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The patient of a psychiatrist was on vacation. He sent the psychiatrist a little postcard which read, “Having a great time. I wish you were here to tell me why.” Well, we know why we’re having a good time this morning, right? This is the Lord’s day, it’s the Lord’s house, we’re among God’s people, and we’re about to open His precious Word. I invite you to take your Bible and turn to Colossians 2. If you’re visiting with us this morning, we are in a expositional series in the Book of Colossians, just working verse by verse through this wonderful book in the New Testament. This is a book about the preeminence of Jesus Christ above all things. He indeed among all others deserves the first place. He is the Lord of creation, He’s the head of the church, and we’re seeking to exalt Him through this series of studies.
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And so, we return this morning to Colossians 2:6, Colossians 2:6, and we’ll read through to verse 15. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of man, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him.” You want to ring those words right there. “You are complete in Him, for He is the head of all principality and power. In Him, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. And you being dead to your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive to gather with Him having forgiven you all tresses.” Amen.
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He has forgiven us all our trespasses. Verse 14, “Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way. Having knee it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” We trust that God will use His Word to, indeed, enrich our hearts and direct our lives. I want to speak this morning, and my guess is next Sunday morning, on the subject: everything you will ever want. Friend, when you got the Lord Jesus Christ, you got everything you will ever want. You are complete in Him. Don’t settle for a substitute. Don’t be drawn away after another Christ. You are complete in Him. When you got Him, you got everything.
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If Danny Simpson had have known more about guns, he might not have had to rob the bank. In 1990 in Ottawa, Canada, this 24-year-old man went to jail and his gun went to the museum. He was arrested for robbing the bank. He took $6,000 and was sent to jail for six years. When he was carrying out his crime, he used a .45 caliber Colt semi-automatic pistol. But it turned out to be an antique made by Ross Rifle Company of Quebec City in 1918. The pistol was worth $100,000. The guy robbed the bank for 6,000 with a gun worth 100,000. He didn’t know what he had.
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You know what? As I think about Danny Simpson, I think about many Christians who don’t know what they have when they receive the Lord Jesus Christ. They live a life ignorant of what they already possess in the Lord Jesus Christ. They live under the circumstances because they live beneath their privileges as the children of God. They stumble through life failing to grasp the sufficiency of Christ’s presence and power in their lives.
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Folks, we have a complete savior, and we are complete in Him. Christianity is an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Christ. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:3 that through Christ we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. God is able to give us all that we need to live life victoriously, and He’s able to give us grace to live without those things we don’t have. In 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul tells us that through God’s grace, all grace has been made abounding to us in all things with all sufficiency.
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You see, the moment that someone receives Christ, they receive in Christ all that is needed to live the Christian life. In receiving Christ, they receive Him who is the fullness of God and who fills all things up, Ephesians 4:10. I like the story of the little girl in Sunday school who was asked why she believed there was only one God. This little pig-tailed theologian replied, “Because the Bible says that God fills up everything, and if He fills up everything, there’s no room for another God.” My friend, Paul wants us to know that Jesus Christ fills up everything and there’s no room for another savior. We are complete in Him.
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That’s not to say that there’s not growing to do. That’s not to say that there’s not discovery to take place, but it is to say that growing and that discovery will never take place beyond Christ. There’s never something more than the Lord Jesus Christ, because in Christ the Christian had everything he will ever want or ever need. That’s why David was able to say without the full revelation of the New Testament that the Lord was His shepherd and He would not want. He was complete.
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Now, no book in the New Testament deals with this subject quite like the Book of Colossians. In all of scripture, it is the watershed passage on the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, while the Colossians were certainly strong in faith and in love and in hope, we’re told that in chapter one verses four and five, there was a heresy that was chipping away at their confidence in Christ’s power and Christ’s preeminence. Paul wants them to know, as we read this morning in verse nine and 10 of chapter two, that in the Lord Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And when Christ indwells us, God in all His fullness fills us. We’re complete in Him. He wants them to understand this.
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To counteract this corruption of the gospel that was troubling the church at Colossi, Paul focuses on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has been doing that throughout chapter one. We saw in chapter one that Christ has a preeminent place in the universe. He alone is the agent of redemption. He has preeminence before God. He is the head of the church. He is utterly sufficient for every need that we might encounter. Paul wants the Colossians to understand that they need no spiritual additives to their faith or their walk with God.
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Now, before we get into the text and move on through this book, I think it is interesting just to note that as Paul deals with this heresy, he doesn’t attack the heresy by name. He doesn’t identify the men that are preaching this and troubling the church, which to me is interesting. No, Paul deals with the poison of heresy by a presentation of biblical Christology. He preaches the truth. He reminds them that the best way to fight heresy is not to expose it to taunts, but to expose it to truth.
