[Mr. Darris McNeely] From his house imprisonment in Rome, the apostle Paul had received a report of heresy going through the church. One of the churches is in Asia Minor, the church in Colossae. Turn if you will over to the book of Colossians with me. This is the letter that the apostle wrote to the church at Colossae after a messenger had come to him with news that the members of the small congregation, likely a house church—30, 40, maybe 40 to 50 people, probably more than that, but still a thriving congregation—they had become mixed up on certain teachings. And as you look at the book of Colossians, the letter of Colossians, you can get an idea of what it was that they had their problems with. They had gotten mixed up about God, the nature of God. And so, Paul, in the first chapter, starts to talk about God and how all things were created through Christ, and the preeminence of Christ. And so, they were mixed up on God and Christ, which we know from church history, and even into our modern current church history, can still get people mixed up. God and Christ can create problems if people don't properly read the scriptures. But Paul addressed those in some very clear teaching here.

They had another problem. It appears that some were teaching about the worship of angels, and so Paul deals with that here. It's very clear that the beginnings of a lot of gnostic teaching were coming in and filtering into the church. Probably some of the members were thinking, "I'm not being fed at church. We're not getting good meat. So I’ve got to find some other idea that excites me." And so they were listening to other teachers and then coming to church and talking about that and being influenced because of whatever was going on in their mind and life not being grounded in scripture, so Paul deals with that.

In chapter two, he talks about the Sabbaths, the festivals, and not so much from a...trying to prove it, but to show why we keep the festivals, why we keep the Sabbath, why God's teaching on that was important for a Gentile to understand and to move away from all the other festivals and days that paganism had, and he basically shows them why.

And then, in chapter three, he moves into some very clear teaching about Christian living and principles. So you see in the first few chapters of Colossians that Paul deals with some pretty heavy doctrine - God, Christ, angels, Sabbaths and festivals, all of which are, with the exception of angels, we have fundamentals of belief that cover. We don't talk about angels in one of our 20 fundamentals. We do believe in angels. We have a booklet on angels, but it's not embedded in our 20 fundamentals, other than if you want to talk about the doctrine about Satan. But we cover God and Christ. We cover the festivals, the holy days. And doctrine is very, very important, and Paul goes to great lengths to show this here. And when you get down into chapter three especially, he begins to talk about some of the practical application of when you have proper doctrine.

One of the things I teach, I teach the fundamentals of belief, the doctrines of the church at ABC, and we'll be getting back into that here in a couple of weeks now as we begin the next year, and I always try to show students that doctrine is more than just a list of scriptures to prove something. It is much, much more than that. It's truth, but it also should have a practical application.

And Paul shows that here in Colossians and why, when you get God right, when you get the Sabbath right, then you get a lot of other things right in your life. And it goes to great lengths to show the practical beneficial benefits that come out as a result of doctrine and getting it right and having it working properly within the church. And so Paul writes then, through three chapters in this way, and he wrote this letter, interestingly, when he put it all together while he was a prisoner in Rome under what we would call house arrest. He had a lot of freedom to have people come and go. You find that at the very end of the book of Acts. And he had traveled there after a very long journey on the sea, which two chapters in Acts talk about. And on that, Paul had learned a great deal about God, God's grace, and God's guidance to get him as a prisoner from Israel to Rome, being shipwrecked and everything upon the sea that that story talks about there. And so he knew God's hand was upon him and it was upon any and all of his people.

And I think when he writes this letter, Paul was writing it from a wealth of experience including what I just mentioned here, and I think that it can help us as...we're going to focus on a portion of this letter, just understanding to see the guiding hand of God in our lives, something that we really do need to focus on more than ever, I think, right now. We've come through and we're still in an interesting period of time. There's been a great deal of stress, mounting stress, it seems, with the shutdown, the pandemic, uncertainty, fear that has been created, a lot of change.

The isolation. I mentioned, you know, it's good to see a lot of you. We hadn't seen each other for a while. And, you know, to get back into fellowship and services is essential for the body of Christ. But there's a lot that we're facing, job loss and the uncertainty of the future. We've turned the Feast of Tabernacles upside down. Not that we have changed the feast. We're going to keep the feast, but all these sites that have been cancelled, new ones coming on. Debbie and I are still going to our original site which has been canceled, and it's going to be interesting. It's going to be what we call a boutique site now. Oceanside is an unofficial boutique site. Boutique it means just kind of small, exclusive, beachside, California, sandals, palm trees, and things like boutique. It's an inside joke with this, but anyway, all of this has come upon us this year. Scott Moss is here visiting and he's just telling me that he'd seen something somebody had written that the biggest mistake that the guy made this year in 2020 was buying a planning calendar. Think about it. How many plans have gone awry as a result of what we put down and thought we were all going to be doing at the beginning of the year? I thought a lot of things at the beginning of the year, and then it just all kind of changed.

And so, along with this comes a lot of stress. Now, Paul came to a point, I think, in this letter. If you look at chapter four, beginning in verse two, I think he laid down his quill after writing a lot of heavy doctrine, and he thought, "What do I need to say to put a close to this letter, this heavy letter?" And I think what he did, under God's guidance, as God inspired this to be written, I think that he put down a few verses here that seem to be a practical summation. Five verses beginning in Colossians 4:2 that sum up what it means to know the true God and Jesus Christ, the creative order of life, angels, the festivals. And he begins to turn to certain things that in... amazing in five verses. I've kind of centered on this a few weeks ago and just kind of reading through this passage of Colossians, and I thought, "Wow, there's a lot right here in these few verses to encourage you to focus on practical steps that, in a sense, activates the doctrine that he would have been writing about and the practice that we have. In these five verses, he talks about prayer and he talks about watching. He talks about Christ, talks about time, and he talks about grace. Let's read them very quickly, and then we're going to look at them more in-depth, beginning in verse two.

Colossians 4:2-6 He says, "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, praying also for us that God would open to us a door for the Word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I also am in chains, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with Grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one."

And then he closes with a few more verses that mentions people and what some of his plans and thoughts are and then closes it out. Five verses, beginning in verse two, that to me stood out here, and looking at this that activate, if you will, the doctrine that he was talking about, kind of the heavy topics that he had to discuss in the earlier verses and chapters of this letter. So let's take a few minutes and let's go through these verses and let's kind of dig into it a little bit to see what Paul is really saying and the benefit to you and I right now in our own life as we deal with whatever it is that's stressing us out, with what we have been through and learned a few lessons as a result of this. And so, looking back in verse two. Let's go there.

Colossians 4:2 He said to "continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving." Prayer, be vigilant, continue earnestly in prayer. Now, I think Mr. Tannert mentioned the importance of prayer as a pillar in his sermonette here earlier. We understand prayer is a very important tool of Christian development and Christian growth. We all pray, and we have our times and our ways and our methods of how we pray and where we address God and how we pray, and that's a very personal, very intimate aspect of our life and our relationship with God that we cultivate, develop. Sometimes we are very earnest in prayer and sometimes we might slack off in prayer. But Paul says to continue in prayer, to continue in that.

You know, in the early days of the church, we read that the church grew exponentially there in the book of Acts, and the caring, the needs of the church just grew. One day, it dawned on the apostles to tell the church, "Look, find a group of men, a group of people, and separate them, men who are led by the Spirit, who are wise and understanding, and let them take care of a lot of the administration of the church while we will ourselves continue in prayer and in the Word."

And so, they created this class of people we typically called deacons today to take care of a lot of the physical details of the church so that the apostles would, as they said, continue in prayer. They recognize the nature of their job and their role, but in that, it's the same word here, that Paul says to continue earnestly in prayer. We have to continue on in prayer and in our approach to God. The Apostle said that, "Find some capable people to help out while we continue with the Commission that Christ gave to us." And so, they organize the church and the routine of the church so that they could prioritize, in that case, their work or their spiritual work to prayer and to the Word.

And so, as Paul tells us here in verse two, "Continue in prayer, stay with it. Order your life so that you're staying with that prayer." It's a good thing for us to look at and to examine ourselves on. Is our lives ordered in such a way that we are able to continue in prayer? Prayer is really the first step toward grace, if you will, because it establishes that relationship with God as we talk to him and say so much to him about our life and our requests and our needs and our praise to God.

Ask yourself whether, in your prayer, do you pray so that you can move on to other things in your day or do you get things done so that you can pray? Ask yourself that. To continue earnestly in prayer. In other words, is our life organized around our conversations with God and our petitions to him? I think that that's a part of the meaning here that is inherent in this idea of continuing in prayer, and one of the commentaries that kind of breaks this verse down, it shows that it is really is meaning to persist in the siege. To persist in the siege is what continued means. It's interesting when I saw that. A siege, we all understand, if we played Risk, or watched any type of movie, it's when, you know, two armies are fighting, a city is under siege. The walls are keeping the enemy out. The enemy, or the good guys, or however it's all set up, trying to batter down the walls, get through the gates. And Christ said to his church that the Church will batter down the gates of hell. Prayer is our siege with God. If you will, that battering around that we have to just keep slamming against the gate, to open up our life, to open up a relationship with God, to break down the gates of this world that work against us. Persist in the siege as we pray to God.

I think Paul meant that prayer was the battering ram that goes against the gates and against the walls. He considered himself at war. He wrote about that in Ephesians 6, a spiritual war, and prayer was his chief weapon, and it's the only weapon that he had. When Paul stood accused in the court of the Roman Empire, the only weapon he had was prayer. He didn't have any legions, he didn't have any Centurions for him, he didn't have a band of men that were fighting for him. All he had was prayer, all he had was God, and that's what he organized his life around.

Remember, he's writing this letter of Colossians from prison. And so he tells them to continue earnestly in prayer. Prayer is our offer of grace to God. The latter part of verse two here.

Colossians 4:2 He says, "Being vigilant in it with Thanksgiving." Vigilant. The New King James will say vigilant, if you have an Old King James on your lap, it will say, "Be watchful," and both are legitimate. The term watchful we may be familiar with as we see that term used in Scripture. Ezekiel was to be a watchman. God appointed him as a watchman to Israel to stand on the walls and to report an oncoming calamity. Jesus uses the term quite a bit in his messages to the church and in the gospels, to be watchful, to be praying, to watch and discern.

One of the more interesting parts of it, and I think it applies here, you remember on the night that he was arrested after they had been in the upper room, they'd had the Passover meal, they went out into the garden, and he told them, his disciples, "Wait here for a while. I'm going off over here," maybe across, you know, the distance of the lawn here, halfway, like there. He left them in a spot, he went off, and he prayed for a while. Then he came back, and what were they doing? They were asleep. And he said to Peter, "Couldn't you have even watched with me for an hour?" It's the same word that is used right here telling us to be watchful, vigilant in prayer.

There's calamities that can come upon us. We can slip in our spiritual lives. There can be tests and trials and matters that come quickly upon us. We can enter into a period of stress like we have had during this period of time, we have to be vigilant. We have to be watchful in prayer, first of all, and in other ways as well, but we have to stay awake. We have to stay awake to what is in front of us. Remember that, again, Paul here in this letter to the Colossians, he lays out the order of the universe, all created by God, by Jesus Christ, and God's purpose was being brought to pass in that. And "Christ is our hope of glory," he tells in chapter one. And he lays out the whole order of the cosmos in describing how the created order works.

And God is aligned, the Father and the Son are aligned in a purpose and all life has to be in alignment with that mind as God has laid down that plan. And this is what Paul is showing and saying, as you continue in prayer, you persist in the siege, be watchful, be vigilant to it all. And the doctrine, the teaching about God, the Holy Days, and you can throw in every other part of the teaching that we understand, sin and law, tithing, and baptism, the sacrifice of Christ, and everything that lines up this order of God's purpose and plan we call truth. That is not only the framework of our life and of the house that God is putting together, it's everything behind the walls, the plumbing, the electricity, the lines that run mechanically to make the building work. And in this case, the house, the body, the church, the people. When the doctrine is right, taught properly, understood, adhered to by the people, then there's an alignment. And as we are in watchful tune to that, we know that it works.

You know, nothing can be more upsetting than to go through your home, you flip a switch and nothing comes on. I guess that's what happened today. You flipped the switch here and nothing came on, right? Wow. I'm glad that got fixed for us this afternoon for many of our brethren this morning, especially with no air conditioning. Must have been a hot sermon so... But if the light doesn't come on, uh-oh, what's happened? Ninty-five degrees outside and the air conditioning goes off. You turn up the water faucet and there's no water. Something goes down in our house, we got a problem, you got to get on it right away. It gets everything out of alignment. We all know how that can upset our routine in our life in our house. Look at the truth, teaching, doctrine, everything that we know about what God teaches us about himself as he's revealed Himself to us, and how we are to worship him, how we are to relate to him, everything from honoring him with the first 10th of our substance and all the way down the aspects of teaching, that lines us up with God, and life then goes well. Life then goes right. Paul is saying be vigilant, be watchful. Keep your house in order. Be prayerful. Be vigilant about what you know, believe, and how you walk. Live a holy life. Live in an orderly holy life, the structure will function properly as it should.

Living a life of grace requires that we are vigilant about what we believe, what we teach, and then how we conduct ourselves and how we live. And then he says, "Be thankful about that with thanksgiving." Paul's awareness of what God was doing for him in prison in Rome was never far from his lips, and you see that in his writings. When we have God's truth revealed to us it opens our minds to see the key to the mystery of life. And for that, we should always be thankful. And it's a good practice to practice that. My wife, we were talking about this point this morning before coming over and she reminded me of her routine, part of her routine. She's had kind of a study journal that she's used and a few of them trading in and out through the years, but one of them made the point continually to write down in the journal every day something to be thankful for. And when, as she said, you do that, you're mindful of being in a state of thanksgiving, and you have to find something in your life to be thankful for, and it helps to order your life. Sounds trite, and it sounds like, well, you know, nice, but maybe it doesn't always work, but you know that it does because the Scripture tells us to do that and to find something in our world, in our life, and among ourselves, regularly, daily to be thankful for. That's what Paul says to do as we persist in the siege, and as we are watchful for what we are involved with.

Colossians 4:3 "Meanwhile, praying also for us." Now, remember, Paul's in prison. If you were in prison, what would you be praying for? To get out of jail free. You want that get out of jail free card, wouldn't you? You wouldn't want to be in prison. Now trust me, Paul wasn't in the worst of a Roman prison. As again, I said, Acts tells us he was in a house and people could come and go. So it's not like he was chained to a stone wall somewhere and just, you know, left to rot, which a lot of Roman prisoners were. Their prisons were basically... in Rome, if you go to see what is called the Mamertine Prison where Paul spent his second imprisonment, it's a hole in the ground, and that's not what he had this time. But still, he would have wanted his freedom. He would have wanted to be released, but that's not what he asked for.

He says, "Pray for us that God would open to us a door for the word to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in chains." And from prison, that's where his heart was, to be praying, asking members to pray not for his release, not for a better lot of food to be brought in, but for God to open a door for the Word. That's an amazing thing to think about. He actually was doing quite well, if you read again the latter part of Acts. We find that a contingent of the Jewish community came in and he spoke to them. At the end of Philippians, Paul sends his greetings to the church at Philippi and he says, "Those of Caesar's household say hello." Now, what that might mean, scholars discuss and debate, but it would say that there were some in the household of the Caesar who were of the faith and likely had had contact with Paul.

Paul, you know, he was always told by God, it's from the very beginning, "You'll stand before kings." Did he stand before Caesar? We don't know for sure. That's a speculation he may have. He may have even had access to the court or to the home of the Caesar probably and very likely through at least members there, and he says they send their greeting. But Paul wanted a release for broader activity, and that's what he asked the church to give to him.

You know, today, the collective work of the church, what we do in preaching the gospel through all the various forms of media that we have, through the transmission of the words of explanation that you, the members, provide to people who ask what you believe, or through the example that you set as a Christian. The collective work that we do needs our prayers continually, fervent prayers, continuing, persisting in the siege. If there's one metric for success to measure the value of what we do as a church in preaching the gospel, it really does come down to the prayers of every single one of the members of the body of Christ and the church, and the active support, the prayers and the active support. What do I mean by active support? I mean the words of encouragement. I mean, the words in prayer to God for help and the words that we talk about of each other about our church and about our message and about what we do as we proclaim the message of the truth on all the various truths of the Scripture for us to be supportive of that. That's what is the biggest metric for success that we could ever have because God will honor that.

Every time that, you know, we like to get letters of request for literature, we like people to come on our website and click through and order this, download that. We air the "Beyond Today" every week and we look at those numbers that come back and we have what we call a CPR, a cost per response. And we've talked about that not really being the true measurement of how successful we are at what we do with the dollars that are allocated toward the direct preaching of the Gospel. I think that there are other metrics that we don't always measure. Sometimes they're just not measurable, but this one to me is probably the most important that I've mentioned, the prayers of you, the support in private and in conversations of the work that we do, to be in a sense proud of what we do as a church, and that total effort is what I'm talking about, that we do offer the truth and we make it available in all the forms that we do on the web, in print, and we seek to help people to understand God's purpose, God's plan, this world, this life, this craziness, and how to access God in the very way that Paul was talking about.

