May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Now let's turn to the
Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, chapter two, and we'll read verses
six and seven. The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians,
chapter two, and reading verses six and seven. As ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him, rooted and
built up in him, and established in the faith as ye have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. It's good to read this account
that the Apostle gives as he writes to the Colossians and
to understand his great burden and concern that the church at
Colossae might indeed be blessed and strengthened and encouraged. And he tells us as he commences
this second chapter, for I would that ye knew what great conflict
I have for you and for them in Laodicea. and for as many as
have not seen my face in the flesh.' And his great concern
was this, 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 in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge." That is a very great statement. It's also a very important
statement, and how we should take such a desire to our hearts,
that as the Apostles' concern was that those at Colossae might
be blessed with this full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ in whom
I hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." And so really
it comes down to the great question which is often before us as to
this, what think ye of Christ? To realise who he is and to realise
what he means to you and to me. So he's not just an historical
figure, which of course he is, but he is, to each one of us,
our great and glorious saviour, our great and glorious God. And
so the apostle goes on and tells us, and this I say, lest any
man should beguile you with enticing words. That means that he's concerned
that there may be those who may turn us away from the great and
simple and glorious truth as it is to be observed and seen
and enjoyed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, for though
I be absent in the flesh, I am with you in the spirit, joying
and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith
in Christ. Well, what a blessing my friends
today if we have that great favour of steadfastness of our faith
in Christ. We need faith in Christ, we need
steadfastness of faith in Christ. And so it would be a great mercy
for us today if we find we have the evidence of that truth within
us. And therefore the Apostle goes
on then to speak in these two verses that we read together
this morning as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established
in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with
thanksgiving. So the Apostle says, as ye have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord. Have we received? Christ Jesus
the Lord. That means, have we received
him as the great God? Have ye, as ye have therefore,
received Christ Jesus the Lord? He was able to speak to these
people in the church at Colossae with this confirmation. For as
ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, and how have
they Had they received Christ Jesus the Lord? And how have
we today received Christ Jesus the Lord? Well, there are a number
of positions how we do receive the Lord Jesus. And I suppose
the great one is, do we receive him as the Lord God? Do we receive him as the second
person in the Trinity? Do we receive him as the eternal
Lord God, one who ever was and is and ever will be? Do we receive
him as the great God who created all things? How therefore do we view the
Saviour? We often perhaps do not have
high enough views of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are encouraged,
of course, to come to him and we should come to him. But we
should also realize that he is high and lifted up. He is the
Lord God omnipotent. And so have we received Christ
Jesus the Lord as the Lord God, the Almighty God, the ruler of
the universe? Because if we have, And that
means if God has given us grace to receive him as that great
God, and then as he gives us grace to view ourselves, we will
see the vast difference between the greatness of this holy, holy
God, and our smallness, and insignificance, and sinfulness, and the amazing
favor that such a God should ever look upon us. So, this morning,
have we received Christ Jesus the Lord as the Lord God? And then, have we received him
as our Master? Our Master. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the Master of all his people. And if he is our Master, then
we should be concerned and desire to follow the instructions that
he gives us. And of course the Word of God
is full of instructions into how you and I should live our
life. And surely to live that life
as our Master is to follow his gracious example. And what a
wonderful example He sets before us in the Word of God. And he
directs his church to follow his example. You see, we are
to follow him. We are to follow him as our master.
