Two Journeys

Every day, our invisible God spreads a lavish banquet for our five senses. Every day He does that. The invisible God and the created world lays out a lavish feast. The pleasures of sight. I have seen, driving across this country, unforgettable scenes of beauty. I remember driving across South Dakota and seeing the rolling grasslands there as far as the eye could see, undulating hills covered with grass that was just swaying back and forth in a breeze as though it were an ocean. I'd never seen anything like that before, never anything so large. And continuing on in Montana, they call it "the big sky country," and I saw the big sky there, and a valley as far as the eye could see, and an electrical storm, and lightning flashing from one side and going all the way to the other side of the sky, just like Jesus mentions will be at the time of His second coming, but I saw it there. Unforgettable. And I've also seen a sunset over the Grand Canyon. The purples, and reds, and oranges, and way down below, a silver thread, the Colorado River, glistening in the last light of the day. I've seen that, too. Last week, nothing so grand and dramatic, but I saw my daughter Daphne with a look of joy on her face run across the lawn to greet me home. And that was a feast for my eyes, and probably more special than the others. I've seen these things, and it was God that's laid out that feast for my eyes. And how also for the ears. This morning, we've listened to beautiful music. Hard for me to preach after that last song. You know, I just pull myself together, but the beauty of the music, I've heard that. I've heard Handel's Messiah done skillfully at the Duke Chapel, and just the soaring sounds united with Scripture verses pointing to Christ and how beautiful that was. I've heard what I considered to be a three-dimensional sound. I remember, I used to go camping with my father, Tuckerman's Ravine up in Mount Washington, it's a deep bowl carved by some glacier some time ago. And this wind would blow across, it was like 1:00 in the morning, and it sounded, like I said, a three-dimensional sound, a deep blowing of the wind through that bowl. It was a feast for my ears, and God laid it out.

Now how about the pleasures of taste? A couple of weeks ago, we were talking about honey and how God in Proverbs commands that we should eat honey because it's good, it tastes good. And it was God that made it taste good. And I'm not going to go on much about food right now because it will hinder the preaching. But God lays out feasts of flavors. The world is full of them, and He made it that way right from the very beginning, when He didn't just put one fruit tree that they could eat from but a whole array of them in the Garden of Eden, all different kinds of pleasures of taste. And then the pleasures of smell. Or shall we say more delicately, "fragrance." The delicacy, let's say, of spring flowers, or this time of year, when you walk through the woods and there's that musty fall smell, you know? As you hear the crunch of the leaves under your feet in the woods and you can just smell, it's just a fall aroma, and it's beautiful to me. Or the smell of a baby that has been bathed and smells of that gentle fragrance that babies do when they're so clean, and oh, it's a beautiful thing. And how about the sensations of feel? I remember buying a bolt of silk for Christie when I was in Pakistan, and I remember feeling it, it was so shimmery and so smooth. And then, the rougher feeling of leather, or of a tree trunk on one end, or finely polished furniture on the other.

All of these sensations are part of the sensory world that God has put around us, and God made them. All of them. And He made them good, He declared that they were good. We live in a physical world, and He desires to give us pleasure through these senses. And this world proclaims the greatness of the invisible God that made all of those things. And we as Christians are uniquely able to trace those physical sensations back to the God, the invisible God, who made them, and say, "This is what my God is like. This is how great He is, how good He is, how loving, how wise." We are able to do that. Now, according to the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1,” it is the doctrine of demons to deny the goodness of the physical world that we live in, the doctrine of demons to deny it.” To treat the physical body with its five senses as though it were intrinsically evil and something we had to get away from in order to be saved. It's a doctrine of demons.

In his classic allegory in the Christian battle for salvation, the holy war, John Bunyan likens the human soul to a city, a walled city, which he calls "Man-soul." And he says, "Man-soul has five gates, five gates by which things can enter: An ear gate, eye gate, mouth gate, nose gate, and feel gate." These are the five senses. Now, Satan has marshalled his wicked attack on our souls through those gates. But it is foolishness for us to brick over the gates, brick them up so that nothing evil can enter in. That is the doctrine of demons, and that is not the approach to healthy living in this physical universe.

But neither is it the approach to tear down the wall entirely so that there is no protection whatsoever and any and everything can come into the soul. But that's not right either because it says in Proverbs 25:28, "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control." In other words, if you lack self-control, you're like a city that has no walls at all, anything can get at you. Therefore, in our holy war, what Bunyan calls "our holy war," we are constantly tempted to go to one extreme or the other, either to brick up the five gates through extreme asceticism, or to tear down all the walls through gluttony. By that, I don't just mean eating, but I mean just glutting on sensory life. Martin Luther likened the constant struggle that the people of the world have with sin to a drunken peasant trying to ride on a donkey, and he leans too far one side and falls down on the mud, and remembering that, gets up and leans too far the other side and falls down on the other side. And so we constantly are struggling for balance in the Christian life.

On September 15th of this year, I was reading about a 30-year-old man in China, Guangzhou, China, who died in a cyber café after a three-day gaming binge. He spent over 80 hours playing online computer games and dropped dead at the end of it. Now here is a man that found something that he liked, something he loved, he couldn't control it anymore, it controlled him and it killed him. On the other end of the spectrum, back in 1999, there was an interesting New Age movement led by a former Australian business woman named Ellen Greve. She changed her name to Jasmuheen, and she had a kind of a spiritual cleansing program involving extreme fasting. And a young woman named Verity Linn died from fasting too much. And so you have the other extreme, thinking that she could be purged from all the pollutants of the world, she went to extreme fasting and it killed her. So you almost get a picture of a third rail, a live rail, on either side and there's death either way. Extreme asceticism or extreme indulgence, either way, it can kill you.

So we need some wisdom from God, don't we, on this? In Ecclesiastes 7, a book of wisdom, says this, "Do not be over-righteous, neither be over-wise. Why destroy yourself? Do not be over-wicked and do not be a fool. Why die before your time? It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes." So there's some wisdom from God. Now, we're not pressing that the details of the word "over-righteous" and all, basically, it's don't go to extremes when it comes to the matters of spiritual discipline on the one side or indulgence of the good things of life on the other. If you fear God, if you know Him, you're going to avoid those extremes. The Bible alone therefore teaches the proper balance in the use of physical pleasures: Of food, of drink, of clothing, of entertainment. Now, the balance is extremely difficult to achieve, because John Piper says the human heart is like a desire factory, it's always cranking out desires. He writes in his book, Future Grace, "The human heart produces desires as fire produces heat. As surely as the sparks fly upward, the heart pumps out desire after desire for a happier future. The state of the heart therefore is shown by the things that satisfy its desires." In other words, you want to know the state of your heart? What is it you want? What do you go after? What are you looking for? What makes you happy? And so your desires actually perform a certain kind of diagnostic on the state of your soul. So this is a very important issue as we come to the end of Colossians chapter 2 and try to understand a balanced life in a physical world that we live in. Now let's get our bearings in Colossians. The problem in the Colossian church is that they are facing the onslaught of some heretical teaching and so Paul takes up pen to write to a church that he'd never visited, he didn't know them, he hadn't planted the church.

Christ is Complete, We are Complete in Him

And so he wants to write to protect them from false doctrine. And the way that you protect people from false doctrine is by true, pure orthodox doctrine, right teaching. And he starts in Colossians 1 by a beautiful focus on the person of Jesus Christ. "He is the image of the invisible God,” He is “the first-born over all creation.” The physical stuff was made by Jesus. And in Him, it was created, and in Him, it all holds together, the greatness of Christ, the foundation of all healthy Christian doctrine. And then he links it to them, in effect, he says, "Because Christ is complete, you are complete in Him. In Christ", he says in Colossians 2, "all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ." Oh, you ought to delight in that fullness if you're a Christian. It's a gift to you, to be a full person in Christ. And it's based on His deity in human form. And therefore, some Gospel truths just flow out of this and they're so refreshing to us. We are full in Christ, we have been fully circumcised spiritually. We are fully alive. Once we were dead, now we are fully alive, and we will live forever and ever. We are fully forgiven. He forgave us all our sins, the delight of that word, "all." Fully forgiven. We are fully free from the law and its condemning power. It has no power to condemn our souls. We're free from that, and we're fully triumphant over Satan and all of his minions.

We are free, we are full in Christ, but then Satan comes with his intimidating voice, with false doctrine, and tells us that we are somehow incomplete. We're somehow empty despite all of that. And so we have to have some additions. We need to add philosophy, human wisdom and insights. We need to add legalism, human religious works. We need to add mysticism, those human religious experiences. And in this section, we need to add asceticism, human religious self-denial. Now we've already seen a rejection of human philosophy, look at verse 8 of chapter 2, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." So that's rejected. We've seen the intimidation of legalism in verses 16 and 17, he says, "Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festival, the new moon, celebration, or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality is found in Christ." So we're free from that legalistic lifestyle. Last time, we looked at mysticism, the worship of angels. And these false teachers, it seems, were teaching that these angelic beings, these emanations, spiritual emanations, were there to be spirit guides to you to lead you out of your physical, miry kind of physical experience, and get up into the spiritual realms with them. And Christ is one of those emanations, so they taught. And all of this is rejected, this bad mysticism, in verse 18 and 19, it says, "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels and going on in great detail about visions, puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from God." Those are the intimidations we've already looked at, we've looked at those dangerous elements.

The fourth and final one is this issue of asceticism. Look at verses 22, 23 again. "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, but they're self-imposed worship, false humility in their harsh treatment of the body but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence."

Colossian Heresy: The Evil of the Body Addressed by Asceticism

The Colossian heresy at its core taught that the body is evil, the evil of the body. And here, it seems that that evil is addressed by asceticism, by a harsh treatment of the body, by self-denial in an extreme sense. Now, Paul mentions here the basic principles of the world, the Greek is interesting, "stoicheia," from which we get an English word which means to, "Stoichiometry," to break apart the compounds of a chemical or the elements of a chemical compound, find out what's in there. You get the idea in the Greek word of something in a line like alphabetical order, basic building blocks of the world. Here, it's speaking, I think, of ideas and concepts, "Why, as though you still belong to the world, do you submit to these basic rules and regulations of philosophy and religion? You're past all that, you've grown up." These basic principles, I think, at least included some elements of Jewish ceremonial law and legalism and all that, but other things as well. And he uses a strong word here, "why do you submit to these rules?", "dogmatismo," from which we get dogmatic, "why are you being dogmatised by this? These teachers are coming in and putting some dogma over you, and they're telling you what you must do in order to be saved. These regulations are not coming from Christ." And it's interesting, what he says, "Why, as though you still belong to the world, do you submit to it?" Isn't that interesting? What does that imply about us? We don't really belong to this world. Jesus Himself said that. He said, "They are not of the world any more than I am of the world." We are supernatural beings. We are miracles of grace! We have been resurrected from spiritual death, and we will never die. There's been a permanent separation in some sense between us and this worldly system, not the physical world I was describing at the beginning of the message, but the world system with all of these kind of rules and regulations. We don't still belong to that; we died to all that. We are supernatural. And therefore we can look at the body and life in the body the way God does, we have the mind of Christ. We can stand above it and and look down and say, "What is my life in this body and in this world supposed is to be about? How am I to spend my time? How am I to live?" We have graduated, friends. We're not going back to elementary school and to these elementary principles; we will spend eternity in the presence of God. Now, as we've already sung about and thought about this morning, we will spend eternity in a physical body. We will be in our flesh and we will see God. We will walk on a new Earth and we will see with our own eyes, our Savior. And He will still be in the same resurrection body in which He appeared to His disciples in that upper room. And you remember how He spoke of that in terms of His physical presence. That same physical body that Christ had is a pattern for our resurrection bodies as well. We are not heading towards some kind of ethereal, out-of-body experience, so therefore we can experience life and think about our lives here on Earth, the remainder of our lives here on Earth, in Christ-like spiritual terms. We have the mind of Christ. We've grown up. That's what he's saying.

Now, the Colossian heretics were teaching freedom from bodily drives by asceticism. "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch," these rules and regulations. Paul says that these rules are destined to “perish with use,” why? Because they're not part of God's new order. They're not coming from God, so they're wrapped up in this world system, and this world system and all of its ways are passing away. They will perish. They're on their way out. They seem wise, they seem holy, these people seem to have an aura about them. They're a holy people, you can barely touch them. They haven't eaten in weeks. And you can't carry their shoes. They just seem to have an aura about them. There's an appearance of wisdom, but the reality is very different. At the core, there is pride. And apparently, based on verse 23, at the core, there's still lust. It's still there. It's not been slain, because these rules lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. 

Definition of Asceticism

Now what is asceticism? What do we mean by that? Well, it's a harsh treatment of the body for spiritual reasons, specifically the denial of God's good gifts like food, clothing, and shelter, in the assumption that such prolonged self-denial will make you increasingly pleasing to God. Now as I've said, intrinsic to the Colossian heresy is the idea that the body is evil, and so therefore, any time you didn't eat, or drink, or sleep, or do anything that was comforting to the body, you are somehow a little bit holier as a result. Now look at the statements in verse 21, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch." Verse 23, "The regulations have an appearance of wisdom with their," listen, "self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body."

 Asceticism’s Long History

Now this has been going on a long time, asceticism. Pretty much every world religion has its ascetics. Every world religion has its people that go into extreme self-denial, and seem to float above the rest of humanity as a result. Certainly Hinduism has those that sit in the lotus position, and meditate, and just don't eat for extended periods of time. Buddhism seeks to achieve enlightenment in similar manner. Even Christianity has had its share, some of it led by God, obviously Moses had a 40-day fast on the top of the mountain. Jesus himself fasted for 40 days. John the Baptist lived out in the desert and wore camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts, but he also had that honey, alright?  So the honey will sweeten the locusts, alright? It's all about the recipe, how to put it together, I guess. But clearly, here is a man who is not living for the stomach. Elijah lived in the desert with little bits of food that ravens brought, again, not a man living to eat. But in the same pattern afterwards, after the New Testament era, Christian monks started to desire to live the ascetic life. And this is especially true in history after the Roman persecutions died down, but there was still a vivid memory of them. And the position of a martyr was held to be in great honor. If you could go out of this world as a martyr, having shed your blood for Christ, they wanted that. They wanted to be warrior for Christ, but now that was gone. So they turned to the desert, they turned to the cave, they turned to extreme fasting, if they could somehow mortify the flesh in that way and become perhaps a spiritual martyr, bloodless martyr, and in this way, attain Heaven. And so, they would take to extreme treatment of the body. And all of this was self-imposed.

 Athanasius wrote of Anthony, who is the founder of Western monasticism, who never changed his shirt or washed his feet. And then there's Simeon Stylites, who's pictured on the cover of the bulletin, you wondered who that man is sitting on the pillar, sitting cross-legged while, I don't know what's going on behind him, I didn't draw the picture, but it looks like the world is burning, and he's got his back to it, and he's meditating up on his pillar. Now, Simeon was born in 390 AD at Cilicia in modern-day Syria. He was a devout person, he taught the only way that you could achieve true happiness was through prayer and fasting. Much of his life therefore is spent in those pursuits. But then he started practicing other forms of extreme self-denial. After spending years in monasteries, he began a regimen of discipline so harsh it almost killed him. He ate once a week, he used to lash his body around with cords and pulled them so tight that they would cause the skin to bleed. And frankly, after he was healed from that, those wounds, the abbot of the monastery ordered him to leave. He thought he was sick in his approach, and so he ordered him to leave, and I think he was ready to leave at that point, he wanted to be alone anyway. And so he went out in the desert, he was in a cave for a while, he was on a mountain top, he literally chained himself to the top of a mountain to keep from roaming or wandering. But then he had an insight, and he discovered that he didn't need the chain; all he needed was a strong self-will. So he went to another place and just with his strong self-will, carrying on the same practice as well. A man like that out in the desert is attractive to some kinds of people. And so they went out to listen to him preach. And it seems he didn't like that too much, so after a little while, he put himself up in a 12-foot high pillar. I don't think that the devotees took that personally because they kept coming. But he's trying to get away from them, and he's there for four years, and after a while, he builds a higher pillar, and then an ever higher one, and a higher one. At the end of his life, he's on a 60-foot high pillar. And friends, not ravens, but friends, would bring him little amounts of food and he'd pull it up in a bucket, and that's how he spent his life. That's extreme asceticism. 

It wasn't just him, Martin Luther went through similar things in the days before his conversion, sleeping without a blanket on the floor of the cell in the Augustinian monastery, where he was. George Whitfield, a couple centuries later. He was part of the holy club that eventually lead into Methodism, John and Charles Wesley and all that. And a number of those folks really gave themselves over to extreme fasting and other things like that. And they will all testify, this is before any of them really understood the Gospel, before they understood evangelical Gospel. And Whitfield, it got so bad that one of his hands turned black. He spent the whole night out in a winter storm without any covering at all. By the end of that whole period of his life, he was so emaciated, he couldn't get upstairs; he had to crawl upstairs. He almost killed himself. Extreme asceticism.

 Now all of this comes, I think, from the belief that extreme asceticism will subdue the flesh and make the person somehow more acceptable to God, and the idea that the physical body is somehow intrinsically evil. Even worse than all this is the forbidding of marriage to the clergy, I think, of the Roman Catholic church, they're linking "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch," and then Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, "It is good for a man not to touch a woman." And so they looked on procreation, marital relations, as intrinsically evil as well. The Roman Catholic Church enforced clerical celibacy at the Council of Elvira, basically all of their clergy had to abstain from marital intercourse, had to abstain from marriage itself. And again, I think, fundamental to this doctrine is a tinge of a Colossian heresy and a distaste for the body. Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, and that became their Bible until the Reformation, the Latin Vulgate is the Bible of the West, he was probably the leading teacher of the essential uncleanness of marital relations. And he wrote this, "Let us turn back to the chief point of the evidence. It is good", he says, "for a man not to touch a woman. If it is good not to touch a woman, then it is bad to touch one. For there is no opposite to goodness but badness. But if it'd be bad and the evil is pardoned, then the reason for the concession is to prevent worse evil. The truth is that in view of the purity of the Body of Christ, all sexual intercourse is unclean." And he said this, "He who loves his wife too ardently is an adulterer." Well, does that seem skewed to you? Does that seem off to you? And even in the 1 Timothy 4 passage, he talks about those who forbid marriage. And that's what happened in the Catholic Church.

Now Martin Luther was delightfully able to cut through all this nonsense long after his conversion and after his role as a leader in the Reformation. He didn't want to get married because he thought he was going to get martyred at any moment, but finally, he aided in the escape of 12 nuns from a convent, they were in barrels on the back of cart, I think that's just a.great image from church history. But there are all these women in barrels in a merchant taking them through the gates. And he committed himself, Luther did, to getting a husband for each of these women until finally there were just two left, one of whom was Katie Von Bora. And all his friends are pressing on him, and finally he ends up marrying her, shocking everyone, especially the pope. And I think that was part of what he was intending.

Actually, Roland Bainton said that, he just wanted to annoy the pope and the devil. And so he married her for that reason. He turned his back on his monastic vow, she turned her back on hers, and they got married and had a wonderful family. He said, "It's a strange thing to wake up with pigtails on the pillow next to you." And so, it was just a whole different kind of life. And after him, most Protestants had at least a healthy view and an esteem for marriage as a good gift of God. But still the Christian church has dealt with this. 

Asceticism’s Great Danger

Now what are the dangers of asceticism? Well, first of all, it's grounded in a false understanding that the material world is intrinsically evil. Furthermore, it misunderstands salvation, as though Jesus' blood shed on the cross is not enough for us. We have to add our own suffering somehow. It produces pride. Paul mentions, the NIV has it, I think, false humility. This really does produce pride. "If you're not doing what I'm doing, you're of a lower order of Christian than I am." It also calls the good gifts of God bad. Listen to that 1 Timothy 4 passage that I've mentioned. Listen to this, 1 Timothy 4:1 through five: "The Spirit clearly says that in later time some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons, doctrines of demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." Listen, "For everything God created is good." Do you hear that? "Everything God created is good. And nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the Word of God in prayer." And 1 Timothy 6:17 says, "God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." Food is a good gift of God, and it is to be received with thanksgiving. Marriage is a good gift of God, and it is to be received with thanksgiving. Sensual pleasure, whether beautiful sights of spectacular fall foliage, or the sound of a baby cooing, or the aromas coming from the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, or the feeling of a warm jacket on a cool, crisp fall afternoon, all of those things are good gifts of God and they are to be received with thanksgiving, every one of them. Pleasure itself is a good gift of God, and it is to be received with thanksgiving. Satan is not the god of pleasure; Satan is the god of hatred. And he hates it when we feel pleasure. He's willing to trade a little pleasure at the beginning of a sin habit in order to get you hooked, but he wants to get you off that pleasure as soon as possible. It is God who says, "In My presence is the fullness of joy and pleasures forever more at My right hand." That's where we're heading, friends. We are heading toward eternal pleasure in the presence of God. And finally, asceticism just doesn't work, friends. It lacks any value in restraining sensual indulgence, they burn with lust just as much out in the desert as they do in a brothel. But let's be honest now, shall we? Are you tempted to become an ascetic? Oh, come on now, be honest. Have you been wrestling with this? Do you know any ascetics? I don't mean from church history, now; I mean, do you personally know anyone living like this? 

Asceticism vs. Gluttony: Balance Found in Christ

Let's talk about other third rail, shall we? Gluttony. Oh, no, pastor, now you're meddling. Okay. Well, the Word of God is delightful happy to do that. I'm not meddling; I'm under the Word just like you are. We are surrounded, I believe this is a true statement. No generation in the history of the Christian church has been surrounded by so many lawful pleasures as a distraction to the kingdom work than we are. That's what we're facing. We're facing a river, an avalanche of blessing from God, and we can't have them all. They are not all good all the time for us as we glut on them. We live in an age and a culture where people specialize in finding things that people like and dripping them down in a distillery until they are 200-proof and then pouring it down our souls, whatever it might be. Take music, for example. Before recorded music, you had to go some place where musicians were playing, or you play an instrument yourself. But then Edison discovered the wax cylinders and the ability to record sound. Somebody actually said it's the most original invention in history. No one was working on capturing sound, no one ever thought it could be done, but he did it. The first sounds ever recorded were the lyrics to a song, Mary Had a Little Lamb. It was the number one hit because it was the only song there was at the time. That's all there was. That was the first one. Shortly thereafter went the flatter disks, and recorded music came in. Along with it, Marconi invented the radio, and pretty soon you were able to listen to music any time, if you have one of those huge piece of furniture radios that they had way back when. And that was the problem, you had to listen to it there and you didn't get to choose the music, but you could listen to it in that way. But it wasn't long after that that the transistor radio came, and you were able to carry around the transistor radio and listen to music anywhere you wanted. You didn't have to plug in, you could listen to it. But you still couldn't choose the music; the disk jockey chose it for you, although there were call-in shows. Alright? But then came the Walkman, and you could put cassette tape in and you could listen to your song of your choice wherever you wanted as much as you wanted. But that's troublesome because you have to have all this cassettes with you. Now what do we have? We have the iPod. And we have websites where you can go and download your favorite songs or song, and listen to it 600 times in a row if you want to glut yourself on it like that. You can kill it for yourself. You can kill yourself with it!  You can glut yourself on your favorite songs all the time. And they're tiny, too, just clip on them and there it is. And it's not just music; try spectator sports. With ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, that's four, and they've got competitors. And so if you've got the money and the time 24/7, you can glut on spector sports. As soon as one season ends, I've noticed, another begins.

It just keeps on rolling. And you could spend your life that way. Should you? Should I spend my life like that? Under some drip that somebody is dripping down into my soul, distilling out pleasure in that way? And then there's food. America struggles with gluttony, with obesity. We struggle with it. We have a hard time knowing when to say “enough,” to push away from the table. Even Baptists struggle with this. That right there is rhetorical technique. You can go find out what it is, but I don't know what it is, but even Baptists struggle with eating too much, too much of a good thing. And then all of these points to the need for self-control. God told us, "Eat honey, for it is good," but He also said, "Don't eat too much or you'll vomit." Paul says, "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything."

Praise God for your Fullness in Christ

Now how do we find the balance between asceticism and gluttony? The balance is found in the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ gave Himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We don't know how to navigate to Heaven. We don't know how to get there. We are the drunken peasant falling off, trying to find the balance. Instead the Gospel is this, that Jesus lived the only perfectly balanced life there ever has been. The only perfectly balanced, and His righteousness can be yours as a gift. I prayed that today someone would be here who had not yet trusted in Christ. This is your moment, if you're that person. Look to Christ, the One who shed His blood on the cross. Trust in Him, not in your own works. Because you can't figure this out. You'll go too far one way or too far the other, you'll not be able to figure it out. Let God give it to you as a gift through faith in Christ. But if you've already come to Christ, then let's begin here, celebrate your fullness in Christ. You are full in Christ, you don't need to glut yourself on anything. Neither do you need to prove yourself by becoming a spiritual athlete. You're already acceptable in Christ. Celebrate that. And be on your guard against these dangers: Philosophy, legalism, mysticism, asceticism, they're still around. I do not say to you that they are the only threats to the Gospel. But they are four that Paul deals with here. Already we've mentioned gluttony as another threat to the Gospel, and so it is.

Be Satisfied in God more than Earthly Pleasures

But concerning the pleasures of this world, enjoy them, as God leads. Enjoy them in the path of His commands. Marital relations is good because they are marital relations, not outside the boundaries that God has set. Food is good. When the stomach is full, stop. And by the way, I've noticed a lag time, you still feel hungry and you're still eating, slow down, then. We don't need to overeat. There's some practical wisdom here. Celebrate your life in a physical body. You are going to be given a body that will last forever and ever. The body is good, celebrate it. But this body is not purely good; it's called the "body of death." Therefore, you have to be a bit careful with it. Paul says, "I beat my body and make it my slave.” I can't just give into whatever drive I have, I have to be careful. And therefore, a fruit of the Spirit needs to be, and is, self-control, so that I'm not like “a city with walls broken down.”

Practice Fasting without Embracing Asceticism

And be willing to give up pleasing food and pleasing experiences for the service of the Lord. We could start just with fasting and prayer. It is a good thing to fast; it is a bad thing to become an extreme ascetic. But fasting itself is a good thing. To give up eating for a day so that you can dedicate yourself to prayer. Even better to give up a comfortable lifestyle here in the West and go to some unreached people group. And reach them with the Gospel, knowing full well your standard of living will go down. The food you eat will not be as appealing to you, you'll never have such-and-such experience again, you'll never see the physical beauty of the land like America. You're purposely going to some place were most people don't want to live. And you're going there, and you'll just have to remember the physical beauty you've seen and look ahead to the new Heaven and new Earth, but you're here to minister to those who need to hear the Gospel. You're willing to give up on comfort and pleasure for the sake of the Lord. But when you fast, put oil on your head, wash your face and pray to your Father unseen. And Father sees what is done in secret, He'll reward you. Don't parade the sacrifices you're making. Don't become arrogant or prideful. Your righteousness is Christ, and Christ alone. Close with me in prayer.

I have learned, over the last five years especially, of the poignancy of this statement, that there are two great forces in the Universe, the drives of the Universe. The drive of God to be glorified in His creation and the drive that each human being has to be happy, to experience pleasure, to be joyful. These are things that are incontrovertible, we can't deny them, we become sick if we try to, and one of the key issues in your life is where are you going to meet your drive for pleasure? Are you going to find it in the person, in the presence, in the power of Almighty God and Jesus Christ, or are you going to find it in other things, created things. I think that's one of the key issues of your soul and mine. God created us for pleasure. He made us for that, and he created both in the soul and in the body something you could call pleasure receptors. The body has the ability to sense physical things by sight and sound and taste and smell and feel. We can experience the world around us. And in a set of those experiences, we find pleasure, sensory pleasure, and God made it that way, it's not an evil thing. The soul also has the ability to experience spiritual pleasure, and God made it that way. It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing. Both of those things are created by God. Look at the tongue, for example. Actually, don't look at it, but just metaphorically look at it, or shall I say, consider the tongue. Your tongue has over 10,000 taste buds and different ones are assigned with different tasks for sensing the countless flavors that God has made in this physical creation. Some of them you count pleasing to you, and some of them don't. But God created them all and He created the whole interchange between the taste and the tongue.

And it's fascinating, and all of the practical advice given in the Book of Proverbs, it's amazing that He actually commands that we should eat honey. Isn't that an interesting thing? You find this in Proverbs 24:13, "Eat honey, my son, for it is good." I mean, that's a sweet command, isn't it? Now, I think we have a sense that honey in that verse represents more than just honey. And even if we don't personally have a taste for honey, we can still obey the verse, right? The Book of Proverbs gives us representational, practical wisdom, that we, through the wisdom of God, through the Holy Spirit, we can apply to different areas of life, so even if you don't like honey, you still can "Eat honey, my son, for it is good". I think it has to do with experiencing pleasure in the physical world that God has made, that you can taste and see that the world that God has made is good. And that you ought to do it. You ought to eat, you ought to taste and see that it's good. But it's not the only advice that the Book of Proverbs gives concerning honey, you actually have to read on and get the full picture. In Proverbs 25:16, it says, "If you find honey, eat just enough. Too much of it, and you will vomit." That's again very good, practical advice. And herein, we find a challenge in dealing with physical pleasure in the world. We're supposed to eat honey, apparently, because it tastes good, but we're supposed not to eat so much that we vomit, for that is clearly not good, and so this urges balance. It urges self control in the area of physical pleasure.

And so as you're driving along the road in the physical world, as you have a physical experience with your physical body, you're going to find two ditches on the opposite side of the road, one on the left and one on the right. And on one side, there is asceticism, what I would call a hard asceticism, which teaches that we must deny these physical pleasures and not partake in them for they will do damage to us and that salvation consists in getting away from physical, sensory pleasure. That was the lie that the Colossian heretics were teaching to the people in that area. And Paul was specifically warning against it in this text, but on the other side is another ditch called gluttony. And I don't just mean overeating, but I just mean overindulging in physical pleasure in this world in a way that will damage your soul.

Those are ditches on each side. Now, in the same way, the soul has pleasure receptors. And we have the ability to receive spiritual sensations of pleasure by spiritual truths and realities. And God made the soul that way. And frankly, I think the one is to help teach the other. "Taste and see that the Lord is good," says the Scripture. Well, we can't taste God literally, but we know that by eating things that are delicious to us, that God, in a similar way, in a spiritual way, is delicious to the soul. And so often, there's that analogy of eating or drinking with God, Jesus even said to eat my flesh and drink my blood. And so there's this sense of really partaking in the goodness and sweetness of God spiritually, and that's a good thing. This ability of the soul to experience spiritual pleasure and to delight in it is a good thing created by God. But it's got its dangers too, because not every spiritual influence is a good one, and there are some damaging, dangerous, spiritual influences. Satan is a spiritual influence, and sometimes he disguises himself like an angel of light. And people seeking for spiritual pleasure through meditation, and through self-denial, and through other things, seeking the spiritual pleasures may actually be opening themselves up to Satan's influences, as he presents himself as an angel of light and they expose themselves to great danger. This is what I would call bad mysticism. And we see both of these things in the text today. Paul is warning about both asceticism and mysticism, because he's concerned about spiritual health. And the connectings, I've meditated on these two, the connection has to do with pleasure. And the right way to experience it, and the wrong way to experience it, both physically and spiritually, that's what the text is about. And we find wisdom for all of these things in Christ. Amen? And in Christ, we will avoid the ditches.

 In Christ, we will avoid the danger. And there are ditches on both sides of the spiritual pleasure as well. There is the ditch of not knowing that Satan comes as an angel of light and you get into bad spiritual experiences that leads you in great danger. But on the other side, there is spiritual deadness, a deadness and dryness of soul in which you really don't expect to feel any spiritual pleasure at all, haven't felt it for years. Oh, that we might be delivered from these extremes in the Christian life. And I think it's only by the ministry of the Word of God, by the application of the word through the spirit, by heeding the warnings that the Apostle Paul gives that we will be kept safe, and we'll be able to continue to grow as a community in our sanctification.

Review: The Supremacy of Christ

So let's look more carefully at the rest of this Colossians 2. But I want to do it, as usual, with, I think, a good sense of the context of the passages that we're looking at today, the verses we're looking at. First, in Colossians 1, by way of review, Paul goes through and goes, I think, right to the theological center of what these Colossian heretics, these false teachers were teaching in that region. We don't know for sure that they had come to the church at Colossae, but maybe Epaphras had come there and was saying they're coming, "Paul what do I do and how can I get ready?" Etcetera. And so, they were teaching that the physical world is evil, that the body itself is part of the problem spiritually. And that salvation comes from denying bodily drives, denying physical pleasures, and you do this by means of a mixture of legalism, of Jewish laws, rules and regulations, and a harsh treatment of the body. And spiritually, you are on a journey in which these spiritual emanations, these spirit guides could help you by giving you inside and specialized knowledge. And so you sought to open yourself up to these spiritual influences and Christ is one of those emanations, so they taught. Well, that's heresy, and so in order to get it, he says, "Let's focus on Jesus Christ, all heresies go wrong on Christ." So let's go right on Christ, let's find out who Christ is, and then we will find healing and that, it's healing through doctrine. And so he says now, "Who is Christ?" Well, “Christ is the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn over all creation, for by Him, all things were made, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.” You see, both the physical world that we're dealing with in this text was made by Christ, so it's not evil. And the spiritual world was made by Christ and He rules over it, “he's the head over every dominion and power.” So all things are found in Christ. And then in chapter two, as he moves over into chapter two, he says, "God was pleased, God the Father, was pleased to have all of His fullness, His deity, to dwell in Jesus in bodily form,” the doctrine of the incarnation.

 Christ is Complete, We Are Complete in Him

The “Word became flesh,”  Jesus took on a human body, and “God was pleased to have all of His fullness, the infinitude of the immortal God, the invisible God made flesh, made man. And you have been given fullness in Christ.” Oh, how sweet is that truth, and we spent some wonderful time meditating on that. And so much healing comes from that, and strength comes from meditating on how complete am I in Christ, how full am I in Jesus now that I have become a Christian. Tell me how complete and how full I am, and Colossians 2 will do it. It will tell you right there that you have been given fullness in Christ. And then it unfolds in the middle of Colossians 2, saying we have been fully circumcised, spiritually. The old nature was cut away. We are new people. We are new men and women. We are new creations. “The old is gone, the new has come,” He says in 2 Corinthians 5. We are also fully alive. We're brought from death to life and we can never die. Death has no mastery over us. We will live forever and we are fully forgiven. He forgave us all our sins. He nailed them to the cross, not partially forgiven, friends, but completely forgiven. And we are fully free from the law. We're not under the law's dominion any longer. We don't have a bunch of rules and regulations that we have to keep in order to be right with God. We're free from that. And we are fully triumphant over Satan. The powers and principalities and their authority to condemn us, really, on judgment day was nailed to the cross, and it will trouble us no longer. How sweet is that? That's your fullness in Christ and from that solid ground of doctrine, from that solid ground of biblical truth, you are able to fight any heresy. But this was a unique heresy and along comes Satan's intimidating voice, saying, "It's not true, you're actually incomplete. Maybe halfway there but we need to supplement the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, not enough. What Jesus did on the cross is not enough for you, you have to have more. You need philosophy. You need to have new insights coming from human wisdom and you need legalism. You need to be made right before God by your own or be kept right by your own efforts and your own law-keeping, really.” And in this text, we're going to see you need to add mysticism, the worship of angels. You know, the secret encounters with spiritual beings that will lead you to the ever-ascending realms of insight and illumination, you need that, and you need to add asceticism, you're not going to fly spiritually if you're nailed down by your body. So let's deny the bodily drives, let's eat as little as possible. Let's deny any kind of sensory things and let's focus on the spirit, that's what they taught. And it sounded right. It sounded good. It seemed to establish Christ as having died on the cross and all these things, it seemed right but it was wrong. And the essence of it is you need more than Jesus. Jesus is not enough for you.

