If you will turn back with me
to Colossians chapter 2. We all recognize that this is
a letter. And for our convenience, men
have divided these letters the books of the Bible into chapters
and verses, as I said, for our convenience. Makes it so much
easier to find a particular place. But I want us to notice that
the last verse of chapter one, the apostle Paul spoke about
his labor in the gospel ministry. Whereunto I also labor. striving according to his working,
which worketh in me mightily." To the believers in the church
at Philippi, he wrote, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Work out your
own salvation. He doesn't say work for or work
to obtain salvation. But seeing that you have been
given salvation, eternal life is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
we're given eternal life, but we're not given salvation to
sit and be idle, twiddle our thumbs, and anything like that. We're to serve. We're servants
of the Lord, not only children of God, but servants of Him when
we are saved by His grace. And here's an apostle who was
in prison, And yet he was still laboring. He was still working
in the ministry that God had given him. You know, in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, that great chapter on the resurrection, the resurrection
that is going to take place when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back
again and brings with him the souls of those who have died
and gone on to be with the Lord, their bodies sleep in the grave
somewhere here upon the earth or in the ocean. And yet when
the Lord comes again, our bodies are going to be raised and they're
going to be reunited with the soul, the spirit that is with
the Lord. But in that chapter, he mentions
the number of times that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared after
his resurrection. He appeared to various ones of
his disciples at different times over a space of 40 days, actually. By many infallible proofs, Luke
tells us in Acts chapter 1, did the Lord manifest himself as
a resurrected Christ. He could be touched. His body
could be touched. He told Philip, put your finger
in the print where the nail was, thrust your hand into the side
where the spear entered. He had a body, a body that was
glorified, yes, and we too shall have a body like that. But Paul
mentions the various ones that the Lord had appeared to after
his resurrection, and then he made this statement, he said,
and last of all, to me also. Last of all, to me also, Paul
was not one of the original 12 apostles, but the Lord appeared
to him, we know, on the road to Damascus. And that was one
of the requirements. No man could be an apostle, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, who had not seen the resurrected
Christ, who could not testify who could not give his testimony. Yes, Jesus Christ died on the
tree. Yes, his body was buried in the
tomb. And yes, he came out of that
tomb. Yes, he lives. He lives on high. But in that place, Paul made
this statement. He said, I labored more abundantly
than they all. More abundant. than they all."
Speaking of the other apostles, was he bragging on himself? Was
he sticking out his chest and saying, look at me, what I've
done. I've labored more so than any
other of the apostles. He did say that. He said, I labored
more abundantly than they all, but he didn't stop there, did
he? No. He went on to say, yet not I. but the grace of God which was
with me." It's God's grace that saves us, it's God's grace that
keeps us, and it's God's grace that enables us to walk in those
works that He has before ordained that we walk in as believers. Now, in these verses that we
are looking at today, I want to point out how the Apostle
Paul, though he was a prisoner, he was still laboring in the
ministry. He wasn't able to travel like
he had once done. And that's a wonderful ministry,
an itinerant ministry where missionaries go and they preach here and they
preach there and they take the, that's just something I can't
hardly, I can't describe it. I've been there, I know that.
