Paul writes to the church at
Colossae, and this I say, lest any man should beguile you with
enticing words. This I say, because what I don't want to happen is
that you be beguiled by any man with enticing words. This I say. This I say in verse one, I have
great conflict for you. I say that because I don't want
you beguiled. I say that this concerns me. It affects me. It matters to
me. I've seen this happen with my
own eyes and I don't want this to happen to you. So this I say,
I have great conflict. And this I say, in verse two,
that my desire for you is that you might have all the riches
of the full assurance of understanding, lest any man should beguile you.
I want you to be rooted and grounded in the truth. The truth that
you've been taught will not just be doctrinal facts that you agree
with, but as Paul describes it, or as John described it in 1
John 5.20, we know This is what I want for you,
lest you should be beguiled. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding. We haven't just heard a man speak
and agreed with it or disagreed with it. We've heard from God
and he gave us an understanding that we may know him. That's
1 John 5.20. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding, an understanding of what? The
doctrine of the Baptist church? No, that we may know Him, God,
His Son, who He is, Him that is true, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. I want you to have that full
assurance of understanding that he gives when he speaks to men
through the preaching of the gospel. This I say again in verse
two, that you might acknowledge that which is hidden, acknowledge
the mystery, that which is hidden to most people, hidden to everybody
until the Lord reveals it. Verse two, and know where it
is hidden, verse three. Know where to find it. that you
might find in Christ all that you need, all that you need to
know, all that you need to have, all that you need in Christ. There is danger. There is the
threat of being removed from the simplicity that's in Christ.
And so Paul says, I use the only weapon I have against that. This
I say, I wield the only sword that has the power to prevail
in this matter of eternal life and death, the word of God. The
word of God. This I say, all the treasures
are in Christ. This I say, all the fullness
is in Christ. Lest you be beguiled, lest you
be removed from the simplicity of that, If they will beguile
you, it will also be with words. Paul said, this I say, and the
problem is what they say. Enticing words, words designed
to persuade, that's what it is to entice, is to persuade somebody,
to persuade them to do something. Yes, false preachers will bribe
you with heaven and threaten you with hell. But what they're
persuading you to do about that is anything. Anything. They'll bribe you with
heaven now. They'll threaten you with hell.
And they'll tell you, here's what you need to do about that.
And it doesn't matter what they say you need to do about it.
They'll persuade you to do anything. but trust Christ. Oh, they may
tell you to trust Christ, but not only that, not only that. Anything, do something for God. Distinguish yourself from others
in the sight of God. Prayer, prayer, walking out,
make a decision. And upon your performance of
that, upon you separating yourself from the crowd by doing that
little thing, whatever it is, they'll pronounce you saved.
I've been in the big middle of it. I know what they do. Let me say this to you. Don't
you dare do anything for God. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. Not in the matter of your salvation,
not in the matter of your righteousness before him. Don't you dare do
anything for him. Paul said, if you do, Christ
will profit you nothing. I'm not saying don't serve God
if he saves you. I'm not saying that, but in the
matter of salvation, in the matter of your standing before God,
in the matter of your acceptance with God, which by the way is
the issue, not you accepting God. God's not up for your acceptance
or rejection. The question is, will he accept
you? And in that matter, don't you dare do anything for him.
What are you gonna do for him? You're gonna decide to let him
save you? That matter was settled in eternity.
The thing for us to do is to come before him and say, Lord,
be merciful to me. Have mercy on me. If He saves us now, we're gonna
live for Him. We ought to live for Him. We
judge that way. That's what we talked about in
Bible class. We live for Him who died for us, but in the matter
of salvation, your righteousness before God, that's something
Christ does for you. That's something He does for
you. He does all of it. And He does it for you if He
does. Now, what do you think would have happened if an Israelite,
if after Moses said, on the banks of the Red Sea, if Moses had
said, you stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, there's
the Egyptian army ready to destroy all of the Israelites. And Moses
said, you stand there and watch God save you. What would have
happened to an Israelite that was feeling froggy that day and
rode into the ranks of the Egyptian army and said, it's liberty or
death? What do you think would have
happened to him? And this thing is a simple question
of motive. When it comes to serving the
Lord who has saved you, as opposed to doing something so that he
will save you. It's a simple question of motive.
Are you doing something for God in order to be saved or because
he saved you? That's a pretty good question.
