The name of the message tonight
is Christian Growth. Christian Growth. And I think by the time we're
done with the message, you'll understand why I titled it that
way. Because there's not a... We don't have to write 10,000
books on how to grow in Christ. The scriptures tell us. They
tell us. The believer is encouraged as
he studies the Word of God and grows in the grace and knowledge
and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ by the preaching of the Gospel.
So let's look at Colossians chapter 2. I'll read the verse from last
week, verse 6, because it ties right in with tonight's verse.
I actually almost tied the two of them together last week, but
this verse has its own message too, so I wanted to go over it
separately. So Colossians chapter 2 is last
week's verse, so look at this. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, and in tonight's verse,
as rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith, as
ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So
last week we looked at verse 6, where we looked at how we
are to walk in Christ, we are to walk in Christ in our daily
lives the same way as we received Christ. How did we receive Christ? By faith. So we're to walk daily
in this life by faith. Remember, we walk by faith and
not by sight. We trust our King. We don't see
Him, but we trust Him. He's the object of our faith,
the Lord Jesus Christ. So we walk by faith in the same
manner that we received Him. We are to continue to walk in
Him. Walk in Him. And we are not perfected, now
we know we're not perfected, or we're not comforted, and we're
not accepted by any of our own works. We know that. Scripture proclaims that, doesn't
it? Not at all. But we are only forgiven of all
our sins in Christ Jesus. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. Not in anything we do. Salvation
and forgiveness of sins is in Christ and Him alone. So again,
how did we receive Christ? How did we receive Him? Well,
we received Him as the sum and substance of all true seed and
faith. The Alpha and the Omega of our
salvation. That's the Greek words for A
to Z. and everything in between. That's Christ. He's the Alpha
of our salvation, and He's the Omega, the A to Z of our salvation. So it's all Him. It's all Him. He saves us, and He keeps us
saved. This is why we say salvation's
of the Lord. It's of Him. It's of Him. So how else did we receive Him?
As the fulfillment of all promises. All the promises of God are fulfilled
in Christ. They're all fulfilled in Him.
As are all spiritual blessings, right? All spiritual blessings
we know from Ephesians chapter 1 are in Christ. They're all
in Him. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. And in Him alone, all the promises
of God, I like this, in Christ, all the promises of God find
their end and their fulfillment. in Christ. So salvation's all
about what He's done for us, we who believe. We're receivers
of this grace, receivers of the gift of faith. It's incredible. How else did we receive Him? We received Him as the fountain
of all grace, the spring of eternal life. He's the source of our
salvation. It springs from Him. It springs
from Christ, what He did upon the cross. It all springs from
Him. Our righteousness springs from
Him. Our salvation springs from Him. Our redemption springs from
Him. All by the shedding of His precious blood on Calvary's cross.
It's incredible. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
all of Him. So we find our completion The
believer finds their completion of their salvation in Christ.
All in him. How else did we receive him?
We received him as the whole of our acceptance. Our acceptance
before God is our righteousness. Because scripture says that our
righteousness is like filthy rags before the eyes of the Lord,
because we're all sinners. We're born sinners. So, the righteousness
we have is not accepted by God. So in other words, the works
that we do are not accepted by God to get us into heaven. We
must have the perfect righteousness of Christ. The righteousness
that he wrought when he was here upon the earth. The act of obedience,
remember we talked about that before, theological term for
the righteousness of Christ, that he was, his act of obedience,
in his life is credited to us. That's his righteousness. What
he did, he did for his people. He's sinless. He's perfect. He's
spotless. Even when he's dying on the cross,
our sins were imputed to him. What a God. What a Savior. And how else did we receive him?
When we first believed, we received him as the object of our faith.
The object of our faith. So we continue to walk this way.
