Good morning. We're studying Colossians chapter
2 this morning. Okay, let's ask the Lord to bless
this day. Father in Heaven, we thank You
for this day. Thank You for every good and
perfect gift that comes from Your merciful, gracious, loving,
bountiful hands. Everything we are and have, we
have received by Your grace, and by Your grace that's in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Lord, we know, we believe, we
understand something of who Christ is and what He has done for us,
what He means to us. But we want to grow in grace
the knowledge of Him. We want to grow more thankful
for Him, to You for Him. Thank You for the Gospel. Thank
You for Your truth. Thank You for Your Word. Your
word is light, life. It's glorious. It's your voice.
It's how you call your people from darkness to light. It's how you called us and we
ask that you would speak to us this morning. Speak through your
word. Give us a good day of worship. We hear, we hope and pray to
worship you. You're so worthy. We thank You,
we praise You, we worship You. We are met here in Thy Son's
name to honor and glorify our God and His Son, His Holy Spirit. Send Your Spirit, enable us to
enter into these things. Pray that He will keep us, keep
the thoughts of this world from us. Forgive us of our sins, Lord,
in Christ's name. Amen. There's an old Arabian tale that's
300 or 400 years old. I made a movie out of it. I kind
of like watching it with my granddaughter's Aladdin's lamp. And in that tale, a young boy
comes across a little secret passageway into this vast mountain. and goes down into that secret
passageway and comes upon a huge cavernous room that's full of
treasures. Everywhere you look, gold, silver,
precious stones, emeralds and rubies and diamonds and sapphires
and all of that. Well, look at Colossians chapter
2 verse 3. This is the one verse we're going
to look at. In Him, in Christ our Head, All the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. All the treasures. I started
studying this last week in preparation to bring it on Wednesday night.
But I thought, this is too deep. There's too much here for Wednesday
night. Too much for Sunday morning.
Deep. I just kept running across treasure
after treasure. Look. Emerald. The gates of the
city have all those You think that's silly what I
just told you, that illustration? Everything is for that purpose.
Everything is a sermon. I remember my father one time
standing up right before the message and he said, Peter Piper
picked a pick of pickled peppers. And it got everybody's attention.
And he said, now that I've got your attention, For some reason,
the introduction gets lost in the rustling around and all that. In Christ there hid, in a straight
and narrow way, hid deep within the mind, the heart, the purpose,
covenant, the Word of God Himself that's as vast as the universe.
All the treasures of which have been held. The gates of the city
have many precious stones, if you read that over in the Revelation.
Every single one of them represents Jesus Christ. Everything in this
Bible represents Jesus Christ. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. All the treasures of wisdom,
knowledge, If there's any wisdom, it has to have something to do
with Jesus Christ, or it's foolishness. Knowledge. All knowledge is useless,
vain knowledge, unless it has something to do with knowing
Him, whom to know is to have eternal life. In Him are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this is no fable.
Peter said, we haven't written a cunningly devised fable. He said, we were eyewitnesses
of His majesty. God revealed to Simon Peter,
the apostles, Himself in Christ. Verse 3, it says, in whom? In
whom? All the way through, I've been
reading, going to read, Joseph's going to read Ephesians 2 this
morning. But all the way through Ephesians, in Him, in Him, in
whom? In Him. It's all in Him. Verse 3, in whom? In Christ,
our Head. Do you know that? That in Christ
are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. That it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell, that all
salvation is in Him, that all the types, the shadows, the pictures,
the symbols, the ceremonies, every law, everything, all the
prophets and the apostles gave witness. Do you know that? Well,
it's not hid from you, is it? It's hid from the wise and the
prudent. It's hid from the wise and the prudent and revealed
unto babes. And in verse 2, we looked at
this last week. It says that our hearts might
be comforted. The knowledge of Him is His comfort
for our heart. The knowledge that He created
all things. All things are in His hands.
We're in His hands. Salvation is in His hands. That's
heart comfort. There is no comfort anywhere
else. There is no comfort. Not in doctrine. No comfort in
doctrine. But there's comfort in knowing
a living Lord, a living Lord was given my soul to take care
of by the Father. In my times, my soul, my life,
my family, everything about me to the hair on my head is in
His hand. Now that's heart comfort. Heart
comfort. The riches of full assurance. As we said last week, lots of
people are rich in the things of this world, but they're miserable.
They worry about these things. That's all they worry about.
