Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Paul's epistle to the Colossians. Colossians chapter 3, page 1096. Colossians chapter 3 and verse
16, just the first clause of this verse. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. Colossians 3 verse 16, the first
clause. I'll read the whole verse. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. The Apostle writing to the Colossians
here is writing to those that are risen with Christ. It says in verse one, if ye then
be risen with Christ. Now the Lord Jesus Christ rose
from the dead we might say on his own. He was crucified, he
was slain, he laid down his life, a ransom, he was laid in the
tomb and on the third day he rose again. We do read that at the time that
there were those that did rise from the dead and appeared unto
many in the city. But what is set forth here is
those that are bound up with Christ spiritually. The Lord
said, because I live, ye shall live also. And the people of
God, their life, their spiritual life, their hope, their deliverance
from sin and from its condemnation is through Christ's death and
rising again. It is the assurance given unto
all men, in that God hath raised him from the dead, that sin did
not have dominion over the Lord, that the sins that were laid
on him, he hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, that they
were truly put away by Christ at Calvary. And for all that
believe in him and trust in him, He gives eternal life. Go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. They were charged to make disciples
of men. And we read of the reception
of the word to the Thessalonians especially. They became followers
of God and followers of the apostles, followers of the people of God.
They believed the report, they believed what Christ had done,
the work that he had accomplished to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And that then resulted in those
believers in a new life, a life of faith and prayer. a life not
yielding their members to uncleanness and unrighteousness and sin,
but yielding their members to righteousness and to goodness
and to the praise and honour and glory of God. And so he says to them here,
if ye then be risen with Christ, or perhaps to put it in another
way, if ye are born again of the Spirit, If ye are a believer,
if ye are converted, if you are called by God's grace, if you
truly believe that you are saved and that you are in that new
covenant of God's grace with the hope of heaven after death,
seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. And he says before them in this
chapter, those things that they are then to seek, those things
that they are to resist, and those things that they are to
embrace. And we need that very clear understanding
of where to draw the line in these things and how to put it
into practice. Perhaps if you were to use an
illustration, perhaps of our own houses, and many through
this pandemic time may have thought, well, we're going to have a turnout. We're going to look at the things
in our house, and some of those things we're going to throw out.
And some of those things we're going to consciously keep. And
so there's a discernment of what is needed and what is not, what
is good and what is bad, what is refuge and what is precious. And our bodies are spoken of
as like a house, like a temple, and in them those things that
are to be, when they are found, to be thrown out and others to
be kept. The children of Israel in their
history had many times that the kings of Judah, kings of Israel
especially, but the kings of Judah where the temple was, they
brought into the temple of God things that should never be there.
Idols, idol worship, they defiled it. And then when God raised
up a good king, a king that knew what was acceptable and right
in the sight of the Lord, then he purged the house. He threw
out those things that were evil, but not those things that were
good. And he had to know what did belong
to the true worship of God and what did not belong, what was
ordained by God. Should they throw out the lavas
that were used to wash or all of the basins and the tongs and
the instruments. There were many, many things
that were all ordained of God and made for the temple. And
they were amongst all of the things that man had decided he
was to put there. And when there was a cleansing
out, they had to be realizing what had to be kept and what
passed away. And so when the apostle here
directs them, exhorts them, of what to seek and how to live,
then there is some that is a casting away and some there is of a keeping. And so it is in this way I want
to look at this chapter, especially with the emphasis of what is
to be kept. I feel many times, and I feel
I've done this in my ministry, we can quite highlight what needs
to be thrown out or dealt with and yet overlook what actually
should be kept and nurtured and not thrown out. And so when we
have in the words of our text, let or allow, allow the word
of Christ to dwell in you richly in all wisdom. It is not to be
thrown out. It is to be permitted to remain
there and not just remain but dwell there richly in all wisdom. And so that is what I desire
to set before us this evening and may the Lord be pleased to
bless the word to give us this different perspective really
on looking at our lives, the temple of our bodies and what
goes on in our minds and our affections. So in order to do
this I want to look firstly at reacting to what is found in
us. Reacting, how do we react to
what is found in us? Then secondly, what in the text
is to be allowed to dwell in us, which is the word of Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly nor wisdom. And then thirdly, how the word
of Christ is to dwell in us. The word says, richly in all
wisdom. But firstly reacting to what
is found in us. Many of the people of God will
be used to hearing the exhortations, to dealing with the corruptions
of our hearts, and what is evil that is within us, not allowing
that in our bodies, in our thoughts, in our affections, that is so
contrary to Christ and is of the world. The friendship of
the world is enmity with God, where to crucify the flesh with
the affections and the lusts thereof, We are to, as we have