Don't ever be persuaded, Paul said. Don't ever be persuaded
to do something in order to be saved. But doesn't it say, Chris, doesn't
it say when that man asked Paul and Silas, what must I do to
be saved? They said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's exactly right. And if
faith was you doing something for God, then you'd need to do
something to be saved because you must believe on the Son of
God. But the thing is, faith is God doing something for you. Faith is the gift of God, Ephesians
2.9, not of works, lest any man should boast. This book says
that Christ is the author, him by which something begins to
be. Christ is the author of faith
and the finisher of faith. This book says that faith is
the fruit of God's spirit, not your flesh. They will persuade you now, enticing
words. They'll persuade you that it's
all up to you. Don't be beguiled. Nothing is
up to you. It's up to God. That's why you
go to God and say, Lord, if you will, you can save me. This whole
thing hangs upon your will, not mine. They'll persuade you that it's
all up to you. That's spiritual death. The gospel is not what
you need to do for the Lord. It's who Christ is and what he
did for sinners. Don't be persuaded, don't be
beguiled, don't be enticed. The persuasive liar will tell
you that there's a whole list of things now that you need to
know in order to be saved. The gospel preacher by God's
grace will tell you that all wisdom and knowledge, all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. And all you need
is to know him. You need to know him. The persuasive
liar will tell you that there's something that you need to do
to qualify as a Christian. The gospel preacher will, by
God's grace, tell you that you are complete in Christ. That's
in our very text this morning. You're complete in him. Christ
is your righteousness. Christ is your sin offering. And they'll do it with words,
won't they? God doesn't use tricksters. He doesn't use, he doesn't send
slip talkers to preach his gospel. It's just gonna be meat and potatoes
if God sent him. It's just gonna be the truth
of the gospel. But the false preacher often
will be very smooth and skilled in persuasive rhetoric. They'll
have the advantage when it comes to motivating people and convincing
people because that's the business that they're in. And they have
another advantage. They're saying what you want
to hear anyway. By nature, what you want to hear is something
you can do to be saved. That everything is in your hands,
that you have the power to make the difference, that God bends
to your will Satan has been saying that since the Garden of Eden
and he's real good at it But all of the advantages of
Satan and evil men mean nothing if God gives you ears to hear
If he gives you faith to believe you see we have this advantage We have the words of eternal
life We have the gospel of God's son. We preach Christ and him
crucified. And that's not a slogan. That's
not just a slogan. We preach Christ and him crucified. We preach a person and what he
did to save sinners, not what sinners need to do to save themselves. So don't be enticed. And if you're not enticed, it
will be because by the grace of God, you know him. Whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge you'll find in
him all wisdom and understanding All the truth of God in a person And look at verse 5 for though
I be absent in the flesh I Yet am I with you in the spirit,
joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your
faith in Christ. I can't be with you. I haven't
been able to be with you. And yet I'm with you. I'm with
you in my heart. That does mean something. I used
to think that was such an empty thing to say. Well, I'm with
you in spirit. Well, that don't count. It does if it's sincere. It's scriptural, isn't it? Joying and beholding your
order, I rejoice in what I hear about you and the steadfastness
of your faith in Christ. This is an uplifting verse, but
there's something scary about it too. Do you see it? What in
the world do you mean scary? There's a lot of reason for rejoicing
in this. He sees their order and the steadfastness
of their faith. Yeah, exactly. And yet it is
then, when there is order, when there is steadfastness of faith,
that Paul gives this warning. Don't be beguiled. I'm laboring
in my heart. I'm struggling over this. that
you not be moved away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't
mean that we don't rejoice because we're always expecting the worst. It has ruined so many things
in my life. I'm enjoying something, but then
I think, yeah, but Monday I've got to go back to work. And it
ruins the whole thing. We're worried about something
that's gonna happen or may happen or could happen. even sometimes,
and maybe never will, and it ruins our joy. That's not the
way it is. That's not the way it should
be. Paul did rejoice with them that God had blessed them with
order. Do we understand what that means?
There's not a lot of explanation of it, but I think being part
of his church, being part of a local body of believers, his
family here in this place of which he's the head. I think
I understand that word order. Do you a little bit? Order, everything's
as it should be. Everybody's in their place and
doing what they should do. That's a glorious thing. What
a wonderful, Blessing that is. The arrangement of things is
as God has instructed and commanded. Everyone and everything in its
proper place. What a precious thing that is.