And we shall follow him. Why? Because of his love toward
us and in return our love toward him. We shall desire. therefore
to have that understanding that we have therefore received Christ
Jesus our Lord as our Master. And it will be a pleasure to
be found serving Him in whatever sphere, whatever way that may
be. And the Lord God has a position
for all of us in our life and to be made willing in the day
of his power to therefore follow the many positions that are outlined
in the Word of God to direct us to be a true follower of his
example. And of course the Saviour lived
that unspotted life on this earth. And in doing so, one of the great
truths was that he went about doing good. He went about doing
good. He didn't go about doing any
evil. And if we have received Christ
Jesus the Lord, then surely our concern should be that you and
I today go about doing good, and not doing any evil, not doing
any wrong things, but following the gracious example. And sometimes,
of course, To do good means there is a sacrifice in our lives,
because to do good may mean that we have to not do the things
perhaps that we may have planned to do, the things that perhaps
we wanted to do, but there may be a more prevailing influence
in our lives, a greater need as the Lord comes as our master
and sets something before us. And we should therefore be willing
to bow before the great God as our master and therefore to forsake
our ways, to forsake our desires and to follow that way which
the Lord directs us in. The Lord has a path for you and
me to walk and he has a direction for you and me to walk. And as
a natural person would obey the word and the directions of a
natural master, Somebody who is perhaps over us in our work,
perhaps at school. You have teachers and you young
people are to do what the teacher instructs you to do if it's right,
obviously in accordance with the word of God. And that really
is following a right instruction. And it's good, therefore, for
us today to realize that we have a heavenly master, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord Jesus Christ. You children
and young people, you know you have natural masters that you
work for or are under at school, but we have a greater Master,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And have we therefore, and have
you therefore, received this great and blessed Saviour as
your Master, and that you are willing therefore to forsake
all, to do His will, to follow Him, whatever the cost may be. And so, as ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, then as your Master. And then
I suppose we could say, further than that, more significant,
as your King, You may perhaps think, well, I don't always have
to obey my natural master, but if you came before the king or
the queen and they instructed you or asked you to do something,
would you be willing to do it? If it was lawful, I'm sure, we
all would, and we would all desire to do. And I suppose we would
think it an honour to be asked by a natural queen or king to
do something for them. But we have, and we are before,
not a natural monarch, but before the King of Kings. The King of
Kings, the Lord God who rules and reigns over everything. Well,
have we received the Lord Jesus Christ as our King? And therefore, naturally, if
we come into the presence of an earthly monarch, then we do
obeisance to them, we bow down or we curtsy and we acknowledge
how important a person they are? Do we come and bow down before
our God, the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we acknowledge Him as our
King? It's personal. It is general,
it's also personal. To come like this therefore,
To be able to say, yes, by the grace of God, I have received
Christ Jesus the Lord as my King. And I bow before him. I bow down. I don't come before him in a
stubborn frame, a stubborn situation, considering I would only do that
which I want to do. But in the presence of the King
of Kings, to bow down. What a mercy for all of us today
if the Holy Spirit has given us a willing spirit to bow down
before this one who we receive as the King. The reality is if
we pretend that we are receiving Christ and don't follow the pattern
that is set before us in the Word of God, what we do are really,
we are receiving ourselves, deceiving ourselves. What we need is to
have the evidence therefore that we are walking in accordance
with the Word of God. And then, to think that this
Blessed Saviour acts for us as the High Priest, so that as we
come to God in prayer, He takes our prayers and presents them
to his father. And it must bring us back, therefore,
to consider the beautiful Old Testament picture. Because the
Old Testament picture was such that no one could approach into
the holy place, the holy of holies. And it was only the high priest
that could actually enter in. And there was a condition. had
to be fulfilled in order for him to enter in and that was
he had to take with him the blood of the slain sacrifice and not
until that had occurred would he be received by Almighty God. Now that was the Old Testament
picture and it's a wonderful illustration for us to realize
that today we do not have a natural sacrifice, an animal as such.
But we do have someone who does go, as it were, into the holy
place, and of course he is in the holy place now, in heaven
itself, and he presents our prayers because he has given himself
as the complete sacrifice, and he has shed his blood so that
he is accepted as he stands in our place to present our prayers
and to forgive our sins. What a mercy it is then to think
today that we have such a great and glorious high priest. And remember, you and I get tired. We need to sleep. The Lord Jesus
never sleeps. He is always awake and he's always
alert and he always hears our prayers, when we pray to him,
when we come to him and in our prayers we come and say, for
Jesus' sake. It is very significant. Many
people seem to not receive the importance of coming to Almighty
God and only through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
therefore, to be able to always come and say, for Jesus Christ's
sake and to believe therefore that we have received Christ
Jesus the Lord as our great and glorious High Priest. And the
Apostle Paul when he wrote the Hebrews he homed in as you are
probably aware very much on the sacrifices and the shed blood
and the position of the Lord Jesus Christ but just a few verses
in the 10th chapter We're told, having therefore brethren, boldness. Now this is a great statement,
isn't it? Because if you realise, and I
realise our condition, small, insignificant, sinners of the
earth, utterly unable, in and of ourselves, to approach unto
the majesty on high, a hopeless condition, a lost condition,
we will never be taken notice of by ourselves. But here we
have this statement, as the Apostle says, having therefore, brethren,
boldness. And that, of course, is a humble
boldness. Nonetheless, it is a boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the
vial Remember there was a veil in the Old Testament and only
the high priest could enter through that veil and not without blood.