Well, that's Satan's intimidating voice and the bullies come along with philosophy and Paul warns in verse 8, look at it, “see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition, the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ.” And then last week, we saw the intimidation of legalism. Verses 16 and 17: "Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day, these are a shadow of the things that were to come, the reality however is found in Christ." Remember the definition of legalism from CJ Mahaney, we looked at it last time. “Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through your obedience to God.” But I tell you that forgiveness and acceptance are freely given to you by God through Christ. They are gifts of grace. They're already yours, you can't earn them, you never could, and they're just given to you as a free gift. Okay, that was last week. The review is over. Context is over.

Now, let's talk specifically about the issues that are in front of us in the text and the first is this intimidation of mysticism. Look at verses 18 and 19. “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility,” other translations there have asceticism, we'll get to that later, but “false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.” “He's lost connection with the head from whom the whole body is supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow.”

The Threat to the Colossian Church

What was the threat to the Colossian church? What were these teachers teaching? Well, they taught a kind of a higher knowledge, spiritual, higher knowledge. The region was rife with what we would call mystery religions. And the essence of a mystery religion is that there were an enlightened few that knew all of the things and that they would guide you up through circles of knowledge and you would get to know more and more about the mystery religion, very enticing, very appealing. And for the enlightened special believer, these keys of knowledge will help you make continued progress. You're ascending higher and higher in a mystical, spiritual plane, and the angels or emanations, whatever you want to call them, are there as spirit guides to help guide you through this journey, to give you insight you wouldn't have in any other way. They would give you knowledge, special knowledge. They would help you make the journey. This sounds New Age-ish, doesn't it? “There's nothing new under the sun.” God is the creative being. Satan takes what God creates and perverts it, twists it and rearranges it. So he just pulls things out of the freezer and just heats it up, leftovers, microwaves it and serves it as though it's something new. But here, it's been all along the same idea of spirit guides and emanations and all that, the worship of angels, really, they're worshipping these emanations, these spirit beings, of whom Christ was one, so they taught.

And they went into great detail about what they'd seen. They were experiencing some kinds of visions and ecstatic spiritual experiences. They went into great detail with the uninitiated, perhaps because they wanted to do them a favor and help them, but perhaps it was a form of arrogant boasting, basically saying, this is what I've experienced and now I am better than you. They might not say it directly because there's a false humility side here that we can talk about, but there was an essential arrogance and pride here to the ascended ones, the ones who had received this special spiritual knowledge. And it said that their sensuous minds, speaks to their sensuous mind, they actually were not being led by the Spirit of God, it was rather sensory experiences they were having inside their minds and they were leading them astray. These experiences were rooted in the flesh, in sensations rather than in doctrinal truth. They weren't rooted in the truth of the Gospel. They had lost connection with Christ, the head, who is the head of the body. That was their problem.

Definition of Mysticism

And what these folks were doing is traditionally called mysticism. You're not going to find the word mysticism in this text. And so therefore, you have to be careful by what you mean. What is mysticism? It's actually not an easy thing to define. So, when something's not easy to define, you go to the dictionary and find out what it says. And so, I went to a number of dictionaries, and the theological dictionary that I went to, the evangelical theological dictionary gave about two paragraphs saying how difficult it was to define before they started to define it. So, I figured I'd go to Webster since they didn't have as much trouble, they just gave me a definition. And it said, "The experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality." I'll read it again, "The experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality." That sounds bad, doesn't it? Scary and dangerous, New Ages, like you need to get a crystal and kind of sit in the lotus position and chant, "Ommm... " And you can be connected in a higher consciousness with ultimate reality. Well, that's Webster's. It does sound bad, but friends, not so fast, not so fast. What is the ultimate reality? Now, that's the key question. And if you are somehow connecting with ultimate reality apart from Christ, as He is revealed in Scripture, you have significant problems. It's extremely dangerous. But if you're defining the God who created heaven and earth through His Son, Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit as ultimate reality, why wouldn't you want intimate communion with him? So, you have to define your terms here carefully. And if mysticism is a problem for you, the terminology, if it causes you to stumble, then dispense with it. But don't judge other people who haven't dispensed with the term yet. Try to find out what they mean. Just like philosophy. The word philosophy is neither good nor bad. I want to know what you're teaching and what your source of information is. There's good philosophy and there's bad philosophy, and so, there's good mysticism, if we want to retain the term, and there is bad mysticism.

And I tell you that a mystical experience is at the heart of your conversion to begin with. If that's what you want to call it. For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6. That is a mystical experience, if you want to use that term, of the greatness of God in Jesus Christ. And it's so vividly applied to your soul that it's as though a light is shining where there was darkness before. And that, my friends, is an experience. It's called being born again, and it's based on doctrinal truth, that's called the Gospel. And when you hear and believe the Gospel, then this light shines in your heart. Now, during that Great Awakening in the 18th Century, a great scholar and pastor, Jonathan Edwards, had to sift through all of the religious experiences that people were having as the Holy Spirit of God was being poured out, and people were doing things that they hadn't been seen doing before. And it was threatening and scary, and it was mixed and it wasn't all good or all bad, and Edwards very carefully starts to sort through it, and defends the Awakening from different extremes, from the old lights there in Boston, staunch, conservative theological regime that saw all of it as bad, and he said, "There is deadness in the center of your theology there. These are good experiences." And he preached a sermon saying that it is reasonable for there to be an immediate direct light imparted to the soul. It's a reasonable doctrine. It's called conversion. And it can go beyond that, much beyond it, but he's defending it also against the extremists, who thought, just because you threw yourself on the ground and rolled around and jumped up and screamed "hallelujah" and all that, you were saved. "I never experienced anything like that in all my life. I must be saved." Not so fast. And so, he was careful and he sifted through it all. Now, he himself was one who had many experiences that many would call "mystical." If you don't like that term, then just say they were powerful experiences in his prayer life, in which God revealed himself to him in an incredible way. In his own conversion experience and testimony in January 12th, 1723, he said this, "I made a solemn dedication of myself to God. The sweetest joys and delights I've experienced," listen to this, "have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate, but in a direct view of the glorious things of the Gospel." In other words, he kind of forgot himself and saw how glorious were the things of the Gospel itself. How glorious is God, how glorious is his Son Jesus Christ, how glorious that he died on the cross for our sins, how sweet and glorious it is that our sins could be transferred from us and put on our substitute, and he stricken and smitten by God for our sake. His blood shed on the cross. How glorious it is that we can find freedom in that? These truths are rich and glorious. And he said, "Just the things of the Gospel themselves in a self-forgetful way became... ", "I had a direct view of them," he said, "I have many times had a sense of the glory of the third person in the Trinity," that's the Holy Spirit, "In his office of sanctifier, in his holy operations," listen, "Communicating divine light and life to the soul." "Many times," He says, "I've had that experience, not just a conversion, many times, as an infinite fountain of divine glory like the sun in its glory, sweetly and pleasantly diffusing light and life." Oh, that's a sweet and rich experience, isn't it? Now, if you want to call that mysticism, then call it that. And maybe that some will stumble over that title, and so therefore, maybe you need to dispense with it. But you can't dispense with the experience, and you ought to be seeking it if you're not experiencing it now. Because a certain coldness and deadness may have settled down over your souls, and it's been a long time since she felt anything like that. And you've forgotten just how sweet it is to be close to God and to be richly welcomed by Him and have a sense of assurance in your soul that God loves you through Jesus. It's been a long time for you. So, forget the term then and ask what is going on here in my experience? Am I really loving Jesus? Am I really following Him? Do I really know Him? Or am I dead?

Bad Mysticism’s Long History

Well, mysticism, bad mysticism has a long history. Lots of attacks on the church through this. Worship of angels itself continued in the Lycos Valley, where the Colossian church was for centuries after this. It's recorded in the church fathers. They continued to struggle with worship of angels. Other forms of mysticism have always been part of pagan religions. Buddhism started when Siddhartha Gautama had some kind of a vision of something and enlightenment came to him under a tree. And so, there are actually a lot of Buddhist mystics, Hinduism, similar kinds of spiritual experiences, transcendental meditation, all that, astral projection and out of body experiences, part of that Eastern mystic religion. Islam, Muhammad said that he had visions of Gabriel who gave him the Quran, and he had that mystical experience. Mormonism is based on a vision Joseph Smith had of the Angel Moroni who gave him the golden plates from which came the Book of Mormon. And that false religious system came out of that angelic visitation. So, it plagued the church on the outside of the walls of the church. But also, what I would consider bad mysticism has plagued the church within as well and the churches had to struggle and work through these spiritual experiences and some have gone too far, much too far.

Third century Gnostics, they were attacking the basic idea that the Gospel is sufficient and they were always teaching the keys of knowledge, you had to have this ascended experience and there have been many others as well, all the way down to the 17th century mystic Madame Guyon who advocated Quietism. I think it's good, as we heard in the choir piece to be quiet, calm your heart in the presence of God, but she went too far. She basically said the essence of Christianity is passivity, and you ought to just simply receive whatever is pouring into your soul and you must not fight anything, even sin. And it led them into immorality and excesses. Strange. So, we have to be very careful what we're talking about.

But there's been good mysticism as well. I love reading this quote from Blaise Pascal, which I've read a few times on this pulpit, but I just love it. I love it. I want to read it again here, because I think it shows the key to good unusual experiences with God, if you want to call them mysticism. This is what he wrote. And this is what happened. Blaise Pascal was 17th Century French philosopher and mathematician who, after he died, they found sewed in his coat, a piece of paper on which these words were written. And why would you take the time to write something and sew it into your shirt or coat, except that it'd been one of the most incredible experiences of your life. And this is what he wrote. This man was a genius and he loved Christ and this is what he wrote. “This day of grace, 1654, from about half past 10 at night to about half past midnight, fire. The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the wise, security, security, feeling, joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. Thy God shall be my God. Forgetfulness of the world and of all except God. He can be found only in ways taught in the Gospel.” Did you hear that? He can be found only in ways taught by the Gospel. That's the Bible. So, this man is having a deep, powerful spiritual experience based on ways taught in the scriptures. You see, same thing as Edwards. He can be found in ways only taught in the Gospel. “Greatness of the human soul, oh, righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. I have separated myself from Him. My God, why has thou forsaken me that I be not separated from thee eternally?”

“This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God and Him whom thou has sent,” Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. I've separated myself from Him. I have fled, renounced, crucified Him. May I never be separated from Him. He maintains Himself in me only in ways taught in the Gospel. He says it twice. Renunciation, total and sweet. 

Wow, what is that? And do you get the sense he was actually writing while it was going on? And so, he knew he was still in the body, still in the physical experience, they would want to remember after it was over. He's being a historian. He was writing it down. They'll come a day we don't need to write it down. We'll just live it all the time. We'll be in the presence of God forever and ever and we'll know what he's talking about here. And you'll be able to stand it, because there's only so much of this that a body can stand. DL Moody had an experience. He said, “I couldn't mention it for years later in which God so poured Himself out of me. I had to ask Him to stop, to stay His hand, he said. I couldn't take anymore. But He was good. He was good. I just couldn't take anymore.”

Mysticism’s Great Danger

Well, mysticism has some dangers traditionally. Worship of angels, obviously, directly contrary to scripture. The Apostle John almost did it, you know that, in the Book of Revelation, falls down in front of the angel and starts to worship. “Don't do it. Don't do it. I'm just a servant. Get up. Worship God.” So, angels are glorious beings and Satan, knowing that, he himself being an angel, though a corrupt one, can present himself as an angel of light. There's great danger there. But learn from Blaise Pascal and say, "I can find this only in ways taught in the Bible, only in ways taught according to the scriptures." Also, danger is seeking us. A spiritual experience is apart from God's revelation in the scripture, opens us up to demonic influences, because not every supernatural experience is from God. And even good spiritual, supernatural experiences can make you arrogant, make you prideful, as though you're somehow better than the next person. And so, the Apostle Paul, he says now, "I know a man in Christ, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows." Was caught up to the third heaven,” caught up to paradise. “He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to talk about. But to keep me from becoming conceited, because of these surpassingly great revelations, it was giving me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan.” Okay? So, you could say, "Well, do I really want something like that if I also have to have the thorn in the flesh to keep me from being arrogant?" All I'm saying is, note the danger, pride, and arrogance, and boasting over your brothers and sisters in Christ.

BUT the Danger of Deadness

But there's also a danger, friends, of deadness, isn't there? And maybe that that's more your danger. Not that you've flown too high or you've flown apart from the scriptures, but you haven't flown at all. There's been no elevation in your spirit at all. You just go through the motions. You just go to church. You bow your heads and pray out of habit before the meal, or maybe sometimes you forget. I've done that, to my shame. I'd be halfway through this morning, I was halfway through my bowl of Wheaties and I realize I hadn't prayed yet. Lord, forgive me that I just rolled right in and forgot that this gift of a bowl of Wheaties, with all of its delicious flavor and it must be eaten quickly with very cold milk. My children will tell you I freeze the bowl ahead of time. Make the milk cold. That's weird, isn't it? I shouldn't expose myself to these private comments because you're going to come and talk to me later about them. But this is a taste treat from God and thank you, God, for it. But the deadness, friends, the deadness. When was the last time you felt moved to tears by something spiritual in the Gospel? That's a danger too. “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Where is Psalm 63 in your life? "Oh, God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory, and because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live and in your name, I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods. With singing lips, my mouth will praise you." Where is that in your life?

Balance Found in Christ

Well, balance is found in Christ. We have been given fullness in Christ. In Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” That's where our experience is. It's so important to be submissive to the leading of the Spirit. I haven't even talked about asceticism yet, and it's almost 12:10. Next time, friends. Let me just stop. I wasn't going to do this, but let me just stop and focus on this one issue now. What's going on in your heart? What is God saying to you today? Where is Psalm 63 in your life and your experience? Are you moved frequently by the greatness of God's love for you in Christ? Do you have a sense of it, an experience of it or not? Are you just going through the motions? Daily quiet time? I have all kinds of patterns and habits, but when was the last time that the kindling and all that was ignited by fire from heaven? When did that happen to you? Could be that you're dead in your transgressions and sins. You've never come to Christ. Could be that God sovereignly brought you here today to hear the Gospel. You've already heard everything you need to know, but let me be clear about it.

God sent his Son into the world to be your substitute, that your sins might be taken off of you and transferred on to him and that he might strike his only begotten Son with his wrath, with hell in a concentrated, kind of laser-like way that Jesus absorbed the wrath of God, that we might be free from it forever. No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Oh, how sweet is that? But through simple faith that exchange occurs, your sins taken off of you and the beautiful, perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to you or given to your account in which you will stand on judgement day. Has it happened to you? Is it happening now as I speak? Is there an eyesight of your soul opening up and you can see beauty in Christ where you never saw it before? Then trust in him. Call on the name of the Lord and he will save you.

But you could say, "Pastor, I know I did all that. I know it. I don't doubt that, but I have to be honest, it has been years since anything spiritual moved me to tears or to shouts of joy. Doesn't always have to be tears. I feel dead, what can I do? What can I do?" I think you need to begin by getting alone with God and falling on your face and repenting of your sin. It's not an accident. It's not something that happened to you. It's because you forsook your first love, you made choices in your life to turn away from Jesus. He wasn't sweet enough for you anymore. And so, that pleasure that you were seeking, and I talked about it the beginning, you didn't find it in Jesus anymore, and so, you turned to creative things. You turned to hobbies, you turned to pleasures, perhaps, you even turned to sin, to lust, and you filled your pleasure tank with things, and guess what? It's leaving you empty, it's leaving you dead. And the time has come for you to turn and to repent, and say, "Lord, bring me back, warm me up." He will welcome you back. He will welcome you back richly, if you'll simply take the time to acknowledge how distant you've become from him, and stay there until He moves inside you. Isn't it worth the time? Or you can listen to what I've said and just move on, and the deadness will get even worse, if you can imagine that, and it'll get even harder for you to hear the voice of God. But I consider better things for you. I think God providentially brought you here today, if you're a Christian, to ignite your soul in Him again. Let him do it. Close with me in prayer.

Well, I remember when I was growing up. I used to love to watch on Saturday afternoons Wide World of Sports, because they had all different kind of weird sports and different things, not the regular ones you watch, but they had different ones. And one time they had this Chinese juggling troupe that did the most incredible things with their bodies that I'd ever seen, like making inverted pyramids on the stage and all kinds of stuff of strength and flexibility. But there's one guy in particular I remembered and just being amazed, and it was the plate spinner. This man had the ability to take a flexible rod and spin a plate up on the rod and it would just balance there. And then he would pick up the next rod and spin the next plate and the next one and the next one. Five, six, seven, eight plates spinning. By the time he got to 10, plates number one and two we're starting to wobble. And so you're kind of freaking out a little bit as you watch this whole thing and you're urging, as though he could hear you, that somehow he could spin this plate a little faster. But he knew what he was doing. 12, 14 plates, 16, 18, 20, and he seemed to know which ones needed help without even looking. It'd behind him and he was setting up a new plate and he'd turn and give it a little spin and then do some other things. It was incredible. It was just amazing. 

Now, CJ Mahaney had a similar experience on the Ed Sullivan Show. He watched a plate spinner doing that. I bet you're wondering what that picture had to do with Colossians 2. I'm trying to explain that. Here is a plate spinner who's got two phones, one he's talking on and something else going on and there's this franticness to life. Now, this sermon is not about the busyness of modern life and how we need to slow down and smell the roses. That's not what it's about. This sermon is about the lethal danger of legalism. And CJ Mahaney likens the legalistic lifestyle of the Christian to the plate spinner. What happens is you hear some good themes from the Bible, some things that we ought to be doing with our Christian lives and in effect at that moment you can set up a plate and start it spinning. And then another plate gets spinning as well. And this whole concoction in your mind sets up a paradigm that's very dangerous concerning your relationship with God. The more plates I have spinning and keep spinning, the more God is pleased with me, the more fruitful my life is, the more pleasing I am to Him. If I should let any of those plates fall and crash to the ground, there may be serious doubt as to whether I'm a Christian at all. And that's the legalistic mentality that I think Paul is fighting against in Colossians 2. You know how it is, the themes, a daily quiet time, prayer life, intercessory prayer for others, concern for evangelism, concern for cross-cultural missions, unreached people groups, financial faithfulness, stewardship, the tithes and offerings, faithful attendance at church, using your spiritual gifts to minister to others. All of these themes, ministry to the poor and the needy, concern for them. And more and more and more. 

I struggled with this this Summer on my sabbatical as I was looking carefully at the Christian life and all the elements that are involved in what it is to be a faithful, sanctified, mature Christian. And it's so easy to get under the pile, and for a subtle or perhaps not even so subtle shift to happen in how I see myself before God. That I've got to keep these plates going or else God will not be pleased with me and if enough of them fall to the ground I may not actually have been saved at all. This is an incredible bondage. And Paul here in Colossians 2, as he does in Galatians and in Romans and other places, seeks to liberate us from this bondage of legalism. That we would be free from it, that we would serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. That we would see ourselves as adopted sons and daughters of the living God and not as slaves on a plantation. "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free," Galatians 5. "Stand firm then and do not let yourself be yoked again with a bondage of servitude," Galatians 5. And I think that's exactly what Paul was seeking to do. 

Now, let's get a little context here. Colossians 1 has established beautifully the supremacy of Christ over all things. The Colossian heresy that Paul is writing to combat, denied the supremacy of Christ, He was a created being, a spirit emanation in the world, and that God, being pure spirit, really didn't desire or want a physical universe to be created, for physical matter is evil and wicked and salvation is to somehow get away from the physical lifestyle into a purely spiritual relationship with the true Spirit God that there was. Christ being an emanation, a created being like other spiritual emanations, can help us through specialized knowledge and through a special religious pattern to be liberated from the physical life and brought into Heaven in that way. It's a heresy. 

And in order to combat it, the Apostle Paul focuses first and foremost on the deity of Christ, on the perfection of Christ, the supremacy of Christ over all things. Colossians 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation for by Him all things were created. Things in Heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together and He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the firstborn from among the dead and by His blood which He shed He reconciled all things to the Father, so that Christ would have supremacy in all things." This is the greatness of Christ, the supremacy of Christ. 

And then in chapter 2 he's arguing that, "Christ is complete and therefore we are complete in Him." We don't lack anything. We are fully circumcised spiritually. We are fully alive in Christ. We were dead, but now we're fully alive. We are fully forgiven. He forgave us all our sins, not half of them or three quarters or 99%. He forgave all our sins. We are fully free from the law and we're going to focus on that today. Fully free from the law and we are fully triumphant over Satan and his accusations, specifically his ability to use the written code to accuse us of sin. We are fully free, triumphant because of the cross of Christ. So we're fully complete in Him, but along comes Satan, the intimidating bully that I mentioned last time, and what a bully he is, and through false teachers, through false teaching, he seeks to intimidate us and to tell us we are not complete. Oh, there's something missing. Yes, Christ is good. Yes, Christ is beneficial and helpful, but He is insufficient. 

I can scarcely say the words. How could the infinite God dying on the cross for us be insufficient for anything? We are full in Christ. But that's what the false teachers were saying. You needed something more. You needed human philosophy. You needed human obedience to the laws of Moses, Jewish legalism. You needed mysticism, some worship of angels and mystical experiences and you needed asceticism. These things will help complete the beginnings of the work of Christ in your life. If you don't have them, then you're really not saved. You're inadequate. You are insufficient. Satan bullying us, trying to show us that we are incomplete.  

Now, last week, we looked at the intimidation of philosophy. Remember what we said in verse 8? "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." We took time to define philosophy. The word literally means love of wisdom. But generally the way we use it, it's just the human attempt to make sense of the world we live in, to answer life's deepest questions, ultimate questions of meaning. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? What happens after death? What is right? What is wrong? And why should I do the right and avoid the wrong? These questions are the purview of philosophy. There's nothing wrong with answering these questions. The problem, though, is the kind of philosophy that Paul was refuting. Hollow and deceptive philosophy which is based on human traditions and not on Christ. This is simply human philosophy that is not based on Christ. Christless, man-centered philosophy. Now, that is an enemy of the Gospel and he says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through it." Don't become a slave to that. Philosophy has a long and assorted history which we talked about last time. I won't go into it this time, but there's been literally millennia of the attacks of philosophy on the Gospel and on the church. The great danger of philosophy is that it starts with man, with man's knowledge, man's perspectives, man's issues and it does not go to the Word of God for its answers, but through our own abilities, it reasons out. But philosophy is defeated in Christ. Christ has become for us the wisdom of God, though He looks foolish. Jewish carpenter, bloody, dead on the cross. Where is the wisdom in that? But it is pure wisdom from God and all of the right answers to those questions, they flow from the cross of Jesus Christ. All of them do. He is our philosophy, Christ. But then He takes on the second bully.  

And that bully is the bully of legalism and we're going to spend all our time on it today; I shifted the message a bit. I was going to do legalism, asceticism and mysticism in one Sunday and the folly of that became clear to me the more I looked at it. Can't do it. And so, instead, we're going to look at this issue of legalism. And the issue of legalism is a yoke of bondage, the law of Moses, the rules and regulations, circumcision becomes a portal, a doorway into a whole way of thinking about your relationship with God. A whole way of seeing yourself before the holy God. A way of anticipating how it's going to go for you on Judgment Day, legalism. And it's intimidating, it really is, because along with legalism comes the thought police, the religious police that come and tell you how to observe a Sabbath day, for example. They'll tell you what you're doing wrong, and there's danger to the church here. Look what it says in verses 16 and 17. "Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon, a celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ."  

What is legalism? How do we understand it? Well, I love CJ Mahaney's definition of legalism in his wonderful book, the Cross-Centered Life. By the way, that is a great book. I've already alluded to it this morning. It's great for a number of reasons, mostly because it's great to be centered on the cross of Jesus Christ. It's also great to be able to finish a book. So, 82 pages, small, big print, you can get through this, you can do it and what a good feeling to read that final page. If you're kind of a starter and not a finisher, it puts it in succinct language, but he does an excellent job. Maybe one of the best things he does in the whole book is defining legalism. He gives us that image of the plate spinning, but then he gives us a good definition. "Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God." That is one of the best. It's just so clear. Let me read it again. CJ Mahaney: "Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and acceptance by God through obedience to God." It's really any attempt to rely on self effort either to attain or maintain our justification before God through self effort. Either to get it at the beginning or to keep it going once you have it. And it's a subtle change that comes over the brain and you start thinking, "I got it and it's been so good but I have to hold onto it now. I have to hold onto it to make progress. I've got to hold on to Jesus." And Paul, writing in the Book of Galatians, he says, "After beginning with the Spirit are you now completed through the flesh?" After you started by the power of the spirit through simple faith in Christ, are you going to finish your journey through your own efforts? It's so pernicious, so dangerous. 

John Piper advances the definition a little bit and I think his distinctions are helpful too. He speaks of two different kinds of legalism in the Christian life. One is individual, personal legalism that infects the brain of an individual Christian and hinders their ability to see their relationship with their Father properly. And the second is a more of a community legalism that comes over a group in which man-made rules are brought in to discern who should be a member of that group and if they're in good standing. The first individual, Piper writes this, "First, legalism means treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own power in order to earn God's favor," those are key elements. "A law kept by your own power to earn God's favor." That's legalism. In other words, legalism will be present wherever a person is trying to be ethical, to be good in their own strength, that is without relying on the merciful help of God in Christ. Simply put, moral behavior that is not from faith in Christ is legalism. Anything that does not come from faith is sin. Here we're labeling this kind of effort as legalism. That's individual. Then there's that community or corporate legalism. Piper said the second meaning of legalism is this, "The erecting of specific requirements of conduct beyond the teaching of scripture and making adherence to them the means by which a person is qualified for full participation in the local family of God, the church." This is where an unbiblical exclusivism arises. In other words, the community agrees that this is what we're going to do and be, and you are not a Christian, frankly, if you don't keep these standards and the standards that are erected aren't coming from scripture. But they're man-made. 

So those are two different kinds of legalism, both of them deadly in the life of the church and the individual Christian. It crushes the joy of the Christian life, crushes it. As a matter of fact, Paul uses joy like I talked about a few weeks ago, as the canary in the coal mine. He is looking at joy and saying it's a fragile thing and when joy goes, one of the things that can kill it is legalism. "What has happened to all your joy?", he says in Galatians, "Where did it go? Don't you remember how it used to be? How sweet it was to know that He forgave us all our sins? To feel like a child of God, adopted and safe and secure." It crushes joy and it leads to a constant effort to earn God's favor. Over and over and what a yoke of bondage that is, how crushing it is. 

You know the story of Martin Luther, how he tried to earn his forgiveness through Roman Catholic legalism during the Middle Ages, at the end of the Middle Ages. For him, it was a matter of being a monk and fasting, and praying and spending long nights on the floor and all of these things, and thinking that by obeying to the nth degree all of God's laws, he could do enough to cover his sins and not spend eternity in Hell or hundreds of thousands of years in purgatory. That's legalism and it was awful for him. It was awful because you know why? There's never any enough. There is never any enough. What's enough for the eternal, infinite God, perfectly holy? What's enough for him? And so, as he confessed sin after sin to Staupitz, his father confessor, and just kept coming back to confess more. Sacramental system, you had to confess your sins, or if you died with unconfessed sin that was X number of years in purgatory. It was a terrible bondage for him. 

And he kept going back. "Oh, I forgot something." The man couldn't get any work done, Staupitz, and he's like, "Look, go do something real and come back and tell me about it." It was just inclinations and issues of the heart. And he said, "You're making it too complicated. You just need to love God." He said, "Love God? I hate Him!" Well, that's blasphemy. There's no doubt about that. But that's what it leads to. It kills joy in the Christian life. It makes you insecure, and you can begin well, understanding the Gospel, but soon you're oozing over into this whole way of living. 

Think about the story of Anne of Green Gables. And Anne Shirley, she was an orphan girl who was taken into a family on probation. How would you like that? "We'll decide whether we'll adopt you or not by how you behave." That's tough. It's not right. It creates a works relationship that is not like a parent-child relationship. Brothers and sisters, we have been adopted. It's done. We are in the family. "A slave has no permanent place in the family," Jesus said, "But a son lives there forever and if the son makes you free, you'll be truly free. Free from the bondage of sin." And Jesus has that kind of power to free us from sin and to bring us as full members into the family of God, sons and daughters of the living God. Now, that's the joy out of which I want to serve God. I don't want to be wondering whether I'm on good standing with Him, and maybe if I do a few more good things I'm in better standing. That is legalism. It is bondage.  

Now, legalism has a long and sordid history. It's been around forever, from the Old Testament right on through the New Testament. The Judaizers, the Pharisees, that some of them perhaps became Christians or at least outwardly professed to be Christians, they dogged Paul’s steps on this. They were sent to spy out freedom of the Gentiles, trying to make them obey a bunch of rules and regulations. And finally, they were openly teaching false doctrine. In Acts 15:1 it says, "Some brothers came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." Well, that's a wonderful example of legalism. You have to have Christ plus circumcision. Christ's accomplishment on the cross is not enough. And circumcision, I told you, is a doorway into a whole way of living. A whole way of living before God. It has to do with dietary regulations. What you eat, and what you drink, and religious festivals, and how you dealt with the Sabbath, and all the things he mentions here in Colossians 2. Well, the Apostle Peter stands up at that council, just gives a stirring speech, beautiful speech on this. He said, "Brothers, you know that some time ago, God made a choice among the Gentiles, that God, that they would hear, the Gentiles would hear from my lips the message of the Gospel and believe, hear, and believe, and be saved, that's all. God who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them for He purified the hearts by faith. Our hearts are purified by faith," and so it continues. "He made no distinction between us and them," said Peter, "For He purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke, that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No, we believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are." 

Why would you want to be slaves on that plantation again? Earning God's favor by doing His laws, keeping His laws, bondage, and the council rightly decided against it. Paul wrote the whole Book of Galatians to combat this error as they were teaching the same thing there to the Gentiles. And he says this, "All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law rather, because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, ‘the man who does these things will live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hung on a tree.'" So there it is, that's bondage. He's saying Christ has freed us from that. He became a curse for us. We're serving in a new way now, of the Spirit, and not the old way of the written code. 

Well, it wasn't just during biblical times, but after that, in the Roman Catholic era and in the Middle Ages, little by little, more and more laws, and man-made regulations, and canon law, and traditions started coming on one after the other, and you had to do all these things in order to be saved. They would teach outside the church, there's no salvation, and then they would define what it meant to be in or outside the church. And it meant the sacramental system, it meant having your infants baptized, and then the sacraments all the way through, including confession and taking the communion and all of those things. It was legalism. And after Luther's insight concerning justification by faith alone, that we are made righteous in God's sight by simple faith. You just look to Jesus. You just trust that He is the Son of God, and He shed His blood on the cross. You just look to Christ and you'll be forgiven. Luther discovered that that is the Gospel. It could be that that's why God brought you here today to hear that simple message. How can I stand before a Holy God on Judgment Day and be forgiven? The answer is not through legalism. It's not through good works. It's through simple faith in Christ. That's the discovery of the Gospel, rediscovery. And Luther found it and the other reformers, the Catholic Church rejected it. And at the Council of Trent they re-established this statement, "Justification: If anyone says that we are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the law, let him be anathema, let him be accursed." So, there you go, right back into legalism again. It's there all the time. But you know, it's not just the Protestants, I mean, the Catholics, the Protestants have had it as well. Baptists have it. There are some groups, Anabaptistic groups, that became schismatic and broke off, and they were free church movements under no authority of the state or any other group. And they practiced extreme separation from the world. And they were very concerned about worldliness. And they made up rules and regulations about what worldliness was. And a fight against worldliness is one of the most subtle in the life of a church. It is a real threat. But you don't fight it by setting up rules and regulations. And so, groups like the Amish and others, they define worldliness in terms of buttons, and use of modern equipment, technology, and other things like that, these rules are not found anywhere in the Bible. We are four or five steps removed from any passage of scripture. But if you are not involved, if you don't assent to it and you act differently, you are shunned, disciplined from that group, you're not part of the group. That's the second definition of legalism that Piper gave us. It's a community coming up with man-made rules and regulations by which they discern who's in and who's out. And other baptistic groups have done that as well.  

We were trying to do ministry in Haiti, and there was a group that wouldn't formally do any ministry with us, because we were part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and we do not practice enough separation from the world for their group. So, we are the liberals in their eyes and we are the ones not strict enough, etcetera. To other people, we're exactly the opposite. Isn't it interesting on that? And that's the whole thing.  

When you're setting up your life in front of a bunch of human judges, you're always going to find people to your right and people to your left. I would say, if there's no one to your right or no one to your left, you're probably not a Christian. You are the extremist of all the extremists, either in legalism or license, but you're always going to be able to find somebody who can judge you. And so, Paul says very, very plainly here, "Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or by religious festivals, new moon festivals or even what you do on a Sabbath day. It's freedom. Don't let anyone judge you." Now, what does he mean by that? Well, legalism leads you to look away from the cross. You're looking first inwardly to yourself, right? You try to save yourself. You're given a bunch of rules and regulations. 

You're looking inwardly to yourself and either, friends, you're doing well or you're doing poorly. If you look inwardly and you're doing well, you are going to become arrogant and insufferable and pretty soon you will be one of the judges. You'll be probably appointed by the church to be one of the Sabbath judges or whatever, because you're looking inward and doing well. You will become arrogant. You've lost the sense of grace. If you look inward with the law and you do not find that you do well, you will despair. You'll become discouraged. You will fall away from any efforts to continue growing in the Christian life, because you think it's too hard. That's the danger, is looking inward. The next thing you do is you start looking at other people to try to see how you're doing, and that's very dangerous. Don't let anyone judge you. Now, it's interesting a command. I really can't obey it and literally. How can I stop you from judging me? “Don't let anyone judge you.” You're judging me now, stop it. I wasn't, I really wasn't. Yes you are. I really don't know how you literally obey it, but I think what Paul is saying is, at least this much, don't take their judgmentalism to heart and don't let their judgmentalism take root in the church. So individually, you are not standing or falling before them. They are not your judge, and don't let their rules and regulations take over the life of the church. I think that's what he means, when he says, "Don't let anyone judge you."  

Legalism is defeated in Christ. It says in Verse 17, "These are a shadow of the things that were to come.” The reality, however, is found in Christ. Christ's blood shed on the cross is the only way to wash away our sins. Christ's righteousness imputed to us by simple faith is the only thing that's going to survive the scrutiny of Judgment Day, perfect righteousness. Ceremonial laws like the sacrificial system, the eating laws, temple worship, annual pilgrimage and I believe the Sabbath were meant to point us to Christ. They were the shadow. The reality is Christ. 

Now, I want to take a few minutes and talk about the difficult case of the Sabbath, alright? This is a challenging issue, very challenging. Paul is talking here about what you eat or drink. We know that Jesus declared all foods clean. I don't know many people that struggle with this, with the issue of meat sacrifice to idols and all that. Some struggle with the issue of drinking, and I'm not going to address that today. There's plenty of things to be said about that, many things, and I don't want to do a half-hearted job on it, so we have to do it more thoroughly another time. But here he's saying at least don't let anyone judge you based on these things, or on what you do on a Sabbath day. Now, you've heard the story of Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire, years ago, that movie came out. He was a Scottish missionary, his parents were missionaries in China and he eventually became one. Served to great effect in China and died of a tumor toward the end of World War II. Just a great man of God. He also happened to be a great runner, in 1920 he won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Paris in the 400 meters. Now, usually he was a sprinter, but he had to change, because it turned out that some of the heats for the sprints were on Sunday and it was against his Scottish Presbyterian convictions to run on the Lord's Day. He based it on the 10 Commandments and many people who are Sabbatarians, strict Sabbatarians, will say, "Look at you folks, what you're saying is in effect you believe in all nine of the 10 Commandments." We don't have to do that one, okay, but the other nine are still good. And they will point to Genesis 1 and 2, the creation ordinance. God created the universe in six days and He rested on the seventh and He set the seventh day aside and made it holy and sacred. And they will even point to the language of the 10 Commandments, the fourth of the 10 Commandments. This is what it literally says. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God. On it, you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, your manservant or maidservant, your animals nor the alien within your gates, for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day and therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." That's what the Commandment says. Now, the ultimate legalism on Sabbatarianism is coming from the Seventh Day Adventists, who in a pure form say this, that the Lord's day worship that we're doing today is the Mark of the Beast, that if you worship on the first day of the week and not on the seventh day of the week, you have received the mark of the beast. 

