My
text today is again from the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the church at
Colossae. “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it
with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for
us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that
we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been
imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Conduct
yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the
opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as
though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you
should respond to each person.” Colossians 4:2-6
We
began looking at this text last time and we return to it today because the more
I thought about what Paul wrote to the Christians in that Colossian community,
the more I realized we’d barely touched the surface of what can yet be said
related to this short verse.
In
verses 3 and 4 he asks them to pray “for us as well, that God will open up
to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the
mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make
it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
And
for what was Paul asking prayer for him and his missionary companions? By
context of his entire letter – indeed, of all his letters – he asked them to
pray that when he told others the good news of Jesus, that he would do so with
clarity. After all, Paul recognized that – as he wrote to the church at Thessalonica
– the “just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the
gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our
hearts.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
In
his proclamation of the gospel, Paul reiterated and rephrased the message Jesus
proclaimed to a world shrouded in spiritual darkness “God so loved the WORLD
that gave His only begotten Son” given for the reconciliation to Himself of
every man, woman, and child.
As
an aside, I want to say this: Jesus did not say God loved the ELECT – as John
Calvin taught, and as do the churches that adhere to his theology, believing God
predestined for salvation only a few ‘elect’
and all others He predestined to hell. No, Jesus tells us – and Paul
asks for prayers that he will be clear in his proclamation to others – that God
loves the entire human family. One by one. Individual by individual. Loving
each one by name, as the shepherd leaves the 99 in the open field to search for
the one name who is among the lost – those in your family. Those among your
friends. And yes, for you and for me. By name. (See Luke 15).
Paul
asked for prayer that he would be clear in sharing the gospel.
That’s
a good prayer for us also to pray for each other, isn’t it? Please pray for me,
that I be clear whenever I stand before you to teach and preach the gospel.
It’s a good prayer to pray for yourselves, that you also would be clear
when you tell others why you believe what you believe about Jesus. It’s good to
pray for your small Christian community here at Ashwood, that each of you
will all will be clear when they tell others the reason for the hope that is
within all of you.
In
the busy-ness of our lives and the confusion of our culture, it’s easy to
forget what is God’s heart, but let me now remind us: God’s heart is all about
our reconciliation with him. It’s His heart that we give our lives to Him and
turn from sin because sin is always, without fail, self-destructive and destroys
others. Do we wonder why God, who so deeply loves us, hates sin for what it
does to us?
If
anything in all human history explains God’s heart so clearly that a child can
understand it – Calvary bountifully demonstrates God’s desire for our
salvation. The cross reveals for all who choose to see that it is His heart to
freely give forgiveness – total and unwavering forgiveness – to anyone burdened
by sin and by a recognition that NOTHING they can ever do can ever wipe away
their sin. If Calvary’s cross tells us anything, it tells that much to anyone
who chooses to see.
Yes,
it is true that sin is enjoyable. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t do it. But as much
as sin may be enjoyable in the short term – even for many decades – there
always comes the time when realize sin took us further than we wanted to go,
kept us longer than we wanted to stay, and cost us more than we wanted to pay.
And for most of humanity, that realization comes too late.
But
listen to God weep over the sins of His people – and over OUR sins – “[Oh!]
how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away
from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols.”
Ezekiel 6:9
What
man or woman can’t understand – or at least imagine – the heartbreak of a
husband or wife whose spouse is unfaithful – especially if the adulterer remains
unrepentant? So, there should not be a person who cannot understand the cry
of God’s heart for wayward humanity.
The
prophet Hosea was – and is – a living, breathing, agonizing allegory of God’s
love for obstinate and faithless humanity. If it’s been a while since you’ve
read that book in the Old Testament, I remind you God told Hosea to marry a
harlot. They even had children together. And when she again played the harlot,
God told Hosea to take her back into his arms – making the point of God’s willingness
to reconcile adulterous and faithless Israel to Himself.