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And so, one of the best ways to protect orthodoxy is not to argue with falsehood but to make a compelling argument for the truth. In fact, Paul spends so much time in this passage talking about the sufficiency and supremacy of Christ and not berating the opposition that he actually makes it difficult for us to identify who the enemy was. We can piece together by what he says that it may have been a Judaistic narcism marked by intellectualism and ritualism and mysticism and a sadism, but he doesn’t truly tell us what the problem was. He just spends time telling us what the solution is: a proper understanding of Christ.
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At times, I have thought about preaching a series of messages on the cult identifying where they undermine a true doctrine of Christ’s person and work. But I’m thinking to myself in the light of what Paul’s doing here, if we work our way through the Book of Colossians, we will be armed enough to deal with heresy. Because when you know who Christ truly is, you’ll spot that which is erroneous. If you and I understand in this passage that He is the invisible image of God, that He created all things, that in all things He must have the preeminence, that He reconciled man to God through His death and reconciled all things to Himself in the end, then when the Jehovah witness comes or the Mormon comes and tells us that Jesus Christ is the creation of God, that He is a creature, that He is an angelic spirit being, we know that they’re wrong. We don’t need to know Mormonism to know that it’s wrong, we need to know Christ and all His truth.
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It’s the same when you meet someone of the faith of Islam and they tell you, “You know what? Jesus Christ wasn’t crucified, and He wasn’t God incarnate in flesh.” They don’t believe in the incarnation. They don’t believe in the virgin birth. When you understand what Paul has taught you in Colossians, you know that Islam’s wrong. You don’t need to study it to know that it’s wrong. If you know the true Christ, you’ll know that it’s wrong. The same with Hinduism. When you talk to someone who embraces Hinduism, they’ll tell you, “You know what? Christ is a cosmic force? He’s indistinct from the creation.” God is the creation. No, God made the creation, according to Colossians 1. So you see what I’m getting at?
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That’s why Spurgeon said it was unnecessary to defend the Bible. It was like a lion, all you had to do was let it out of the key and it’ll defend itself. And so, here we are, and we’re getting the grips with the Word of God, the person, the work of Jesus Christ and all its sufficiency and supremacy, and we’re learning that He is indeed magnificent. The passage before us which we’ll look at this morning and next Sunday morning brings us to the very heart of this book. We’re smack dab in the middle of Paul’s argument, in the middle of Paul’s treaties here. Colossians 2:4-3:4 sets before us one of the most important descriptions of the person and work of Christ in the entire New Testament.
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Paul will indeed outline for us that by the means of the cross, the Christian reaps many benefits once incorporated into Christ. What Paul wants to teach us here in chapter two verses six through 15 on following, he wants us to understand what we possess and possess in Christ. He wants us to understand this morning, folks, that we are richer than we think. We got more than we bargained for the night we got saved. And I, with the work of the Holy Spirit in our life, growing us in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to see that in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He indwells us. We have the fullness of God in us. We are complete. We can live life victoriously. We don’t need to live a defeated Christian experience. And we must not allow ourselves to be cheated of what we have in the Lord. Jesus Christ. We must not fall foul to the falsehood that there’s something more than Jesus, because there’s not.
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That’s Paul’s concern here. Look at verse eight, “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of man, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ who is the fullness of God in bodily form and who completes us.” Folks, I want you to grasp this, the Book of Colossians was written by Paul so that the Colossians wouldn’t get their eye wiped by their heretics in the Lycus Valley. He didn’t want them surrendering to a cheap substitute of the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t want them buying gnostic knockoff of the real Christ. In fact, this word cheat can be translated robbed. Paul has never visited them, but in writing to them, he’s probably saying this, “I don’t want to have to visit you someday and tell you got robbed.”
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I’ve told you before, I think, I love the Antiques Roadshow. I love it especially when someone brings in some old painting or an old piece of pottery and they really haven’t understood its true worth. It’s been gathering dust up in the attic or in the back of the garage. And so, they bring it and the appraiser looks at it, and before they know it, they’ve got some classic art piece that’s worth thousands of dollars. Ka-ching, you just see them lighting up. They never understood what they had, and it’s great. I love that about it. But as I’ve watched, I go, “Man, I feel like writing in to the producers of the Antiques Roadshow, and I’d love them to simulcast the person who sold them it for a couple of bucks.” Because you find, if you watch the program, that they invariably say, “You know what? I bought this at a garage sale or I bought it at our roadside antiques store somewhere in Hickville, and I only paid five bucks for it.” Wouldn’t you love a simulcast as they see what they have and you see other person what they’ve lost?
