effect of grace is peace. Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in verse 3, Paul begins the body of his letter and he begins it with Thanksgiving He and Timothy are so grateful for what God has done for the faithful in Christ Jesus at Colossi And he says that he and Timothy thanked God Continually in their prayers for them look at your Bibles We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you. His giving of thanks to God for them was an example for them to follow as well as an encouragement to them. Have you noticed how encouraging the Apostle Paul is when he begins his letters.

He's always encouraging, he's always lifting them up. Even the Church of Corinth where he was just like really dogging them, right, for so many things, starts by lifting them up. Starts by lifting them up. Even when his letters contain strong rebukes, his letters always began with encouraging words and the giving of thanks to God for the churches. He writes here, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

And then he tells us when, okay, he began to give thanks for them and why he began to give thanks for them. Look at your Bibles. When? Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. And don't miss this, end of your love for all the saints.

And then he says, because of, why? Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Paul is saying, Timothy and I continually give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in our prayers for you, and we haven't ceased to give thanks to the Father in our prayers for you because of the hope that is on account of the certain hope of the life eternal in God's presence which is laid up for you in heaven. That's why, because we know where you're headed. We know what has been secured for you by Christ, even as you heard before the truth of the gospel that was preached to you by Apaphras.

And he's saying, Timothy and I have been thanking God for your eternal security ever since we heard about two things. What are they? Your faith and your love. Your faith in Christ and your love for the people of God. He might have said, we give thanks in our prayers for your faith, but he doesn't.

He could have just left it at that, but he didn't. Why didn't he? In Galatians 5, 6, Paul speaks of faith working through love. You may remember a quote long attributed to Martin Luther which kind of summarizes teaching, we are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. We're saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Christian life is a life of faith working by love. One of the strongest evidences that our faith is genuine is our love for others, especially those of the household of faith. Paul says, your faith for their faith, for your faith, and for your love for all the saints, your love for all the saints. He writes, I want you to just think about this for a moment. Your love, he said, the demonstration of your faith is your love, and your love that we've seen and heard about, we've heard about is for all the saints, not merely those who meet your particular expectations, but also for the saints that are weaker in the faith than you are, for the saints who are struggling in their walk more than you are, for the saints who haven't enjoyed the many benefits that you've enjoyed, for the saints who need your love the most.

When the love of God has been shed abroad in the heart of a person, we love God in return and all those who are born of Him, all God's children as the Apostle John says in 1 John 5.1. He who is born of God loves those who have been born of God. They love the family of God. You can't help yourself. You're now drawn to the people of God.

You're drawn away from that fellowship that was with the world and now to the fellowship of the saints. You love the people of God, all of them, all of them, not perfectly, not perfectly, which he gets to. Faith working through love was encouraging proof to Paul and Timothy that the gospel had come to Colossae. Verse 6, The gospel was bringing forth fruit in the Colossians since the day they heard it and since the day they heard the gospel and experienced the grace of God and truth. In Colossae, just as in all the known world, everywhere the word of the truth of the gospel has come, it produces fruit, the fruit of changed lives and all those who have experienced the grace of God in truth.

Have you noticed that? That's the history of the world. Wherever the gospel goes, change takes place. Change happens. Who was it that we were listening to the other day?

It may have been Paul Washer, I'm not sure, in his Proverbs series, but he's talking about when the gospel came to this particular tribe, people that lived in the trees. Has anyone heard that? That lived in the trees and there's natives that lived in the trees and they came down out of the trees, of course, and then they went out hunting for other natives and then would kill one and then take them home, naked natives, and kill some other naked natives and take them home and have supper until the gospel came to them. Now they're clothed. Now they're changed people.

That's what the gospel of God does. That's what happens with everyone who has experienced the grace of God in truth. Faith works by love. Faith is contrasted with works throughout the New Testament, we know that right, and that our hope of salvation in no way rests on any work or merit of our own, but on the finished work of Christ alone. Yet true and saving faith is always accompanied by a changed life.