Well, I don't know if you've read the Book of Revelation, but the Mark of Beast leads straight to hell and there's no escape. There is no rest, day or night. The smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for any who receives the Mark of the Beast. Well, that's a very good example of legalism. If we don't agree with them about the seventh day Sabbath, then we are going to Hell. That's what they teach. The question is, is this commandment still binding on the conscience of Christians today and what should we do about it? Well, there's different ways to look at it. Legalism has one extreme, license says the other. Legalism is you got to keep it, got to keep it, got to keep it, and you've got Sabbath police and we'll have to start a new committee here in this church to judge what you do on the Lord's day, etcetera. That's legalism, okay? License is, this matter doesn't mean anything. We're totally free. We could worship on Tuesday if we wanted. We could worship every other week. We could do all kinds of things. We're just totally free in the matter. It has no impact on my life whatsoever. There's nothing here for me at all. That's license in this matter. 

And then in the middle there's another error, and that is the Malachi 1:13 error, in which you do what you think is right but you sniff at it and say, "What a burden," and you grumble under it the whole time. That's an error too. How shall we come at this issue of the Sabbath? Well, first of all, let's understand the Sabbath is clearly called a shadow here in Colossians 2. The reality is what? The reality is Christ. Hebrews 4 is the extended treatise on that issue of reality and shadow. And it says, "If you have come to faith in Christ you have entered your Sabbath rest. You have ceased from your work just as God has ceased from His." And that's an incredible thing. That's Hebrews 4:3. "Now we who have believed enter our rest." So, when you come to faith in Christ, the Sabbath, friends, for you is fulfilled. And therefore, we are free from careful restrictions concerning what we do on a Sabbath day. Now, is the Sabbath a perpetual regulation? Well, I don't think that we can understand it that way. I think the Sabbath was a sign of the Mosaic Covenant. There's no clear example in the Old Testament of anyone observing the Sabbath before Mount Sinai. We know that it's recorded that on the seventh day the Lord rested in Genesis 1 and 2. And I know it's an argument from silence. But I think it's significant that it is openly and clearly called in Exodus 31, "It is a sign of the covenant I am making with you today." And so, therefore, it is a sign of the Mosaic Covenant. We are not saved in the Mosaic Covenant and, therefore, the sign is not binding on us today. Christian practice almost universally has been to move from the seventh day to the first. The scriptural basis for this is this is the day that Jesus was raised from the dead. And Jesus showed Himself on the first day of the week to His disciples. The first Sunday evening service, friends, was when Jesus showed Himself that evening to His disciples. So you don't want to miss home fellowship, friends. You want to be involved in whatever the church is doing on Sunday evening. Some of the best things happen Sunday evenings. 

And Thomas missed it, to his great regret, but the Lord did show Himself on the first day of the next week. And so, you see a regular pattern there. First day of the week. First day of the week. Friends, I think there's a theological principle here. The seventh day Sabbath looks backward at physical creation, for in six days God made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. The first day observance looks ahead to the new creation. And Jesus' resurrection body is the first new creation stuff there is in the universe. It will never die. It will never perish, spoil or fade. All the other stuff is obsolete. It's aging. It's going away. So, we are forward-looking by worshipping on the first day of the week. 

So, what? Well, I want to ask a strict Sabbatarian a key question. If I do not agree with you, what does that mean for me? They must answer that question. I respect Truett Cathy who won't open a Chick-fil-A on Sunday. I respect it. I just want to know what the reasoning is. And some of it could be delightfully wonderful and spirit-led and some of it could be terribly legalistic. I just want to know the motive, the reason. And if their answer is, "It's the Mark of the Beast and if you don't do it our way you go to Hell," I think that's pure legalism right there. If the answer is, "This is what we have chosen do with our time so that we can give ourselves to holy endeavors, to reading the Word of God, that just takes time, and if I'm going to watch a football game or if I'm going to go to Golden Corral, Heaven forbid... Well, I'm sorry, other restaurant, wonderful restaurant... " Is this being taped? I always forget that. 

But if I go to this place or that place and you're thinking, "Is this wrong, I'm making somebody work on the Sabbath, or on the Lord's day, I'm sinning, I'm making them sin and there's a whole bondage there," I need to know about that. Romans 14 deals with this in the matter of freedom. It says, “one man considers one day more sacred than the rest and another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” At the end of that same chapter, Romans 14:23, it says, "Everything that does not come from faith is sin." So practically, I want to ask you this. How do you spend your Sunday and why? Why? We need a practical day we get together. We can't have a rotating schedule. You guys would be and so would I be hopelessly confused. You'd definitely have to look on the website to find out what day of the week and time we're meeting. 

I think it's best to set a time, don't you? And to follow the pattern of the resurrection of Christ, let's do it on the first day of the week. If we don't, are we going to Hell? No. That's done. That was nailed to the cross. That whole way of thinking is gone. But there are practical sides here. We need to have a time when we can assemble ourselves together and worship together and it's the first day of the week. The Sabbath was set up, also Jesus said, for us. Man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath was made for us. Well, in what sense? We can't go on endlessly working, friends. I was reading Bill Gates. He said he doesn't have time for church on Sunday. I don't know what he works on, I wouldn't say 24/7, but lots of hours on Microsoft things. It's what he does. We can't do that endlessly. You're going to break down. You need some time to get away and to be refreshed spiritually, and that's what the day is for. 

Furthermore, I do have questions. If somebody is working 24/7, isn't there a danger that there's some idolatry, some covetousness that's come in there? That's what's motivating them, and that is dangerous. If there's an idol in the heart, if there's covetousness in the heart, it may be that Christ isn't there, but not because they're not following the rules, it's because there's covetousness in their heart. And Christ drives that away. Who is the Lord of your heart? And practically speaking, don't you need time to read the Bible? Don't you need time to be with your family to have family worship? These things take time. We have bodies. We can't deny it. So we need to rest, we need to be recuperating ourselves, we need to be refreshed, and this is a good way to do it. And so, what could you do? Well, I would urge you, like in the language of Isaiah 58, "Call the Sabbath a delight." Call it a delight, not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be, quoting from another place. 1 Peter 5, talking about elders. “Not because you must, but because you want to.” And so the question, the practical questions, you start to answer in that way, "Can I watch the Super Bowl on a Sunday? Super Bowl Sunday, can I?" 

I don't want to say yes or no. I want to say, "Can you watch by faith?" If you can watch the Super Bowl by faith then do it. Frankly, I think you could sin by not running on the Sabbath, on the Lord's day, etcetera, in that you're not understanding the cross rightly, and somebody else could be feeling God's pleasure and glorifying Him by running on a Sunday. I want to know what's going on in the person's heart and I never really can. But you can know better than anyone else what's going on in your own heart. Why would you choose to watch the Super Bowl instead of doing X, Y, and Z? That's all. You have to answer that. You be convinced in your own mind. And then some other practical things can come in to help you. Like some suggest that people do their cooking on Saturdays, not because you must, but because you're willing. And not every week. Some Sundays you can cook. But just try it sometimes. Try getting all your meals ready, all your clothes ready, everything ready, and then just resting on the Lord's day. But not just having a nap. There's nothing wrong with a nap, friends. Nothing wrong with a nap. We need to sleep, okay? There's nothing wrong with that. But instead of doing that, why don't you go pursue the Lord? Psalm 73, "Whom have I in Heaven but you? And Earth has nothing I desire besides you." 

Use it as a time to renew your love relationship with Christ. Pick your favorite Psalms, a good Christian book, gather your family together if you have one, if you're married and you have children, focus on Christ. But again, not because you must, but because you're willing. Because you want to get closer to Christ. So you're saying, "Pastor, I'm confused." Well, come talk to me afterwards. We're almost done with our time here. I can't go through all the case studies. I say this, we are freed forever from the legalistic requirement to keep the Sabbath. We will not go to Hell based on what we do or don't do with the Sabbath day. And we are not going to set up Sabbath requirements in this church that if you don't meet those requirements you are not a member in full standing or could be disciplined from this group. Instead, what I'm going to do is do something even harder, I'm going to challenge you to say, "What's going on in your heart?" Are you loving Jesus with every thought in your heart, every moment of the day? Are you doing the best things? Are you choosing the excellent things? And if part of that is enjoying watching a football game or playing Ultimate Frisbee or doing something like that, I'm not going to judge you, it's not my place. I don't want to to be on the other side of Colossians 2:16, doing the judging. I'm not going to not do that. But instead, I want to challenge all of us to call the Sabbath a delight, because if you look at that Verse, in the end, it's Isaiah 58:13 and 14, read it later. It says, "Then you will find your joy in the Lord and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." Close with me in prayer.​ 

Colossians 2:8-23 is a powerful passage in which the Apostle Paul is seeking to warn and protect the Colossian church against the heresies that are facing the church at that time. He is very specific in these verses regarding what it was that was facing the church, what was threatening the church.  As I look at this section of Scripture I begin to get the image of a bully on a playground, or in a school yard, or in other walks of life seeking to intimidate you, to move you, to throw you back, getting what he wants without even a fight through sheer intimidation. You've met these kinds of people.  And there are different kinds of bullies, everything from a young five or six-year-old, who happens to be a little bit bigger than a three or four-year-old, taking toys and there's nothing the three-year-old can do.  All the way up to something far more serious. I think about Adolf Hitler and how he basically bullied the world in the 1930s, taking over land that didn't belong to him, one country after another, just through sheer intimidation. Because Britain, France, and other countries didn't want to fight anymore after World War I, he just took over Czechoslovakia by bullying and intimidating the British Prime Minister. That’s the way they did all their business, jackboots on the cobblestones, middle of the night terror, intimidating people. Nobody wanted to say anything, it was just sheer intimidation. 

I read about organized crime back in the heyday of the Mafia, when they sent henchmen to offer the owner of a neighborhood restaurant $100,000 to buy his business, when it was worth five times that amount. The owner laughed and said “No way.” A week later the Mafia leader himself came and quietly offered the owner $50,000 for it and he took it, because behind it is intimidation, the bullying techniques. It could be a boss who sits across the table and tells you you're not up to the job and you're fired.  At that moment, you're intimidated. Or it could even be in school, in high school or college, where there is a group of people that are just cooler and better than you, smarter in every way, and you just can't measure up. You don't have the cool clothes, you don't fit in, and so they are the “in” group and you're out.  They intimidate you. You're afraid of what they're saying, what they're doing. But more than anything, in all those cases, you feel inside yourself this one feeling that's quite common, "I feel inadequate;” “I can't face it;” "I have to back down;” "I have to give way."  Well, I’ll tell you, all of these forms of bullying come from the same source. They come from the ultimate bully that there ever was and that's Satan. He is the intimidator. He is the bully, and he is seeking to take Christians and intimidate them away from pure, solid doctrine, making them unstable so that they are at his mercy.  He seeks to do it through false doctrine, through lying to us about who and what we are, telling us what we can be if we'll do it his way, through intimidation.

Now, I've heard people use the illustration of the Secret Service whose job, surprisingly, other than protecting important people like the president or vice president, is to fight counterfeiting in our country.  They are trained in fighting counterfeiting by knowing both the real thing and the common counterfeits.  I've heard that they are expertly trained in how the actual dollar or $100 is made; the feel of the cloth, the smell of the ink, every curved line on the engraving plates, the size, the thickness, the sound, every single aspect studied in detail so that immediately, they can spot the counterfeit. They know it so well that they can uncover the counterfeit.  But I talked to someone in Washington, DC, and they said, "Actually, no. We study what the counterfeiters are doing all the time. Yes, we study the real thing and we bank ourselves in knowing, better than anyone, how a real dollar is made; but we also spend lots of time on what the counterfeiters are doing to defeat our measures to make it difficult for them to counterfeit. It's both offense and defense. We're working on it." We see the Apostle Paul doing the very same thing here in Colossians 2:8-23. He tells us what the truth is, who we are in Christ, how full and how complete we are in Christ. Then he uncovers the Colossian heretics who are using four bullies, four intimidators, to get them off of that solid doctrine.  He uncovers them. He exposes them so that the Colossian Christians will be immune to their attacks and their intimidation.  He does both.  So, for me as a pastor, I have to do both too. I can't just tell you what the truth is in Christ. I also have to tell you what falsehoods are out there that you need to be aware of so that you can protect yourself.

There are four intimidators in this text. We're going to look at one of them today and the other three next week. We're going to spend the first part of this message saturating our minds with the truth, just as the Apostle Paul did. We're going to find out, again, who we are in Christ, just how fully, how completely God has met all of our needs in Christ, and then we're going to go face the intimidators with that strong base under us. So, what are these four intimidators? You will see in the text that the first one is philosophy. We'll deal with that one today. Next week we’ll look at: Jewish legalism, asceticism, and mysticism. Now, I do not say that these are the only threats that come from Satan against the church, there are many more than these. But these are the four that were facing the Colossian Christians in their day and they face us still today, so we're going to look at them over the next two weeks.

But first, I want to establish you, to found you on the truth. I basically want to make you happy in Jesus and in right doctrine today. I want to tell you just how happy you should be. And it doesn't matter, at one level, what kind of trials you're going through. It does matter. It should matter to each one of us. We should care about each other, bear each other's burdens. But fundamentally, we are rock solid in Jesus. We are established and firm and not able to be moved from the truths that we're about to talk about. We are complete in Christ. 

The Supremacy of Christ

Let's review a bit for those of you that weren't here over the last few weeks, or just to refresh our memories on right doctrine.  The centerpiece of Colossians 1 is the supremacy of Jesus Christ in all things. Colossians 1:15 and following says, speaking of Jesus Christ, "He is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or powers, or rulers, or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy." The supremacy of Jesus Christ, the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, the head of the church. "For God was pleased," it says in Colossians 1, "to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."  The supremacy of Christ in all things, that's the rock solid foundation of my faith and yours, of my life and yours if you're a Christian. The idea then, here in Colossians 2, is that "Christ is complete, so you're complete in Him." That's it. Christ is a complete Savior. He is completely God in the flesh. So, because He is complete, and because we are in Him, we are complete in Him. Paul repeats this teaching and then links our completeness to Christ's completeness.

Look at Chapter 2, verses 8-10. It says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." If you have Christ, you have everything you need for life and godliness. You have everything you need for a rock solid joy that's impervious, that cannot be shaken by earthly circumstances. This is the solid foundation we have. Christ is fully God, and “in Christ, all the fullness of God dwells in bodily form.” This is a clear statement of what we call the Doctrine of the Incarnation, that God became man. He took on a human body and he has it still, because he's been raised from the dead. He is still human, and he will forever be both God and man. That’s the Doctrine of the Incarnation.

 Christ is Complete, We Are Complete in Him

This is also going to be the doctrinal foundation, the solid ground under Paul's feet, from which he's going to fight some of the philosophies of the Colossian heretics. They said that the body was evil. Coming from Greek philosophy, coming from that whole philosophical background, they said that the body was evil and that salvation came from denying the body and all of its drives, all of its tastes, denying it, getting away from it, and that salvation would, ultimately, be away from anything physical, but a pure spiritual existence. But Paul says, "No, in Christ, all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form." He's got a body, and therefore, the body cannot be evil itself.  Paul then says, "Our fullness is in Christ and it has been given to us." Oh, that is so vital. You have been given fullness in Christ. We spend most of our lives trying to give ourselves fullness, to fill that emptiness inside us. We can't do it. It was made for God, and only God can fill it.  We must be filled by Him, we can't fill ourselves. And here the verse says, "you have been given fullness in Christ." It's already yours. In Christ, we are full. In Christ, we are perfect. In Christ, we are as righteous as we can be. In Christ, we are accepted by God, the Father. And in Christ, we have a full inheritance in the New Heaven and the New Earth. In Christ, we cannot be more secure than we are; we cannot be more full than we are now. And why is this? Well, because "Christ," verse 10, "is the head over every power and authority."

Christ is Head Over All Things

The Colossian heretics were teaching that there were spirit beings in the world, emanations from the creator God, who did whatever they wanted to do.  One of the things they apparently wanted to do was make a physical world, something the purely spiritual God didn't want, so these emanations made this evil world. Christ, as a good emanation, is trying to save us out of the evil, physical world. They were saying that Christ is one of those spirit being emanations. "No," Paul says, "Christ is ruler over all rulers, and authorities, and powers, and dominions. He created them, He sustains them, every moment of their existence. He will bring them to judgment. He is the King over all things." Christ is the head over every power and authority. Remember in Chapter 1 verse 16 it says "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him."  Christ actually rules over Satan and his evil kingdom. Glory, Hallelujah! Praise God for that. Christ and Satan are nowhere close to being equals. He is the infinite God who rules over all things. Satan trembles before Jesus. He's filled with rage because he knows his time is short. Who makes his time short? Jesus does, because he'll come back and overthrow Satan by the breath of His mouth, and he'll be finished. This is the authority of Jesus, the power of Jesus over those evil spirit beings. He is the King over all things.

So, this is the doctrinal basis of our fullness in Christ. Now, what good truths flow from this to us? How can we be filled by it? You may have come this morning feeling empty. Well, my desire is that you would walk out of here feeling full. Full, and rich, and complete with doctrine, with teaching that you could read right in the text of Colossians. And you can have this for yourself. You can go home and say, "Just give me a Bible. I want to see what He said.” And there it is, it's right there. That's my desire, to fill you up with the text and with Christ, so you know all the river of healing, flowing clear as crystal from the throne of God, with the tree of life on both sides, and the leaves of the trees for the healing of the nations.

Fully Circumcised

You can find healing for yourself, and fullness for yourself.  You don't need to take that emptiness and fill it through some sensual pleasure. That's not going to do it for you. Find it in Christ, right here in the passage that we're looking at. He says in verses 11-15, “we are fully circumcised spiritually." Look at verse 11, "In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with a circumcision done by Christ." Now, you might think that's an odd place to begin. We are full. How are we full in Christ? Well first, we are fully circumcised. I'm taking the text in the order I find it and so we are fully circumcised (spiritually) in Christ. Why does He mention it? Well, because next week we're going to look at Jewish legalism, and the entry door into legalism for these Colossian Gentiles was circumcision. It was an entry way into a whole different kind of life, a life they couldn't even begin to know would be so burdensome. The Jews had borne that burden for generations and they couldn't carry it, the burden of legalism, and circumcision was a symbol of that. Physical circumcision was a religious ceremony ushering someone into a life of ongoing submission to the rules and regulations of the Old Covenant.

The dirty doctrine of legalism is this: "By keeping rules and regulations, you can earn forgiveness from God, a good standing with Him, and a rich, warm welcome from Him. By keeping the rules and regulations, God will forgive you and accept you." That is the false teaching of legalism that we'll get to next week.  Circumcision was a symbol of that. However, the true circumcision is not something done by the hands of men to the body, but rather, it's something done by the Spirit of God to the soul, in which that old person we were in Adam is cut away from us forever, and we will never be that person again. We are a new creation in Christ. How sweet is that? We have a new existence and the old has been cut away and thrown away forever. It's a circumcision not done by the hands of men, but a circumcision done by the Spirit of God.

The Old Covenant symbol was circumcision. The New Covenant symbol is baptism. Paul mentions it here in verse 12, "having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."  But please, friends, don't make a mistake. It is from this verse that our friends in the Gospel who believe in infant baptism take a strong connection between circumcision and baptism. He's not saying that, believe me. The Apostle Paul is not trading one religious ritual for another. In both cases, the spiritual circumcision and the true Baptism, both of them are done by the Spirit of God. And water baptism doesn't save anybody.  You can get water baptized and still go to hell. I hope you know that. Don't be banking on the fact that you were baptized. What he's saying now is that the true baptism is a union with Christ, in which you have been united with Jesus on the cross spiritually, buried with Him, and then raised to new life spiritually. You have been united with Christ and He is your fullness; He's your completeness. We are now fully circumcised in Christ. We don't need the religious ritual anymore.

 Fully Alive

Secondly, we are fully alive. I feel it today. I can't tell you how grateful I am to be a Christian today, just to be here, the privilege of being alive, being forgiven, knowing that all my best things are yet to come. There's a joy there, isn't there? Fully alive.  Are you fully alive? Are you fully alive in Christ? Well, if you're a Christian you are fully alive. That's what it says in verse 13, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ." In Ephesians Chapter 2, Paul basically says, "Before you were Christians, you were spiritually dead while you lived." It's a horror story of the worst degree, "Night of the Living Dead." And not just "Night of the Living Dead, it's night and day of the living dead. It's a whole life of being a living dead. Physically alive? Yes. Biologically alive? Yes. But spiritually dead.” "Dead in your transgressions and sins while you lived," it says in Ephesians. And here it says, "you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature." Therefore, friends, every single Christian is a miracle of God's grace, a resurrection. It's a resurrection.

I love it when skeptics, the big, strong, macho types say, "Christianity is just a crutch for the weak." Have you ever heard that? "Christianity is just a crutch for the weak." I say, "Well, you overestimate us. Christianity's not a crutch for the weak, it's a resurrection for the dead. You give us too much credit, as though we can limp along. We can't even limp along when we're dead. It's no crutch, it's a resurrection." And what does it teach of what it was like for us spiritually, before we were saved, before we were converted, before the Spirit of God called us from the grave spiritually? If you went to a morgue and pulled out a slab, pulled back the cloth and wanted to stimulate that corpse, what would you do? Take a flashlight and shine it in its eyes. Will it respond? Will the pupils dilate? What will happen? Get a pin and poke it in the foot. Will it jump? Will it jerk? Get some loud music, a boom box or something like that, crank it up. You can choose any music you want. It will not respond, it's a corpse. The essence of being dead is inability, okay? The greatest picture of inability you'll ever see is a dead man lying on a slab. It doesn’t matter what you say, it doesn't matter what you do. You cannot motivate, you cannot move that person if God doesn't move first. But let me tell you something. When Jesus stands before Lazarus' tomb and He calls forth and gives Lazarus a command, "Lazarus, come forth," He doesn't just speak the words, friends, He gives a power, a supernatural power of life to Lazarus, and then Lazarus chooses to get up and come forth and love Jesus, and come out in the sunshine and eat a celebratory meal with Him. He chooses to do all of that. "I choose to follow Jesus, but His choice came first and His powerful working in me came first. He gave me life when I was dead.”  Amen! He gave me life and He gave life to you too. And therefore, if you're a Christian today, you are a miracle of God's grace. In Him, we are fully alive.

Fully Forgiven

Thirdly, we are fully forgiven. Isn't that sweet? Not partially forgiven. How many of us would like to be partially forgiven before God? That's not going to do you any good on Judgment Day, friends, if He doesn't give it. It's all or nothing on this one. But look what it says, "He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross." Oh, how sweet is this meditation? Full and complete forgiveness of all of our sins. Meditate on that. God was keeping a perfect record of every single transgression of His law. Every angry moment, every careless word spoken, every lustful thought, every covetous desire, every selfish action, a complete and perfect record for Judgment Day. And it says in Romans Chapter 2, "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done," and His records are perfect. 

But now, in Christ, we are completely forgiven. I can't say it richly enough, we are completely forgiven. He forgave us all our sins. The record of our sins has been removed and our sins have been hurled into the depths of the sea to be remembered no more. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. He has put a barrier between His perfect vision and our sins, and that barrier is the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. That's what He put there; that's what He sees, not our sins.  Oh, the happy blessedness of this situation. "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit." We don't need to be deceptive about this before God, He knows. We say, "Lord, forgive me." We're just open and confessing because we are forgiven. We are completely forgiven and this verse says so, "He forgave us all our sins." How would you like to stand before God and receive from Him 90% forgiveness? All you’ve got left now is 10% and you’ve got to deal with that on your own. How about 99% forgiveness from God? Will that be of any use to you on Judgment Day? As I said to you before, "It's all or nothing." This verse says it’s ALL. Praise be to God.

 I prayed that God would bring someone here today who is not a Christian to hear this. Are your sins forgiven? Because it's not true that He forgave all people all their sins. He forgives those who come to the cross and ask. He forgives those who trust in Jesus. Have you done that? Have you repented and turned away from your sin and received from Him the free gift of forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ? Are your sins forgiven? And if they're not, can I urge you, right now, to look in your heart to Christ and trust in Him and His promises, and believe that His death is your death; His resurrection, your resurrection; His righteousness, your righteousness. Believe in it. Trust in Him. He forgave us ALL our sins. And if you are a Christian, I'd tell you that I don't meditate on this enough. I still feel the weight of guilt far more than I ever should.  Hebrews says that, "He can cleanse a guilty conscience.” Let Him do it. He forgave us all our sins so we are fully free.

Fully Free from the Law

We're also fully free from the Law. Look what it says, "He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with it's regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross."  Now, I’ll discuss the Jewish legalists next week, but they were trying to slip a yoke of slavery back on the necks of the Colossian Christians. It was a legal bondage from the requirements of the Law: "Do this and you will live; Do it perfectly and you will live eternally." It was a yoke of bondage that no one could undo except one person, Jesus. Jesus removed the yoke on our behalf, and in so doing, He freed us from needing to do it ourselves. He has freed me from the yoke and the burden of the Law. It says in Romans 6:14, "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." Romans 7:6, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."  You can live under grace or you can live under the Law; you can live by the power of the Spirit or by the power of the flesh. Those are your two options. One way leads to death, because you cannot perfectly obey the commands of God.

I've thought a lot about this.  What does it mean? Does it mean that I don't have to follow any laws, that I can do whatever I want because the Law doesn't matter to me anymore? Of course not, that's not what it's saying. Do I still need to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength? Do I still need to love my neighbor as myself? Of course I do. I'm just at a level now that I don't need to be commanded to do that; or at least ultimately, in the end, I will not. There will be no need for laws in Heaven.

Let me ask you a question: You're a Christian, a spirit-filled man or woman, walking with the Lord all these many years. You want to fly so you go to the airport and they make you take your shoes off. Why? Why are they going through your luggage? Why are they confiscating your three ounces of shampoo because you didn't have it down to two ounces? Why did they take my daughter's knitting needles in Paris? I'm trying to picture my daughter hijacking a plane with knitting needles.   It's quite a picture, isn't it? "If she can do that," I've said before, "she doesn't need the knitting needles, she can just do it." I can’t remember if they were plastic or metal, but they're gone, and I’m thinking why? 1 John says, "The reason the world does not know us is that they did not know him." They don't know who we are. I am no threat, zero threat to the airplane in terms of hijacking. There is no chance I will hijack that plane that day, zero. But I know that they can't tell the difference between me and somebody who would, and so I take off my shoes, I understand what's going on, etc. But there'll come a day when we won't need that.  I won't need to be told in Heaven to love God with all my heart. I will love Him with all my heart because I'll have a new heart. And I won't need to be commanded to love my neighbor as myself, I just will, and so will you. We're not under the Law now, but we read the Law to find out what kind of life God requires, what a righteous life looks like. And someday we'll be free from even that; we will all be taught by God and we'll be free from it forever.

Fully Triumphant Over Satan

We're not under the Law and we are fully triumphant over Satan. Satan is a loser. He is filled with rage because he knows his time is short. You should be filled with joy because you know your time is eternal. He's the loser. We're not going to get thrown in the lake of fire, he is.nColossians 2 verse 15 tells us, "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." The image is of a Roman general who wins a battle and then takes his captives and walks down the center of Rome parading those captives, perhaps some Germanic tribal chieftains whose warlike prowess has been harassing the borders of the empire, and finally, these men have been captured and put in chains and are being paraded around to display their powerlessness before Rome. Jesus did that to the powers and the authorities; he disarmed them and made a public spectacle of them. How did He do it? By dying, of all things. It was by His death that He disarmed them. It says in Hebrews, "Since the children," that's you and I, "have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in bondage by their fear of death." Jesus destroyed Satan by dying. He disarmed Satan, took the weapons out of his hand and made him powerless. Powerless to do what? Well, a lot of things, but powerless to bring you with him to hell. He can't do that. He cannot accuse you on Judgment Day and have it make a single bit of difference to the Judge. Jesus disarmed him by dying on the cross; there is our fullness. And by the way, think much on this promise in Romans 16:20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet." Oh, I long for that day. We are full and complete, friends, in Christ, fully circumcised spiritually. We are fully alive, we are fully forgiven, we are fully free from the law, and fully triumphant over Satan.

So, we've stared at the good doctrine; we've looked at the “good dollar bill,” we know what it is. Now, what about the falsehood? Well, four of them are going to come to our attention, one this week and three next week. The first one is human philosophy. Let's go back to verse 8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”  By the way, this is what Satan does. Satan comes along and he hears all this doctrine, you know what I mean? I've said all these true things and you have every right, with me, in Christ, to be very happy right now. But Satan, he comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. So what's he going to do? He's going to start telling you things, "Yeah, but if only the pastor knew this about me," or, "If only that," or, "If only the other." He starts to intimidate like a bully. He starts to tell you, "You're not full, you're not complete. You need to add some other things." He was saying that to the Colossian Christians, "You need to add human philosophy. You need to add the Jewish rituals, all that Jewish religion. You need to add asceticism, a harsh treatment of the body. You need to add the mysticism, the worship of angels, and all the special stuff that we can do. You add these things, then you'll be full and complete in Christ." Well, that's what he's doing, he's telling us we're incomplete; but I tell you that we are complete and we're going to face these bullies.

Now, what is philosophy? Well, it's literally a love of wisdom. Generally speaking, what I mean by philosophy, what this text means, it's the human effort to craft meaning from the universe. Ultimate questions of being: Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? What happens when I die? What is right and wrong, and why should I do the right and not the wrong? These are the questions that philosophy seeks to answer. Generally, philosophy is organized in three main headings: What is ultimate reality? That's called metaphysics. How can I know anything? That's called epistemology. Why does it matter or how should I act? That's ethics. These are the three main branches of philosophy.

 Obviously, you know from the Bible, there's nothing wrong with loving wisdom. The real issue here is where do you get it from? What is your source of wisdom? That's the issue. Paul does not refute all philosophy. He refutes a kind of philosophy, look again at verse 8, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of the world rather than on Christ." This would be Christ-less philosophy, a philosophy that's not Christ-centered, Word-centered, that is what he's talking about here. I think some Christians are called upon to be Christian philosophers and to do battle on that front on behalf of the church, and to do good work. C.S. Lewis once said, "Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason than bad philosophy needs to be countered." We need good philosophers to fight the bad philosophers, so that's fine. 

But philosophy has a long and sordid history of attacking the body of Christ, and it's gotten worse as time has gone on. In Romans Chapter 1 it says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." Philosophy's gotten darker and darker as time has gone on, and some of it's downright depressing. David Hume, a 17th century British philosopher, said this about his own philosophical system, "I am at first affrighted and confounded with that forlorn solitude [loneliness], in which I am placed in my philosophy." Well, give it up then. If it's depressing, then give it up. If it's making you downright depressed, and forlorn, and suicidal, then give it up. But there's David Hume, "I'm frightened by it and it makes me lonely." Or René Descartes, who's not even sure whether he exists, until he comes up with, "I think, therefore I am." "Oh, at last, I know whether I exist. I'm thinking, so I must exist." This man has issues.

The 19th century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, posited a German Superman from which the Nazis got their model. It doesn't need God, doesn't need anything, totally independent. He was the first to proclaim that, "God is dead," but he couldn't live out his empty philosophies. He spent the last 11 years of his life insane and then committed suicide. 20th century French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was an atheist, he hated humanity. One of his characters in his play called "Nausea”... [A play called "Nausea." Why would you go to see it? Why would you want to read it?] said, "Hell is other people." Hell is other people? How can you live like that? Isn't that going to affect the way you look at other people? Certainly it is. Well, this is what Sartre said, "We were a heap of existences, uncomfortable, embarrassed at ourselves, we hadn't the slightest reason to be there, none of us, each one confused, vaguely alarmed, felt superfluous in relation to the others . . . And I myself, I too was superfluous . . . I dream vaguely of killing myself to wipe out at least one of these superfluous existences.  But even my death would have been superfluous." Now, that's a depressed individual, a dark philosophy. Why would we drink at these fountains? 

Philosophy is a great danger.  Paul warns, "See to it." He's using strong language, "See to it. Be diligent. Be vigilant. Get the watchman up on the walls to watch out for this stuff because it's so invasive. It starts to creep in and affect the way you think. You need vigilance in that no one takes you captive." That's wartime language, like we are booty, being dragged off like slaves to be in their village and cut their wood and carry their water for them. We're going to live on the philosopher's plantation and suffer there. Why would we want to be taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophy? Clearly Paul sees this as a great danger. But many philosophers have affected the church badly. Plato taught the church that the body is evil and some believed him, like we see here. Aristotle laid out a foundation for transubstantiation which the Roman Catholics bought into, teaching that the bread and the juice literally become the body and the blood of Jesus, and that by eating it you are saved. It's false doctrine, but it comes from Aristotle. Immanuel Kant said, "Basically, you can’t know anything."  Really? You're not really sure about anything, and therefore, he's questioning revelation, questioning the Word of God. He's basically doing the serpent's role, saying, "Did God really say?" He destroyed most of the philosophical basis for the proof of the existence of God. Evolution, Darwinism has crept in, existentialism, psychology, inclusivism, post-modernism, it's just there. It's like a seeping fog wanting to creep in and pollute the pure mind of the people of God.

Philosophy is defeated in Christ.  "See to it that no one takes you captive." Paul warns about this also in 1 Corinthians when he says, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believed." God is so wise here. He said, "You'll not think your way to me. You'll not think your way to salvation. You'll not think your way by studying the world and coming up with an organized system. You must passively receive truth, and believe it, and then I will save you." Christ will be for you. Wisdom from God and righteousness from God, He will give it to you as a gift if you'd just be a humble beggar and ask Him for it.  Paul says again in 1 Corinthians 1, "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God." Let Christ be your philosophy. You don't need these empty human philosophies.

What application can we take from this? Well, first of all, praise God for your fullness in Christ. We're about to go to the Lord's Supper. As you are waiting and the elements are being passed, can you simply spend some time thanking God for your fullness in Christ? And if you came here empty, because you're not a Christian, perhaps, at the moment when I preached the Gospel to you, then you believed. You're already full in Christ, but if you haven't yielded your life to Christ yet, don't take the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is for baptized believers. Don't take the Lord's Supper, but take this occasion to repent of your sins and trust in Christ, so that the next time we do the Lord's Supper, you'll be a baptized believer and then you can partake. And if you are a Christian, don't just give thanks for the good truths you've heard, but be on your guard against philosophy. Don't think you're immune. Take captive every thought. You may be a college student at Duke, or UNC, or another college. Take what the professors say and ask, "Is it true? Is it Christ-centered? Is it right?" Find out if it's true. I want to close in prayer, and then we'll go to our time of celebration of the Lord's Supper.