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Paul wants the Corinthians to understand, “Do you understand what you have in Christ? Don’t sell them for gnostic knockoff.” But there’s four things Paul argues in the passage we’ve read this morning. We’re just going to look at one of them. In fact, not even finish that. We’re going to look at, first of all, their firmness in Christ, then we’re going to look at their fullness in Christ, then we’re going to look at their freeness in Christ, and then we’re going to look at their forgiveness in Christ. Let’s look at their firmness in Christ. These two verses, six and seven, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
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These two verses conclude the argument that Paul begun back in chapter one in verse 15. You see, for some time now he has been explaining to them the greatness and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. They received the Lord Jesus Christ who was the image of the invisible God made visible. He was the creator and controller of all things. He was the head of the church. He was the first-born from among the dead. He was the one who reconciles God and man. And here in chapter two verse three, he tells them, “And in Him you can find all wisdom and knowledge.” That’s what they got when they got Christ.
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And having received Him as a Lord and savior, Paul encourages them to walk in Him. That word received is an interesting verb there in verse six, katalambano in the Greek, it suggests the passing on of a sacred tradition from one group of believers to the next. And so, it’s not really focused just on the experience of them receiving Christ in the work of regeneration. The whole idea here is that when they received Christ, they received Him as Lord as they were informed by Epaphroditus. We’re told back in chapter one verse seven that he shared the apostolic gospel with them. As they heard from Epaphroditus who it was, they were being asked to submit to and give their life in service to, they received that tradition, that truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, because indeed then, that’s what Paul says in verse seven, “As you have been taught.” Being taught what? Taught this tradition, taught this truth about who the Lord Jesus is.
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And so, what Paul is calling them to here is firmness, steadfastness. He wants them to persist in the truth of Christ as it was expressed and embraced in the apostolic gospel. Remember, there are those who want to cheat them, wipe their eye, rob them of what they have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Paul’s saying, “Look, remember who you received. We taught you who He was. I’m reminding you of the greatness and the glory of the one who now indwells you by His Spirit. And so, walk in Him. Don’t walk away from Him, walk in Him.” The point is that they are already recognize that Christ is Lord and they are not to Weaver on their Christology. They’re to go on announcing saying that Jesus is Lord. He’s not some sort of divine hero. He doesn’t belong to the pantheon of Greek gods. He is, from first to last, the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.
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Now, the whole point of this is this: they were to continue to be established in the faith which they had believed and received as taught by Epaphroditus from the beginning. Paul wants to remind them that Jesus is not a beginning and then you can mature beyond that to something else. No, when you got Him, you got all you will ever need. Of course, you need to grow in Him and you need to develop your relationship with Him, but that’s maturing in Christ through Christ, not beyond Christ. Which reminds me of something important, by the way, always be very weary, even in today’s contemporary Christian context, of anyone on television or at a book signing that tells you that they have discovered the secret to Christian victory, something new that no one yet has discovered or understood.
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Originality may be the mark of academia, but it is not the mark of true theology. Listen to what Warren Wiersbe says, I just came across this recently, referring to Psalm 23:3 that says, “He leads us along the paths of righteousness.” The Hebrew word translated paths in Psalm 23:3 means well-worn paths, ruts. “The paths of righteousness aren’t new, they’re well-worn ruts, that the saints have been trodding since Enoch started walking with God. Whenever I hear of a new approach to Christian living or a new secret to spiritual victory, I just look to my faithful shepherd and ask Him to guide me in the ruts of righteousness that others have found so satisfying.” Amen.
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Truth does not need updating or augmentation. Harry Ironside was right, if it’s true, it’s not new. If it’s new, it’s not true. A. W. Tozer said, “Nothing is new that matters, and nothing that matters can be modernized. The old way is the true way, and there’s no new way.” That’s why Jeremiah 6:16 tells us to seek out the old paths. Heretics are coming to these believers at Colossi and telling them, “You know what? We have got something you’ve never heard of. It’s the secret. It’s the way to fulfillment. It’s the way to knowing God fully and completely.” They say, “No, there is no new way. We received the tradition from Epaphroditus which came through Paul, who received it from Christ Himself. We know the truth, and it doesn’t need updating and it doesn’t need modernizing. It just needs embracing and living.” Amen.
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Amen.
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So be very careful. There’s a lot of people selling their words today on Christian television, something new, something novel. No, you just follow the ruts of righteousness that has satisfied the saints for generations. Well, there’s two things here, we’ll just start to look at the first one. In talking about their firmness, we have the challenge, “so walk in Him,” and then we have the caution, verse eight, “Beware lest anyone cheat you.” So let’s look at the challenge. Paul, having spoken of something that has happened in the past to them… The word received is in the aorist tense in the Greek. It speaks of a completed action in the past. They have received Christ. They heard that apostolic gospel, that true tradition concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. They embraced it by faith. They received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord.
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By the way, I just have to say it, what is the controversy over lordship salvation? According to this verse that gives us a window into the New Testament church in apostolic times, they received Christ the Lord. It’s always been that way. You don’t receive Christ and then some 10, 20 years later decide, “You know what? I’m going to now serve You as my Lord.” No, no, that’s straight out the gate. You can’t divide the person of Christ. He is savior and Lord. If He wasn’t Lord, He couldn’t be the savior. And so, Paul tells them, “Look, you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, now I want you to walk in Him.” That’s the challenge. He understands that the conversion of a soul is a miracle of a moment, but the manufacturer of a saint is the task of a lifetime.