It’s
not possible for a person with an open and humble heart to read the Scriptures
from Genesis through Revelation and not realize God is the very essence of
love. Scripture tells us He ‘is’ love itself (1 John 4:8, 16). And what God
said to Israel through Isaiah, He continues to say to us, even in the 21st
century: “Come now, and let us reason together . . . Though your sins
are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; Though they are red like
crimson, they will be like wool.”
Listen
also to how God appeals through His apostle: “We are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg
you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians
5:20
I
know I am being redundant, but I am redundant for emphasis because we MUST be
sure for ourselves of God’s love for us before we can with certainty
assure others of God’s deep love for them – despite their sins.
“It
is a trustworthy statement,” the former blasphemous and murderous Paul
wrote to Timothy, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among
whom I am foremost of all.” 1 Timothy 1:15
Reconciliation.
No wonder, then, that God’s heart breaks when men, women, and children
are led astray, when they are poisoned toward God’s zeal for them, when they
are captured by “philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition
of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather
than according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
You’ve
read the lies before. You’ve heard the lies before. You may have even had
conversations with people who think all religions are pathways to God; All temples,
synagogues, mosques, and other place of worship are all ‘sacred’ to God. And as
incomprehensible as it is, even some high-ranking church leaders say such
despicable, heretical, and blasphemous things.
But
listen to what God – who is revealed through His word as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit – this is what God says about such children of Satan who claim all roads
lead to eternal life: “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is
the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son
has the Father also.” (1 John 2:22-23)
The
Lord Jesus made it very clear: “[The Father] has given all judgment to the
Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor
the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who
sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes
Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but
has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an
hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of
God, and those who hear will live . . . 28 Do not
marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the
tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the
good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the
evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:22-29)
Satan
knows his time is short and is working tirelessly, relentlessly, to destroy as
many souls as he can before he himself is cast forever into the Lake of Fire. You
and I must ever be warned and reminded: God calls ‘sacred’ only those places
where Jesus alone is worshiped as God-incarnate. It is only those who
obediently follow Jesus alone who will escape the Lake of Fire where Satan, his
fallen angels, and all who’ve rejected Christ will spend eternity.
When
I first came to Christ in 1972, I was SURE the Lord would return within the
next few years. But in those early days, I NEVER expected the blasphemies and lies
that would filter into His Church – churches of all labels: Catholic,
Methodist, Presbyterian, and so forth.
St Jude warned his readers 2000 years ago, and it is equally true in 2026: "For
certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand
[d]marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our
God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."
(Jude 1:4)
And what St Paul warned the church pastors and elders in Ephesus applies likewise
to us today: "From among your own selves men will arise,
speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." (Acts
20:30)
I want to say this as clearly as I can, as I have said it for years as your
pastor – unless the Christian in the pew doubles down on reading, studying, and
meditating on the Word of God, day after day, year after year – he and she will
be at ever increasing risk of falling into deception. That’s why I
always urge everyone to VERIFY with Scripture what their priests and pastors
and Sunday School teachers tell them. I urge you to verify what “I” am
preaching and teaching.
If the Christians in Berea daily verified what the apostle Paul told them (Acts
17:11), then no pastor, priest, deacon, or teacher should EVER be offended if
their flock does likewise – verifying their words with Scripture.
Which
now brings me to the second part of today’s text having to do with God’s heart
to rescue the perishing. Paul writes: Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward
outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always
be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you
will know how you should respond to each person.
Without
question, Scripture makes it crystal clear that the Christian is responsible to
God to LIVE like a Christian. That was Paul’s point in that section we looked
at from chapter three wherein he states unequivocally that immorality, greed,
anger, slander, and so forth have no place in the heart of the Christian.
Rather, the Christian must be compassionate, kind, gentle, patient, and so
forth. And we dare not overlook forgiving each other their offenses against us.
But
there have been those in Church history – even to this very moment – who put
far more emphasis on LIVING the Christian life over SPEAKING the gospel. For
example, St Francis of Assisi is quoted to have said: “Preach the gospel at
all times, if necessary, use words.”
Now
such an instruction might sound very pious, but the biblical mandate about evangelism is far more encompassing.
To say that merely living a Christian-like life is sufficient to win souls for
Christ is dangerously deficient of the full truth. Scripture commands us
to ALSO use words.