in verse 5 in this chapter, mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry, for which
things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. So when we realize those things
are in our members, when we feel the vileness rising up within,
our evil affections, the temptations to evil, our heart running away
with our eyes, and then our meditation on things that are unprofitable,
evil, adulterous, fornications, those sort of things, when we
realize those are beginning to take root in our thoughts and
in our lives, those things are not to be allowed there, but
to be cast out, to be mortified. In other words, pushed to one
side, not dwelt upon at all, ignored as it were, not allowed
any time, any access time as it were, And we're
to seek those things that are positively good, and that mortifies
the deeds of the body. You know, if someone was to go
into a, shall we say, a radio station or something like that,
and they wanted to put forth their views and their particular
agenda, then when the station realized that, they would either
shut them off, put something else on, and not give them any
air time. If they kept them in the studio
and argued with them and reasoned with them, they'd actually been
giving them the air time. So what really is set before
us here when we have these contrary things of our fallen nature that
we are not to give them any air time, they're not to have any
attention time, but to be just ignored, brushed to one side,
and pursue after those things which are right. You know, Nehemiah,
when he was building the wall of Jerusalem, he had Tobiah and
Sanballan, and they all the time were trying to distract him,
trying to get him to stop the work, And in order to do that,
they wanted interviews with him. They wanted him to go into the
temple for fear of enemies. And he wouldn't give them any
time. He said, I am too busy. I'm doing
a great work. I cannot come to you. And in
one sense, he just, he was mortifying them. He was just not giving
them any attention in that way. The apostle speaks in that way,
that we are to act when we find the working of our old nature
there. And we are told in verse 8, but
now, ye also put off all these. These are things as well that
are not allowed to continue in our thoughts and affections and
in our lives. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your mouth, lie not one to another.
And all the time we have the picture things are being pushed
out, things are being not allowed to continue in the hearts of
a believer, one that is following Christ. But then there's the
other side of it. Not only do we have Satan injecting
his thought and the old nature that is within. But if we are
risen with Christ, then there is that within us that is put
in us by the Holy Spirit. There's that which was said of
Jeroboam's son, because in him there is some good thing toward
the Lord God of Israel. Dear Job, in his afflictions,
when his friends just could not understand him, and they wrongly
accused him, and he says, why persecute thou me, seeing the
root of the matter is in me? No doubt they did believe that
he truly was one of God's people. He did fear God, very evident
from the Beginning in the book of Job, he feared God greatly. That's why Satan had a controversy
against him. And his friends acknowledged
that, and yet they were saying all these things against him.
Well, here we have, in the heart and in the life of a believer,
there is that which is put there, that good thing, that which doesn't
come from themselves, but comes from God that is put in the heart,
that new man of grace, that principle of grace and of life, the gift
of eternal life, the blessings of the Holy Spirit to come to
a sinner and to cause to be in that person's heart, And so we
have those things that are to be there and are to be put on. We have in verse 12, put on therefore
as the elect of God, holy and beloved bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one
another, for forgiving one another. The fruits of the Spirit are
to be put on. But what is very much upon my
spirit is those things which are put there, put there by God
as a blessed gift of grace and that they are then to be reacted
to in a very, very different way to the works of the flesh
and of our old nature. What if the Lord is pleased to
come and give us that peace that he speaks of? My peace I give
unto you, not as the world give I unto you. In me you shall have peace, in
the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. Well, what does it say in verse
15 before our text? and let the peace of God rule
in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body
and be ye thankful. And so our Lord says this peace,
it is given, it is given. And he says to those to whom
it is given, let that peace rule, let it rule. If we were to have a group of
people and, or if we use the example with the apostle with
the churches, there were those times that he sent to the messengers,
sometimes he sent women that were to be a help. And he charged
that church, let them help you. Give them what aid they need,
encourage them. Put them in a position where
they influence the church. Don't just ignore them. And so
when the Lord puts peace in a sinner's heart, how does he react to that? Does
he just ignore it? Does he just think, well, it's
nice to have it, and not really realise that this is something
that is to be nurtured, to grow, to influence all his life and
his heart, and that he is given from above. The Holy Spirit is
given to the people of God, and he is the giver of every blessing,
conveyor of it with power to the soul. And we're exhorted
to grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby he are sealed unto the
day of redemption. How grieving it would be if we
were to give gifts to a person and that person didn't value
those gifts and they just laid them aside. Especially if we
saw that person needing those things that we'd given them and
they weren't using them. The people of God, the Lord said,
without me you can do nothing. And the gifts and graces and
blessings of the Spirit and the gifts of God, they are for a
man to profit thereby. And so when the Lord gives his
dear people peace, he says, let the peace of God rule in your
hearts. That's how we should react to
it. and so with our text as well.
