Well, I think some of you people are
very fortunate being able to stay on here
and listen to Brother Mackay.
What I wanted to meet him and to
hear him for a long time now, and
I'm only too sorry I shan't be able
to do either, but I know he had
a great ministry.
It's wonderful how the Lord has spared him
since his recent very serious operation, and that's
for some special purpose, and maybe amongst that,
in that purpose it included some special blessing
for you through his ministry in the next
two weeks, I'm quite sure of that.
I've been quoting my good friend, I was
going to say the Bishop of Durham once
or twice, and he used to say some
very interesting and remarkable things.
Not only the one I quoted, he used
to say, a saviour who is not quite
God is a bridge broken at the father
end.
He always used to say that, he said,
in my division, he said, I have clergymen
of three different types.
He said, those who've gone round the bend,
those who are going round the bend, those
who haven't yet learned that the bend to
go round.
Oh, I don't really know what it means.
No, well, going round the bend means, you
know, getting to an end of yourself, and
well, you know what he means.
I'll tell you one other thing he said
at an ordination class when he was telling
his young men to never use affectation in
the service of Christ, you know, never put
on anything, be yourself, you see.
He said to them, I would much rather
have a young man get up into the
pulpit and announce the hymn, the hymn which
starts, Praise my soul, the King of Heaven.
Do you know the hymn?
To his feet thy tribute bring.
There's one verse that goes, Praise him for
his grace and favour to our fathers in
distress.
Praise him still the same as ever, slow
to chide and swift to bless.
Well, he said, I'd much rather a young
man get up and announce the hymn like
this, Praise him for his grace and favour,
than for him to get up and say,
Praise him for his grace and favour.
And, of course, the correct English Oxford accent
is in between the two.
Now, coming from Birmingham in England, I'm the
Praise him for his grace and favour type
of person, but I think you've been able
to understand some of the things I've been
able to say to you during the last
week.
Now, I think we ought to read God's
Word together, seriously and solemnly, from Colossians chapter
four.
So, you probably know by now that it
will be three messages on Colossians.
This is the third, and then tonight, God
willing, I shall deal with the final prison
letter, which is the letter to Philemon about
Onesimus.
Chapter four and verse two, because that's where
the chapter starts.
You know that the verses are not inspired,
nor the chapters, I mean the numbering of
them, because verse one really belongs to chapter
three, because they're talking about wives and husbands
and children and fathers and servants and masters.
Now, continue in prayer, and watch in the
same with thanksgiving, with all praying also for
us, that God would open unto us a
door of utterance to speak the mystery of
Christ to which I am also in bond,
that I may make it manifest that I
ought to speak.
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without,
redeeming the time.
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned
with salt, that ye may know how you
ought to answer every man.
All my state shall Titicus declare unto you,
who is a beloved brother or the beloved
brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant
in the law, whom I have sent unto
you for the same purpose, that he might
know your state and comfort your hearts.
With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who
is one of you, one of you Colossians,
they shall make known unto you all things
which are done here.
Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, saluteeth you, and Marcus,
this is the son to Barnabas, touching whom
you receive commandments, if he come unto you
receive him, and Jesus who is called justice,
who are of the circumcision.
So those were three Jewish converts.
These also are my fellow workers unto the
kingdom of God who have been a comfort
unto me.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant
of Christ, saluteeth you, always laboring fervently for
you that you might stand perfect and complete
in all the will of God.
For I bear him record that he hath
a great zeal for you, and for them
in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis.
Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you.
Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and
the nymphs from the church which is in
her house.
When this epistle is read among you, cause
that it be read also in the church
of the Laodicean.
Likewise, read the epistle from, or the epistle
which I am sending to Laodicea, which will
come from then to you.
And say to Archippus, take heed to the
ministry which thou hast received in the Lord,
that thou fulfil it.
The salutation by the hand of me, Paul,
remember my bonds, grace be with you.
Amen.
May the Lord bless to us his precious
word.
I think while we have our Bibles open,
we will turn to two more brief scriptures.
First of all in Ephesians chapter 2 and
verse 10.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works.
And then 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 3.
For as much as ye are manifestly declared
to be the epistle of Christ ministered by
us, written not with ink, but with the
spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart.
I want to speak to you this morning
from Colossians chapter 4 in particular, about the
balanced Christian life.