Words
are part of the Lord’s Great Commission: “Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even
to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Listen
to St Paul’s appeal to the Christians at Rome: “How then will they call on
Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they
have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will
they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the
feet of those who bring good news of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15)
Now hear his command to Timothy, whom he had left to pastor the church in
Ephesus: “I solemnly charge you . . . preach the word; be ready in
season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort,
with great patience and instruction. For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have
their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance
to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth
and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:1-4)
And
again we turn to the context of Paul’s words to the Colossians, asking them to
pray for him and his missionary companions, “so that we may speak
forth the mystery of Christ.”
I’ve
known – and so have many of you – non-Christians who are very moral, kind, and
generous. Jews, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses are a few examples. I’ve even
known kind and philanthropic atheists. But the point of it all is this: Good
works, kindness, generosity and philanthropy does not explain to the lost that
they are lost, and that God is pleading with them to be reconciled with Him.
That
is why we not only strive to LIVE the life of Christ before others, but we also
use WORDS to proclaim Him to the lost. We don’t preach a philosophy. We don’t
preach a church. We don’t preach a moral lifestyle. We don’t preach a religious
belief.
We
preach a Person – Virgin born, lived a sinless life, died on a cross as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins, and rose from the grave three days later. And this
same Jesus will one day return for His own – perhaps before this day is over.
That’s why Paul tells the Colossians – and us – to
make the most of every opportunity to live and to tell others about God’s heart,
about His plea for our reconciliation with Himself. Because His heart breaks as
He watches humanity sink deeper and deeper into spiritual darkness.
In his memorable trilogy, The Lord of the Rings,
JRR Tolkien put into the mouth of Gandalf: “All we have to decide is what to do
with the time we are given.”
Those are words that should make every Christian
pause. What will we do – you and I – with the time God still gives us to live
and to serve Him? Solomon tells us, “He who is wise wins souls.” Proverbs
11:30)
We can live profligate lives, spending our time,
talents, and treasures on ourselves for our own benefit and enjoyment, or we
can spend those gifts He has given us to live the Great Commission.
And so we pray, “O Lord, our God, help us then to
live like Christ, talk like Christ, give generously like Christ – and always be
ready to tell others of the love, the mercy, the grace of God, and the heart of
God.
If we don’t tell them – who will?
My
text today is again from the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the church at
Colossae. “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it
with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same
time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the
word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have
also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to
speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the
most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as
though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you
should respond to each person.” Colossians 4:2-6
We
began looking at this text last time and we return to it today because the more
I thought about what Paul wrote to the Christians in that Colossian community,
the more I realized we’d only touched the surface of what can yet be said
related to this short verse.
In
verses 3 and 4 he asks them to pray “for us as well, that God will open up
to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the
mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make
it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
And
for what was Paul asking prayer for him and his missionary companions? By
context of his entire letter – indeed, of all his letters – he asked them to
pray that when he told others the good news of Jesus, that he would do so with
clarity. After all, Paul recognized that – as he wrote to the church at Thessalonica
– the “just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the
gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our
hearts.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
In
his proclamation of the gospel, Paul reiterated and rephrased the message Jesus
proclaimed to a world shrouded in spiritual darkness “God so loved the WORLD
that gave His only begotten Son” given for the reconciliation to Himself of
every man, woman, and child.
As
an aside, I want to say this: Jesus did not say God loved the ELECT – as John Calvin
taught, and as do the churches that adhere to his theology, believing God
predestined for salvation only a few ‘elect’ and all others He predestined to hell. No,
Jesus tells us – and Paul asks for prayers that he will be clear in his
proclamation to others – that God loves the entire human family. One by one.
Individual by individual. Loving each one by name, as the shepherd leaves the
99 in the open field to search for the one name who is among the lost – those
in your family. Those among your friends. And yes, for you and for me. By name.
(See Luke 15).
Paul
asked for prayer that he would be clear in sharing the gospel.