Paul knew that he could rely on the members and Colossae. They had his back. They had his back. He knew that, and that's the biggest metric of success that he probably had. His preaching...he was imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. Do you know that? That's why he wound up there. He was there because he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, which when you study what Paul did and what he said, it was a message about a coming King to whom all obedience was due now, at that time, and in the Roman period, that was a message of sedition or treason. It upset the order of Rome. It also upset the order of the Jews. We read that his biggest clashes initially in the church were with the leadership of the Jews in Jerusalem. With the apostles John and Peter and the church there, and then Paul, they followed him all over the place. Paul went into a city, the Jews would get stirred up. He'd get kicked out. He'd go on down the next city, start preaching. A few days later, they'd follow in, get everybody stirred up, and get Paul kicked out again.

Sometimes, you know, what is needed to be understood when you really understood that the hierarchy of the Jewish community of the first century—I'm talking about the chief priests, the Sanhedrin that we read about, the ones that engineered the death of Christ, the persecution of the church, the imprisonment of Paul that finally got him up against the Roman Empire—the Jewish hierarchy was nothing more than a mafia clan. They were the ancient equivalent of the mafia. They were corrupt. They had a form of religion, but they didn't have the truth and they were as corrupt and vile as you could imagine. Murdering each other, political. It's a horrendous story from that period. Paul was a threat to them. That's what got him into prison because he threatened the order of all of that. And he understood that, but he kept a positive approach in that he didn't let it get him down. And he said, "Pray for us that this will continue to be...there will be open doors," and looking back at verse three, "to speak the mystery of Christ, the mystery of Christ for which I am also in chains." Again, the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that's what he preached and it got him in chains, but he wanted to be able to do it more, stronger.

The mystery of Christ, you know. He understood that Christ's life, death, and resurrection were the missing parts of the picture of God's plan that had come into place. That's why he calls it the mystery of Christ here, not that it was still a mystery. Paul understood it from the very moment that he was struck on that road to Damascus and came face to face with the resurrected Jesus Christ, he got it. Everything fell into his place. It wasn't some radical conversion. He was already keeping the Sabbath, he was already keeping the holy days, he already believed in the God of Abraham. He got Christ. That's why Christ said, "Why have you been working against me?" He got it. And from that moment, it was all locked in. The puzzle in front of him made sense in living color, and that's all he could do. And that's why he was where he was. It was the mystery of Christ, the life, death, and resurrection. The God who reveals mysteries that Daniel talked about when he went up to Nebuchadnezzar in chapter two of Daniel and Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, "There's a God who reveals mysteries." Paul knew that God, and he had come face to face with him, and it was no longer a mystery. The true understanding was what he had said back in Colossians 1:26 and 27, "Christ in us, the hope of glory."

That was it. That was the very essence of the Gospel that electrified Paul and ignited his passion. That was the heart of the Gospel message and is still is, that the Word had become flesh, had lived the perfect life, had died for our sins, and was resurrected. That Christ resurrection had opened the path for mankind to be fully formed in the image of God and through a resurrection to be born into the family of God. That's the mystery of Christ. Or put another way, that the eternal spirit had been joined to flesh so that flesh could become spirit. Let me say that again, the eternal Spirit had become flesh so that flesh, you and I, could become spirit. That's the mystery of Christ. That's it. That is what should get us out of bed every day. That's what we should live by. That is the atheist dilemma. That would put and stop the mouth of every gainsayer, every atheist who could see in the life of a Christian, of a follower of Christ, a firm conviction of that very truth, that very mystery of people who live each day with that belief and live like they believe it. That's how we should be living. That brethren, is what it means to be woke. It really is. You know, it comes from Ephesians 5, "Awake, you who are dead in Christ," is what Paul says. That's what it means. Have our lives awaken and to understand and believe. That's the point. That is the mystery of Jesus Christ.

Colossians 4:4-5 "That I may make it manifest as I ought to speak." He wanted more opportunity to preach that. And in verse five, he says, "Walk in wisdom, toward those who are outside redeeming the time." Redeeming the time. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside. Paul is building towards something here. That should tell us how we relate to people that are outside. Who's outside? Who's outside? Well, we have our own terminology for that being in the church or out of the church, converted or unconverted, to explain ourselves, to explain the world, those that are not in the church, those that are not called, et cetera, those that are not firstfruits. But Paul says walk in wisdom toward them. We have to and we do deal with people all the time, family and neighbors and co-workers, to walk in wisdom toward people. To understand God's purpose and plan, not to think that we're better, because we're not. Not to think that we are more righteous of ourselves, because we're not, but to have an understanding about those who are, if you will, outside, and those that are the opposite, if you're going to use the term, inside. We should be wise about what we say and how we think about those that are outside or not in the church, and to walk in wisdom toward them. Like so many of us, I read a lot of commentaries and other works by biblical scholars and teachers, theologians that have written many, many libraries full of books about scripture, God, the Bible, Greek, Hebrew, etc, and I find some that are very good. I actually find some that they say parts of the truth.

And I'm reading along and I'm thinking, "Wow, they get it." This page, this paragraph, this half chapter could probably pass doctrinal review in The United Church of God." But then two chapters later, they're talking about the Trinity. Okay. And I find that all the time, so I take what is valuable and inside, and I recognize this. And I guess through the years I've concluded that, you know, there are certain, as I said earlier, basic truths that have to be lined up, God, Christ, who and what is God, that He's not a Trinity, in order to have it all, the whole package and everything functioning and working together, so I can learn from someone who has studied scripture and studied cultural context and background and all of the matters of theology and I can learn from them, but I don't have to become a Sunday keeper. I'm not a Trinitarian. I don't throw my belief out the window. And as I've done that through the years, I recognize that, yeah, Paul says we have to walk in wisdom toward those. It comes back to the mystery of Christ.

That is really the key that. Through the Spirit of Christ in us, God is bringing many sons to glory and that is a defining doctrine for the first fruits of God as to why now, why this calling is now rather than later, that is a defining aspect, and God opens the mind to understand that, but it takes an alignment of the truth for it all to come to an understanding. Great understanding the Psalm says, "They who will obey or keep the law." And so we have to obey, we have to have it all in a complete package, and God does His work there then to open our minds to truth and to doctrine and to a practice that others can't see completely. And we understand that in the purpose and the plan of God that it all begins by knowing the one true God, and Jesus Christ who was sent, and understanding that without the idea of a Trinity.

He says here as well, the end of verse five, “Redeeming the time.” Redeeming the time. You know, Paul had a lot of time on his hands in prison. By the time he wrote this letter, he'd already been in prison for more than two years because... Before he ever left Israel, Judea, he was imprisoned for a period of time in both Jerusalem and then down in Caesarea. And essentially what God did with Paul was to just kind of pull him off the track. "Pit," he said. "Time to pit. You need to rest."

And Paul had time then to kind of step back and to survey the work that he'd been doing. He'd been running around Asia Minor and Greece and starting churches, doing this. doing that, busy life. And it came to a stop. And he had time to write, he had time to think and do a lot of other things that we might not see normally from what we're told here in the scripture, but he had time to think and to write some of his best stuff from prison. He was downshifting in that sense and focusing in a different way, kind of like what we have done in recent months. We've downshifted. We've had to pit. Shelter in place, shut down, whatever. It's been good, been great. It really has in some ways.

What have you learned? What have you learned during this period of time? About yourself, about God, as you look at the world, what have you learned during this shutdown? This long period of examination? I think God's given it to us in one way and it's been a gift of God, so it's part of the grace of God. It's the beginning of this when we finally closed up here at the office and taught the last day at ABC and I pulled a bunch of notebooks and files from my office and walked out the door realizing I didn't know when I was going to come back, maybe a few weeks, and it turned into a few months. And I said at the beginning...I told my wife, "I was built for shutdown. I can handle this, all right. Just lock me in my room, give me my books, and I was built for this." Okay. And first weeks, man, I loved it, you know, shorts every day, t-shirt, no commute, and work actually got busier than I ever had been, and you meet with Zoom and everything else.

But you know what? After a few months, a couple of months, I began to get stir crazy. I said, "I need somebody other than my wife." And she was saying, "I sure need somebody other than you." And when we finally opened up, man was I glad to come back that first Sabbath and see some other people that I hadn't seen in a few months. It's good to see a lot of you. And we need each other. We're not built for shut down forever. We kind of need to go off for a weekend or whatever, and retire or not retire, but just retire from the routine. And in some ways, Paul says redeem the time. It means to buy back your life.

So what I'm saying is don't let this opportunity pass that we've had, look at it as an opportunity, even during the times of stress and trial that we've had. We've not necessarily been robbed of time, but we've been given an opportunity to recalibrate. And hopefully, we will use our time more wisely with each other and appreciate certain things or what we have been through. Make a list for yourself as to what makes your life worth living. I was talking with my eldest son a couple of weeks ago. He's not in the church and he's going through his own life and he was locked out of his office for a while and things were back into a normal routine there, but we were just talking about how it all was going and he realized and he said, "Dad, people aren't going to put up with this ongoing forever and ever because it robs people of the things that make life worth living." Whatever that might be for each individual, contact, a baseball game with real people. I mean, have you seen the cutouts that are in the stands? Give me a break.

I look at movies. When I watch a movie anymore and I see all these...even if it's made two years ago and I'm looking at a movie, I'm realizing that was a different time. Things have changed. And I find myself thinking about that, and you think there has been a big change. But what is it about your life that really makes your life worth living? Find that. Appreciate that. Cultivate that. Don't let it be ripped away. We've been in what is... One writer called a dress rehearsal during this period of time. I think that's a pretty apt description, a dress rehearsal for bigger things to come. So what have we learned? We're really only running with the footman right now. The horses are coming over the hill yet. We're still running with the footman. And then in verse six, Paul goes on to conclude this passage.

Colossians 4:6 He says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." This scripture has always fascinated me. I've only heard one other sermon given on this scripture in my whole history of the church, and that minister just focused in on verse six and gave a whole sermon on it. But let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt. That word grace there is the word Charis, which means kindness, attractiveness, pleasant charm, and all that we would think about with the term grace.

Again, in my research, Blue Letter Bible is really great for opening up very quickly a lot of behind-the-scenes meaning of these words. There was one meaning there that said this grace seasoned with salt is describing what they called a hallowed pungency. A hallowed pungency. I had never thought of it that way, never heard that put together, a hallowed pungency. So I looked up, what's pungent? Okay. What is pungent? Well, it means strong, powerful, something that's pervasive, it kind of fills the room. Penetrating is another way to understand pungency. "Let your speech be with grace seasoned with salt," and we know what Christ said about “we are the salt of the earth,” and salt is, you know, a very important seasoning. You know how many kinds of salts there are. There's lots of salt. We used to occasionally go into this little salt place there in Jungle Jam, Colonel D's...is that what it's called where they had all?

And we'd splurge every once in a while and buy some exotic salt. And I remember looking at one salt there, and a guy told me what it was. It was a Norwegian smoked salt. Wow, Norwegian smoked salt. Where did they get that out of? Did they dig up some Viking ship that had been down there for hundreds of years and there was salt there? Well, then he explained it all to me but there are all kinds of salt and there's some very good salt that just opens up food in a right way. But pungency.

You know, the other day, we said, "Let's make a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch." That's another great thing about being home, you can just, you know, have lunch with your wife at home. All right. Well, we've had three or four different cheeses. We pulled them out, and I said, "Hey, let's make an adult grilled cheese sandwich. Let's slice real thin some shallots, and let's cook them with some olive oil real slow and kind of caramelize them."

And you know what happens when you do that on a stove? You get this pungent odor going through the kitchen, through the house of cooking onions. It's great, isn't it? That's what pungent means, and try it. It really made a great grilled cheese sandwich. Paul says let your speech be kind of like that. It's strong. It's powerful. It's pervasive, you know. It lifts. It's good. Your speech should be like that. Mine should be like that as well. To give an answer, to speak to people, to engage people with words that are graceful, kind, uplifting, encouraging, yet strongly salted, if you will, in a right way with just enough. To be kind, but strong and direct. Gets to the point so that we know how to do that. And when you stop and think about that to give an answer in the right way, it means to speak with good language, but it also means to listen well so that when we do answer, because this is what he says, "That you may know how you ought to answer each one. We have to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. We do have to respond to each other as we engage with each other, and at times, in some very strong, direct pointed conversations from time to time. It means not only to speak with grace, seasoned with salt, but we have to listen first to be able to understand so that then we can speak to the need, speak to what the person is saying, speak to what the person really should hear, but do it with grace seasoned with salt.

When I think about this verse, I think of a lot of things. I think of the speech of a gentle kind person whose words have meaning. I think about speech that covers the other person I hear with kindness and hope and courage, words that banishes fear, uncertainty, speech that lifts the spirit, speech that's kind of like the sun that breaks through the gloom of a cloudy day, or like the sun that pops through rising on a clear morning after a night of rain, speech that motivates you to be a better parent, a better employee, a better Christian, speech that just lifts you kind of like a good song. You know, you can't hear a peaceful easy feeling without tapping your feet or just being lifted momentarily. You can't. I dare you. You just can't. The other day, a song popped up on my iTunes list. I don't know why. I guess I have it in my own personal collection, but it popped up. I hadn't listened to it for years. It's a song called "Voices on the Wind" done by an obscure group called Little Feat, but Linda Ronstadt did the vocals with them, "Voices on the Wind."

I heard that song 30 years ago, and it was at a time when I had a dip, all right. We had just moved to a new church area. The church had been kind of abused. We were brought in, and they didn't like me just for walking in the door before I even said anything. And so, there was a tension that I had to deal with. My dad was dying of cancer, and I was at that point in life, and I thought, "Oh, man, I just went into a dive for a few...a couple of three months." You know, just cloudy day, every day. And that song I found, "Voices on the Wind." I found a few other things, a lot of prayer and a lot Bible study, but I found that song and I started listening to it and along with everything else, it kind of helped me pull out of the dip. We all have those things that do that.

That's what it means to me to have words of grace seasoned with salt. We're in an interesting period of time and Paul wrote this letter to help the church pull it all together and to say, "This is how you get through it. This is how you maintain your faith, get your doctrine right, hold it all together. be prayerful, be watchful, keep Christ as the center of your hope, the sacred center of your life, use your time well, and live a life filled with grace. And doing that Paul is saying here we'll get through it all. It'll be all right. It's a good letter. It's a good passage. Good points for us all to keep in mind as we deal with our life.

[Mr. Gary Petty]: In 1942, the famous Norman Rockwell - Norman Rockwell was an illustrator. And you can still buy magazines today from the '40s and '50s back into the '30s of illustrations he did. And people frame them. You know, they'll take the magazines to take out the illustrations he did and frame them. You know, his paintings and so forth are worth a lot of money. And he actually did four paintings that became very famous. And they were called The Four Freedoms. He said the freedom to worship, the freedom of speech, the freedom from fear, and the freedom from want.

Now, it's interesting that these four paintings he did became posters. They were all over the United States for support of the war. And World War II broke out and, of course, when he did this, the war had already started. But as the war became more and more terrible, and it went on and on, people were inspired by his four freedoms. And these became very important posters. You can go online and look them up and look at them today. The freedom to worship, the freedom of speech, the freedom from fear, and the freedom from want.

You and I have lived in a nation that does have a lot of liberty, a lot of freedom. Compared to many places in the world, throughout history, we do have more freedom, and we take it for granted. And this freedom has also given us a prosperity, a prosperity that's been amazing. I mean, we live in the most prosperous country in the history of humanity. And yet, with all this liberty, why is it that we live in a country where so many people are in prisons? I mean, literally in prisons, but in prisons in their own home, in prisons in the fear that they express.

How many people are in the chains of crime, the chains of broken relationships, the chains of just minds filled with anxiety and fear, of hatred? I mean, we live in a world of broken people, and we live in a country of broken people. All this liberty and we're still broken people. Freedom and liberty did not solve the problems that we have.

We are here today because it's the last day of a season of Holy Days and which we celebrate, among other things, freedom. We talked about that at the Passover. We talked about it on the First Day of Unleavened Bread. I talked about it at the Passover service. And even before the Passover, I gave a sermon talking about how this time pictures Christ's victory. It is a time of God's victory.

We went through and showed how in Exodus, they were told that when they got together with their families to keep the Passover. They were to celebrate it as a time of victory. When they got together with their families to observe the Days of Unleavened Bread, they were told to tell their children, “This is because God brought us out of slavery.” So it's a time of victory. It's a time of coming out of slavery. We talk about that we rehearse that every single year. It's part of the gospel message.