Because if it is true that you have
died, and your life is hid with Christ
in God, and Christ is your life and
mine, the result will be perfect symmetry, perfect
balance in our Christian thinking and living and
witnessing.
In my Bible, the beginning of Colossians chapter
4 verse 2, I have one big word,
and it's the word balance.
Because to my mind, the whole of the
chapter is about this kind of spiritual symmetry
that I'm talking about.
It is very easy to get religiously lopsided
in our Christian life and witness.
Easy to lose our spiritual symmetry.
And Aristotle used to say, if I can
mention him here, that the virtuous life is
one of perfect balance between excess and defect.
As I go around the world, various countries,
and fellowship with various of the Lord's people,
I can see how very easy it is
for people to get taken up with one
idea, and to get a one-track mind,
and to get unbalanced.
Personally, and in my personal opinion, I don't
like to see a young fellow go to
college and university, and just studying one subject,
and then go on to get more degrees
into one subject, and he's got PhD, BSc,
and a whole string of degrees after his
name, and all that he's studied in his
lifetime is one subject.
I think the man is unbalanced.
I think he wants a bit of study
on some other subjects, and a bit of
experience in other ways.
And at Moreland, we never used to take
students who hadn't been out in the world
in some profession, or trade or other, earning
their living, and seeing what the world is
like, and maintaining a good testimony in the
ordinary affairs of life.
We found that these were much more balanced
students when they came to us at Moreland.
Now, of course, it is because we have
two natures.
The old nature, which is still with us,
which has to be subdued by the new
nature which is in us, implanted to us
by the Holy Spirit at faith, at regeneration,
when we believe in Christ, trust him as
our own personal saviour.
This is why there are so many exhortations
to lean towards the new nature, to walk
in the light, to walk in the Spirit,
to walk by the Spirit, to walk by
the new life, walk in newness of life,
because we have a tendency to go the
old way.
We have a tendency to go after the
flesh, to follow the impulses of the old
nature, which has never been eradicated, and never
will until our nature is changed, and mortality
shall put on immortality at the coming again
of Christ.
So, we have to make allowances for the
old nature, and we must always lean to
the right.
We must always go to the right, and
walk after the Spirit.
Now, when I say that, I'm thinking of
the fact that some years ago, when I
started out in the Lord's work, well it's
a long time ago now, I didn't tell
you how long, you might start calculating my
age, and English people never give away their
age.
You know I'm over 32 anyway, but many
years ago, when I was a young evangelist,
I found it a bit difficult getting around,
so my brother said to me, you'll have
to use my Austin 7.
Now, an Austin 7 was a little car,
about this big, it was a four-seater,
got an engine about that big, seven horsepower
engine.
They were marvellous little things, you know, and
this was the year when they threatened to
reduce the size of the Austin 7 by
about 10 inches, so you could wash it
in a hand basin.
Anyway, he said, you'd better use my Austin
7, and you know I was nearly six
foot two, and to get in this thing
I found it a bit difficult.
I used to have to kind of wrap
my legs around my neck, my neck somehow
or other, but it was very useful to
me.
The only trouble with this Austin 7 was
that the steering was very loose, you know,
you have to give a sort of half
turn that way to get it to click
and turn right, not a half turn that
way to get it to click and turn
left, you know, it's very loose.
And when, you know, there's a camber on
the roads in Britain, some of the smaller
roads, there's quite a camber, and I found
that the only thing to do, because this
thing was forever going to the left, I
was having to keep, I had to keep
in the middle of the road, and indeed
we drive to the left of course in
Britain, you know that, don't forget when you
come and hire a car, we drive on
the left hand side of the road there,
and I had to find that I had
to keep pulling the thing to the right
to keep it in the middle of the
road.
I always get people complaining that my driving
is terrible, that I always drive in the
middle of the road, and that's how I
learned to do it.
I had to keep in the middle of
the road and keep pulling to the right,
because it had a tendency to the left.
And you and I, you see, have a
tendency to the left, and it's wonderful if
we can walk after the spirit, bear to
the right, and make quite sure that the
bias of our natural tendency is not taking
us the wrong way.
Well now, you see, in the scriptures we
have read this morning, first of all in
Colossians 4, there are two sections in the
chapter.
From verses 2 to 6, exhortations for balanced
Christian practice, and then 7 to 18, salutations
from chosen personalities.
Or, if you like, the preeminence of Christ
in the balanced life and labours of some
of his servants.
Verses 7 to 18.
And in the other scriptures we read, we
notice two things I trust.