But the ministry of the pastorate is also a special ministry. But Paul was no longer able to
go like he had and preach, but he was still laboring. And I
want to point out two things in these seven verses. First
of all, how Paul expressed his love and concern for the Lord's
churches, plural, the Lord's churches. Notice in verse one,
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. Once again, we are reminded that
Paul had never preached in this congregation, in this church,
but he labored, he had a great conflict for this church at Colossae
for the church at Laodicea, and if you look in chapter four of
Colossians, he names another church. The church, chapter four,
verse 13, he said, for I bear him record that he hath a great
zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis. Now, if you look at a map, And
the map in the back of your Bible probably will not have that town,
Heropolis, on it. But if you get a map that has
it, you will see that these three cities and Heropolis may have
been a village, just a small city, but they're very close. They're in a valley. Now, Paul
spent two years in Ephesus. He spent two years there preaching
the gospel. And these cities, Colossae, Laodicea,
and Hierapolis, are not that far from Ephesus. And it's very
possible that this minister that was named in chapter one, if
you look back in chapter one, from whom these men in the church
had heard the gospel, Verse seven, as you also learned of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ. It's very possible that when
Paul was preaching in Ephesus, that this man heard the gospel. The Lord saved him. And what
does he do? He shares the gospel. The gospel
is not a message that is to be placed under a bushel. No, the
gospel is a light that is given to enlighten others. And one
of the first things that happens when God reveals himself to a
person, saves a person, we want to share that. It's good news. It's good news. We want to share
that. And no doubt this man, if he
heard Paul preach the gospel, learn the gospel from him, he
took it back And God blessed his ministry, and now these three
churches are in existence. And Paul labors for them. He says he's in great conflict
for them. Now, by that word conflict, we
understand this would include his prayers. His prayers. You know, he prayed no doubt
like Jacob when he wrestled with that angel. Paul in prayer wrestled. Striving in prayer for these
believers, he knew what it was to be in a hostile environment
in this world that hates the gospel. And just being a small
group in a city, he was striving for them, laboring for them,
concerned for them that God's blessing might be upon them. The second thing, he expressed
that his great concern for them was about spiritual things. Now
I'm pointing these four things out in these verses, these five
verses. The second thing I notice here
is, in verse two, 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. Do you notice he doesn't mention
he was praying, he was striving, he was concerned for their health? He doesn't mention anything about
wealth. He doesn't speak about prosperity
in this world. That wasn't his concern. That's
what we hear so much about today, isn't it? As though the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, as though the gospel was here merely
to cause men to be wealthy and healthy and prosperous and have
everything in this world? Oh no, he doesn't even mention
those things. A very good rule, now listen
to me, a very good rule concerning health and wealth and prosperity
are the words of the Apostle John in his second letter when
he was writing to a man by the name of Gaius. And this is what
he said. Beloved, I wish above all things
that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul
prospers. even as I so prosper." That should
be the rule. We should never desire nor pray
for anyone to so prosper in the things of this world that it
affects their health, it affects their spiritual well-being rather. I have a friend, a pastor friend,
he told me that Someone came to the service one day, and they
were so excited, and they said, I've got a job. I've got me a
new job. And everybody rejoiced with them
about that. They'd been looking for a job.
And then they said, but I won't be able to come to church. I've
got a new job, but I won't be able to come to church. And the
preacher told me, he said, I told them, I don't believe. And they
were talking about God blessing them. God blessing them with
a new job, but I won't be able to come to church. And the preacher
said, I wouldn't call that a blessing. I wouldn't call that a blessing
from God if it's going to keep you away from the fellowship
of the saints, of hearing the gospel preached. You know, Paul,
he's concerned about not their health and wealth and prosperity,
but about their hearts. Notice what he said, that their
hearts might be comforted. That their hearts might be comforted. And then, being knit together
in love. What does that mean? Well this
body, remember he's talking about the church as a body. And he
uses the physical body as an example. We have a head, but
the head of the body of the church is Christ. And then we've got
all these members, but they're all bound together with bands,
just like the physical body is. But the spiritual body, these
bands, is love. We're knit together with love. And when believers, here's the
thing, when believers begin to forsake the assembling of themselves
together, Paul speaks about that in Hebrews chapter 10. When God's
people began to forsake the assembling of themselves together, then
we take ourselves away from the fellowship of believers and we're
only asking for trouble. That's all you can say. We're
just asking for trouble. And by full assurance now, he
says that their hearts might be comforted Remember, that's
the message that he gave the prophet of old. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. And the way that God's people
are comforted by the preacher is by preaching Christ and his
finished work. You know, if someone said they
listened to a message and there was too many ought to, He said,
I heard too many oughtas in that message. They said, what do you
mean by oughta? Well, the preacher just kept
saying, you ought to do this, you ought to do that, and you
ought to do the other. Too many oughtas. We want to
hear about Christ and what he's done for us. That's how God's
people are comforted, right? Comfort, and it's comfort in
the heart. God looks at the heart, doesn't
he? I mean, the outward appearance is A person can dress up and
look awfully good on the outside, but God looks at the heart, a
broken and a contrite heart. These are the sacrifices that
God will not despise. But how is a broken heart comforted? Yes, we're broken over our sin,
over our failures. But we're not trusting in ourselves,
we're trusting in Christ and his work, and we're accepted
in the beloved. But he goes on to speak about
full assurance, that is, that these believers might have a
firm persuasion, that their hearts might be comforted, be 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. Full assurance. That is a firm persuasion and
then an open profession of the mystery. Now we saw last week
that Paul spoke of two mysteries in chapter one. One mystery is
the gospel. The other mystery is that the
Gentiles would be brought into this body. There'd be one body
made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Now, a mystery, according to
the New Testament, is a truth. Truth doesn't change, does it?