Having a high priest over our house of God, let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water,
let us hold fast profession of our faith without wavering. There we have a great encouragement
as we come to God, as we come in this way, receiving Christ
Jesus the Lord as our great and glorious High Priest. And to
be blessed therefore with living faith to believe therefore that
as we pray we enter in to the holy place, and we are received
through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing in ourselves,
but Christ becomes all and in all. And so be encouraged to
think that we have, therefore, a great and glorious high priest. And I think that he is. He condescends
to be our high priest. Isn't that amazing? You look
at yourself, I look at myself, what are we? Sinners, black,
nothing to commend us, nothing to enable us in and of ourselves
to approach unto the majesty on high. But here we have this
new and living way, the Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest. And of course in Old Testament
times the High Priest came, the High Priest died, A new one took
their place, but this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, lives forever. And so may we be encouraged,
and may we be thankful therefore, as you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord as our great and glorious High Priest. And then to also receive him
as our Redeemer. The one who's redeemed us from
all our sins. We could not redeem ourselves. One sin condemns us to eternal
death in hell. One sin. You look at your life
and look at my life, how many, many sins we've committed. And
we need, therefore, to be cleansed We need, therefore, for our sins
to be removed, because there is no sin in heaven. And you
and I will never enter into heaven with any sin, with any sin. Remember this great truth. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin. Isn't that wonderful? No matter how sinful we are,
as we receive Christ Jesus our Lord as our great and blessed
Redeemer, the only one who can redeem our souls. And why is
he the only one? Because he has paid the price
to redeem our souls. He is able. And the price of
our redemption, the price to take away our sins, was his life. He gave his life for our life. It's very humbling. It's very
humbling to think, as I mentioned, Almighty God. Almighty God is
so gracious and has such love toward us. that he fulfilled
the demands of the holy law of God, in keeping that law completely,
100%, and then giving his life to atone for your sin and my
sin. That beautiful word atonement
brings us back to God, at one with God. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission, there's no forgiveness, you and
I would stand utterly guilty and hell deserving. But thanks
be to God for his unspeakable gift. And so this morning, remember
here, the Apostle Paul was speaking to these Colossians and instructing
them in this way that their hearts might be comforted our hearts
comforted this morning with a great truth, especially as the Lord
reveals the sin of our hearts, the exceeding sinfulness and
sin, and how it separates between us and our God. And therefore
to recognise this great truth that the Apostle was so concerned
about, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together
in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding."
You see here he is outlining the understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. And
it is a mystery, isn't it? A glorious mystery. But thanks
be to God that it is so, that the Lord Jesus Christ did come
He did die. He did shed his blood that you
and I might live. And so, can we, by his grace,
or receive him today as our Redeemer? Remember the one who paid the
punishment instead. The one who stood in our place.
Bless God. if the Holy Spirit directs us
into the great love of the Saviour. So there is a response, our love
to Him. As we look at and see, nothing
in us that could marry any love could naturally know all we deserve
is to be cast out. But because the Saviour has loved
us with everlasting love, And therefore we love in kindness
as you've drawn us, drawn us to see and to enter in to this
great and wonderful truth. And ye, as ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord as our Redeemer. Well, bless
God if the Holy Spirit has enabled us to do that. Because if he has, Then you see
eternal happiness is ours, glory in Emmanuel's land, union eternally
with Christ. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus as the Lord, then to think that he is willing to be called
our friend. Hymnwriter says, isn't he, what
a friend we have in Jesus. And all God's people have an
amazing friend. We know naturally, don't we,
what a friend means. We can speak to a friend, can't
we? And we can enjoy the company of a friend. Well, here we have
the friend who sticketh closer than a brother. My friends, we
may have, perhaps, our tantrums and our evil ways and our evil
thoughts and perhaps our evil words. We deserve to be cast
off. A natural friend might say, well,
I don't want to be your friend anymore. Such a horrible person