In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, that
we are God's poems, and in 2 Corinthians
3.3 that we are Christ's prose.
Now, in these two ideas you get what
I mean, the suggestion of a balanced Christian
life.
We are God's poems and Christ's prose.
I better explain that to you.
In Ephesians 2.10, the apostle says we
are God's workmanship, God's handiwork, more literally, and
the word is in the Greek, a dear
brother will check on me here, the word
is poina, from which we get our English
word poems.
And so, to be very literal, the word
is we are God's poems.
And to be very literal, in 2 Corinthians
3.3, we are Christ's prose, we are
Christ's epistles, written and known of all men.
Not written with ink, but written in the
lives of those who belong to Christ.
Now, you know what I mean by our
bias to evil, and the necessity to create
balance in our Christian life, to lean to
the right, allow for dependency.
And I cannot overstress this too much because
of our natural inclinations.
Now, in England we don't play shuffleboard so
much as you do, but we have played
that on board a ship coming across the
Atlantic once or twice, and we find it's
a very nice game, and delighted to see
how you enjoy it here.
And I only wish that I had time
to play it a little bit.
But I tell you what, in England we
do play sometimes a game called bowls.
Not bowling, but bowls.
And you play this on a very finely
cut lawn, and the lawn itself is a
joy to see.
The finest grass cut at the very, very
lowest, so that these balls go very smoothly,
without the slightest ripple or bounce over the
lawn.
The idea is that they throw a white
bowl about so big, which is called the
jack, way to one corner of the lawn.
It's a square lawn, you see, about as
big as this chapel here.
And then that, you can put that more
or less anywhere, or throw it almost anywhere.
But the idea is you're given about six
of these big black bowls, you know, not
so big as your bowling bowls, they're half
that size, but they're just as heavy.
And you have to throw these to the
white jack, and get as near as you
can, you see.
Then the other man comes with his, and
he knocks you out of the way, just
as you do in shuffle boards, you know,
with the blacks and the reds.
But the point is this, if you throw
through your bowl straight at the white jack,
it would never go anywhere near it.
It would go right round to the left
somewhere, or right round to the right, because,
you see, there is a weighted part on
one side of this bowl, and it's got
lead in it, and you have to allow
for the tendency that is in it to
go around, you see.
So, if you threw it to the right,
and your, the weighted part was on the,
if you threw it straight, the white, the
weighted part was on the right, it would
go right hand to the right, you see.
So, to get there, you have to throw
it to the left, and it comes right
round to the white jack.
Or, if you put it the other way
around, you have to throw it that way,
and it comes right round to the left.
You have to allow for the tendency, because
it's weighted on one side.
And in our Christian lives, that's what we
have to do in a very practical way.
We have a tendency to evil.
You can't get away from it.
It's in our nature.
We were born in sin, and shape, and
in iniquity.
We have that in nature with us still,
and we have to allow for that.
And we're going to have a balanced Christian
life when we allow for that tendency.
Well now, God writes his poems through our
works.
We are God's workmanship.
We were created in Christ Jesus by God
unto good works, and Christ writes his prose
in human lives.
You know, he never wrote a book, but
he writes his will and his word through
his own.
So, in Titus 2, the word is from
the apostle, adorn, we should adorn the doctrine
of God our Saviour in all things, in
a balanced way, by life and by lip.
Remember, I told you the other day of
the two Dr. Browns, the one who preached,
and the one who practiced.
Now, we should preach and practice by life
and lip, because we are both God's poems
and Christ's prose, we should declare his name.
Now, David, you see, was very good at
the poems, but he failed at the prose.
David was the sweet psalmist of Israel.
He was not the only sweet psalmist of
Israel.
I'm very fond myself of Asaph's psalms, and
I'd like to talk to you about some
of those at the written time.
But, David was very good at the poems,
you remember?
He saw a woman, and he fell.
He was bad at the prose at that
time.
Miriam, similarly.
Miriam, she got the ladies together, and they
danced, and they sang, and they said, sing
unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
And then, she was smitten with leprosy, for
backbiting and scandal at the tent door.
Good at the poems, bad at the prose.
We read, the disciples sang a hymn, and
went out, and forsook him, and fled.
Good at the poem, and bad at the
prose.
But, what a wonderful example we have of
perfect balance and spiritual symmetry in our Lord
Jesus himself.
Our Lord, we read in Acts chapter 1,
began to do and to teach.