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I don’t care how bright you are this morning. I don’t care how sincere you are this morning. I don’t care how submissive you are this morning. There’s not one of you, including myself, that can be airlifted instantaneously to spiritual gianthood. We’re all on a journey. We’re progressing in holiness. We’re developing our Christian character and likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that’s an encouragement. Paul’s encouraging them, challenging them to walk in the one they were called to follow.
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And that reminds me, by the way, and reminds you not to get stuck in where you are. God will move you on. You may be going through difficult times and maybe your Christian life has seen better days, but don’t get stuck in where you are. Walk in Him. And don’t give up on each other because the Lord’s not finished with any one of us. He that had begun a good work on us will perform it. So Paul is encouraging them to live out the implications of the tradition they receive from Apaphriditis. Paul doesn’t want them to become spiritual Peter Pans living in Never Never Land of Christian adolescence.
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I like the story of the little fellow who fell out of his bed, and when he was asked how that happened, he said, “I guess I must have slept too close to the place I got in.” There are too many Christians like that. They do not advance after becoming a Christian and then they wonder why their life is filled with falls. So Paul challenges them to grow, and he does it with several metaphors. He challenges them through a series of pictures, and I’m just going to help you see it, make some application, and we’ll be done, so that you and I will be challenged this morning to ensure that in increasing manner, just like we sang, Christ has the first place.
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Number one in terms of these metaphors, Paul pictures the Christian life as a pilgrimage. We’re a pilgrim. Look at verse six, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” You see, Peter says in 1 Peter 2:11 that a Christian is a stranger and a pilgrim. That’s what you and I are. We’re strangers, and we’re pilgrims on this earth. What is a stranger? A stranger is someone away from home. What is a pilgrim? Someone who’s walking towards home or a designated destination. The Christian is both. And so, Christ calls us this morning to walk in Him, to walk towards Him, He who is seated in the heavenlies. As a pilgrim, we’re only passing through, and we’ve got to make sure we don’t grow in love with this world and the things of this world. Pilgrims are not tourists. See, tourists stop and taste everything and try everything, but the pilgrim has got their sites set on home.
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You and I need to be conscious of time as pilgrims. You and I need to avoid distractions as pilgrims. You and I need to travel light as pilgrims. You and I as God’s people need to allow heaven to dictate and direct our walk on earth. Set your affection on things above. Walk in Him and walk towards Him. I trust that on a daily basis you’re reminding yourselves that you live in a world where all the price tags have been changed, and you’ve got to live according to the kingdom values and those things that are most precious to God. Everything’s going to be burned up. The fashion of this world is passing away. And so, you and I have got to walk in Him with an eagerness. David Bernard used to pray often, “Lord, help me not to loiter on my way to heaven.”
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Are you walking in Him? Are you walking towards Him? Have you got your sight set on heaven? Are you living according to heaven’s conduct and heavens code? You ought to. But he not only talks about them being a pilgrim, he talks about them being a tree. Look at verse six, “Having received Christ Jesus as the Lord, walk in Him,” verse seven, “rooted and built up in Him.” Paul pictures them as a maturing tree that’s strong and healthy because its roots are deep down in the soil. You and I know that that’s a biblical metaphor, isn’t it, for spiritual health and strength of moral character? Psalm 1:3 likens the blessed man, the godly man who doesn’t sit down with the scoffer or walk in the way of the world as someone who’s like a tree planted by the water who brings forth its fruit or foliage in its season.
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So Paul’s picking up this picture that you’ll find throughout the Word of God, you’ll also find it in Jeremiah 17:8, “By an act of God’s sovereign grace through the ministry of Apaphriditis, their lives had been once and for all planted in Christ, rooted in Christ, joined to Christ. Christ was the soil, and the soil is the source of life. And Christ was their source of life. The roots were already established. This is a perfect tense in the Greek. You say, “What’s the significance of that?” It’s different from the aorist tense, the aorist tense speaks, for the most part, of a point in time, a completed action. The perfect tense speaks of a completed action in the past, but the results of it are ongoing to this day.
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And so, the moment they got saved, God rooted them in Christ, united them to Christ. The Spirit of God baptized them into the Body of Christ. They were established in Christ. Paul is encouraging them not to be transplanted, not to allow the heretics to come and dig up their faith, to loosen their roots in the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t want them to buy into this gnostic knockoff of the real Christ. And so, he encourages them to put their roots deep down in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I need to be doing that on a day-to-day basis. We know that, for the most part, the deeper and the wider the roots of a plant, the broader and more fruitful the branches of a plant.