You know, when Jesus brought the gospel, the good news of God's Kingdom, He talked about freedom and liberty. Let's go to John 8. So here we are. We're celebrating how through Jesus Christ, God has set us free from the bondage of sin. We've talked about that. The freedom of the human mind from the shackles, that just all human beings are in chains. All human beings are broken people. And the freedom that we can learn to experience that liberty and freedom, no matter what our external circumstances. So that's part of the gospel, but let's just go to John 8. We'll start here in verse 31, John 8, and let's start at verse 31.

John 8:31-33 – “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.’” So He's talking about the word that He gives, the teaching that He gives. And as people listen to that and they begin to respond to it, and they begin to live it, they become His disciples. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Now, what is that truth? Now, we're going to look at today what He means by this truth. There's a freedom that comes from this truth that He's talking about. The Jews, of course, at the time were a little bit... they were offended by this. Look what they said in verse 33. “They answered Him, ‘We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone.’ How can you say, ‘You will make us free’?” You know, it's interesting. They had been to the Babylonian captivity. Their ancestors had. They were actually under the thumb of Rome. They didn't have complete freedom that they wanted. There was a movement in Judea at the time to try to overthrow the Roman Empire. That's what the zealots did.

So you think about this. They said, “We've never been in bondage to any man.” What they're saying is, “We've always been God's people. We've always had God. We've always had His way. We've always kept His laws. So we are free. Of all people on earth, we're the most free because we are Abraham's children. We are part of a covenant God made with Abraham and that covenant's with us today.” So their argument here isn't just some kind of, you know, “Well, what do you mean? We're free people?” Their argument is based on “We're free because, in spite of our circumstances, God is with us. In spite of our circumstances, we are the children of Abraham. And God made a covenant with him and his descendants.” So this is what they're basing their freedom on.

Notice what Jesus says, the next verse. “And Jesus answered them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.’” He tells them no, you're actually still slaves. You don't know you're slaves. It's just like you're still in bondage in Egypt.

Now, for these people who, they trace their histories to the fact that they were freed from Egypt... Their ancestors were freed from Egypt by the power of God. That was central to their understanding of who they were. And for Jesus to say, “Oh, no, you're still slaves. And the Son,” -Himself- “Jesus Christ will set you free,” they hated Him for this. This attacked them at the core of their own identity, that somehow He was bringing a truth from God, and that it came from Him, it was about Him, and it would set them free. And they hated Him for it.

How come in the Church today, we still struggle? We have the gospel, we keep the Passover, we have God's Spirit, and we still struggle with our own slavery. We still struggle with our lack of feeling of freedom, our lack of feeling of liberty. You know, it's interesting when you look through the early New Testament Church, and you look at the four freedoms that Norman Rockwell painted, freedom to worship, many times throughout the history of the Church, there was no freedom to worship. You know, even in some of our lifetimes, if you go back into the Sabbatarians, who were in Ukraine, back under communism, they didn't have the freedom to worship. They had to sort of hide out many times going to someone's house to worship on the Sabbath or they could be persecuted. Freedom to worship is not something God's people have had a lot of throughout history.

The freedom of speech. How many times those who publicly proclaimed God's way have been persecuted, have been killed? You know, when you look at the apostles, well, we can see all of them were killed for proclaiming the gospel, except for John who was put in prison as an old man before it seems he spent the last few years of his life in Ephesus. The freedom from fear. You know, as Christians, we still experience fear.

Freedom from want. You know, when you look at the history of the Church, you will find there many times that the Church was made up of very poor people, people who struggled just to get through every day. There are people that are called by God in the Church of God today scattered throughout the world who live in a state of absolute want. Many of them living in fear, many of them living in places where they don't have freedom of speech, and they don't have freedom to worship.

And when you look at the early Church in the book of Acts, what you'll find is, is that many of the people that were non-Jews, as the gospel went out to the Gentiles and the Church began to expand, many of the people who came into the Church were actual slaves, I mean, actual slaves. They were owned by somebody else. The apostle Paul especially gives it a number of places, instructions on how slaves should react, and live with their masters. They were literal slaves with no way to get out of that.

I mean, the only way a slave could get out is if he was freed by his master. Sometimes, when they would get older, they might free them. Usually, they would not because well, if you freed them when they were older, they'd go out the street and die. So they would sort of take care of them. And there were good masters and bad masters. I say good and bad. If you're a slave, I don't think there's any good master. But there were masters who took care of their slaves. There were masters who didn't.

And slavery was throughout the Roman Empire. But it wasn't just an institution in the Roman Empire, which it was. Every culture had slaves. The Germanic tribes had slaves. If you go down into the Arab world, which was part of the Roman Empire, they had slaves. The Celtic peoples in Ireland and Scotland, who were not part of the Empire, had slaves. People in Africa had slaves. The Persians had slaves. The people who lived in what is now India had slaves. The people who lived in the Far East, and what little bit we know about China today, they had slaves. It was pretty much a universal thing on the earth. Throughout so many cultures, there was slavery. People owned other people. And yet Jesus came and said, “I've come to bring you liberty.” It's part of the gospel. Let's look at Luke 4.

The Jews thought they were free. And, you know, they did at the time, by the way, have freedom of religion. They had a temple there in Jerusalem. They were allowed to go to that temple. They weren't persecuted by the Romans, as long as they didn't try to break Roman laws. They had a lot of freedom. They had freedom of speech, in their own country, to preach their religion. Now, they didn't have freedom of speech to say anything against the Roman government, but they had a certain amount of freedom of speech. They didn't have total freedom from fear or for want, but you can't find any time in history where people didn't have some fear or some want. I mean real fear of daily survival.

You know, there's a lot of fear right now because of this crisis that we're going through. This crisis compared to what the average Christian has lived with throughout the years, this is minor. I'm not playing it down. I'm saying that as we... here we are at the Days of Unleavened Bread we talked about God's victory through Christ before the Days of Unleavened Bread. At the end of the Days of Unleavened Bread, I wanna talk about what that victory means in your life right now. What's it mean right now? And it means we should not be living in abject fear. Now, there's concern. Of course, there's a concern. There's nothing wrong with that. So let's go to Luke 6... or Luke, I'm sorry chapter 4. And let's start in verse 16. The first sermon given by Jesus Christ.

Luke 4:16-21 – “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up and read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And, when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written,” -and this is what He read to them- “‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to recover of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ And when He had closed the book, He gave it back to the attended and sat down, and the eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”

Jesus says, “This is why I've come. I am prophesied to do this. I am prophesied to bring sight to the blind.” But He didn't heal all the blind people in the world did He at the time? He didn't heal all the blind people in Judea. He didn't heal all the blind people in Galilee. He didn't free all of the captives. There wasn't some uprising as they overthrew the Roman Empire. But He came to give true liberty and true freedom. Well, how does He do that in our lives? If He's won the victory and He came to do that, but you and I still live in an oppressive time. We're oppressed because we're oppressed by Satan. There's gonna come a time when Christians are oppressed by the world we live in.

Now, Mr. Moss talked about how what Daniel had to go through because his value system and obeying God and God's ways were so different than the Babylonian system. You know, at the end time, what is formed is called Babylon. And there's gonna be the same kind of oppression against people who truly worship and follow the true God. But right now, right now, you have been called by the gospel to experience liberty, to experience freedom.

We were talking, Mr. Puckett, Mr. Moss and I, here before the service was started about hypnotism. And we're talking about I've never seen anybody actually hypnotized. Mr. Puckett said he has. Like, I've seen it on YouTube. Years ago, I watched a program where they showed some man that was a hypnotist. I think it was in Vegas or something. And he had people up on a stage. And he hypnotized them, and he had them act like chickens and do all kinds of wacko crazy things.

And, of course, when people are hypnotized, they tell them, “You won't remember anything,” and they wake up, and they don't remember it. But what's amazing is, is what they can get people to do. And sometimes they have to twist what they say. In other words, you couldn't get the average person to choke to death the person next to them. But if you convince them under hypnotism, the person next to them was a lion, and the only way you could kill it was the choke it, you might get them to actually do it.

But the interesting thing about hypnotism is you can have a person sitting in a chair, just sitting there. Arms and legs are free. They're free, they're free to get up and walk around. They're free to do whatever they want. And yet, under hypnotism, they can be told that they are chained to that chair, and they will believe and act as if they're chained to the chair. They just can't get out of it. That's what's so scary about post-hypnotic suggestions. People can go into a hypnotic state later because of what they've been through. But people can be put into... By their mind, by their mind, they can be put into a prison. They can be put in the chains, and yet they really aren't.

Satan deceives us into believing that we are in chains. Satan deceives us into believing we are still in prison. Christ came to free us from our prison, and he wants you to believe you're still in it. And he's trying to make us believe that we're still strapped to a chair, still chained down, still in shackles, and still in prison. And it's almost like he hypnotizes the world. And if we're not careful, we can slide back into that belief and become despondent because maybe of a sin we can't overcome or because of some other issues that's happening to us in our lives. I mean, it could be as you know, an inferiority complex or a superiority complex. I mean, all the things that we have in our minds, in our hearts and minds that Satan plays with to make us believe we're still captives but we're not. We have to realize that. We have to understand that.

So I wanna go through three things today, three ways, and tied into, you know, the Days of Unleavened Bread. We have been de-leavened. We have come out of Egypt. I mean, this is all about the fact that we are now free, free to follow God. We couldn't follow God before because we were hypnotized. Before God calls us we don't even know we're in a prison. After God calls us we see the shackles, we see the chains, we see the prison, and He begins to lead us out of it. And as I mentioned, the victory of Jesus Christ in that sermon, how many of us are still dragging the chains and shackles across the desert? It’s what we do. We take the prison with us because it's in our minds. It's in our own minds.

So let's look at three ways that we can sometimes not experience, reasons why we don't experience true freedom, the freedom that God has brought into our lives. And we won't totally experience our true freedom till we're changed. We're still going to be partly in this prison because Satan's still the god of this world, and we're oppressed by that. Other people oppress us, and because of our own corrupt human nature, but we are to be in the process of becoming free. And what does that mean?

Okay, the first point is, and this is counterintuitive for a lot of people, there can be no liberty without law. Now, if you stop and think about that it's obvious. Okay, we're all at liberty. There's no law. So that would mean you could steal, kill, cheat. You know, you can do whatever you wanted because everybody has total liberty. Oh, and of course, that's not true. Let's look at something that David wrote here in Psalm 119. I'm gonna read this from the “Jewish Publication Society” translation. We're gonna start at verse 33. So this is Psalm 119:33. I want you to see not only his viewpoint towards God's teachings and God's law, but I want you to see the effect it had on him. He writes about this. He says,

Psalm 119:33 – “Teach me, oh Lord, the way of your laws. I will observe them to the utmost.” Now, if you're reading it in the King James, it's very similar but just, this is so powerful the way it's translated more directly from the Hebrew. “Give me understanding, that I may observe Your teaching and keep it wholeheartedly. Lead me in the path of Your commandments for that is my concern.” This is what I'm concerned about. This is what I think about. This is what I want to do with my life.

“Turn my heart.” Now, notice how many different ways he says this. He's understanding. It's an intellectual exercise. It's reasoning out God's way. It's studying God's way. But he wants everything about himself to be changed. He wants freedom. David was in so many shackles in his life. He was many times in a prison of his own making just like you and I do. And when he saw what God actually taught, when he understood it, when he applied it to his life, he experienced some liberty. He says, “Turn my heart to your decrees, and not to the love of gain. Avert my eyes from seeing falsehood. By Your ways preserve me.” I knew a man one time took that verse, and put it on a big poster or big piece of paper and put it above his television. “Avert my eyes, from seeing falsehood. Fulfill Your promise to Your servant, which is for those who worship You.” Verse 41, “May your steadfast love...” -It says mercy in the King James, but this is, it's His love. He understood this was God's love towards him- “May Your steadfast love reach me, oh, Lord, Your deliverance, as You have promised.” Verse 45, this is the result of this desiring, this searching, this trying to draw close to God to learn His ways and live by them. He says, “I will walk about at ease, for I have turned to Your precepts.” If you're reading this in the King James or New King James, it says, “I will have liberty.”

David saw the laws of God as a way to freedom because he understood something. The more we break the laws of God, the more we are in a prison of our own doing. Now, you can break certain laws. You can go out and steal. You can, you know, bear false witness. You can murder somebody, and you're gonna end up literally without any freedom at all. In fact, the more of God's laws you break, the less freedom you have, whether literally, you're in a prison, a physical prison, or in your own mind. How many people are addicted to chemicals, which is their own prison?

I've counseled many people over the years everything from cocaine, of course, to alcohol. And listening to them describe the prison they're in or on the phone with them as they cry, literally just broken down because of what they're going through, a desire to go back to it or the fact that they have gone back to it and they're in a prison. We're all in an internal, if you will, an inner prison. And God has come or sent Jesus Christ to break us out of that prison. We should be experiencing what Jesus' first proclamation of the gospel was all about there in Luke. We should be experiencing that somewhat every day. Now, we don't completely yet because we're not completed yet.

The Days of Unleavened Bread we've been taking in the unleavened bread of truth. Remember what Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.” He doesn't free us from our circumstances, does He? He doesn't? God never promised to free all of us from the circumstances we're in. He does promise us a lot of things and one of them is freedom as we understand the truth. Let's go to James 1. James 1, we'll start at verse 21. James 1. I've actually wanted to give a series of either sermons or Bible studies just in the book of James. The Book of James has a remarkable letter that he wrote to the church. James 1:21.

James 1:21 – “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness.” As I've said before, this one of the strangest translations of it just means wickedness that leads to more wickedness that leads to more wickedness. “Overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.”

Okay, so the implanted Word. What Jesus Christ brought as the interpretation of the Scripture is the Word that is to be implanted into us. This book is implanted into us and His explanation of it as the Word of God. “But the doers of the Word and not the hearers only, deceiving themselves,” or, “Be doers, not of the Word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face at a mirror. And he observes himself, he goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he is,” or what kind of man he was.

And, of course, Paul uses this analogy too about looking into the mirror, a spiritual mirror, and we're supposed to see the reflection of Jesus Christ. And here, what James says is when we look into the spiritual mirror, which is the Word of God. And in the Word of God, we see who we really are. And we walk away from that, “Oh, that was good. I did my Bible study today, and off, I go to work.” Or, you know, “I cheat, and I'm dishonest, and I treat people badly.” And it's like, why did you do that? Go back and look in that mirror. We like to look in the mirror and see if other people look good. Now, the mirror is ourselves. It's supposed to be our reflection that we're looking at.

Now, notice the next verse, verse 25, “That he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” Now, notice he calls the Word of God that comes into us the law of liberty. He understands that without law, there is no liberty. There's chaos. Without law, there is people doing whatever they want, there's confusion, and that's not God's way. So we have to realize that law is part of liberty. Whenever you and I break a law of God, a little one, a big one, it doesn't matter. We look at the precepts of God. We look at what is taught in the Old and New Testaments. Every time we don't do what God wants us to do, we suffer a little bit of imprisonment. We suffer some chains. Only through doing what God wants can we ever really have freedom of our mind.

Now, having said that, also realize that if we just say, “Okay, Christianity is nothing more than me exerting myself to do the law. Okay, I'm just gonna exert myself and do the law, and then I'll have freedom,” that doesn't work either. I mean, the law is God explaining to us the difference between right and wrong. True Christianity is about a relationship with God, the Father, and with Jesus Christ, and God's Spirit in us. So if we simply look at Christianity as a set of rules, that's all this is about, and I do these rules, and somehow I earn some kind of favor with God through that, I earn my salvation, then you've just exchanged one form of slavery with another form of slavery because you will never find freedom. You will never find true freedom, the type of freedom that Jesus Christ brought as the gospel message.

So we have to have law. Without law, there can be no liberty, but law isn't all there is to this. So that's gonna bring me to my second point. Remember, the prison you and I live in is, much of the time it's in our own minds. It's in our own hearts. Think about it. Think about people who are hypnotized. Okay, they're hypnotized. They don't even know what they're doing. Somebody else is giving them suggestions and they do it. But God wakes us up. He calls us. We are removed from that. But unfortunately, there's still a lot of posthypnotic suggestions that are there that Satan tries to resurrect to bring back into us.

And so our nature has been corrupted. So what happens is, we live in this prison. And we can never be free. As long as you and I live in the prison of our own thoughts and emotions we are trapped. I read from Romans 6 and Romans 8 in the sermon about the victory Christ gives us. I'm gonna go back and read a couple verses I did not read. So let's go to Romans 6. Romans 6, we'll start at verse 12. Well, Romans was here this morning, Romans 6, and let's start verse 12.

Romans 6:12-15 – “Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lust. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourself to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace.”