There you've got the balance, to do and
to teach.
He said in John 17, in high priestly
prayer, for their sake I sanctify myself.
And then, he said in the same prayer,
the words which thou hast given me, I
have given them.
May God teach us to so be balanced
that what we preach to others, we seek
by the grace of God to live in
our personal experiences.
In Exodus 28, we read of the high
priest of old, whose garment, you remember, had
oil on it, the anointing oil, down to
the skirts of the garment, and up the
bottom skirt, I hope, the skirts of the
garment when he was anointed with oil upon
his head.
And, you know, around the skirts of his
garment at the rear, at the bottom, were
bells and pomegranates.
Not six bells and one pomegranate, and six
bells and one pomegranate, or three pomegranates and
two bells, three pomegranates and two bells, but
one pomegranate and one bell, one of each,
all the way around.
Now, the pomegranate speaks of the night, and
the bell speaks of the testimony.
So we, in life and lift, by our
Christian living and by our witness, should glorify
God through our bodies and spirits which are
his.
Now, let us make a little study in
the next few moments of Colossians chapter 4
in this same respect.
There are three exhortations in these first few
verses, verses two to six.
The first is about prayer, verse two.
The second is about walk, or the life
of the believer, in verse five, and the
third is about speech or witness in verse
six.
And I'm going to suggest to you the
exhortation is about balance in waiting upon God,
balance in walking before God, and balance in
witnessing for God.
And when the three are put together, perfect
balance in prayer, perfect balance in walk, perfect
balance in speech, then the three together make
a perfectly balanced Christian night.
Now, you notice the first is praiseful praying,
the second is wise walking, and the third
is sound speaking.
In relation to the first, praiseful praying, this
is what he says.
Continue in prayer, watch in the same with
thanksgiving, with all praying for us.
So, you see, not only are these three
things together creating balance, but each one individually
has to be balanced.
Our prayer life has to be balanced in
these three ways.
They have to be continuous, and praiseful, or
thankful, and unselfish.
Continue in prayer.
Continuity is the proof of reality.
Remember the second friend I was talking about
the other night, who kept knocking at the
door of Mr Lord at the big house,
atop of the drive, you remember, because he
wanted something not just for himself, but for
the first friend, the third friend, who was
out of the way.
He said, let your prayers be continuous, and
let your prayers be thankful, praiseful, full of
gratitude, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving.
Let your requests be made known unto God,
and thirdly, he says, let your prayers be
unselfish, praying also for us.
He says, when you are praying, and continuing
in prayer, and you're praising the Lord in
your prayers, in an attitude of worship, he
said, always think of others, and if you
want others to think of, well, let me
suggest that, first of all, you think of
me, because I'm in special need, and I'd
like to get out of this jail so
that I could preach the gospel as I
want to preach it.
So, there you have balance in prayer life,
continuous, thankful, and unselfish.
But not only so, there is the exhortation
to balance in the Christian life, and walk,
in verse 5.
And this itself is balanced in two ways,
carefully and zealously.
So, it's not only praiseful praying, but wise
walking, walking wisdom toward them that are without,
verse 5, redeeming the time, and walk carefully,
says the apostle, for a testimony's sake, and
walk zealously for time's sake.
Now, when our Christian walk is balanced like
that, there is spiritual symmetry which God will
bless anew.
Some people walk so zealously they forget their
testimony, and other people try to walk so
carefully they forget to take up the opportunity.
So, both are needed, carefully for a testimony's
sake, and zealously for time's sake.
That is, buying up the opportunity.
Napoleon used to say, opportunities are born and
die the same day.
You have time to win a victory before
the sun goes down.
That's what he says.
He has to be very careful how you
walk, walk wisely, but not so careful that
you miss the opportunities that God gives you
to maintain a good witness and speak for
him.
So, redeeming the time, zealously for time's sake,
buying up the opportunity.
But not only must our life be balanced
with praiseful praying and wise walking, but praiseful
praying, wise walking, and sound speaking.
And our witness, our speaking, will be sound
if it is balanced in the way that
he suggests here in verse 6.
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned
with salt, that ye might also know how
you should answer every man.
So, it is let your speech be soundly
balanced in these two ways, with grace and
with knowledge.
Now, some people try to witness without knowing
what they're talking about.
They try to witness to the word, and
they don't know the word.
The word to Timothy was, preach the word.
