Colossians chapter two. This Bible study is going to
go hand in hand with the message this morning. I believe in both
directions, one will explain the other one in both ways. Before
we read the verses, let me give you a summary of what the Apostle
Paul is saying right here. He is going to tell the Colossians
that in Christ there is no further perfection to attain. That's what he's going to tell
them. And my prayer is that we will get a hold of this today. In Christ, there is no further
perfection to obtain. In Christ, there is nothing more
to learn. Men become so consumed with their
books, and with their learning, and with their education, and
with their degrees, and with their this, and with their that.
In Christ, there's nothing else to learn. There's nothing more to know. If you know Him, you know it
all. If you have Him, you have it
all. I mean, you have it all. Paul
is saying to them right here, the way you were when Christ
revealed Himself to you, the way that you were when He came
to you and revealed who He truly was through His Word, which was
only a sinner saved by grace. The way that he revealed himself
to you, Paul says, stay right there. Just stay right there. Live right there as only a sinner
saved by grace. That's it. Now let's read that
in these verses. Verse one, it says, Colossians
2 verse one, He said, for I would that you knew what great conflict,
and that word conflict means fear, care, worry, concern, anxiety. I would that you knew what great
conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as
many as have not seen my face in the flesh. Colossae and Laodicea
were side by side. If you look at them on a map,
they were two cities that were side by side, very close together. And they were exposed to the
same spiritually unhealthy influences. The same men were coming in to
both of these cities. And Paul said, I'm worried for
you. I'm very worried for you. And
he had good reason to be. Look at what our Lord said to
the church at Laodicea. Turn with me over to Revelation
chapter 3. Revelation 3, our Lord is speaking
in this chapter and the ones around it to the different churches.
And He says in verse 14, And unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans, angel means pastor, messenger. Unto the angel
of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the
Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God, I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot."
He said, you're not spiritually dead. You don't have the excuse of
being an unbeliever. Some people have the excuse.
of not being quickened to life yet. They're dead in their sins.
They're unbelievers. And he said, you don't have the
excuse of being an unbeliever. You have been made alive, but
you're not lively. You're not zealous for the truth
and zealous for the ministry that I've given to you. If we
could ever enter into what a gift a ministry is, you know how rare
a ministry is? Churches are not rare. God's
true ministry is a very, very, very, very, very rare thing. He raises one up every now and
then. And they had been given one.
And he said, you're not zealous for the ministry I've given you. He said, your spirit is not fervent
for the gospel. It's not fervently concerned
for your own soul and the souls of others. That's a dangerous
place to fall, to get to that place where you're technically
alive. You're a believer. You believe
Calvinism and you believe these doctrines and you But there's
nothing in here that is just fervently crying out for your
soul and the souls of others. He said, your heart and your
love is not burning for Christ. You know those moments. If you're
a child of God, you know those moments when the Lord squeezes
you and you are burning for Christ. He said in verse 15, I would
that you were either cold or hot He said, if you're dead,
be dead. But if you're alive, live. Live lively. Beg that your hearts
and souls might burn within you. We sing this song, and I honestly
can't remember if we're gonna sing it in just a minute or not.
I don't think so. But this would be a good thing to incorporate
into our prayers, all right? With a sincere heart, let's pray. Revive us again. Fill each heart
with thy love. Pray for this assembly, all the
assemblies, but God's put us here. Ask him, Lord, would you
revive all of us again? Fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. David said in Psalm 85, will
thou not revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Habakkuk said, O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the
years. Beg God for that. In the midst
of the years, make known. In wrath, remember mercy. That's what he prayed. I want
to strongly encourage Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church to follow
the lead of these men. Hear the Word of our Lord. Let's
beg Him to give us a fervent spirit. for Christ, for His Word,
and for the ministry He's given us. And this is the reason why. Verse 14, unto the angel of the
church of the Laodiceans write, these things saith the Amen,
the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation
of God. Christ is who's saying this. Verse 15, I know thy works,
that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou wert cold
or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm,
and every person in here knows what that means. He said, because
you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest
not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind
and naked. It's painful for God to truly
remind us of that, but we need to be reminded of that. I'm not
what I think I am and I need Him. He said in verse 18, I counsel
thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, something purged. That's the precious blood of
Christ the Lamb. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment. that perfect robe of Christ's
righteousness, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye
salve that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am
set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So Paul
had good reason to be concerned for the churches there. Go with
me back to Colossians 2. Colossians 2 verse 1 says, for
I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you and for
them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the
flesh. He said, this is my desire for
them. Verse 2, that their hearts might be comforted. How is the
heart of a child of God comforted? He or she is comforted by Christ. He or she is comforted by His
Word, comforted by His worship, comforted by His Spirit, by that
fervent union with Him that the soul and the Spirit responds
to. When it worships Christ in truth,
verse two says that their hearts might be comforted being knit
together in love, knit together with Christ, knit together with
each other in love. That is the joy and the comfort
of the ministry, that loving union that we all have in him. We all have it with him. Verse
two, that their hearts might be comforted being knit together
in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, God, the spirit. and of God the Father, and of
God the Christ. Our unity is with the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit. Which he already told us in chapter
1 verse 19, and he's about to tell us again in chapter 2 verse
9. That all of the fullness of that Trinity Godhead is seen
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it is seen in
Him. Verse 3. are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. If you know Him, you know everything
you need to know. Everything. If we have Him, we
have all the wisdom that there is to possess. Verse four, it
says, in this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing
words. At some point, somebody is going
to try to steal you away from the truth. I want to repeat that
again. At some point, somebody is going
to try to steal you away from the truth. They're going to try
really hard. Our adversary as a roaring lion
is seeking whom he may devour. And his evil ministers approach
men and women as angels of light, messengers of light, preachers,
pastors of light. This is how they come to people.