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And friend, the more you root your life in the Lord Jesus Christ, when the winds of life’s storms blow, you will be established in your faith. And when the winds of country doctrine challenge your faith, you will be able to stand. In the case of trees, we see that which is hidden will determine the firmness and the fruitfulness of the tree. That’s why it’s so important for you to be here on a Sunday morning allowing the Word of God to deepen your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that’s not enough. You need to be in the Word yourself on a day-to-day basis, maybe meeting with other Christians in small groups for Bible study, so that your roots are going deeper and broader so that your branches will go wider and be more heavy with spiritual fruitfulness and character.
(30:40):
What Paul is saying here, “I want you to be trees, not tumbleweeds.” You ever seen a tumbleweed? In California, you saw them all the time. You’ll see them a lot in Arizona and other states. This huge tumbleweed will grow and then turn brown, but the first strong wind that comes along will break its one single root that’s so brittle. And all of a sudden, these things will be tumbling like footballs all over the place. Paul’s saying to them, “Look you’re tree, you’re not a tumbleweed. You’ve been established in Christ, now go deep.”
(32:04):
Depth is important in the Christian life. Doctrine is important in the Christian life. Learning more about the Lord Jesus Christ is the secret to growing in Him. But they were not only a pilgrim, they were not only a tree, they were a building. Let’s keep going in verse seven, “as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him.” Paul switches metaphors here. He loves to set metaphors side by side. And so, we move from the agricultural to the architectural. We move from roots and trees to buildings and foundations. There’s an old saying that the building can go no higher than the foundation is deep. Paul wants them to know that they have a sure foundation.
(32:04):
Over in 1 Corinthians 3:9 [inaudible 00:32:04] and he tells us, “There is no foundation that any man can lay except that which is Christ Jesus.” Christ is our sure foundation. In Matthews 7, the Lord Jesus Christ likens His Word to a foundation of rock upon which a house is built. I think this metaphor is a metaphor that has us looking forward. Paul wants us to know that you and I can build our lives upon Christ because the foundation will not crumble, the foundation will not rot, the foundation will last for all eternity. He who led the foundation of this world is our foundation. How solid, my friend, is that?
(30:48):
Our health will fail us. Our 401(k) will take us on a roller-coaster ride. Friends will desert us. By an act of God’s sovereign grace through the ministry of Apaphriditis, their lives had been, once and for all, planted in Christ, rooted in Christ, joined to Christ. Christ was the soil, and the soil is the source of life. And Christ was their source of life. The roots were already established. This is a perfect tense in the Greek. You say, “What’s the significance of that?” It’s different from the aorist tense, the aorist tense speaks, for the most part, of a point in time, a completed action. The perfect tense speaks of a completed action in the past, but the results of it are ongoing to this day.
(30:48):
And so, the moment they got saved, God rooted them in Christ, united them to Christ. The spirit of God baptized them into the Body of Christ. They were established in Christ. Paul is encouraging them not to be transplanted, not to allow the heretics to come and dig up their faith, to loosen their roots in the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t want them to buy into this gnostic knockoff of the real Christ. And so, he encourages them to put their roots deep down in the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I need to be doing that on a day-to-day basis. We know that, for the most part, the deeper and the wider the roots of a plant, the broader and more fruitful the branches of a plant.
(30:48):
Friend, the more you root your life in the Lord, Jesus Christ, when the winds of life’s storms blow, you will be established in your faith. And when the winds of country doctrine challenge your faith, you will be able to stand. In the case of trees, we see that which is hidden will determine the firmness and the fruitfulness of the tree. That’s why it’s so important for you to be here on a Sunday morning allowing the Word of God to deepen your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that’s not enough. You need to be in the Word yourself on a day-to-day basis, maybe meeting with other Christians in small groups for Bible study, so that your roots are going deeper and broader, so that your branches will go wider and be more heavy with spiritual fruitfulness and character.
(30:48):
What Paul is saying here, “I want you to be trees, not tumbleweeds.” You ever seen a tumbleweed? In California, you saw them all the time. You see them a lot in Arizona and other states. This huge tumbleweed will grow, it’ll then turn brown, but the first strong wind that comes along will break its one single root that’s so brittle. And all of a sudden, these things will be tumbling like footballs all over the place. And Paul’s saying to them, “Look, you’re a tree, you’re not a tumbleweed. You’ve been established in Christ, now go deep.”
(31:15):
Depth is important in the Christian life. Doctrine is important in the Christian life. Learning more about the Lord Jesus Christ is the secret to growing in Him. But they were not only a pilgrim, they were not only a tree, they were a building. Let’s keep going, in verse seven, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him.” Paul switches metaphors here. He loves to set metaphors side by side. And so, we move from the agricultural to the architectural. We move from roots and trees to buildings and foundations. There’s an old saying that the building can go no higher than the foundation is deep. Paul wants them to know that they have a sure foundation.