as you are. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is the same yesterday and today and forever. He does not change. He is the friend of his church,
as the Bride of Christ said in the Song of Solomon, this is
my friend. How wonderful to think that we
have such a friend. And therefore we can thank God
if we have this morning been blessed with this situation,
as we have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, as our
friend. Well, there's a few illustrations
there of how we should and might have received the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then the Apostle says, and
if that is so, what is the evidence of it? What's the evidence of
those great truths? He tells us. So walk ye in him. What does that mean? That means
so walk ye with him. And so are we walking with Jesus? Are we walking with Jesus? It's a good position to be in,
isn't it? It's a good position because if you're walking with
Jesus, we're close to him. One of the problems surely today
is that there's a lot of not much walking with Jesus. It's
very easy to walk with the world. No peace for walking with the
world. But my friends, as the Lord gives us that grace to walk
with the Lord Jesus Christ, oh, it's a wonderful place because
We hear His words. We hear His words and also of
course as we walk with Him, He leads us in the right way. The
Lord doesn't walk in a wrong way. The Lord walks in the right
way. And therefore as you and I are
walking with Him, walking in Him, we're walking with Jesus
and what does that really mean? communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Again, it's a blessed condition
and situation to be in. Communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ. What does that also mean? It
means that we can come and we can pour out our heart to our
God. And we're not praying to the
unknown God. We're walking with him. We're close to him. We come in faith, believing he hears our prayers and believing
that he will therefore answer our prayers, if of course they
are in accordance with his will and in a right condition, in
a right position, we will come in our prayers desiring that
such requests may be with thankfulness from our heart. and really desiring
that we may do that which is right in accordance with His
will. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Well, are we walking
with Jesus? You know the hymn writer says,
while walking in the gospel way, I would see Jesus every day. Well, you won't see Him if you're
walking a long way away. Bless God therefore if he enables us
as a position indicating that we have therefore by faith received
him, that we are walking in him, we are walking with him. The closer you and I walk to
the Lord Jesus Christ, the farther you and I will walk from the
world. The closer we walk to the Lord
Jesus Christ, the more blessed will be the walk, the more encouraging
will be the walk, the more peace we should enjoy, because we should
know that we are with the Saviour. Again, that familiar account
of those two on that Emmaus Road. What a wonderful occasion that
was when they were walking with Jesus. Jesus came and he walked
with them. Now let's just realise what was
happening. Those two, they were walking
along that road and they were speaking about the things of
God. They were speaking about the
things which had occurred, which they couldn't really understand.
It's good to speak about the things of God. As you walk along
the road, as you speak, speak to one another about the things
of God. You may not always understand
them. That doesn't matter. Because
the great blessing was, in that condition, Jesus himself drew
near and went with them. And then he expounded unto them
from all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And there
was an amazing effect upon those two. An amazing effect. As they returned after the Lord
had departed from them, they came to the disciples in the
upper room and they said, did not our heart burn within us
while he communed with us? Now as you and I walk with Jesus,
and as you and I enjoy communion with him, and perhaps with those
with us, to know that wonderful effect of our heart burning within
us. Union with Christ. It's something
which is outside of this world. It's that which the Holy Spirit
conveys to us. And it is a wonderful evidence
of the life within. It's a wonderful evidence that
you and I have received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in Him. And then the Apostle says, rooted
and built up in Him, establishing the faith as ye have been taught."
Well, we've all been taught, haven't we? Taught from the Word
of God. I hope we have. I know sometimes
at school you can have a lesson and you don't remember what is
said. Well, that's not very good, is it? But you know, it's important
if you and I come to hear the Word of God, to read the Word
of God, to have these wonderful lessons set before us, those
things that we have been taught. And that we observe therefore
the importance of this statement of being found rooted and built
up in him. It has really a double analogy.
