Alright, turn with me your Bibles
this morning to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 2. I am a native
son of coastal North Carolina. And as long as I've lived here
near the water and near the beach, I've heard many, many legends
about all the buried treasure that is supposedly buried on
our coast. I've heard about legendary pirates
who buried their ill-gotten gains in the sand of our shore. Not
so long ago I read of that famous or infamous man by the name of
Edward Teat that most people know of as Blackbeard. And it
seems like that this legend of Blackbeard finally gave way to
a discovery. What they think is the Queen
Anne's Revenge, his ship that ran aground in one of the local
inlets. And I thought about it in thinking
about this message with all the divers and with all the men and
women that they sent searching for this wreck. Do you suppose
that if they had found one gold coin, or one valuable historical
artifact, that they would have just taken that and never gone
back to that site again? I don't think so. But they would
have done just exactly what they to this day continue to do, and
that is go back and back again to find more of this treasure."
And that is in a way what Paul is saying to us here with regard
to Christ. If you look back in chapter 1,
he prays as he does in all these epistles and says things like
this in verse 9, "'For this cause we also, since the day we heard
it, Do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye be
filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God. He said much the same thing to
the Ephesians. Wherefore I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling
and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And now, Paul, in this second
chapter, is telling these saints at Colossae, as well as us, that
in Christ and in the gospel, which is here called the mystery
of Christ, are all the treasures of God's grace. In other words, what he says
is this, in Christ is the treasure of treasure. And we are to be
like the treasure hunter in that we are to search out all that
God in His grace has given in Him. Look back in chapter 2 at
verse 1 and 2. He says, For I would that you
know what great conflict I have for you, that is, what great
desire and concern for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for
as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts
might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all
riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ." He
said, I desire for you and I pray for you that you might completely
in your understanding have knowledge of all that God reveals in His
gospel that He has given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so much so are these that
He describes as riches to be found in Christ. He says they
are to be found through the knowledge and the understanding and the
assurance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he makes a statement that
every one of us, whether we be old or whether we be young or
whether we be in between, that we would all do well to lay to
our heart concerning Christ. He says in verse 3, in whom,
in Him, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That is, he likens Christ to
a treasure, and even more so, the very treasure of treasure. You see, we may discover an earthly
treasure. We might have been one of the
team that went down and got hold of some of those gold coins,
or such as that, if we gain all the treasure of this world and
lose Christ. We are nothing more than paupers. Hold your place here and turn
back to Matthew's Gospel. Because here the Lord Jesus Christ
says Himself in Matthew 6 and verse 19, "...lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon earth." What is natural to every earthly
treasure. He says, where moth and rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. Every earthly treasure will either
rust and corrupt and rot or die. Or either the potential of them
always being stolen away always exists. He says, "...but lay
up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through
nor steal." And then he says something very important. He
says, for where your treasure is, that is your real treasure,
your treasure of treasures in your heart, for where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. And then he continues in
this chapter, telling us not to seek after all of these things
which men by nature seek after. But look in verse 33. He says,
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That is what Paul is saying in
our text. Seek that which is true treasure. Now treasure, by definition,
can be described something like this. The place in which good
and precious things are collected, where treasures are laid up,
a coffer, or another receptacle in which valuables are kept,
a storehouse, a treasury, or a repository where the things
are laid up and collected. That's a treasure. And so now
by the Spirit of God, God, by this apostle, is telling us that
in Jesus Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Well, if this is the case, think
about this. If all the treasures, are in
Christ Jesus, then He Himself must be the treasure. If all
the treasures are said to be in Christ Jesus, what is all
this other stuff? Well, Solomon, who had all this
other stuff, he called it vanity. Nothing. Zero. And if all the
treasures are in Christ Jesus, that means we have nothing in
ourselves, that is, we have nothing to boast of. Why? Because it's
all in Christ Jesus. And if all the treasures are
in Christ Jesus, what foolishness it is for us to think that we
have any or seek it anywhere else or in anyone else. It's all foolishness. It's all
efforts of futility if it's all in Christ to seek it anywhere
else. And if true treasure has to do
with wisdom and knowledge in and of Christ, why are we so
preoccupied with all these other things? You see, that which is
in Christ finally and eternally will be all that matters. And the things that we have labored
for, fought for, did almost everything that could be done for, those
things everyone will wither and be no." You see, Isaiah records
these words. The Lord is exalted. For he dwelleth on high, he hath
filled Zion with judgment and righteousness, and wisdom and
knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of
salvation. The fear of the Lord is his treasure."