It doesn't change, just like God. God is the way, the truth. and the life. Truth doesn't change. But truth is revealed sometimes
in increments. And in the Old Testament, the
truths were hidden in types and shadows, pictures, promises. But with the coming of Christ,
look with me in 2 Timothy. Turn over just a few pages to
2 Timothy. With the coming of Christ, The
truth has been made more visible, more manifested, more openly
understood and seen. Second Timothy chapter one in
verse nine, Paul says, who has saved us and called us with an
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, Now watch, but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death. Who hath abolished death. By
his appearing and by his dying in the stead and in the place
of his people, he has abolished death. Remember what he told
Martha, Martha, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. He gives us eternal life. Oh, this body will die, yes,
but you, you will not die if you're given eternal life. Christ,
by His appearing, now this had all been promised. It had all
been pictured in the Old Testament. But you see, by His coming, is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. It was as though it was in the
shadows, but now it's all brought out into the light by the coming
and the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, third
thing back in our text, he expresses the certainty of the all-sufficiency
of Christ to save sinners. Verses three and four, in whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and this
I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. in Christ. Now these false teachers
and false religion, they would come along and usually they would
tell you that they have wisdom that is hidden, but it will be
revealed to you. You will become what they called
an initiate in their religion and they would reveal more of
these secret things unto you. No, what Paul is saying, in Christ. In Christ are hid all, not most,
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In other words, when
you have Christ, you have everything. And if you don't have him, you
don't have anything. Basically, that's what he's saying.
When you have Christ, you have... Don't listen, Paul. Don't listen
to these teachers that are coming among you and telling you, yes,
what you've heard is good, but that's not quite enough. There's
more. There's more. And we can lead
you and we can teach you into these deeper things of God. Now Paul says, in Christ are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All that you will
ever need in order to know God, to live in this world pleasing
to God, you will find in Jesus Christ and in him alone. You don't need to hear another
message. You've heard this message, Paul
says, by your pastor, your Ephraphus. He's brought you the gospel.
You don't need another message. And we're going to see the Lord
willing, as we go on in this chapter, what they wanted to
include. You know, Christ, you have Christ,
that's good, but you need some other, there's other things here
to make it complete, no? Paul in Ephesians tells us that
we are complete in Him. Now when God says something's
complete, I believe it's complete, don't you? You're complete in
Christ. You know Christ. You're complete. You don't need to add anything.
You don't need to add the law or the ministry of angels or
anything like that. Ceremonial days and stuff like,
no. You're complete in Christ. Christ is end of the law for
righteousness unto all who believe. Now, the fourth thing, he expressed
that he was with them in spirit. Notice verse five. For though
I be absent in the flesh, He wasn't visiting their churches,
he was a prisoner. Yet am I with you in the spirit,
joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your
faith in Christ. A believer in the church at Colossae,
when they heard this letter read, they might think, how does Paul
know so much about us? That's a thousand miles to Rome. He's over there in Rome, and
here we are. How does he know so much about
us? Well, Paul says he was with them,
not in body, but in spirit. Notice that. For though I be
absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit. Now, I think we must understand
that apostles were given gifts of the Holy Spirit that other
men were not given. You know, people would tell us
today, well, everybody has the gift of healing and the gift
of tongues and the gift of interpretation and these special gifts that
were in the early church. That's just not true. That's
just not true, and the reason people hear those things and
accept those things is because the Word of God is not taught.
The apostles, they had gifts that other men didn't have. Paul
said, confessed that he had the gifts of an apostle to the church
at Corinth. And we've seen how that they
could lay their hands on believers and those gifts sometimes were
given unto those. upon whom the apostles laid hands. But those who received those
gifts from the hands of the apostles, they couldn't communicate those
gifts unto others. This was something that was temporary
in the church at first until the word of God to the canon
of scriptures was complete. It was needed. It was needful.