So here he says, “Look, we can't give ourselves over to sin. We can't use our bodies to sin. We can't use our minds to sin because we are under God's grace. God has called us God woke us up. God said, you know, you were hypnotized.” Let me tell you what reality is okay. God's brought us out of that, which is what the Passover Days of Unleavened Bread are all about. So let's get this out. So he says, “You can't give your bodies and your minds over to the slavery of sin.” So He is freeing us from that slavery.

Let's look at verse 17. He says, “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine from which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” You know, remember, Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I'm telling you the truth, and you will become My disciples, and then you'll be set free.” Well, they didn't wanna be His disciples. There wasn't just Pharisees. There were there was all kinds of Jewish leaders. They didn't want to be disciples of Jesus Christ because “I'm already free. You know, God's already in my life. Why do I need your teachings? And who are you to say that you could set me free?” I mean, they were just offended by that.

Here, Paul is saying that we have to become slaves to God. We're gonna talk a little bit about that in a few minutes too. When Jesus died for us, He paid for us, and we have to accept God's ownership. I mean, God created us. We are His. All of creation is His. The sovereignty of God, Mr. Franke talked about that at Sabbath services, the sovereignty of God. We are His. We must accept that sovereignty. We also must accept the price paid, that God owns us.

Here's the great paradox of Christianity. The great paradox is to be free from the prisons we live in, the prison of our own mind, our own hearts. We have to become a slave. Wait, wait, wait. Isn't that... “What do you mean? To not be a slave, I have to become a slave?” Yes. To get out of this prison, we have to give everything we are to the One who bought us, who paid for us and owns us. Only when we trust that... Remember what we just read a few minutes ago, what David said, how he loved God's law, and he saw this as an expression of God's love to him? And because of that, he was at liberty. He was at ease. He wasn't oppressed. He wasn't in a prison anymore. Why wasn't he in a prison any more? Because he had become a slave to God.

Now, you say, “Well, okay, I have to be a slave to God.” We're gonna expand that out in just a minute. So stick with us here. See, mainly what the problem we have is that we spend our lives trying to find a physical solution to a spiritual problem. If I could just have a better job, if people just liked me more, if I would just have more money, if I would just have this or that or the other, if I just had a better status in life, if you know, other people wouldn't look down on me so much, you know, just if all these things could happen, if I could get all the pieces of the puzzle together, I would finally be free.

Well, if that's true, when you look at all the things that are available in the United States we would be the most free people there are, and we're not. Oh, we claim freedom. Yeah, freedom to what, commit abortion? Freedom to do all kinds of horrible things that do what? Create our own prisons. We're just a nation of people walking around in our own prison. The whole world is just people walking around in their own prison. Only through accepting God's absolute ownership over us and saying, “I'm Your slave. I give everything I have to You. What do You want me to do next, Lord? Master, Master, what do You want me to do next?”

We don't use the word Lord too much in just our society. Lord and master really are important words in the Bible. A lord meant he had ownership. He had rule over you. And this is more than submitting to God. It's surrender to God. And that means we have to have developed in us the fruit of the Spirit of self-control over our minds and our hearts, not just our actions, over our minds and our hearts. And remember, the self-control that is a fruit of the Spirit. This isn't something you and I could do it ourselves, or by ourselves. God has to develop it in us. God has to develop in us. We have to be submitting to His work in us so that we're not in a prison of our own making, a prison of our own hates, a prison of our own lust, a prison of our own lack of forgiveness, a prison of our own fears, a prison of our own selfishness. We live in these prisons miserable. Why are we miserable? Because we won't let Christ free us from the prison we're in. That's why. And we'll blame everybody else for it. We live in a prison and we blame everybody else. “It's my husband's fault. It's my wife's fault. It's my neighbor's fault. It's my kid's fault. It's my parent's fault. It's society's fault.” We just... Boy, that's a big one, just everybody. It's society's fault, right? As we blame everybody around us when the truth is the prison is of our own making. It's in our own mind.

And then a third point that I wanna bring out and I wanna go to Jeremiah 34 to make this point. The prophet Jeremiah was, of course, sent to Judah to get them to repent because if they didn't, God was going to punish them. Jeremiah 34 and let's start at verse 8 here. Jeremiah 34:8.

Jeremiah 34:8-11 – “This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people of Judah who are in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them.” So he came out and the king said, “Look, we have to turn back to God. And we have to find this freedom that God gives us through His Word, and through His teachings.” This liberty to them... Now, here's specifically what then he said, “That every man should set free his male and female slave, a Hebrew man or woman, that no one should keep a Jewish brother in bondage.” You see, in the law of God, if an Israelite owed somebody a great deal of money for some reason, and they couldn't pay it, they could become that person's servant. And until they paid it off, or for as much as six years. After the seventh year, they were free. Well, they obviously hadn't been doing this. So basically, the Jews here had made slaves out of each other. He says, “Now when all the princes and all the people had entered into the covenant heard, that everyone should be set free as male and female slaves and that no one should keep them in bondage anymore, they obeyed and let them go.” It was a time of liberty. They were letting their own people go out of bondage. But afterward, verse 11, “They changed their minds and made the male and female slaves return, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection as male and female slaves.”

You know, they thought, “You know, life was better when we had all these slaves, people to make our food for us, and fetcher water for us, and clean out the stables for us. And now we got to pay them to do this. Ah, I want my slaves back.” “Therefore, the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. “I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage, saying, ‘At the end of seven years, let every man set free his Hebrew brother that has been sold to him. When he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.’”’”

Yes, but they didn't obey that. Your fathers didn't obey this. Now recently, He says, “You did what was right. You're free to everybody.” He said, “Let's start all over again, liberty of the land, freedom from slavery.” Verse 17, “Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty. Everyone to his brother and everyone to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you’ says the Lord.” Here's the liberty you're going to get because of this, “To the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, and I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the Earth.”

Wow. He says, “You know, you were supposed to let free everybody and you refused to do it. Because it was more comfortable to keep slaves, it was more comfortable, and your life was better. You know, if your middle class or upper class it was better, but boy, it was nice to have these slaves.” And it must have been a fairly common practice for this to be this big of an issue. He said, “I told you to set them free so everybody could worship God.”

Now, under the law, if someone once again made some really bad decisions and ended up in poverty, you know, owing somebody money, you know, they didn't put them in debtor's prison. It's okay, you got to work it off. Well, many times those people would have their own house they would go to, and you know, they would still continue to live on their own. But they would have to work, you know, 70 hours a day or whatever it was paying off their debts. It says, “You couldn't free everybody. You had to bring them back.” He said, “Okay. Because of this, you're going to lose your liberty.” And that gives us a really important lesson here.

You know, we talked about our slavery to sin. We talk about the slavery we have to our own emotions and to our own thoughts. We all struggle with that. Here's an issue in which people of God lose their liberty because they oppress other people. This is a really important lesson for the Days of Unleavened Bread. Yes, we have the slavery of sin. Yes, we have the slavery of the prisons of our own minds, but we can lose our liberty that God has given to us because we oppress others. We treat others poorly. We constantly judge them harshly. We constantly just, you know, look down on other people.

You know, it's... I have actually seen people, you know, in a congregation judge the other people, always judge them. You know, you didn't do this right. You didn't do that right. They judge everybody's motives. They always feel superior. And then they go from sort of organization, organization, organization, until finally, you know, they have their own little church of 20 people in their house. And eventually, there's just them and their family because nobody is as good as them. And they've oppressed people all along. That's dangerous.

When we oppress people, we will begin to lose our liberty that God has given to us through Christ. An interesting lesson, isn't it? That's one we almost never think about. So we know we've been freed through the Passover sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We've been freed from the tyranny of sin. We still fight it, and sometimes we still lose but we're freed from it. We're moving forward in this battle. The victory is promised to us as long as we stay on the path to the Promised Land.

We've talked about the prisons that are in our own minds and hearts, which are sometimes the worst thing we have to deal with. And then we also have to deal with the fact that we can lose our liberty because we oppress other people. We see ourselves as better than other people. We have such a vanity and a self-righteousness that we lose the connection that God has with us.

When we go back to the New Testament, they lived in a world of the Roman Empire that was once again filled with slavery. And as I said, when you look through the writings, especially at Paul, many slaves were coming into the church. And this slavery was different than Hebrew slavery. This was absolute ownership where you were actually a piece of property. This was much worse than what Jewish slavery would have been with each other. And you see how God was upset with the fact that they wouldn't let people free every six years like they were supposed to.

So let's go to 1 Corinthians 7. And let's look at what Paul gives us in instructions to slaves because there's an important lesson here for us. Less, we are likely... The Jews before Jesus said, “Oh, I've never been in bondage to any man.” Well, we all have bondage to sin because that's what He said. “I've come to free you from sin.” He came to free us from ourselves and from this sort of hypnotic state that Satan has put us in. He's come to free us from oppressing each other. Verse 20, 1 Corinthians 7.

1 Corinthians 7:20 – “But each one remained in the same calling when she was called.” So he's talking about, you know, people are coming into the Church and they were from different... He even talks about here, if you look, if you're married to someone, and they're still a pagan, don't divorce them. Stay in that state. So he's trying to tell people, “Look, our circumstances can't control everything. We have to come in and be Christians, in spite of our circumstances.” He says, “Were you called, while a slave? Do not be concerned about it.” He said, “Well, do not be concerned about it? I have a bad master. He beats me every once in a while. This is bad.” He says, “Do not be concerned about it. But if you can be made free, rather use it.”

He says, “Now if you can be made free.” Being made free was tough. Usually, in the Roman Empire, the way you were made free is you worked a second job after you were done with all your slave work, which was, you know, much of the day, sometimes much of the night. You did a second job, and you saved up a little bit of money, sometimes for a lifetime, so you could pay off the master and be free. You know, so, and sometimes the master would require sort of a tax for even what you were making. So it was hard but he said, “If you can get free, that's great.” But he knew that most of the slaves could not.

He says, verse 22, “For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freeman. Likewise, he who is called while free is Christ's slave.” What a play on words. Paul sometimes had this way of using language. It's amazing. He says, “If you're a slave, Christ has made you free. You are to be free from sin. And you're to be free from the shackles of your own minds,” even though you're in a state of slavery, you can't get out of. I mean, to run away as a slave in the Roman Empire was a death sentence. So he says, “Okay, you can't get out of that but you're free. Now, those of you who think you're free, you're really a slave to Christ.” He's telling them they're all in the same boat. No matter what situation you're in here, you're all the same. We all have come into a relationship with God where we are slaves to Christ. Now, why are we slaves to Christ?

He says, verse 23, “You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men.” He says, you know, “Remember you are bought and paid for you are bought and paid for. And you're not really a slave to a man. You may be forced to act in slavery, but you are free in your heart and in your mind.” This is the freedom we have to look for. So much of the time we're still looking for freedom in physical things. You know, how many people are okay, they say, “Well, I don't use drugs, and I don't misuse alcohol,” but we're almost addicted to technology. We're addicted to entertainment. Why? We're looking for some kind of way to be released from the prison we're in.

Now, some entertainment's not bad but, I mean, you know, sometimes take the iPad away from your 13-year-old and see if they have a nervous breakdown. They may tell you something, okay. We have to realize we're being driven all the time, our careers, the size of our houses, the amount of property we have, our cars. It's not wrong to have a nice car. It's not wrong to have a nice property. It's not wrong to have a nice house. But if that's what we use to feel like we're not imprisoned instead of letting God free us from our sins, and from the slavery of our own minds, that's just temporary.

It doesn't solve anything you have been bought and paid for. That's the Passover. You have been de-leavened. That's the Days of Unleavened Bread. You have taken in the unleavened bread of Jesus Christ, the character, the mind of God through His Holy Spirit. We are to be free, and that sometimes has nothing to do with our circumstances.

Now we talked about being a slave. There's one other scripture that I want to conclude with and read here. And it's something that Jesus told the disciples on the night of the Passover. So let's go to John 15. John 15. We read parts of John 15 at the Passover service, but I didn't read this part. John 15, and we will start in verse 13. He says in verse 13,

John 15:13-15 – “Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer,” -Listen to this- “No longer do I call you servants.” He bought for us. He bought us, He paid a horrible price that you and I should have paid for ourselves, which, well, we would have to suffer eternal death.

We can't pay ourselves in accordance with the justice of God, in accordance with the justice of Jesus Christ. I mean, you know, the Father and the Son are not somehow different in how they look at justice and love. They're the same. He says, “No longer do I call you servants.” We become slaves, we become servants, you know, when we become disciples, we move on from that. And as we come out of this prison, more and more, something changes. He says, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what His master is doing. But I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose Me.” And this is for us today. You know, I didn't choose God. “But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.”

What a privilege. I mean, that goes way beyond a servant, doesn't it? We know Jesus Christ is our brother. He says, “No, I'm your friend too.” I'm your friend. I have never quite wrapped my mind entirely around that, that Christ sees us, sees me as a friend. You know, I understand the slave relationship. A friend relationship, that's amazing, absolutely amazing. That's what He told them on that Passover. Christ our Passover purchased us so that we can have liberty. We can be free. We still live in this Satan's world. It's still a prison, but you and I, the shackles of sin has been broken off of us. But snap out of the hypnotism. Ask God to awaken your heart and mind so that you can understand that you've created a prison for yourself. God didn't do it. God will help you out of that.

Now, you and I can't get out of it ourselves but He will help us. We have to submit, we have to follow, but He will do it. That's the victory I talked about a month ago. But now I'm talking about the result of that victory in your life right now, liberty and freedom, regardless of your circumstances. And in this relationship with Jesus Christ, we become His slave, we become His disciple, and then we become His friend. When He told those Jews, that as the Son of God, He was telling them the truth that would set them free and they were appalled by it. We become... God brings us into this relationship so that we become the slave of Jesus Christ, the disciple of Jesus Christ, and the friend of Jesus Christ. This is the truth that sets us free.

If you’ve ever been in jail or visited a prison of some kind, you know, brethren, how very difficult those conditions are and how depressing those environments are. I’ve been in various county jails, state facilities, federal prisons over the years as a visitor and I’m very glad to get out and I’m very sorry for those that have to stay there. You know, that whole system will change in the Kingdom of God but I did want to talk about a gentlemen who wrote inspired letters to God’s people, God’s elect, while he was in jail. In fact, some of the most encouraging words, brethren, in the Bible, in the New Testament, are written by a man who was incarcerated for years. Now, that’s an astounding thing, which I think often is lost as we read through those three Prison Epistles. We take them out of context historically and we read them - in a sense - the way they shouldn’t be read. I think, to really glean the true historical, spiritual significance of any book of the Bible, you have to put yourself in the author’s mind and in the author’s place. And I want to cover those three Prison Epistles with you. I think you all know who wrote them — and that, of course, was Paul, the Apostle Paul. They are known as the ‘Prison Epistles’. They are written about in many different commentaries and books. We haven’t covered that in quite a while, but I wanted to especially note the historical background and not necessarily the exegetical analysis of those three books.

So, let’s talk about the historical background; paint that for you first. And I do want you, brethren, to understand that when you read those three epistles or letters of Paul you should think about where he was at the time. Think about his mind-set, his environment. Most of you, brethren, and I have not been in jail or prison for any length of time where there are perhaps visitors visiting occasionally and encouraging those who need encouragement, but Paul was there. He was literally bound by some kind of chain — a very short chain according to the commentaries — to a Roman soldier the entirety of the two years he spent in prison in Rome. Now, he had virtually no privacy day or night because the interesting thing with the Roman system is that it worked. They had a very interesting way of demanding loyalty from the Roman soldiers who were very undereducated for the most part. And that is, if a prisoner escapes on your watch, guess what? You die! You get early retirement at the behest of the Roman Empire. You know that put all these soldiers on alert. ‘If I allow this prisoner to escape while I’m watching him, then that’s it for me.’ So even if you’re a little sleepy, a little bit indifferent, or maybe even thought the inmate, the prisoner was innocent, you weren’t about to let him go because it meant your life. So, these Romans were ruthless, but they were also very astute and they had a way of insuring that when you became a prisoner in the Roman Empire, you were a prisoner until they released you. There weren’t too many escapes, I dare say, from that system. There was Paul chained from his wrist to the soldier’s wrist for over two years — or around two years according to the book of Acts. Of course, I don’t think he really wanted to escape. He wanted to let God work this out and have its full course of action. But when he went into prison, brethren, he had no idea if he was going to get out of prison dead or alive — like the old TV show. He had no idea. We know from the book of Acts and other letters of history that he was released after that imprisonment. But at the time, of course, he didn’t know what the recourse was going to be or what the outcome was going to be.

