The Speech of the New Man, Part 2

Colossians 4:2-6

Colossians chapter 4 verses 2 through 6. Now remember that the book of Colossians is a defense of the sufficiency of Christ. False teachers had come into the city of Colossae and were trying to deny that Christ was sufficient, they were trying to deny that all you needed was Jesus Christ and they were saying - No, you need Christ plus a certain human philosophy. You need Christ plus the Mosaic Law. You need Christ plus certain mystical relationships to angelic beings. You need Christ plus a certain life of self-denial. And so they were really denying the sufficiency of Christ. And in rebuttal to that the great climax of the book comes in two passages; one was alluded to earlier, it's in the first chapter where he discusses the sufficiency of Christ who is the image of the invisible God and by Him were all things made and He has all power and so forth and so on, and in the second great climactic statement is in chapter 2 verse 10 which says; "And you are complete in Him." So the argument of the book then is that in spite of the errorists teaching Christ is indeed sufficient. Christ is all we need.

And he establishes that in the first two chapters. Now having established that Christ is sufficient he begins then in chapter 3 to show what it means to have that sufficiency in Christ. If Christ is sufficient to redeem me, if He has given me new life, if He has given to me eternal life or resurrection life what does that mean to me? Well, such a new life, says Paul, demands a new lifestyle. And so chapter 3 and chapter 4 discuss the new lifestyle of the new man in Christ. And we've been looking at it ever since we began the third chapter. The first four verses define the new life. And from verses 5 through chapter 4 verse 6, where we'll stop tonight, we see the new lifestyle that should accompany the new life.

Now among some of the things that we've looked at, and we're not going to take time to go back over them tonight, but among some of the things that we've looked at is this whole idea of the lifestyle of a Christian as related to his mouth, or what a Christian speaks. When we become new creatures, we saw last week, our speech should conform to that new creation. It's ... It's kind of like accents. When you leave a certain country and you go to live in another country or when you leave a certain part of the United States, particularly the deep south, and you wind up in the far west or the north, eventually after a certain amount of time you begin to lose your accent. And essentially that is what Paul is saying. He is saying when you become a Christian you ought to be ... you ought to begin to lose the accent of the world. Your speech ought to mark you out as something different. In fact you ought to begin to identify with the heavenly language.

I know that whenever I go, particularly Latin American countries, it isn't long before I'm speaking sort of...sort of a Spanish flavored English. Because you hear them speak it, pretty soon you wind up speaking the same thing. And giving it the same tone and the same flavor and sort of ... sort of changing your English to conform to poor Spanish-English. You pick up the customs of the people. I've noticed that too when I was in England, you begin to speak like the English. You don't even realize you're doing it but you sort of get into the thing and you identify with it. And essentially Paul is saying that. When you become a believer you begin to lose the old accent and you begin to pick up the new accent of the new lifestyle in Christ. And that's essentially what he's saying here. Your mouth ought to match your new life. There ought to be a change in the use of your mouth and the things that you speak.

So, Christ is sufficient to make us new creatures. And as new creatures we live in a new society, in a new state before God, in a new lifestyle that demands a new accent. And we ought to drop the accent of the world and take on the habits of speech conforming to the family in which we belong. And I think a good model for this is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. I've studied this before but I was running it through my mind again this week, one of the greatest studies you'll ever make in the Bible is to study the mouth of Jesus. And just go through the New Testament and catalog everything Jesus said. One that has meant a great deal to me is this one in Matthew 5:2; "And He opened His mouth and taught them." That's a great thought, isn't it? He opened His mouth and out came instruction. Matthew 5:2.

And there are other things we find about the mouth of Jesus. There inthe book of Luke and there are many but I'll just give you a couple of illustrations. "And all bore Him witness," Luke 4:22, "and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth." He opened His mouth and taught. He opened His mouth and spoke with grace, graciously or gently or courteously, becomingly. In Luke chapter 11 verse 54, and Luke seems to be somewhat preoccupied with the words of Jesus but in Luke 11, 1 think it's verse 54, it says that they were laying wait for Him and seeking to catch something out of His mouth that they might accuse Him. And we all know that they never ever were able to do it.

And the New Testament tells us that a... in the book of James that a man in whose mouth there is no deceit and who makes no error with his mouth is a perfect man. And Jesus never did make an error with His mouth.

In John chapter 6 and verse 63 again in reference to the mouth of Jesus it says; "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."

In I Peter chapter 2 and verse 22 again regarding the mouth of Jesus; "Who did no sin neither was guile found in His mouth." He never said a word that would deceive anybody or trick anybody or hook anybody or cover up anytruth.

And that's just four little looks at the mouth of Jesus, or five. You can study it for yourself and He's the model.

So that the new man has a new mouth and he begins to speak with a new accent. He begins to lose the accent of the world. Now what comes out of this new mouth? Well, four things that Paul deals with here in chapter 4 verses 2 to 6. And we mentioned one last time.