We continue to walk this way in our lives as Christians. He
is the object of our faith, the object of our hope, the object
of our love. Like Paul said, he's our all
in all. He's everything. Christ is everything
to me. Without Christ, I have nothing
except my own filthy righteousness. But in Christ, I'm accepted and
a beloved. Accepted before a holy and righteous
God, a sinner. Why? Because the imputed righteousness
of Christ, I'm clothed in that. It's incredible. It's truly amazing
grace. It's truly amazing grace. So
we walk in the same manner as we received Him. And when we
received the Lord, we came gratefully, we came humbly, we came joyfully,
we came with no reservations at all, right? We just flew to Christ. Thy people
shall be made willing in the day of thy power. He made us
willing and we ran. We ran. We ran. That's the same way we should
continue to walk. See, we don't need to go to some
bookstore trying to make a bunch of money and read a book on how
to live a Christian life, do we? No. We're to walk in Him
the same way as we received Him, by faith. By faith. Trust in
Him every second and every moment of the day. And God's people do this. We
live day by day in this faith. Trust Him. trusting our eternal
souls to the Lord Jesus Christ, and resting and reposing in Him
and Him alone. Now, we struggle, don't we? We've
talked about that many times. I struggle all the time. None
of us is perfect. Grace preachers will tell you
we're sinners saved by grace, and that's what I am, a sinner
saved by grace. And I struggle all the time.
The hardest thing is to enter into that rest. But the Lord gives grace. I get
strengthened when I hear a Gospel message. I get strengthened reading
the Word of God. Praying, God gives us strength
and grace. We keep on going because the
Lord keeps us. What a wonderful God. What a
wonderful God. So let's look at tonight's verse
with that overview in mind. Tonight's verse. Rooted and built
up in Him. So the believer is rooted and built up in Christ. Established in the faith. As you have been taught. God's
people are taught. They're taught by the Holy Spirit
of God. And then abounding therein with thanksgiving. God's people
abound in thanksgiving. Now rooted means exactly what
it sounds like here. Paul is showing us that this
living in Christ is He's showing us what it is, and
it's a vital union that we have with Christ. It's a vital union
that the believer has with Christ. Firmly implanted in Christ is
the infinite and all-sufficient source of our salvation, which
is full and free, and only found in Christ. Now, remember what
Paul's battling. He's battling the Gnostic error,
right? Which is saying it's Christ plus something. So again, once
again, just like in chapter 1, Paul is continuously grounding
the believers. The part of this verse that goes
with what Paul's doing is the building up. Preachers build
up. We lay upon foundations that
other preachers have already laid, but the main foundation
is Christ, you see? And in preaching just builds
upon those foundations. See, I'm coming in and just building
upon where Jim was. And Jim's doing the same down
on 13th Street where Bill was. Just building upon that foundation
with the preaching of the gospel. It's incredible. It's incredible.
And I was listening to Henry today, and it was so encouraging.
He said, where God has a people and sheep, He puts a pastor there.
He puts a preacher there. Isn't it amazing? Three churches
now have a preacher. It's incredible. Because I know
the one in Georgia didn't have one for a long time. Now they
got a preacher. 13th Street got a preacher, and
Yale got a preacher. It's incredible. God just moves
and does as He pleases and moves His preachers to wherever God's
sheep are. It's amazing, it's amazing, truly
amazing. So now we are to have deep roots
in Christ, just as a mighty oak tree. You ever seen a mighty
oak tree? Big old trees, eh? I love those. Just love those
big old, it doesn't matter what kind of tree it is. Brother Neil
Wagner has some just massive trees on his property. They're
huge, big old trees. I just love seeing those trees,
because you know they're hundreds of years old, some of them. And
they're just so, they just stand there firm and majestic, right?
It's incredible. It's incredible. You see these
big old oak trees. So we're using oak trees as an
example. And it has deep roots into the ground, right? The roots
just go down and just go into the ground. And from what I've
read, sometimes they cling around rocks. They cling around rocks
or they just burrow right into the soil. And they just cling
there. The roots are in deep, really
deep. So when a strong windstorm or
a strong rainstorm comes, right? We've seen this, the tree just
bends over and over. Sometimes they bend almost right
over. You're thinking, man, that tree's
gonna come down. But it just, whew, back over again. Back over
again. Just entrenched in the roots,
just rooted right into the ground. It's firmly entrenched in the
rocks and in the ground. It has a firm foundation, beloved.
