Made A Minister

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much and what a joy it is to be back with you once again and to greet you with that time-honored question, how in the world are you? I trust everything is alright and that you’re enjoying being in the world, but not of it. You don’t have to be tarred with the devil’s brush, thank God you can be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, and ready to be revealed at the last day, kept by your all-powerful heavenly Father, kept in his care. Well, I’m glad to be back with you. And we wanna turn now to Colossians chapter 1 and get a running start into our thought about the verse 22, said, “it pleased the Father that in our Lord Jesus Christ in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by Him, to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were at one time,” you have the word sometime here, it means at one time, “alienated and enemies in your mind by cause of your wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister. You hath he reconciled.”

God isn’t angry at you, He’s waiting for you to come and yield yourself to Him. And when you do, then He says He wants to present you, our blessed living Lord wants to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight. This takes care of all of the attacks of Satan and all of the accusations that could be leveled, all of the haunting of your own guilty conscience, and all of the failures of which you and I are so conscious, takes care of it all because He presents us in His sight, because we trust in His redemption because we trust in His shed blood, because we have accepted His pardon and become by faith children of God. He presents us holy. Holy because we share in the very nature of God, born from above, born of the spirit, a new life. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, we have a new life, given to us from God, and that life is holy and that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ presents in the very presence of a thrice holy God. He says these people are now holy because I died for them, I paid the price for them. The law is satisfied, the holiness of God is vindicated and they have trusted in my redemption and here they are and we count them holy. Then he says unblameable and that means that no one can accuse you. Who shall accuse the redeemed?

Paul asks a rhetorical question in Romans 8, remember that passage? “Who shall lay anything to the charge of of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is God that has pardoned.” You remember that passage? “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 maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, none of these things, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Now, that unblameable relates to all of this. “Who can say if God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” If God says you’re just, you’re just, that’s the point he’s making. If God says you’re forgiven, you’re forgiven. If God says you belong to Him, you belong. Thank God, to Him, holy and unblameable. And this is unreprovable and that goes in even a step further, not only to be blamed, but to be reproved.

Why? Because every one of your mistakes and failings has already been taken care of by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You’re not gonna have to face judgment. Jesus said he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but has already passed, is passed from death unto life. There’ll be a judgment of believers for rewards but there’ll never be a judgment for you, my dear friend, who trusts the Lord Jesus there’ll never be a judgment for you that involves your eternal destiny, that’s been settled when you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ and made him your lord and savior and received his pardon and forgiveness and by faith were made a child of God. That was it and you are not gonna be judged again at that great white throne judgment, you’ll be on the angels’ side, not on the side of the condemned, unreprovable in His sight.

Oh, you and I are so conscious of our failings. I know I am and not a day goes by, but that I have to ask the Lord to forgive me for failing him here and there because I’m a human being. Don’t you have the same experience? At the same time if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and if we walk in the light, when God sheds the light on something in your life, and you bring it to him as he is in the light, then it says we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, keeps on cleansing us from all sin. It’s a continuing process of relating yourself by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who has become Lord of your life. Unreprovable in His sight, in His sight, that’s the key to it, that phrase “in His sight.” When you trust in the Lord Jesus, God the Father looks at you through Him and through His faithful work for you on the cross.

Now you have come to verse 23 and you get an if there, if you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which you have heard and which was preached to every creature under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister. What is he saying here? You’re saved if you don’t move away from this hope, is that what he’s saying? Well, I doubt it because you take all the body of scripture, take for instance, Philippians 1:6, “He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” The passage is oftentimes that seem to warn us against falling away from our faith, are to be taken seriously, but at the same time to realize that once you are through or thoroughly, thoroughly born again, a change has come into your life, and God’s hand is on you.