That’s
a good prayer for us also to pray for each other, isn’t it? So, I ask you to pray
for me, that I be clear whenever I stand before you to teach and preach
the gospel. It’s a good prayer to pray for yourselves, that you also would
be clear when you tell others why you believe what you believe about Jesus. It’s
good to pray for your small Christian community here at Ashwood, that each
of you will all will be clear when they tell others the reason for the hope
that is within all of you.
In
the busy-ness of our lives and the confusion of our culture, it’s easy to
forget what is God’s heart, but let me now remind us: God’s heart is all about
our reconciliation with him. It is His heart that we give our lives to Him and
turn from sin because sin will always, without fail, be self-destructive and serve
to destroy others. Do we wonder why God, who so deeply loves us, hates sin for
what it does to us?
If
anything in all human history explains God’s heart so clearly that a child can
understand it – Calvary abundantly demonstrates God’s desire for our salvation.
The cross reveals for all with eyes to see His heart to freely give forgiveness
– total and unwavering forgiveness – to anyone burdened by sin and by a
recognition that NOTHING they can ever do can ever wipe away their sin. If
Calvary’s cross tells us anything, it tells that much to anyone who chooses to
see.
Sure,
sin is enjoyable. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t do it. But as much as sin may be enjoyable
in the short term – even for many decades – there always comes the time when
realize sin took us further than we wanted to go, kept us longer than we wanted
to stay, and cost us more than we wanted to pay. And for most of humanity, that
realization comes too late.
But
listen to God weep over the sins of His people – and over OUR sins – “[Oh!]
how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away
from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols.”
Ezekiel 6:9
What
man or woman can’t understand – or at least imagine – the heartbreak of a
husband or wife whose spouse is unfaithful – especially if the adulterer remains
unrepentant? And so, there should not be a person who cannot understand the cry
of God’s heart for wayward humanity.
The
prophet Hosea was – and is – a living, breathing, agonizing allegory of God’s
love for wayward and faithless humanity. If it’s been a while since you’ve read
that book in the Old Testament, I remind you God told Hosea to marry a harlot. They
even had children together. And when she again played the harlot, God told
Hosea to take her back into his arms – making the point of God’s willingness to
reconcile wayward and faithless Israel to Himself.
It’s
not possible for a person with an open and humble heart to read the Scriptures
from Genesis through Revelation and not realize God is the very essence of
love. Scripture tells us He ‘is’ love itself (1 John 4:8, 16). And what God
said to Israel through Isaiah, He continues to say to us, even in the 21st
century: “Come now, and let us reason together . . . Though your sins
are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; Though they are red like
crimson, they will be like wool.”
Listen
also to how God appeals through His apostle: “We are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg
you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians
5:20
I
know I am being redundant, but I am redundant for emphasis because we MUST be
sure for ourselves of God’s love for us before we can with certainty
assure others of God’s deep love for them – despite their sins.
“It
is a trustworthy statement,” the former blasphemous and murderous Paul
wrote to Timothy, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among
whom I am foremost of all.” 1 Timothy 1:15
Reconciliation.
No wonder, then, that God’s heart breaks when men, women, and children are led
astray, when they are poisoned toward God’s passion for them, captured by “philosophy
and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to
the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to
Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
You’ve
read the lies before. You’ve heard the lies before. You may have even had
conversations with people who think all religions are pathways to God; All temples,
synagogues, mosques, and other place of worship are all ‘sacred’ to God. And as
incomprehensible as it is, even some high-ranking Christian leaders say such
despicable, heretical, and blasphemous things.
But
listen to what God – who is revealed through His word as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit – this is what God say about such children of Satan who claim all roads
lead to eternal life: “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is
the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son
has the Father also.” (1 John 2:22-23)
The
Lord Jesus made it very clear: “[The
Father] has given all judgment to the Son, so that all
will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor
the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he
who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life,
and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into
life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those
who hear will live . . . 28 Do not marvel at this;
for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear
His voice, and will come forth; those who did the
good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the
evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:22-29)
Satan
knows his time is short and is working tirelessly, relentlessly, to steal as
many souls as he can before he himself is cast forever into the Lake of Fire. And
you and I must be warned and reminded: God calls ‘sacred’ only those places
where Jesus alone is worshiped as God-incarnate. It is only those who
obediently follow Jesus alone who will escape the Lake of Fire where Satan, his
fallen angels, and all who’ve rejected Christ will spend eternity.