A firm foundation. The tree rocks back and forth
as the wind blows, but it's firmly fixed. Firmly fixed. Held firm by the roots. And when the storm passes, the
tree is still there. Stand firm. Fixed. Fixed. Now, beloved of God, we who are
born again by the Holy Spirit of God need the roots of true
saving faith in Christ. The roots of true saving faith
in Christ. Being rooted in Christ in Him
alone will enable us to withstand the floods of watered-down perversions
of the Gospel And the winds, the high winds
of false teachers who attempt to turn us away from Christ.
Blowing to and fro. And that's, they try to, false
teachers will try to attempt to turn you away from Christ
to another gospel, which is not another gospel, but it's a perversion
of the gospel. And we who believe need the roots
of true saving faith. We need to be embedded into the
truth, don't we? Embedded into the truth. And we need our roots to go and
be firm around what? The rock of our salvation. Holding
firm. Holding firm to Him. Christ,
the rock of our salvation. And let us ponder this, too.
As the root receives nourishment from the soil, an increase for
the tree, so we who are rooted in Christ receive nourishment
from Him. Through the preaching of the
Word, through the reading of the Word, We receive nourishment
only from our King. The Holy Spirit illuminates the
Scripture, or touches our heart through the preaching of His
Word, and we rejoice. We receive strength. Strength. Turn, if you would, to Ephesians
3. Ephesians chapter 3, and we'll look at verse 17 to 19. Ephesians 3, 17-19. Look at this. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that ye be rooted and grounded in love. We are
to be rooted and grounded in love. How does that happen? By
the Holy Spirit. He roots and grounds us in love.
Love for Christ. Love for the brethren. Love for
the Gospel. Love for the Gospel. may be able
to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and the
length, and the depth, and the height, and to know the love
of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fullness of God." But the Scripture says there, rooted
and grounded. Rooted and grounded. We draw
nourishment in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. the
preaching of His Word, the reading of His Word, and the Holy Spirit
of God teaches us, teaches us. Christ is the source of all our
spiritual blessings and the Holy Spirit has us grow in the knowledge
and truth of our blessed Redeemer. as he reveals more and more.
I've talked to you guys many times about this. Think back
when the Lord first saved you, and what you know now. It's incredible.
And it's all because he's taught us this. We can't boast about
anything. He's taught us all this. These
wonderful truths. And I'm not going to list them
tonight. Think of election. Think of redemption.
Think of sanctification, justification. These marvelous doctrines. But
they're all rooted in Christ. They're all in Him. It's incredible. Those who have received Christ
Jesus the Lord are built up in Him, established in the faith
by the Holy Spirit of God. We grow and learn more and more
about Christ, which leads to our next point, rooted and built
up in Him. built up in him. Paul continues
to use metaphors to explain the wonderful gospel truths. Remember
he used a metaphor of a military unit. in verse 5 where he said, though
I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit,
joy in beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith.
Remember, when we went over that verse, there was a military aspect
to that, the order and the steadfastness of a military unit, the Roman
units, and how they moved as one. They moved as one. We talked
about that as a body. We move as one. There's only
one message we proclaim. One Lord we serve. Only one. So Paul continues to use metaphors
just as our Lord did too. He used metaphors and word pictures.
So here in verse 5 he's speaking of the order and the steadfastness.
