335 - 2 IS TRUE LOVE BLIND?January 23, 1977
Henry F Kulp
Colossians 1: 1 - 8 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth: As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
In verses 1 and 2 we have Paul’s greeting. He addresses them as saints and faithful brethren. And the key word in Colossians is fullness.
And we are fullness of Him. We receive His fullness.
1/ In verse 3 - 5 we have Paul’s gratitude. We keep on giving thanks to the God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying always for you. Paul has gratitude for them. He is thankful for them. The word, praying, is very interesting here. PROSS-U-KUH-MY You know the word, pross means face to face with God. What a privilege we have on this earth even though we can’t see God to go face to face with Him with our petitions.
U-KUH-WRIST-O and right in the middle of the word is the word, KAR-RIS which is the word, grace. So we are thankful for that which we receive which we do not merit or earn.
2/ Then it is important for us to see that prayer is always addressed to God the Father—No exceptions to this ever. When you hear someone pray, “Dear Jesus,” You are listening to apostasy, and God will never hear that prayer. Also, when you hear someone pray to the Holy Spirit you are hearing apostasy, God will not hear that prayer. Remember you must always pray to God the Father.
3/ Let us look at a very important chapter on prayer.
Romans 8: 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Here the dwelling Holy Spirit prays to God the Father as He helps us in our prayers. Then in Verse 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
We have Jesus Christ in Heaven praying to God the Father for us. We cannot do less.
4/ For you – PEAR-EE and it means concerning you. Remember, he had never met them, never seen them, yet he prayed for them. Is it possible for me to pray for someone I have never met? Of course.
5/ Notice, Paul says they had the three graces, faith, love, and hope.
(1) Faith in Christ Jesus
(2) The love which ye have to all saints.
(3) The hope that is laid up for you in Heaven.
6/ Faith in Christ Jesus, let us look at Colossians 2: 5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
Here we read of the steadfastness of their faith in Christ. The word, faith, means a firm persuasion. They are fully persuaded concerning Jesus Christ. Either you believe something or you don’t believe it.
Many know Him as Saviour, as sin-bearer, but they are not well acquainted with Him, They do not know Him in an intimate way, they do not walk with Him day by day. It is only when you are well acquainted with Him, and walking with Him that you will be at peace.
8/ We must realize that faith is the most dangerous thing in the world. If we have faith in the wrong thing it can destroy us or kill us. We had a member of our assembly who moved away, but when he lived in our midst he want out into his yard to burn some leaves, his clothing caught fire and he was badly burned, he was rushed to the hospital, given Penicillin and though he had never reacted to it before, he did this time and it nearly cost his life. It is necessary to have faith in that which is faithful.
9/ Galatians 3: 26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Ye are all the full-grown sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Then they had the second grace which is love. The one word in the English language that expresses all varieties of love. Love to God, to child, to parent, and to friends. Many people call the sex act making love, and the Greek word, EAR-OSE and that is usually love between the sexes. It can be a passion. It is selfish love, it only all goes one way. It is never used in the New Testament.
10/ Then there is the Greek word, PHIL-LET-O gives us our word, Philadelphia-brotherly love—and it means fondness, and the basic meaning of the word, to befriend.
11/ The word used here is AH-GOP-A—God is love.
(1) It is a word used for God the Father for His Son. John 17: 26 And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
(2) It is the word used of the Father’s love for the human race.
John 3: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 16: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
Here we read the Father, Himself, loveth you because you loved me.
12/ You cannot love with this love unless the Holy Spirit controls your life.
13/ Last week some disagreed with me because I said you must have faith in God and not in saints, but love the saints. And this is true, because no one is really dependable and faithful, and there is a point here I want you to see. LOVE IS NOT BLIND
I Corinthians 13: 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Love rejoiceth in the truth, Does love depend upon the one being loved being perfect? Do we stop loving people because they sin, because they make mistakes? If we do we won’t love anyone. Does the truth of our old nature and our failures keep us from being loved by other believers? Love that can be killed by the truth is not the love of God. We must be like the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us, not because of our fruits, but in spite of them.
Romans 5: 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
I John 4: 19 We love him, because he first loved us.
14/ Some are foolish enough to never see the flaws in one they claim to love—some mothers or fathers love their children always glossing over their faults and feelings, but that permits one to grow up undisciplined and having the wrong view in life. A believer’s true love is a love that can bear to know the truth about the one loved, and not be discouraged.
15/ Then the third grace is the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven. This hope is described in Titus 2: 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
And every believer has this hope given to him by God.
16/ The basis of this hope is found in I Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
He is our hope.
17/ Hope has three parts to it.
(1) Desire – there is no hope if we don’t have a desire for that hope to be realized. But hope isn’t desire only, for we may desire what we do not expect.
(2) Expectation—Nor is hope merely expectation, for we may expect what we do not. So we must put desire and expectation together, combine them.
(3) Patience – We must be patience for that desire and expectation.
18/ We must see there is a great deal of difference between Israel’s hope and the believer’s hope today. Let us look at the difference very briefly.
(1) Israel’s hope is earthly.
(2) Our hope is in Heaven.
(3) Israel’s hope has Christ as the Son of Man, Son of David, Son of Abraham.
(4) Our hope has Christ the Son of God, the Head of the Body.
(5) Israel’s hope is in Christ’s coming to this earth.
(6) Our hope is in Christ catching us up in the air.
(7) Israel’s hope will be after the great judgement and tribulation on this earth.
(8) Our hope will be realized before the judgement and tribulation comes upon this earth.
19/ I Corinthians 13: 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
The only one of these graces that is lasting is love.
Faith and hope will one day disappear but love will remain.
AMEN
Ref: 01/23/1977/ 335-2 IS TRUE LOVE BLIND? / 05/06.2021
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