When
I first came to Christ in 1972, I was SURE the Lord would return within the
next few years – if not sooner. But in those days, I NEVER expected the
blasphemies and lies that would filter into His Church – churches of all labels:
Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, and so forth.
St Jude warned his readers 2000 years ago, and it is demonstrably true in 2026:
"For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long
beforehand [d]marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the
grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus
Christ." (Jude 1:4)
And what St Paul warned the church pastors and elders in Ephesus applies equally
to us today: "From among your own selves men will arise,
speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." (Acts
20:30)
I want to say this as clearly as I can – unless the Christian in the pew
doubles down on reading, studying, and meditating on the Word of God, day after
day, year after year – he and she will be at ever increasing risk of falling
into deception. That’s why I always urge people to VERIFY with Scripture what
their priests and pastors and Sunday School teachers tell them. I urge you to
verify what “I” am preaching and teaching.
If the Christians in Berea daily verified what the apostle Paul was telling
them (Acts 17:11), then no pastor or priest should EVER be offended if their
flock does likewise with what they tell them.
Which
now brings me to the second part of today’s text having to do with God’s heart
to rescue the perishing: Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward
outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always
be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you
will know how you should respond to each person.
Without
question, Scripture makes it crystal clear that the Christian is responsible to
God to LIVE like a Christian. That was Paul’s point in that section we looked
at a week or so ago from chapter three wherein he states unequivocally that immorality,
greed, anger, slander, and so forth have no place in the heart of the Christian.
Rather, the Christian must be compassionate, kind, gentle, patient, and so
forth. And we dare not overlook forgiving each other their offenses against us.
But
there have been those in Church history – even to this very moment – who put
far mor emphasis on LIVING the Christian life over SPEAKING to gospel. For
example, St Francis of Assisi is quoted to have said: “Preach the gospel at
all times, if necessary, use words.”
Now
such a word might sound very pious, but the biblical truth is far more robust.
To say that merely living a Christian-like life is sufficient to win souls for
Christ is dangerously deficient of the full truth. Scripture commands us
to ALSO use words.
Words
are part of the Lord’s Great Commission: “Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even
to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Listen
to St Paul’s appeal to the Christians at Rome: “How then will they call on
Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they
have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How
will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful
are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” (Romans
10:14-15)
Now hear his command to Timothy, whom he had left to pastor the church in
Ephesus: “I solemnly charge you . . . preach the word; be ready in
season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort,
with great patience and instruction. For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have
their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance
to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth
and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:1-4)
I’ve
known – and so have many of you – non-Christians who are very moral, kind, and generous,
such as Jews, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’ve even known of atheists who
are kind and philanthropic. But the point of it all is this: Good works,
kindness, generosity and philanthropy does not a Christian make.
That
is why we not only strive to LIVE the life of Christ before others, but we also
use WORDS to proclaim Him to the lost. We don’t preach a philosophy. We don’t
preach a moral lifestyle. We don’t preach a religious belief.
We
preach a Person – Virgin born, lived a sinless life, died on a cross as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins, and rose from the grave three days later. And this
same Jesus will one day return for His own – perhaps before this day is over.
That’s why Paul tells the Colossians – and us – to make
the most of every opportunity to live and to tell others about God’s heart,
about His plea for our reconciliation with Himself.
In his memorable trilogy The Lord of the Rings, JRR
Tolkien put into the mouth of Gandalf: “All we have to decide is what to do
with the time we are given.”
What will we do – you and I – what will we do with
the time God still gives us to live in this life? Solomon tells us, “He who is
wise wins souls.” Proverbs 11:30)
May the Holy Spirit Himself, who lives within each
true Christian, help us to live like Christ, talk like Christ, give generously
like Christ – and always be ready to give others the reason for our expectation
of eternal life.