So, let’s read these three letters of Paul. They are called the Prison Epistles. What are they? The books of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. We are going to read them in that order as they are in the New Testament. But let’s start with some background in the book of Acts, chapter 28 and verse 16. The 28th chapter of the book of Acts gives us some brief historical background of why Paul was in prison and some brief circumstances surrounding that. Actually, if we had the time, we could have a very interesting discourse, I think, earlier in the 28th chapter of Acts because remember he was on the island of Malta and this poisonous snake came out of the limbs or the sticks and latched onto him. I don’t know about you, but there is one critter in God’s creation that I just don’t like and that’s snakes. I just don’t like them. I don’t have any use for them. They’re wonderful, I’m sure, in their own way, but this viper latched onto him. He shook it off and the barbarians around him said, ‘Well, obviously, this man is bad. We’ll just let him go. We won’t help him.’ You know, nice friends, right? He didn’t feel any recourse or any disease coming into his system. The venom just was neutral. God evaporated it or whatever. But that is kind of a background on his journey to Rome. It wasn’t, certainly, on a cruise-line coming into Rome for a nice ten-day cruise. He got to Rome and notice what happens now next in verse 16.

Acts 28:16 And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was...allowed or...suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. So I believe that God was in that, God directed all of that.

Verse 17 It came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. So, he said, I’ve done nothing to merit this kind of treatment. Paul wasn’t there because he was a criminal, he was there because, frankly, there was hate among the Jews and God allowed Paul to go there in order to further the preaching of the gospel. And a wonderful witness it was in Rome for two years.

Then in verse 20. For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain. There it was. He was chained to a Roman soldier.

And then over in verse 23, And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; of whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. Brethren, this is mind-boggling to me that a man, whose fate is in the balance has such tenacity and faith, ‘I’m going to continue to do the work even though this is a very hard circumstance.’ Chained to a soldier, not knowing whether he was going to be alive in days or weeks ahead, he preached the kingdom of God to everyone around. Some believed, in verse 24, the things which were spoken, and others did not believe.

Dropping down to verse 30, Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house... we would call it house arrest today but that’s a very, I think, complimentary term or situation compared to what Paul really had. He wasn’t home. He wasn’t home, he was in Rome and he was with a guard all the time and, of course, that system was anything but a just system. But he did...receive all that came in unto him.

Verse 31, Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, and no man forbidding him. Brethren, this is a zealous apostle. This is a zealous man of God. We need to be that way. We cannot let Satan hinder God working though us and I’ve never, ever been in that circumstance. I’ve never been chained to a guard. Never really been in prison. But I hope, brethren, we appreciate what Paul is going to write about during those two years. They are called the Prison Epistles: Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. So that’s the background, historically. And, you know, I’d tell you, my human nature at that time would say, ‘Steve, the Work’s over. Let’s roll the sidewalks up. I’m in prison. Why would God allow this? Therefore, I can’t do anything.’ And the other reaction would be, ‘Where is God? God, I’m a faithful servant, why have you allowed this?’ And I would have the world’s biggest pitty-party for myself. ‘Woe is me! Hasn’t God loved me? Why has God allowed this.’

Now, that’s how my human nature would react to all of this. Not Paul. He zealously gave the truth during those two years of imprisonment. So let’s turn over to the first Prison Epistle, the book of Ephesians. In chapter 3 - we, of course, can’t go verse by verse in a sermon - but we will hit a few of the highlights of each of the three letters written from Rome while he was under house arrest (and that’s putting it nicely) under arrest in a carnal system, perhaps could lose his life at any time. And now we read chapter 3 verse 1 of Ephesians.

Eph. 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles... That’s all I want to read here in this particular section. I want, brethren, to highlight the phrase, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Not once did Paul ever say, I am a prisoner of Rome! Not once did he ever infer that or write that or dictate that. He said, I’m a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Brethren, it’s all about perspective. It’s all about our perspective. If Paul had been less than the minister and apostle he was, he could have said, ‘Paul, a prisoner of Rome — pagan, deadly Rome. You know what they do to people like me? You know, there’s no human rights here — there’s no civil rights, no human rights — there’s no Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in Rome, two-thousand years ago.’ Brethren, he said, ‘I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ and I'm happy to be one of His prisoners.’ That’s an astounding truth. You see, today mankind wants to be free. I don’t want any enshacklements; I don’t want anyone chaining me down. Well, Paul understood, brethren, that it’s a privilege to be committed to Jesus Christ as one of His people, one of His saints. He never said, ‘I’m a prisoner of Rome.’ He always had that unique perspective of a saint of God who is close to God.

You know, things can happen in your life and in mine and other people’s lives, but we all react differently to it, don’t we? We all react a little differently. It’s interesting, in a room you all see the same thing happen or you hear the same news at the same time and then to go around the table and hear each other give a discourse on or evaluation of the same material. It’s all about perspective, brethren. Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ - that’s quite a perspective and that’s what he is saying to the church here at Ephesus. We are, brethren, to serve Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that every day will be a bed of roses. There will be ups and downs. And here, Paul was a prisoner and said, you know these are not the best of circumstances, but on the other hand, God can work and He was working through these things.

This glass of water probably can’t portray it as well I’d like, but you know we use something like this to visually demonstrate that it’s all in your perspective. I guess I could drink some of this to being half full but I won’t. I want you to use your mind. Is this glass half full or half empty? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? You know, to Paul - he just saw basically full glasses. What can I do with that glass of water? He didn’t bemoan the fact that it wasn’t full of water or that it wasn’t artesian well, Perrier water — he just said, what can I do with what I have to do with. How can I serve God with what He has given me? I think it is a very interesting perspective and he certainly had the mind of Jesus Christ in that. So, brethren, the attitude really changes things in peoples lives. I tell you, it’s all about attitude. It’s all about perspective.

The same chapter of Ephesians, chapter 3 and verse 10. Let’s run over there. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God... now, instead of writing about his own circumstance, do you know what he was doing? He was preaching truth to God’s people and lifting their spirits. I don’t know how many times I have gone to someone’s home when they were going through a trial. I was thinking, well maybe I can encourage them a little bit through the visit. I leave that visit encouraged by someone going through really depressing times. And that’s what Paul was doing. He could have been depressed and really heavily in the blues, but he was giving truth and encouragement to those that he was writing to.

Notice, in verse 12. Eph 3:12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

And yet, as he was dictating this letter — probably Paul was dictating it and not writing it as he often did — he had this Roman guard listening to these words of the Gospel. I don’t know how long their shifts were, perhaps ten or twelve hour shifts. He might have had two different soldiers every day, every twenty-four hours. And, I imagine one or two of them got to be very close to Paul — not only just physically. What is he saying here? We can have boldness and we can have confidence in Christ? Well, who is this Christ? Are you crazy Paul? Do you know who you are? You are a prisoner of Rome! You have no rights. Of course, he was a Roman citizen and he was appealing on his Roman citizenship rights, but that’s a different — set that aside. He was still an inmate, still a prisoner.

It will be very interesting to talk with these guards in the Kingdom, won’t it? What was it like? What was Paul’s perspective? Did he ever get discouraged? They might say, well you know on occasion, but he would come right out of it. He was a dynamo, I think, is what they will tell us. He was a real man of faith, real charged up.

Well, chapter 4 is a chapter, and I guess the first fourteen, fifteen, sixteen verses we often turn to in God’s Church, talking about unity. And I guess, as a minister, I’ve turned to it dozens and dozens of times in sermons and Bible studies and you’ve heard it from many ministers over the years, brethren. But, you know, when we are going through what we would call a life-changing experience, it does just that. It changes you. And most of you of any age at all have been through some real life-changing circumstances. A severe trial. A test. It might have been a health problem. It could have been a financial problem. It could have been something else, but you know what happens when you go through some of those? Your perspective changes as I mentioned earlier. You get down to the brass tacks, as we say. What’s really important? Not the peripheral, not the extraneous, not the physical, you get down to what’s really important. And here Paul, in this letter, a Prison Epistle is telling the people of God in spite of his circumstances — was he going to live or die — he says, brethren, unity is very important. You’ve got to have that in the Church. You’ve got to stay unified. And that’s what he was telling the Church at Ephesus. Without unity, you’re going to have problems. That was what he was telling the Church at Ephesus. In fact, God inspired this and God put it in the Bible and it is for people of God for all times. Unity is extremely important to God! Disunity / disharmony is not, brethren, pleasing to God. He is pulling the Church together. He is pulling His people together. The Kingdom of God in the future, brethren, will not be a disunified, disjointed Kingdom.

Now we do read - I guess it’s in Zechariah chapter 14 - about Egypt, one nation who says, ‘We are going to pull out of the Kingdom of God. I mean, let all those nations serve Christ, have a representative go to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles like we’re told to do, we’re not going to do that. We’re different. We’re going to have disunity here.’ And God did not say, ‘Well that’s fine, I like disunity. I like some keeping my holy days and others don’t have to.’ That’s not going to happen! Oh, we know, brethren, what happens in the future as Zechariah 14 outlines that. So, when you really get down to it, unity is something Paul was saying was very important for God’s Church. We can’t really grow the way God wants us to grow without it.

I’ve given the story - and I heard it from a minister some years ago — at a world’s fair around the turn of the century (I’ve given that a couple of times locally) and they have this pull between mule teams. Now, that’s something you wouldn’t see anymore, they are now usually tractors. But, way back when, almost a hundred years ago, they had these mule teams pull. Well, the winning mule team, I guess they were in pairs, pulled perhaps (and I don’t remember exactly — didn’t bring my notes on it) maybe about 9,000 pounds. The second place team pulled maybe 7,000 pounds. That’s about 16,000 pounds combined, isn’t it? And so the audience, after the first pull said, why don’t you hitch up the two top mule teams. Let them harness together and pull together as a team. Well, you say, okay maybe they pull together 16,000; maybe they could pull 20,000. No, it was something like 30,000 pounds together. Now, we call it the law of synergy. You know, brethren, five of us can produce more than one or two of us. If you have a family of five you can do a lot more as a family of five pulling together than individuals of one. It’s just a truism, a fact of nature, a fact of reality.

So Paul was saying, harnessed together, working together, you grow a lot more - you produce a lot more. You know some brethren, and I think Satan is behind this, I think Satan can say the Gospel then, the true Gospel, can become basically narrowed down to parochial issues — a few little issues that somebody is upset about. I mean, the whole Gospel narrowed down to a couple of minor issues, but that become major. And I think that’s a shame. Paul exhorted these brethren to see the big picture and not let the petty issues hurt their zeal, their vision and their attitudes. Don’t listen to someone else who is reducing the Gospel down to a handful of personal issues. I mean, they are making the Gospel their few issues and they are trying to influence others. Well, brethren, it’s the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and that’s brought to us by Jesus Christ and God the Father. It’s their Gospel, not ours. We can’t pick away at it; we can’t diminish it into parochial, local or regional issues. That’s just wrong. So the Gospel is the Gospel and not to be reduced on a few minor issues from one person to the other.

Notice in Eph. Chapter 4 and verse 24 in this unity chapter we can say, Paul is saying ...put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This is what Paul wanted the brethren to be working on: changing and growing and seeing the wonderful opportunity for it. They weren’t in prison. They had jobs, they had health, they had opportunities - even though they were in the Roman Empire. He says, you can grow in Jesus Christ. You can develop. God will help you to do that.

In Eph. 6 and verse 11 he begins a very interesting section here - actually as he concludes the book, but he includes this, I think, rather interestingly. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. He said, our wrestling match is not physical, it’s spiritual. It’s real, he said.

Now, picture this, brethren, as you read these three books, again, where he was and the circumstances. As he is dictating these words about putting on the whole armor of God, he is chained with this short chain to a Roman guard, probably a grizzled veteran of wars. This guy has killed people; maimed people probably; has no concept of the true God. And yet, here is an apostle of Jesus Christ dictating the truth and saying, ‘You know I’m going to give a spiritual analogy about your armor and I can teach God’s people that way.’ And so, Paul begins to dictate what we are about to read. It’s a very interesting analogy. So, as he is dictating this he is looking up and down this guard of his for basically the inspiration.

It’s not noted here, but I want to talk about the Roman javelin. Paul talks about the Roman sword, but the Roman javelin was quite an invention. It was barbed to stick fast in its target. A lot of you have gone fishing and you know what a fishing hook is like. It has a barb on it. And this Roman javelin had a barb in it so it would stick fast in its target, the shaft bent upon impact so the weapon was too damaged to turn against the thrower. Again, why was Rome #1 one militarily for hundreds of years? Well, they had wonderful weapons. These superior weapons and this knowledge made the Romans invincible for centuries.

Let’s go back here to Eph. chapter 6 and let’s start in verse 14. Eph. 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth... so one thing that he starts with here is the belt, the belt wrapped around the soldier’s tunic and, of course, the sword hung from it. So Paul saw the tunic, but he also saw the leather belt. That way, that tunic would not get in the way of the soldier as he moved around. And, of course, it held the sword, which was a very primary offensive weapon. And then he compares that leather belt, he says, to the truth. Brethren, we have to have God’s truth wrapped around us. It’s not just a Sabbath thing. It’s not just for the festivals of God. This is us. It is what we are. The truth is what we believe in. In John 17, verse 17 Christ said, your word is truth. Your word is truth! Living by that word, having it anchor us and gird us and, in a sense, protect us because we are living that truth, we know that truth. We live by it. We appreciate it.

So Paul is talking about the truth of God, how important that is — to know it, to live it, to have it a part of us. Then he says in Eph. verse 14 ...having on the breastplate of righteousness. So he looks at the guard and says, obviously, you have this massive breastplate guarding your vital organs — very important. I mean, it only took one javelin, one flaming dart, to if not kill an enemy soldier to at least take him down to the point where he could not fight. So it made sense to protect the vital organs: the heart, the stomach, the other vital areas of the torso. So they had this plate of armor, sometimes mail armor - years and years later it was mail otherwise it was usually brass — to go around the body to protect those organs. Now, breastplate in the Greek here is thorax - thorax, one of our English words.

So what is, brethren, the breastplate for God’s people? He says, the breastplate of righteousness. Brethren, that is the confidence, the godly confidence of living the truth, having a close relationship with God and knowing that and living that way. The breastplate of righteousness. Someone, and certainly the enemy, cannot throw a fiery dart at you because you have a breastplate of righteousness on. You are one of His saints. You have faith in that. You pray about that. You’ve prayed for God’s help - His blessing and He gives you that. So the breastplate of righteousness, brethren, is that deep sense of companionship with God. Not a seared conscience, not ragged living, not up and down, but a day to day, week in and week out, month in and month out companionship and relationship with God.

The next analogy, Paul is looking at this guard, looking at his clothing and how he is decked out. He says in verse 15, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Well, maybe we don’t think too much of shoes, but back then a Roman soldier was no better than his sandals. You know, they did not fight on Astroturf. They fought in very rocky, hilly areas. They could easily hurt their feet, cut their feet, damage their feet. And once a soldier did that, he wasn’t worth much at all. He couldn’t continue the battle. So footgear was very important back then; it still is today. I know, in World War II there were many soldiers in the dead of winter - in the Battle of the Bulge, you name it - who got fungus, jungle rot in the Pacific area and they had to go back for R & R for weeks. It took them out of the front lines. So they had sandals — well designed sandals — to protect their feet so that they could stay mobile and Paul compares this to the gospel of peace. And I liken that, brethren, to having good relationships, positive relationships, relationships that are good for you and not poisonous for you. Sometimes we get into what are called toxic relationships. They immobilize us. It’s just like a foot that has a sore on it or a deep cut — you can’t move. So I think Paul could be writing about a sense of the gospel of peace — peaceful relationships, positive relationships with family, our spouse, God’s people — keeping those things right and solid and healing. So, the gospel of peace, he says, is important to the true Christian.

Then he goes on in verse 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The shield of faith. Paul is not writing here, brethren, about the small, round shield sometimes you see. He is talking about a very large piece of wood. They glue these two large pieces of wood together and it was thick enough that it would stop the fiery darts — literal fiery darts that were shot at them by the enemy or javelin spears that were thrown at them. He says, Above all, taking the shield of faith... You know, there was a soldier in one of the commentaries that I read, they named him by name, and the battle he was in. He counted the number of darts in his shield after the battle. Two hundred and twenty darts in the shield. You know, any one of those could have killed the man or immobilized him.

Now you wonder how many fiery darts we’ve had thrown at us over the years. How important, brethren, that shield of faith is! Sometimes you sense that this was quite a day, quite a week. Your shield of faith had to come into play a lot. I think I’ve felt that way at times; I think you have as well. So, the shield for any soldier was vitally important. It truly saved his life. I’ve seen on various television shows over the years, they basically could hide under that shield as the soldiers threw everything they had at them and they survived to go on and win the battle. Paul is drawing a very literal analogy between us as God’s soldiers and this Roman soldier who probably had a shield right there, probably had used it in battle to save his life. He says, ‘Christians, we need a shield of faith! Don’t go out into battle with Satin without one.’ We have to have faith. If you don’t, brethren, you’re going to get nicked and hit and those fiery darts of Satan, just like Paul said, are going to inflict you.