And three things are necessary if we're going
to preach the word.
We must, first of all, know the word
to preach it, and secondly, we must know
how to preach it.
That's where homiletics comes in, nothing to do
with him.
And thirdly, we must be filled with the
Holy Ghost, that God will do the work
through us, you see.
So, some people are so keen to witness
for the Lord, but I'm afraid they don't
know the word as they should.
So, he said, know the word, so that
you might know how you ought to answer
every man.
Not by your own particular ideals or personal
philosophy, but based on the word of God.
Your spiritual knowledge should be to be correctly
balanced, but not only with knowledge, with grace
as well.
Some people in their Christian life and witness
are full of grace, but they just don't
know.
And some people are full of knowledge, and
they have no grace.
You see how necessary balance is, so that
we shall avoid this religious lopsidedness.
You see, grace without knowledge is silly, and
knowledge without grace is hard, and both are
ineffective.
But when both are balanced, they're seen together,
God is glorified through our witness.
Well, as our witness and our walk and
our waiting upon God, and when each of
the three are balanced in the ways I've
suggested from the word, and they're balanced together,
one with the other, there you get perfect
spiritual symmetry for the Christian night, and prayer
night, and witness for the Lord.
Well then, what about the rest of the
chapter?
I think you will see that in this
chapter there are, in these chosen personalities, there
are examples of balance, and one or two
examples of imbalance, where there were one or
two who were unbalanced, and this is what
I mean.
I think you'll see and understand what I
mean as you follow it through with me
in your Bible.
He says in verse 7 therefore, all my
state shall titulus declare unto you.
He is the beloved brother and a faithful
minister, a fellow servant of the Lord.
I've sent him unto you for the same
purpose, that he might know your state and
comfort your heart.
And in the verse 8, it isn't a
state, the word really is state.
It's the same word in the Greek that
is used at the beginning of verse 7,
all my state and all your state.
I don't know what they call estate, therefore,
in verse 8.
It's to make a change, I suppose, to
create a bit of balance, perhaps.
Well now, titicus is declared to be here,
the, with a definite article, the beloved brother
and a faithful minister.
Now, there are other ways in which he
was balanced.
Notice he was a comforter of the Brethren
at the end of verse 8.
He was the, put himself at the disposal
of the apostle Paul.
He was also the amanuensis.
He took down the letter at the dictation
of Paul the apostle.
But, just two things to mention balance for
titicus.
The beloved brother and a faithful minister.
Now, he was so beloved with titicus, whenever
he got back to Colossae with this letter,
for he was not only the amanuensis, he
was the postman, as you say, the mailman
as well.
When he got there, you know, the church
wouldn't be half empty like it is here
this morning, ever before.
Well, he was the beloved brother.
I'm not the beloved brother, and that's why
the place is two thirds empty.
But, he was the, everybody loved titicus, the
beloved brother, and if they knew he was
coming, they'd all be there with their boots
blackened, their hearts open, and their minds alert
to receive what the Lord had for them
through him, the beloved brother.
But, he didn't manifest the grace of Christ
at the expense of faithfulness to God in
his ministry.
He was not only the beloved brother, he
was a faithful minister of the Lord.
He spoke the truth.
But, the point was this with him.
He spoke the truth in love, and there
you get perfect balance.
He declared the truth of God.
He knew.
What a wonderful example is titicus of the
balance that is suggested and exhorted in verse
six, that your speech be with grace that
you might know.
And, I've never seen that before until this
moment as I'm speaking to you, that verse
seven, titicus, is a marvelous example of verse
six.
Here is a man who was filled with
grace, he was the beloved brother, and here
was a man who knew how to answer
every man, because he was a faithful minister
and fellow servant in the Lord.
So, he was done.
Now, what about the next man, Onesimus, verse
nine?
Well, Onesimus was a faithful and beloved brother
who is one of you, that is, one
of your city Colossae.
Well now, how was Onesimus balanced?
He was the runaway slave that we're going
to talk about tonight, so I'm not going
into detail about this young man.
He ran all the way from, I don't
know where he ran, but he went all
the way from Colossae to Rome after he
gave up his job with his boss Ailemon.
Probably he got a post, a job, a
menial task in the prison in Rome, and
he heard the gospel preached by Paul, and
he opened his heart to the Lord.
He got right with God, and not long
afterwards he made a very definite decision, now
that he was a Christian, to make restitution
for his past wrongs, and he wanted to
get right with men as well.