The first distinct element in the speech of the new manis the speech of prayer, verse 2. Let me read it again; "Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving." Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Now the first characteristic of the speech of the new man is prayer. The new man speaks to God.

We saw last time that the words continue in prayer have to do with a strong persevering committed continual beseeching of God. And we pointed out, basically, that there are two thoughts there. When it says continue in prayer or pray without ceasing or in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known, this idea of continual prayer, first of all, has the concept of being God-conscious. It has the idea of just having God in the front of your mind so that no matter what happens instantly you respond by taking it to God. You see a good thing you thank God. You see a bad thing you beseech God on behalf of it. It's that quick to respond to the presence of God so that I'm always on the verge of a conversation with God in the light of any event that occurs. That's praying without ceasing.

But we saw that continue in prayer, the root meaning of the word in the Greek means to be courageous and bold and persistent. So that it isn't just the idea of a floating God-consciousness but it's the idea of a hanging in there, persevering praying, burdened until God does something. And we saw the illustrations of it in the gospel of Luke in the 11th and the 18th chapter. We saw that where there's perseverance and importunity and persistence that God answers just because of that.

Paul Sailhamer and I were discussing this and he suggested this week a good illustration of that. I'd like you to look at it in Nehemiah chapter 1. And this is an illustration of both of those concepts in prayer. Nehemiah in chapter 1 endeavors to prepare himself in a time of prolonged prayer. He says in verse 4; "It came to pass when I heard these words (relative to the destruction of his city Jerusalem and its broken down condition) I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. And I said I beseech Thee, 0 Lord God of heaven, the great and awe inspiring God, who keepeth covenant and mercy for them who love him and observe His commandments. Let Thine ear now be attentive, Thine eyes open that Thou mayest hear the prayer of Thy servant which I pray before Thee day and night." And here is a man who is continuing in prayer and it is not just a floating God-consciousness, it is an importunity, it is a persistence, it is like Jacob, it is hanging on to God and saying I won't let go till You bless me. And he's beseeching and beseeching and beseeching day and night. And that's the one kind.

And then it's interesting to note that he's brought before King Artaxerxes in chapter 2. Let's look at it. Verse 1; "It came to pass in the month Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave it to the king." He, of course, was the official wine taster for the king. "Now I had not been sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said to me, Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? It is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very much afraid and said to the king, Let the king live forever." Which is an official thing you've got to say to kings now and then to keep them happy. "Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchers lieth waste and its gates are consumed with fire. The king said to me, For what dost thou make request?" Now watch. "So I prayed to the God of heaven."

Now here is the other dimension. This isn't prolonged continual prayer; this is just grabbing a quickie. In other words, he is going to have an opportunity right now to hit a very important moment in his life so he grabs a prayer. That's that floating God consciousness that causes Nehemiah to have the first reaction in every situation toward God. So in chapter I you see the prolonged idea and in chapter 2 you see the God-consciousness that makes a man trigger his thought toward God in the moment of stress or the moment of an event. So that's what we're seeing.

Now back to Colossians chapter 4. We're seeing here in the concept of continue in prayer both of those realities. The idea of a continuing concept and the idea of grabbing God into your conscious thought any moment that any event crosses your path. So we learned about that.

And we also learned that we are to watch. You can't pray without seeing what's going on and we are to be thankful. Thanksgiving is a very vital part of prayer. It might be interesting for you to note that you will remember that the Apostle Paul upon the writing of the book of Colossians was a prisoner. And so when he says continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving it has some guts to it because of his situation, he was a prisoner.

If you'd read Psalm 69 you would find for one example the spirit of David who continually is pouring out his heart to God over a very situation but through it all is woven the spirit of thanksgiving. And the thanksgiving comes because he has absolute confidence that God is going to work things to his benefit.

In Psalm 116, you don't need to look at it, but I'll just read you something here--"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. 0 Lord, truly I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds, I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving." In other words, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints and even if that happens I will thank You. Now that's the right attitude. Thanksgiving even in death.

Here is Paul in prison, still thankful. So the mouth of the new man, then, has the speech of prayer coming from it. It is strong prayer, persistent prayer, watchful prayer and grateful prayer.

But let's look at the second. The second element of speech is the speech not of prayer but verse 3 and 4; the speech of proclamation. The speech of proclamation. In the new man's mouth utters this, notice verse 3, and Paul links it up with prayer as a prayer request; "Praying also for us that God would open to us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in prison that I might make it manifest as I ought to speak." Twice you see the word speak. Once you see the word utterance. Once you see the word manifest. And here is the speech of proclamation. Here is the Apostle Paul saying Pray for me that I may open my mouth and proclaim. And by allusion here not, of course, by a direct statement to us we see that another element in the speech of the new man is the speech of proclamation.