Well, I'll, for myself, never forget the night of December 4th, 2002. That was the night of the great ice storm. Those of you who lived here at that time, you remember it too. Some of you were without power for as much as a week after that. It was a special time for me, sleeping in my office here at the church, I'd never done that before, and having my family around. And it really was a special memory. It's amazing how times of trial like that can actually end up being very sweet memories as life is shaken up a bit and you realize you don't really need all the things you think you need. And you really just need to be together in Christ. But that ice storm was really kind of a marvel to me. I was raised in New England and it used to just snow. You just got blizzards. But we live in a kind of intermediate region in the eastern part of the US. And so, north of us that day was snow and south was rain, and we were right on a band, and all we got was ice. And it was terrible too, because the ice coated each of the branches with a thick coat. And as the storm progressed, and the evening progressed, some of those trees started coming down. And I will never forget, in the middle of the night, hearing just cracks, terrible cracks, and crashes and bangs in my yard, and getting a flashlight and going out to inspect it. It was 2:00 in the morning. What was I thinking? It may be the closest I'll ever be to a war zone, as literally tons of tree-age, if that's a word, was just falling to the ground. Some of you will email me this week, and it isn't a word. But I know it's not a word. But tons of tree was falling down. Actually, while I was out there for about 10 minutes, one tree came within 15 feet of me, and that's when I knew I needed to get back inside.

I got my family up and we spent the night in the living room and on the first floor, so that if any trees came crashing down, we would be safe, relatively safe. And then the next day, with the sun coming up, I looked at the damage and it was awful. We lost ourself 40 trees. Some of those trees, later they were cut by chainsaw, we were able to count the rings were 30 or 40 years old. And they met their match that night in that ice storm. Most of them though, were loblolly pines. I'll never forget that because the branches on our trees, at least, were really way up high. There weren't any branches down lower. And all of the ice was up heavy, and it was just very top heavy, and they just came toppling over one after the other. And in doing so, they ripped up their roots, and you could just see the roots. And it was tough because there was a soaking rain for a few days before the ice storm. And the ground was soft, and the root system of those trees was proved to be inadequate.

And that brings us to our text today. Is your root system adequate for the tests and trials that are going to face you for the rest of your life? You'll not get a free pass to Heaven. You're not going to have an easy journey from this point forward until at last you see Christ face to face. You're going to face trials and difficulties. Jesus promised, “in this world you will have trouble.” My question to you individually is, is your root system adequate for what you're going to face? Or is it going to be proved to be... By being ripped up, is it going to be proved to be inadequate? And I'm not just thinking individually now, but I think Paul really is writing corporately to the church, to the Colossian Church, speaking about their society, their community together. Is their community root system adequate for the trials that they're going to face? And so that's something that we ask. Much of the Christian life is hidden. You can't see it. You go into your room and you close the door, and you pray to your Father, who's unseen, and Father sees what is done in secret. He rewards, he blesses. So much of our devotional life is private. We don't read the Bible out in public, not that we're embarrassed, but we feed ourselves in the morning in the quiet time. How is your root system? And then as I look at the church here, are we united? Are we together? Are we facing the challenges as a healthy church should? What is our root system corporately?

Now, you probably don't spend a lot of time thinking about roots. I mean, physical roots. Like those gnarly, kind of dirty little things that get ripped up. And for myself, after the loblolly pines went down, I didn't like seeing all of the roots up, they're just not attractive. But without the root system, the tree dies. Roots are just an astonishing creation by God. Literally, in some fully-developed elm trees, there might be as many as 14 million roots, and as many as 14 billion tiny little root hairs that in an amazing way suck water and nutrients in various... Just chemicals out of the soil, taking only as much as needed. And then, in a kind of a fireman bucket brigade, passing it up to a leaf, let's say, as far as a 100 feet off the ground. And so you see a picture of cooperation. I see the picture of the Body of Christ in the issue of the root system here. Colossians 2:1-7 speaks of that root system being Christ and Christ alone.

Paul’s Loving Struggle

Look at verses six and seven. It says, "So then, just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him," verse seven, "Rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." As we come to this passage, we're looking at our roots in Christ. And Paul speaks of a struggle that he has, and he's struggling for them in verse one. He says, "I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally." So he has a personal struggle. And that struggle is to see the church growing up into full maturity in Christ. He wants to see them built up. Now what is the nature of Paul's struggle?

First of all, Paul is struggling, and the implication of that struggle is that there's an adversary to what he's trying to achieve, and friends, there is. Just as I said, so much of the Christian life is invisible. So also there is an invisible foe, Satan, with his kingdom that is organized against us and against what Paul is seeking to do. Paul is struggling for the church in Colossae. He's struggling in his ministry and he's struggling specifically against Satan. Now that struggle is pictured in many places. In Ephesians chapter 6 it says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." You're not going to see them with your eyes but there's a struggle. I know we may think our struggle is against people but it really isn't. But rather against demonic forces in the heavenly realms.

Why the Struggle?

This struggle is pictured for us in the Book of Daniel. Daniel set his mind to praying about the future of Israel, seeking God's face in prayer, dedicating himself to that and praying. And God sent an angelic messenger to give him an answer but it took that angelic messenger 21 days to reach Daniel, 21 days. And it's amazing if you look at the description of this angelic messenger in Daniel 10:1-6, it says, "His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze and his voice like the sound of a multitude." This is a mighty angel. A warrior angel and he's come with a message from God to the praying man, Daniel. Daniel is so overwhelmed by the sight of this angelic messenger that he falls down on his face speechless on the ground, and yet, this mighty angel couldn't get past a satanic, perhaps even Satan himself, opposition so that it took 21 days.

The angel himself said this, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have now come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there by the prince of Persia." That is a struggle in the heavenly realms, that it took two mighty angels to get a message past this prince of Persia, whoever he was. May have been Satan himself or maybe just one of Satan's most powerful demons. Do you not see the power then that Satan has arrayed against the church and the great struggle the church would have in the spiritual realms were it not for the power of Almighty God? And do you not see why Martin Luther would say in A mighty Fortress Is Our God, "Did we in our own strength confide," that means put your trust in. "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God's own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He. Lord Sabaoth, Lord Almighty is His name, from age to age the same. He must win the battle." But there is a battle, there is a struggle. And Paul says, "I want you to know how much I am struggling for you." So he's struggling.

The Weaponry of Paul’s Struggle

Now what are the weapons of his struggle? The weapons that we make are immense and powerful for destroying things. You think about thermonuclear devices, mega-tonnage of dynamite that just takes things that were orderly and together and just blows them apart. That's what we can do. But God's weapons are exactly the opposite. They take chaos, they take destruction and they put it back together into a beautiful unity. And that's even more powerful, even more awesome, isn't it? And what are the weapons that we have in our struggle? And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, "Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we're ready to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ." So there's a struggle in the world of ideas and concepts and satanic doctrines, but the ultimate end of it is beauty and order and structure. And so Paul is struggling mightily and his weapons are the same as that of all the apostles. We have the weapon of prayer and the weapon of the Word of God. These are the weapons that Paul uses to the building of Christ's kingdom. And so he speaks about prayer. Paul's struggle for the Colossians is directly in prayer primarily. If you look at Colossians 4:12, it says there, "Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings." And there it says, "He is always wrestling in prayer for you." Do you see that? So here's this servant of God, Epaphras, and he is wrestling in prayer. He's struggling for the church in Colossae that they would be fully established. So Paul is struggling and wrestling in prayer. The word he uses in Colossians 2 is 'agon' from which we get agony, there's a struggle in prayer.

Now, why is prayer a struggle? Well, it's a struggle because Satan opposes it so violently. It was in prayer that Daniel was that Satan sought to oppose not just the answer but the praying itself. Do you find your prayer life to be a struggle? Is it hard for you to pray? It is for me. It's hard for me to continue in prayer. Satan opposes the action of prayer, he fights it with temptations. He fights it with boredom, with lack of compassion. He fights it with all kinds of thoughts. Anything to get the man or woman of God off their knees. Whatever it takes, he's going to fight, and so Paul says, "I'm struggling for you in prayer." He also struggles with the ministry of the Word. We already saw in Colossians 1, "We proclaim him," it says, "Admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom." The proclamation of the word. He says, "To present the word of God to you in its fullness." And so these two go together, the ministry of prayer and the ministry of the word of God, they go together. But Paul says that it's labor, it's a sense of struggle. At the end of Colossians 1, go back to Colossians 1 in verse 28 and 29, it says, "We proclaim Him, Christ, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end, I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me." And so we have the ministry of the Apostle Paul in prayer and also in the Word of God. Now, what is his end goal? What is He seeking for in the Colossian church? Well, look at Colossians 1:9-12, we already preached on this in the first message I preached in Colossians but this describes it better than any other passage. He says, "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this, in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way. Bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light."

The root system there that he's praying for, if you can put it all together, is he's praying for Christ-likeness in them, Christ-like maturity resulting in a life of persistent fruitfulness. And thirdly, perseverance, no matter what Satan throws at him. Those three things: Christ-likeness, fruitfulness, and perseverance over a long period of time, that's the root system he wants to see develop in them. And to that end, he labors, he labors in prayer, he labors also in the ministry of the Word of God. Now, what is the nature of a healthy church? A healthy root system? What does he say in Colossians 2 from this point on? Well, he wants to see the church established. He cares about that church, even though he's never seen it. He doesn't know them personally, yet he wants to see that church fully-established. And he begins with the issue of encouragement in heart.

Encouragement in Heart

Look at verse 2, he says, "My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart." One of Satan's number one weapons against the advance of the Gospel is the weapon of discouragement, the weapon of discouragement. He wants to get us down. He wants to get us depressed, listless, lifeless, can't get up out of bed almost spiritually, sometimes, maybe even physically, just down. And so he begins with this issue of discouragement. He says, "My purpose, that they may be encouraged in heart." The Greek word here is parakletos, from which we get, in John, Paraclete, the comforter. And so he says I want to see the ministry of the comforter coming in the life of these Christians, that the Holy Spirit might be alongside them, encouraging them along the way, that they not get down. Satan, I think it's got to be his number one strategy to keep us from taking the field against him. He knows the power of our offensive weaponry.

We already quoted in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, weapons of righteousness in the right hand and the left, he can't defeat it. The “Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes,” he can't stop that. Offensive weaponry for the building of the church, he cannot oppose it. "The Word of God cannot be broken!" Jesus said in John 10, he can't fight it. What about our defensive weaponry? Well, Ephesians 6 talks about the mighty armor of God, “the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” The “breastplate of righteousness,” “the helmet of salvation,” all of that is effective for protecting the Christian warrior. Alright, well, what's he going to do then? He can't penetrate our defensive armor, he can't oppose the strength of the Word of God. All he can do is to keep the Christian soldier from taking the battlefield at all. So you don't put on your armor, you don't take up the weapons, and you don't take the field against him. And the way he does that is through discouragement.

He lies to you, he just flat out lies. It's never going to work, it's ineffective. Nothing's ever going to come of any of it. Word of God doesn't really have power, people's lives really aren't being changed. Christ really isn't building his church, Gates of Hades actually are winning. He lies, so that we will not continue in our fruitful ministries. And so he gives this issue of discouragement, and I'll tell you every servant of God, no matter how powerful in the Word, no matter how effective in ministry, every single one of them has faced issues of depression and discouragement in ministry. All of them have. The apostle Paul faced it, even his letters Epistle of Joy in Philippians, he talks about how “God had spared Epaphroditus from death, and spared not only him but also me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow.” Even in the Epistle of Joy, he's talking about “sparing me sorrow upon sorrow.” And he says in 2 Corinthians 4:8, "We're hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed, but not in despair." You see, he's tempted with it, he's struggling with it, but he overcomes it, it's a constant battle. “You know that everybody in the province of Asia has deserted me.” He says, 2 Timothy 1. Looks at his ministry, and there seems to be nothing left. Apostle Paul, battled discouragement.

Martin Luther, one of the great soldiers of the Gospel. 1529, he was so discouraged with his preaching ministry in Wittenberg, that he told them he wasn't preaching ever again. Now, he was a professor at the university, and he said, "I'm going to go on with that work, but I'm not preaching to you people anymore." Now, Luther was a bold man, I wouldn't say these things to any congregation, but I like reading them, but just because I think he's an interesting man. But this is what he preached to his own congregation. Actually, he wasn't the pastor there, but frequently, a pastor would urge him to preach, and this is what he said, "The time will come... " Now this is Luther, this ain't me now. I'm quoting, you understand that, please nod. This is what he said, "The time will come when you who now have an abundance of preaching will long for a single sermon, but your impudence is so great that you have no appreciation for preaching. I'm unwilling to preach to you anymore. I would rather preach to raving dogs, because there's no use doing it with you and it's offensive to me. So I shall leave preaching to the pastor and his assistants, and I'll stick to my lecturing." Okay, I'm out of Luther now. But why did he say this? Well, he was discouraged. He was just discouraged. He thought that Wittenberg would be like a city on a hill. He thought it would be a bright, shining evidence of what happens when you preach the true gospel. Instead, they hadn't changed much. They were unregenerate in the days of the Roman Catholic era, and they were unregenerate in the Protestant era as well. And so these same people, not of all them, many were saved, but he's talking about the city, the town, all of those people. He was just discouraged. He lists things like ingratitude, lack of self-discipline, firing of guns under his window. Hardheadedness, shameless dress, adultery, profiteering, and thievery. And the ones who didn't do these things just laughed at the ones who did. And above all, he said, was their drunkenness, which he called, 'The great vice of us Germans'. He was discouraged, discouraged. Then there's Adoniram Judson, he was an 18th century missionary to Burma, used by God, to ultimately, lead tens of thousands of Burmese to faith in Christ. Not directly, but he led many and then it just grew and grew. Amazing work of God. But after his wife died of a tropical fever, very shockingly, he didn't expect it, but out of nowhere, she took sick and died while he was away, in the space of about a week. Came back for her funeral, and he said of his beloved wife, Annie, he said, "Over there lies, enclosed in a coffin, in the form of her I so much loved the wife of my youth, the source and center of my domestic happiness." Judson at that point, entered into a period of deep depression. He built a little hut out in a jungle. He dug his own grave and sat there and stared at it for hours and hours on end, just staring into a pit. He wrote, "God is to me the great unknown, I believe in Him, but I find Him not." Gave all his money away to the mission and just sat and waited to die. Over time God ministered to him, recovered him, and his ministry really prospered in an amazing way after that. But he was facing the pit of discouragement.

Charles Spurgeon, who really is one of the most joyful, energetic ministers of the word of God ever, he said he battled depression and discouragement his whole Christian ministry. And in teaching and lectures to his students, he talked about the minister's fainting fits, and this is what he said, "As it is recorded that David in the heat of battle waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord, fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful, as we may be, we must, at intervals, be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise are not always ready, the brave are not always courageous, and the joyous are not always happy." 

And so it is, do you face that ever?  Are you ever discouraged in your Christian life? Do you ever face, you look at your ministry and think it should be further along than it is? You look at your Christian life and you wonder why you still battle the same sins you battled 10 years ago? You don't see the progress in your knowledge of the Word of God or in prayer that you should. It's so easy to get discouraged. And so Paul says, "I pray that they might be encouraged in heart." Secondly, he mentions, united in love. United in love. Not only does the church have to be encouraged in heart, and by the way, you may ask, "How can I be encouraged in heart?" To me, the remedy is clear, go to the Word of God and draw in the promises of God again. Strengthen your faith by the promises of God. Remind yourself that God cannot lie, that He will minister to you. Ask Him to lead you to a Psalm or to some place, where He'll minister to your depression and discouragement. And He will show you by His word everything you need to see. It is the Word of God that rescues us and draws us back, I'll say more about that later.

But the ministry of encouragement is something that every Christian leader must do. By the way, if you have the gift of encouragement, use it, use it. You may not be called to be a pastor, you may not be a teacher or a leader or a gift of administration, but if you have that gift of encouragement, the church needs you to do it.

Unity in Love

So just pour it on because Satan is pouring on the discouragement. Second issue, as I mentioned, is unity in love. Look at verse two, "That they may be united in love." The Greek word literally means knit together, that their hearts might be knit together. Satan's always working against the unity of the church. Paul wants them to be bound together as one person, contending together for the Gospel. As he says in Philippians, he wants them to be united. Now, this issue of unity is a constant issue in Paul's ministry, but I think it's really sublime in Jesus' High Priestly Prayer. In Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, He prays in John 17, "I've given them the glory that you gave me that they may be one, as we are one. I in them and you in me, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me."

Now, just stop right there for a moment, think about it. As the church makes progress toward unity, the world, observing, sees and knows that the Father sent the Son. That's incredible. It's very much like Jesus said in John 13, he said, "A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, will all men know, that you are my disciples if you love one another." Francis Schaeffer, commenting on both passages said this, in John 13, the point was that if an individual Christian doesn't show love toward other true Christians, the world has a right to judge that that person is not a Christian. In John 17, Jesus is stating something which is more cutting, more profound. We cannot expect the world to believe that the Father sent the Son, that Jesus's claims are true, and that Christianity is true, unless the world sees some reality of the oneness of true Christians. In other words, the world has a right to judge that we're not Christians, if we're not loving, and the world, it seems has a right to judge that Jesus isn't the Son of God, if we're not brought to complete unity. That's astonishing.

And this is all the more true when there is surprising unity, when you see groups that ordinarily wouldn't get together, worshipping together. I had the privilege of ministering with some missionaries in Eastern Europe, and we talked about Serbs and Croats who had each come to faith in Christ and were worshipping in the same place, and how their communities were just astonished to see that kind of unity. Imagine if a Palestinian and a Jewish person, each of them came to faith in Christ and groups of them are worshipping together in Palestine. What a display of supernatural unity. There are so many divisions in the world. What if in the American setting you have Blacks and Whites, and also internationals, Hispanics, all kinds of people, worshipping in one place as a display of surprising unity, the world can see the power of the Gospel. I yearn to see that in this place, that we might be united in love, you ought to pray for it. We have the beginnings of it, but we could see more and more of it, couldn't we? More and more of it. So I'm praying for that, that we'll have an effective outreach to the community right around the church. And that we would see more and more internationals coming to faith in Christ. So there'll be a clear display of surprising unity to let the world know that the Father sent the Son. United in love.

Complete Understanding

Thirdly, “that they might have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they might know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Complete understanding. Hidden treasure. Like any little kid, their eyes start to glow, "Read me a story about hidden treasure, like pirate treasure." Or like one of those Spanish galleons that went down, and in the 21st century, some treasure hunters go and they're able to get the gold that blooms up out of the sunken ship, hidden treasure. Or you hear the stories about the Declaration of Independence being found in some attic, or some painting by El Greco, suddenly showing up in your attic. You have a painting by El Greco up in your attic. You might want to bring it out and cash it in, and use the money for the advance of the kingdom.

Do it now while there is time. But this hidden treasure, Paul here says that the treasure is doctrine, friends. The treasure is truth about Christ, and you're going to find it hidden in Christ. The false teachers, the Colossian false teachers were saying, "You need some hidden doctrines, some hidden truths". You could be an initiate, an insider, you could get the secret trade words, the secret passwords. And if you had that secret knowledge, you could ascend, kind of in a spiral way up through the heavens and become more and more freed from the body, and up into the spiritual realms. If you had their secret passwords of knowledge. The whole thing's false. We'll talk more about that in weeks to come. But instead you want hidden treasure, it's found in Christ, and in Christ alone. And it comes through complete understanding the issue of doctrine of doctrinal truth. And he says that also, that there might be protection from false doctrine. Look what he says, verse four, "I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments." Paul must fight the battle against deception.

Protection from False Doctrine

It is important for me, as a pastor, not only to teach positively, the positive truths about Christ, but to expose and uncover, negatively, errors that are current in the day. I can't just say the truth, the positive things. I must also say, what is Satan doing to pervert the truth right now? And that's tough because sometimes those ideas take root in people's minds and you have to root them out and it's not easy. But the issue is that none of us would be deceived by fine-sounding arguments.  Satan, it says, masquerades as an angel of light. He's not going to come with stupid-sounding arguments, things that are immediately rejectable right out of hand, you just see it, no, it’s not true. Instead, he entices you with half-truths, with partial insights, with clever sayings, and the people are drawn in at that point into a pattern of false doctrine. So he says, "I want you to be fully rooted, to have complete understanding of right doctrine in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." "I want you to be rooted in Christ so that you cannot be deceived by fine-sounding arguments. You'll recognize them right away. You'll be able to uncover the truth." Kind of like somebody who finishes with a very rich, full meal. A healthy meal. With all the food groups covered, lots of vegetables, green leafy vegetables, all kinds of things. You're just full and it's good and whatever. And then somebody brings in a double quarter pounder with cheese, at that moment. Double quarter pounder with cheese. Never mind, I'm not going to get into it, but you look at it carefully and you don't want to eat it, alright. But you're full, you're satisfied, you're full of the truth, you don't need falsehood. You don't need the deception. It's repulsive to you, really. So it is also protection from false doctrine.

Orderliness in Faith

And then he mentions their orderliness in the faith. Verse five, "For although I am absent from you in body, I'm present with you in spirit, and delight to see how orderly you are, and how firm your faith in Christ is." So Paul is speaking there of his concern for their order and the stability of their faith in Christ. And he actually is positive, he compliments, he's delighted to see how orderly they are, he's happy with their stability. He's not slamming them here, he's actually encouraging them. He's delighted to hear about their orderliness and their stability. Now, the issue of orderliness and stability, they are military terms that he uses. You could picture, back in Paul's day, row upon row of Roman legions, each of them in perfect order. The orderliness was just a hallmark of the Roman legions. And every one of them under their battle standard, and they all were in the right place, and when they took to field, they meant to intimidate, just by the structure and the organization of their armies. Their soldiers weren't physically stronger than others, but there was just a structure and an orderliness to their military system. Paul borrows that word and says, "So also in the kingdom of Christ there must be order." There must be structure, it's not just random or chaos, or do whatever you feel like doing. Like in the book of Judges, in those days, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” That can't be it. There must be orderliness.

You know, Paul talking in Corinthians about the proper use of the gift of tongues and prophecy. It seemed that there was mayhem in the Corinthian church. Paul alludes to if somebody came in, they saw all this going on, they'd think you're out of your minds. There's got to be some order here. And so he says in 1 Corinthians 14:40, "Everything should be done decently and in good order." And he tells them what that order should be. God is a very orderly being, if you could see down into the molecular, even the atomic level, you would see rows upon rows of atoms in perfect array, like in a lattice structure. That's the way He is, He is orderly. And if you were to go in Heaven, you would see circles around the throne and each being would know where they need to be. Thousands upon thousands attended to Him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him, each one knew where they were supposed to be, and what they were supposed to do.

Some time ago, I was invited to be involved in a wedding. I wasn't performing the wedding but I was invited by the couple to read scripture. And I was delighted to take part, and I remember sitting, I was sitting in the front pew maybe over here, waiting for my time to come up and read scripture, and I saw, just... It's almost like a beautiful choreographed play, a wedding is. It's so pretty, the order and the beauty of the flowers, everything done. And you rehearse it the night before, and the groom comes in with the groomsmen and they all wearing tuxedos, and with a certain color scheme that the men definitely didn't pick, they never do. But the colors match the bridesmaids' dresses, and they come down and everybody stands on a little piece of tape, which is marked there, and they know where to stand. And then the bride comes in and everything... And at just the right time, at the proper time, I came up more or less around here and read the scripture, that had been assigned to me. I read it and then I sat back down. And I thought, if I came up 10 minutes before that, just to bless the couple say, "Hang on, wait, everybody. I just want to say somethings, just down my heart, right now. I just want to share just the love I'm feeling right now for the couple." That would be disorderly, and it would not be beautiful. You see. I would never have done it. There's an order and a beauty to the church. And so if we have an ambition for something God doesn't have for us, we're out of order, even if our motives seem to be good to us. I think about the visit that the queen of Sheba made to visit Solomon. She had heard a reputation of his wisdom, but she wanted to see it with her own eyes. So she made a long trip, like from the ends of the earth almost, to come with a big retinue, a bunch of servants and men with her. And she took a bunch of spices and gold and all kinds of stuff, and came to see Solomon. And this is her assessment. It says in 1 Kings 10, "When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the palace that he had built, and the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cup-bearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord." It literally says, "There was no more breath in her." She was like, *gasp*. She couldn't couldn't catch her breath.

She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true, but I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me, in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard." Now what was it that blew her away? It was the beauty and the order to his kingdom. Everybody knew where to stand, everybody knew what to do, everything was figured out. Can it be that Christ's kingdom is more disorderly than Solomon's? It cannot be. We are heading to a place of perfect order and perfect beauty. And our breath will be taken away when we see it. It's going to be awesome.

Conversely, though, in James 3:16, it says, "Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." When people get it in their minds to take things that are not given them by God, there comes disorder, in a local church. But, verse 17, the wisdom that comes from Heaven is, first of all, pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers just sowing peace raise a harvest of righteousness. You want a healthy church with a healthy root system that's going to produce a big harvest? Then there must be order and there must be glad acceptance of roles, and there must be a delight in them, and know that all of it comes from the hand of God. And that's a beautiful thing.

Daily Walk Under Christ’s Lordship

And finally, he mentions a daily walk under Christ's Lordship. So while we've been looking corporately, talking about encouragement, and unity in love, and stability in good, solid doctrine, being warned against false teachings. And we're looking here at the orderliness and the stability of faith. I think, in the end, he's looking at individual Christians. And he knows, that the local church will only be as healthy as the individual Christians and their own private walks with Christ. This church, First Baptist Church, will only be as healthy as my walk and your walk with Jesus as Lord. It just comes down to that. So we want a healthy root system corporately. We have to individually have a healthy root system. And here he tells us how to do it. So then “just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you're taught and overflowing with thankfulness.” Paul exhorts the Colossians here to walk or continue on in the Christian life in the same way they began it. He says in Galatians 3:3, "Having begun by the Spirit are you now completed by the flesh?" You have to be completed in the same way you began. And how do you begin the Christian life? You hear the gospel. You hear that Jesus died on the cross. He, the Son of God, shed his blood for your sins, and for the sins of the world. You believe in that, you believe that God raised him from the dead.  

And he is now seated at the right hand of God and is reigning. He is King. He is Lord. And just as you received all of that, you received Christ Jesus as Lord, you trusted in him so you must continue. Now, it may be that you have never bowed the knee to King Jesus before this very moment. It may be that God, in His sovereignty, brought you just for this moment of the sermon, that you might hear that simply by looking to Christ, looking to Jesus dead on the cross, you might have all of your sins forgiven. It may be just for that reason God brought you here today. For the first time yielding to the lordship of Christ, that he, your Savior, must be your Lord. The two go together. And that you bow the knee at last to King Jesus through repentance of sin and through faith in Jesus, all of your sins may be forgiven. It may be that as you're listening to me right now, faith is coming up in your heart. God is creating a light inside your heart that wasn't there before. Oh, trust in Him. Call on the name of the Lord for the salvation of your soul.

That's the beginning of the Christian life. But let me tell you something, according to this text, that's also how you make progress a year later. And 20 years later. And 40 years later. You want to make progress over the next year? Then receive Christ Jesus as Lord and walk in him. It's not new. It's the very, very same thing. There's a continuity here. So you want to make progress in your Christian life then you go bow the knee to King Jesus again. You come back to the cross. Come back to the blood shed there. Come back to the empty tomb and the power there, and you find in Jesus everything you need to make progress. As you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, now continue to walk in him. "Rooted in Christ." He says. "I am the vine and you are the branches. For man remains in me and I in him, he'll bear much fruit." You want to bear much fruit? Be rooted in Christ. What that means is a total Christ focus in your life. Apart from Jesus, I can do nothing. Apart from Jesus, I can do nothing. I don't ever want to be apart from Jesus. I don't need to be apart from Jesus. I'm engrafted in Jesus. "Jesus help me. Help me on my drive home, Lord. Help me at work. Help me to speak gently to my spouse and lovingly to her, or to him. Help me to raise my kids. Help me to be submissive to my parents. Help me, Lord Jesus, with my tests. I've got a test coming up. Lord Jesus, I know I know the material, but apart from you, I can't do anything. Help me." There's a Christ focus in the Christian life. You're rooted in him, you're not separated from Him. Going and doing your own thing and then bringing, "Look, Jesus, what I did apart from you." We already told you what you can do apart from him. Nothing. So, you're bringing him nothing. Don't do anything apart from Jesus. Do it all in Jesus. Walk in him. Rooted in Christ. Built up in him. It's more of an architectural image there, that you could be like a high fortified wall that no enemy can breach, you could be like a magnificent house, like a mansion where many can live, you could be like a beautiful cathedral where the Spirit of God dwells, built up in Christ step by step, strengthening the faith as you were taught.

The faith is doctrine, friends. It's belief. It's particles of truth that are connected together in larger elements of doctrines. They're just put together, it's truth, rooted in Christ and built up in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Oh, wouldn't you love to have that said of you? Bottom line, he, she, thankful person. When you're around them, you just have the sense of gratitude flowing from them. Wouldn't you like to be a river of thankfulness? Just a river of who God is, thankful for who God is, of who Christ is, what he's done for you on the cross, of the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Thankful for your future, your bright, glorious future in the New Heavens and New Earth, overflowing with thankfulness.

How is Your Root System?

Now, what application can we take from this passage? Well, let's start with prayer. Do you expect a struggle in prayer? Do you expect it? Do you expect that it's going to be a challenge in your prayer life?  Or are you surprised? You get to a point in prayer and you say, "Boy, this is hard. I think I'll stop." You need to expect a struggle and be willing to overcome it. Be willing to fight and to overcome in prayer. What about discouragement? Did I hit a nerve a bit earlier? Are you feeling discouraged in the Christian life? Are you feeling depressed or down? Then go back to the promises of God. Go back and battle. Don't just be a victim. Don't be a doormat before Satan, and let him steamroll you. Stand up on the promises of God. Tell Satan, "Away from me, for it is written... " Like Jesus did in the desert, and then say the promises of God. Battle it. Don't just give into it. Stand up. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “One of the best things a Christian can ever do is preach to himself.” Preach to yourself then. You get to decide how long the sermon is too, you get to start and finish. It's up to you. I would urge you to preach throughout the day. Preach to yourself.

And if you're in the Word, saturating your mind in the word of God, you'll have more and more themes to preach to yourself. Tell yourself the truth. Don't just give in to discouragement. Realize that because the sovereign power of God is guaranteeing the resurrection of the body, your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Now, you may not see a connection between the two but I'm telling you, the resurrection of the body for all of God's children is the finish line of this whole enterprise, and nothing can stop it. So that means, everything we do, whether a word of encouragement, prayer, a sermon preach, a Bible lesson offered, anything we do toward that, is not in vain friends. So your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Don't be discouraged. And what about unity in love? Do you yearn to see an open, surprising visible display of unity in this church? Pray for it then. Labor for it. Seek it. And if you don't want it, then go to the cross and remind yourself that around that same cross are people “from every tribe and language, and people and nation,” trusting in the same Jesus, for the same salvation as you, and be healed. 

And then yearn for it, and pray for it, see that kind of unity. And interpersonally, if you know a brother or a sister has something against you, go and work it out. If you know that they have something against you, go and work it out. Be an instrument of unity in love. What about Doctrine? Don't despise Doctrine. Don't say, "Why do we have to have Doctrine?" It is by Doctrine that you are built up in the faith as you're taught. It is by Doctrine that you grow, then feed yourself on it. Read good Christian books, saturate your mind in the Word of God. Take advantage of the teaching ministry of this church. Take advantage of Wednesday night. Acts, you've heard about that. Sunday morning preaching. Bible for life classes. Take advantage of these things.

Orderliness in the faith, accept the roles that God's given you and make the most of them. If God has laid it on your heart to grow, then grow. And let God give you the roles and don't murmur or complain or wish you had a different role, but make the most. Let's be orderly in our faith. And finally, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, by that same way, grow in Him. Every moment of the day, in your mind, kneel to King Jesus. Take His yoke upon you and learn from Him, “for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.” Close with me in prayer, please.

We are looking this morning at Colossians 1:24-29: Elements of a Fruitful Ministry. I love history. I do. I especially love colorful figures from history, and I think there are few as colorful from the old American West as the snake oil salesmen. I am talking about individuals that would go from town to town in interestingly colored carts and wagons and set up shop in each place. They would have fascinating, bizarre remedies to cure whatever ailed you. If you bought their little vials of substances and oils and other remedies, and you took them they might do you some good. You might feel better, you might feel worse or you might feel the same. The snake oil salesman certainly made a good living, and often they would go to the next town, and you would probably never see them again, at least not that particular one. Another one might come in six months.

Every week, thereabouts, I get things in the mail that teach me how to grow this church, from church growth experts that tell me what I need to do to make this church a success. Success in a box: All you have to do is send your $139.95 (or whatever the amount it is) and it comes right out of the box and it will make this local church a success. Don't you want to? I want to be a success. Would you like to be a success? I would like this church to be a success.

You may wonder what the two of those illustrations have to do with each other, the snake oil salesmen and these experts, and their various remedies to cure what ails you. I think you can see the connection. I would rather hear from someone who can tell me the truth. How can we grow this church to be everything that God wants it to be? In the context of Colossians chapter one, I want to understand what kind of ministry will glorify Christ as He has been revealed in this chapter. Think about that. What kind of Christ have we seen? He is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn over all creation. By His Word, the Heavens and the Earth came to be, and have their being to this very moment. This is the glory of Christ. We learned last week that He is the one who shed His blood on the cross. It is by that blood shed on the cross that every man, woman, and child who will ever stand before God, blameless and unafraid, holy in His presence, will be escorted into the very presence of almighty God to live forever and ever. It is by the blood shed by Jesus on the cross that all of that will happen. It is by His blood that the world, the universe, will be reconciled to God. Now, what kind of ministry is worthy of that?

That is the question in front of us today. And the Apostle Paul, as he does so frequently, presents himself and his own ministry as an example for us to follow. He describes to the Colossians the nature of his ministry. He describes what it is like and what he does. And he does this, not to boast in himself, but in effect, to say, "Follow me as I follow Christ. This is the kind of ministry that is going to build the church. This is it." And so this morning, we're going to look at a pattern for fruitful ministry. I'm not saying that these eight elements that I find here in Colossians 1:24-29 exhaust the depths of everything that could be said about the elements of a fruitful ministry. And I am not even saying that they exhaust Colossians 1:24-29. But I think these eight things are helpful for me as a pastor, and to all of us as Christians who have a ministry (and that should be all of us) that we would look at these things and say, "Oh, God, work this in me." I was very convicted by this passage of Scripture, specifically in the area of tireless labor for Christ. That is very convicting for me. And I want you to be convicted as well. I want God to work in your heart.

I want God to work in your heart and to use Paul's example. And so as we look at the pattern of ministry here in Colossians 1:24-29 there are eight elements: Stewardship, joy and suffering, full proclamation of the Word of God, but with a focus on Christ in the midst of that full proclamation, a shepherding, nurturing heart, teaching and admonishing with all wisdom, and a clear focus on maturity in Christ and Christ-likeness. We're looking to see Christ formed in individuals, and then that aspect of laboring in the Lord by His power. These eight elements we are going to look at today.

Now, I want to just take a moment because Andy Winn is not here and I just want to talk about him. Okay? Is that all right? He usually sits right over there. You’ll notice he is not here; he is on vacation. And I know this is being taped, so he can listen to it later. But when I come to Colossians 1:29, for the rest of my life, I am going to remember Andy Winn. We needed a youth pastor, and we were interviewing, and Andy had been doing fruitful ministry here. He was almost done at Southeastern and so he was presented as a candidate, and I thought he was a good candidate. I wanted to ask him about it and talk to him, so we sat down, and the two of us talked together. And I asked him, I said, "Andy, what, in your mind, are the keys or the elements of a fruitful, successful youth ministry?" Without blinking an eye, without hesitating, he said this, "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, in order that we might present everyone perfect in Christ." He got the job. That was it. First of all, he had it memorized. That was really good for me, all right?