So, he decided to go back and put
it right with his old master.
He'd not only been unfaithful and ran away,
but he'd stolen something as well for the
journey, and slaves always did that.
So, you see, he got right with God,
did Onesimus, through faith in Christ, repenting of
his sin, earning Jesus as his saviour, and
then he got right with men.
He made restitution, went back and put it
right with his old boss.
And there, I think, is balance, if you
like.
Getting your heart right with God, and your
life right with men.
The second being outward, and outward evidence, that
there's the sure sign of the working of
the Holy Ghost in the human heart in
real new birth and regeneration.
Well, so much for Onesimus.
What about Aristarchus?
In verse 10, was he balanced?
I should say he was.
Aristarchus is called here, my fellow prisoner Aristarchus
saluted you.
Well, you see, you'll find as you look
up Philemon, verse 23, that Aristarchus was Paul's
companion in travel.
He was one of the thieves who used
to go round with the Apostle Paul, carrying
his bag, or his case, or his whatever
you call it in this country, I don't
know, or his trunk, or whatever you call
it, and he was Paul's companion in travel.
He had a great time with the Apostle
Paul, going round to the churches, and listening
to all Paul's ministry, and being the friend
of Paul in fellowship with him, but now
Paul was locked up in prison.
Where is Aristarchus?
Going round on his own, visiting the churches
again, having a wonderful time of blessing?
No sir, he is there with the Apostle
Paul in prison, willingly incarcerated in that room
in the prison in Rome, sharing imprisonment, voluntary
of his own volition with the Apostle Paul.
Now, I see balance here.
The Lord Jesus said not only, the scripture
is, not only rejoice with those that do
rejoice, but weep with those that weep.
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ, and Aristarchus was balanced
in this.
Now, what about Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas,
touching whom you received commandment to come unto
you, receive him?
Now, John Mark this is, and at first
he was most unbalanced.
He went off with Paul's preaching team, you
remember, and he was a nephew to Barnabas,
as it says here, and he was a
bit homesick maybe, or perhaps he missed his
girlfriend, or might have been on the other
hand, that it was his mother that he
missed, and at Pamphylia was it, he left
the team and went back home.
Think of that!
God called him to the work, and halfway
around on the tour, on the missionary journey,
he gave up, got cold feet, and went
home.
Now, that often happens.
Some of our missionaries go to the field,
and there's not a very big percentage who
go back up the second time after the
first furlough.
Did you know that?
I think it's 75% never return after
their first visit to the mission field, and
that's very bad.
And, you know, pressures come in from this
side and that, homesickness comes in, and the
call of God to some special ministry is
a very, very important thing, and should be
obeyed, of course, but obeyed in all solemnity,
and utter an absolute dedication for it's a
high holy calling to be called by God
to some special ministry, and John Mark was.
And then later on, when they wanted to
go on another tour, and Barnabas wanted to
take John Mark again with them, Paul said,
no sir, not on your life, boy.
And Barnabas said, oh yes, we must take
John Mark, he's a relation of mine anyway,
and he came with us the first part
of the last tour, so he said, no
we're not taking him.
The contention was rather sharp between Barnabas and
Paul, and they separated over this, and Paul
would not at any price at that time
have John Mark on the team.
He proved to be an unbalanced character.
It was only semi-dedication, unbalanced, but later
on he recovered himself by the grace of
God, and Paul was the first to recognize
this.
And he says, take John Mark, and bring
him with you to me.
He is profitable to me for the ministry.
He said, I know that he's recovered, and
he's got a great gift, and I know
him now.
He's completely dedicated, and really properly balanced in
the service of Christ.
And he says, here, you have received commandments
from me about him.
If he comes to you, you receive him,
because I want you to know that I
have received him now, although at first I
would not receive him because of his imbalance.
So, there you see there's a message for
you and for me.
If in the past in any way we
have inclined to be half-hearted or imbalanced,
we can recover by the grace of God
as John Mark did, and God can call
us again, not through Paul as God called
Mark through Paul, but God could call us
again through this means and that means to
some special service for him, and how thankful
we are that many of you have put
yourselves at the Lord's disposal for his service
in this part of his vineyard.
And then, in verse 11, Jesus, who is
called Justice, he is the third of three
converts from the Jewish fraternity who are of
the circumcision.