First of all, being rooted, we all know of course that a plant
will not grow unless it has a root. You can't just stick a piece
of a plant in the ground without any root. It needs a root. It needs to grow a root. And
that root needs to therefore go down into the soil. So that
it therefore receives goodness from the soil. So that it therefore
grows. And that's what you and I need
to know that we are rooted in Christ. indeed the Lord Jesus
Christ is the heavenly vine and of course there is that great
and glorious root in him and to know that we are part of that
vine and therefore we are rooted in him and we receive of his
goodness and as we receive of his goodness the effect is that
you and I grow Spiritually we grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Out of Christ there'll
be no growth. But to realize the wonderful
blessing therefore of being part of the heavenly vine. It's a great mercy to be found
in that condition and in that position. The Lord speaks about
that when he was in the upper room and speaking to his disciples,
and he tells us, I am the true vine. My father is a husbandman,
every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and
every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring
forth more fruit. So if we are therefore rooted
in him, in him, and the word tells us, if a man abides not
in me, he is cast out. But he also says, 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 ye
can do nothing. So the evidence therefore of
this being rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ is that there is
fruitfulness in our life. And you can consider the fruits
of the Spirit which we can read of as the Apostle gives us a
list of the fruits of the Spirit and they are extensive and they
are important but they are the fruits of the Spirit and they
are those things which will come to us and give us a desire to
walk in them if we are walking in this position, walking in
the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore rooted in him and then also built
up in him. built up in him. What does that
mean? Well, that surely means, therefore,
that we need to have a good foundation upon which the building is raised. We don't want, therefore, just
to have a foundation which is in the sand. We need to have
a foundation which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And be able to
say with a hymn writer, on Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other
ground is sinking sand. The Lord Jesus Christ, is he
our rock? Is he our foundation? Is that
what we're building upon? And so this word is true, in him,
rooted and built up in him, in Christ, as that good foundation. Other foundation can no man lay
than that is laid. Christ Jesus is the sure foundation
stone. Well, to us today, is he our
foundation? And do we realise that the Lord
has come, as he did to David, when David tells us, he brought
me up also out of a horrible pit, the M�ori clay, and set
my feet upon a rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, and established
my goings. You see, this is the establishing. This is the full assurance of
understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of
the Father and of Christ. And so therefore a blessing it
is if you and I have the evidence that we are built up, that we're
on the Lord Jesus Christ and the building rises. The building
rises as he gives grace, as he gives us a greater knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ in all his attributes. It doesn't all
happen at once. We learn here a little and there
a little, line upon line, precept upon precept. But there is, to
those who have received Christ Jesus as their Lord, a building
up, building in Christ. We don't want to be found stagnating. We don't want to be found stationary.
No, if we're walking, there's a movement in our spiritual life. It won't be stationary experience
and so we're told rooted and built up in him and established
in the faith you see our faith is established established in
the truth of God and there is a steadfastness in it because
as the Lord reveals these things to us and We have the evidence
of His work in our heart. And what does that do? That strengthens
our faith to believe that He that has begun a good work will
complete it. He won't forsake us. He won't
leave us. No, because it's His work. And
His work will continue until that great day when it's complete
and He receives us into glory. and establisheth in the faith. Faith to believe, faith to understand,
faith to trust in Him at all times, faith to cast all our
care upon Him, faith to come to Him in every time of need,
God bless God for this faith that he gives. Faith and established
in the faith as you have been taught. Well the Apostle of course
set before the Colossians and of course the many places he
went to, what did he set before them? The truth of God. He set
before them the great and glorious plan of salvation. He set before
them the need to know the Saviour and they were blessed with faith
to believe this great and glorious truth and therefore to be comforted
and therefore to rest in it as ye have been taught. And then
he comes and says abounding therein with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving
is a very important element in spiritual life because thanksgiving
brings glory to God. Are we thankful? Do we abound? in all that he's said and done
toward us, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Are we thankful? Are we thankful to our God for
giving us his grace, showing us his love, granting us the
evidence of his mercy, so that we do know that by grace we have
received Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, the Apostle sets these things
before us, before the Church of God, and then he just gives
us a warning. He says, Beware, lest any man
spawn you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Real religion is not worldly.
It's not something that you and I can naturally understand. It's
that which the Holy Spirit conveys to our heart. And that's why
the Lord has all the honour and glory, because it's his work
and it's not our work. And you see, the devil will come
alongside us and perhaps try and tempt us that we have to
do this and we have to do that, casting all your care upon him. for he cares for you. That's
the great blessing, isn't it? To think Almighty God cares for
us. And so this morning, may we have
reason to thank God that the Holy Spirit instructed the Apostle
to write such an account to the church at Colossae that you and
I can benefit from this morning and therefore have a right understanding
as the Apostle said here, have an understanding that we are,
that therefore we have received Christ Jesus the Lord and as
an evidence of that we're walking with him, so walking in him and
that we are rooted in Christ, built up in Christ and established
in the faith, as ye have been taught, and abounding therein,
with thanksgiving. Amen.