And in verse 6 he used a metaphor of walking, how we're to walk
in him by faith. and how we're to walk through
this whole life by faith. Now in this verse, he continues
to use metaphors. First of a tree rooted, and now
of a building being built up and established in the faith. Which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. And as the Greek words, we'll look at the Greek words
later on, we'll see that they have these meanings. So the Holy
Spirit has Paul penned these precious truths using metaphors. to build us up in Christ and
to show us that this is what we have in Christ. This is who
we are in Christ. And let us remember that our
Lord used simple word pictures to explain who He was. He said,
I'm the bread of life. That's a metaphor. I'm the bread
of life. He used word pictures. The water of life, the door,
the way, the truth, the life, and many, many, many more. The
fountain, he's it. It's incredible. And by these
metaphors and these word pictures, not only by these metaphors in
this verse and others we've looked at, the apostle expresses the
safe and joyful state of believers in Christ. Paul uses these metaphors by
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to engage the co-hosts and believers,
and we who are reading this tonight, right now, to walk on in Christ
the same way we received Him. And giving us instruction as
to the manner in which the believers should walk, and how they should
walk day by day, which is by faith. And now believers are
compared to trees, and it's these trees of righteousness which
are the planting of the Lord, remember too. We didn't plant
ourselves. Planting of the Lord, and He
is our root. Our roots go to Christ and Him
alone. He's the spring from which we
get all our nourishment. It is by Him that we have any
fruits of righteousness, right? It's by Him that we have the
fruit of the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit working within us. Here's
an interesting note for the word rooted at the very first of this
verse. Listen to this. Number one, the first cause,
it means this, to cause to strike root. To cause to strike root. to strengthen with roots, to
render firm, to fix, establish, cause a person or a thing to
be thoroughly grounded. Cause a person or thing to be
thoroughly grounded. They don't ground themselves. Salvation is all alone. And He
keeps teaching us. And we keep growing in Him. See
how it's all His work? It's incredible. It's amazing. So God, the Holy Spirit, regenerates
us and causes us to strike roots in Christ. He causes us. He gives us faith to believe. That's what the Greek words say
here, to cause to strike roots. When I read that, I had to stop
for a minute. I was rejoicing. Once again,
salvations of the Lord. God's grace is amazing. It's
amazing. Believers are to abide in Christ
and walk in him. We are to derive all our life
from Him, our nourishment from Him, our fruitfulness comes from
Him, all grace comes from Him, all perseverance comes from Him.
It all comes from Christ. It's incredible. It's amazing. But yet we walk. It's incredible. It's absolutely
amazing. And we're sinners, right? We
fail all the time. Yet He keeps us. Praise God he
does. Oh my. Established, fixed. What a great God. What a great
Savior. Now Paul here uses a metaphor
here of a building with this built up in him. The Greek word
for build is defined as to build upon, built up. Metaphorically,
to be built upon is parts of a spiritual structure which we'll
look at in Ephesians 3.20. If you want to turn there, you
can turn to Ephesians 3.20. And it also means, a third meaning
in there is to build up, carry up a building, to build up in
spiritual advancement. So the Holy Spirit teaches us
through the scriptures, and we grow in grace. We don't even
know we're growing, but we do. As he teaches us. As he teaches
us. It's incredible. It's absolutely
amazing. We are built up in Christ by
the Holy Spirit of God in His power. It is truly amazing grace. Now Paul, actually keep your
finger in Ephesians 3 and just go over to 1 Corinthians 3.7.
I want to bring this out. Paul's dealing with preacher
worship in 1 Corinthians. He's dealing with preacher worship.
Now it still happens today. Don't ever worship the preacher.
We're just sinners saved by grace. That's all we are. Unfortunately,
people put preachers on the pedestal and they never should. Don't
do it. I remember Gene Harmon saying, don't put me on a pedestal,
I'll let you down every time. We're sinners saved by grace,
proclaiming one who can save anyone who comes, that He draws.
We're preaching one who can save anyone He wills. It's Christ. It's Christ in Him alone. We
can't save ourselves, but Christ saves His people from their sins.
And preachers are just sinners saved by grace. Look at this
in 1 Corinthians. So Paul's battling preacher worship
in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and he wrote this magnificent portion
of Scripture. Again, pointing the Corinthians
to Christ in Him alone. Pointing their eyes away from
the various preachers and saying it's all about Christ. See, it's
not about the preacher. We're just mouthpieces. We've
been given a message and we proclaim what we believe. Look at 1 Corinthians
3, verse 7-11. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither is he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase. Preacher can't save no one. But we point sinners to the one
who can save sinners. Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at
this. Now he that plant earth and he
that water earth are one. And every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together
with God. Ye are God's husband there. Ye
are God's building. Now remember, our verse in Colossians,
it says built up in Him, right? Built up in Christ. 1 Corinthians
3.10 says, According to the grace which God hath given unto me,
as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another
buildeth thereon. So another preacher comes, preaches
the same gospel. Right? But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man
lay other than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. That's
the one foundation that Gospel preachers lay. Christ and Him
alone. That's why we say we must preach
Christ and no one else. We don't preach ourselves. We
don't tell you what to do. We don't chastise you. Right? We preach Christ. We preach Christ
and Him alone. He is the only one who can save
you. That's it. He's the only one we rest in.