The Lord, and this is why we read the passage in the Gospel
according to John, where he speaks of the Holy Comforter in verse
26, but the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father
will send in my name He shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you." Again, these two things, the word and peace,
are brought here, and in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and
where that word is then given to a people, then they are to
let that word dwell in them. And so it is this thought, how
do we react to the graces and blessings that the Lord gives?
If we are truly the Lord's people, our lives should not be a constant
mortifying or pushing away evil, but embracing and nurturing that
which is good, recognising the gifts of the Holy Spirit and
the gift of God, and giving them a place in our hearts. We mentioned Nehemiah and his
adversaries, Tobiah and Samballot. The people of the land had given
them places to live actually in the temple, rooms that they
could be in. Nehemiah went and he got all
their stuff and he threw it all out. He wouldn't let them have
a place there. But where it is, the people of
God, where it is those that truly love the Lord and are blessed,
they are to have a place in the house of God. and the gifts and
blessings of God aren't ever placed in our hearts. And so may this thought, our
first point, reacting to what is found in us, may this remain
with us, that we meditate upon it and think of how we do actually
react to those things that the Lord gives us. It may be through
our morning reading, it may be as we've laid awake at night
that he's dropped the word in, or whether through the preaching
of the word, or the Holy Spirit bringing something to our remembrance. How do we react to that? Do we quickly get busy with something
else? Or when Satan comes in with some
evil temptation, we drop the peace, the sweet word we've been
meditating on and take up with that which is evil? Do we become so busy like Martha
that we cannot sit at the feet of the Lord and hear his word? if we had not seen our loved
ones for a long while. And then they were last allowed,
and they came to our house. And there they were in our house,
but we were so busy with everything else, we couldn't spend any time
with them at all. We think, well, isn't that strange?
They're there. So let's enjoy them and let's
have time with them. And it's with the blessings of
the Lord as well. We may long wait and pray and
long for those blessings and for the Lord to come. And then
when he does come, we fritter it away. Or we so easily lose
it because we're busy with something else. We don't keep it. and hold it fast and nurture
it. And so this is the burden upon
my spirit. Yes, we should be dealing with
casting things out, but equally we should be prizing and nurturing
and holding fast that which is good and that which is the blessings
of the Lord. Really recognising these These
two things in the hard lives of a believer, the apostle puts
it in one way, in a big house, some things are wood and hay
and staple, and other things they are gold, they are silver,
they're precious things. And you don't cast out the precious
with the vile. And so the word is here when
we have the Word of Christ in us. It is let or allow the Word
of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Well then secondly, what in the
text is to be allowed to dwell in us? It is the Word of Christ. Now, some might say, well, of
course, what is meant here is what is in some Bibles that is
written in red, which are the words of Christ when he was upon
the earth. But I am very sure that what
the Apostle Paul is setting for the Colossians here is not restricted
in that way, but encompasses the whole word of God. So when, as we read in the Psalms
of David, and how much that he loved the word of God, his testimonies
are wonderful, therefore my soul keepeth them, and how that he
prevents the night watchers that he might meditate upon thy word,
and the whole of Psalm 119, speaks of how greatly the psalmist esteemed