(32:02):
Over in 1 Corinthians 3:9, [inaudible 00:36:53] he tells us, “There is no foundation that any man can lay except that which is Christ Jesus.” Christ is our sure foundation. In Matthew 7, the Lord Jesus Christ likens His Word to a foundation of rock upon which a house is built. I think this metaphor is a metaphor that has us looking forward. Paul wants us to know that you and I can build our lives upon Christ because the foundation will not crumble. The foundation will not rot. The foundation will last for all eternity. He who led the foundation of this world is our foundation. How solid, my friend, is that? Our health will fail us. Our 401(k) will take us on a roller-coaster ride. Friends will desert us. By an act of God’s sovereign grace through the ministry of Apaphraditis, their lives had been, once and for all, planted in Christ, rooted in Christ, joined to Christ. Christ was the soil, and the soil is the source of life. And Christ was their source of life. The roots were already established. This is a perfect tense in the Greek. You say, “What’s the significance of that?” It’s different from the aorist tense, the aorist tense speaks, for the most part, of a point in time, a completed action. The perfect tense speaks of a completed action in the past, but the results of it are ongoing to this day.
(33:47):
And so, the moment they got saved, God rooted them in Christ, united them to Christ, the Spirit of God baptized them into the Body of Christ. They were established in Christ. Paul is encouraging them not to be transplanted, not to all allow the heretics to come and dig up their faith, to loosen their roots in the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t want them to buy into this gnostic knockoff of the real Christ. And so, he encourages them to put their roots deep down in the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I need to be doing that on a day-to-day basis. We know that, for the most part, the deeper and the wider the roots of a plant, the broader and more fruitful, the branches of a plant. Friend, the more you root your life in the Lord Jesus Christ, when the winds of life’s storms blow, you will be established in your faith. And when the winds of country doctrine challenge your faith, you will be able to stand.
(34:51):
In the case of trees, we see that which is hidden will determine the firmness and the fruitfulness of the tree. That’s why it’s so important for you to be here on a Sunday morning allowing the Word of God to deepen your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that’s not enough. You need to be in the Word yourself on a day-to-day basis, maybe meeting with other Christians in small groups for Bible study, so that your roots are going deeper and broader, so that your branches will go wider and be more heavy with spiritual fruitfulness and character. What Paul is saying here, “I want you to be trees, not tumbleweeds.”
(35:31):
You ever seen a tumbleweed? In California, you saw them all the time. You see them a lot in Arizona and other states. This huge tumbleweed will grow, it’ll then turn brown, but the first strong wind that comes along will break its one single root that’s so brittle. And all of a sudden, these things will be tumbling like footballs all over the place. And Paul’s saying to them, “Look, you’re a tree, you’re not a tumbleweed. You’ve been established in Christ, now go deep.” Depth is important in the Christian life. Doctrine is important in the Christian life. Learning more about the Lord Jesus Christ is the secret to growing in Him.
(36:11):
But they were not only a pilgrim, they were not only a tree, they were a building. Let’s keep going in verse seven, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him.” Paul switches metaphors here. He loves to set metaphors side by side. And so, we move from the agricultural to the architectural. We move from roots and trees to buildings and foundations. There’s an old saying that the building can go no higher than the foundation is deep. Paul wants them to know that they have a sure foundation.
(36:49):
Over in 1 Corinthians 3:9, [inaudible 00:41:42] and he tells us, “There is no foundation that any man can lay except that which is Christ Jesus. Christ is our sure foundation. In Matthew 7, the Lord Jesus Christ likens His Word to a foundation of rock upon which a house is built. I think this metaphor is a metaphor that has us looking forward. Paul wants us to know that you and I can build our lives upon Christ because the foundation will not crumble, the foundation will not rot. The foundation will last for all eternity. He who led the foundation of this world is our foundation. How solid, my friend, is that? Our health will fail us. Our 401(k) will take us on a roller coaster ride. Friends will desert us. Someday, God’s going to fold up this old world like an old piece of cloth that’s get holes in it. But the foundation stands sure. Build your life on the foundation, it’s the only thing that is sure.
(42:53):
Don’t put your trust in uncertain riches. Don’t live for the moment, live for eternity, and build your life upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. During the Second World War as Germany was sweeping across Europe, the Island of Gibraltar fail to the Nazis. Before all communications were cut off, an American journalist sent out this message, Gibraltar has fallen, but the rock of ages still stands.” Paul is reminding them that indeed Christ is their rock.
(43:25):
We not only have the picture of a pilgrim and a tree and a building, we have the picture next of a merchant, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith. They had been bought by Christ. You see, the word established or confirmed is actually a commercial term and speaks about the receipt of confirmation of goods sold and purchased. Paul is telling them by means of this word that at their conversion a transaction took place. They were established in Christ. Christ took possession of that which He owns. So walk in Him as a pilgrim. Go deeper in Him as a tree. Build your life upon Him as a rock. And remember that He owns you, and therefore, surrender yourself to Him.