And He is going to see, He’s gonna see to it that He gets you safe home to heaven. Now that of course is my point of view and some of you may disagree with me. Don’t write to me and argue with me about it, please, but that’s how I look at it in any case. So I come with that background to this verse. “If you continue in the faith and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.” Now, go back a ways and you’ll see where I’m coming from here. Having made peace through the blood of his cross by Him, to reconcile all things unto Himself. You that were at one time alienated and enemies in your mind by your wicked works, yet now, hath He reconciled and He said, “You’re going to keep on with that if you continue in the faith grounded and settled,” we’re talking about the experience of being reconciled. We’re talking about the experience of enjoying the fellowship of your Lord Jesus Christ, and when you’re moved away from the hope of the Gospel.

In other words, if you start to specialize on works instead of faith and works, if you start to emphasize some other truth or point of error as the case may be, if you stop specializing on the simple Gospel, you are going to diminish the experience of being reconciled. Now, that’s how I look at that. The person who is clear on the Gospel is also rejoicing in the fellowship of his Lord, the person who is clear on the Gospel and walking with God is also rejoicing in the fellowship of a God to whom he has been reconciled and there’s nothing between. You remember the wonderful old song, “Nothing between my soul and the savior, naught of this world’s elusive gleam. I have renounced all earthly favor. I am His, there’s nothing between,” you remember that?

Now, this is the point I think that’s being raised here, beloved, is not if you make a misstep you’re gonna lose your salvation. I don’t believe that’s the point he’s raising here. He says continue in the faith, a total commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ is what’s involved when we talk about the faith, a total commitment of yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified for you, who died for you, who rose again for you, who represents you before the heavenly Father right now, who declares that you are holy and unblameable and unreprovable, a total commitment to him is involved in this matter of not being moved away from the hope of the Gospel. Do you get that? Now how do you make that real in your own life? Every one of us has periods of doubt, every one of us has periods when we feel spiritually dry and fruitless, and all of that, and we wonder “Oh, I wonder if I was really saved after all.” Sometimes doubt begins to creep into your heart, isn’t that true? Now, he says, “Don’t be moved away from the hope of the Gospel.”

What is the Gospel? Christ died for our sins, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. If you’ve taken Christ as your Lord and savior, you have a different kind of a life, a different source of life, the Holy Spirit of God is dwelling within you, a different authority for life, the inerrant Word of God, the Bible, is your source of faith in practice and you have a different mission in life to glorify God and to win souls to Christ. All of this is involved in the hope of the Gospel. You keep clear on that and you’re gonna have fellowship with your blessed Lord. Good enough, don’t doubt, trust. Now, he says, whereof I Paul am made a minister. Now a minister is a person who shares God with people. That’s a cookism I lay claim to having put it that way, right or wrong.

A minister is a person who shares God with people at the point of their need, and he says, “I’m made a minister.” Have you any ministry to people? Have you thought about that lately? Do you have a real ministry to people, oh, you say, I’m not a reverend. Oh, come on, I’m not talking about clergymen now, talking about people like you and like me who are just garden variety Christians. Do you have a ministry to people? Are folks glad when you come around because you sort of refresh them spiritually? Have you got anything in your own heart that spills out by way of blessing that you can share with people, sharing God with people at the point of their need? It’s a very simple matter to pray with a person. I had a telephone call from a dear friend of mine some days ago, and he confided in me that he was having a rough time at certain levels of his life and I said, “Well, this is your nickel.” But how about if I pray with you, he said, “Oh, please do.” And so right then and there, separated by a good many miles as we were, but together on the phone and in faith I prayed earnestly for him, now I think that’s ministering. I think bringing God into a situation and in faith and applying the power of God to people’s lives, I think that’s ministering, don’t you?

Well, have a ministry to people, love them, and minister to them, and pray with them and lead them into the presence of God and encourage them to do His will. He said I made a ministry. You and I can have a ministry as well, and I trust that today, you will have your own blessed, wonderful God-glorifying ministry, dear friend.

Dear Father, today we commit ourselves to Thee. Give us a good ministry to people for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!