the words of God, and yes, more than his necessary food. And
we have in Deuteronomy and our Lord himself in resisting Satan,
man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly
God, and when we have the, what is to be allowed to dwell in
us, it is the word of Christ. And you might say, why does it
not say the word of God? Why is there a distinction as
to the word of Christ to dwell in you? And I believe the distinction
is the gospel as opposed to the law. The whole Word of God is the
Word of God. But in the Word of God, there
is the law and there is the gospel. There is that that hails to Mount
Sinai and to bondage, and there is that which hails to liberty
and the blessings of the gospel. It is what the Lord said to the
woman that was taken in adultery, when no man would condemn her,
because they were all convinced of their own guilt, he said to
her, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. That is the
word of the gospel. The word of the law was what
those of her accusers brought to Christ. They said, Moses,
in the law command that such should be stoned, but what sayest
thou? And the Apostle Paul, when the
Gospel had been sent to the Galatians, they had embraced it first as
the Gospel of the grace of God, the mercy of God, that Christ
had died to fulfil the law and put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, paying the penalty and setting loose those that
were guilty and bidding them to go and sin no more, not just
sinning because they were forgiven, but ceasing from sin because
they loved the Saviour who had suffered for them, and they hated
the sins then that were the cause of his sufferings." And so the
word of Christ is an emphasis on the gospel,
on liberty of the gospel, of the difference between condemnation
and no condemnation. This is what Paul, when he writes
to the Romans, he says, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And that is what is to dwell
in the, and to be let dwell in those that are risen with Christ. They are alive from the dead,
and the law condemns. And this is why when the Galatians
were going back to the law, saying that they had to be circumcised
and to keep the whole law, The apostle says, if you obey in
one point, then your debt is to do the whole law, because
whosoever is a transgressor in one point, he is guilty of all. And the gospel, it delivers from
condemnation. And so that word of Christ that
is to be allowed to dwell in us, or let to allow in us is
the word of the gospel. But what sayest thou? How many
of the people of God know what it is to have Satan to tempt
them and say, you're not a child of God, your sins are not forgiven,
what God has wrought in you, what he's done for you, what
he's blessed you with, you can't trust in that, Back to the law
you go, back to fear, back to condemnation, back to uncertainty. But where the Lord drops into
the hearts of his dear people the sweets and blessings of the
gospel, they are to be nourished, they are to be let dwell there. They are to be embraced. They
are not to be cast out with the rubbish. The Scriptures are very
clear on this, despise not thou the day of small things, if so
be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. You don't cast away
that taste. Cast not away your confidence
which hath great recompense of reward. Don't cast it away, let
it dwell in our confidence, not in self, but in Christ. Not in
what we have done, but what Christ has done. And so for a believer,
maybe remember unbelief is a sin. And the doubter, Bunyan, John
Bunyan, in his holy war, it was legion or Satan when he was seeking
to retake the town of Mansoul that he determined that the best
way of taking it would be to send those legions, thousands
of doubters, and they were to take the city. Casting doubt. Doubt upon the scriptures themselves. Doubt upon Christ's work. Doubt
upon this and doubt upon that. Doubt upon what was worked within
and how this came and that came. Just undermining everything.
hath God said. The tempter, when he first came,
the fall of our first parents, undermining the word of God.