Notice the phrase at the end of verse 3; "For which I am also in prison (or bonds)." Paul at this particular point in his life, and I'll give you a little bit of background of the book of Acts. Let's look at it just very briefly. Look at Acts 21 and let's see how Paul got to the place where he is. In Acts 21, verse 27, Paul had come to Jerusalem and, boy, it had been a long trip getting there. And it had been a very arduous one. He had very lovingly collected money all of the Gentile world to give to the poor saints and to try to conciliate the Jews in the church there with the Gentile believers. And he had done some great, great things to get over the hump of getting this thing accomplished. And he finally arrived with great joy in Jerusalem and no sooner had he gotten there then all chaos broke loose. Verse 27; "After the seven days of a vow he was involved in had ended nearly, the Jews of Asia when they saw him in the Temple stirred up the people, laid hands on him crying out, Men of Israel Help, this is the man that teaches all men everywhere are against the people and the law and this place (that is the temple) and further he brought Greeks into the temple and has polluted the holy place." Which, of course, is not true, it simply says they had seen him in the city with Trophimus an Ephesian and they supposed Paul had brought him to the temple. "And all the city was moved and the people ran together and took Paul and threw him out of the temple and at once the doors were shut. And they went about to kill him," verse 31. Well that was the beginning of the imprisonment of Paul.

He was taken as a prisoner there, kept in prison, made a defense, he finally was delivered out of Jerusalem because it was too dangerous for them because of the plots to kill him. He was taken to Caesarea which was on the coast and Caesarea was the Roman occupied city where they had set up their ... their rule for the land. He was there for a while and he gave some great speeches there defending himself to Felix and Festus and Agrippa and finally realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere there he appealed to Rome and they put him on a ship and sent him to Rome. Remember that? And on the journey to Rome he went through all that tremendous problem at sea, the ship wreck. And further on in the book, as you get into chapter 27, you read about that.

Finally, in chapter 28 he arrives in Rome. Now when we get him to Rome it tells us a little bit about what happen to him in relation to his being a prisoner. Look at verse 16 of 28; Acts 28:16. "And when we came to Rome the centurion (that would be a soldier over a hundred men) delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard. Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him." Apparently Paul was allowed a hired house or a rented house in which he was kept prisoner and tied to a soldier or soldiers, that would come and go and guard him.

Verse 30 of the same chapter; "And Paul dwelt two years (two whole years) in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him."

     All right, now you can go back to Colossians. So, we find the Apostle Paul in that two year imprisonment when he writes the book of Colossians. He uses his chains as a means to accomplish his ministry. He gets a lot of letter writing done because he's not doing much traveling. Arid another thing he gets a lot of done is a lot of evangelizing of soldiers. The soldiers that came and went were no doubt evangelized. He says in Philippians 1:13, he also wrote Philippians during the same two years, "So that my bonds or my chains in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places." He says, this is the greatest platform I've ever had, they just keep sending me soldiers, keep winning them to Christ and sending them back and they keep winning others. And crowds of people were coming to his own hired house and he was preaching the gospel. Philippians 4:22 says; "All the saints greet you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household." He had even won some of the people in Caesar's household.

Now if you were to go backwards again to the last verse of the book of Acts, Acts 28:31 it says this; "During the two whole years he was preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concerned the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence," and this great statement, "No man forbidding him." For two years, with imprisonment as a platform, he preached and taught and the prayer request in chapter 4 was answered so that he had an open door and nobody during that whole time ever forbid him to preach. All the time of his bondage was a time of proclamation.

In Acts 21 when he was first taken prisoner he gave a great sermon before the mob, read it. It's a masterpiece.

In Acts 24, he stood before Felix the governor and gave a great message.

In Acts 26 before Herod Agrippa he gave another great message concerning the truth. Including his wonderful testimony of his conversion.

In Acts chapter 28, when he arrived as a prisoner in his own house, the first thing he did was call all the Jews together so he could evangelize them to start with.

And he called them all to his house in Acts 28:17 and they had a great time of Jewish evangelism, to start off his imprisonment. The man never had a negative thought in his mind. Everything was only an opportunity. He was always proclaiming. The only time his voice was silent was when the axe cut his head off. What a great lesson.

There are no negative circumstances, only unique opportunities. Some of you read in Grace to You the letter I received from Charles "Tex" Watson who was one of the Manson family. Who was in prison. It's kind of a marvelous story to realize I got a letter out of the blue, one day, and he said I want you to know that I've gotten some of your tapes and I'm growing in the Lord. And received Jesus Christ as my Savior and I've got a Bible study going in the prison. And I wrote him back and he's since written me back again. And I understand he's corresponded with some other people here at Grace Church. What's kind of exciting is that he says - This is a great place to minister if the Lord wants me out, that's His business, if He wants me here that's His business too, I'm happy wherever as long as I'm able to preach for Him. Now that's transformation, folks.

And that's the attitude of Paul. Anywhere was a pulpit. Anywhere. And Paul was dyn