Now back then, two thousand years ago, even a fiery dart that just nicked the body generally was lethal. That wouldn’t be the case today. You would go in to a clinic, they would put in some antibiotics, they would clean you up and put a bandage on and out you go — maybe a tetanus shot or two. But the idea was to immobilize, just to injure that soldier. And that soldier didn’t die that day. He maybe died three or four days later, though, of infection, of blood loss and shock.

So, Satan doesn’t care, brethren, necessarily in terms of killing the soldiers of God whether it’s in one day’s action or whether we’re wounded and die off a year later. It doesn’t matter to him because the injury is there. We’ve let down the shield of faith, and we’re a victim. We’ve been hurt. We’ve been hit. We are a casualty of that spiritual war. So you cannot say enough about faith as one of God’s elect. You’ve got to have faith. If you don’t, Satan is there; fiery darts are there.

Let’s talk about a fiery dart and what it was like and how they made them. One of the most dangerous weapons in ancient warfare was the fiery dart. It was a dart tipped with tow, in other words hemp or yarn, dipped in pitch. The pitch soaked tow was set alight and the dart was thrown. The great, oblong shield was made of two sections of wood glued together. When the shield was presented to the dart, the dart sank into the wood and the flame was put out. And I mentioned how one soldier had two hundred and twenty hits on his shield. I don’t know how many hits you’ve had on your shield of faith — or me either, I guess we don’t have that. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if it’s been hundreds. How many do you think you’ve had? Thousands? Some weeks you might think, I’ve had a hundred even today! But Paul isn’t just making this up. He’s got a literal soldier next to him, he’s looking at his garment and saying, ‘brethren, we need — we need to fight.’ Just like this Roman soldier, we need to have the right instruments and the right garments to do the job.

Next, Paul talks about the helmet in verse 17 And take the helmet of salvation... What is that about? Of course, our helmets today for soldiers are a lot different from two thousand years ago. Generally, a Roman soldier wore some kind of brass helmet. Before that, they were leather. But obviously the head is very exposed, very vulnerable in battle. That’s one place you don’t look forward to getting hit, having an eye taken out or something like that. You can bleed a lot. You can be taken out of the battle. So a soldier always had a helmet and Paul likens that to salvation. You know, brethren, salvation is all over us — just like a helmet. It covers us head to toe. That’s the salvation of Jesus Christ. It protects us. It guards us against sin and eventually, eternal death. Without salvation through Christ we would not have life, we would not have spiritual life. So, salvation belongs on the head. It takes care of the entire body. It takes care of the soul, so to speak. Out eternal life is on the line. And so, have that helmet of salvation. Know that you have a Savior. Know that you have repented of your sins and know, brethren, that you are a begotten son of God.

And the next thing Paul writes about is the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. He tells us exactly what that sword symbolizes spiritually, but the sword generally was worn on the left side of the soldier. Why the left side? Well think about it. If you are right-handed, and your sword is over here on the right side cinched up to your leather belt, how fast can you get that sword out of the sheath? Try that right now. You’re all thumbs. In the meantime, while you are trying to get your sword out somebody’s put their sword into you. So it’s worn on the left side if you are right-handed. You just swing the right hand across the chest, grab the handle and out it comes in one fast movement. So, even as you take it out, it’s an offensive weapon just that fast. So if you were good, if you were trained well, if you were physically fit, this could be done within less than a second — have your sword out. It meant the difference between life and death.

Now the sword was not only an offensive weapon, but defensive. They often just clashed swords until they got the edge and then in they went. So, he says, our sword, brethren, is the living Word of God, the Bible. This is the Word. This is the Word. Christ was the Word and this is His written Word. Now we have to be ready for this. We have to be ready to take the Bible out of its sheath. In other words, in the sheath it is not going to help you — that sword. It’s not going to be offensive or defensive. We’ve got to know this Bible and use it. We’ve got to blow the dust off as we were told many years ago and study God’s Word. Study God’s Word. There’s a gold mine of truth here. We have to know what the Bible says about marital relationships, child rearing, finances, what are the basic doctrines of God, what about some of these so-called difficult scriptures - Colossians 2, Galatians 4 for a couple of them. Can we rightly use the Word of God to dispel those fiery darts of Satan and doubt? We’ve all been tested in recent years in some of those areas. No doubt, there will be other heresies try to make their way into the Church of God. So, yes, study the Word of God. We have Bible studies, we have the Good News Magazine, we have twenty-eight booklets so far, we have the correspondence course, we have sermons and Bible studies, we have ABC tapes coming out. There is so much, brethren, available to us. There are so many wonderful truths that we can learn about. But read the Bible. As you are reading these booklets and magazines, don’t forget — read the Book. Know that. Put it together.

So those are parts of what Paul wrote in the first Prison Epistle and I think it’s an amazing story. Though Paul was chained to a Roman soldier he says, I’m going to write about your garments. There’s a lot to be said, a lot of truth just in that last chapter of Ephesians. Let’s go to the next prison epistle, Philippians, chapter 1 and let’s notice verse 6.

Phil. 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

 

I think Paul was saying Christ will return in his lifetime. Later he realized that wasn’t going to be the case, but it is still appropriate. Christ, brethren, does not let us down. He does not forsake us when He begins to call, the Father calling us; Christ does not let us down. That’s what he is saying. Look at this. This is written by a man in prison, under house arrest. He never felt Christ had forsaken him. He didn’t doubt that. So I don’t care whether our circumstances, brethren, are rosy or not so rosy. There is faith; there is that shield of faith.

Verses 12 and 13 of this same chapter, verse 12 But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened to me... all of these could be looked on as negative circumstances and sore trials, but he says they ...have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; (13) So that my bonds in Christ are manifest... or clear, evident...in all the palace, and in all other places.

Now what is that all about? Is he just making this up? Is Paul kind of the Pollyanna of his day? I mean, here’s a real veteran apostle who, in fact, doesn’t have many more years to live. He’s been through a lot — fastings, shipwrecks, stonings — you know, all of that. And here he is saying in spite of this trial the Gospel is being preached more powerfully than I could ever imagine it could be preached. Well Paul, while he was a free man, never had a chance to witness and preach the gospel in Rome like that, not to Caesar’s court certainly.

Now there is some discussion, what does it mean, Caesar’s court? Palace in the Greek is praetorian and this verse in the Revised Version says my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout all the Praetorian Guard and to all the rest. I do think that’s a proper translation looking into it. Sure there are a couple of possible applications of what it means for palace, but for my money, I think it means the Praetorian Guard, which was the Imperial Guard of Rome. Now, this is a very high echelon, Roman guard. You were hand picked, hand selected by Caesar and by his top generals for staffing certain areas around Caesar’s palace and Caesar’s court and also, at times, the rest of Rome. So this is the elite of the corps, the Roman corps and here Paul is saying, I’ve had a chance actually to tell some of these men about the Kingdom of God. It’s not that I preached to them day and night in the sense of just throwing out the truth, but he says, look I’m going to preach the gospel to those that are willing to listen, those who are coming to this house and of course, I have a guy always chained to me anyway. So he’s going to get a lot and he is going to pass it on to his friends. Can you imagine, brethren, being one of these guards? And here, Paul is all excited about the gospel. He is preaching to some of the visitors coming into his house and that man gets off duty and he goes to some of his friends and he says, look, I’ve never seen anything like that. That guy is either crazy or he is truly special because he is talking about a whole different government, he is talking about the Creator God, he’s talking about faith, he’s talking about my shield and helmet and my shoes as being something about spiritual protection. I don’t understand spiritual, you know. Can you imagine conversations some of these fellows had with their friends off duty? Oh, he couldn’t have done that if Paul was a free man because you couldn’t get into those areas — didn’t have access to them. So, brethren, again, it’s perspective. Paul is writing as a prisoner and doing the work.

A little more about the Praetorian Guard, they had been instituted by Augustus and were a body of 10,000 troops. Later, they were dispersed throughout Rome — later on, Tiberius concentrated them just in Rome and built a fortified camp for them. Later on they were increased to sixteen thousand and they served for twelve and later for sixteen years. At the close of their term, they received Roman citizenship and a large pension. So it was a wonderful thing for any of the soldiers to be picked for the Imperial Guard for Caesar. That’s the kind of person that Paul was dealing with day in and day out.

Notice in verse 18 again in chapter 1: Phil. 1:18 What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached... Now he was just talking about some of his trials and perhaps other things people were going through, but he said, What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. That’s a powerful man of God.

Then he says in verse 19, For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ... Brethren, he is saying, ‘I am going to depend on you, brethren, to pray. I want you to pray for me. I want you to pray for my protection and I know that is going to actually help because you are going to get more of God’s spirit — a supply of God’s spirit when you are praying, when you are praying for others, you are doing this selflessly.’ So he is saying, ‘I want you to join the team, be a part of this ministry and a part of this work going on right here in Caesar’s court.’

Chapter 2 and verse 1: If there be any consolation in Christ, if there be any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, (2) Fulfill you my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.

Brethren, the title of my sermon is ‘Paul’s Prison Epistles — Short on Complaints and Long on Praise’. We haven’t seen any complaints yet, but a lot of joy, a lot of praise, a lot of thanksgiving by Paul. Short on complaints, long on praise - Paul’s Prison Epistles. Indeed, what a perspective!

Chapter 4 of Philippians, verse 1: Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Imagine getting a letter from Paul, whether you are a member at Ephesus, Philippi or Colosse, and Paul says, I am an apostle of Jesus Christ and it’s really tough. I don’t know, brethren, if God is going to save me and this is really bad and it’s just really negative and I just don’t know what to do. Imagine how that would negatively influence hundreds of people, as they would have these epistles read to them on the Sabbath day. But here, Paul in Philippians is especially screaming out of the top of his lungs saying, ...you are my joy. Stand fast in the lord, my dearly beloved. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t back off. Verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. What an astounding approach and perspective.

Sometimes this book has been called the book of joy or the book of praise because Paul so often in Philippians writes about joy and praise and thanksgiving. And again I just remind you, brethren, whenever you read these three letters, remember where Paul was. I think that’s pretty amazing — the power of God’s spirit — if we let God work, it is an amazing thing!

In verse 8 he talks about the positiveness of God’s spirit dwelling on those things that are true — and let me save some time by just highlighting the key words. So he says, highlight - think about - those things that are true and honest, you might say honorable today, those things that are just, pure, and those things that are lovely, those things that are of good report. And then he says, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, then he says, meditate — think - on those things. Again, a positiveness. Paul could have talked about the negative, the discouraging, the divisive, the rumors, the negativism because he had it. He could have said, boy, these soldiers stink, they ought to bathe occasionally, you know. They’ve got horrible breath. They’re foul mouthed. They’re talking about, you know, doing away with somebody. They’re telling about all the people they’ve hurt and massacred over the years. I mean, they’re negative guys. That’s all we have here. That’s not what he said in verse 8. He wasn’t dwelling on those things.

Then in verse 11 Not that I speak in respect of want... He says, I’m not complaining, just explaining. ... for I have learned... he said, I’ve already learned that... in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content...

Whoa, where was he? Rome? Not a really good place, not a fun place, a very pagan place, a very dangerous place for Christians. And where was he in Rome? Was he going to the Circus? Was he going to nice dinners? No! He was under arrest, waiting trial. Waiting trial, brethren, and guess who his judge ultimately would have been and was? A man by the name of Nero. You know Nero from church history. He was a guy who looked out his balcony one day and he got upset with all the slums he saw. He was offended by the slums. These poor Romans. Can’t they do better than that. They stink. I don’t like the view. This is my penthouse. I want a nice view. So he hired some people to torch these slums. Rome burned and, it says, while Nero fiddled. You know, it reminds you of a mad man in our day and age. Right? Killing others and not caring, saying he has done good. Then he had Rome rebuilt according to his master plan. This is not a man, brethren, you want to be judged by. So that’s what Paul had in his future. He didn’t know if he was going to make it through this arrest at all.

So he says in verse 11, I have learned to be content. Now, there is a word very close to content that is the opposite of it and what is that? He didn’t write, I have learned to be contentious. Now that is what life can teach a lot of people. I know some very contentious people out there. They’re hardened, they’re pretty obnoxious, they’re very verbal, they’re very abusive. They’ve learned to be contentious in life. That is what life has taught them to be. And the bumper sticker says ‘I get even’. I just don’t take it. I get even. I mean, that’s the carnal, satanic world out there. Do it to them before they do it to you. Paul said, look, I’m not contentious. I’m not fighting God. And you know who is in control of my attitude? I am. Paul never let these guys get the best of him. He never let the Roman system get him down because he was above that system. He was above it. That is what he was saying.

Notice, verse 12, I know both how to be abased... and he was being abased right there ...and I know how to abound... he was also abounding at the same time. And then he says, ...every where and in all things I am instructed... I learned, he said, I grow ...both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. (13) I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So what a perspective! What a special perspective Paul had. But anyone can have it. It’s available to all of God’s elect.

Let’s drop down to verse 22: All the saints salute you... as he concludes ...chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. That’s an interesting sidelight, that there were God’s people working on Caesar’s house staff. They might have been administrators. They could have been housekeepers. They could have been whatever. But they were God’s people. He said, right here - saints of God that are working in the house. Now Caesar could have had hundreds of people working, but he said some of them were God’s elect and they salute you. They greet you. And Paul knew them, was very close to them. I’m sure they were a very great comfort to him.

The last Prison Epistle — and again, the epistles are short on complaints and long on praise - short on complaints and long on praise. The book of Colossians. Turn with me over to chapter 4 and verse 3.

Col. 4:3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open to us a door of utterance... he said, would you pray with us that God would continue to open doors for us to preach the gospel, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. He said, ‘That’s why I am here. I’ve preached Christ, I’ve preached the truth and that’s why I’m here in arrest. Let’s pray’ he said, brethren, ‘for the truth to go out.’ That’s our job today too, brethren, pray that God would show us what to do and how to do it and for others to be called according to the Father’s design and according to His will.

So he didn’t complain. Didn’t complain. He was always thinking on the brethren, his mind was on God, on doing the work. No pitty-party for Paul. He didn’t want it, didn’t want to go there. He knew how dangerous that could be and how lonely he could be if he allowed himself to go into that approach and that mind-set.

Well, brethren, we know as we said in Acts chapter 28 at the beginning of this sermon that Paul was there for two years. He was tried, found innocent and released. He was released for a very short time to continue to do God’s work and then he was imprisoned a second time and he was executed at that time — evidently beheaded. Evidently beheaded. That’s how he lost his life while under arrest for the second time. That could have happened in 64 A.D. - 63 A.D. up to maybe 67 A.D. - but it was only perhaps a year or two after his release and then he did die as a martyr of God.

So we’ve seen briefly today, brethren, how these Prison Epistles were remarkable, they teach many truths to us today. We don’t have to be in prison, though, to learn these things. We can learn the truth of God as Paul knew that truth of God, being short on complaints and long on praise - valid truth for us today. We can learn to be more grateful, more full of praise to God in spite of our ups and downs and to see the big picture and not, brethren, see the small things. Let that armor of God really protect us. Let that shield of faith protect us as soldiers of Jesus Christ.

If you’ve ever been in jail or visited a prison of some kind, you know, brethren, how very difficult those conditions are and how depressing those environments are. I’ve been in various county jails, state facilities, federal prisons over the years as a visitor and I’m very glad to get out and I’m very sorry for those that have to stay there. You know, that whole system will change in the Kingdom of God but I did want to talk about a gentlemen who wrote inspired letters to God’s people, God’s elect, while he was in jail. In fact, some of the most encouraging words, brethren, in the Bible, in the New Testament, are written by a man who was incarcerated for years. Now, that’s an astounding thing, which I think often is lost as we read through those three Prison Epistles. We take them out of context historically and we read them - in a sense - the way they shouldn’t be read. I think, to really glean the true historical, spiritual significance of any book of the Bible, you have to put yourself in the author’s mind and in the author’s place. And I want to cover those three Prison Epistles with you. I think you all know who wrote them — and that, of course, was Paul, the Apostle Paul. They are known as the ‘Prison Epistles’. They are written about in many different commentaries and books. We haven’t covered that in quite a while, but I wanted to especially note the historical background and not necessarily the exegetical analysis of those three books.