He chose the right verse, and he has been doing that kind of ministry in our midst ever since, for seven plus years, and I think that is just a sweet thing. And so, if you see him, encourage him, because that is the kind of man that he has been in our midst. But this isn't just Andy Winn's verse; this is my verse too, and the verse of anyone who wants to be faithful in ministry, and I just thought that story would be encouraging to you. I'll never forget it. These are elements, not just of a fruitful or successful youth ministry, but of any ministry. As you hear these eight elements, don’t just think 'apostle,' and don't just think 'pastor,' or 'youth pastor.' Think 'yourself.' Because I believe that God has entrusted to each one of us a ministry, for which we are going to be held accountable, and these same elements will be helpful for all of us. Let's look at the first one and that is a perspective of stewardship.  A stewardship perspective.

In Verse 23, Paul speaks in the Gospel. He said, "This is the Gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under Heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." A servant. And then in Verse 25, he says, "Of the church, I became a servant [or a minister], according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the Word of God fully known." Paul considered his ministry a stewardship to himself. It was something entrusted to him by Christ. Now, a steward is a servant who manages someone else's property, someone else's possessions, and seeks to manage them in a way that would honor the master, and be pleasing to the master. That is what a good steward does anyway. And Paul sought to be that kind of a servant, or a steward. A minister or a servant is like a table waiter. That is the word used here. And the idea there of being a table waiter, is that you are not the chef. You are not the chef, you are not the cook and you have no business getting involved in what is on the plate. It is your job, successfully, to take it from the master chef and present it unadulterated at the table. And that is the way Paul saw himself when it came to the ministry of the Word, and I see myself that way too.

It is not for me to mess with the doctrines, or to rearrange them, or to change the Word of God, but rather to present the Word of God in its fullness. Paul saw himself as a servant and as a steward. He believed that Christ had entrusted this ministry to him. Now, he says in 1 Corinthians 9:16 and 17, "For if I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me, if I do not preach the Gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship that has been entrusted to me." He says again in 1 Corinthians 4:1 and 2, "So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those who have been entrusted with the secret things of God.  Now, it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” Brothers and sisters, have you been given a trust? Has a ministry been entrusted to you? I would argue from Scripture, that every Christian must have a ministry. Every Christian must put forth labor and effort by the power of the Spirit to build the church of Jesus Christ.

What is your ministry? If nothing is popping into your mind, may the Lord awaken within you a yearning for an identifiable pattern of ministry in this local church, so that Christ might be glorified. But if you have a ministry, you are a steward of that ministry; it has been entrusted to you, and someday, you are going to have to give Christ an account of what you did with it. And so the first idea here of a fruitful or a successful ministry, is to consider that it has been entrusted to you by Jesus Christ Himself. For it says in 2 Corinthians 5:9 and 10, "So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." We have to give Him an account, and then, from Him, we will receive our rewards.

Secondly, we see the issue of sustaining joy. In Verse 24, Paul says, "Now, I rejoice in what was suffered for you.” This is the commitment of the Apostle Paul. Paul had a commitment to joy in the ministry. What good is a ministry done by a miserable person? Think about that. Just picture it in your mind: "I'm a teacher." "What do you teach?" "I'm a teacher of the Word of God." You know, like Eeyore? Have you ever met an Eeyore kind of person? I'm not against Eeyore. I'm just saying, there must be a joy, a visible joy in ministry. And Paul says, "I rejoice." There is a commitment to joy and it is a realistic joy. He didn't have his eyes shut. He says in 2 Corinthians 6:10, "sorrowful, but always rejoicing." We are sorrowful because the more you get into ministry the more you are facing the wreck that sin leaves in people's lives, and it is really sad. It is really sad, so you sorrow, you weep. Jesus was a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering, and yet, He died for the joy set before Him. And so we have got to be buoyed up by joy in ministry all the time.

Just about all of the book of Philippians is given to addressing this issue of joy, the attitude of joy. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice." Joy is the only proper response, I believe, to the greatness of the hope that Christ has won for us. Our future inheritance, brothers and sisters, in the new Heaven and the new Earth. Oh, how rich we are in Christ. How rich is our future and how great should be our joy. You ought to feed on that joy every single day. Now, I believe that joy is an indicator of spiritual health, and that a lack of joy is an indicator of spiritual sickness, or a problem.

It is similar to a canary in a coal mine. Back in the olden days, before we had the kind of technology that we have today, miners would take a canary, and put it in a little cage, and bring it down with them into the coal mines. The reason they would do this, is not because they were lonely, and wanted a pet. The reason they did this, is because the canaries were very sensitive to the presence of methane gas or carbon monoxide. Especially carbon monoxide, it is odorless and colorless. And so, if you were a coal miner and you were down there, you would just learn to talk to your bird, and listen to its singing and watch it as you worked. And if the bird was doing well, then you were fine. But if the bird started to look woozy and started to sway on its perch, you would know you needed to get out of there. You probably ought to take the bird with you. It would be just out of love for God's creation, but you need to get out.

That canary in the coal mine was a sensitive early warning system for difficulties, invisible difficulties, and so also is joy in the Christian life. It is sensitive, it is delicate, isn't it? Are you characterized by consistent Christian joy? And I do not think anybody, honestly, is going to say that. You catch me at every moment, 168 hours a week, well, minus the sleep time...but anyway-I would guess I'm joyful in sleeping. But if that is your only time of joy, you've got problems. Do people characterize you as a basically joyful person, connected to the joy of the Gospel or not? I think joy is a great early warning sign. You look at what Paul wrote in Galatians, as they were drinking in bad doctrine and legalism, and all that. He asked them in Galatians 4, "what has happened to all your joy?" That is a big problem and when you do not have joy in the Christian life, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 9:7, speaking of financial giving, he says, "God loves a cheerful giver." He doesn't just love a giver, friends. He loves a cheerful giver. He does not accept gifts given with irritability and given out of compulsion with a grumpy attitude.

Well, and that is not just about financial giving, it is any giving you do to the Lord, any aspect of your ministry, you need to do it cheerfully, you need to do it with joy. Any spiritual gift ministry, teaching with joy, giving with joy, praying with joy, serving with joy, and hospitality with joy. It says in 1 Peter 4: 9, "Offer hospitality without grumbling." Many of you are going to open your homes tonight to home fellowships. I just want to say thank you for your sacrifice. It is going to be hard work. You're going to work this afternoon to get your house clean. Or maybe your house is always beautiful and clean. Maybe I'm showing something of myself I don't need to show right now. We do have to labor to get our house looking that good. But that is hard work. It says, "Without grumbling." Instead, we do it joyfully. Your ministry has to be done with joy.

Now, Satan, I believe, attacks joy all the time, constantly sending joy thieves after you. Pride is a joy thief, isn't it? "I don't deserve what I'm getting. Don't they notice and don't they see all the good things I'm doing?" Pretty soon, your joy is gone. Or, "I don't deserve the trial I'm going through, the suffering I'm going through in my life. I don't deserve it." Pride is a joy thief. Selfishness is a joy thief. So also is a guilty conscience. A guilty conscience is a terrible joy thief. It's hard to be joyful, if you've got a guilty conscience. Unbelief is a joy thief, not trusting the promises of God. False doctrine and legalism are joy thieves, just understanding grace wrongly. The greatest joy thief of all is sin, wouldn't you say? If you are not joyful in Christ, that is probably because you've sinned and you need to confess something to God.

All of the ministry we do, we need to do with joy. And it is a commitment that we make, isn't it? We are going to make a commitment. We're going to rejoice in the Lord. We're going to be like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail. We're going to sing, and praise, and worship. Paul and Silas, beaten publicly without a trial, put in stocks in the inner cell, a dark, nasty place, and they fill it with joyful singing to God. And do you know what God did? He sent an earthquake, and He shook the place, and the result was the Philippian jailer and his family coming to faith in Christ in the middle of the night. Does that happen if Paul and Silas are not joyful in their trial? I tell you, it doesn't. I’m saying God doesn't send that earthquake and I'm saying that Philippian jailer doesn't get saved that night, if they hadn't responded joyfully in the midst of their trial. He pulls them out trembling and says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" He wants to know. I tell you, joy in evangelism and joy in ministry is so attractive; it's so engaging.

Thirdly, embracing suffering. You might think, the two of them, how do they go together? How do you go from joy to suffering, one after the other? But Paul openly embraces it, he says, "Now, I rejoice in what was suffered for you and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church." Now, this is a fascinating verse. Fascinating; there are lot of things in this verse. First of all, I think that many translations have a different approach. It's more like, Paul is rejoicing in his own sufferings for the Colossians and he fills up in his body what is lacking. But I actually don’t think that is what the Greek says. I think the NIV has it right, in this case. Because Paul says, "I rejoice in what was suffered for you." He's never been to the Colossae. He doesn't know them personally. He hasn't suffered anything personally for them.

Now, he's lived a lifestyle of suffering and we'll get to that in a moment, but not for them. I think what is going on here is, he is saying, "I rejoice in the principle of suffering in what happened, what Epaphras, perhaps, or other servants have done to plant the church there in your community. I rejoice in it. I rejoice in what was suffered for you." That's a bigger issue, isn't it? What does it take to plant a church in a city like Colossae? What does it take to bring a single person to Christ? What does it take for us to finish the ministry God has entrusted to us? What does it take for us here at First Baptist Durham to reach out to this Triangle community with the Gospel? What does it take for those of you that are preparing for cross-cultural, unreached people group ministry? What is it going to take for you to bring your people group to Christ? I tell you, it's suffering, and without suffering, it will not happen.

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself a single seed. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." There is no progress made in the Kingdom of Heaven without sacrifice, without suffering. And so what Paul is saying here is, "I rejoice in the suffering that happened to bring you about. I rejoice in that." I think it is one of the most glorious things to consider, that we are part of a royal family of brothers and sisters in the Lord, who did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Revelation 12:11 says, "They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." But they were willing, in the Roman era, to have their blood poured out in the sands of the Colosseum, to see the Roman Empire basically be converted. These are faceless, nameless people to us, but God knows each one of them. And Paul would say, "I rejoice in what was suffered to do that." Tertullian said, "The blood of martyrs is seed for the church.” I rejoice in that. I embrace it as a principle. It is the way Jesus saved our souls.

I rejoice in the principle of suffering. Jesus saved us by suffering and he set not just our atonement up, but the pattern by which the atonement would spread to the ends of the Earth. Polycarp, burned at the stake, said, "86 years, I've served Him, and He's never done me wrong. How can I betray my King, who saved me?" Glorious statements, one after the other. Adoniram Judson buries two wives and a daughter in an effort to take the Gospel to Burma. Even today, there are brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering and dying. You would not believe all of the incredible things that are happening in Iran. You hear about Iran, politically. You hear about Iran, in terms of the threat they are to world peace, in terms of atomic weapons, nuclear weapons, but below all of this, the church is exploding, people are coming to faith in Christ. It's an awesome thing, but they are doing so, sometimes, at the price of their own lives. Paul would say, "I rejoice in what was suffered for you."

We don't know those stories. Someday, we'll learn them though, when we are in Heaven and it's testimony time, and we are freed from time constraints, and we are freed from pride and selfishness. Notice that Paul is not rejoicing in his own suffering for the Colossian church. He is rejoicing in what Epaphras suffered, free from selfishness. It doesn't matter who did the suffering, that person is my brother or my sister in Christ. I rejoice in it. We will delight in those stories. We will delight in hearing about a brother or sister in Christ during the time of the bubonic plague, the Black Death, who took his or her life into their hands to bring nursing and the Gospel into a specific area. They were willing to die and maybe did die of the Black Plague, but they led some people to Christ before it happened. We'll rejoice in those stories and delight in them.

We're part of that royal heritage. But Paul goes deeper here. He actually gives us a theology of suffering. He says, "I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regards of the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church." This is very deep. It's a bit mysterious. What does Paul mean when he says, "I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking, in regard to the afflictions of Christ?" What could possibly be lacking in the suffering of Christ? Well, there are some things we can just reject, some ideas we can just get rid of here. Look back a few verses to verse 19 and 20. It says of Christ, "God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on Earth or things in Heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross." Is there anything lacking in that, brothers and sisters? Anything at all? When Jesus says in John 19, after receiving the drink and knowing that all was fulfilled, when He said, "It is finished," and then he pillowed His head down on His chest, and gave up His Spirit and died, was there anything lacking in the afflictions of Christ at that moment? I tell you, no. It's a perfect work of atonement.

But let's take what John Murray said in his great book "Redemption Accomplished and Applied," to understand this. There was suffering for Christ to get redemption accomplished, but then there is suffering for us to get it applied. Do you see? Jesus did His work. He ascended to Heaven. He sends forth His Spirit and He says, "I will give you power, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the Earth, and you will suffer to do it. You need to take up your cross to do it." "And I fill up," Paul says, "In my flesh what's still lacking, in regard to Christ's afflictions." They are still Christ's afflictions. Now, how are they Christ's afflictions? Well, you remember Saul of Tarsus, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples? He got letters from the synagogue leaders, and the high priest, and the officials, so that he could go to the synagogues in Damascus, and arrest any there who belonged to Christ. And on the way, he got knocked to the ground by the blinding, resurrected Christ, the light, the glory of Christ. And do you remember what Jesus said to him? "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “When you drag off men and women, and throw them in prison, I feel it. You're hurting me." When your hand hurts, it sends a signal to the brain. When your foot hurts, the brain knows about it immediately. And so also, all of the sufferings of Christians, the martyrs and the witnesses, all of that suffering is Christ's afflictions. And Paul says, "I'm filling them up in my body." Is there a call on you, in that regard? Are you called to suffer at all to advance the Gospel of Jesus? Are you suffering to advance the Gospel of Christ?

Fourth, full proclamation. In verse 25, Paul says, "I have become its servant [a servant of the Gospel] by the commission God gave me, to present to you the Word of God in its fullness." Verse 28 says, "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." The essence or the center, practically speaking, of Paul's ministry, was the proclamation of the Word of God. The proclamation, the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God. That was the center of what he did. Preaching was the center of God's plan for the salvation of the world. Now, the snake oil salesmen in the 21st century are telling us that preaching's day is over: "It's finished. We're in a different era now, of communication, and we need to compete with the computer graphics that are done with movies, and with all of the stuff that's done for ad campaigns, and everything that is done on the internet, and all of the ways that we're communicating now. We need to come up into that. Preaching is done. The simple communication of the Word of God through preaching is finished." It will never be finished. It will never be finished, because God has ordained the simplicity of the preaching of the Gospel, as the way that He will work. Now, I'm not saying that we can't be more sensational, more spectacular, that we can't entertain better, that we can't send people off with a bigger bang. We can do all of that, but that is not how the church will be built, not that way.

And so we proclaim. "I am to present the Word of God in its fullness," Paul says. That was his calling. And so he says to the elders in the Church at Ephesus, in Acts 20, he says, "You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house." He was there for three years, ministering to those people every day. And he said, "I didn't shrink back from proclaiming anything that would be helpful to you. I taught you publicly from house to house." Verse 27 of Acts 20, he says, "I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole counsel of God.” “All that was in God's mind to communicate to you, I preached that. I taught that to you." As a matter of fact, Paul yearned to hit the finish line having accomplished all of it, whatever God had entrusted to him.

Again, Acts 20, he says in verse 24, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace." He knew what he was about, and that was the clear proclamation, the teaching of the Word of God; that is what it was about. Now, the church is the steward of this ministry. And therefore, it is not just the pastor, but there are teachers who teach the Word of God in its fullness, and they need to be faithful to it. This church, First Baptist Church, must be fully committed to this kind of an expositional ministry, if we're going to continue to be healthy. We need to hear the Word of God in its fullness. Amen?

If the Lord were to take me tomorrow, get somebody else who will do it. You have to have this kind of clear teaching of the Word of God in its fullness, not shrinking back from anything in the Word, but just saying what it says, if you want to grow. And so also, the teachers in Bible for Life, and Acts, and Home Fellowship, teach the Word of God in its fullness. It is essential to the Great Commission. You know that, don't you? "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit," and what? "Teaching them to obey... " What's the next word? "Everything I have taught you." That is the Word of God in its fullness. Tell it. What do I need to do, Lord? All of it. I don't just want part of it. Tell me all of my responsibilities. I want to be faithful to the whole counsel of God.

Too often these days we fall into pragmatism. The snake oil salesmen are telling you, "This is what works. We've got this little thing," and they're measuring it by human techniques. No, the Word of God is what will build the church from inside out. It will grow numerically and it will also grow into the image of Christ this way. And yet, for all of that, there is a focus to the preaching: the focus is on Christ. Yes, he preached the whole counsel of God. Yes, it was the Word of God in its fullness. But you know who the Word of God in its fullness is? It is Christ.

And so in the end, we need to teach the 66 books of the Bible. Yes, we need the stuff in Leviticus, but we need to find Christ in Leviticus. Amen? We need to know where He is in all of those offerings, and all of those washings, and all that cleanness and uncleanness. We need to know where Christ is in all of it. We proclaim Christ. Look what it says in verses 26, 27 and on. It says, "The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him." Yes, there is a breadth to a healthy preaching and teaching ministry in a local church, but there is a laser-like focus on Christ in all of it. We proclaim Him. And why? Because it is Christ in us, the hope of glory, and how mysterious is that, friends? This infinite God, this image of the invisible God, the one by whose word the cosmos existed and have their being, this one can live within our own hearts. He can dwell within us by faith.

We proclaim Him and the unveiling of a great mystery that Gentiles, we Gentiles, can actually be sharers together with the Jews in one great, new people called Christians. One new man, focused on Christ, trusting in Christ, forgiven. We are new creations, aren't we? And a new creation existing with Christ in our hearts. Oh, is that an awesome thing, that by Christ, the triune God would actually live within a human heart, would live within us. We are the temple of the living God. And it speaks there of the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Do you realize how wealthy you are? You may be a poor student. You may be struggling to make ends meet. You may be having trouble paying your bills. There may be some hidden aspects to your financial struggles that nobody knows about. God knows. But if you're a Christian, you are infinitely wealthy. The immense riches that are yours, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Do you know what that means? That you will see glory, you will see it with your own eyes. You will see God in the face and not be consumed. You will see the new Heaven and the new Earth; you will see it with your own eyes. You will walk the perfect streets and you will see things you can't even describe. I couldn't describe them. You will see glory, but more than that, you will be glory. And if you are not, you can't be there. You will be glorious. God will make you glorious. Christ in you is the hope of all of that, the hope of glory, and that's what we proclaim. We proclaim Him.

Now, what does that mean, "We proclaim Him?" Well, you know Spurgeon’s story when he was teaching young pastors about preaching? (And I keep this in front of me frequently.) He told the story of an old pastor who listened to a young man preaching one of his first sermons and the young man said, "How did you like it?" And he said, "I didn't like it at all." “Well, why don't you tell the truth?” But you need people that will tell you the truth. The young man said, "Well, why didn't you like it?" He said, "There wasn't any Christ in it." He said, "But I didn't find Christ in the passage." And he said, "Don't you know, my boy, that in every town, and village, and hamlet in England, there's a road that leads to London? Find it." In every text, there's a road that leads to Christ, find it. He said, "But what if Christ isn't even mentioned in the text? What if he's not there?" He said, "Then go over a hedge or ditch, but find Him. Get to Christ."

Now, friends, there'll be no point in me preaching a sermon like this, talking about ministry, about Jesus in general, and forget that there may be some that are here today, brought by the providence of God, who are not Christians yet. You are listening to me now in a Christ-less state; you are not ready for judgment day. The wrath of God is on you now, and if you were to die, you would know what that meant immediately. You are not ready to give an account for every careless word spoken and you are not ready for death. But you can be. It is this simple: You don't have to do any great good works. You just have to hear what I'm saying now, and believe that God sent His Son, and His Son shed His blood on the cross, and by that, the wrath of God can be fully atoned for, fully appeased, for anyone who simply trusts in Christ. Do you hear what I'm saying? Do you believe it? That God didn't leave Him dead on the cross, but He raised Him from the dead on the third day? And that if you believe all of that, you will be saved? Trust in Him now. I believe that every week God brings someone into this place who is not saved. Trust in Him. "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone."

And this brings us to a shepherding heart. "Admonishing, teaching everyone with all wisdom." God has done a wonderful work in this church in the last two years, in raising up the beginnings of a really wonderful counseling ministry. My yearning and my prayer, I've prayed a lot about this in the last two weeks, is that God would lead us to continue to grow, and that God would raise up more laborers for this abundant harvest field. Do you know how messed up non-Christian's lives are because of sin and how much they need the truth of the Word of God? Even Christians struggle with being messed up because of sin. And we need to hear the Word of God too, don't we? God has raised up a wonderful counseling ministry. We had Randy Patten in the summer; he's the President of NANC, National Association of Nouthetic Counseling. The word 'nouthetic,' comes from a Greek word 'noutheteos,' right in our text here today. "We proclaim Him, admonishing." Now, it was Jay Adams in Competent to Counsel, who taught us what this nouthetic counseling is. Basically, what it is, is taking the Word of God, and going to an individual who is struggling with sin, and warning, and admonishing, and working with him, so that they give up the sin, repent, and come to a healthy relationship with Christ. And it is done gently, it is done with humility. It is done taking the log out of your eye first. It is done with a recognition that the roles could be reversed in two or three months, but it needs to be done.

And so Paul says, "This is a shepherding ministry." We care about what's going on. We admonish with all wisdom, not in a coarse, crude, prideful, harsh way. How do you take something out of somebody's eye? Do you want somebody to take something out of your eye? There's a twitch mechanism. You have to come gently and you need to have built some trust. When I touch my little baby's face she doesn't flinch, she just knows. But if somebody she didn't know comes, she is going to pull back, and so there's a way to do it. But this is a shepherding ministry. "We proclaim Him, admonishing and also teaching everyone with all wisdom." The teaching aspect of the ministry, every precept, every little block of truth; you've heard a lot of them already today, not just in my sermon, but in Bible for Life. And every true statement, every true doctrine is like a brick of truth that God uses to erect a whole lavish city of truth inside your heart. It takes time, but this teaching ministry builds up a worldview of truth, out of which you will live your life. And that's a shepherding ministry that must continue. "We proclaim Him, admonishing." Dealing with people and their sin truthfully and teaching everyone with all wisdom, as they need it.

And the clear goal of all of this is in verse 28, "So that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." Perfect in Christ. Now, I don't believe in perfectionism. Perfectionism is basically the idea that you can be sinless and perfect in this age, in this present age. I don't think it's true. I know it's not true. Romans 7 speaks of a deep and bitter struggle with sin, and we will not be perfect in this world. But we can walk in the light as He is in the light and at the same time the blood of Christ cleanses us in an ongoing way from all sin. But the goal here is, we're not satisfied with where we are. How many of you are satisfied? Don't raise your hands, but are you satisfied with where you are at in your Christian growth? You've arrived? You're done? Well, this isn't a good church for you, because we're all about the journey here, the infinite journey, the one you haven't reached yet. And what that means, is that you will not arrive at perfect Christ-likeness in this life. So the goal of ministry, the goal of this kind of a ministry, is to present everyone perfect in Christ. The idea is that, if you have a ministry, you are presenting your workmanship to God, saying, "This is what I did." And so you're presenting, in effect, people, and saying, "We want to present people perfect in Christ, and we're going to pray, and we're going to cry, and teach, and admonish, and we're going to do all of these things toward this end, that you might be perfect in Christ, and we're not going to stop until that happens." But only Christ will finish it. You know that. He is the only one that can. He is the only one that can glorify us, and so that's the completion of our ministry, but we labor toward it. And along the way, as we aim for perfection, we're going to hit maturity. Spiritually mature men and women, and they will be like rocks, like pillars, on which God builds an ongoing work. And so that's our goal. There's a focus, a clear goal.

Finally, Verse 29, "To this end, I labor, struggling with all His energy, that so powerfully works in me." I was thinking about the martyrs, the blood of martyrs, a seed for the church, thinking about suffering, reading martyrs stories and all that, and it seems somewhat removed from my life. Now, I think it is wonderful that God has brought to us, and continues to bring to us, people who have a missionary call. And they're going to follow and obey that call, and I may be talking to someone, a young man or a young woman, or maybe older and you may end up being slaughtered for Christ. You may die as a martyr for Jesus. It's possible. It doesn't happen a lot, but it is possible. It is good to know the theology of that kind of suffering, and know how Paul rejoices in it, and how God will honor it, and how it is a glorious thing to not love your life so much as to shrink from death. But I think most of us American Christians are called to a different kind of suffering of two types: Suffering for personal holiness and suffering to labor in Gospel ministry. Despite all the inducements to a self-serving, entertainment-soaked, selfish, lazy way of life, that we would, instead of that labor for Christ and for His Kingdom.

Labor like Paul. Look what he says, "To this end, I labor." 'Kopiao,' it means to work to the point of exhaustion. Struggling is 'agónizomai,' like in agony, wrestling against an opponent, "With all His energy, which so powerfully works in me." I think the reason we hold back from pouring ourselves out in labor, is we are afraid. We are afraid that there will not be a sustainable, renewable energy source to keep us going. We don't want to be exhausted. And that's so sad because people who lose that fear, and just go for it, find the power of Christ in them, like Paul did in him. "We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, in order that we might present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me."

Just look at the sun today. Just look at it. Now, there is a renewable, sustainable energy source for you. We're looking for one. I don't know how long petroleum's going to last, but there's the sun. I'm not talking here about solar energy. I'm just talking about the sun as an example of what God can do. Do you realize that, if you took the gross national product of the United States of America, (we heard this on a tape or a DVD, speaking about the greatness of God in the cosmos) if you took the gross national product of the United States of America and invested it completely in energy production for the next 100,000 years, it would be less than the energy put out by the sun in one second. Are you telling me God can't keep you going for the next 40 to 50 years of faithful service to Christ? He can. Test Him. Try it. Look at what the Apostle Paul did, hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger. I think his schedule was like this: When he was working as a tent maker, during the day, he preached to unbelievers. In the evening, he ministered to Christians, teaching them, and preparing them. In the late night, he sewed tents to support he and his fellow workers. That was his life.

And so he speaks frequently about his work. He says in Acts 20, "You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work, we must help the weak." 1 Corinthians 4:12, "We work hard with our own hands." 1 Thessalonians 2:9, "Surely, you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; We worked night and day, in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the Gospel of God to you." But here we are. We coddle ourselves, we comfort ourselves, and we entertain ourselves. We don't work hard for Christ. Now the quickest thing to do is to go find some solution ourselves and bring it to Christ. That's not it. Go to Christ and say, "This is who I am. This is the way I'm really living. I actually don't have a ministry, or if I do, I'm not really laboring at it to the point of exhaustion. I'm not really focused on ministry. I don't have a ministry. I'm not really laboring at it the way Paul did. Forgive me, Lord. And then work within me the kind of energy it will take to get my priorities straight, and to start living the kind of life you want me to live."

I've already done that. I'm going to keep doing it. Paul challenges me. And I feel like, "Oh, how sweet it will be when, five years from now, people say, 'You know, I don't know what it was, maybe around the time of Colossians, some other time, God worked in me and he gave me a ministry. And over the last five years, I've really felt poured out in that ministry. And look at the fruit.' " And I don't know what it's going to be. Evangelistic fruit? Wonderful. Let's see it happen. But it could be all kinds of spiritual gift ministries. This is the labor that Paul, that God is calling us to.

By way of application, can you begin just by praying that this kind of eightfold ministry would happen here at this church? Pray for me, that I would be this kind of a pastor. Pray for Andy Winn, for Eric. Pray also for our spiritual leaders, who are not vocational ministers, but are called to ministry, that they would minister like this. Keep going.

Pray for yourself, that you would minister like this. Pray that God would give you a ministry, an identifiable, clear ministry, and that you would labor in it like this. Pray that God would raise up fruit in your life.

Concerning suffering, you may be going through some great suffering right now, just know that there's a purpose in it. Know that there's no suffering that happens, that's not coming to you, except through the hands of God. And just know that God is, in effect, putting you on display. Suffer with great joy.

And I want to finish with joy. Canary in the coal mine, what an image. How's your joy? Is it where it needs to be? And if it's not, go to the Lord this afternoon in prayer, and say, "Lord, what is the joy thief in my life?" Maybe it's that you don't have a ministry and you're not serving Christ. You've tasted the world, and it's not satisfying to you, and you're not happy. It's because you've built your house on sand-or just a wing of your house anyway. Let God crush that wing, and get back to building on Christ, and on His words. Maybe there is sin in your life. Confess it to Him. Confess it. Let Him work in you. He is a gracious God. This is the kind of ministry, not only that God wants to work through you, but He wants to work to you. Let Him do it.

Alright. For the second week, we get to look at a magnificent text of scripture. The supremacy of Christ is our theme this morning. Could there be a better one? Could there be a greater theme to occupy our attention this morning than this one, the supremacy of Christ? And there was a phrase in particular that arrested me last night as I was looking over the text and thinking about it again. And I was reading also a Charles Spurgeon sermon on the same passage, and it really struck me, look at Verse 19, speaking of Christ, "For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him." Now, "fullness" is already a perfect and complete word, isn't it? Fullness, the fullness of God. The fullness of Him who fills the entire universe. “Even the highest heavens cannot contain God.” It says in Jeremiah, "'Can anyone hide in any secret place and I not see them? Do I not fill heaven and earth?' Says God Almighty." The fullness of God, an infinite topic.

But Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, thought it insufficient, so he added another word, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Him." A double infinite blessing for us, therefore, to meditate on this today. Think about fullness. When you think about fullness, what do you think about? Maybe some of you inclined toward eating, think about Thanksgiving maybe, with a table laden with every kind of food you could want and six desserts besides, and a house filled with family and friends to enjoy it with you, a picture of completeness, of fullness. And sleepiness, too, afterwards. But there it is, a picture of fullness. For me, more historically, I think about Spanish galleons in the 16th century coming from the New World, laden up to the scuppers with gold and silver and with precious stones taken from the mines of the New World. Imagine yourself a captain of one of those ships, surrounded by an armada of ships of the line, and you're going back to your reward. You're going to give all of that stuff to the king and queen, and they may give some of it back to you, and you might actually be established in a position as a noble there in the court, a feeling of fullness.

Or perhaps, maybe you're a pioneer traveling across the West, maybe across Death Valley or some other arduous place, four or five months from the Gateway City, Saint Louis, until finally you cross the Sierra Nevada mountains and you go down into the delicious climate of California, you see the rich soil, you see fruit trees, you smell the breeze, and you know that your family is going to be fine there. You're going to establish your farm there and you're going to live there for the rest of your lives, a feeling of fullness. Now, I could go on and on, but God has given little pockets of fullness to our lives, but I tell you that nothing we experience in this world compares with the truth behind this verse, in Verse 19, that “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ." And what's so amazing is that this is the exact same fullness that he intends to give to us, for because of sin, because of Satan's work in this world, we have been fully acquainted with emptiness, haven't we?

One Bible for Life class is studying the Book of Ecclesiastes, it begins, "Vanity of vanities." “Everything is vanity or meaningless, an emptiness.” And you have to understand that book in context, but basically it's everything done under the sun really apart from a sense of eternity and the work of God through Jesus Christ on the cross. That's what life would be like if it weren't for Jesus, utter meaninglessness. You live a short time and then all the things you labor on, they go over to dust or to nothingness. That's life apart from Christ, and we are freed from it. This book, Colossians, is a book of fullness, isn't it? It's a book of completeness. I was looking at this, I was intrigued, and I said, "I think there's more than just this one verse." Look at Verse 25. The Apostle Paul said, "I have become the church's servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness." So that's part of my joy, I get to present the fullness, the richness of the word of God. Or then, again, in Chapter 2, Verse 2, Paul's purpose and ministry, "My purpose," says he, "is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding." Again, fullness, that you might have the full riches of complete understanding. And then best of all, in Colossians 2:9 and 10, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." Amen and amen.

The exact same fullness that God has poured out into Christ, he desires to pour into the empty spaces of our hearts and our lives. He intends to fill this universe with his glory. He intends to fill your life with the glory of Jesus Christ. And so we'll get there in due time, but I just thought, "What a meditation." All the fullness of God is in Christ. My prayer for this morning is that through our meditation on this scripture, we would have a sense of that fullness. What does it mean that all the fullness of Deity, of God, was in Jesus in bodily form? This is the supremacy of Christ. And for the second week, we get to look at it. Last week, we saw Christ's supremacy as God's visible image, look again at Verse 15, "He is the image of the invisible God." The image of the invisible God, so if you're looking at Christ, you're seeing God.

We saw also last week Christ's supremacy over the physical universe. Verses 15 and following, “He is the image of the invisible God,” it says, "the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created." And so we saw Christ's role as creator of the universe, Christ's role as firstborn, established in a position of authority over the universe. We said that the universe was created by Christ. The universe was also created for Christ. And we said in a very mysterious way that the universe is, moment by moment, dependent on Christ for its very existence. That in Him all things hold together, and so that God, through Christ, created a needy universe. It needs Jesus, and so do you and I. And we see the supremacy of Christ, we saw it last week in his rulership over the spiritual universe as well.

Again, the Colossian heresy was that Jesus is a created being, not fully God, and not fully human. Because matter, physical stuff, is evil, so they said. The Earth, the physical world, is evil, so God would never have taken on a human body. And actually salvation, they said, was to be liberated from this physical stuff and brought into an out-of-body, pure spiritual experience. And the way that that happened is if you had fullness given to you through special philosophies, that they alone could teach you, and by asceticism and legalism and various harsh treatments of the body, so that you could be liberated from this physical world and go into that pure spirit world. Well, fundamentally it's flawed, right at the very beginning with its consideration of who Jesus of Nazareth was and is. And so Paul refutes it by saying that Christ actually is supreme over the spiritual universe. He created it, he sustains it, “whether thrones, or powers, or rulers, or authorities, all things created by him and for him, and in him they all hold together.” I was talking with someone this morning and they're saying, "What a deep thought and how difficult it is to conceive of Jesus continually holding Satan's being together for his own mysterious purposes." But that's the universe that Colossians teaches. And so we saw Christ's supremacy last week. Now, we're going to see Christ's supremacy concerning the church. 

We're going to see his supremacy over the church presently, and we see his supremacy in what he did so that the church would be blameless and free from accusation before God. We will see the supremacy, therefore, of the cross of Jesus Christ today. Now for myself, I yearn to preach the cross every week. I yearn to proclaim Christ so clearly, Christ crucified so clearly, that anybody who came and listened, not knowing Christ as their personal Savior, that they would hear the gospel plainly and clearly, and that they would be able to be saved. They wouldn't walk away saying, "What do I have to do to be saved?" They would know.

Furthermore, following Charles Spurgeon, I expect and trust and hope that God brought someone like that here today. Maybe it's you, I don't know. I don't know who you are, but I want to speak to your heart if you're that person, that you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, today, this morning, you will hear everything you need to be saved today. So listen carefully and it could be, while you listen, that God the Holy Spirit will kindle faith within your heart and God the Father, seeing that faith, will justify you forever and you will be righteous in his sight for eternity. It could be that'll happen this very morning, and I have prayed for it to happen. 

Christ is the Head of the Church

So let's look at the supremacy of Christ over the church. Look at Verse 18, speaking of Christ, "He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything, he might have the supremacy." So Christ here is presented as the head of the church. Now, many different analogies are used for the church, the people of God, in the Bible. The body analogy used here is only one of them. There are actually many different ones. There's an image in 1 Peter 2 of the church as a holy temple and we, like “living stones, are built together into that holy temple.” We're offering spiritual sacrifices constantly to God, a sacrificial image, and we're the temple and we're offering also, as the priesthood, the sacrifices to God. In another sense, we are like a family of God. Jesus, like an elder brother, and “he's not ashamed to be made like his brothers so that in everything he might share with us, even being tempted like we were yet was without sin.” So there's a sense of a family of God with God as our Father. Or a royal kingdom, a sense that we are part of a royal kingdom. He, the king, and we, kings and queens, under Him, rulers under His highest authority. We are a vineyard in another place. We are a flock with a shepherd tending us. We are a bride heading toward the day of our wedding. But this image of the body is used in a number of places, used in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 through 14, a picture of the body, the church like a body. It's used in Romans 12, and it's used here in Colossians, and also in Ephesians. Christ is the head of the body. Now, if the church is a body, what that means, as Christ as our head, is that He rules over it, he directs its movements. And all functions in the body exist to serve the head and the head governs all. The heart beats when the signals go forth from the head. The lungs breathe when the signals go forth from the head. Christ is the head of the church.