Aristarchus, Marcus and Justice were three Jewish converts,
and this is what Paul says about Justice,
and the others of course, he is my
fellow worker unto the kingdom of God who
has been a comfort unto me.
So, Justice was a well-balanced brother.
His work was a comfort, was effective, and
a very great comfort to the heart of
Paul and his presence.
Fellowship in the work and fellowship in suffering
was Justice's ideal and proved to be a
balanced character in that.
He was Paul's fellow worker, and he was
Paul's fellow prisoner, and a comfort unto him
in both.
I mentioned the other day about Hephaestus in
another connection when I was, yesterday morning I
think, giving an introduction to the letter to
the Colossians, how that not only Paul was
praying that the Colossians might know the will
of God, but Hephaestus was praying that they
might stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God, as he says here in
verse 12.
But you'll notice here how balanced Hephaestus was.
He had founded the church in Colossae by
the enabling of the Holy Spirit.
He had labored fervently in evangelism to win
these souls to Christ, although Paul had won
a few of them when they were in
a distant town.
But now, in balance, he was laboring fervently
for them in prayer, continuing the good work
as an under-shepherd, as a pastor teacher
in the flock, praying for them that they
might stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God.
There is no spiritual maturity, there is no
spiritual completeness outside the will of God, and
he was laboring fervently in prayer for them
while he was away from them.
This is a message to those of us
particularly who are the servants of the Lord.
Not only are we to labor fervently in
the gospel and win souls to Christ, we
are to labor fervently and lead them on
with Christ as he prophesied, and labor fervently
in prayer for them when we are away
from them.
That is why each day I have, by
the grace of God, sought to pray earnestly
for the Christians at Seacliff, to whom I
go tomorrow, God willing, that while I am
away from them, I spend about 60 percent
of my time with them, they may be
blessed of the Lord and stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God.
Not that I'm putting myself up as an
example of balance here this morning.
God forbid!
The Lord knows how weak I am in
many respects.
In verse 14 he speaks of Luke next,
and notice in verse 13 that this man
Epaphras was not just a self-centred and
only willing to be a help to his
own assembly at Colossae, but also to the
Christians at Laodicea, the neighbouring assembly, and the
next one, a little triangle in Phrygia in
Asia Minor in Hierapolis.
So, he had a big open heart for
all the Lord's people in the area, and
in verse 14 Luke was called the Beloved
Physician.
Notice how Paul says Luke the Beloved Physician,
how he and they all loved Dr Luke.
You see, Dr Luke gave his heart to
the Lord in all probability while the Apostle
Paul was in Galatia, because that's where Luke
lived, and that's where he was working professionally
as a doctor.
It seems to me that Paul was ill
while he was in Galatia.
We know he was, because in writing to
the Galatians he reminds them of his illness
while he was amongst them.
So, it may be that while he was
ill there, Dr Luke was called in professionally
to look after Paul, and it may be
while Dr Luke poured some drops in the
eyes of the Apostle, the Apostle poured the
gospel into the heart of the doctor.
No doubt at all about it that his
heart was open, he became a Christian, and
not only did he give his heart to
the Lord, but he gave his profession to
the Lord as well.
So, you see balance in the life of
Dr Luke, because you see it was from
this particular point that Luke in Galatia joined
the gospel party, the gospel team, and he
said to Paul, I'm coming with you.
He wrote the Acts of the Apostles, as
you know, under the direction and control of
God's Holy Spirit, and it is from this
particular point in Luke in Acts 16 that
the wording is, instead of they went here
and they went there and they did that,
we went there and we went to the
next place, and Luke is writing he joined
the party there.
So, it seems he was converted, he opened
his heart, gave his heart to the Lord
while Paul was there in Galatia.
May be while Paul was getting some treatment,
medication from him, but he not only gave
his heart to the Lord, but he gave
his gifts, his profession and ability to the
Lord as well.
Have you done that?
Maybe some of you are retired now, and
you think there's nothing you can do with
your profession.
You've used it all your life, all your
living.
I suggest you give it to the Lord,
and it's amazing how the Lord will take
your profession.
You might be a doctor like Luke, you
might be an accountant, you might be whatever
you might be.
The Lord will use whatever is given to
him in his holy service, I'm quite sure.
But, what about Demas in the last part
of verse 14?
And Demas greets you.
Now, he didn't say beloved Demas, he didn't
say faithful Demas greets you.
I would think by this time the true
character of Demas was beginning to show itself,
wouldn't you think so?