That's not rich, that's being very poor. These things that
promise happiness and don't give it, they give the opposite. The
full assurance of understanding. the acknowledging of the mystery
of God. It's a mystery. But God has made
these things known unto us. And our children, at least in
their heads, at least in their heads. I'm so thankful that I
grew up like these, hearing the truth. The scriptures. I was taught the scriptures,
weren't we, Taylor, that are able to make us wise unto salvation. And in God's good time, Turn the light on. Light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Christ. It's
all Christ. So they at least know this in their heads that
Christ is all. It's a mystery to most. A head
to all the treasures, all the treasures of wisdom and not a
hidden from the wise and the prudent revealed unto babes.
Our Lord said, except you become as little children, you'll not
see the kingdom of God. You'll not enter the kingdom
of God. We've looked at this many times.
that a child believes you. Whatever you tell that child,
they implicitly trust you. Call it gullible. No, it's faith. Right? A child believes a parent. They tell you something. It's
not being gullible. It's faith. No gullible. They believe you.
They trust you. A child, when you tell them something
wonderful, they're thrilled with it, so excited about it. So it
is with the Gospel. You must be born again. Receive the Word as a little
child. Desire the sincere meal of the
Word, like a baby. And rejoice in it. Never lose
your rejoicing. Never lose that sweetheart love,
that childlike reception of the truth. These things are hidden
from the wise and the prudent. But Paul said, where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? They're hidden from the rich,
those that are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.
But they're revealed to the poor and needy. All the treasures,
treasures. Oh, how man loves his treasures.
And we treasure many things, don't we? Riches, things, are
precious to man, desired, sought after, held to. Man loves his
money, man loves his home. People would treasure many things,
money, home, family, especially. Things are going to lose all
of them. And then the pain of losing them
is worse than exceeds the joy of having them. They usually
last longer. Family, things, we strive for
them, we care for them, and we live for them. Treasures. And it's a lifelong struggle.
The treasures of this world is a lifelong struggle to obtain. They that will be rich, Paul
said, pierce themselves through with many sorrows. Those that
want to be rich. Who does not? What human being
doesn't want to be rich? Most do. And so it's a lifelong
struggle to obtain these riches. And then, once you have them,
you struggle, how am I going to spend it? Tell me, is it not so with you?
Do you get a little extra money? Do you think about it? Do you
think about how you're going to spend it? Anybody? Everybody. Everybody. I had a friend who
worked for a man in a coal, back when the coal boom hit Eastern
Kentucky and North Carolina and all that, the coal became black
gold, black gold. And a friend of mine worked for
this fellow, he went to high school with him, and he was just
an old common Southeastern Kentucky boy, like anybody else, poor. All right? Well, he had a little
farm he lived on, and they discovered coal, a thick vein of coal on
his property. He was an instant multi-millionaire. Instant. Now, he's a nobody from
nowhere. They discovered him, all right?
He has wealth beyond his imagination. And my friend, So he opened up
this coal mine and all that, and my friend went to work for
him. And he said one day that man
came in, his buddy came into work and he looked awful. And
he said, Larry, Larry, what's wrong? He said, I haven't slept
in three days. He said, how come? He said, I'm
trying to find out how to spend my money. He bought Ferraris. He bought yachts. He bought it
all. And he was miserable. He couldn't
even sleep. So we labor to obtain. Then we labor how to spend it.
And then we've got to worry about keeping it. You've got to guard
it, protect it against loss. When our Lord said, three little
things will take it away from you. A thief, a moth. The finest clothes in a moth
will ruin it. And rust. I don't care what. You might
have a new Chevy, but it's going to rust. I told you one time,
you might as well go ahead and put a scratch on it. Get the
paint off with it. How to keep it. And then we get
old, who am I going to leave it to? Who am I going to leave it to? It doesn't matter because they're
going to spend it up. Waste it. So what was it all for? Nothing. There's a reason zeros
are at the end of money. Listen to wisdom from Proverbs
10. Proverbs 10.22 says, The blessing
of the Lord maketh rich, and there's no sorrow with it.
The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he added no sorrow. Because you don't lose this blessing.