(44:20):
When Christ took possession of us, He took possession of that what He had purchased. This is in the passive voice, which means that this action of establishing was being done to them. They weren’t establishing themselves, they were established. They were confirmed in Christ by God. God took custody of them. Paul wants us to remember that, doesn’t he? In 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, he’s arguing about sexual purity. He says, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. You are not your own for you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your spirit and in your body.” Walk in him and remember that you’ve been purchased, you’re His. You and I need to yield our lives to him on a daily basis, bringing every thought into captivity, surrendering our desires and our dreams to His will.
(45:27):
I have a number of books that I own but I do not possess them. “How’s that?” you say. Well, I lent them to somebody and I haven’t seen them back. I own these books, but I’ve never read them, got no benefit from them. And although I own them, I don’t possess them because somebody else does. It seems to me that’s something you and I need to think through. God owns us, but the question is this morning, does He possess us? Or have we given ourselves to someone else or something else that keeps us from growing in Him? Paul says, “In the light of what God has done for you, in the light of His mercies, give your self, give your body as a living sacrifice to him.”
(46:14):
That’s what we need to do this morning. If we’re going to grow up in Him, if we’re going to develop our Christian character and pattern our Christian conduct in a way that pleases Him, it will begin with surrendering ourselves to Him. That’s not easy, that’s something we’ve got to do in a continual basis. We’ve got to every morning be like the old preacher who would throw back the bed clothes and say, “Lord, this bed is the altar, I’m the sacrifice. Take me, use me.” But that’s hard. John [inaudible 00:46:46] was right in his commentary in Romans 12 when he said, “The problem with living sacrifices is they want to crawl off the altar.” Isn’t that the truth? But we not only have a pilgrim and we have a tree and we have a building and a merchant, we have finally a river, a river, “Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
(47:15):
They were to continue to be established in Christ, rooted in Christ, and they were to be those who find their joy in Christ. The picture is of a river bursting its banks. That’s the word there, abounding. It’s also used of a flower that comes to full bloom. But we’ll run with the river analogy. This is the picture of a river bursting its banks. God’s action in the lives of the Colossians would evoke a overwhelming thanksgiving. If you studied this letter, it will surprise you to see how often the word thanks or thankfulness is used. Chapter one verse three, chapter one verse 12, chapter three verse 15, chapter three verse 17, chapter four verse two. I’ll let you do the discovery of that.
(48:08):
You see, Paul calls them to praise and worship. Before we’re done here in a few minutes, I want to show you how important that is. You mightn’t see the significance of worship, but you need to. It’s important that you and I praise God. We will not grow if we don’t praise Him. And if you don’t praise Him, you’re placing yourself open to spiritual danger. I want to tell you something, this is an interesting statement, I want you to write it down and think about it, an unhappy Christian is in a dangerous spiritual condition. Because remember, Paul’s writing here, the next verse will tell him, “I don’t want you to be cheated. I don’t want your eye to be wiped. I don’t want you to be robbed. I don’t want you to feel like someone in the back and beyond who sold an oil painting for five bucks and then learned it was worth 50,000. I don’t want you to surrender Christ.” And one of the ways that’ll help you not to do this is worship Him, understand His value, revel in His greatness, understand the treasure that He is.
(49:10):
And that’s what worship and praise does for us. When we worship God, when we praise God, we’re focused on His greatness, His magnificence. The heavens declare His glory. How big is that? When He forgives us, He casts our sins into the depths of the sea. How deep is that? God made everything from nothing. How mind-blowing is that? And as you and I continue to focus on Him, we see His true worth and His true value, and therefore, we won’t be as susceptible to the knockoff. That’s how prayers and worship is important.
(49:52):
You see, an ungrateful heart signals that you and I are no longer focused on the greatness of God. When you and I stop singing, when the song goes out of our heart like a bird that is flown away, you and I can be sure we have stopped meditating upon the glory and the greatness of God. Because when you’re focused on Him and what you are in the light of Him, there’s always something to give thanks for. When you’re focused upon what He did in His Son, it doesn’t matter what you don’t have materially when understand all the riches you have in Him spiritually. And when you and I stop looking to God and turn away from His greatness, we place ourselves in peril.
(50:39):
Thanklessness is a dangerous spiritual condition. Lack of appreciation leads to depreciation. You want to write that down, because that’s true for friendships, it’s true for marriages, it’s true for your love of God. Lack of appreciation will ultimately inevitably lead to depreciation. If you don’t appreciate who that person is, they’ll start to fall in your eyes. When we begin to take things for granted, we end up believing we have less than we have. And therefore, we open ourselves to the pursuit of something more that in the end turns out to be less than we had and forgot that we had. You see what I’m saying?