May the people of God, may we who believe, really realise what
a prize, what a blessing it is when the Holy Spirit brings the
peace of God, when he brings the sweet gospel in, you know,
When I was first seeking, when I was under conviction of sin,
I used to read the Word of God, and it was as if there was no
Gospel. Wherever I read, it condemned me as a sinner, as a guilty sinner,
whether it be New Testament or Old Testament. But then the Lord
changed that, and He opened my eyes to show me the Gospel. And wherever I read then, Old
Testament or New, There I saw the mercy through the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There my eyes were opened to
see what Christ had done and accomplished, and that to believe
was to believe in Him and to believe was saving. And the peace
and the blessings of that secret of the Lord, which is with them
that fear Him, Those things that are hidden from the wise and
prudent, revealed unto babes, they are to be let rule and reign
in our hearts. They're not to be cast out. They're
to be nourished and prized. And so that's why we have here,
let the word of Christ dwell in you. Let the gospel dwell
in you. Let that which the Lord has spoken,
that which the Holy Spirit, as our Lord said in John 14, shall
bring to your remembrance. Let that word dwell in you. Give it time, give it space,
nourish it. Don't crowd it out with everything
that is all the busyness and cares of the world. but oft bring
it back again to remembrance. Think upon these things." Now
this is the advice, isn't it, what the Apostle gave when he
wrote to the Philippians. Finally, brethren, he says, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
Whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things
which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in
me do, and the peace of God shall be with you." And it is taking
those blessings of grace, the blessings of the Gospel, and
those are the things we meditate upon, think upon, and This is
the Gospel, this is the Word that is spoken here, led the
Word of Christ. And of course our Lord is the
written and the incarnate Word. Those are the same, the way that
the Gospel according to John begins. In the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is that living Word. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. So lastly then, how the Word
of Christ is to dwell in us. Our text doesn't just say, let
the Word of Christ dwell in you, It could, but it doesn't. It
doesn't stop there. It says, richly in all wisdom. Richly, that is largely and plentifully
of a large amount. So answering any doubt, any question
in our mind, Satan contempt in many ways to
cause us to cast away that word or to limit it or to not think
too much about it or not dwell much on it. The apostle when
he wrote to Timothy he said give thyself wholly to these things
meditate upon them that thy profiting may appear unto all and so with
the word in our hearts. We should often be meditating
upon it, thinking upon it, if the Lord has fastened something
in our morning readings, to try and nurture it so it lasts out
through the day. If he's dropped in a word in
the night season, cause that it might remain with us, abide
with us. If we've heard the word preached, If it's been spoken to us, if
it's been dropped into our mind, the Holy Spirit brought to remembrance
a former time, we'd hold fast and that actually dwelling us
in a very plentiful quantity. The Apostle said to Timothy that from a child that
he's known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise
unto salvation. It's a blessed thing to have
in our memory the Scriptures. It's a blessed thing when they're
brought to our remembrance by the Holy Spirit not just as a
remembrance but with some sweetness and power and a sweet unction
and savour of Christ that we feed upon them, feed upon the
Word of God. But it says in all wisdom That
is, fruitfulness unto wisdom. It's one thing just to have the
Word, but do we understand that Word? Do we actually profit by
that Word? When our Lord told the parable
of the sower, it was the one that was taken out of the mine
straightaway, the seed that was taken up off the stony ground
the wayside rather, because it wasn't understood. But where
it brought fruit, it was understood. And so the word is to be fruitful. Philip's word to the eunuch was,
understandest thou what thou readest. Without that understanding,
that word, there is no profit. And in that case especially,
he could not see Christ there. He did not know who was speaking
there or who was being spoken of. And so when that word dwells
in us, it is to be richly, but it is also in wisdom. So that it is actually profiting
our understanding Now, I deliberately have not
named as a text the rest of the verse here because I do not want
to get into the controversy of psalms and hymns, but what is
very evident from the continuing of the verse is how much the
praise or singing can be used to further this aim, that the
word of Christ dwell in us richly. Our praise, our singing, should
not just be empty words. They should be words of the gospel. They should be words that edify
Words that we can meditate upon. Words that are the words of scripture
and the truths of scripture. And to come short of that is
to come short of that word dwelling in us richly that is the word
of Christ. God has given him a name which
is above every name. that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow. And Peter says, unto you which
believe, he is precious. And in our songs, in our singing,
in our praise, may it be that gospel praise to the Lord in
the clear light of thee. glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. The whole aim and desire is not
just here in ourselves, but when it is in ourselves, we seek that
we might use our songs and use the word to admonish, that is
to caution or reprove gently, warn others. and to bring others
to those same blessings as well. Many of us can testify of being
blessed through the hymns, through the truths that they contain,
the scriptures that they contain, the precious message of the gospel
that is so dropped into our heart that we love that precious word. May we be of those who are able
to tell of what we have handled and tasted and felt and that
we desire others to know that same blessing and same peace
and the same Word of Christ dwelling in them as what dwells in us. So may the Lord bless this Word,
make it true of us That the Word of Christ does dwell in us, in
all wisdom. That the Word of our text is
let, allow, permit. The Word of Christ. Let the Word
of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom. The Lord at His
blessing. Amen.