So, let’s talk about the historical background; paint that for you first. And I do want you, brethren, to understand that when you read those three epistles or letters of Paul you should think about where he was at the time. Think about his mind-set, his environment. Most of you, brethren, and I have not been in jail or prison for any length of time where there are perhaps visitors visiting occasionally and encouraging those who need encouragement, but Paul was there. He was literally bound by some kind of chain — a very short chain according to the commentaries — to a Roman soldier the entirety of the two years he spent in prison in Rome. Now, he had virtually no privacy day or night because the interesting thing with the Roman system is that it worked. They had a very interesting way of demanding loyalty from the Roman soldiers who were very undereducated for the most part. And that is, if a prisoner escapes on your watch, guess what? You die! You get early retirement at the behest of the Roman Empire. You know that put all these soldiers on alert. ‘If I allow this prisoner to escape while I’m watching him, then that’s it for me.’ So even if you’re a little sleepy, a little bit indifferent, or maybe even thought the inmate, the prisoner was innocent, you weren’t about to let him go because it meant your life. So, these Romans were ruthless, but they were also very astute and they had a way of insuring that when you became a prisoner in the Roman Empire, you were a prisoner until they released you. There weren’t too many escapes, I dare say, from that system. There was Paul chained from his wrist to the soldier’s wrist for over two years — or around two years according to the book of Acts. Of course, I don’t think he really wanted to escape. He wanted to let God work this out and have its full course of action. But when he went into prison, brethren, he had no idea if he was going to get out of prison dead or alive — like the old TV show. He had no idea. We know from the book of Acts and other letters of history that he was released after that imprisonment. But at the time, of course, he didn’t know what the recourse was going to be or what the outcome was going to be.

So, let’s read these three letters of Paul. They are called the Prison Epistles. What are they? The books of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. We are going to read them in that order as they are in the New Testament. But let’s start with some background in the book of Acts, chapter 28 and verse 16. The 28th chapter of the book of Acts gives us some brief historical background of why Paul was in prison and some brief circumstances surrounding that. Actually, if we had the time, we could have a very interesting discourse, I think, earlier in the 28th chapter of Acts because remember he was on the island of Malta and this poisonous snake came out of the limbs or the sticks and latched onto him. I don’t know about you, but there is one critter in God’s creation that I just don’t like and that’s snakes. I just don’t like them. I don’t have any use for them. They’re wonderful, I’m sure, in their own way, but this viper latched onto him. He shook it off and the barbarians around him said, ‘Well, obviously, this man is bad. We’ll just let him go. We won’t help him.’ You know, nice friends, right? He didn’t feel any recourse or any disease coming into his system. The venom just was neutral. God evaporated it or whatever. But that is kind of a background on his journey to Rome. It wasn’t, certainly, on a cruise-line coming into Rome for a nice ten-day cruise. He got to Rome and notice what happens now next in verse 16.

Acts 28:16 And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was...allowed or...suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. So I believe that God was in that, God directed all of that.

Verse 17 It came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. So, he said, I’ve done nothing to merit this kind of treatment. Paul wasn’t there because he was a criminal, he was there because, frankly, there was hate among the Jews and God allowed Paul to go there in order to further the preaching of the gospel. And a wonderful witness it was in Rome for two years.

Then in verse 20. For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.There it was. He was chained to a Roman soldier.

And then over in verse 23, And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; of whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. Brethren, this is mind-boggling to me that a man, whose fate is in the balance has such tenacity and faith, ‘I’m going to continue to do the work even though this is a very hard circumstance.’ Chained to a soldier, not knowing whether he was going to be alive in days or weeks ahead, he preached the kingdom of God to everyone around. Some believed, in verse 24,the things which were spoken, and others did not believe.

Dropping down to verse 30, Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house... we would call it house arrest today but that’s a very, I think, complimentary term or situation compared to what Paul really had. He wasn’t home. He wasn’t home, he was in Rome and he was with a guard all the time and, of course, that system was anything but a just system. But he did...receive all that came in unto him.

Verse 31, Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, and no man forbidding him. Brethren, this is a zealous apostle. This is a zealous man of God. We need to be that way. We cannot let Satan hinder God working though us and I’ve never, ever been in that circumstance. I’ve never been chained to a guard. Never really been in prison. But I hope, brethren, we appreciate what Paul is going to write about during those two years. They are called the Prison Epistles: Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. So that’s the background, historically. And, you know, I’d tell you, my human nature at that time would say, ‘Steve, the Work’s over. Let’s roll the sidewalks up. I’m in prison. Why would God allow this? Therefore, I can’t do anything.’ And the other reaction would be, ‘Where is God? God, I’m a faithful servant, why have you allowed this?’ And I would have the world’s biggest pitty-party for myself. ‘Woe is me! Hasn’t God loved me? Why has God allowed this.’

Now, that’s how my human nature would react to all of this. Not Paul. He zealously gave the truth during those two years of imprisonment. So let’s turn over to the first Prison Epistle, the book of Ephesians. In chapter 3 - we, of course, can’t go verse by verse in a sermon - but we will hit a few of the highlights of each of the three letters written from Rome while he was under house arrest (and that’s putting it nicely) under arrest in a carnal system, perhaps could lose his life at any time. And now we read chapter 3 verse 1 of Ephesians.

Eph. 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles... That’s all I want to read here in this particular section. I want, brethren, to highlight the phrase, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Not once did Paul ever say, I am a prisoner of Rome! Not once did he ever infer that or write that or dictate that. He said, I’m a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Brethren, it’s all about perspective. It’s all about our perspective. If Paul had been less than the minister and apostle he was, he could have said, ‘Paul, a prisoner of Rome — pagan, deadly Rome. You know what they do to people like me? You know, there’s no human rights here — there’s no civil rights, no human rights — there’s no Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in Rome, two-thousand years ago.’ Brethren, he said, ‘I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ and I'm happy to be one of His prisoners.’ That’s an astounding truth. You see, today mankind wants to be free. I don’t want any enshacklements; I don’t want anyone chaining me down. Well, Paul understood, brethren, that it’s a privilege to be committed to Jesus Christ as one of His people, one of His saints. He never said, ‘I’m a prisoner of Rome.’ He always had that unique perspective of a saint of God who is close to God.

You know, things can happen in your life and in mine and other people’s lives, but we all react differently to it, don’t we? We all react a little differently. It’s interesting, in a room you all see the same thing happen or you hear the same news at the same time and then to go around the table and hear each other give a discourse on or evaluation of the same material. It’s all about perspective, brethren. Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ - that’s quite a perspective and that’s what he is saying to the church here at Ephesus. We are, brethren, to serve Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that every day will be a bed of roses. There will be ups and downs. And here, Paul was a prisoner and said, you know these are not the best of circumstances, but on the other hand, God can work and He was working through these things.

This glass of water probably can’t portray it as well I’d like, but you know we use something like this to visually demonstrate that it’s all in your perspective. I guess I could drink some of this to being half full but I won’t. I want you to use your mind. Is this glass half full or half empty? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? You know, to Paul - he just saw basically full glasses. What can I do with that glass of water? He didn’t bemoan the fact that it wasn’t full of water or that it wasn’t artesian well, Perrier water — he just said, what can I do with what I have to do with. How can I serve God with what He has given me? I think it is a very interesting perspective and he certainly had the mind of Jesus Christ in that. So, brethren, the attitude really changes things in peoples lives. I tell you, it’s all about attitude. It’s all about perspective.

The same chapter of Ephesians, chapter 3 and verse 10. Let’s run over there. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God... now, instead of writing about his own circumstance, do you know what he was doing? He was preaching truth to God’s people and lifting their spirits. I don’t know how many times I have gone to someone’s home when they were going through a trial. I was thinking, well maybe I can encourage them a little bit through the visit. I leave that visit encouraged by someone going through really depressing times. And that’s what Paul was doing. He could have been depressed and really heavily in the blues, but he was giving truth and encouragement to those that he was writing to.

Notice, in verse 12. Eph 3:12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

And yet, as he was dictating this letter — probably Paul was dictating it and not writing it as he often did — he had this Roman guard listening to these words of the Gospel. I don’t know how long their shifts were, perhaps ten or twelve-hour shifts. He might have had two different soldiers every day, every twenty-four hours. And, I imagine one or two of them got to be very close to Paul — not only just physically. What is he saying here? We can have boldness and we can have confidence in Christ? Well, who is this Christ? Are you crazy Paul? Do you know who you are? You are a prisoner of Rome! You have no rights. Of course, he was a Roman citizen and he was appealing on his Roman citizenship rights, but that’s a different — set that aside. He was still an inmate, still a prisoner.

It will be very interesting to talk with these guards in the Kingdom, won’t it? What was it like? What was Paul’s perspective? Did he ever get discouraged? They might say, well you know on occasion, but he would come right out of it. He was a dynamo, I think, is what they will tell us. He was a real man of faith, real charged up.

Well, chapter 4 is a chapter, and I guess the first fourteen, fifteen, sixteen verses we often turn to in God’s Church, talking about unity. And I guess, as a minister, I’ve turned to it dozens and dozens of times in sermons and Bible studies and you’ve heard it from many ministers over the years, brethren. But, you know, when we are going through what we would call a life-changing experience, it does just that. It changes you. And most of you of any age at all have been through some real life-changing circumstances. A severe trial. A test. It might have been a health problem. It could have been a financial problem. It could have been something else, but you know what happens when you go through some of those? Your perspective changes as I mentioned earlier. You get down to the brass tacks, as we say. What’s really important? Not the peripheral, not the extraneous, not the physical, you get down to what’s really important. And here Paul, in this letter, a Prison Epistle is telling the people of God in spite of his circumstances — was he going to live or die — he says, brethren, unity is very important. You’ve got to have that in the Church. You’ve got to stay unified. And that’s what he was telling the Church at Ephesus. Without unity, you’re going to have problems. That was what he was telling the Church at Ephesus. In fact, God inspired this and God put it in the Bible and it is for people of God for all times. Unity is extremely important to God!Disunity / disharmony is not, brethren, pleasing to God. He is pulling the Church together. He is pulling His people together. The Kingdom of God in the future, brethren, will not be a disunified, disjointed Kingdom.

Now we do read - I guess it’s in Zechariah chapter 14 - about Egypt, one nation who says, ‘We are going to pull out of the Kingdom of God. I mean, let all those nations serve Christ, have a representative go to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles like we’re told to do, we’re not going to do that. We’re different. We’re going to have disunity here.’ And God did not say, ‘Well that’s fine, I like disunity. I like some keeping my holy days and others don’t have to.’ That’s not going to happen! Oh, we know, brethren, what happens in the future as Zechariah 14 outlines that. So, when you really get down to it, unity is something Paul was saying was very important for God’s Church. We can’t really grow the way God wants us to grow without it.

I’ve given the story - and I heard it from a minister some years ago — at a world’s fair around the turn of the century (I’ve given that a couple of times locally) and they have this pull between mule teams. Now, that’s something you wouldn’t see anymore, they are now usually tractors. But, way back when, almost a hundred years ago, they had these mule teams pull. Well, the winning mule team, I guess they were in pairs, pulled perhaps (and I don’t remember exactly — didn’t bring my notes on it) maybe about 9,000 pounds. The second place team pulled maybe 7,000 pounds. That’s about 16,000 pounds combined, isn’t it? And so the audience, after the first pull said, why don’t you hitch up the two top mule teams. Let them harness together and pull together as a team. Well, you say, okay maybe they pull together 16,000; maybe they could pull 20,000. No, it was something like 30,000 pounds together. Now, we call it the law of synergy. You know, brethren, five of us can produce more than one or two of us. If you have a family of five you can do a lot more as a family of five pulling together than individuals of one. It’s just a truism, a fact of nature, a fact of reality.

So Paul was saying, harnessed together, working together, you grow a lot more - you produce a lot more. You know some brethren, and I think Satan is behind this, I think Satan can say the Gospel then, the true Gospel, can become basically narrowed down to parochial issues — a few little issues that somebody is upset about. I mean, the whole Gospel narrowed down to a couple of minor issues, but that become major. And I think that’s a shame. Paul exhorted these brethren to see the big picture and not let the petty issues hurt their zeal, their vision and their attitudes. Don’t listen to someone else who is reducing the Gospel down to a handful of personal issues. I mean, they are making the Gospel their few issues and they are trying to influence others. Well, brethren, it’s the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and that’s brought to us by Jesus Christ and God the Father. It’s their Gospel, not ours. We can’t pick away at it; we can’t diminish it into parochial, local or regional issues. That’s just wrong. So the Gospel is the Gospel and not to be reduced on a few minor issues from one person to the other.

Notice in Eph. Chapter 4 and verse 24 in this unity chapter we can say, Paul is saying ...put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This is what Paul wanted the brethren to be working on: changing and growing and seeing the wonderful opportunity for it. They weren’t in prison. They had jobs, they had health, they had opportunities - even though they were in the Roman Empire. He says, you can grow in Jesus Christ. You can develop. God will help you to do that.

In Eph. 6 and verse 11 he begins a very interesting section here - actually as he concludes the book, but he includes this, I think, rather interestingly. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. He said, our wrestling match is not physical, it’s spiritual. It’s real, he said.

Now, picture this, brethren, as you read these three books, again, where he was and the circumstances. As he is dictating these words about putting on the whole armor of God, he is chained with this short chain to a Roman guard, probably a grizzled veteran of wars. This guy has killed people; maimed people probably; has no concept of the true God. And yet, here is an apostle of Jesus Christ dictating the truth and saying, ‘You know I’m going to give a spiritual analogy about your armor and I can teach God’s people that way.’ And so, Paul begins to dictate what we are about to read. It’s a very interesting analogy. So, as he is dictating this he is looking up and down this guard of his for basically the inspiration.

It’s not noted here, but I want to talk about the Roman javelin. Paul talks about the Roman sword, but the Roman javelin was quite an invention. It was barbed to stick fast in its target. A lot of you have gone fishing and you know what a fishing hook is like. It has a barb on it. And this Roman javelin had a barb in it so it would stick fast in its target, the shaft bent upon impact so the weapon was too damaged to turn against the thrower. Again, why was Rome #1 one militarily for hundreds of years? Well, they had wonderful weapons. These superior weapons and this knowledge made the Romans invincible for centuries.

Let’s go back here to Eph. chapter 6 and let’s start in verse 14. Eph. 6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth... so one thing that he starts with here is the belt, the belt wrapped around the soldier’s tunic and, of course, the sword hung from it. So Paul saw the tunic, but he also saw the leather belt. That way, that tunic would not get in the way of the soldier as he moved around. And, of course, it held the sword, which was a very primary offensive weapon. And then he compares that leather belt, he says, to the truth. Brethren, we have to have God’s truth wrapped around us. It’s not just a Sabbath thing. It’s not just for the festivals of God. This is us. It is what we are. The truth is what we believe in. In John 17, verse 17 Christ said, your word is truth. Your word is truth! Living by that word, having it anchor us and gird us and, in a sense, protect us because we are living that truth, we know that truth. We live by it. We appreciate it.

So Paul is talking about the truth of God, how important that is — to know it, to live it, to have it a part of us. Then he says in Eph. verse 14 ...having on the breastplate of righteousness. So he looks at the guard and says, obviously, you have this massive breastplate guarding your vital organs — very important. I mean, it only took one javelin, one flaming dart, to if not kill an enemy soldier to at least take him down to the point where he could not fight. So it made sense to protect the vital organs: the heart, the stomach, the other vital areas of the torso. So they had this plate of armor, sometimes mail armor - years and years later it was mail otherwise it was usually brass — to go around the body to protect those organs. Now, breastplate in the Greek here is thorax - thorax, one of our English words.

So what is, brethren, the breastplate for God’s people? He says, the breastplate of righteousness. Brethren, that is the confidence, the godly confidence of living the truth, having a close relationship with God and knowing that and living that way. The breastplate of righteousness. Someone, and certainly the enemy, cannot throw a fiery dart at you because you have a breastplate of righteousness on. You are one of His saints. You have faith in that. You pray about that. You’ve prayed for God’s help - His blessing and He gives you that. So the breastplate of righteousness, brethren, is that deep sense of companionship with God. Not a seared conscience, not ragged living, not up and down, but a day to day, week in and week out, month in and month out companionship and relationship with God.

The next analogy, Paul is looking at this guard, looking at his clothing and how he is decked out. He says in verse 15, And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Well, maybe we don’t think too much of shoes, but back then a Roman soldier was no better than his sandals. You know, they did not fight on Astroturf. They fought in very rocky, hilly areas. They could easily hurt their feet, cut their feet, damage their feet. And once a soldier did that, he wasn’t worth much at all. He couldn’t continue the battle. So footgear was very important back then; it still is today. I know, in World War II there were many soldiers in the dead of winter - in the Battle of the Bulge, you name it - who got fungus, jungle rot in the Pacific area and they had to go back for R & R for weeks. It took them out of the front lines. So they had sandals — well-designed sandals — to protect their feet so that they could stay mobile and Paul compares this to the gospel of peace. And I liken that, brethren, to having good relationships, positive relationships, relationships that are good for you and not poisonous for you. Sometimes we get into what are called toxic relationships. They immobilize us. It’s just like a foot that has a sore on it or a deep cut — you can’t move. So I think Paul could be writing about a sense of the gospel of peace — peaceful relationships, positive relationships with family, our spouse, God’s people — keeping those things right and solid and healing. So, the gospel of peace, he says, is important to the true Christian.