What is the blessing? Him. That's right. Right. He
that blesses himself, Isaiah 65, he that blesses himself in
the earth, blesses himself in the God of truth. You know the truth? The truth
shall make you free. Free from what? The pursuit of
vain things. True riches, true treasure, real
happiness. It's found in two things. That's
the introduction. Alright, I want you to consider
with me this morning the great wisdom and knowledge of God and
our Lord in the Gospel. The treasure that is the Gospel
that you're about to hear, that you just heard. And secondly,
the treasure, the great wisdom and knowledge of His person,
our God, our Christ, His person. The great wisdom and knowledge
of God and Christ revealed in the Gospel, the purpose of God
to save. Go to Ephesians 1 with me. Joseph,
we're going to meet you there. Ephesians 1. Go there. The purpose of God to save, to
have a kingdom. Oh, the great purpose of God
in salvation. Ordered in all things and sure. Every jot and tittle. What wisdom,
what knowledge it took conceive this purpose of salvation. John Newton called it the great
genius of the gospel. I hate to hear anybody call him
a genius. He's a genius. Oh, is he? Does he know God? Well, no, he's given his life
to study and science. Well, then it's falsely so, God. He's no genius. He's a fool.
The genius. God is the genius. His ways are
pastime in heaven. Oh, the depth, the riches of
the knowledge of God. The genius of the God. Ephesians
1, look at verse 9. He's made known unto us the mystery
of His will according to His good pleasure, which He had purposed
in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time He would
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, which are on earth, even in Him. So God, before the world
began, purposed this kingdom of his dear son and ordered every
second, every moment, every event, every person, place, thing, event
in the history of the world to bring it all together. into this
perfect completion of it again. And I'm talking things too wonderful
for that. The wisdom, knowledge, knowledge
of our God, His purpose. Let's go to chapter 2. Look at
Ephesians 2 verse 7. In the ages to come, He's going
to show us the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. Every single thing that's ever
happened is connected. And someday we're going to have
enough time for him to show us, I did this, look at this, I did
this, that you were connected with somebody in China. But something
had to happen in Bulgaria for this to happen. This is a genius of our God,
the wisdom, the knowledge, the depth, the riches, the treasures. This is why Paul wrote, and I'm
trying to quote it. I don't want to memorize. I do memorize, but I forgot.
It says, and oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgment, His ways past
finding out. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord who can plumb these depths, fathom these depths? Of Him,
and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory
forever. Amen. Oh, the wisdom. And then there's the purpose,
the wisdom of God, the knowledge of God, and the purpose to save,
and the purpose of the kingdom given to Christ, and then the
performance of that purpose. The performance, not left up
to chance. Nothing's left up to anyone or
anything. You know who's left up to? Jesus
Christ. He's called wisdom. He's wise
to do it, what God purposed, to perform it. Give it into the
hands of His Son. And long before He came, the
prophets all said, He shall not fail. He won't even be discouraged. I love thinking about every word
our Lord spoke, Jesus cried as a man. Every move He made, every
gesture He made, every place He went, everything He did was
divinely ordained before the world began. To break His sheep,
to fulfill the law. He shall not fail. He did not.
He shall accomplish that whereunto God says of the Word, which is
Christ, shall accomplish that whereunto I have sent it. And
He did. His last words on the cross finished. As a little boy, His first recorded
words were, I must be of that my Father's been. His last words
finished. Perfected. Completed. So God
gave. into His Son's hand to perform
His purpose. How foolish would it be to invest
all in things that fail, finite things. But our God purposed
all things and gave them to His Son, and He did not fail. And His kingdom, His power, His
glory is forever. So the wisdom of God and the
purpose, the performance, and then the preservation of this.
purpose, his kingdom. There was no plan B. There never
was a plan B. There are no contingencies. This
is what's wrong with dispensationalism. You heard that big term? Heaven?
If you have, fine. If you haven't, that's fine,
too. What that means is people think, well, back in the beginning,
people were saved by the law, and that didn't work. So now
they're saved by grace. No, no, no, no. Nobody was ever
saved by the law. The law wasn't given to give
life, to show sin. Always. Were people in the Old
Testament ever saved by keeping the law and going through the...
No, no, no, they weren't. They're saved by believing Jesus
Christ. They didn't know his name was Jesus, but they knew
he was the Christ, the Christ to come. Abel. First story. A young man and his brother. heard the truth from their parents,
and they approached God. Abel brought the blood of a lame.
Where did he get that? From God. Cain brought his works, and God
rejected him. It's by grace he's saved, not
of works. I just didn't imagine that. See,
it's always been the same. People have always been... Christ
said, no man cometh unto the Father but by man. And I'll tell
you who Abel heard that from, Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve heard
our Lord walking in the cool of day. He taught them the gospel.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And people are saved
the same way, yesterday, today, and forever. By the same person,
yesterday, today, and forever. So, the preservation of this
purpose of God, the performance of it, the preservation, he that
keepeth Israel, that's who Jesus Christ is, he that keepeth Israel.