You know, a lot of the reason that I know what that is is because
I've seen what it's not. Not so much here, but in other
places. I know you understand that. What
a great gift from God that your order, your order, thank God
for that. In the steadfastness of your
faith, there was a grounding of these people in Christ that
was encouraging to the apostle. But to be saved, is to continue, to continue in the faith. Christ's saving
of us does not depend upon our perseverance, but it will include
perseverance. If you continue in the faith,
Paul said in another place, Again, Christ's saving of us doesn't
depend upon us persevering. But if he has saved us, we'll
persevere because he preserves us, he keeps us, he holds us
up. And it will be evidenced. God's
saving of us will be evidenced by the steadfastness of the faith
that he gave us and our perseverance in the faith. For the blessings
that the Lord has bestowed upon us, let's be thankful too, let's
rejoice. He said, I have much joy, though
I'm not with you, I'm with you in my heart and I rejoice to
see what God's done. Not what you've done, what the
preacher's done. I love what you've done. I love the way our manner or
our order of services or whatever. No, I rejoice in what God has
done. He's given you faith in his son. May we be thankful and rejoicing. And there's another exhortation
here in verse six. Look at verse six. As you have
therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. Conduct yourself in Christ. You've received him, he's had
mercy on you, he has brought his gospel to you and saved you
by the preaching of the gospel as he's pleased to do. Now progress in that, that's
the word Walt, progress in that, not improve upon it, but act accordingly to make one's way. Knowing Christ
is not just an experience. People have religious experiences. That's worthless. It's not a philosophy. It's not
a check mark in the story of your life. Well, I believe, you
know, I've made a decision and got that taken care of. Knowing him is a way. It's life itself. It's to live
not henceforth unto ourselves, as we read earlier this morning,
but unto Him that loved us and gave Himself for us. The kind
of faith that God gives in Christ is faith that works. It worketh
by love, not by law, not by constraint. We're constrained by His love.
and by the love for Him that we have because He first loved
us. If you truly receive Him, you
walk in Him. We're exhorted because we still
live in this flesh. Part of the way that God brings
to pass the fact, and He does work in us, does not the scripture
say He works in us both to want to and to do of His good pleasure? And part of the way He does that
is by exhorting us in scripture. Walk, live, strive, endeavor. We still live in this flesh and
we're susceptible to walking according to the flesh. Didn't
Paul say to the Corinthians, you walk as me and you walk as
carnal. But turn with me to Romans chapter
eight. This is such a thorough exposition
of our text here. So walk ye in him, walk ye. What's
that all about? Let's look at Romans chapter
eight, verse one. walk ye in him. Romans 8, one,
there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death. I'm not judged by the law which
condemns me, because I can't measure up to it. And the reason
I'm not is because in Christ, the law can't condemn me. No man can condemn me. No devil
can condemn me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Verse
three, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh. It's not the law that's weak,
it's the flesh that's weak. The law can't save, it can't
make a man righteous. It can't bring us to the place
where there's no condemnation because of the weakness of our
flesh. We're sinful, our natures are
sinful. So what couldn't happen that
way happened this way. God sent his own son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. And he condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. He did it for us. He did it as
our substitute. not just so that we would see
the righteousness of the law in a person, act it out, what
it looks like, but that we might actually experience it, that
we might actually get in on it because he represented us like
Adam did in the garden. We're sinners in Adam. In Christ, we're righteous. the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you
Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none
of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the
spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you. So walk ye
in him. if you've received Him, if you're
in Him, those that be in Christ, there's no condemnation. Walk
in Him. And look what it says in verse
seven of our text, rooted and built up in Him and established
in the faith. He just bragged on them a little
bit, not on them, but on the Lord in that they were established
in the faith. So what's his exhortation to
him? Be established in the faith. That's our constant need, our
constant desire. And that happens by being in
Christ, rooted and built up, growing down and growing up in
Christ, rooted. A plant's got to grow down before
it can grow up. It's the roots that bring up
nourishment from Christ, our knowledge of Him, our faith in
Him, and then the fruit is developed and enjoyed. And herein is God
the Father glorified, and that we bear much fruit in Christ. But let's never forget what our
Lord said in the context of that. Listen to John 15, four. Abide
in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except
it abide in the vine, no more can ye except you abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you
can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide
in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. Our roots are in Christ and our
fruit is the fruit of his spirit. Established in the faith that
works by love, faith worketh by love, love for him, his love
for us. Because he first loved us, we
love him and therefore we desire to honor him. that motivation
in us to honor the Lord, to live for Him. Paul said, we reckon
things this way. We ought to live for Him. That's
Him working in us, both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. And so Paul gives us this warning
here. Don't be enticed. Don't be beguiled. Don't be drawn away from Christ.
He is, Your sustenance. He is our life and he's who we
live for. Abounding in that, he said, abound
in that. What a wonderful exhortation
and a wonderful desire. The Lord gives us that desire
to abound rooted and built up in him and established in the
faith as you've been taught, abounding therein. Abounding
therein. Abounding is to be so fitly set
in him, to be so rooted and grounded in him that we bear much fruit
for his glory. And that's the Lord. That's the
Lord's doing. We pray for that. We desire that. And with thanksgiving, abound
in that, not with pride, not with look at me, not with giving
a braggamony, Abound in that with thanksgiving. Abound in
that in fruit, knowing why, knowing how, knowing that it's not you
doing something for the Lord. It is that the Lord has done
something for you. May he do that for us. Abounding
with thanksgiving, everything we are, Everything we know, everything we do, we owe to Him. And so let's abound with thanksgiving.
May He cause it to be so.