See, I rest in Him every day. That's what I preach. I preach
we're to rest in Christ because I rest, I try to rest in Him
every day. Something come up, I get awful. Worked up about
some things sometimes, just like normal sinners, right? But I constantly go back to Him.
Go back to Him. Something came up last week.
I got myself a little worked up. I admit it, I did. I got
myself a little worked up. Got myself in a dither. And I remember the verse that
I memorized. For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And it bought me
such comfort. Because right away my mind was
fixed back on my king. And I knew that whatever came,
he already knows about it. He's going to take care of it. Sometimes it's good to have those
verses written to our hearts. Oh boy. But it's a blessing. And that's why I keep saying
we've got to keep our eyes on Christ. Because for me, when I get in
a dither, when I get in trouble, it's when I get my mind off Christ
and I get it on the circumstance. But see, the Holy Spirit brings
us right back to the Word. And then we get comfort. And
we get the peace that passes all understanding again. Oh my. God's so good to us. So Christ is the only sure foundation. Now let's actually turn to Ephesians
2. I know I had you go to 3, but
we'll go there later. Actually, no, this is where I
wanted to go. Ephesians chapter 2. Christ is the only sure foundation,
the only true foundation, as the saints of God are compared
to a building, to a house, a temple, and habitation for God through
the Holy Spirit. And Christ is the only sure foundation
on which they are built upon. Look at Ephesians 2, verses 19-22. Now therefore ye are no more
strangers, speaking of God's people, and foreigners, but fellow
citizens with the saints and of the household of God. and
are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. So the apostles
and prophets, they preach Christ. That's who they preached. There's only one cornerstone,
one foundation. That's Christ in Him alone. In
whom all the building, meaning all of God's people, fitly framed
together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye
are also built together for the inhabitation of God through the
Spirit. So God's people trust their eternal souls to Christ
and Him alone, who is the foundation, the foundation for us and the
rock of our salvation. He's the rock of our salvation
and we are safe and secure only in Christ and Him alone, not
in anything we do. Not by our works. Scripture says,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He has saved us. His mercy. It's all about what
He's done. It's all about what Christ has
done. So we continue to walk in the faith, being built up
in Him, established in the faith with Him as our hope. And our
hope is firmly set upon Christ Jesus our Lord. Nowhere else. Remember what I said? For me,
when I get my eyes off, I'm in trouble. When I get back on,
my eyes focus back on Christ, oh my, oh my. So this leads to our next point
in our text. It says, rooted and built up
in Him, established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. So we're looking at established
in the faith as ye have been taught. So as we grow in grace,
in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
as we are built up in Christ, God will establish us or strengthen
us in the faith as we've been taught. We will be established
in the doctrine of faith concerning Christ. I'll read Hebrews 13.8.
It says this, 8 and 9, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. So God never changes. He's the
same. He's the same. Be not carried
about with divers and strange doctrine. Don't be carried about
with strange doctrine. Someone tells you salvation is
by baptism. You say, no, it's not. It's by
grace alone. Because that's what Scripture declares. Someone says,
well, you've got to do this. It's salvation by the grace of
God plus this. You say, no. Salvation is by
the pure, free, and sovereign grace of God in Christ plus nothing. We're not tossed to and fro by
divers' doctrines. We stick to what this Word says,
period. And this Word says salvation's
of the Lord. That means it's not of my doing.
That means my King has saved me from my sins. And I've received
that grace. And I've received that mercy.
I obtained mercy, like Paul said. I obtained it. I didn't work
for it. It's a gift. It's a gift of God. Oh, what a gift. What a gift
of God. So we're rooted and built up
in Him. We're not easily tossed to and
fro. And it continues to say, for
it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not
with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
The believer never grows weary, never grows weary of old truths. Never. Never grows weary of old
gospel truths. We're not moved by new revelations
when someone says, well over here, we're doing this. No, we're
going to just keep preaching the gospel. We're just going
to keep preaching the gospel. We're not moved by new revelations
from teachers who glory in the flesh. Who glory in the flesh. We're not easily offended. We're
not driven about with every word of doctrine. We're not tossed
to and fro. No, we're fixed, right? Rooted. Built up. Established. It's not our doing, though. It's
God the Holy Spirit doing it. In us. Strengthened by Him. It's incredible. It's incredible.