Simon Peter said, we're kept by the power of God. Well, what's
the power of God? Paul said, Christ is the power
of God. He said, all authority, all power is given unto me in
heaven and on earth. Oh, the wisdom and knowledge
of our God, Our Christ. Listen to this. Questions nobody's
asking. How can God be just and justify
men, sinners? Nobody's asking that question.
Nobody's interested except God's people. Those whom He reveals
the truth to. We know the answer. How can He
be claimed as born of a woman? He can't. He's got to be born
again. He's got to be born of God. That which is the flesh is flesh,
that which is spirit is spirit. You understand these things,
don't you? These are the deep questions. How can a holy and
just God, how can He punish sin? He will by no means clear the
guilty. Well, then how is He going to clear anybody? I'm guilty.
How can God be just and yet merciful? You know what Psalm 85.10 says,
mercy and truth? are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. You know, what's that talking
about? Not what. In whom. Mercy and truth met
together. Righteousness and peace kissed
each other. He's the daysman between us and
God. He's the one who put his hand
on God and put his hand on man. That cross is the center of the
universe. The one that hanged there is
the one that brought sinners to God. Reconciled them to God. One. Just one. It's all in Him. Oh, the wisdom. The knowledge
of our God. Now, I've got five minutes to
talk about His person. That was the purpose. Proverbs 8, go over there in
the Scriptures. says it much better than I try. Proverbs chapter 8, and you who
read it know that Proverbs 4 and 5, especially 8, speak of wisdom,
which is Christ. You remember the story of the
Queen of Sheba going to hear the wisdom of Solomon? You remember
that story? I love that story, don't you? Sheba proved him with hard work. She thought she was somebody.
I said, she was a queen. Queen? Oh, really? She thought
she was rich, so she brought a bunch of riches with her. She's
going to give him a gift. She's going to prove him with
hard questions. I've got some questions even Solomon won't
understand. Oh, really? He's going to ask you some questions
that you never even thought of asking him. And Solomon told
her all her questions. Told her everything. He told
her everything. This is what you really need to be asking.
It talks about Solomon when he spoke of the name of the Lord. It was the name of the Lord that
he was speaking of. It was everything Solomon wrote. A sister texted me the other
day about the Song of Solomon. I asked her about that. I said,
well, we did seven messages on it. The whole story of the Son
of Solomon is Christ and His church. Isn't it? It's glorious. It's just glorious. Christ and His church. In Proverbs
8, it says here in verse 4, look at this, "...Unto you, O men,
I call. My voice is to the sons of men."
Who? Who's doing the speaking here? Jesus Christ. He came to
call His people. Oh, He's simple. And so I said,
simple, understand wisdom, ye fools. We're not supposed to
call each other fools, are we? He said, don't call your brother
a fool. Don't do it, don't do it. Why? Because you're just
as much a fool as he is. But our Lord calls us that. Didn't
He call His disciples that? Oh, fools. After He arose. And they were all troubled and
upset. We trusted it had been He that redeemed us. We thought
He was going to bring the kingdom back to us. Oh, fools! And all
you heard, you're still so foolish. Oh, fools! And slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets... What did the prophets say? They
were talking about Christ and Him crucified. Proverbs 4, verse
8, verse 5. Oh, you fools, you be of an understanding
heart. Here, I will speak of excellent
things. Oh, the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord. Excellent things. People go after
so many things, don't they? This is something excellent.
This is something. Oh, this is the wisdom that far excels any
other. Far excel. I never could understand
why people get into physics and all that. Alan Jellett is into
physics. That's his job, nuclear. And I'm glad that some people
have that knowledge. But it's all said and done. And
the Lord revealed to that one wise man, there were not many,
but revealed to him, Alan. truest. Now what's he do? He preaches Christ. In fact,
Martin Lourdjohn preaches Christ. He realizes all the physics. What's physics about? Jesus Christ. I'll speak excellent things.
The opening of my lips shall be right things. Shouldn't we
listen to and believe someone who's right? You know, our Lord
is right about everything. You ever talk to somebody who
thinks you're always right? You don't like talking to them? I'll
tell you who is right. Our Lord is. About everything.