Then he goes on in verse 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. The shield of faith. Paul is not writing here, brethren, about the small, round shield sometimes you see. He is talking about a very large piece of wood. They glue these two large pieces of wood together and it was thick enough that it would stop the fiery darts — literal fiery darts that were shot at them by the enemy or javelin spears that were thrown at them. He says, Above all, taking the shield of faith... You know, there was a soldier in one of the commentaries that I read, they named him by name, and the battle he was in. He counted the number of darts in his shield after the battle. Two hundred and twenty darts in the shield. You know, any one of those could have killed the man or immobilized him.

Now you wonder how many fiery darts we’ve had thrown at us over the years. How important, brethren, that shield of faith is! Sometimes you sense that this was quite a day, quite a week. Your shield of faith had to come into play a lot. I think I’ve felt that way at times; I think you have as well. So, the shield for any soldier was vitally important. It truly saved his life. I’ve seen on various television shows over the years, they basically could hide under that shield as the soldiers threw everything they had at them and they survived to go on and win the battle. Paul is drawing a very literal analogy between us as God’s soldiers and this Roman soldier who probably had a shield right there, probably had used it in battle to save his life. He says, ‘Christians, we need a shield of faith! Don’t go out into battle with Satin without one.’ We have to have faith. If you don’t, brethren, you’re going to get nicked and hit and those fiery darts of Satan, just like Paul said, are going to inflict you.

Now back then, two thousand years ago, even a fiery dart that just nicked the body generally was lethal. That wouldn’t be the case today. You would go into a clinic, they would put in some antibiotics, they would clean you up and put a bandage on and out you go — maybe a tetanus shot or two. But the idea was to immobilize, just to injure that soldier. And that soldier didn’t die that day. He maybe died three or four days later, though, of infection, of blood loss and shock.

So, Satan doesn’t care, brethren, necessarily in terms of killing the soldiers of God whether it’s in one day’s action or whether we’re wounded and die off a year later. It doesn’t matter to him because the injury is there. We’ve let down the shield of faith, and we’re a victim. We’ve been hurt. We’ve been hit. We are a casualty of that spiritual war. So you cannot say enough about faith as one of God’s elect. You’ve got to have faith. If you don’t, Satan is there; fiery darts are there.

Let’s talk about a fiery dart and what it was like and how they made them. One of the most dangerous weapons in ancient warfare was the fiery dart. It was a dart tipped with tow, in other words hemp or yarn, dipped in pitch. The pitch soaked tow was set alight and the dart was thrown. The great, oblong shield was made of two sections of wood glued together. When the shield was presented to the dart, the dart sank into the wood and the flame was put out. And I mentioned how one soldier had two hundred and twenty hits on his shield. I don’t know how many hits you’ve had on your shield of faith — or me either, I guess we don’t have that. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if it’s been hundreds. How many do you think you’ve had? Thousands? Some weeks you might think, I’ve had a hundred even today! But Paul isn’t just making this up. He’s got a literal soldier next to him, he’s looking at his garment and saying, ‘brethren, we need — we need to fight.’ Just like this Roman soldier, we need to have the right instruments and the right garments to do the job.

Next, Paul talks about the helmet in verse 17 And take the helmet of salvation... What is that about? Of course, our helmets today for soldiers are a lot different from two thousand years ago. Generally, a Roman soldier wore some kind of brass helmet. Before that, they were leather. But obviously, the head is very exposed, very vulnerable in battle. That’s one place you don’t look forward to getting hit, having an eye taken out or something like that. You can bleed a lot. You can be taken out of the battle. So a soldier always had a helmet and Paul likens that to salvation. You know, brethren, salvation is all over us — just like a helmet. It covers us head to toe. That’s the salvation of Jesus Christ. It protects us. It guards us against sin and eventually, eternal death. Without salvation through Christ we would not have life, we would not have spiritual life. So, salvation belongs on the head. It takes care of the entire body. It takes care of the soul, so to speak. Out eternal life is on the line. And so, have that helmet of salvation. Know that you have a Savior. Know that you have repented of your sins and know, brethren, that you are a begotten son of God.

And the next thing Paul writes about is the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. He tells us exactly what that sword symbolizes spiritually, but the sword generally was worn on the left side of the soldier. Why the left side? Well think about it. If you are right-handed, and your sword is over here on the right side cinched up to your leather belt, how fast can you get that sword out of the sheath? Try that right now. You’re all thumbs. In the meantime, while you are trying to get your sword out somebody’s put their sword into you. So it’s worn on the left side if you are right-handed. You just swing the right hand across the chest, grab the handle and out it comes in one fast movement. So, even as you take it out, it’s an offensive weapon just that fast. So if you were good, if you were trained well, if you were physically fit, this could be done within less than a second — have your sword out. It meant the difference between life and death.

Now the sword was not only an offensive weapon, but defensive. They often just clashed swords until they got the edge and then in they went. So, he says, our sword, brethren, is the living Word of God, the Bible. This is the Word. This is the Word. Christ was the Word and this is His written Word. Now we have to be ready for this. We have to be ready to take the Bible out of its sheath. In other words, in the sheath it is not going to help you — that sword. It’s not going to be offensive or defensive. We’ve got to know this Bible and use it. We’ve got to blow the dust off as we were told many years ago and study God’s Word. Study God’s Word. There’s a gold mine of truth here. We have to know what the Bible says about marital relationships, child rearing, finances, what are the basic doctrines of God, what about some of these so-called difficult scriptures - Colossians 2, Galatians 4 for a couple of them. Can we rightly use the Word of God to dispel those fiery darts of Satan and doubt? We’ve all been tested in recent years in some of those areas. No doubt, there will be other heresies try to make their way into the Church of God. So, yes, study the Word of God. We have Bible studies, we have the Good News Magazine, we have twenty-eight booklets so far, we have the correspondence course, we have sermons and Bible studies, we have ABC tapes coming out. There is so much, brethren, available to us. There are so many wonderful truths that we can learn about. But read the Bible. As you are reading these booklets and magazines, don’t forget — read the Book. Know that. Put it together.

So those are parts of what Paul wrote in the first Prison Epistle and I think it’s an amazing story. Though Paul was chained to a Roman soldier he says, I’m going to write about your garments. There’s a lot to be said, a lot of truth just in that last chapter of Ephesians. Let’s go to the next prison epistle, Philippians, chapter 1 and let’s notice verse 6.

Phil. 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

I think Paul was saying Christ will return in his lifetime. Later he realized that wasn’t going to be the case, but it is still appropriate. Christ, brethren, does not let us down. He does not forsake us when He begins to call, the Father calling us; Christ does not let us down. That’s what he is saying. Look at this. This is written by a man in prison, under house arrest. He never felt Christ had forsaken him. He didn’t doubt that. So I don’t care whether our circumstances, brethren, are rosy or not so rosy. There is faith; there is that shield of faith.

Verses 12 and 13 of this same chapter, verse 12 But I would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened to me... all of these could be looked on as negative circumstances and sore trials, but he says they ...have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; (13) So that my bonds in Christ are manifest... or clear, evident...in all the palace, and in all other places.

Now what is that all about? Is he just making this up? Is Paul kind of the Pollyanna of his day? I mean, here’s a real veteran apostle who, in fact, doesn’t have many more years to live. He’s been through a lot — fastings, shipwrecks, stonings — you know, all of that. And here he is saying in spite of this trial the Gospel is being preached more powerfully than I could ever imagine it could be preached. Well Paul, while he was a free man, never had a chance to witness and preach the gospel in Rome like that, not to Caesar’s court certainly.

Now there is some discussion, what does it mean, Caesar’s court? Palace in the Greek is praetorian and this verse in the Revised Version says my bonds became manifest in Christ throughout all the Praetorian Guard and to all the rest. I do think that’s a proper translation looking into it. Sure there are a couple of possible applications of what it means for palace, but for my money, I think it means the Praetorian Guard, which was the Imperial Guard of Rome. Now, this is a very high echelon, Roman guard. You were hand picked, hand selected by Caesar and by his top generals for staffing certain areas around Caesar’s palace and Caesar’s court and also, at times, the rest of Rome. So this is the elite of the corps, the Roman corps and here Paul is saying, I’ve had a chance actually to tell some of these men about the Kingdom of God. It’s not that I preached to them day and night in the sense of just throwing out the truth, but he says, look I’m going to preach the gospel to those that are willing to listen, those who are coming to this house and of course, I have a guy always chained to me anyway. So he’s going to get a lot and he is going to pass it on to his friends. Can you imagine, brethren, being one of these guards? And here, Paul is all excited about the gospel. He is preaching to some of the visitors coming into his house and that man gets off duty and he goes to some of his friends and he says, look, I’ve never seen anything like that. That guy is either crazy or he is truly special because he is talking about a whole different government, he is talking about the Creator God, he’s talking about faith, he’s talking about my shield and helmet and my shoes as being something about spiritual protection. I don’t understand spiritual, you know. Can you imagine conversations some of these fellows had with their friends off duty? Oh, he couldn’t have done that if Paul was a free man because you couldn’t get into those areas — didn’t have access to them. So, brethren, again, it’s perspective. Paul is writing as a prisoner and doing the work.

A little more about the Praetorian Guard, they had been instituted by Augustus and were a body of 10,000 troops. Later, they were dispersed throughout Rome — later on, Tiberius concentrated them just in Rome and built a fortified camp for them. Later on they were increased to sixteen thousand and they served for twelve and later for sixteen years. At the close of their term, they received Roman citizenship and a large pension. So it was a wonderful thing for any of the soldiers to be picked for the Imperial Guard for Caesar. That’s the kind of person that Paul was dealing with day in and day out.

Notice in verse 18 again in chapter 1: Phil. 1:18 What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached... Now he was just talking about some of his trials and perhaps other things people were going through, but he said, What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. That’s a powerful man of God.

Then he says in verse 19, For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ... Brethren, he is saying, ‘I am going to depend on you, brethren, to pray. I want you to pray for me. I want you to pray for my protection and I know that is going to actually help because you are going to get more of God’s spirit — a supply of God’s spirit when you are praying, when you are praying for others, you are doing this selflessly.’ So he is saying, ‘I want you to join the team, be a part of this ministry and a part of this work going on right here in Caesar’s court.’

Chapter 2 and verse 1: If there be any consolation in Christ, if there be any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, (2) Fulfill you my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind.

Brethren, the title of my sermon is ‘Paul’s Prison Epistles — Short on Complaints and Long on Praise’. We haven’t seen any complaints yet, but a lot of joy, a lot of praise, a lot of thanksgiving by Paul. Short on complaints, long on praise - Paul’s Prison Epistles. Indeed, what a perspective!

Chapter 4 of Philippians, verse 1: Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Imagine getting a letter from Paul, whether you are a member at Ephesus, Philippi or Colosse, and Paul says, I am an apostle of Jesus Christ and it’s really tough. I don’t know, brethren, if God is going to save me and this is really bad and it’s just really negative and I just don’t know what to do. Imagine how that would negatively influence hundreds of people, as they would have these epistles read to them on the Sabbath day. But here, Paul in Philippians is especially screaming out of the top of his lungs saying, ...you are my joy. Stand fast in the lord, my dearly beloved. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t back off. Verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. What an astounding approach and perspective.

Sometimes this book has been called the book of joy or the book of praise because Paul so often in Philippians writes about joy and praise and thanksgiving. And again I just remind you, brethren, whenever you read these three letters, remember where Paul was. I think that’s pretty amazing — the power of God’s spirit — if we let God work, it is an amazing thing!

In verse 8 he talks about the positiveness of God’s spirit dwelling on those things that are true — and let me save some time by just highlighting the keywords. So he says, highlight - think about - those things that are true and honest, you might say honorable today, those things that are just, pure, and those things that are lovely, those things that are of good report. And then he says, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, then he says, meditate — think - on those things. Again, a positiveness. Paul could have talked about the negative, the discouraging, the divisive, the rumors, the negativism because he had it. He could have said, boy, these soldiers stink, they ought to bathe occasionally, you know. They’ve got horrible breath. They’re foul mouthed. They’re talking about, you know, doing away with somebody. They’re telling about all the people they’ve hurt and massacred over the years. I mean, they’re negative guys. That’s all we have here. That’s not what he said in verse 8. He wasn’t dwelling on those things.

Then in verse 11 Not that I speak in respect of want... He says, I’m not complaining, just explaining. ... for I have learned... he said, I’ve already learned that... in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content...

Whoa, where was he? Rome? Not a really good place, not a fun place, a very pagan place, a very dangerous place for Christians. And where was he in Rome? Was he going to the Circus? Was he going to nice dinners? No! He was under arrest, waiting trial. Waiting trial, brethren, and guess who his judge ultimately would have been and was? A man by the name of Nero. You know Nero from church history. He was a guy who looked out his balcony one day and he got upset with all the slums he saw. He was offended by the slums. These poor Romans. Can’t they do better than that. They stink. I don’t like the view. This is my penthouse. I want a nice view. So he hired some people to torch these slums. Rome burned and, it says, while Nero fiddled. You know, it reminds you of a mad man in our day and age. Right? Killing others and not caring, saying he has done good. Then he had Rome rebuilt according to his master plan. This is not a man, brethren, you want to be judged by. So that’s what Paul had in his future. He didn’t know if he was going to make it through this arrest at all.

So he says in verse 11, I have learned to be content. Now, there is a word very close to content that is the opposite of it and what is that? He didn’t write, I have learned to be contentious. Now that is what life can teach a lot of people. I know some very contentious people out there. They’re hardened, they’re pretty obnoxious, they’re very verbal, they’re very abusive. They’ve learned to be contentious in life. That is what life has taught them to be. And the bumper sticker says ‘I get even’. I just don’t take it. I get even. I mean, that’s the carnal, satanic world out there. Do it to them before they do it to you. Paul said, look, I’m not contentious. I’m not fighting God. And you know who is in control of my attitude? I am. Paul never let these guys get the best of him. He never let the Roman system get him down because he was above that system. He was above it. That is what he was saying.

Notice, verse 12, I know both how to be abased... and he was being abased right there ...and I know how to abound... he was also abounding at the same time. And then he says, ...everywhere and in all things I am instructed... I learned, he said, I grow ...both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. (13) I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So what a perspective! What a special perspective Paul had. But anyone can have it. It’s available to all of God’s elect.

Let’s drop down to verse 22: All the saints salute you... as he concludes ...chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. That’s an interesting sidelight, that there were God’s people working on Caesar’s house staff. They might have been administrators. They could have been housekeepers. They could have been whatever. But they were God’s people. He said, right here - saints of God that are working in the house. Now Caesar could have had hundreds of people working, but he said some of them were God’s elect and they salute you. They greet you. And Paul knew them, was very close to them. I’m sure they were a very great comfort to him.

The last Prison Epistle — and again, the epistles are short on complaints and long on praise - short on complaints and long on praise. The book of Colossians. Turn with me over to chapter 4 and verse 3.

Col. 4:3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open to us a door of utterance... he said, would you pray with us that God would continue to open doors for us to preach the gospel, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds. He said, ‘That’s why I am here. I’ve preached Christ, I’ve preached the truth and that’s why I’m here in arrest. Let’s pray’ he said, brethren, ‘for the truth to go out.’ That’s our job today too, brethren, pray that God would show us what to do and how to do it and for others to be called according to the Father’s design and according to His will.

So he didn’t complain. Didn’t complain. He was always thinking on the brethren, his mind was on God, on doing the work. No pitty-party for Paul. He didn’t want it, didn’t want to go there. He knew how dangerous that could be and how lonely he could be if he allowed himself to go into that approach and that mind-set.

Well, brethren, we know as we said in Acts chapter 28 at the beginning of this sermon that Paul was there for two years. He was tried, found innocent and released. He was released for a very short time to continue to do God’s work and then he was imprisoned a second time and he was executed at that time — evidently beheaded. Evidently beheaded. That’s how he lost his life while under arrest for the second time. That could have happened in 64 A.D. - 63 A.D. up to maybe 67 A.D. - but it was only perhaps a year or two after his release and then he did die as a martyr of God.

So we’ve seen briefly today, brethren, how these Prison Epistles were remarkable, they teach many truths to us today. We don’t have to be in prison, though, to learn these things. We can learn the truth of God as Paul knew that truth of God, being short on complaints and long on praise - valid truth for us today. We can learn to be more grateful, more full of praise to God in spite of our ups and downs and to see the big picture and not, brethren, see the small things. Let that armor of God really protect us. Let that shield of faith protect us as soldiers of Jesus Christ.