And look, it makes you thankful. It makes you real thankful. Oh
my. So we're established in Christ
who's our foundation. This building is firmly established
in Christ. And our faith grows. It grows
as we're taught by the Holy Spirit of God, as we hear the preaching
of the Gospel, as we read Scripture. We grow in the grace and knowledge
and truth of Christ. And we don't grow to brag. about
us. We brag on Christ. We boast in
Christ. He's our boast. Look what the
Lord's done for me. He's redeemed me from all my
sins, past, present, and future. Again, how can you say future?
Because every one of my sins was future at Calvary's cross,
and He paid it all. He cried it's finished. I'm not,
it doesn't give us, you know, I always say this because we
have to qualify it. It doesn't mean we can go out the door and
go crazy. Absolutely not. We're not antinomian. The love
of Christ constrains us. It never did before, but for
the believer it does now. Oh, it's incredible. Sinners
saved by the grace of God in Christ and kept. Sinners still,
but saved sinners and kept by the grace of God. Oh, what a
Gospel. Oh, what a Savior. What a Redeemer. What a Redeemer. So let's look
at our last text, or let's read our text again. It says, Rooted
and built up in Him and established in the faith. So we're established
in the faith. Established in Christ. And our
faith and our hope is in Christ. as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. Now I want to do a quick note
on the Greek tenses here. The Greek tenses. The word rooted is in the Greek.
In the Greek, it's in the perfect tense. The perfect tense. And what that means is, I'll
read what I pulled from a Greek book here. I thought this was
really good. The basic thought of the perfect tense is that
the progress of an action, so the progress of rooted, rooted,
right? The progress of an action has
been completed. See, the believer, what he believes
is rooted. The true believer is rooted. How else are we kept? We're rooted. Rooted in Christ. And then the
Holy Spirit keeps us, right? But the true believer's rooted
in the foundation of Christ. But listen to this. The tense
is the progress of an action that's being completed, and the
results of the action are continuing on. We're continually being rooted. in Christ by the preaching of
the gospel. It's magnificent. It's magnificent. In full effect, it says. It's
continuing on in full effect. It's incredible. So unlike the
English perfect tense, which indicates a completed past action,
and that's it, the Greek perfect tense indicates a continuation,
a continuation, in present state of a completed action. We're
rooted, and it's complete, and it continues. It's magnificent. It's absolutely magnificent. And we looked at the definition
of rooted, and we saw, and think of this, in the definition of
the Greek word rooted, remember, it caused to strike root. And
it's a continuous action. We're continuously grabbing the
rock. Rooted to the rock. It's amazing. And this is pointing,
I was thinking about this, this is pointing to Christ being the
author of our salvation. He's the author of our salvation. The Holy Spirit regenerates us,
right? And we're rooted into Christ.
And then since it's a continuous action, it also speaks of the
omega. Continuously waiting, the finisher
of our salvation. It's magnificent. The finisher, and so we can conclude,
as scripture says, we're kept by the power of God. We're kept
by the power of God. Built up in Christ, established
and taught by the Holy Spirit of God through the preaching
of the gospel, Now, built up and established,
being defined as to strengthen or established are in the present
tense in the Greek. The present tense usually means
a continuous action, continuous kind of action. It shows action
in progress or a state of persistence. We're continuously being built
up and established in Christ, in Him. by the preaching of the Gospel,
by the reading of the Word, by prayer. The believer is built up and
established in the faith, which is only in Christ Jesus, right?
He is the object of our faith. He is our Lord, and it's only
in Him and Him alone. Our text continues proclaiming
that we are being taught And we know from John, turn if you
would to John 6.45, we know from reading in John that it's the
Spirit of God who teaches us the things of Christ. He will
not speak of Himself, here point is to Christ and Him alone. To Christ and Him alone. John
6.45 says this, it is written in the prophets, and we know
the prophets speak of Christ, And they shall be all taught
of God. All God's people are taught of
God. Taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me.