And I believe when Paul here tells this church, I was with
you in the spirit. You know, he said the same thing
to the church at Corinth. They had a man in their church
who professed to be a believer and he was living in adultery
with his father's wife, not his mother, but his father's wife. And they were accepting that.
allowing that to go on. And Paul said, no, no. He said,
when you gather together and listen, and when my spirit is
with you, then you deal with that man. You deal with that
man. That's, that's not to be allowed
in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I always remember what I read
years ago, I think it was by McShaney, the Scottish preacher. The gospel is a holy gospel. It's a gospel of the holy God. And it is a holy making gospel. And when people hear and believe
and receive the gospel, a life is changed. But in this particular
case, Paul told that church, he said, my spirit will be there
with you. Now, what does that mean? I don't know. But I know
that that's the way, at least I believe, that's the way he
was with the church at Colossae. And one of the examples that
is given by the writers is in the case of Elisha. Remember,
Elisha had a servant by the name of Gehazi. And Naaman came, the Syrian came,
and he wanted to be healed of his leprosy, and Elisha told
him, you go down and dip seven times in Jordan, you'll come
up, your flesh will be clean, leprosy will be gone. And first
he didn't want to do it, he was too important. He said, I thought
the man at least come out here and strike hands over me. No,
you just go dip in the Jordan sometime. Just follow the word
from the man of God and his servants. They talked him into doing it.
And sure enough, just like God said, he went down, dipped seven
times, came out and had the flesh of a baby. I like to see these
little babies, these infants, two or three months old. And
their skin is so smooth, isn't it? Well, that's the way this
man came up out of that water. I mean, just pristine clear of
all that leprosy, all that sickness. Well, what did he want to do?
He wanted to reward the prophet. Man, he brought a bunch of silver
and changes of clothes and everything with him, a whole chariot full
of stuff. I want to give you this. No,
no, no. You don't give me anything. God
did this. And so the man starts back to
Syria, and his servant thought, hmm, that man wanted to give
our master something. He takes off after him, doesn't
he? Stops him, lies to him, tells him, hey, we've had something
unexpected come up. and my master could use some
of that silver and some of those changes of raiment. And so the
man gave it to him, helped him bring it back, in fact, and the
man puts it in an outhouse, one of the outhouses there, and he
goes in to his master and Elisha tells him, said, Gehasi, didn't
my spirit go with you? In other words, he knew exactly
what his servant had done. He never left the house, but
he knew exactly what that man had done, how he had lied because
of covetousness. And that may be the way Paul,
being an apostle, was able, though absent in the flesh, in the spirit,
to be with these churches. I don't know, but that is a suggestion
at least. Now, before I go on to the second
part of my message, which will not be as long, ever been as good, but not as
long, I want to ask just this. Do we love, and do we pray, and
do we have concern for the Lord's churches like we should? Like
the Apostle Paul, never having been to this church, never having
seen most of them, And yet he expresses his concern, his love
for them. I'm not talking just about this
church, those of us who are members here, but about other churches
too. I know of several churches in
the United States of America today, grace churches, who are
without pastors. Some have been without pastors
for over two years. Are we concerned? Are we praying? You know, the Lord said, pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would thrust
out labors into his harvest. Paul was. Are we? Are we concerned? Are we concerned about sharing
the gospel with others? Do we look for opportunities,
pray for opportunities? Lord, let my path cross someone's
path today that I can minister to, I can say something, give
a word of testimony about Christ. Do we look for those examples? Are we, as he told the Corinthians,
steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. I pray that we are. And if we're not, that God would
make us so, that God would revive us into serving him. Now the second part of the message,
verses six and seven, Paul sounds a word of exhortation here. You
notice, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk you in him. rooted and built up in him and
established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving." The believer's life is compared here
to a walk, our walk in this life. We are to walk in Christ. And how are we to walk? We are
to walk in him, Paul says, as we have received him. As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in
him. Now that suggested two questions
to me. First of all, how does a person
receive Christ? How does a person receive Christ?