And one of the primary evidences that God has changed us is that we love those who are born of God. And again, as what the apostle Paul writes to the believers at Colossae, he writes to me and to you, to us. And the things he thanks God for, that he's heard concerning them, is the same thing that thrills the heart of every true minister of the gospel of Christ when they see these things in their churches. Paul and Timothy thank God for the hope laid up for them in heaven because the grace of God in power, in the power of the gospel, has borne the fruits of faith and love in them. Did everyone get that?

That's why they're giving thanks. We know you have an eternal inheritance laid up for you, secured in heaven, because we've heard of your faith and we've seen it worked out. We've seen the evidence of it in your lives. Brothers and sisters, our fellow Christians sometimes irritate us, and we irritate some of them. We are all sandpaper, just different grits.

Have you ever been stung by something a fellow believer said? Have you ever said something to a fellow believer that stung them? Has a fellow believer or church member ever been unduly critical of you? Have you ever been unduly critical of someone else in the body? It's sanctifying, and that's the way it's intended to be.

That's the way it's intended to be. There is no perfect saint, and there is no perfect church, and we search in vain to find them. Sometimes we need to say to ourselves, God put this person in my life or in my church to help sanctify me. Thank you, God. Sometimes we need to say to ourselves, maybe I'm here to help sanctify that brother or sister in Christ.

You know some move around from church to church, and just like others move around from relationship to relationship, the only perfect spouse is Christ. The rest of us are all flawed. The rest of us are all flawed. Every one of us has flaws and blemishes, but because of God's love for us, our love for the saints can cover the multitude of them. It's easy to overlook faults and blemishes in our brothers and sisters in Christ and show grace to them and be patient with them and forgiving when we remember just how much grace has been shown us and how patient God has been with us and how much He has forgiven us.

Paul says to the Colossians, we give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God and truth as you also learned from Apaprus our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. See what he keeps coming to. Paul says in verse 9, he says in verse 9, for this reason, since the day we heard it, ever since we heard about the grace of God and work in your lives and of your faith and of your love, we haven't ceased to pray for you and we haven't ceased to ask that you might be filled with all the knowledge of His will, that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will, of God's will.

Okay, you've started, you've started, okay, the race has begun. Now here's another lap. We're praying that you who have shown the evidence is that you're truly children of God by your faith and your love working by faith. We're praying that you might now go on to be filled with the knowledge of His will for your life in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Now there was apparently a heretical view, one of the heretical views that was floating around at the church of Colossae was that the will of God could only be known by an elite few.

Paul says, no, that's not true. You can know the will of God, and we're praying for you that you will not only know God's will but that you might also be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. If you were here last week when we finished up with Romans chapter 12 versus, what was it, one through two I think, we heard the Apostle saying something very similar. He said, be transformed. Don't be conformed to this world.

Don't be poured into the mold of this world, don't fashion yourself to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove, that is approve or discern, what is that good and perfect, acceptable and perfect what? Will of God. Remember? The will of God. It's knowable.

Not his decreed of will, that's secret, but the will that he has made known to us in his word that we can follow and apply to our life and to our life's situations, which is wisdom, applying that which is what we see in God's Word to the situations that are going on in our life particularly. Sproal. God's will for each of us is that we grow into spiritual maturity, that our lives become more fully set apart and consecrated by the Holy Spirit, and that our minds are changed. Paul says here, Timothy and I are praying that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding for your spiritual growth. This is a part of your sanctification.

And then he goes on, so then in discerning God's will, verse 10, you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. And then look at this in verse 11. He's going back to this. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy. He speaks of being strengthened with divine strength according to God's glorious power.

He's saying we need to be consciously, yes, drawing our strength from him because we can't do any of these things that he's talking about in our own strength, but in the strength that comes from God, in the strength that comes from God in Christ, we can be fruitful in all he's called us to. And then he says, and that unto all patience and long suffering with joy, the KJV says, with joyfulness. God is the source of the Christian's strength and the source of the Christian's joy even when, especially when, our Patience is tried. Please everybody listen to me. Please listen to what I'm saying here even when our patience is tried Last week, I think I said one sentence three times in a row I said, you know scripture says this and then it puts it this way and it was always the same way.

