I'd like you to turn in the back of your Psalter hymnals to page 41, page 41, where you will find question and answer 81. I just want you to put a marker there. We'll be coming back to that throughout the sermon. As I was preparing this from Colossians, it seemed to fit very well with what we are told here. And after you've marked that place, then I invite you to open your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Colossians. You'll find that on page 1142 in most of the pew Bibles, if you don't have your own Bible here, 1142. We'll be taking up the text today in chapter 1. We'll be reading verses 3 through 14 in which Paul begins with the encouraging news that he and Timothy are praying for the Colossian saints. Hear now the Word of God from the letter of Paul to the Colossians, beginning in chapter 1, verse 3. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints, the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth the gospel that has come to you. Over all the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace and all its truth. You learned it from Epiphas, our dear fellow servant, who was a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And here ends the reading of God's word. May he bless it to us this day. People of God, in verses 3 through 18, we encountered Paul's thanksgiving to God for what he was doing in the Colossian saints that was evidenced by their faith in Christ Jesus and by their love for all the saints. And thanking God for what he had done for them through Epaphras who had brought them the gospel, preached to them the gospel and extended them the hope of eternal life. And thanking God for what he had done through the Spirit who had worked in them faith, given them the power to understand and apprehend and to believe the gospel that they might be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. And then in verses 9 through 14, Paul continues to encourage the Colossians with the news that his prayers also include supplication, requests on their behalf to God. And it's to his encouraging supplication that we give our attention this morning, verses 9 through 14. In verse 9, we find its primary petition, that for which Paul is asking. And he's asking God to meet a continuing need in the lives of the Colossian saints. Yes, they have received and believed the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have been saved by grace through faith in Christ. They are saints along with everyone who has received the gospel. They are saints and yet life as they knew it, life as we know it, goes on. Being declared a saint does not relieve us of the burdens of this life. In fact, by all accounts of scripture, we can expect the burdens of this life to would be even more pressing. For we're aware of the world in which we live. We're aware of the enemy who opposes us. We're aware of our own struggle with our own sin. And so to address this need, this struggle of the Christian life, Paul prays asking God to fill them with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we should understand Paul's petition in light of Deuteronomy 29, verse 29. Some of you know that's one of my favorite verses. It helps us keep us in our place. There we read that the secret things belong to the Lord. And the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever. So we can know that Paul was not asking God to fill his people with secret knowledge. With special revelations just for them as was apparently the case the false teachers were offering them in Colossae. Through programs and procedures, they promised to make the saints holy enough or spiritually accomplished enough that they could bypass the revealed word of God and go straight to God for special information. That's not what Paul is asking for. He's asking God to fill his people with something much richer, more eternally satisfying, a higher and sufficient knowledge of his will that renews our minds and transforms our heart. It makes us change. Paul asked God the Father to fill his people with the knowledge that he has revealed in the scriptures now as Paul was writing this the scriptures were the Old Testament but Paul was writing scripture so Paul is asking God to fill the saints to fill the Colossians with this knowledge that has been revealed and which all speaks of Christ including this letter that he writes them which is one of the most vigorous pronouncements of the person and work of Jesus Christ in the Scripture. Now, this revealed will of God that is found in the Scripture certainly includes His law, by which He tells us how to live. But it also includes the Gospel, the promises of God that are, yes, in Christ. We need to be filled with both. And Paul goes on to specify the means by which this feeling will come, and that's through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Job tells us that understanding and wisdom belong to God. And so Paul has gone to the source, as we can go to the source. There's no need for the wisdom of this world or of men. It's foolishness to God. What we need is wisdom from heaven. Wisdom given through the agency of the Holy Spirit. spiritual wisdom. Paul quotes Isaiah in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10. In chapter 2, he has an extended conversation about the nature of revelation and it's important to us. But he says in verse 10, quoting Isaiah, that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. But, Paul says, God has revealed it to us in his spirit. speaking of himself as an apostle. He has been given revelation that is for God's people. What God has revealed, he's done through the prophets and through the apostles and he's done it in the scriptures. Most clearly in the apostolic witness of all the scripture. And as Paul attests in verse 13 of that chapter, again in 1 Corinthians, what he spoke, what Paul spoke, is not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught us by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths and spiritual words. this is the knowledge, this is the wisdom that Paul is praying that we would be filled with. And along with this wisdom, Paul asks God to grant understanding so that the saints can accept and apply this wisdom here and now, in this life. And this is also by the agency of the Holy Spirit, for apart from Him, we cannot understand it. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 2, again, verse 14. He says, The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. It takes a spiritual man, someone regenerate by the Holy Spirit, someone saved in Jesus Christ, to understand what the wisdom of God is saying. And we can understand it because, Paul says, we have in Christ the mind of Christ. We can know and understand what God has revealed. And we might ask, how can this be that we can have this mind of Christ? Because by true faith, created in us by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, we are united to Christ. And in Him, Paul says in Colossians 2, verse 3, In him is found all the treasures of wisdom and understanding, of wisdom and knowledge. Paul's praying that we would be filled with Jesus Christ himself and the scriptures that testify to him, that we would be filled with that for this life, the sustenance that we need to carry us through. Now, our situation today is different than that of the Colossians. We're 2,000 years later in a different culture, in a different place. And yet, our situation is still very much the same. It was the same in Calvin's day. Calvin said, we are constantly, while in this world, exercised or burdened by the cross. And a thousand temptations daily present themselves so as to weigh us down. And we see nothing of what God has promised. Life in this world is like a walk in the wilderness. and we need sustenance. This situation that we live in is important for us to remember as we anticipate the Lord's Supper next week. And we ask the question, why is that important for us to know and remember when it comes to the Lord's Supper is because of what we confess in Heidelberg question and answer 81. In that question we ask, who are to come to the Lord's table? Now we've given an exhortation today to everyone here to prepare and discern whether you ought to come to the Lord's table next week. In Heidelberg 81, we answer the question, who among us should come? And we confess there are three characteristics of those who are to come. The first is appropriate here for this point, and that is those who are displeased with themselves because of their sin. In other words, saints who know themselves to be saved by grace through faith in Christ. Saints who admit that they continue to be sinners and who bemoan their continued infirmity and their weakness in the face of our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Those who ought to come are those who know the tension of Romans 7. Saved by grace for struggling with sin. This is why each of us is exhorted to prepare for the Lord's table by considering his sin and guilt. That merit the wrath of God poured out against Christ on the cross in our place. We're to consider that. And people of God, we consider that not to realize that we're perfect. Not to tell ourselves that we have no sin. As we do so, we'll discover that our sorrow for sin is often very shallow. And our efforts to turn from it are irregular and ineffective. And in this realization, we are confirmed that we continue to need the grace of God, which he promises to give us through the sacrament, the Lord's table. Therefore, we can make Paul's petition our petition, turning to God for the resources that we need, rather than to ourselves and rather to someone else with something other or something better to help us get on in this life. Asking God to fill us with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. We continue in our text in verse 10 to find that Paul makes this supplication for a very potent purpose. He says, we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way. It's for this purpose that the Colossians need and we need this filling of knowledge of God's will. Paul's petitioning God to provide the saints with all we need to live life here and now on His terms. In a manner worthy of the Lord, in a manner that pleases Him in every way. That's what we're asking for. That's why we're asking. And to live life on God's terms requires God's continued work in us and among us because only he can equip us to live this life grounded on the promises of the gospel and guided by the commandments of the law. In verses 10 to 12, Paul outlines the character of this life, how it looks in four ways, Ways that reveal that it is the potent activity of God that motivates and enables us to live this way. First, in verse 10, in this life, or this life is one in which we are bearing fruit in every good work. Exerting ourselves in doing good works. The fruit, not the root of our salvation. Paul says as much in the first half of this, in our text from last week, verse 6. He says, all over the world, this gospel is bearing fruit and growing. It's the power of the gospel that makes this happen. But that's how the life of a believer looks. Jesus taught in a parable in chapter 7 of Matthew that every good tree bears good fruit. And a bad tree bears bad fruit. And a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. And a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. who have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone, will bear good fruit. Second, in order to bear fruit, we must be growing in the knowledge of God. That for which Paul has already asked, the main thrust of his petition. But the focus here is Paul is letting us know that in this life there will be growth. We will be growing. It's something that we will experience, but we need to know that this growth is not from our own efforts. It is God working in us to cause us to grow. As God grants us