Christ is the Source of the Church

The scripture here also says that Christ is the source of the church. The word "arche" means beginning or source, so you think about the source of the river. If the church is like a river, then Christ is the source or the headwaters of the river and the church flows forth. Now, we believe that God ordained the church in His mind before the creation of the world. It says in Ephesians that we were “chosen in Christ before the creation of the world,” and so therefore it is in Christ that we exist. Christ is the arche, the beginning of the church, because before the creation of the world, before there was any time, God the Father saw us in Christ. We could also say that in space and time and the fullness of time, Jesus Christ, having taken on a human body, died on the cross, shed His blood for us. God raised him from the dead on the third day, He sent the Holy Spirit through the Son, and that is the beginning of the church. The day of Pentecost founded on the work, the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, the empty tomb. In that way also, in history, Jesus is the beginning of the church. There wasn't a church before Jesus came and did that work. And so Christ is the source of the church.

Christ is the Firstborn from the Dead

He is also, it says, “the firstborn from the dead.” Though Christ was not the first to be resuscitated after death, actually, many others, He himself raised people from the dead, yet Jesus is still “the firstborn from the dead.” We say this in two senses. First of all, He is in the position of preeminence. He's the greatest of all that have been raised from the dead, but also, temporally in time, He's the first and, at present, the only one with a resurrection body. Lazarus died again. The little girl that He raised from the dead, she's dead now, physically separated from her body. All of the people that Jesus raised, all the people, the apostles raised from the dead, all of them are dead now. But Jesus lives. He lives forever, and He will never again be separated from that body that God gave Him on the third day. He is in a resurrection body, and so He is “the firstborn from among the dead.” And there will come a time that “a great multitude, greater than anyone can count, from every tribe and language and people and nation will stand around the throne” also, all of us, in resurrection bodies, He will still be the firstborn from among the dead. He will be in the position of preeminence, even when we have our resurrection bodies. And, by the way, that is the only perfect healing there is in this universe, the only healing there is for AIDS, the only healing there is for cancer, for diabetes, for all of these dreaded illnesses. It is a resurrection body given you by God. Amen? And that is the future. That's where we're heading, free from all death, and mourning, and crying, and pain, with Jesus as the firstborn from among the dead. That is our hope, and we yearn for that, everyday brings us closer. Be happy. Don't worry about aging. Do what you need to do, but don't worry about aging because everyday brings us closer.

Christ is Supreme Over All Things for the Church

It says also that Christ is supreme over all things for the church. And from this, I got my sermon title over the last two weeks, this week and last week. "So that in everything," Verse 18, "He might have the supremacy." We should be falling down in awe before Jesus Christ. And it's only because of the dullness and the dimness of our faith that we don't. Someday we will. “Every knee will bow, and we will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” and we'll be glad to do it. And we will fall down before Him as the 24 elders, and we'll cast our crowns before Him, and we will honor Him because, in everything for the church, He has the supremacy. No human being can take that role from Him. It is His. He earned it. For He's the only one who shed His blood for the church, and how many human beings in history have forgotten that?

I was raised Roman Catholic. It is appalling some of the things that Catholic theologians say about the role of the Bishop of Rome called the Pope. It's amazing the statements they make. For example, Pope Leo the XIII, in an encyclical letter in 1894, he said this, "We, Popes, we hold upon this Earth, the place of God Almighty." Or this one, "The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, he is Jesus Christ himself, hidden under the veil of flesh." Do you believe that? No, no, no. "So that in everything, he might have the supremacy." Jesus said of the scribes and Pharisees that “they like to walk around in the marketplaces with flowing robes and to be greeted and given titles of honor and the most important seats at the banquets and the synagogues, and to be called rabbi with these important titles.” But he said, you're not to be called rabbi for you're all brothers and you have one master, one teacher, Christ.

But it isn't just the Catholics, even in some Baptist churches or other Protestant churches, some human beings arrogate to themselves positions of honor that are inappropriate. Pastors can be that way, taking a tyrannical view of their own authority. So also can lay leaders or even committee chairs. It can happen. We forget who we are. We forget that, “in everything, Christ might have the supremacy.” They think too highly of themselves. But I tell you it is impossible, it is impossible to think too highly of Christ. You can't do it. You cannot do it. There's not a man or a woman or a child in this sanctuary today that is presently thinking too highly of Christ. Though I've been preaching about 10 minutes about the supremacy of Christ, and perhaps you think more highly of Jesus than you did before you walked in this room, you still don't think highly enough of Jesus. And so therefore, in sanctification and growth and holiness, it's always a yearning that we think more and more and more highly of Jesus. “Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together,” make Him greater, make Him greater. And that's what this meditation is all about, that Christ, in everything, may have the supremacy.

God’s Pleasure in Our Salvation

He is supreme over the church, but He's also supreme over the actual process of our reconciliation. God ordained the salvation plan where He gets all the glory and we get all the joy. Isn't that wonderful? Are you willing for that agreement? He gets the glory, we get the joy. We get to be in heaven forever. We get to enjoy all of these rich blessings. We're just stripped of our pride in the process. Are you willing for that? I'm willing. We enter through the narrow gate, we stoop, we're stripped of all of our good works and all of our pride, and God, in His wisdom, ordained that He would get the glory through His Son, Jesus Christ. And therefore, He gives glory to Christ here through the Apostle Paul. Look at Verse 19 through 23, "For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross, once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now, He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation, if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant." Christ's supremacy, in our reconciliation, is proclaimed in these verses. He is supreme in that process. But notice how it begins. It begins with the pleasure of God the Father in all of it. Do you see it in Verse 19? "For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him." God was pleased, though the focus here has been on Christ, yet it was the plan and purpose of the Father to set in motion the salvation of the church through His Son, Jesus Christ. And God was pleased to have it. This whole thing, the whole salvation process, pleases God the Father. It brings Him joy. Ain't that wonderful? Meditate on that. God is a pleased being. Otherwise, would you want to spend eternity with Him? Think about that. Enter into the joy of your master. I want to go where there's joy, don't you? Eternal joy. Well, that's in God's presence, at His right hand. God is a pleased being.

"Our God," it says in Psalm 115:3, "is in heaven. He does whatever pleases Him." I guess that means He doesn't do anything that irritates Him. He only does those things that please Him, those things that were down to His glory, that display His nature, that's what he does. Christ spoke so beautifully in Luke 12:32 of the delight of the Father in giving us the kingdom. I love the KJV in particular here. "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." Meditate on that. God enjoys doing this. He really does. He enjoys saving people “from every tribe and language of people and nation.” He enjoyed saving you. And as a matter of fact, the scripture reveals that there was more joy in heaven over your salvation than over the sustaining work of grace and a hundred other people that didn't need it. You see? He celebrated the day you came to faith in Christ and the angels, saying, "Oh," they reacted and celebrated, too. We should never think the angels precede the Father in anything. The angels responded to God's joyful celebration. It is God's good pleasure to save you. It's His good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

Well, here in these verses, God's pleasure extends to every detail of reconciliation. God was pleased, first of all, to have all His fullness in a human body, in His Son. He was pleased also to reconcile us through Christ's death. Yes, pleased. And we'll talk more about that in a moment. He was delighted to welcome us even though we were hostile enemies, enemies in our minds as displayed by our evil behavior. He is pleased to present each one of us to Himself holy and blameless, free from any kind of accusation. All of these things bring Him pleasure. God's pleasure extends to the entire salvation plan.

Christ’s Incarnation

Look at the first part, Christ's incarnation. "For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him." Christ is full of God. He's full of God's power, full of God's mercy, full of God's compassion, full of God's love. He is full of God. God didn't hold anything back from His own Son. He fully reveals himself to His Son. He didn't just reveal Himself, He poured Himself into His Son. All of His fullness dwelling in Christ, even in bodily form.

Now, this is a point that Paul makes again in Colossians 2:9 and 10, we've already quoted it, listen again, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. And you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." The Colossian heretics denied that Jesus was human. They denied that He had a body. Jesus had a body, He has a body now. So therefore, if you had been walking along one of those dusty roads of Palestine, you could have shaken His hand, you could have put your arm around His shoulder, you could have looked Him in the face, you could have touched His beard. All of these things were part of His physical presence, and God was delighted for the incarnation. It is also foolishness to some people, isn't it? As we mentioned last week, foolishness to Thomas Jefferson, foolishness to so many unbelievers that God could take on a human body, but God was pleased to do it.

God’s Plan for Comprehensive Reconciliation

Secondly, we see also God's glorious plan for a comprehensive reconciliation. Verse 20, "And through Him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven." The word "reconciliation" is potent, isn't it? It has to do with broken relationships. It has to do with things that were together that are now blown apart, and the most explosive power there's ever been in the universe is sin. Greater than any fertilizer bomb that blew up half of a building somewhere. You've seen the pictures like in Oklahoma City and all that, the effects of a bomb like that, that is nothing compared to what sin has done in the universe. Nothing. All of the broken relationships there's ever been, all of the wars, all of the conflicts, and that bombing included in all of that, all of that part of sin. And it's amazing, therefore, the healing and the pulling together work of Jesus on the cross, taking these particles that have been blown apart and drawing them back together to be reconciled to God, reconciled and brought back into a right and sweet relationship with God. How wonderful is that?  The universe itself, the physical universe was cursed, estranged in some sense from God's original pattern, subjected to frustration by human sin. And so the present creation is groaning, it says, "as in the pains of childbirth until it can be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." So the physical world needed to be reconciled, so also human beings. God's marvelous plan, therefore, is to reconcile all things back to himself.

Now, don't misunderstand. This is not teaching universalism, it's not teaching that Hell will be empty, it's not in any way teaching the reconciliation of Satan and God, they will not be reconciled, but rather reconciliation of all categories of things, both visible and invisible. All of these things are being brought back together through Christ's work on the cross under one head, God. And so it says in 1 Corinthians 15, "Then the end will come, when He,” Christ, “hands over the Kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” “And when He has done this, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all." Do you see how Christ is pulling everything back together? The opposite of the image of the Big Bang. All of these things pulled back together in Christ's redemptive work and handed back to the Father, then Christ Himself subject to the Father “so that God may be all in all.” And that is powerful.

Christ’s Blood Atonement

The most powerful work in history, therefore, is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And we see it in His blood, look at Verse 20, "Through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross." The marvelous plan of God, therefore, is blood atonement. We'll never get tired of speaking about the blood, we'll never get embarrassed about the blood. We must speak of the blood because this is the way that God humbles us, the way that God shows us our role because it was through human sin that this explosion happened, and therefore, since the wages of sin is death, it is only by the death of a man, Jesus, the bloodshed on the cross, that all of this reconciliation can come about, and so it's through the bloodshed on the cross. And therefore, let's go back to the beginning, God was pleased to shed the blood of His Son.

This is holy ground, friends. I don't fully understand this. The things I'm about to say over the next two or three minutes, I don't fully understand them. I believe in my heart that they're true, but I don't fully understand it. How can God the Father be pleased to shed the blood of His own Son? How does He find pleasure in that? Most fathers would rather die than see their own sons die. They'd take the place of their sons, they don't want to bury their children. They face great threats and great danger to save their children from death. Speaking of this, some time ago I heard a story of a father who was with two other men and his teenage son fishing in Alaska, and their seaplane took on some water, frigid waters, and the three men made it to the shore, but the young man was not able to swim, his limbs were so stiff, so the father swam back out to be with his son. He didn't think he'd be able to rescue him and in the end he didn't, but he'd rather be with him than live without him. Now, I can understand that. I can understand that, I'm a father of five children. I can understand a father that will sacrifice or lay down his own life to save his children. I don't understand a father that would act to kill his children except as a monster.

I heard another story, and I've related it to you. I love reading work by Voice of the Martyrs and reading martyr stories, even modern martyr stories. And some time ago, I read this story by Richard Wurmbrand of a Romanian pastor, Pastor Florescu, who was arrested by the communist forces before the fall of communism and was being beaten and tortured in the cell that he would give up the names of his church members, who were the men and women that came and worshipped with him, and he wouldn't give in. And they would beat him, they would cut him with knives, they would bleed him, and then they'd put them back in his cell, and they would force large rats into his cell through a drain pipe at night so that if he tried to sleep, they would gnaw on his flesh. So he basically had to beat the rats off all evening long, standing up the whole time. This went on for two weeks.

They're beating him down, beating him down, but he still won't give up the names, until they bring in his 14-year-old son Alexander and they start beating him. And it's pretty clear that they mean to kill him, there's no question about it. And at this point, this man, Pastor Florescu, is just crazed with fatigue and pain and agony, mental anguish of watching his own son, who was a Christian, getting beaten probably to death. He said, "I can't take it anymore. Son, I've gotta tell them what they want to know." And his son, I'll never forget this, he said, he said, "Father, don't do me the injustice of making me the son of a traitor to our Lord Jesus Christ." And so he held back while his son was tortured to death, blood spattering the walls and the ceiling, tortured to death. I can understand a father like that, but a father who will do the torturing, I don't understand. And yet, this is what the scripture says. Isaiah 53:10, it says, "The Lord was pleased to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand."

Here's the thing, Jesus died on the cross. As He saw the cross coming toward Him, it was for the joy set before Him that He endured the cross despising its shame. There was nothing in the process that He delighted in, it was in the product that He delighted in. And so also I understand the Father's pleasure in crushing His Son. There is no pleasure in the thing itself, but there is eternal pleasure in what it produced in your life and mine. The Lord was pleased to do it. He was pleased to shed the blood of His Son. He was pleased to pour out His active wrath on His own Son. He was pleased to go through the process of having His only begotten Son cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He was pleased to listen to that, being omnipotent still not exert any power toward rescuing His Son, but only pour on the wrath more until Jesus spoke the words ending it, "It is finished." And then it was done. And God was pleased to do it. Not the process my friends, but so that you and I could stand before Him blameless, and unafraid, and unashamed of His coming, that we might spend eternity in His presence. We, sinners. We, who are, at one point, alienated from Him and hostile enemies in our minds, because of our evil behavior, we were the ones He rescued and He saved us.

The Infinite Journey of Our Reconciliation

Like I said, it's holy ground and I cannot fully understand it, but it's what the scripture teaches. And I think you and I ought to spend time meditating on the infinite journey of our reconciliation. “We were, at one time, hostile to God. We were dead in our transgressions and sins.” We weren't basically good people. I know you said you were, "I'm basically a good person." No, you aren't. No, you weren't. You were dead in your transgressions and sins, and so was I. But we are the kind of people that he saved. We are the ones, look what the text says, Verse 21, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."

"The mind of the flesh," it says in Romans, "is death." We displayed this internal hostility to God by disobeying his commands. We broke all of the Ten Commandments. Whether you actually murdered someone or not, whether you actually committed adultery or not, Jesus said that if you have been angry at someone, you've murdered them in your heart. If you have looked lustfully to a woman, you have committed adultery in your heart. Jesus said these things. We've had other gods besides God. We have coveted. We have lied. We have stolen. We have broken the Ten Commandments. And we have broken the two great commandments, the summary of all of the law. We didn't “love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We did not love our neighbors ourselves.” “We were alienated from God.” We were enemies.

And through the blood shed on the cross, He has reconciled us fully to God. And how sweet is that? But now, He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation, if you continue in your faith. He has reconciled us, reconciled us fully. And what does this mean? It means we're without blemish. Nothing's wrong with God's eyes, by the way. He still sees well. Even though he's the Ancient of Days, He still sees as well as He ever did. His eyes are still pure to look on evil. He can't look at it, and yet He gazes on you and says, "My beloved." How does He do that? It's the intervening blood shed on the cross for you. It's the perfect righteousness with which you are now clothed. You have been reconciled to God, fully reconciled, and you are free from accusation.

Satan's going to be quite busy on Judgment Day, trust me. He will not have any time to fling accusations your way. You are free forever. Who shall bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? “It's God who justifies, who dares condemn?” We are free from accusation.

The Ongoing Ministry of the Gospel: “IF you continue…”

"If," does that word bother you, by the way? If. There's a condition to all of this, “if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out.” If you continue. You say, "Well, now wait a minute, Pastor, I thought you were one of those that believes in once saved always saved. I thought you can't lose your salvation. You mean I have to kind of keep doing things?" But it does say, "If," doesn't it? If you continue, I say, then you have been saved. That's the way I look at it. If you continue.

Some people look on salvation, I was saying to the new member class this morning, look on salvation like one of those acrylic dried flower paperweights. Eternally beautiful, never changes, beautiful purple flowers inside an acrylic casing. They look on their faith that way. That is not biblical. God has given you a plant, it needs nourishment, it needs sunshine and water, or it will die. All he's saying is that what the plant needs it will get. He will nourish your faith until the day you need it no longer. When faith becomes side and “you don't need faith anymore, you will see Him face to face.” He will nourish it because He who began that good work in you will, what, He will carry it on to completion. So you must continue. You must keep coming to church. You must keep reading your Bible. You must keep praying. You must keep obeying and following the indwelling Spirit as He leads you. You must, if you want to be finally saved in the end.

Now, what application do we take from all of this? First of all, have you trusted in Christ? Did God bring you here today as the answer to my prayer? Lord, please bring someone here who is not saved. Please bring someone here who needs to hear this gospel. I told you you would hear everything you needed to be saved. You've heard it today. Jesus is the Son of God. He died on the cross. He shed His blood under the wrath and curse of God Almighty to free us from all of the guilt that we deserve for our transgressions of His law. You've heard all of that. There is ample free grace available for you. Trust in Christ. Trust in Him. All you need to do is turn to Jesus right now in your heart and say, "Jesus, I can't survive Judgement Day without you. Please save me from my sins. Save me now that I might have eternal life."

For those of you who have already made that commitment, you're in the "if" stage now, if you continue. Are you continuing? Are you continuing to feed your faith with the Word of God? Let's start here. Thank God for the reconciliation we heard about today. Thank God that it was His pleasure to save you. He enjoys saving you. Thank God for it. Feed your faith, and talk to yourself. Preach to yourself. Preach to yourself, say "I'm forgiven. I am forgiven. I'm reconciled. God is at peace with me. I stand in the righteousness of Jesus right now. I can't be more righteous in God's sight than I am right now in Jesus. He has forgiven me. On judgement day, I will stand blameless and unafraid. I am forgiven." Say that to yourself and thank God for it, and then feed your faith. Learn to trust Christ for more and more in the future. Step out in faith. At the end of this, he says that he has become a servant of the gospel. Step out in faith and become a servant of the gospel.

There are people surrounding us right now who are not reconciled to God. Do you have a ministry to them? Do you open your mouth and say anything about these wonderful truths we've been looking at today? Do you have a ministry? It was a great week at First Baptist Church this week. A wonderful new ministry called Jobs For Life started. You may have heard about it. We have some wonderful dedicated servants that have worked hard to make this thing happen. We had our first time on Thursday evening. It's a Bible-based curriculum, helping people to get and keep jobs based on teaching a scripture. These are unbelievers that are coming into our church on Tuesdays and Thursdays to be trained by some wonderful people, members of this church, on how to get and keep a job, and there's a promise of some companies out here that are eager to hire graduates of this program. That's the attraction to them. We're hoping they'll find an even greater attraction though. Jesus. We want them to find Christ. What would it profit a man or woman to get a job and lose their soul? Alright? Yes, they need a job and we want to help them with that. It's Christ-like to minister to temporal needs. But we need some laborers for that harvest field, friends. We had 14 students on Thursday evening, nine women and five men. And we need mentors who will build relationships with these folks and help them through the first few months, many months perhaps, of their job, and more than that get to know them in Christ and lead them to faith in Christ perhaps, and disciple them after they've come to faith in Christ. I'd like to see some of them baptized right up here. If that ministry doesn't appeal to you, that's fine. Alright? One part of the body is a toe, another a hand, another an eye. We have different functions. You should care, and pray, but what is your ministry? Are you a partner with Christ in the gospel? The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. Are you involved in that? Are you a partner, a sharer in the gospel ministry? Close with me in prayer.

Oh, what a joy is before me today as a preacher, and all of us as hearers to dwell on this theme; the supremacy of Jesus Christ, the greatness of Christ, the deity of Christ. What could be better than that? What theme more sublime? What better way to spend our time than to meditate on the greatness of Jesus Christ. Amen? I have been looking forward, literally, for months to preaching this sermon and now I get to do it and that's a wonderful thing.

March 7th, 1970 was a fascinating day in my childhood. I didn't know the date until just before worship, but I remember the occasion. The occasion was my first, and up to this point, my last time of seeing with my own eye a total solar eclipse. I saw it, I was about seven years old. I haven't seen one since. I remember I was in an art class, my mom enrolled me in this art class, and they were all excited that this solar eclipse was coming and they prepared us to be able to see it. They warned us that we were unable to look at the sun with our naked eye, as though we needed that warning. We had learned earlier, even at age seven I knew, you don't stare at the sun. But they said, "It's really tempting when a solar eclipse comes along. You're going to want to look at it and you can't." So we prepared these special goggles with polarized film and all that, somewhat like welder's goggles, and even then you couldn't look for very long. Others took this white poster board and they put a tiny little pinhole in it and held one apart from the other. By an indirect manner they saw the image of the sun reflected onto that white poster board through that tiny little pinhole, because none of us could look fully at the radiant glory of the sun.

Can I tell you something? The sun is a dim reflection of the glory of almighty God. He made it. He created it to show His own greatness and His own glory, but it's nothing compared to God. Actually, it says in 1 Timothy 6 that God dwells “in unapproachable light.” He said to Moses, “No one can see my face and live." That's almighty God. To some degree this text of Scripture, I don't speak in any way disrespectfully of the Scripture, but it's like a little pinhole through which some of the glory of Christ will come to our eyes today. Christ himself, to some degree, a pinhole focusing an image of God that we're able to see and survive because we can't handle it in our present flesh... Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor are we able to see God. Through that pinhole we can see some of the glory of God. That is Jesus Christ.

There will come a day, and oh the joy in meditating on it, when we will see it fully face to face. When we will be so transformed, our spirits and our soul so transformed and enlarged, our bodies transformed and made like Christ's resurrection body, we will be able to handle a full revelation of the glory of God and of Christ. Oh, how I yearn for that day. In the meantime we have these little pinholes, and we have an image that we can look at and have a sense of the greatness of God thereby. That's what we get to do this morning. We get to look through a pinhole, or by a reflected image, and see the supremacy of Christ. This is the gospel, my friends, this is the heart of the gospel. That Christ is God and that God died for you and that He can, by faith, live inside you, and He can be for you the hope of your own future glory forever. He is your future glory. He will be your great reward. Christ is the gospel. Amen? And so we get to look at the gospel today in a magnificent way.

Now, we're going to look, this is a two part sermon on these verses we can't do it all today, But we're going to look at the supremacy of Christ over the next two weeks. This week and next week, God willing. We're going to look at the supremacy of Christ in a variety of different ways. We're going to see the supremacy of Christ, first of all, in who He is. Just His intrinsic greatness as the image of the invisible God in His own deity. We're going to see the greatness, the supremacy of Christ. We're going to also see the supremacy of Christ in His position relative to the created universe. The firstborn over all creation. We're going to see the supremacy of Christ in what He has done in that it was through Him that all things were made, visible and invisible. He is actually the creator of all things. We're going to see the greatness of Christ in what He's done. We're going to see the greatness of Christ in what He is presently doing every single instant of the day in holding the universe together by His own great power. In these ways we're going to see the supremacy of Christ.

 But, all of it will mean nothing if you're not moved inside your heart to worship and honor Him as God. I speak both to Christian and non-Christian alike. To the non-Christian, I've already prayed for you if you're here. It will mean nothing for you to hear these words if you are not moved to worship Him as God and find salvation thereby. So I plead with you right at the very beginning, find your salvation in the fact that this one that we're talking about here shed His blood on the cross for you. And no good works are welcome on your part, no good works are possible for the forgiveness of your sins. It's all here, it's all in Christ and in the cross; find it there. But for you who are Christians, I say to you that your hearts are colder than they should be toward this concept of the deity of Christ. It's my desire, through the Spirit and through the Scripture, to warm you up a bit, and myself too. So that we might honor Him as he truly deserves.

 Let's first look at the supremacy of Christ in who He really is as God's visible image. Look at verse 15. It says in verse 15, "He," [this is clearly speaking of Christ in context, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ] "He is the image of the invisible God." Now here we come immediately to the deity of Christ, foundational doctrine of Christianity.

Christ’s Supremacy as God’s Visible Image

We worship Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, we worship Him as our God. We are not ashamed to bow down before Him, we're not ashamed to embrace Him as deity, we believe in the deity of Christ. Now Christianity as a faith, as a religion, contains many doctrinal concepts. More than we could put together in a lifetime I think. The Scripture, 66 books of the Bible, seems almost an infinite treasure house of concepts that connect and reconnect in myriad ways that are beyond us to fully grasp even if we had our whole lives to study every day. But, not all doctrinal concepts that flow from the texts of Scripture are equally significant. They may all be true, but they're not equally significant, they’re equally true. The doctrine of baptism is important, it's important to understand it. The doctrine of the deity of Christ is more important. The doctrine of polity, of church government is important. The doctrine of the deity of Christ is more important. The doctrine of eschatology, of end time teaching is important, but the deity of Christ more so.

And so we have in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about all these different stars in the firmament, but "Star differs from star in splendor." This may be the brightest star in the theological cosmos, the deity of Christ. That Jesus of Nazareth is actually God in the flesh. Here began your personal salvation when you acknowledge this, when you recognize who He was, when you said in your heart and with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord." That's where it began for you, and it's in meditating on that and living it out that your salvation has unfolded and developed through the deity of Christ. This is the greatest confession a human mouth can make. Peter made it in Caesarea Philippi. Jesus was asking, "Who do people say that I am?" And they got down to it and said, "What about you? What about you, who do you say that I am?" This is the question on which your soul's destiny will depend, on how you answer it, and Peter answered for us all, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replied, "Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my father in heaven."

It's the same confession that Thomas made. Doubting Thomas, who didn't believe the reports of the resurrection and he said, "Unless I put my finger in the nail marks and my hand in his side, I will not believe that Jesus has been raised from the dead." A week later, Jesus gave him what he asked for. Now you're not going to get it because you're not one of the apostles. But Thomas got the privilege of actually being able to touch Jesus's resurrection body, and he, I believe, probably fell on his knees, although the text doesn't say it, but just fell at least in his heart and said, "My Lord and my God!" That is the supreme confession that a human being can make. “My Lord and my God.” "Because you have seen me," Jesus said, "you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Believed what? That He is Lord and God. Do you believe? Are you among those that Jesus blesses in John 20? Praise God forth and give Him glory and honor that you have come to the place where you believe a living man, flesh and blood man, is actually deity. Only God could work this in your heart.

This is the saving confession of Romans 10. It says, "If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’" that means God, "if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." So this is the confession. Therefore, all of you who are Christians, you should be also evangelists. This is your goal, this is what you're trying to do in the lives of your coworkers, and neighbors, and unsaved relatives, and family, friends. This is what you're trying to do. To bring them by the power of the spirit and by the power of the gospel to make this confession, that Jesus is God and died for me. That's what you're trying to do. And for those of you who are not saved, oh how I yearn that you would come to that confession yourself. Believe in your heart that Jesus is God. This is the essence of the gospel message.

Therefore, since it's so foundational, since it's so vital, so important it is consistently attacked by Satan. He saves His heaviest artillery for this, the deity of Christ. It says in 1 John 4:2-3, "This is how you can recognize the spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." That's Satan's work, antichrist, he's against Christ. What he is working in the world is unbelief concerning this. Now, I think there are two great errors, two great categories of errors that you can fall into concerning this doctrine of the deity of Christ. The first is to deny that it's true. That it isn't true that a living man could be God, to deny it, and there's lots of different flavors of denial of that. The second is that the concept that Jesus is God is insufficient for your daily joy, your eternal joy. Now non-Christians fit into the first, and Christians come in and out of the second, don't we?

Well, let's look at the first, that it isn't true. All the world religions are based on this concept that Jesus isn't God. They all teach it. Islam says that Jesus is a great prophet, but that He is not the son of Allah. He was actually protected from dying on the cross, it was actually Judas that died on the cross. Jesus is a great prophet but not even the greatest prophet, that's Muhammad. Judaism certainly denies it, it is for this very reason that Jesus was crucified. The high priest charged him under oath by the living God, "Tell us if you're the Christ, the son of God." and Jesus said "I am." And then, quoted Daniel 7. For this He was condemned by the Jewish nation, claiming to be deity. The Jehovah's Witnesses certainly deny this concept, deny that Jesus is God. They say He's a created being. The slogan of Jehovah's Witnesses' Arianism, "There was, when he was not." In other words, there was a time that Jesus didn't exist, He's a created being, that's what they say. "He's god with a little g." God with a little g, right? Therefore, they deny the deity of Christ. The Mormons deny the deity of Christ. They say that He's kind of like a spirit being like Michael and Lucifer, they're kind of brother angels or something and, again, a created being. They deny the deity of Christ.

Atheists deny it in artful ways, like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson and others, deny the deity of Christ with mockery. As we were worshipping, did you notice all of those songs were focused on giving Christ glory and His crowns, and honoring Him. Eric, that was so sweet, that a time of worship focused on Christ, but I was moved inside as I pictured the Roman soldiers putting a robe on Jesus, and a crown of thorns and mocking His kingship. And so it has been with prominent atheists like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson and others that have mocked the idea that Jesus could be God. This is what Thomas Jefferson wrote, he said, "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being, as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva, Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.” It's a myth, so said Thomas Jefferson.

I don't mean to rob the joy of the next time you visit Washington DC at the Jefferson memorial and all that, but as you do, remember this man was in print an enemy of your faith. Mocking it, mocking it. He actually says, "Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them, and no man ever had a distinct idea of the Trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus." That's the third President of the United States mocking the idea of the deity of Christ. All right, so that's one great error that we can fall under by the influence of Satan, that it's not true, that Jesus is not God. The other error is the one that we come in and out of frequently, it's insufficient. "It's just not enough for my joy, it's not enough to make me happy. Yes, Jesus is God, but so what?"

True Worship Consists of Doctrine Producing Awe

Now, I don't think we'd really ever come right out and say that but we live that way. Don't we? Sometimes. "It's not enough for me to know Jesus, it's not enough for me to know that God died for me, that's not enough, I have to have more." Well, what I say to you is that this doctrine should produce awe and worship within our hearts. If it doesn't, you need to come to Jesus as the healer of the soul and say, "Heal me Jesus, heal me. You healed the man born blind, then heal my heart because I don't seem to care like I should about you. Heal me from thinking it's not enough that Jesus is God and died for me. Heal me of worldliness, heal me of idolatry. Heal me of indifference and coldness and hardness. Heal me Lord." And He will. It is His promise, He will ignite His own love within your heart. And we must do it because you know you're going to spend eternity doing it.

And if you're a Christian, you're happy about that in theory. But. John Owen said, "We ought to spend more time meditating on it here on earth since we're going to be doing it for eternity." Right? And I think the more we spend, the more time we spend meditating on the greatness of Christ and on His deity; the more useful we'll be to God, the happier we will be, the more impervious to misery caused by pain and suffering, if we would just meditate on this. Take this as a practical point, this is a testimony from Jonathan Edwards, the Pastor during the Great Awakening and a great Theologian. Also just a great man of God, and he had his own walk with God. This is something that happened to him one day, and you ought to ask to have something like this happen to you; maybe not exactly like this, but something like this.

This is what he said: "As I rode out into the woods for my health in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place; as my manner commonly has been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that was for me extraordinary of the glory of the son of God." He had a view, inside his heart that was for him extraordinary, "Of the glory of the son of God as mediator between God and man, and His wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens." It's both sweet and peaceful but, also infinite, and kind of scary that way, this grace. "The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent, with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thoughts and conceptions which continued as near as I can judge, about an hour. So as to keep me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise, how to express emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone, to love Him with a holy and pure love, to trust in Him, to live upon Him, to serve Him and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with the heavenly purity." 

Oh, is that sweet. Wouldn't you love to just lie in the dirt for an hour and have that happen to your soul? Oh, you wonder why did it end, right? Well, God still had work for him to do. You can't just be lying there on the ground in the woods forever. He had a congregation. He had a family, a wife who'd be wondering why he's not home for dinner. It's time to get up off the ground, but think of this. The apostle Paul said this, "For me, to live is Christ," but to die is what? Gain! That would be blasphemy if it weren't more Christ that we're gaining. And that's what we get. And so get up off the ground; off your meditations, get up happy, get up joyful, get up energetic, and go serve him while you have to be here in this world, but know that something better is waiting for you that is not more of the same. We need to do this. Practically speaking, you need to take time to get alone. Go into the woods, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen, whatever. Get alone, get quiet, and say, "Christ, show me yourself. I'm not satisfied with what I have so far. I want more of you." He is honored by the request. He's honored by it, and so do it.

Christ the Image of the Invisible God

Now, what does it say, here? Christ is the image of the invisible God. This is the doctrine that should produce awe and wonder. Well, the word 'image,' is the word 'eikon,' eikon. In Greek Orthodoxy, icons are employed as physical artifacts that are made by people to stimulate worship. Whether we get into the discussion of icons itself is not the point. That's what the word means. It's something that's made that stimulates worship. The true eikon is Christ himself. He's the true image of the invisible God. To look at Him, you do not go astray. Now, I believe it's picking up on the original concept of the purpose of the human race. In Genesis chapter 1 it says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…so God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them.” We are in the image of God, but because of our sin, our fallenness, it's marred, the image is defective. Not in Christ. He is the perfect image of the invisible God.

Now, in a parallel concept or construction, we get in Hebrews 1:3 it says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory." Get the picture of those sunbeams coming off the Sun. Remember when you were a kid, and you drew the sun, and it was a round circle, and then these wavy lines coming out of it? You know what I'm talking... Maybe you still draw the sun that way, who knows. But anyway, those are radiant light beams coming off of the globe, which is the sun. Jesus is the radiant light beam, coming, bringing the sun to us. Difficult in the analogy in that it's S-O-N and S-U-N, but you know what I'm saying. Christ brings the radiance of God to us so that when we see Him, we see God. He is the radiance, radiance of God's glory, and He is the exact representation, different Greek word, but same concept. The character, He is the signet ring imprint that when you look at the ring and you look at the imprint, it's exactly the same. He is the signet ring imprint of the invisible God, sustaining all things by His powerful word. So therefore, what that means is when you look at Jesus, you're seeing the Father. You're seeing the image of the invisible God.

There's an incredible moment in John 14 when after Jesus has said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father through me," and he's talking about the Father. And Philip says, "Father, Father, Father, Father, show us the Father." All right. We're excited. We want to see the Father. Show us the Father, and it'll be enough for us. And Jesus said, "Don't you know me, Philip, after all this time?" Wow, I don't have enough brain power to figure that out, I don't. I don't... I can't figure that out. Don't you know me? We believe in the Trinity, that they're distinct persons, Father and son are distinct persons. When you see Jesus, you've seen the Father. He is the image of the invisible God, and so He is supreme in who He is.

Secondly, we see Him supreme in His position relative to the universe. Colossians 1:15-17, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or powers, or rulers, or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." So here we see His greatness in His position as first born over the universe. Greatness in His past accomplishments, His power displayed in creation itself. Through Him, or by Him, all things were created. And we see His power also displayed in His ongoing sustaining of the universe. He upholds it every moment by the word of His power. So we see the greatness of Christ in these things.