The fear of the Lord. And this is, of course, that
reverential fear and regard for God, especially in Christ. Not only does He tell us here
that it is His treasure, but He tells us also that it is the
beginning of wisdom. In other words, all that is in
Christ. All that God gives in His grace,
all these treasures that are in Christ, if we have Him, we
have it all. We may not even be able to describe
the all. We certainly can never measure. and in any way determine the
bounds of everything that God gives in Christ. But He gives
us this plain statement that He is all, and if we have Him,
we have it all. Look over in chapter 3, in verse
11, where He talks about those who are in Christ. They are not
in that old man anymore. that old man Adam, but there
in the new man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says in verse
11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ. In all. All. And in all. You see, that's what he's saying
concerning those who are the Lord's people. Those that he
has given wisdom and knowledge to in Christ, and they are those
who have been made the wisdom of God in him. What does that mean? Well, it
means that we have everything, and we have received these things
by the grace of God. Over the years, I have heard
people say things, people who came and left, and they said
things like, we believe you preach the gospel. There's no doubt
that you preach Christ. But we're looking for something,
something more. than Christ? Something more than
what God has revealed and given to a sinner in Christ? Some greater riches? Some higher
wisdom and knowledge? Some more deep experience than
for God to put us by His grace in his son. When Paul writes
to the Ephesians, before he gets out of the first chapter, actually
before he finishes his open statement, he lets these believers at Ephesus
know that being blessed of God and chosen of God in Christ before
the world began, that he has given them in Christ. He says blessed. be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed." Here are all
these folks in religion in our day, they're running around,
they're trying to get this and that and the other. They're looking
for higher, greater, deeper, more full blessings. And Paul
says that God, our Father in Christ, has blessed us with all. spiritual, not most of them,
not part of them, not many of them, but we must by something
we do gain the rest of them, achieve the rest of them. No,
he says he is the treasure of treasure, and God has blessed
us in him before the world began. He blessed us in him with all. spiritual. Then he writes this
through the Apostle Paul. He says, but of him. That is, but of God. by His divine
act, by His free and sovereign grace. But of Him are ye in Christ
Jesus." That is, God has viewed His people as one with His Son. He had put them in that inseparable
union of grace with the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Him are you
made in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Wisdom. Righteousness. Sanctification. And He did it. And He made us
all these things. He made us to have all these
things. To enjoy all these things. To
experience all these things. He made us to do so in Christ. And I dare say that those four
words sum up the whole of salvation by grace. Wisdom. Righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Now, the thing that amazes me
in some ways is, he says, Christ is made unto us wisdom. As a matter of fact, God calls
him wisdom. You go back in the book of Proverbs,
before he ever came to this earth, he is called by God in those
verses there and other places, You think Solomon is telling
his son or all of us that we need to seek earthly wisdom when
the Bible says in other places that no man by earthly natural
wisdom ever knows God? He's talking about Christ. He's
talking about this one. Seek after this wisdom. Seek after Him who is the wisdom
of God. And wisdom, it seems to me, is
an expression that is given, a name that is given to the Lord
Jesus Christ because He is the only remedy, He's the only way
that this eternal riddle and problem can be solved. Say, what is that? What is that?
What is the riddle, if you want to call it that, or the question? The problem. What is the difficulty
with regard to God as He is, and we as we are? Say, well,
Christ came to teach us, and Christ came to give us an example,
and Christ came to give us a life. We are to follow and all that.
That doesn't solve the riddle. That doesn't solve the problem.
You see, the problem is such that only divine infinite wisdom
could ever resolve the issue between a thrice holy God who
describes himself first as a just God. How he can be that? And to you and me as sinners,
I've never thought about that. Job said, how can man, man who
is but few days and full of trouble, man who drinks iniquity like
water, Man who is unclean in the eyes of this holy God, how
can man be just? Now, we might convue Christ as
wisdom in the sense of leading us in this life, which He does. Who teaches us by His Word the
things that are to be the basis for right decisions in our life. That's not the biggest. The biggest
problem is how God, who must punish sin, show mercy to us.