Because in another part we read, Demas has
forsaken me, having loved this present evil world.
Here is a man who was unbalanced, he
wasn't able to say beloved Demas, just Demas,
that's all.
His true character was beginning to show itself,
and he was beginning to show how unbalanced
he was, because he was now leaning toward
the world, leaning toward the old nature, forgetting
that he had to allow for his tendency
to evil.
He was not walking after the light and
walking in the Spirit, was Demas.
So, all that Paul could say was, Demas
greets you.
And then look at verse 15, stood at
the brethren which are in lady fear, but
not only the brethren, salute Nymphus, and she
was a lady.
You know, they always say, and it's quite
right, the best brethren are the sisters.
And here is a sister who was very
well balanced.
You see, Nymphus and the church which is
in her house, never have I been saying
all the week about your old.
Here is a lady who was balanced.
She not only opened her heart to the
Lord, but opened her home to the Lord's
people as well.
Isn't that nice?
And how delighted I've been to have fellowship
with you in your home, as just one
of the Lord's little ones.
I know I'm big, but in the correct
sense of the term, I'm one of the
Lord's little ones.
Inasmuch you have done it unto the least,
the little one, the least of mine, you've
done it unto me, said the Lord Jesus.
And some of you have invited us, and
we would like to come and have fellowship
with you all, but we just haven't got
enough time to come around you all.
But nevertheless, remember this, it's all the same
with God.
If you had it in your heart, well
that's enough for the Lord.
It was good, said the Lord to David,
that you had it in your heart.
And that was about a house as well.
So he says, send my greetings to Nymphus.
Nymphus was a very balanced sister in the
meeting.
She not only opened her heart to the
Lord, but opened her home to the Lord's
people, and they had their meetings there.
All right, now what about Archippus in verse
17?
He's the last one, and this isn't a
greeting from him, but it is a greeting
to Archippus.
And I would imagine that Archippus was Paul's,
or rather Philemon's son.
And some seem to think that he had
a ministry for the Lord in the church
at Laodicea, but I don't think that can
be proved.
But Archippus, you see, was a little bit
unbalanced, and Paul was concerned about this.
He said, say to Archippus, take heed to
the ministry which thou hast received in the
Lord, that thou fulfil it.
And there's the word phleroma again, that you
complete it, make it full.
Now as Archippus was in the Lord, he
was in the ministry, and it's exactly the
same for you and to me.
If you're in Christ, then you're in Christ's
service.
If you're in the Lord, you're in the
ministry, because we're all saved to serve.
But there was something, you see, Archippus was
a fellow prisoner, or rather a fellow fighter,
what do you say?
Fellow soldier, it says in Philemon about him,
Archippus.
He was fighting the good fight, but apparently
there was something that needed to be done
to be rounded off in his ministry, and
Archippus, with us all, could complete and fulfil
his ministry by prayerful praising, verse 2, and
wise walking, verse 5, and sound speaking in
verse 6.
May God bless to us his word this
morning, and make us spiritually symmetrical, make us
well balanced, deliver us from religious lopsidedness.
Some people have a blessing along the line
of the Holy Spirit, and they see nothing
in the word but the Holy Spirit, forgetting
that the Holy Spirit is to lead us
to Christ, and to form Christ in us,
and reveal Christ to us, you see, and
they get overbalanced, and they become extreme Pentecostalists
because of this.
Other people get a blessing along the line
of Kettick ministry, and on every page of
the scripture they see Kettick ministry.
It isn't there, but they put it in
to get it out.
Some people get overbalanced in relation to assembly
principles, and the doctrine of church gathering, and
they see it on every page of the
scripture, and it isn't there.
They have to put it in to get
it out.
Well now, you see, all these things are
good and right.
Thank God for the ministry of the Holy
Spirit, thank God for Kettick ministry, which is
New Testament ministry about Christ who is our
life, and thank God for assembly principles, church
ministry as it is, church doctrine as it
is in the New Testament.
Let's get the whole word of God, the
apostasy that I have not shunned and declared
unto you, the whole counsel of God.
He said, I kept back nothing that was
profitable unto you, and how balanced was he,
and how balanced can we be by the
same grace, in the same Saviour, our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Our Father and our God, we pray that
every one of us may be spiritual symmetrical
in our life and witness by the grace
of Christ, by the love of God, by
the fellowship, power and enabling of the Holy
Spirit, in Jesus' name.
Amen.