Christ’s Role as Creator of the Universe

Now, this is a clear statement of deity. No Jew would have understood it any other way. When Paul is saying that through Jesus, all things were created, he is claiming that Jesus is deity. Why do I say that? Well, it's because it's something that the Old Testament ascribed to God, to Yahweh, alone. Yahweh, Jehovah God, the God of the Jews, said, "I did this by myself, alone, and there was no one with me." He says it very plainly, many times. But here's one verse, Isaiah 44:24, "This is what the Lord says – your redeemer who formed you in the womb: 'I am the Lord who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.'" That's what He says, said, "There was no one with me, no one helped me." One of the strangest Gospel presentations I've ever been involved in in my life, was with a Japanese Jehovah's Witness after I had been there for about five months and my Japanese language skills were rudimentary at best, below rudimentary. I barely could ask for bread at the store. Have you ever tried to talk to a Jehovah's Witness in your native language? Just in your own native language it's hard enough. 

Why did I invite this man in and sit down and get our Japanese Bibles open and try to talk to this guy about Jesus as the image of the invisible God? But the Lord... It's amazing what can happen, and his English was worse than my Japanese so we were hopeless in terms of communicating. He kept pointing to proof text which I knew he was going to point to and I had things to say about them, but I couldn't. And then I was... But the Lord led me to Isaiah 44:24 and I said in the Japanese language, "He was alone, He was alone, He was alone." In the Colossians it says Jesus created it. Don't you see? If we don't have a Trinity we can't make sense of this. It makes no sense at all, we can't make sense. You say they're separate beings, that's impossible. The creation of the universe was something God did by Himself; therefore we believe in the Trinity: Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father created Him but He did it through the Son. Now I don't understand that through language, I don't know what it means. The Father, the Creator, but through the Son, through Him all things were made. You get the sense of the Father and the Son like in a workshop working together. I don't know what image fits, but I do know that they work together in it, but there was no one else with them.

And it says here that He is the first born over all creation. The Jehovah's Witnesses and other Arians make a lot of this. They say He's clearly a created being, but actually it has here to do with position in the universe. He is placed in a position as first born. There's a story of Joseph's sons being brought in Egypt to Jacob, aging Jacob. And he was toward the end of his life and he was not as strong, and his eyesight wasn't what it could be. So Manasseh, the physical first born, and Ephraim, the younger, came and aging Jacob crossed his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim's head and gave him the first born blessing. Joseph was displeased and he tried to uncross his father's hand. He would then lose that battle. He's not going to uncross his hands because Jacob as a prophet of God, determined to set the younger over the older for his own purposes and therefore in Jeremiah 31:9 he calls Ephraim his firstborn. That he determined to do that. Jesus is the first born over all creation. It's positional language.

It says in Hebrews 3:5-6, "Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house…but Christ is faithful as a Son over God's house." Do you see that? He is the Son over the house, He is in charge. He rules, it's a position of power. It also says that "He is before all things," that means He has preeminence, He stands first in line. He is the name that is above every name, He is the highest of all. So He stands above all the rest of creation, it's a position of preeminence.

Universe Created by Christ

But then as we've said, the universe itself was created by Christ. Let's get specific. "For by Him all things were made, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, all things have been created by Him." Now let's focus on the physical universe. That means every atom in the universe was created through Christ. All of them. The periodic table, remember that? When you studied chemistry? Jesus made them all. All of those atoms, He made them exactly like He wants and He didn't just figure out a recipe for each atom, He figured out how many there would be, and how they would combine into molecules, and into larger organs and all that. He worked all of that out. All the hydrogen and helium and all of the stars, Jesus made it all. All of the gold in every mine on earth, all of the diamonds, the carbon that's in the diamonds, He made it all. Crafted it and shaped it.

All the physical universe, He made all of it. And all of the animals. Millipedes, they're nasty looking things aren't they? Little, thousand little bugs, creepy looking bugs, He made them. Hummingbirds, my wife saw a hummingbird this week. The beating wings. It's just an amazing little creature and going from flower to flower, Christ made it. He made it. Distant stars, He made it. Ponder Jesus of Nazareth walking down the dusty roads of Palestine, sleeping out under the stars, for they were poor. And they're looking up and Jesus made those stars. It boggles the mind. The mind needs to be boggled by it. He made the mountains all different kinds of mountains. Like the Smoky Mountains out in the western part of the state. They are sweet mountains, they really are. And they're pretty, they're just not dramatic. I'm not originally from here. They're not dramatic, but they're pretty, okay? Then there's the Grand Tetons which are more dramatic, more striking, Jesus made them. The Rockies perhaps a little more so, the Karakorum's in Pakistan even more so with K2, the second highest mountain in the world. And even more then, the Himalayas.

Universe Created For Christ

All of them in their proper place showing the glory of God in His own way, Jesus made them all, created all things. But not only that, it says that the universe was created for Christ. It's His personal playground. It's His stuff. It's made for Him. I remember some time ago I preached on Psalm 50 which is a marvelous Psalm on this and it says, Psalm 50:9-12, "I have no need," [this is God speaking], "I have no need of a bull from your stalls or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you." [Or me] "If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it." Jesus could say that, it was created for Him. Every single green hill, every bubbling brook, it's all His. Every bird, every creature of the field, they're all His. And so also every single human being. For He made them all, all of them. You belong to Christ by creation, whether you're Christian or non-Christian, you're His possession by creation at least. For He knit you together in your mother's womb.

Your hair is His, your face, your vital organs; all of His by creation. So also are all of your loved ones, your parents, your siblings, your children, your spouse; all of them belong to Him for He made them. So also the people that you are seeking to reach with the gospel, they belong to Jesus for He made them. The universe was made for Christ, for His pleasure, for His glory, for His private possession. And what is ascribed generally to God in Romans 11:36 is specifically ascribed to Jesus here, "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”

Universe Sustained by Christ

But the Scripture here says more than that, it also says that the universe is moment-by-moment sustained by the power of Christ, and this is where it gets really interesting. The more you meditate on this, the more mind-boggling it gets and the more ethical problems come from it. "In Him," it says, "all things hold together." Kind of like they're all glued together. In Christ. I believe that God created a needy universe. It needs its Creator every moment of the day, our physical hunger is evidence of that neediness.

So your physical hunger that you're feeling right now? It's evidence of your ongoing need for Christ, but you need the word of God more, I'm bold to say this, so we're going to hang in there on the deity of Christ for a few extra minutes. But you were created needy, so were the atoms themselves. They need their Creator every moment of the day. Now, the deist posited a universe that was created by God like a clock, wound up and let run and He doesn't interfere. Dare He not interfere! If He doesn't interfere, the universe flies apart. Now, this is a sermon not a physics lecture, so we're not going to talk about protons and their positive charges and all that. This is, by the way, a rhetorical technique where you say you're not going to talk about something and then you actually do talk about it. But at any rate, we're not going to discuss much how the protons being positively charged really have no business hugging each other in the atom, and loving each other, and hanging together the way that they do. Why don't they fly apart? Well, the physicists, they tell us why they don't fly apart. You know what the physicists tell us? It's the strong nuclear force. That's just a name, friends. I have a better name than that. What's a better name than that? How about Christ? In Him, all things hold together.

And what a picture, how opposites, people who ordinarily wouldn't love each other can come together in perfect unity, theological principle, but physically, materially, He holds those atoms together every moment. That's mind-boggling. He exerts active energy as God to keep the universe together in the pattern He first made it. It's amazing. "In Him, all things hold together." That means if Christ stopped holding the atoms of your body together, you would fly apart. If He stopped holding the atoms of this church together it would fly apart. He holds it all together at every moment. Let's pause for a moment and apply this ethically. What that means is that He kept Hitler's body together every moment of his life, kept it together by an act of his constant will. He did it in such a way that He was in no way responsible for any of that man's evil deeds, "For He cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone and He will bring every responsible being to judgment for what they do with their freedom." But, He held his body together, and I say if He didn't then I don't understand the universe we're living in from a biblical point of view. He did hold it together. He keeps air molecules of tsunamis and hurricanes together while they're doing their damage. 

He keeps bullets together, they're flying through the air knowing full well they're going to end up in some innocent victim, maybe even an infant; keeps them together. And if He didn't, if He chose not to, He could make it just poof into mid-air. Is it not possible for Him to do that? Yes, He can do it, but He exerts active power to keep those atoms together while the bullet's flying through the air. Let's go even beyond that, He kept His own nails together while they held Him on the cross. I don't understand it, He's not aloof from the suffering. He's actively willing suffering on His own part that we might have eternal life, that His blood might be shed; He's actively willing it. And by the way, don't give me any of those Gnosis theories how He stopped being God for a while. Philippians, "He left his deity beside." He never leaves his deity anywhere, He is God. He will always be God and if He stopped being God, this stops being the universe. So He's actively holding the cross together, the spikes together. He's holding it all together so that He will suffer so that we might go to heaven. It's incredible. More than that, He holds together spiritual beings as well for He rules over all things. Christ's supremacy of the spiritual universe is portrayed here as well. It says, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

He's holding it all together. You know what that means? You will continue to live another moment if He wills, because He wills, and for no other reason. Therefore, just like James says, “Now, listen you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow I'll go to this or that city, spend a year there.’” "A year?" "Yeah, a year." "Spend a year there, carry on business, make money. Why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say what? “If the Lord," [that's Jesus by the way] "if the Lord wills, we will live." Did you hear that? If Jesus wills, I will stay alive. My body will hold together and I will do this and that. Parenthetically, don't you think you ought to ask Him what you ought to do if He chooses that you live? Doesn't He have a purpose? Shouldn't you go before Him every day as a living sacrifice and say, "What do you want me to do? What are you holding my hands together for? What are you holding my feet together for? What are you holding my mouth together for? What is my life for? What am I here for Jesus?" Every day you go to Him, if the Lord wills.

Colossian Heresy: Christ Like an Angel

Jesus holds the physical universe together, He holds the spiritual universe together as well. The Colossian heresy was that Jesus was some kind of emanation, some spirit being. And that Satan's a spirit being, and they're all spirit beings, and they're all kind of... and the physical world is evil. And out of that came all of the trouble in the world. That's a heresy. What Paul does, is he said, "Actually, Jesus made the spirit world. And He made every inhabitant in the spirit world. And He sustains the spirit world every moment."

Satan and His Demons Created by Christ, For Christ, and are Sustained by Christ

So if I cause you to stumble or have some trouble of that Jesus held Hitler's body together every day of his life, well let's just go to Satan. Hitler's nothing compared to Satan. Jesus holds Satan's being together every moment. This destroys dualism by the way. Jesus and Satan aren't battling it out as equals. Not at all. Jesus can pull the plug on Satan's very existence any time He chooses. Now you may ask, "Well, then why doesn't He?" You may ask that. Because for His own glory, His own purposes, He's choosing to pull the plug slowly over thousands of years. And in the end, what's He going to do but throw him in the lake of fire? He will be powerless to escape. But He will not pull the plug on his existence. He upholds it. Just like every wicked person. He upholds their existence every single moment, for all eternity in hell. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever in the presence of the Lamb, it says. He's watching. He's there... He's more than watching. He's holding their beings together. This is His nature. He established at the beginning and He has not changed His mind. And they will continue to have existence because He wills it. They will be responsible for what they have done because He wills it.

This is the God that we worship. Does it boggle your mind? I can't get my words around it. I can't get my brain around it. But I know that this is what the Scripture says: "He upholds all things by the word of His power." Observe then, the unbelievable arrogance, the unbelievable arrogance of Satan. When Jesus was being tempted in the desert, and he takes Jesus to a very high mountain and shows Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world in their splendor. He said, "All this has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. So, I'll give it to you if you will bow down and worship me." All right, put that back into Colossians 1, and do you see the arrogance? Jesus is Satan's creator. Jesus is Satan's God. He holds him together at every moment. How wrong is it to demand that your own creator get down on His face and grovel before you, a created being? But I'm brought up short here. I act like this sometimes. There's some demonic side to me, in which I get frustrated with God if He doesn't do my little will. If I don't get my prayers answered the way I want, I'm going to start charging Him with injustice. I'm going to demand that He bow to my will and do what I want Him to do. We should be on our faces before Jesus, and not demand the other posture, that's satanic.

 Jesus is not fighting Satan and his demons on equal footing. But rather it says very plainly, in Ephesians 1 that God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given. Not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under His feet, and appointed Him, Jesus, to be head over everything,” I'm going to insert something here, “for the [benefit] of the church, which is His body. The fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” His sovereign ruler-ship is for our benefit, and He rules over Satan and his demons in order to accomplish the building of the church. Amen and amen. This is the Christ that we worship. Now, next week we're going to look at Christ's supremacy over the church, and Christ's supremacy and reconciliation. We'll see the greatness of Christ in those things.

Saturate Your Mind in this Deep Doctrine: The Absolute Supremacy of Christ

Now, let's take a moment and apply this. I want you stimulate yourself to worship. I want you to ask this question: "Am I astonished at the greatness of Christ? Am I astonished at it?" I was saying to one of my kids, I said, "Sometimes we treat this idea, the doctrine of the deity of Christ, whatever, somewhat like mathematics." All right? How many of you like to go home and read a 500 page textbook this afternoon on addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division? Would you enjoy that? The reason you wouldn't enjoy... there's 80 reasons you wouldn't do that, but one of them is, you already feel like you know as much about that as you need to know. You don't want to make a life-study of that. It's a shallow topic that's not going to carry you very far. Well, let's be ashamed when we see that attitude in us toward the deity of Christ. I already know as much about... All right, Jesus, Son of God, died on the cross, all the... The tone. Just the tone is there. You do not know everything there is to know about Jesus. You don't know a millionth percent of the part of it. 

And that's why the Apostle Paul... What does he say? "I am an apostle; the apostle of the Gentiles. I saw Christ on the road to Damascus, resurrected in glory. I've had numerous visions of Him. I was caught up to the third heaven and saw things inexpressible that man's not permitted to talk about. I've seen all that, but you know what I want more than anything?" "Paul, what do you want?" "I want to know Christ. I'm hungry for Him. I want to know Him. Yes, I can easily see spending eternity studying this person because there's so much to know. I want to know Christ." Is that what you're like or have idols crept in and diminished Jesus in your mind so you really don't care that much to know more? He's like mathematics. Yeah, you need to know it to get along, but we know as much about that as we really need to know. Well, if it's different then I would spend some time repenting. I'd spend some time pulling idols out of your heart and say, "Let's put Jesus back at the center." The knowing of Christ is the greatest thing that can ever happen to you. 

Why don't you go for a walk like Jonathan Edwards did out in the woods? I'm not promising He'll knock you to the ground. I'm not saying that, but He will bless you. He will expand your soul and your mind. He'll give you a vision of Himself that's greater than you had before if you just seek Him. If you just ask Him. Put aside the other things and just spend some time and kneel down and say, "Jesus, show me yourself." Get the Colossians 1 and go over each phrase. "He is the image of the invisible God." What does that mean? "First born over all creation." What does that mean? "For by Him all things were created, things in heaven and Earth, visible and invisible." What does it mean? Let the words come and transform your heart. And the next time that something happens to you that you don't like, maybe later this afternoon, why don't you give Him glory and praise and say that, "It is by your will, and for your glory, and by your power that this has come to me and I praise you, Jesus. I trust you. You're holding my body together, you're holding my life together. Everything you do is right and wise," and trust in Him. Close with me in prayer.

What is the state of your heart this morning? It's on my mind. I'm not speaking about your physical heart, I think you know that. It's not that we don't care about that. Your cardiovascular system is obviously important, but I'm talking about your spiritual heart. I'm talking about your relationship with Jesus Christ. Are you on fire for Christ this morning? Are you hot toward Him? Zealous for Him? Do you have a yearning for His glory? You want to see His Kingdom advance? You yearn to be with Him, but your happy to be here serving Him as long as the Lord would have you be here. Do you have that sense of mission in your life? Do you want to see God glorified through everything you say and do? Does that characterize you? Are you hot toward Christ this morning, or are you cold and distant from him?

You have to be honest, that you kind of shrug toward the things I just mentioned. That you really don't care that much about the lost, not like you should. You know you should, but you really don't. That you're not really excited to read the word of God, you don't get much out of it. Going to church is more of a chore than anything. Your personal devotional lives have really never been worse. Are you cold toward Christ today? Now that's the question, and you may ask, "How can I know? How can I know the state of my own heart? What diagnostic tool can I use?" Well, what's so amazing is that we look this morning at Colossians 1:1-14, we find that the exact same diagnostic tool that the Lord uses to show us our heart is the same remedy that it uses to heal it, and it is prayer. John Bunyan who wrote "Pilgrims Progress" said this, I've never forgotten it, "Prayer drives out sin, or sin drives out prayer." That's profound, isn't it? And it's true. It's hard to be zealous and hot in your prayer life while you're living in sin. It's hard to live in sin when you're hot and zealous in your prayer life. They're enemies, the two of them. Therefore, you can look at your prayer life.

I’m reading a book right now called, "When I Don't Desire God" by John Piper, and all of us if we're truthful have to say there are times that we really don't feel like we desire God very much, we don't desire the things of God, we don't care that much. Well, this a good book for us. And he's got a chapter on prayer, and this is what it says, "What a person prays for shows the spiritual condition of their heart." He said, "If we do not pray for spiritual things like the glory of Christ, and the hallowing of God's name, and the salvation of sinners, and the holiness of our hearts, and the advance of the gospel, and contrition for sin, and the fullness of the spirit in the coming of the kingdom, and the joy of knowing Christ, then it is probably because we do not desire these things. And what a devastating indictment of our hearts that is." Well, I read those words and I was devastated by them. I thought I don't desire these things the way I should, I don't pray for them the way I should, "Oh God, kindle inside me a yearning for your glory. Kindle it inside me." 

I've been accustomed to praying while kneeling. I found that those are some of my greatest rest times. I was having sweet times of repose in the presence of the Lord, don't know where the half-hour went. Do you know what I'm talking about? Those early morning quiet times transported into some different place called sleep. And I'm saying this is not what God intended, I can't do this. And so I got up and I started to pace back and forth, and I took this list of things: “Glory of Christ, hallowing of God's name, the salvation of sinners, the holiness of our hearts, the advance of the gospel, contrition for sin, the fullness of the Spirit, the coming of the Kingdom, the joy of knowing Christ,” I prayed over each one of them. I said, "Oh God make me want them. Make me hungry and thirsty for each one." And then it extended to you as well. "Oh God make them hungry for it, make them yearn for it," because you know something, we're not going to do anything for God, anything that lasts if these things are not kindled within our hearts first. If we don't want them, we won't sacrifice for them. And if we don't sacrifice, my friends, it won't happen. J.I. Packer said this, he said, "I believe that prayer is the measure of the man and therefore how we pray is the most important question we can ever face." How are you praying? What's the nature of your prayer life? What are you praying for?

As we come to Colossians 1:1-14, we're coming to an expert prayer warrior. We're coming to the apostle Paul. Other than Jesus maybe the greatest prayer warrior in history. And we're going to have the privilege this morning of sitting at his feet and saying, "Teach us to pray, teach us to pray." And if we are humble enough to admit we don't really know how to pray, then we're just quoting scripture, aren't we? Romans 8 says, "We don't know what we ought to pray for." We can go beyond that and say we don't know how we ought to pray. We don't know how long we ought to pray. We just don't know prayer. God kindle inside us a zeal for the glory of God. And sitting at the apostle Paul's feet learning how to pray, I think this not just the diagnostic tool, but this is the remedy. This is how we do it. This is how we have a fire ignited within us.

I love going to Williamsburg, colonial Williamsburg. I don't know if you've ever been there. My favorite shop to go in is the blacksmith shop. I just love it. I don't know why. It's just there's sweaty men working and making stuff, it's just the mechanical engineer in me, and they get something out of it. Now, others like the baking shop, and they say you get stuff out of the bakery too, very good things. That's true, you can buy them, but I like to see a hinge or a nail or something. And it starts with this black chunk of iron, cold. If you turned out all the lights if it were nighttime it would emit no light at all. A mystery happens when you take that and stick it into the bed of coals, and you get that big bellows, and you just blow an air on the coals, and if it's in there long enough, it'll go yellow, and then it'll go red, and then it'll go white, and it'll go blue, it'll get hot. Are you hot toward Christ? Then get in the coals if you're not. Prayer is the coals that heat you up. And it's a mystery how it happens. I don't know why a chunk of black iron emits light. Albert Einstein wrote a paper in 1905 telling us how, I don't get it? Okay, I admit. I read some of it, I don't get it.

He can win his Nobel Prize in 1921 for it, I don't get it. All I know is it works. When you stick that cold black iron in the coals, it gets heated up and it emits light to everything around it, and so it is with prayer. Are you emitting the light of Christ? Are you shining for Christ? If not, get in the prayer closet, and pray like this. Now, we get to Colossians 1, and this is going to be a series in Colossians. I'm going to take a minute, break off from the idea of prayer, and just give you an introduction to the book of Colossians, let's try to understand it. First of all, the author of the letter is the Apostle Paul. The Apostle to the Gentiles, he writes in verse 1 and 2, Colossians 1:1-2. "Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace and peace to you from God our Father."

Now, Paul is writing to a church he doesn't know personally. He's never been there, he didn't plant that church. Unlike Philippians and Ephesians, those other works, he worked there he never visited there, as far as we can tell. We learned that from Colossians 2:1. Now Colossae, had been in the past a very, very significant city, very important city in the time of the book of Queen Esther Ahasuerus, the Persian Empire. It was very important. Trade routes went through there. But by the time the Romans took over, they had diverted the trade routes and Colossae was shrinking into relative insignificance, compared to Laodicea and Hierapolis some of the other cities. So in more of minor place, but still there. Predominantly a Gentile city. It was in Asia Minor modern Turkey. About a hundred miles east of Ephesus. That's where it was.

But, despite the fact that it was Predominantly Gentile, there was a sizeable Jewish population. And in this predominant Gentile culture with the sizable Jewish population, you have the sources of some of the Theological conflict that that Church was facing. In that region there started to be a heresy, which was growing up and as far as we could tell had not yet infected the Church at Colossae. But the man who planted the Church, Epaphras, seems to have come now to Paul and said, "We are facing some problems, we need your help." What is the nature of this heresy? Well, the old Pagan way of life, the old Pagan Gentile way of life, had with it along with it, a love for Pagan or Greek philosophy. A yearning for Pagan or Greek philosophy.

But at the same time, you have this Jewish background, this Jewish community. And they're feeding in from their side, Jewish legalism and asceticism from the Law of Moses. And so the way it worked was, this philosophy came in and told them some false things about the physical universe. They said that God is spirit, that's true, and that he created a spiritual realm, but not the physical realm because he would never have anything to do with anything physical. The physical world, the physical universe we live in, came from these evil spirit emanations from the true God called Demiurges, and they made the physical world. The physical world is evil and you need to get saved from it. The way you get saved from it is by advancing in knowledge, having specialized knowledge and by Jewish legalism and asceticism. That together will help you get out of this world and be saved. Jesus Christ, was an emanation from the Father, but he wasn't truly God, nor was he truly physical or truly human. It totally denies the incarnation.

Eventually, these kind of teachings became known as Gnosticism. And it was starting there in Colossians, so the Apostle Paul has to write and refute it. And he does so, gloriously, by focusing on the greatness and the supremacy of Jesus Christ, who is God in human form. The deity of Christ, and the physical humanity of Christ are strongly highlighted in the book of Colossians. It's the greatness of Christ, but also the greatness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the knowledge that we need. We need the knowledge of the gospel, not some secret club handshake type knowledge where if you have that then you're in and if you don't have it you're out. No, the knowledge is out and available, it's the knowledge of God though the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the remedy.

So he gives them good solid teaching but apparently he does far more than that. He also prays fervently for them. And in these verses, verses three through 14, he gives us a glimpse into his prayer life. We're going to look at three aspects this morning. First of all, the light of Paul's prayer life, which is thankfulness of grace verses 3 through 8. Secondly, we're going to see the goal of Paul's prayer life, which is that they would have a lifestyle of abundant fruitfulness. Fruitfulness, in the gospel verses nine through 12. And then the ground of Paul's prayer life which is Christ worker redemption. Also verse 12 up through verse 14.

 Let's look at the first and that is the delight of Paul's prayer life, and that is thankfulness for grace. Look at verse 3, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.” He begins with thanks giving.

Thanklessness a Great Sin; Thankfulness a great grace

 Thankfulness is a great grace, thanklessness is a great sin. It is sinful to be thankless. Now essential to our world view is the idea that God created all things. Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth." All things come from God. Therefore, it says in Romans 11:36, "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever and ever! Amen." All things belong to God. Therefore, a thankless spirit is really a slap in God's face. And in Romans, Chapter 1, when Paul is uncovering the perversity of the human heart, how sinful we are, he discusses many things: Idolatry, sexual immorality, he lists a bunch of sins at the end of chapter 1 of Romans. He goes into great detail. But right at the very beginning of that listing, at the beginning of the discussion of the depravity of the human heart, is the issue of thanklessness. It's really quite striking. In Romans 1:21 it says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Why is thanklessness such a great sin that it's mentioned so prominently? Because God deserves to be thanked and praised and glorified for everything that He did, and we are spiritually sick if we don't do it. And so he's pointing at thanklessness. Therefore, when God does a work in your heart, you know what's going to happen? You're going to be thankful, genuinely thankful, toward Christ and toward God for all that He's done. And what a sweet grace that is. I love Psalm 103. Some of you that may be your favorite Psalm. Verse 1 through 5 it says, "Praise the Lord, oh my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the LORD, oh my soul, and forget not all of his benefits - who forgives all your sins. Who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles." Oh, how sweet are those words. How rich should our lives of thankfulness be. Thankfulness is glorifying to God, isn't it? To go to God and just say thank you for all that He's done. It is a delightful disposition of the soul.

I love to be around thankful people. I don't like being around people who are not thankful, thankless people, because they don't keep their thanklessness just to that, of course. It goes over into complaining, doesn't it? What's even sadder is when you see it in your own heart. I yearn to be a thankful person, genuinely thankful to God for all that He's done. But also thankfulness is essential to the advancement of the gospel. Without it, the gospel will not advance. Listen to this, Psalm 105:1, it says, "Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done." Do you see the link there between thankfulness and making known among the nations what God has done? It is out of the outpouring of a thankful heart that we preach the gospel. Thankfulness is essential. Paul starts there, and he mentions it prominently throughout this letter. Look at verse 11 and 12 in the section that we're working on this morning. It says in verse 11, "Joyfully giving thanks," and verse 12, "Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." He mentions it there.

Colossians 2:7, If you can look there it says, "Rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Is that you? Does that characterize you? Overflowing with thankfulness? Oh, speak your thanks today. Let your husband or your wife hear it. Your children, let them hear it. Your friends, dorm-mates, let them hear how thankful you are to God. Even non-Christians, just say this, “I'm thankful to God.” Why are you thankful to God? “Because he saved me, forgave all my sins, because I'm going to heaven when I die. I'm thankful for that.” There's such a richness to that life of thankfulness.

And then again, Colossians 3:15-17, look at those verses. It says, "Let the peace of Christ dwell in your hearts since as members of one body you're called to the peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." Verse 17, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through Him." Okay, Paul. We get it. Three times in four verses. “Be thankful, with gratitude, giving thanks.” It's so clear. Therefore, a sweet disposition of the soul, that's how Paul begins. His prayer life is characterized by thankfulness.

Whom Paul Thanks: God the Father

Now, who does he thank? Look at verse 3. Go back to Colossians 1:3. He thanks God the Father. "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. when we pray for you." Paul thanks God, the father, for all things. Now, this shouldn't disturb you at all. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will not feel jealous if you give God, the Father, all thanks. Jesus is completely Father-centered in His ministry. It was the Father that sent the Son into the world to save the world. Christ came to reveal the Father to us. "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father," Jesus says. He came to do his Father's will. "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me," said Jesus, the Father. He died to bring us to the Father. No one comes to the Father except through me. Therefore, it is right for Paul to thank the Father for the Colossians salvation. 

Now, note, this is an important theological principle. It's one of the most important when it comes to thanksgiving. What you thank God for, and that you're thanking God for those things, shows your theology. Paul, look what he thanks God for. Look at verse 3 he says, "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith…" Wow, is that profound. “We thank God for your faith in Jesus Christ.” Now, I've mentioned this before, but on Christmas morning when somebody gives you a gift and the tag's right there on the cover, and it comes from your wife and your mother's there, and you open it up and it's a beautiful Christmas sweater that your wife knit over the last seven months of her life. Be sure you thank your wife and not your mother for that sweater. That would be a bad moment in your marriage.

You need to give thanks to the one who gave you the gift. And who you thank shows who you think it's from. We give thanks, Colossians, because of your faith in Christ Jesus. Some of us have a weird theology this way. We think God sent His son, Jesus died on the cross, shed His blood, did all that, that's His part. Our part is faith, we have to believe in it, that's our half. Jesus did His half and we do our half by faith. Wrong! We give thanks to God because He gave you the faith to believe in Jesus. He is the giver of faith and thanks be to God for it! You know what that means? If you've got an unsaved relative or somebody you care about, you've come to the right place when you get down on your knees and say, "Oh God, give them faith." He is sovereign over that. It says in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and this not of yourselves." The word "of" means "origin", “it doesn't come from yourself,” “it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Paul gives thanks for the Colossians faith that is so rich and so deep.

What Paul Thanks God For: Grace

So it leads us right into what Paul thanks God for. He thanks God for grace. He thanks God for the fullness of the Gospel and its effect on the Colossians. Hasn't been God been good to us? Hasn't He been richly good to us? Doesn't He deserve to be thanked for all of His rich gifts of grace? Look at verses 3 through 6, "We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints. The faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in Heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the Gospel that has come to you." He thanks God for grace in the life of the Colossians.

There's fourfold evidence of grace here. First of all, he thanks God for their faith in Jesus Christ. They came to the point where they realized they couldn't save themselves. They needed a savior and his name is Jesus. Jesus came and died on the cross, He shed His blood, He is the Son of God and He died in our place that we might have eternal life. They believed in that. Faith in Christ Jesus, evidence of the grace of God. They believed those things, that Jesus is the son of God and died for them. 

Secondly, love for all the saints again in verse 4. That's evidence of the grace of God when you truly love the brothers and sisters in Christ. Some are easier to love than others. I guess the goal of sanctification is to be one of those. Alright, that we would be a delight to be around and thankfulness is a big part of it but either way, Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another." Love for the saints, great evidence of the grace of God. And also verse five, "Hope in Heaven". If you stop one of these Colossians and ask them, "What're you excited about in the future?" If they're thinking properly, if they've had a good quiet time that morning and their prayer life's where it needs to be, you know what they're going to tell you? They're going to say, "I'm looking forward to Heaven. I'm looking forward living in the new Heaven and the new Earth. I'm looking forward to seeing Jesus face to face. That's where my hopes are set. I'm looking forward to the world to come." Hope in Heaven and then growing fruitfulness, and we'll talk more about that in a minute.

But these things are evidences of the grace of God in the life of the Colossian Christians and Paul gives thanks for each one of them. Now the second aspect of Paul's prayer life is the goal of his prayer life. We've seen already the delight of Paul's prayer life, thankfulness for these things. Paul enjoyed thanking God for them. By the way, if you don't enjoy your prayer life, start here, start by just thanking God for things. Just see how far you can go. Can you last five minutes? Can you go 10 minutes? How about 15? Can you thank God for 20 minutes for things He's done in your life? And the more it goes friends, the more it's going to go, and happier you're going to get.

That's the delight of Paul's prayer life. But secondly, we see the goal of Paul's prayer life. He wants something for these Colossian Christians. What is his goal? His goal is that they would be persistently fruitful in Christ. A lifestyle of persistent fruitfulness. Look at verses nine through 12, "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we do this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father…"

How Paul Prays: Constancy

We see how Paul prays here, and he prays with constancy. He's saying we always thank God and we never stop praying for you. You remember the parable that Jesus told to the persistent widow? Remember this woman? She's got a case against one of her neighbors, she's yearning for justice, and she goes to this unjust judge who couldn't care less. He doesn't care about God or anybody. And so she persistently goes day after day until finally the judge says, "I've got to get rid of this lady and the only way that I can do it is by granting her her request." What an odd parable of Jesus to use the unjust judge to show us something about God. It's a how much more argument.

If that's what the unjust judge is like in the face of such persistent, how much more your loving Father? But the whole parable is introduced in Luke 18:1 with these words, Luke wrote this, "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up." Paul didn't give up. He just kept praying for people daily. You get a sense almost of hourly prayer for people, and he doesn't even know them, he's just heard about them. And so he's praying for these Colossian Christians. The constancy. We see also a specificity. He's specific in his prayer life. He's praying specifically for things. And they're spiritual things. We struggle with that. It's either God bless the world or it's grandma's big toe problem and she's been struggling with it. Okay? Look I'm not saying that God doesn't care about grandma's big toe. He does. He made it. He's actually... We're going to find out... I'm not going to talk about it this way next week, But we're going to find out he's actually holding her big toe together. Okay? If God didn't care about her big toe, he wouldn't be holding it together. Alright? He cares about her big toe. But please lift your eyes, lift your eyes to the glories. Pray about something worth praying for and pray specifically. And if you don't know what to pray for, can I urge just by way of application take Colossians 1:9-12 and pray it back to God this afternoon for someone you know. Put their name in.

“I pray that so and so would grow in the grace of the knowledge of God. That they would be strengthened with all might. That they would know his will for all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” You can pray these kinds of things. And so we see that. We see the purpose in his prayer life. Verse 10, "We pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every way". He has a purpose in his prayer. Why do you pray? Do you have a sense of purpose in your prayer? When you go into your room and close the door and pray to your father unseen, do you know what you're doing? You know what it is you want? What are you asking for? What is your purpose in prayer? That's how Paul prays. 

What Does Paul Pray For?

Now what does he pray for? Six things quickly. First of all, spiritual knowledge. Verse nine, "Asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding". Do you know what God wants? Do you know what His will is for you and for the church in the world? For your church, for your pastor, for people you love and care about, do you know God's will?

Paul is praying for the Colossian Christians, that they would be strengthened in their minds to know, through spiritual understanding, the will of God. “God show it to them. Show them what you're doing in the world, what you will to do.” Because those things that God wills to do, he will do. And when we are praying in that direction, and acting and serving in that direction, we will be eternally fruitful. Amen? We have to begin by knowing what to invest in. And we do that by knowing God's will.

Secondly, walking worthy of Christ. Verse 10, "We pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way". It's a lifestyle of Christ likeness, of walking daily with Jesus moment by moment. A life worthy of the Lord. Is your life worthy of Jesus? That's the question I have to ask. Is this action worthy of Jesus? What I just said to my friend, was that worthy of Jesus? He wants him to live a life worthy of the Lord. A lifestyle. Thirdly, growing fruitfulness. "Bearing fruit" it says, "In every good work." Fruit is the indispensable proof of the work of the grace of God in your life. If there's no fruit, there's no life. If there's life, you will bear fruit. Jesus told another parable about the owner of a field who went and found a fig tree and he said to the gardener "I've been coming for three years and this tree has never born any fruit. Cut it down. Why should it use up the soil?" And the gardener says "Please wait one more year. Let me dig around it. Let me fertilize it. Let me look after it. Let me give it my best care. And if in a year from now you come back and there's still no fruit, then let's cut it down".