And that's why when Paul writes to the church at Rome in that
opening chapter, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. As a matter of fact, in another
place, he'll refer to the gospel as a treasure that's in earth
and in heaven. You see, you can learn a lot
of Yes, you'd call them valuable things in religion. Sometimes
people can be taught a higher moral standard, or they can have
help in their lives as far as their health, or as far as their
relationships are concerned, all these things. But what will
that matter? If you go out to meet God, and
this issue has not been resolved between you and God the righteous
judge, what will it do you good if you have gained the whole
world, the respect of the world, the honor of the world, the riches
of the world? You die and you sin. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. And here is the first
reason for it. He says, because therein is the
righteousness of God revealed, chief, to the Gospel. How God
be just, justified. You can't figure that. I didn't
figure it out. It's not to be known by any of
the books of history or poetry or whatever it is. And it's not
even to be known in the Bible unless God reveal it. You see,
the knowledge and the revelation of who God is, and how God is,
and what we are as sinners, and how it is that He saves sinners. Not only is it in Christ as far
as being essentially in Him, it's only to be known in the
Gospel. They say, well, God is high and
He's almighty, love, He's all these things. But if those are
the only things we ever find out about God, We'll parry. There are a lot of people in
this world and have been a lot of people in this world who had
true views of true things about God. They died without knowing
the truth. You see, the truth is the body
of all these true things about God in harmony with each other,
in agreement with each other. The truth has to do with how
Peace and mercy and judgment and justice and righteousness
can come together, be in agreement. That's why He's this treasure.
He's the treasure, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You see, what he's talking about
is eternal life. Absolutely. Because the Lord
Jesus, in His prayer to the Father in John 17, He says, "...and
this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast seen." This is it. This
is the treasure. This is eternal life. This is
the most vital thing. This is what life, the gift of
it from God, is all about. It's about knowing God in deeper. As Paul said, I determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The greatest treasure, the highest
wisdom, the deepest knowledge is all to be found in knowing
Christ. That is, knowing Him as He declares
Himself to be in Scripture. Knowing Him experimentally by
His Spirit. Knowing Him through this mystery
revealed in the gospel. This is true riches. And if we
don't know it before, when we close our eyes in death, when
they drape us in that shroud that has no pockets in it for
earthly riches, When we open our eyes in eternity, if we don't
know it before, we'll know it then. Listen to what Paul says.
He says, unto me who am less than the least of all saints. In his day, those religious folks
said, well, Paul just went off the deep end. There was a time
when he seemed to know a few things, but he got tangled up
with this Jesus Christ thing, and he went off the deep end.
Why was that? Why did God bring him down? Why
did everything he counted, as he says, gain to him, did he
now count as loss? It was in order to gain something
that he didn't have, in order to gain the most valuable treasure
of treasure. What was that to be found in?
So he writes to these Ephesians later, he says, "...unto me who
am less than the least of all saints is this grace given."
This grace, whereby it was something more valuable. Something that
he could not have gained by his own strength and abilities. It
was something that he now turned his back on. What was it? He
says, to preach among the Gentiles. The unsearchable riches. Every
earthly treasure can be counted and valued. Weighed, measured,
appraised. finite man, if God is pleased
to reveal it to us. He receives a revelation in the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. These unsearchable, immeasurable,
infinite riches. Paul again, in Romans 11, Oh
the depth of the riches! Both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding. I want every one of you to be
a better person. I want me to be a better person
most of all. I want all you young people and children to prosper. I want you to learn. I want you to have good jobs.
I want you to fare well in this earth. But because you have a
greater, because there is a greater treasure. That's why our emphasis
is on preaching the gospel of Christ crucified and studying
His Word. I know that I can stand here
for as long as I'm able and if God does not give you the eye
of revelation and enable you to see and evaluate the worth
of the precious thing brought. How many times do you suppose
in this world somebody has walked along a path or a rocky place
or something like that, seen something, picked it up, looked
at it, threw it back down. They valued it. And somebody
else came along behind them who had some wisdom and knowledge
in the natural sense of the value of precious stones and such and
picked that up. been so happy because they knew
what it was. The diamond or something. I remember reading a story once.