knowledge of himself, he causes us to grow. And as he causes us to grow, the knowledge of him that we can apprehend grows. And so he has prepared for us a self-fulfilling, self-propagating life that is started in the knowledge of God. It starts there. But it becomes the progressive character of this life as we know God and we grow and we grow and we know God and we know God and we grow. Solomon describes this with a different metaphor in Proverbs 4, verse 18. He says, The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. That's a picture of this progressive growth. in the life of God's people. The third characteristic of this life that's pleasing to God, the life worthy of the Lord, is found in verse 11. This life is one for which we are being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. That's a humbling statement. The strength required to live a life worthy of the Lord is given to us by the Lord. whose actions are gloriously powerful and effective. By the word of His power, He created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. Ephesians chapter 1 tells us that He worked this same power in Christ when He resurrected Him from the dead and exalted Him to His right hand in the heavenly places. And it is according to, it is commensurate with this power, this glorious might that he strengthens the saints. Imagine the greatest power source you can imagine. And it's nothing compared to the power of God. And that's what stands behind you and behind me and behind all the saints to enable us to live this life. Worthy of our Lord. and he does this he's strengthened us here and now in this life so that we have great endurance and patience Paul says great endurance and patience implicit in those in those things that God does for us tells us the circumstances within which we live doesn't it in his strength we can endure However, we can bear up under the most difficult, seemingly impossible circumstances. And I know that in this room, there are many who have experienced that strength. You couldn't bank on it. You couldn't plan for it. But when the circumstance came, you were upheld. And it's in His strength that we can be patient, long-suffering toward those who are difficult, seemingly impossible. And I know that's true in this room as well. You wonder sometimes how you can deal with that someone that just seems to know all your buttons and seems to undermine all your best efforts. and seems to be opposed to you in all that you do. You may not have the strength, but God has the strength, and He gives that strength to you to be patient toward that person, long-suffering, even as God has been long-suffering toward you. Fourthly, in verses 11 and 12, this life includes joyfully giving thanks to the Father. If we understand the first three aspects, how could it be anything other than joyfully giving thanks to the Father for all that He is doing in us? Paul's point here is that believers who understand that it is God who empowers us to grow and to bear fruit, even though we're opposed by the world and we're tangled in our own sin and we're attacked by the devil, the saints have reason and are able to give thanks with joy and to rejoice in thanksgiving. We have been saved by grace alone. We confess that. We know that. We need to know that it's also by grace alone that we can and we will more and more live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing to Him in every way. And this too is important to remember as we anticipate the Lord's Supper next week. Why? Again, because of what we confess in Heidelberg answer 81. There we confess that those who are to come to the Lord's table desire more and more to be strengthened in their faith and to lead a better life. That's our purpose. The very purpose Paul raises is this petition to God, that we would have that desire and the strength to pursue that better life. That's why each one here is exhorted to prepare for the Lord's table by examining his own conscience to see whether he resolves in all sincerity and gratitude to serve Jesus Christ as Lord and in all things to live by his commandments. In the process, we're going to have to admit that our service and our resolve are imperfect. They are inconsistent. and be confirmed that we continue to need the grace of God to get on in this life. Rather than despairing, we can turn again as Paul is about to do in our text to the God of our salvation who alone empowers us with endurance and patience even as He causes us to grow and to bear fruit in good works. As we say in our forum, coming to the Lord's table is not about coming in our own strength. It's not coming according to our own merits. It's about recognizing we have none. We have none. And we need the continuing grace of God. Now finally, in verses 12 through 14, Paul shifts our attention to the redemptive root from which springs both his petition and the worthy life for which he prays. It's all grounded in this one root. Here he reminds the Colossians and us that God the Father is the one who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. God has done something. He has qualified us to come. In the Old Covenant, the Lord provided Israel with the earthly promised land and it was allotted to each tribe as an inheritance. And even though that inheritance was lost because of sin, it foreshadowed the new covenant God has established in Jesus Christ, to which Paul is referring here. Now, Ephesians chapter 1 tells us that the saints are party to this covenant because God has predestined us to be adopted as His children. He has determined that out of all of humanity, He will adopt some to become His children. Paul argues in Romans chapter 8 that if we are his children, by adoption, then we are also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. We are going to receive an inheritance. So it's by virtue of adoption that God has given us a new status by which we are qualified, as with Colossians, for an allotment