Everything. In fact, Paul said, God's true
and every man's a liar. Well, he says in verse 6 here, and I'll speak of excellent
things. Opening of my lips shall be a right thing. My mouth shall
speak truth. Wickedness is an abomination
to my lips. God cannot lie. Christ cannot lie. I love these verses. All the
words of my mouth are in righteousness. There's nothing frail or perverse,
nothing wreathed, no hidden innuendo, no ulterior motive. He's telling
the truth because it's true. He loved the truth. He loved
us. You know, people, people, man deals with man on the basis
of himself, what he can get out of it. You know that? He'll tell
you the truth or lie to you. It depends on how it affects
him. God can't lie. It's always the truth. And if
He tells you the truth, oh, it's the best thing ever. Salvation. Look at verse 9. It's all plain
to him that understands it. If it ever gives you an understanding, everything made plain. Made plain. No more mystery. It's right to
them that find knowledge. Oh, what's going to go on and
on. Look at verse 14. Counsel is mine, sound wisdom
I am understanding. He's come and given us an understanding
to know Him. I have strength. By me kings
reign, princes decree justice. By me princes rule. Who? Jesus
Christ. Verse 17, I love them that love
me. Those that seek me early shall
find me. Riches, verse 8, and honor with
me. Durable riches and righteousness.
Mine fruit is better than gold and fine gold. I lead in the
way of righteousness. Passive judgment. Verse 21, I
cause those that love me to inherit substance. I'm going to fill
their treasures. That means when you lose everything
in this world, you can still be a rich man. Anybody listen
to that message I recommended by my pastor? How I became the
world's richest man. The world doesn't have a clue
what that's talking about. Because every one of us is going
to lose everything in this world. Naked we came into this world.
Naked we're going to return, but we can still be rich like
our Lord. Oh, the riches. Oh, the wisdom, the knowledge
of our Lord, all that He said, all that our Lord said in one
line, one phrase, one word could be studied forever. It could
be studied forever. One line of something our Lord
said. Keep digging. Keep digging. Oh,
the wisdom of our Lord to do, to speak, to walk, to act, to
deal with, to judge, to perform God's will and purpose. One last thing. I want you to
look at this. Isaiah 53, talking about wisdom
and knowledge. Isaiah 53. Look at this. One last thing. Isaiah 53. As you know, this is about Christ's
crucifixion. And I love this verse. Down in
verse 11. You see, verse 10, it was the pleasure
of the Lord. It was the purpose of the Lord
to bruise him, make his soul an offering for sin. But he lives,
and the pleasure of the Lord prospers in his hand. And verse
11 says, "...he shall see the travail of his soul and shall
be satisfied. And by his knowledge, By the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, our Redeemer, shall my righteous
servant justify many. By His knowledge. What's that
mean? We need ten more hours. Oh, the wisdom, the knowledge
of God. His knowledge of the law. It must be perfect to offend
at one point. Be guilty about it. John, he
had to keep every jot. Every single one, we have to
fulfill it perfectly. It shall be perfect. Not only
in action, but in thought, speech, everything. Perfect.
His knowledge of the law, the knowledge of God's will, the
knowledge of His covenant, and a lot of thinking about death.
The wisdom, the knowledge of our Lord, and His knowledge of
us. His knowledge of us. I love John Bunyan. The Lord
used him mightily, didn't He? Have you read any of his? He's
one of my favorites. Pilgrim's Progress, Holy War, The Jerusalem
Center Saved, The Heavenly City, Heavenly Jerusalem. If you've
never read that, whew! The Lord gave that man such a
knowledge of human nature. Like in Pilgrim's Progress, all
those characters you run across. And the Lord put him in prison
to do that. They sit there and study and study new human nature,
but where did he get that from our Lord who knows human nature? He knows the mind, the will of
God. He knows the Holy God, His mind,
and He knows man. He knows us. He knows our frame. He knows everything about our
sinfulness, our sinful nature. He knows us. And He's able to deal with us. He knows what is best. He knows
what is good. He knows what is necessary. He
knows what is needful, like a parent knows their child and does everything
accordingly. By His knowledge, He'll justify. David's Psalm, Psalm 139, Thou,
Lord, seest me, You know me. It's not a thought in my head.
You don't know. God sent this wise one. For who? Sinners. A safe sinner. He knows everything about us.
He knows what we have done. He knows what we are doing. He
knows what we shall do. And God sent him to save us.
And there's not one single thing left up to us to do. He knows us. We don't even know
ourselves that well. We don't know what we're capable
of. He does. And so God gave us to Him. Oh, the wisdom and the knowledge
of our Lord. Aren't you grateful? Aren't you
grateful for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?