There's some men, two men I believe it was, in Australia. They were
going along working in something or whatever it was, and they
discovered the world's largest opal, like in pounds. You know
what they called it? They called that opal welcome. My friend, if God's ever pleased
to reveal you the treasure in the Lord Jesus Christ, if He
enables you through the cross to see how God really is, He
must not be all love, then had He. He must be holy. He must
be just. He must be righteous. And you
and I, if that's the one who's dying for us, we must not be
so fine as we thought we were. We must be wretched sinners,
unable to save ourselves. This bleeding one, hanging before
divine justice, suffering as our substitute. He must be the
only way. What he said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the one mediator
between God and men. I am the Savior, the Redeemer. I am the Lord's salvation. I am the Lord your righteous. Turn over to me. 2 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians chapter 4. Now listen to Paul. Now here
is a man that God chose specifically to save, and more than that,
to use in the salvation of others by getting His message and His
Word to them through this man. Well, 2 Corinthians 4. I've not failed to declare unto
you all the counsel of God. As God has enabled me, I have
manifested or proclaimed or declared to you the truth of God. I've told you about this treasure. He said, But if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." He says, but we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. Since he is like every other
man, likening himself to a pot of clay." That's all we are,
pots of clay. But he said, God has put in this
pot of clay, in these earthen vessels, this trash. Why didn't he make a fancy chest
to put it? That the excellency of the power
may be of God, the jeweler. takes that black cloth. He puts
the diamonds and the jewelry on that black background so as
to emphasize their beauty, not detract. Our Lord said, a good
man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth. And an evil man out of an evil
treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart
is mouth. You can't tell about a Christ
you don't know. You can't see beauty in the one
that you've never seen. But He's our treasure. He's the
one we attribute everything. He's the one we give all the
glory to in our salvation. He has saved us from our sins. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
like a mine or a treasure chest of endless, untold, inexhaustible,
eternal, He who was rich became full, that in Him we might be
made rich toward God. And this treasure is said to
be hid. In Him are hid. That means, first of all, that
this treasure is not known or valued or seen by the natural
man who has neither eye to see or heart to believe. He has no
understanding, has no knowledge of the things of Christ. And
God has to reveal, remember Isaiah's words, "...for he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire."
Natural man thieves not things, but the Spirit of God reveals
the things of Christ through the Gospel to the people. What
does He make us to know? Well, you can go back in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 and read it for yourself. But there it says that God gives
His people His Spirit that they might know the things that are
freely given. Not what you're to do, not what
I'm to do, not three steps to salvation, that we might know
the things that God freely gives us, that we might know the treasure,
which is really the treasure of treasures. You remember when
the famines came to Egypt after Joseph had been raised to the
throne. With that wisdom that God gave
him, he sought to gather into those storehouses all the things
that they would need in those years of plenty to get them through
the famine. Joseph did that. And it says
in Joseph, opened this old house. How much do you think gold was
worth when there was not a bushel of wheat? How much do you think
rubies and diamonds were worth when people, if they had a bushel
of them, couldn't get a bushel? This world may be soon facing
such a thing. Not far. That's how Joseph opened
it. He had the keys. He had the authority. He had the power. They were,
it was hid from everybody. But he opened it. And Hidden
also seems to say something about the great value of these things
in Christ. The knowledge of Christ is to
be so highly valued and kept securely, lest that foul one,
the devil, steal it away. Like that bird he bribed that
steals away the precious seed. The kingdom of heaven is likened
to treasure hid in a field. The witch, when a man hath found
it, he hideth. And for the joy thereof goeth,
and selleth all that he hath. And by that will God really know
what I really am, as to how he can be saved in Christ. Those same people, more particularly
Joseph's brethren, they went to buy food in Egypt. So they went down there with
their beasts of burden, and they went to buy and to give all these
things that they had in exchange for enough grain that they could
live off of. Joseph commanded that their bags
be filled. He commanded that they have all
the grain that their beasts could carry back to their father, put
their money back in. They started to leave, got out
there, and they were being checked out. They were worried about
it. He said, when that man finds out that this money is in our
bags, he's gonna accuse us of stealing from him, trying to
get the grain for nothing, and he'll have us. Joseph said to
his brother, peace be to you, fear not your God and the God
of your father. hath given you treasure. He's
blessed you, not by virtue of anything you have done or have,
but treasure. And God reveals truth to his
people. It's obvious he's put treasure in, because the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of
the holy. And Paul said to Timothy, he
said, From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus." Well, I said if we have Christ, we have it
all. What do we do? We keep examining. We keep looking. We keep thinking about how we
got it. Praising God. as the one who's relying on it.
Found security for both now and forever. Peter said, but grow
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him
be glory both now and forever. Treasure. He's the treasure of
treasure. Everything. Father, this day
we give you praise. Thanksgiving. For the infinite
gift, for the unspeakable riches you give your people in Christ.
Lord, we know it is all of your grace, not of our works, that
our salvation is in his worthiness, not ours. And if we be in him,
we be among the richest, the richest people in all of time. We thank you for the riches of
your grace, for a salvation full and free, for a righteousness
that you give as a gift and for his blood poured out as the ransom
for our sins. So you be all glory and honor
forever and ever.