in a better inheritance, an eternal inheritance with God in glory, body and soul, to live with him forever. were qualified for that. This change in status also involves a change in location, we might say. God the Father has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. Just as He rescued Israel from Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land, just as He rescued them from exile in Babylon and brought them back to the Promised Land once again, from the dominion of darkness which stands apart from and opposed to God who is light and to his Son who is the light of the world God has transplanted us into his kingdom the kingdom of light the kingdom of the one he loves just as Paul was told in Acts chapter 26 on the Damascus road when the Lord commissioned him Jesus said I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. God has already done this. He has already rescued us. He has already qualified us once for all in the Son He loves. Therefore, Paul says in verse 14, in Christ we already have redemption. We already have forgiveness of sins. The Son God loves came in the flesh and He took to Himself our sins and He gave His life as a ransom for many. By shedding His precious blood, Jesus Christ purchased us for Himself, redeeming us from slavery to sin and giving us life with God forever. His work is complete. It is final. A loan sufficient to pay for the sin of the world and a loan effective to eternally qualify and relocate His people. The Colossians needed nothing more and nothing other to complete or to maintain this work of Christ. No mystic rites, no painful ceremonies, no worship of angels, nothing. And people of God, we need nothing more and nothing other to complete or to maintain the work of Christ who has qualified us and translated us. No second blessing, no word of knowledge, no oracle from God, no checklist to follow. Nothing can add to this. Nothing can maintain it. It's done. All else is ruled out when we understand and believe that it has all been accomplished for us by God the Father in Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we need to remember this also when we anticipate the Lord's Supper. Again, turning to question and answer 81, we confess a third characteristic of those who are to come to the Lord's table. Not only are they displeased with themselves because of their sin, not only do they desire more and more to strengthen their faith and to lead a better life. But they also nevertheless trust that their sins are pardoned and that their continuing weakness is covered by the suffering and death of Christ. This is why each one here this morning is exhorted to prepare for the Lord's table by searching his heart to see whether he truly believes in Jesus Christ as his only Savior and accepts the gracious promise of God that for the sake of the passion and death of Christ, all his sins are now forgiven him and he is clothed with the perfect righteousness of the Son of God. As we do this, we're going to recognize again our predisposition to trust in ourselves and to trust in idols of our own making instead of or in addition to Christ. And we will repent and return again as Paul has done to the God of our salvation who alone has already and forever qualified us as children of God and transplanted us as citizens into his kingdom. Self-examination is a illuminating exercise that for the believer, for those who would come to the Lord's table ever and always turn us again to Christ. People of God, we have not yet realized our qualification or this transfer of kingdoms completely in our experience. We haven't experienced it yet. It's happened. It's true. It's accomplished. But in our senses, we just can't get a hold of it. And we won't until Christ returns in glory. Thus, while we wait, in the meantime, Paul's petition is our petition. that God would continue filling us with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Knowledge and understanding, I'm sorry. I'm going to say that again because it's important. Paul's petition is our petition that God would continue filling us with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Paul's purpose in asking is our purpose in asking. in order that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that we may have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to God the Father. And with Paul, we do so remembering and believing that it is God the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light and has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Let us pray. The Father, indeed, that this is our petition. This is the thrust of our life. Our greatest need as your people is your continued grace to us. We do pray, Father, that you would continue to fill us with the knowledge of your will as it's revealed in the scriptures which point us to Christ. We pray that it would be delivered to us week by week in this place with the power of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel and that You would illumine our minds for our daily reading of Scripture that we would also be nourished and strengthened there. Pray, Lord, for the illumination of Your Spirit that we would indeed understand what we are taught. That we would be able to grasp it and apply it to live it more and more. And we ask this, Father, that we would indeed live lives that are pleasing to You. that we would live lives that are worthy of Your name. We pray, Father, for Your strength to cause us to grow, that we might bear fruit, that we might be thankful and joyful in that thanksgiving to You for what You've done for us in Jesus Christ. For in Him You've qualified us to enjoy You forever. You've translated us from darkness into light and we may never return. Thank you, Father, for your word to us this day. Prepare us as your people to partake of the Lord's Supper with true faith and assurance that we are in right standing with you because of Christ and your work in Him alone. Amen.