And they shall be all taught of God. And look at our text. Rooted and built up in Him. Established
in the faith as ye have been taught. John 6.45, taught of God. God, the Holy Spirit, uses the
preaching of the Gospel by man called of God to root, build
up, and establish the saints of God in the faith. I get rooted and built up as
I study, or as I listen to messages. This lit me up today when I was
looking at those tenses. That's incredible. What a magnificent
salvation we have in Christ. It's incredible. It's just absolutely
incredible. So we're built up. God uses the
preaching of the gospel by man called of God, again, to root
up, establish the saints in the faith. And that faith is only
in Christ Jesus and him alone. He continues, the Holy Spirit
continues to build us up through the preaching of His Word, through
the preaching of the Gospel. Now let us look at the last part
of this verse tonight, which says, abounding therein with
thanksgiving. Now ungrateful hearts have never
been taught of God. Ungrateful hearts have never
been taught of God. Those untaught hearts do not
understand the meaning of the word grace. And they have absolutely
no understanding of the word grace. I didn't before the Lord
saved me. I didn't even think about that
word, to be honest with you. It's just something we used to
say before dinner, only on special occasions, and I was a good Catholic.
So that meant two, three times a year, we'd say that. And all it meant was asking a
blessing for the food. It really didn't mean anything. But now the word grace. It's so precious. It's so precious. Oh my, what a word. Grace, grace,
marvelous grace. Oh my. Sister Bonnie sent out
an email this week about Sister Jill's baby shower. And I love
what she put at the end. I'm actually getting Vicki to
make me a sign for my study. I loved it. And it made me rejoice. She wrote the words, rejoice,
our Lord is King. Rejoice, our Lord is King. Oh, if I could just keep that
in front of me. My, oh my. And the new heart which God gives
his people rejoices and full of thanksgiving, which our text
finishes with tonight. Abounding therein with thanksgiving. And I'm not meaning we're always
super happy, and I don't believe in them mountain top... When
I was in religion, it was all about mountain top Christianity.
You always got to be at the mountain, but when you hit that valley,
man, you just crashed and burned. You know, the Christian life
is... The peaks and the valleys, we know. We know. We who believe
know. We get down. We get sorrowful. We have hard times and we have
easy times. But what's the constant? Christ,
right? The object of our faith. The
object of our faith. And we do abound with thanksgiving.
When we get our, like I told you guys earlier, when I get
my eyes on Christ, I start to rejoice. That peace that passes
all understanding, eh? fills the hearts and minds of
God's people. So the new heart that God gives
His people rejoices and is full of thanksgiving. And as we are
rooted and built up in Christ and established in the faith
of God's elect, our hearts will abound therein with thanksgiving.
With thanksgiving. And we will rejoice. We'll rejoice
in our great God and King. And we'll rejoice in what He's
done for us. He went to Calvary's cross. The God-man. God incarnate
in the flesh. Goes to Calvary's cross and bleeds
and dies there for the sins of his people. He lived the perfect life for
me. Because I couldn't fulfill the law. And if you believe for
you, it's incredible. And then he goes to the cross
and he dies before the wrath and justice of God. For the sins
of all his people. And he cries with a loud voice,
it's finished. Ah, it makes me rejoice. It's
the same with you, eh? If you're forgiven, it makes
you rejoice. The wrath of God for my sins has been extinguished. That's what propitiation means.