And their words can be very enticing, very, very convincing, so much
so that if it were possible, even the very elect would be
deceived. I'm not talking about those who
know nothing of Christ and know nothing of the revealed Word
of God. I'm talking about the elect. The elect, that's so,
it's just so close. It's real close. If it were possible,
even the very elect would be deceived. What is our defense
to that? The Word of Christ. The Word
of Truth. Paul told the Corinthians, stay
with the simplicity that is in Christ. Just stay on Christ. Stay on His Word. Verse five,
he said, for though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you
in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness
of your faith in Christ. True faith is in Christ. It is
in Christ. I hope we see that more clearly
in the message in just a moment. True faith believes Christ and
looks to Christ and only Christ, only Him. It will not listen
to and believe and follow the beguiling words of a deceiver.
It just won't do it. Look with me at John chapter
10. John 10 verse 1 says, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a
thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep, and that's Christ. To him the
porter openeth, And the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth
his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth
forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow
him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers." Verse six says this parable spake Jesus unto them.
He told them this story, of something that really happens. When you
have all of these sheep in a pen overnight that belong to these
different shepherds, they put them in one pen so that they
can go sleep. And a porter keeps all of these
sheep from all these different shepherds. And then in the morning,
each shepherd comes and calls his sheep. Only his sheep will
come. That's a reality that takes place.
They only hear his voice. They won't follow another shepherd. And our Lord said in verse 14,
I am the good shepherd. and know my sheep, and am known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep."
He said in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice, And I know them,
and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand." That's where safety is, right there in Him. And Paul
told the Colossians, it gives me great joy to see that your
God-given faith is in Him, it's in Christ. All right, go back
to Colossians 2. Verse 6, it says, as you have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Walk means live. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so live ye in Him. There are two words
in that verse that we can't just skim over. He said you received Christ. Received. He did not say you
accepted Christ. He didn't say you earned Christ
or you were owed Christ. Or you made a decision for Christ.
He said you received Christ. Christ was freely given by God
the Father to you. That's the first word, received.
The second word is As you received Christ. How did all of us receive
Christ? As sinners saved by grace. He's saying, as you were when
you received Christ, stay there. Just stay right there. Don't
ever leave the position of being a sinner saved by grace. That's
all that we are. That's all that God's people
are. Sinners saved by grace. Verse 6, "...as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him rooted." That
means firmly grounded. Dug in. That means Christ alone. That's what it means. I mean
firmly. Christ alone. That's it. Christ
alone. Rooted, verse 7 says, and built
up. Built on. Founded on. Established. in him and established in the
faith as you have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving. God's people do not start in
faith and then leave faith to become more perfect before God
in another way. And I want to say that again.
God's people do not start in faith. and then leave faith to
become more perfect before God in another way. They don't do
that. They start in faith and they
stay in faith. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
3. Galatians 3 verse 1, it says,
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should
not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you.
Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? Did you receive God's Holy Spirit
by doing the works of the law or by hearing the gospel preached
through faith? Verse three, are you so foolish?
Having begun in the Spirit, Are you now made perfect by the flesh? The answer is no. No. God's people are saved by grace,
through faith, and God's people stay in that faith until faith
turns into sight. They just stay right there. In
Christ, we are as perfect as we are ever going to be. Man gets it in his mind that,
okay, the Lord has saved me. The Lord has opened my eyes.
Now it's time for me to start getting perfect. No, not at all. In Christ, this
is the notification of the gospel. This is the notification of faith.
This is what faith tells the heart of a sinner when it comes.
In Christ, you are as perfect as you are ever going to be. Not believing that, When a person
doesn't believe that and with good intention, they're going
about to do better works and be a better person. Not believing
that is an insult to the blood that Christ shed. And it's an
insult to the righteousness that Christ earned for His people.
He earned perfection before God. God looked at him every step
he took and said, He is perfect. And then He said, I'm going to
give all that to My people. And to say, I'm not perfect,
is to say, He didn't do enough. He lied to His Father. He was
insufficient. It's an insult to Him. And to
say, I've got to go back and fix all my sin, is to say, His
blood didn't cover it. So it's an insult to Him. Back
in Colossians 2, verse 8 says, lest any man spoil you through
philosophy. The word philosophy means the
love of wisdom, the love of knowledge, man's knowledge, not the love
of God's wisdom and the love of the knowledge of Christ, man's
knowledge. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit. That means empty lies. Pulpits
are so full of empty lies. They are so full of them. The
truth is proved by the Word. The truth is always proved by
the Word. Verse 8 says, Beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Not after Christ, not after His
Word, not after what He has declared to us. Verse 9 says, For in Him,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are
complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and
power. Those last two verses are going
to be the theme of today. All right, we're going to just
hang right in there with those last two verses all day today.
We are complete in Him. If anybody comes to you and in
their pride and in their self-righteousness tries to outwit you, I have this
happen to me a lot. If anybody comes to you and tries
to outwit you with their knowledge of religion, If they want to argue and prove
the philosophy and all that tradition that's been passed down to them,
not speaking the words of Christ, just all these isms and schisms
and everything else that they've learned from somebody. Answer
them in the same way that huckster answered that Charles Spurgeon
told us about. They came to this man with all
of their self-righteousness and all their pride, asking him all
these hard questions, and this is how he answered them every
time. He said, this is all I know. I'm just a sinner and nothing
at all. But Jesus Christ is my all and
then all. That's all I know. And that's
all I need to know. That's all I need to know. Verse
9, in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in Him which is the head of all principality
and power. Now just hold on to that, that's
going to transition us into the message. Alright, you're dismissed.