I'm going to do it again here. Just listen to this. A note in my Bible says, and I thought this was so good, patient endurance in the Scriptures is often used with reference to circumstances, we need to patiently endure and long-suffering with people. Look at what Paul says here, drawing your strength from him unto all patience and long-suffering. We need to draw our strength from God.

We need divine help when we are tried by circumstances and when we are tried by others. And that's basically every day of our lives, right? We're tried by other circumstances, things that are unfolding in our lives, or other people, situations with people. If we view the providences of God in this way, in this apostolic way that's being communicated to us, we see that trying circumstances and trying people are actually being used by God for our good, to grow us in Christ-likeness and ultimately to increase our joy. James said, the trying of your faith works patience.

Let that patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Can we do that? Paul goes on as we're drawing to a close here. He says, be grateful all the while, giving thanks to the Father, verse 12, who has in the KJV made us meet, in some versions fitted us in the ESV in KJV qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Qualified us?

Brothers and sisters, because God has qualified us, fitted us, qualified us through what Christ has done for us. To be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in glory. We should be always in a posture of thanksgiving, of gratefulness, giving thanks to the Father. Paul was saying to the believers at Colossi, to a people who are like us, dead in sin before the gospel came to them, a people that were so influenced by the pagan culture in which they lived, as we are also. It's a pagan culture we live in, we're influenced by it.

And so utterly disqualified from the kingdom of God and Christ that their only proper response to having been fitted and qualified to be partakers of the inheritance of the eternal glory was to be ever thanking the Father. Why? Because it is the Father who qualified them for that eternal inheritance on account of Jesus and what Jesus Christ did. No power in all of creation And no power in all of creation can ever disqualify them or us. Brothers and sisters, as we close, God has delivered us from the domain of darkness, from the kingdom of darkness, from the dominion of darkness, from the power of darkness by grace, and conveyed us who are believers to the kingdom of his dear Son and to the kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins all our sins Can you think of anything more wonderful?

Can you think of anything more glorious? Can you think of anything more merciful, more loving? And Can you think of anything more glorious? Can you think of anything more merciful, more loving? And can you think of anything more worthy of our thanks and praise both now and forever?

I'll end here with just reading through the hymn that we sang earlier, Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder. This is John Newton, former slave trader. I read his biography recently and it is crushing and beautiful. Newton originally, this hymn that we sang today that's in the OPC Trinity hymnal is originally from the Olney hymn book where Newton contributed 172 hymns with hundreds of scripture passages attached to them. So you read the scripture passages and then you read the hymn and it just goes, wow.

I've never been more encouraged and lifted up in my spirit by the reading of any volume of hymns and these. Let us love and sing and wonder. Let us praise the Savior's name. He has hushed the law's loud thunder, the thunder of the law against us that condemns us. He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame, the flame of the mountain on fire where the Ten Commandments were given.

He has washed us with his blood. He has brought us near to God. Let us love the Lord who bought us, pitied us when enemies called us by His grace and taught us, gave us ears to hear and eyes to see. He has washed us with his blood. He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing though fierce temptations. How many dealing with fierce temptations? Threaten hard to bear us down for the Lord our strong salvation holds in view the conqueror's crown. He who washed us with his blood has secured our way to God, has secured our way to God. Let us praise and join the chorus of the saints enthroned on high, those who are already in heaven.

Here they trusted Him before us. Now their praises fill the sky. Thou has washed us with Thy blood. Thou art worthy, Lamb of God. Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for delivering your people from the domain of darkness and transferring us to the kingdom of your dear Son in whom we have eternal redemption and reconciliation for all time through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. O Father, our God, what joy fills our hearts. We thank you that in Christ all fear is gone. All fear is gone.

Jesus died for us is our only plea and the only plea we need. Oh God, accept the offering of our humble praise and thanksgiving this day for all that You have done for us, especially in the person and the work of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. For we do ask it in his most blessed and holy name. Amen.