Extinguished. The wrath and justice of God
against my sins, against the sins of all His people, is extinguished. Rejoice, the Lord is King! Oh my, my, oh my. And think of this, the more we're
taught of God, the more that we learn of Christ, the more
we will grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. As the Holy
Spirit reveals Christ to us, the more, and as a result of
us growing in Christ and learning of Him, the more our hearts will
abound with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving springs out of a
grateful, redeemed heart. This heart, the old heart, the
heart of flesh I had, Didn't rejoice in God, but I'm born
again in the Holy Spirit of God. And now I rejoice with thanksgiving
in Christ and what He's done for me. Now think on this. Here
are some things. Our hearts will abound as we
are rooted and built up in Him, established, fixed, strengthened. Established in the faith, here
are some things. Our hearts will abound with thanksgiving
to our wonderful God for his electing grace in Christ Jesus
our Lord. He chose a people based upon
nothingness and according to the pleasure of his will. And we rejoice with thanksgiving. That song Sister Kathy sings,
we rejoice that He included me. Isn't it so? Isn't it so? Oh
my. Our hearts will abound with thanksgiving
to our wonderful God for His redeeming grace through Christ
Jesus our Redeemer. We receive the grace of God through
Christ and what He's done. And our hearts rejoice with thanksgiving. Our hearts will abound with thanksgiving
to our wonderful God for his sanctifying grace that brought
us to Christ. He's made us holy. Now, I know
we who believe don't feel that way, I know. But we're sanctified
in Christ, set apart, made holy. Our hearts will abound with thanksgiving
to our wonderful God for his preserving grace. His preserving
grace. In Christ Jesus. In Christ. He preserves his people. Those
he saves, he keeps. He keeps us. If it was up to
us, we'd lose our salvation a thousand times a day. But he keeps his
people. And God's people rejoice. We
abound with thanksgiving. Oh, I'm thankful he keeps me.
Because I can't keep myself. Our hearts will abound with thanksgiving
to our wonderful God. For again, for his preserving
grace that keeps us looking to Christ. Keeps us looking to him. No matter what comes, we look
to Christ. We may get our eyes in the circumstances for a little
while, and then we look right back to Him. And I know for me,
I say, Lord, forgive me for even looking away. I should have kept my eyes on
Him. Oh, and our hearts will abound
with thanksgiving to our wonderful God for His gifts of faith and
repentance and the saving faith that only rests in Christ, in
Christ alone. He doesn't rest in anything we
do. So we grow in our understanding of these words from our God. As we grow in the understanding
of who Christ is, and we grow in grace, we grow in our understanding
of these words from God which says, in everything give thanks,
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5.18 The Lord Jesus Christ is our heavenly
Joseph. Remember? Everyone had to go to Joseph,
didn't they? Christ is our heavenly Joseph. He has everything we need. Everything. Everything. And God our Father
has put all things into His sovereign hand, just as Pharaoh did to
Joseph. Remember? Everybody had to go
to Joseph. They didn't go to Pharaoh. They
went to Joseph. Joseph's a picture of Christ.
He's a picture of Christ. And all blessings we receive,
whether they are physical or spiritual, come from God. We
come from God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Jesus Christ
our Lord. All blessings we receive. Jesus
Christ gives his chosen people all the things that pertain unto
life and godliness. He gives it to us. He gives it
to us. Only those who are taught of
God will know this to be true. And only those who have been
taught of God will abound in thanksgiving. Only those who've
been taught of God will abound in thanksgiving, praising and
extolling and honoring the King of Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this verse we've looked at
tonight, and last week's verse, we see Paul, by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit of God, has once again, once again, building on
the foundation which has been laid by Epaphras, right? By preaching
the gospel in chapter one. Paul, building upon that foundation,
Right? By the preaching of the gospel
is now encouraging the saints in Colossus to rest and repose
and walk, walk your life the same way by faith as you receive
Christ. Walk by faith. He's encouraging
the saints of God at Colossus to rest and repose in Christ
Jesus and Him alone. And again, he's building up the
all-sufficiency of Christ in contrast to the error which has
been coming into the Colossian church. So we see Paul proclaiming
the all-sufficiency and the supremacy of Christ in chapter 1 and all
through there, but also mixing in some Some exhortations to look to
Christ, look to him, look to him. Again, we see him doing
the same thing in chapter two. It's magnificent. It's magnificent.
Just pointing right to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to him alone. May God give us the strength
and grace to do the same as the cautioned believers to look to
him. And we say to God be all the
glory and all the honor And all the praise. He gets it all. He
gets it all. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Gracious Heavenly Father, oh, thank You for sending Your Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world to save sinners. We know that You and the Son and the
Holy Spirit entered into a covenant in eternity past to save a people. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
to earth, died upon the cross, and redeemed those people. And
we who are saved are just so grateful, so grateful that you
included us. And may we, as these Colossian
believers, be built up, established in the faith by the preaching
of your word. May we look to you, Lord Jesus, and you alone.
and give you all the glory and honor and praise. And may we
do it with abundant thanksgiving. We love you and praise you in
Jesus' name, Amen.