He says, as you have therefore received Christ. Well, look with
me in John chapter one, the gospel of John chapter one. It's stated
here very clearly, isn't it? In John chapter 1 and verse 11,
John wrote concerning the Lord, he came unto his own and his
own received him not. Now here it is, but as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on
his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." How do we receive
Christ? By trusting in him, by believing,
as he said, to as many as received him. To them gave he the power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. name. That's how a person receives
Christ, to believe in him. That's the message that we're
commanded to preach, isn't it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. But then a second question, how
did we receive him? How are we to receive him? By
faith. But how are we to receive him? Him? Do we receive him like we received
Moses? I believe that there was a man
named Moses. I really do. I believe he lived
about 1,500 years before Christ came into this world, sure. Do
we receive him like we received David? I believe there was a
king of Israel named David, sweet psalmist of Israel, lived about
600 years, I believe it was, before Christ came into this
world. Do we receive Christ, Him, like
that, an historical figure? Like we received George Washington? I believe there was, I never
saw George Washington except in pictures, but I believe there
was a man named George Washington who was the first president of
this country. No. How do we receive Him? We receive Him as the God-man. I believe that he is God manifest
in the flesh. That's the way we receive him,
right? As the God man. We receive him
as the only hope, the only savior, the only man, the only one who
could put away my sins by his precious blood and impute to
me a righteousness, a life that I never lived, a death that I
never died. I stake my whole eternity upon
His life, His death, in my place and in my stead. How do we receive
Him? Not just as a historical person
that we believe in. Yes, sure. No, we believe in
Him. We receive Him as all our salvation,
as all our hope. I had a debt. I could not pay. You say, what debt was it? It
was a debt of sin. It had been accumulating from
the very moment of my conception. The very moment that I came into
this world, my debt had been growing, growing, growing, growing,
growing, and I couldn't pay it. And it didn't matter if it was
right here on the bottom, never grown a bit. I couldn't pay that. I have received him as the son
of God who came into this world and paid my sin debt. I don't owe anything to God's
justice anymore. I did. I sure did. And rightly so. But not anymore. Not anymore. That debt's paid.
That debt's paid. And I go on my way rejoicing. We're to continue to walk in
him, as Paul says, as you have been taught. Now, I want to,
in closing, I'm not quite through, but it's getting better. I'm going to say that for myself.
You're not going to say it, I'm going to say it. He uses three metaphors in these
two verses, walking, The Christian life compared to a wall, he uses
the word rooted and the word builded. When you hear the word
rooted, what comes to your mind? What do you think of? A plant,
right? A plant. Plants have roots. We're all familiar with plants,
trees, roots. I want you to look with me in
Matthew chapter 15, and we're gonna turn from there to Jeremiah,
but let's look here at Matthew chapter 15. Verse 12 of Matthew chapter 15,
we read, then came his disciples and said unto him, That is, unto
Christ knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? What had he said? What had he
said that offended these religious Pharisees? Well, he just simply
said, it's not that which goes into the man that devolves the
man. It's that which comes out of the man. In other words, an
evil heart. There's a problem, the heart.
And his disciples, these people were, they were religious beyond
measure, the Pharisees. And his disciples said, don't
you know you offended them? We're trying to start a new religion
here. We're just getting this off the
ground here and these people could help us. They've got clout. People recognize them. They're
known for their religiosity. These people could help us. Lord,
don't you know what you said offended them? They're gonna
get mad. They're not gonna go with us. What did our Lord say? Notice
the next verse. But he answered and said, every
plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted
up. Leave them alone. Who does the
planning? God does. Every plant which my
Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Who does
the planting? The Father. Choosing us, if you
please, in Christ before the foundation of the world. Planted
in Him. Rooted in Him. Leave them alone. They be blind
leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. I'm telling you, this country,
our country, and most of the religion, most of the churches
across America today are being led by blind leaders. They don't believe the scripture.
They don't believe the word of God is inspired of God. They're
blind. They don't even know there's
a problem, that man has a problem, much less the remedy, the answer. They're blind, leaders of the
blind. And what's going to happen? All
going to fall into the ditch. I tell you, when a church or
a denomination or a preacher, when they leave this book, you
better leave them. When they start criticizing this
book and telling you what's inspired and what's not inspired, setting
themselves up as a judge, we'll believe this, but we won't believe
that, you better chuck those people for the good of your soul. No, they're blind leaders of
the blind. Leave them alone. The Father
plants us in Christ. Now I said one other passage
if you look to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 17. And verse five. Thus saith the Lord, cursed be
the man that trusteth in man. and maketh flesh his arm, and
whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the
heath in the desert. Now, heath is a plant, very simple
plant. I think of a tumbling weed. A
man who trusts in another man or in himself, in his own arm,
he's just like a tumbling weed. and shall not seek when good
cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
and of salt land, and not inhabit it. But now notice here, blessed
is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord
is, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and spreadeth
out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh,
but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the
year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. God
plants those that he saves, and he plants us by a river of water
that flows out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and we
continue to bring forth fruit. But those that trust in man They're
like a tumbling weed. They're going to be cursed in
the end. I pray the Lord would bless these
thoughts to all of us here today.