(51:29):
That’s why, by the way, this is interesting, the statistics are showing… Isn’t that the truth? But we not only have a pilgrim and we have a tree and we have a building and a merchant, we have finally a river, a river. “Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. They were to continue to be established in Christ, rooted in Christ, and they were to be those who find their joy in Christ. The picture is of a river bursting its banks. That’s the word there, abounding. It’s also used of a flower that comes to full bloom, but we’ll run with the river analogy. This is the picture of a river bursting its banks. God’s action in the lives of the Colossians with evoke a overwhelming thanksgiving. If you study this letter, it will surprise you to see how often the word thanks or thankfulness is used, chapter one verse three, chapter one verse 12, chapter three verse 15, chapter three verse 17, chapter four verse two. I’ll let you do the discovery of that.
(52:49):
You see, Paul calls them to praise and worship. Before we’re done here in a few minutes, I want to show you how important that is. You mightn’t see the significance of worship, but you need to. It’s important that you and I praise God. We will not grow if we don’t praise Him. And if you don’t praise Him, you’re placing yourself open to spiritual danger. I want to tell you something, this is an interesting statement, I want you to write it down and think about it, an unhappy Christian is in a dangerous spiritual condition. Because remember, Paul’s writing here, the next verse will tell him, “I don’t want you to be cheated. I don’t want your eye to be wiped. I don’t want you to be robbed. I don’t want you to feel like someone in the back and beyond who sold an oil painting for five bucks and then learned it was worth 50,000.” I don’t want you to surrender Christ. And one of the ways that’ll help you not to do this is worship Him, understand His value, revel in His greatness, understand the treasure that He is.
(53:52):
And that’s what worship and praise does for us. When we worship God, when we praise God, we’re focused on His greatness, His magnificence. The heavens declare His glory. How big is that? When He forgives us, He casts our sins into the depths of the sea. How deep is that? God made everything from nothing. How mind-blowing is that? And as you and I continue to focus on Him, we see His true worth and His true value, and therefore, we won’t be as susceptible to the knockoff. That’s how praise in worship is important.
(54:34):
You see, an ungrateful heart signals that you and I are no longer focused on the greatness of God. When you and I stop singing, when the song goes out of our heart like a bird that is flown away, you and I can be sure we have stopped meditating upon the glory and the greatness of God. Because when you’re focused on Him and what you are in the light of Him, there’s always something to give thanks for. When you’re focused upon what He did in His Son, it doesn’t matter what you don’t have materially when you understand all the riches you have in Him spiritually. And when you and I stop looking to God and turn away from His greatness, we place ourselves in peril. Thanklessness is a dangerous spiritual condition. Lack of appreciation leads to depreciation. You want to write that down, because that’s true for friendships, it’s true for marriages, it’s true for your love of God. Lack of appreciation will ultimately inevitably lead to depreciation. If you don’t appreciate who that person is, they’ll start to fall in your eyes.
(55:54):
When we begin to take things for granted, we end up believing we have less than we have. And therefore, we open ourselves to the pursuit of something more that in the end turns out to be less than we had and forgot that we had. You see what I’m saying? That’s why, by the way, this is interesting, the statistics are showing us that a growing number of divorcees who have remarried would say that if they to do it all over again, they would’ve stayed with the first partner. Isn’t that interesting? Because in most cases, it was a lack of appreciation that led to the depreciation. The grass looked greener somewhere else. Why? Because the weeds of ingratitude was growing on their side of the fence. The grass only looks greener on the other side of the fence when you don’t fertilize your own garden.
(56:49):
And it’s the same. Why would the Colossians fall for gnostic knockoff, that Christ is an emanation from God, that Christ is a creature, that Christ is only a blink in the chain of salvation? Why would they fall for that? They would only fall for that when they forget His greatness and His glory, when they forget He was the immortal, invisible God made visible, when they forget He’s the head of the church, when they forget He is the Redeemer of mankind. Lack of appreciation always leads to depreciation.
(57:23):
It’s a story of a farmer who lived on a small farm all his life, but it was a good farm. But with a passing of years, the farmer began to become tired of it and bored of it. He longed for a change, he longed for something better. And so, every day he’d find a new reason for criticizing some feature in the old homestead. Finally, he decided to sell the farm, and so he listed it with a real estate broker who promptly prepared a sales advertisement for it. He noted the farm’s advantages, its ideal location, its modern equipment, its healthy stock, it’s acres of fertile ground. And before he put that in the realty magazine, he called the old boy up and said, “You know what? I want you to listen as I read this to you, this is the advertisement.” And so, he read off all the advantages of that farm to the old boy. And when he was done, he said, “Can I print this?” And the old man said, “No, you can’t.” He said, “Hold the presses.” He says, “You know what? As I think about this, I’ve been looking for a place just like that all my life.”
(58:27):
Huh? You get the point? It’s exactly Paul’s point, abound in thanksgiving. Why would you sell Jesus Christ for something else? Is He not what you’ve wanted all your life? Is He not enough? Of course, He is. He’s the fullness of God in bodily form, and He completes every one of us. Walk in Him, root yourself in Him, be established in Him, build yourself up in Him, and enjoy Him today in all the fullness of His love and His grace and His peace.