Now God doesn't tell us when we're in our final year. He doesn't give us that warning. He just gives us the scripture and he tells us he wants us to bear fruit richly to God. And so Paul prays that for the Colossian Christians, that they might bear fruit in every good work. Now you may ask “what is fruit?” You may not know. Well, there are varieties that he gives us right here like for example, growing in the knowledge of God. That's fruit. That you might know Him. Know Him through His Word. Know Him through life experiences in which you see him be faithful. You're growing in your knowledge of God. Jesus said in John 17:3 "Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” “Just to know Him.” We're going to spend an eternity looking at his face and getting to know Him better. He will hold your attention that long. You'll be free from sin nature and you're never going to get bored learning about God. That's fruit, that you might grow in the knowledge of God.

Another fruit is powerful perseverance. Verse 11, "Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience.” “That you don't give up." Great endurance. We need great endurance because we have a great foe, throwing up great obstacles to our progress in Christ. Isn't that true? Satan is powerful. The world, the flesh and the devil, we cannot face them alone. And they wear us out. You wonder why you may be cold in your heart toward God. It's not an accident. If it weren't for the world, the flesh, and the devil you'd still be as hot as the day you came to Christ. Hotter. It's because Satan opposes the work of grace in your soul that we struggle so much. And therefore you must have great endurance.

We've just had a wonderful time in Ryan Hutchinson's class and we're looking at Psalms and it talks in Psalm 150 about the mighty works of God, the displays of his power and history. And he made it very personal, which I loved, and we were talking ways that God has done great things for us. It was the fall of 1982 that I came to Christ. I was in my junior year at MIT and I gave my life to the Lord, and I said to the class up there, I said, "It's funny because we celebrate those numbers divisible five and 10 more than the others." This is my 25th anniversary of being a Christian this fall and I'm all excited. I should be just as excited when its 26 right, maybe even more so. But there it is, it's my 25th anniversary, you know what it is? You know what evidence of the great power of God in my life? I'm still a Christian. After 25 years I still love Jesus. After 25 years I still feel the need of him as my Savior. I still rely on his blood. I still look to the cross. I'm still hopeful for heaven. I can't wait to be there. After 25 years of satanic onslaught, I'm still here. And the longer I go in my Christian life, the less credit I give myself for that. Right now, I give myself a fat zero. Later today, I may bump up a little bit, alright. But as I should, I give myself no credit. Here I am evidence of the grace of God and His great power at work in my life.

Do you need great endurance? Yes, you do, because you have great foes. If you could see them with your eyes, you would faint in terror. But God is infinitely greater still. And you need great endurance and so Paul prays for that, "God give them endurance, don't let them give up, don't let them fail, let them keep praying, keep going to church, keep reading the Bible, keep confessing sin, keep evangelizing, even when no one comes to Christ, keep doing the work of the gospel. Oh God, don't let them give up." That's fruit, and then joyful Thanksgiving which we've already talked about. I get a picture of Paul as the ultimate in giving joyful thanks. He and Silas sitting in that Philippian jail, singing praise songs to Jesus after getting beaten for the gospel. Oh, how I yearn to be like that. I yearn on my worst day to sing my sweetest praise songs, to give thanks to God joyfully, no matter what is going on, that is fruit.

We've seen the focus and the purpose of Paul's prayer life. What is the ground of his prayer life? Well, Colossians 1:11-14 it says, "giving thanks to God the father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins". The ground of Paul's prayer life is Christ's work of redemption. He wouldn't be able to pray for them if Jesus hadn't done his infinitely greater work. It is on the basis of what Jesus did on the cross that any of us can pray fruitfully. And so we come to God on that basis alone. It is the ground under our feet, and it is a solid ground, it is not moving, it's an unshakable rock, it's going to last longer than the physical universe you see around you, and that is the work of Jesus Christ in redemption on the cross.

Qualified by the Father

And look at the words he uses. We have been “qualified” by the father to go to Heaven. Qualified. Now that's amazing. Are you qualified to fly a 747 jet? Can you imagine? "I just want you to know I've had no training, I've had no training and I've never actually sat in the cockpit of a 747 jet, but my name is Andy and I'm going to be your pilot today." What do you think the passengers are going to do as we are pulling away from the gate? They're running, clamoring for the exits. "You've never been in a cockpit before? You're not qualified to fly a 747." "Hi, my name is Andy and I'm going to be your brain surgeon today, I'm going to be working on your brain. I've never seen a brain live up close or anything like that, but I have an idea where the problem is in your brain. I at least have a general region anyway, I'll poke around there and see what we can do." Okay, am I qualified to do that? I am not qualified. I may be marginally qualified to preach this sermon, but I am not qualified to do brain surgery on you, okay. Let me tell you something. It is infinitely more amazing that we're qualified to go to Heaven, than that you would sit in the cockpit of a 747 and try to fly it.

How did we get qualified for Heaven? We, sinners, rebels, lawbreakers still, and we're qualified for Heaven, we're fit for it? In that great banquet hall, where there's going to be a beautiful banquet table spread with fine linen and excellent china, and heavy silverware, or whatever they're going to use in Heaven, and cut glass crystals or goblets and all that, and there's a name tag, a plate right there. If your name's not on that tag, you can't sit in that chair. And you look, there's your name at a place at the table with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven. How did that happen? How did we get a place at the table? Jesus shed his blood for us, that's all. Not by works. Not by works, not because of anything that we've done. But because of his own purpose and grace, he has qualified us for Heaven. Oh how sweet is that? And that's the ground under Paul's feet as he prays for the Colossian Christians. "We're given a share," it says, in the inheritance, “a share.” 

Given a Share in the Inheritance

The meek will inherit the Earth. You're going to get a title deed to some property that no one can take away from you. How about that? That's pretty sweet, isn't it? I bet you're hoping that it's right on the coast, like the Pacific coast, something like, looking good. Look, that's not for me. Jesus said, "Those places are not for me to give, they belong to the father and He will assign them to whom He assigns them." But he didn't deny that there were such places. It says in Daniel chapter 12 verse 13, these are the words to Daniel. He says. "As for you, Daniel [the angel said to him] go your way til the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance." Oh isn't that sweet? We are qualified for heaven, and we're given a share among the inheritance. We're given property and position of our own. And we're a member of the family of God, and will be there forever. Oh, meditate on these things. It's not just some family heirloom, or some broach, or some stock portfolio or some real estate, that you inherit from a dying relative, and then you pass it on when you die. No, this is an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you. That's the ground under Paul's feet.

Rescued From the Kingdom of Darkness

And then he speaks of being rescued from a dominion of darkness, and brought into the kingdom of the son he loves. This is the greatest rescue in history. Jesus, by his power, has invaded Satan's realm, has bound up the strong man, and has plundered his house. Do you know what the plunder is? You and me. And a great multitude more than anyone can number from every tribe and language and people and nation. We have been rescued from the dominion of darkness. I was thinking in my mind, "What was the greatest rescue in history?" I guess, in one sense, I can't think of a greater one than what happened in Europe. 

In April and May of 1945, the allied armies finally conquered Nazi Germany, and they liberated those death camps. You've seen those pictures of those living skeletons, the ones that were still alive, and how disgusting and awful that is. Those people were powerless. The SS units that guarded them were vicious, and strong, and filled with hate, would just gun them down for no reason at all. Those people were absolutely under the sway and the dominion and the boot of the Nazi. And they could not rescue themselves. But then this army comes, and turns them over, and rescues them. That's, I guess, in my mind, the greatest rescue. There's millions of people. The greatest rescue in history. But it is nothing compared to what Jesus did. Let me tell you why. After the army rescued those folks, many of them still died from their emaciation, couple of months later. Maybe even a few weeks later. They were rescued into a war-torn destroyed Europe, without much future. The army that invaded them didn't make them any promises, they just set them free. And then when they died, they had to stand before God on judgment day.

Transferred into the Kingdom of Light

What has Jesus done? He has rescued us from Satan's power. He's rescued us from sin. He's rescued us from death. He's rescued us from condemnation on judgment day. He has delivered us. He has redeemed us, by the price of his own blood, shed on the cross. He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. If you are a Christian, you are free from Satan's power. You don't have to obey him. Why do you do it? That's another topic for another day. It's called "Insanity". That's why we do it. Bad habits. Okay? But you're rescued, you're free, you never need to sin again, ever. But you're brought into a kingdom, not into anarchy, friends. Not into everyone doing what they saw fit, what was right in their own eyes. That's Satan's lie. You're delivered from a dominion and brought into a kingdom. You're not rescued from the throne, you're rescued to the throne. The throne of God. And at last, we're done rebelling against the one who sits on it. We're done rebelling against the King. He has rescued us in the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves. Oh, give thanks for that.

You may be sitting listening to me this morning, and you've never been delivered from that dominion of darkness, you're still in sin. You're not a Christian. Oh be afraid, you're not ready to die. If you were to die, God would open up a book. And in it would be recorded, every careless word you've ever spoken, and everything else beside. And on the basis of that, He would judge you and send you to hell. Don't be sent to hell. Jesus went to hell for us. Trust in Him. Look to Christ, look to the cross, don't leave this place unregenerate. Why should you do that? Let God rescue you now through Christ and transfer you into the dominion, the kingdom, of the Son that He loves.

If that's already happened to you, let me speak to that coldness and deadness I referred to at the beginning of my sermon. Is that you? Does that describe you? It’s described me sometimes. Prayerlessness, coldness, don't care, waiting for the pastor to finish the sermon. Don’t really care about spiritual things, dead toward God. Be honest. Be honest and get into the prayer closet this afternoon. I mean, go home and pray and take Colossians 1, and say, "God, make this through me. Ignite my heart with these things. I don't want to be cold towards you anymore, God. I don't want to put on a hypocritical mask anymore. I want to be truly alive towards you. I want a prayer life that's strong and healthy. Oh God, move inside me."

Now, I'm going to close this time of preaching and hearing the word, and I'm going to ask if you feel like you would just like to pray before God, I'm going to invite you to come forward, and just kneel down here. It's not an invitation or... This is just a statement where you say, "I want to get close to God". Proximity. Now God isn't here, God is everywhere. But you need to draw close to God. You need to draw close to Him. Maybe that it'll help you to get up and come and kneel down before God, and say, "God, change my prayer life. Make me this kind of a person. I'm hungry and thirsty for you." I'm going to be praying down here. And when we get done, we get up and we'll go our way, but if God's been speaking to you today, and you need to know more about becoming a Christian, talk to me after the service is over. Don't leave this place without that conversation.

And If you feel like you've been dead toward God, get into your prayer closet and pray like this. Let's close in prayer.

 “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” I was trying to think about that demand. I have found it, as I go on in my Christian life, to be the most difficult demand of the Christian life. Every single day, I feel the weight of the passage that I'm going to preach today, every day.  I was trying to picture in my mind what it is that Jesus is calling us to.  I began thinking about those fish. I didn't know that much about them, but you know, the fish that swim upstream all the time because that's what it feels like to me. And I came across the Alaska King Salmon and the more I learned about their journey, the more incredible it seemed to me. These are fish that are spawned in some stream in Alaska somewhere, some little tributary, and they eventually make their way down that river, and out into the Bering Sea and into the Pacific Ocean, and they swim 2000 miles. Their bodies change a little bit, so they're able to exist in salt water and they just live there until they come to maturity. Then the time comes, how they know it I don't know, but the time comes for them to go back home. They begin the most arduous, most incredible natural journey I've ever heard of some of those salmon swim 2400 miles upstream the entire way. Giving everything they have and amazingly, and we don't really know how, they make their way, not back to the original river, not even back to the original tributary, but the little creek where they were originally born, and there they spawn and a week later, they die.  The journey upstream takes 90% of their fat and 50% of their protein from their body. They have nothing left to give by the time that they're done. That's the picture that I have in my mind of our text today. That's an astonishing natural journey, isn't it? It's a natural journey. All of the King Salmon make the journey. 

But Jesus in this text is calling on us to make a supernatural journey. It's one that we cannot make by our own strength and power, not by willpower, not by the power of our mind, not by the power of our might or our own strength or determination, we cannot live this Christian life. It is a supernatural life to which Jesus is calling us. Why is this? Because here in this text, He's calling on us to deny ourselves, and to take up our cross and to follow him. Each human being on the face of the earth, doesn't matter what nation or tribe or language or people they're born into, every single human being is born with a fanatical commitment to themselves. Fanatical. It is the central idolatry of the human race. We will do almost anything to please ourselves. Only good parenting teaches an infant slowly to behave better in public and get along with six billion other people who have the same goal: to please themselves. That kind of parenting goes on all over the world, and somehow, we manage to co-exist. But there it is. The flow, the natural flow of human personality in this matter is an even greater force than the whitewater of those Alaskan rivers that those salmon are swimming against. It's a constant drive. It is purely natural for every descendant of Adam and Eve, to be fanatically devoted to self, to pursue selfish interest in every conversation, in every food we choose, in every left and right turn we make in the automobile, every website we visit, every movie we watch, the ambitions for our career, the way that we interact with people, it's there all the time. At every moment.

 Here in this text, Jesus is calling on you and me to behave supernaturally, to deny ourselves, to swim upstream against your desire to save yourself, and coddle yourself, and prefer yourself, and love yourself and cherish yourself and feed yourself and nourish yourself, every single moment of your life. He's calling on you to deny that and to follow him. This, and I say to you, only this kind of life is the life that leads to heaven. Be not deceived, this is the life that leads to heaven, and no other.  Jesus is calling on us to live the kind of life he lived, a life of self-denial; a life that led him to leave his father's throne, to take on a human body, to take on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and to deny himself even to the point of death, even death on a cross. That's the life Jesus lived. It is absolutely astonishing to me how much Christ gave for us. I picture him on the cross, I picture him, his blood flowing out of his body, I picture him fulfilling final prophecies, the last few that had to get done, taking that wine vinegar, and dealing with people as his blood is flowing out. As they're taking his garments and gambling for them, in order to fulfill prophecy so that he might be identified as the savior, fulfillment of prophecy, he breathes out his last and says, "It is finished. There is nothing left to give." Do you see it? He gave absolutely everything for us, and He did that in order to give absolutely everything to us that we might be completely forgiven of all of our sins, that we might find in God, not a wrath-filled righteous judge who would righteously send us to hell for what we've done, but rather a loving Father that we would be adopted into his family. That's what Jesus came to buy for us, that we might receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, adopted into the family of God, given a worthwhile life of service to him, brothers and sisters in Christ. Then it really gets good. Then we are transformed, we lose our sin nature, and made like him, like him we rise, we receive resurrection bodies, and we live in those bodies forever and ever, free forever from all death, and mourning, and crying, and pain.  This is what He came to give, He gave everything for us to give everything to us.

But now in this text He demands everything from us —every moment of your life, every moment of my life, this is what he demands, and anything less than this is less than what he demands. He uses stark language in other places, "If you don't hate your mother and father and your wife and your children and even your own life, you cannot be my disciple." He says to the rich young ruler, "You have to sell everything you have and give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me." In the parable about the treasure hidden in the field and the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, in both cases they had to sell everything to get it. This is the life that leads to heaven. Look what it says in verse 24 and 25, "And Jesus said to his disciples: If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." This is the relentless call of Christ. Deny, carry, follow and die.

 Now, let's understand the context. Jesus had made an amazing prediction to his disciples. They were not able to hear it, they did not understand it. Verse 21, "From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." This is the first time he really began to explain all of these things so that they understood.  He was teaching them, from that point on; he was getting them ready. Peter was shocked. I think they all were, but you know Peter, so frequently the spokesman for them all. He vocalizes what I think all of them are feeling, but in a really amazing and shocking way. Look at verse 22, "Peter took him aside," this is Jesus now, "You're the only begotten son of God, the word of God, through him all things were made and without him nothing was made that has been made. This is God in the flesh, the son of the living God," said Peter. He took the Son of the living God aside and began to rebuke him. Is that not shocking to you? It should be.

 Do we behave any differently in times of affliction? Do we begin to rebuke God in our prayers and begin to murmur against him? We tend to do it, but here's Peter, he takes him aside and begins to rebuke him, "Never Lord," he said, "This shall never happen to you." Perhaps even more shocking is what happens next. Verse 23, "Jesus turned and said to Peter: Get behind me, Satan." Now, there's no question that Jesus loved Peter. There's no question that Jesus is going to take Peter to Heaven. He has given him a role unlike that of anyone else other of the apostles in building the church. This is an incredible role; He was giving him the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus loved Peter, but here he says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me, you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Now this is an important principle, our loyalty to God must come above all other relationships. It is true that from time to time, even loved ones can be used by the devil to deter us from a course that God wants us to take. At that point you must deal with it quite vigorously. It's more important even than the good feelings we have in a pleasant relationship. Satan was using Peter and Jesus says, "You're a stumbling block to me, that the word is literally bait stick, you're like bait luring me into a trap. I can't go in there. I came to die, so get behind me, Satan," says Jesus to Peter. But then He lists his focus up off of Peter on to his disciples, and really through his words, on to all of us, the whole world, then He said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." This is a universal call, it's not just for Peter and it's not just for the apostles that were standing around him at that point, it's for everybody.

 What was Peter's immediate motive? Jesus said, "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." I don't think that Peter was so much concerned about Jesus here, although I'm sure that it was there, but I think he was concerned about his own selfish interests. Peter's own future was wrapped up in Jesus. Jesus had just conferred on him the keys of the kingdom, whatever that meant, and the keys of a kingdom aren't worth much if the king is dead, because usually they gather up all of his right-hand men and they arrest them too and put them to death. So, if Jesus is going to be arrested and killed, the future is bleak for Peter too. What good would it be to be the keeper of the keys of a kingdom in which the king is killed? Peter, I think, is motivated at this moment by selfish interests. He wants to save his own life, he wants to save his life physically, and he wants to make it as rich and powerful and pleasureful as possible, that is natural.

Satan’s motive is selfish, he wants to gain everything for himself. Like him, we want to gain everything for ourselves. God's motives, the things of God, is to put his glory and his kingdom above every other concern. That's what Jesus meant when He said, "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." An aside that's encouraging is that in the end Peter learned how to do this, in the end he learned how to deny himself. Now he had a tough journey to travel, and the difficulty of that journey is what's in my heart as I preach this message today. It's a difficult journey to learn how to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow. Peter hadn't learned it by the time Jesus died.  That's why he denied knowing Jesus three times that night, he wanted to save his own life. He wasn't ready yet.

Afterward, church tradition tells us that he willingly was crucified upside down in fulfillment of the prophecy made in John 21, that he would by his death glorify God. In the end Peter learned, and we can learn too by God's grace how to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow, but Peter didn't know at this point.

What is this call? Let's understand it, first of all, deny yourself. Deny yourself. Say no to what you think are your immediate best interests. What it is you want for yourself as you think it's best, what your flesh is demanding, turn away from it. Secondly, take up your cross. Willingly stoop and pick up a heavy article of death and carry it the rest of your life. Now in the minds of the disciples this wasn't merely theoretical, it wasn't a symbol at that point, it was a physical thing, a piece of wood on which people died, they were executed. It is estimated that in the life of Jesus 30,000 people were crucified in Palestine. Think about that. So, when Jesus said, "Take up your cross," they were picturing some of those condemned prisoners who they had seen dying along the roads.  That's shocking enough, to picture Jesus up on a cross is shocking, but to be told you have to deny yourself and take up your cross, very very difficult. This must be a metaphor, because we're told to do it daily. You take up a physical cross, and you go out to its logical end, this is your last day on Earth probably. Physically, you're going to die. It's an article of execution. So, this is something that clearly is a metaphor for something, but it's not to be minimized. It's not merely some distressing burden in your life, like a physical problem, like cancer or chronic illness, difficult relationship, difficult marriage, difficult parenting situation, financial difficulties, people speak of these things as my cross to bear. That's not what he's talking about here. No, it's much deeper than that. It's much stronger than that. It has to do with the self, the very self, the flesh.

George Müller was a man used mightily by God to care for, over his lifetime, the daily needs of 10,000 orphans, 10,000 orphans, that's incredible to me. He was asked the secret of his success in ministry, and he made this statement, "There was a day when I died, utterly died, to George Müller. His opinions, preferences, tastes and will died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends, and since then, I have studied only to show myself approved unto God."  I've thought much about that statement. Theologically, what he says is true, if you're a Christian, that was the day you died by faith in Christ, you've been united with Christ in his death. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God." It's a whole different thing. I died that day.  But I also think that it's somewhat of an inadequate statement in terms of what I'm talking about today. There isn't a day I died, this call stands over me every single day, every Sunday, every Monday, every Tuesday, every single day, I must die to myself. That is the only secret of success in the Christian life. That's what George Müller says it means to take up your cross and follow Christ. Follow him wherever he goes, follow in his footsteps, follows his daily life in consecration to the Heavenly Father. He is leading to Calvary, that's where he's going, he's going to the cross, he's going to death, but he's not going to stop there. He's going beyond it to the resurrection and to eternal life beyond, that's where he's leading. “Follow me and I'll take you to heaven. Stop finding your life, stop finding it in earthly achievements and possessions and experiences, stop finding it there. Lose your life here in this world and find it eternally.” That's the call. It’s for every disciple, not just the apostles, and it's every day of your life. He says in another place, in Luke 9:23, "Then he said to them all, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me."

So, what is the cost? Well, picture the King Salmon. How would you like to be a King Salmon? How'd you like to jump a few waterfalls today? Doesn't it feel like that, swimming against the stream of what you want at every moment? Take those cute little babies home from the hospital. Oh, they're so sweet. You hold them in your arms, and they look so angelic but at the heart of that person is what I've already said, a fanatical commitment to self. Oh, it's true, isn't it moms? You know what I'm talking about.  Three in the morning, they don't care about you at all. As I've mentioned before, they're not asking, "Gee, you know moms had a hard day. I'm going to let her sleep a few more hours till six, and then I might nudge her awake a bit because I have a need." They're not thinking like that. If they have a need, they'll let you know. Fanatical commitment to self. Friends it's not gone, is it? It's still in there. That's what He's calling on you to stop asking, “What's in it for me?”  This is an issue of sin. It's not genocide, or rape or grand theft auto or premeditated murder where we could dispense with it, say, "I'd never do that." No, this is the sin of selfishness, and that, I believe, is the root of it all. 

Richard Baxter in his counseling work, in The Christian Directory said this, "Selfishness is the radical, that is the root positive sin of the soul. Comprehending in seed form and as a primary cause of all other sins." That's quite a statement. Selfishness is the cause of all wars, all marital squabbles, all lawsuits, all luxury, all poverty, all addictions, all parenting struggles, all church splits, all vaulting ambition, basically any and every trouble between human beings comes from selfishness. Now consider positively how sweet life would be if there were no selfishness on earth. How sweet your family life would be if none of the members ever thought about their own needs, but only what was beneficial for others. How sweet would life be free from selfishness. Let me tell you something, if you're a Christian, we're going there, some day.

We're going to that world where we will be free from this affliction, free from it forever. We will be lost in wonder and praise toward the only one who deserves that kind of devotion. It's not ourselves, it's God. We'll be free from idolatry, the idolatry of self. That's where we're heading. Where did it come from, that is the question. What happened inside the mind of Satan, that first turned him away from worshipping and honoring God? You get an indication in Isaiah 14 prophetically speaking, I think to Satan. "You said in your heart," listen to these five I wills. "I will ascend to Heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself, like the most high." This created being made by Jesus himself has the audacity in the desert to say to Jesus, "Fall down at my feet and worship me."

It's incredible, that's what he's like. Vaulting soaring ambition, and we followed suit. We kind of joined in with him in the Garden of Eden. We joined Satan's rebellion in our devotion to selfishness. That's where it came from. It's everywhere. Satan has woven selfishness, into all the worldly appeals with which he destroys human souls. I was looking at a secular magazine, recently, relatively tame, Better Homes and Gardens, I think it was. I'm not speaking against Better Homes and Gardens.  I'm just talking about an ad I saw there. It was for a Cadillac SUV and the caption was, "Seats seven comfortably. One, ideally."  Ouch, I mean they just openly advertising selfishness these days.  I was intrigued, so I started flipping through and I started seeing some more. There was an ad there for a diamond anniversary ring that a husband, I guess, named Michael could buy for his wife. There were two rings pictured, one above, one below, one was a quarter carat and the other one-and-a-half-carat or maybe half carat and a full carat if you can afford that. Under the half carat the caption was, "Oh Michael, you shouldn't have." Under the full carat it just said, "Oh, Michael."

Okay, so half carat, it wasn't enough. Another ad mentioned a vacation retreat. "Giving you the luxury, you deserve." Now, ponder that one friends. Ponder it theologically. What luxury do we deserve? That word “deserve” has become very powerful for me in my Christian life. Like a Godly pass to an answer, "How you doing?" "Better than I deserve." Didn't matter what was going on, better than I deserve. What luxury do we deserve? Another ad spoke of a spa where you could shamelessly pamper yourself.  There are some people that can do that. We are surrounded daily in this world by people who are driving and pushing and striving to meet their own selfish needs, who if you let them go first, they'll say it's as it should be, and look on you as a weak person to be dominated. But if you don't let them go first, they'll become murderous with rage. That's the world we live in. 

But it's not just out there friends, it's in here. The church has insufficient sanctification in this matter. We're not enough like Jesus here. That's a problem. Again, Richard Baxter said, "Selfishness is the hardest sin in the world to overcome." Even for the person who seems to have put sin to death the best, if you cross them in their self-interest, or opinion or seem to slight them or have a low esteem of them, what swellings, what hard burnings, what proud impatience, if not schisms or separations will result. Isn't it true? Don't you feel it inside, when someone crosses you? It's still there.  James said, "No man can tame the tongue. It's a restless evil full of deadly poison." I say to you, "No man can tame selfishness." It's beyond us to do. All of this adds up, in my opinion, to a constant battle, and I call it, "The bitterest battle of your life."  Jesus gives us a paradox, the world's wisdom as we've already noted is “grab all you can, look out for number One.” Many people live in this world like snarling junkyard dogs, ravenous, fighting over some half meaty bone. Brothers and sisters, for us, it should not be so, we shouldn't be living like that rather the Christly wisdom is give all you can. Look at verse 25, "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." This is the life that Jesus lived. 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich yet for your sakes, He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich." Jesus said in another place that, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." It's a happier thing to give than to receive. It's the mentality of a servant, and I tell you, it is the most unnatural thing in the world. Jesus gives us this great paradox. The great lie in this world, is that this world is all there is, and if you're going to be happy, you need to get as much of the good stuff in this world as you can while you live.

Satan pursues his own selfish agenda, every day, and that's what he's selling to us and the lie is, if you do it, you'll be happy. If you're not happy, you're not doing it enough, so drink more of it and sooner than later, you'll get happy at some point. It's a lie, it's just a lie, is Satan happy? Is he a happy being? He does what he wants every day, pursues his own selfish agenda every day, an anti-God agenda. He is not happy. Scripture says, "He is filled with rage, because he knows his time is short." There's a figure in Daniel 11, the anti-Christ figure, who gets to rule the whole world. He gets to win every battle, he gets to have all the stuff, the gold and the silver in Egypt, he gets it all. Is he happy? No, when someone crosses him, he's filled with rage and gets his army together and goes to fight him. This is the kind of life, the destination of which most people are heading. That's where they're going. I don't want to go there. It's not a life of happiness and joy. It's a paradox. 

I was reading recently a Wall Street Journal article May 2nd, 2007 by Jonathan Clements named, “No Satisfaction: Why, what you have is never enough.”  It's a secular article, “We may have life and liberty,” he writes, “but the pursuit of happiness isn't going so well. As a country, we are richer than ever, yet surveys show that Americans are no happier than they were 30 years ago. We constantly hanker after fancier cars and fatter paychecks, and initially such things boost our happiness, but the glow of satisfaction quickly fades and we're yearning for something else.” He gives no solutions in the article, he just diagnoses. He says, "Maybe we were not wired for happiness, maybe we were meant to be miserable or maybe we're just not good at predicting what really will make us happy." Those are the two great answers he gives. I tell you, he's wrong. We were wired for happiness. We were made for pleasure; we were made for joy. In the right hand of God, we find it and that eternally forever more, we were made for that.  I agree with him; we are bad naturally at predicting what will make us happy.  Jesus tells us, "Turn away from all of this. Follow me and I will make you happy." That's what He's telling us here. "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it," and it wasn't to mean to save your life. I think it means to spare it, protect it, defend it. Let it not be sacrificed in any way or harmed in any way. To originally guard your life in this sort of way, to be unwilling to sacrifice anything for Jesus. Romans 8:32 however, speaking of the Heavenly Father said, "He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also along with Him, graciously give us all things?" He didn't spare Jesus, but we spare our lives. Don't do it. Don't spare your life. Don't love your life so much as to shrink from death. John Wesley was visiting a wealthy plantation owner and spent the day riding on horses, looking at a portion of all that this man owned. It was an amazing spread. When he got done, the plantation owner said to John Wesley proudly, "Well, what do you think?" Wesley paused for a moment, looked him in the face and said, "I think it's going to be hard for you to leave all this." Now, in what sense does he need to leave it? Well, I don't know, I don't know what Jesus would say, Jesus gives different counsel to different people. Maybe Wesley meant even eternally. Jesus says, "Forget it, forget it, turn your back on it. Follow me and you'll have treasure in Heaven."

What does it mean then to find your life in Christ? It means to find a right relationship with God, full forgiveness of all sins, a hope that the future life is going to be better than anything we can possibly imagine. Not worrying whether you get paid back here in this world, not worrying whether people notice how good you are or notice that thing you did, doesn't matter, it's entrusted to God for a future day. We are to live like that, looking ahead, looking ahead to a glorious day. The person who lives the first way, grabbing selflessly, they're going to lose it all, in death and then in the second death on Judgment Day. There's a second death and on Judgment Day, the great reversal happens. People who lived grabbing selfishly, they lose everything, and the people who gave up everything for Christ, they get it all and they get it eternally.

Now we've explained the text, how do we apply it? Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in his classic work, The Cost of Discipleship, when Christ calls him and bids him to come and die. Alright, come and die. In what arena will you die? In what colosseum, in the sands of which colosseum will you pour out your life blood? 

The more I started thinking about the arena, I realized it isn't in one arena, it's every arena in which I faced myself. Let's start with initial conversion. I'll never forget the wrestling within myself about going to that retreat, where I eventually gave my life to Christ.  I didn't want to go. Christians were weird, and I didn't go to any of the free Campus Crusade for Christ meetings, so I sure wasn't going to pay 45 of my own dollars to go on some weekend retreat to spend three days with those people. But deeper than that was the sense that I had that everything would change if I became a Christian. 

Oh, yes. Can I speak to you? If you have not committed to Christ, Jesus is calling on you to let it all go. He's calling on you to a life perhaps of suffering, of struggle, of difficulty, but He offers full forgiveness of sins, He offers eternal life in His presence, He offers sustaining grace through whatever trial He gives you; He offers His presence by His Spirit and then face-to-face fellowship with Him eternally. If you feel that call inside you, yield to it, give yourself to Him, ask Him to save you from your sins. The bitterest thing in my life is that presence inside me that didn't want to go on that retreat is still there. Still there, when I yielded and went and gave my life to Christ that weekend, that was just the first step in a battle I fight even today against myself, my selfishness. Initial conversion, and then after that comes daily obedience. Oh, good you've come to Christ, we'll see you in Heaven. It doesn't work like that. That's just the first day of a step of a life of the cross. Every single Sunday I look at this cross up here, it's a symbol of the life He's calling me to live. It enables me to get up and preach because He wants me to do this. Every day I have to get up and obey Him and the things He asks are difficult. He never stops being a king, He never says there's a part of your life that's yours, you do what you want there, I'll get the rest. There's nothing like that. He gives everything but He demands everything too. There's not a moment of your day that Jesus doesn't claim saying, "Mine, it's mine." Every day. And then there's a warfare against sin. Meet your enemy, your enemy is you, it’s your own selfishness, meet it. Every day the Holy Spirit gets you up and puts on your spiritual armor and calls you into battle against yourself, against your selfishness.

Then there's prayer. The alarm rings, you hit the snooze button once, rings again, it's time to get up. You know very well that if you don't get up and have your dedicated focus prayer time, then you won't get another chance, probably, the rest of the day. Welcome to the battle. You decide to get up, you do the right thing, kneel down, you start to pray. The needs of other people start coming in your mind, and you know what? This selfish being that we've talked about doesn't care. Doesn't care at all about their struggles, doesn't care at all about unreached people groups, doesn't care about the sufferings of somebody who's going through cancer or whose child is or who's going through marital struggles, but the new creation self does care. There's the battle and the Holy Spirit says, "You need to keep praying." Your flesh doesn't want to keep praying, you want to get up, you want to move on, have a Bible reading. Maybe you're reading through the Bible in a year in a consistent pace.  You got to read it and you realize later in the day, like 9:30pm, 10:00pm, 10:30pm. You haven't done your daily reading.  You're facing a choice. Relax a little bit, take it easy, watch some TV, surf the net, whatever it is you do — or read the Bible. Welcome to the struggle, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow or don't read the Bible that day. How about church life. Let's say you hear an announcement that we're going out in the streets of Durham to invite people to go to the health fare. Now that's a Saturday, that's a plum in the week, Saturday. You've got plans and they don't include doing that. The Lord is tugging on you to do something. I'm not that ministry, some other ministry, being a deacon, leading a woman's Bible study, being a Bible for Life teacher or a host family for home fellowships or being involved in the host ministry. Something. You can't serve Christ without denying yourself and taking up your cross, it's impossible. 

What about evangelism? Okay, the Lord's been laying someone on your heart at the workplace, they're having marriage problems, you note it, gets put somewhere in your brain. Don't think much about it until that person comes and sits down in your office, and they want to talk. The Holy Spirit prompts you. Now is the time to speak for Christ, but you don't want to. It feels a little bit... No, it feels a lot like dying, to open your mouth and say something about Jesus. You're at the fork in the road again. You have to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow. What about counseling? The Lord's developing a counseling ministry here. There are people here that set themselves apart to gain biblical knowledge and all that. You cannot counsel without doing this, you can't, you'll be too wrapped up in your own thing and say, "Oh that's nothing. Well, did you hear what happened to me?" That is not good counseling technique friends. They don't want to hear what's happening to you. They're there because they need some help. You're supposed to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those mourning. You can't do that without denying yourself and taking up your cross and follow Him. What about marriage? That's one area we just don't need to deny ourself and take up our cross. Is that true? "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Like how much of himself, did He have to give up? We've already covered that, all of it. Husbands, you cannot love your wives without denying yourself and wives, same thing. I saw one elderly wife, care for her husband for 12 years at the end of his life, he died when he was 90, he had Parkinson's disease, and she adjusted his pillows, fed him in bed, bathed him in bed, took care of all kinds of nasty things that needed to be taken care of for 12 years out of love. You can't do marriage without denying yourself and taking up your cross.

 What about parenting?  I’ve already talked about when they first come into the world. It just gets more difficult from there. God gave you grace, parents, to deny yourself. Not just for the middle of the night when they're sick, but when the time comes to pay for college, and every moment in between. Come home and you're tired and they have discipleship needs or comforting needs, or some kind of need. One writer I read said, “You know what? What God has done with you and your selfishness? He sent someone into your life who was even more selfish than you are.”  No offense to the children, because we played that role too with our parents.

 Money possessions. What about that? Jesus calls on you to give it all, you don't want to. The world tells you your money is your own to do with as you could see fit, to pleasure yourself with. Jesus says, "It's mine, give it to me, invest in the kingdom." You can't alleviate the sufferings of poor people and advance ministry to unreached people groups, without making a sacrifice, it's not possible. What about missions? We already heard what Jim Elliot said. "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." On January 8, 1956 in the steamy jungle of Ecuador, five men willingly gave up their lives. They could have killed those Auca Indians over there, they had weapons, they had resolved they weren't there to kill lost people, they would rather die than do that. They laid down their lives that those folks might come to faith in Christ.

What about you?  I just speak personally; this is the hardest struggle of my life. I don't want to die, I don't like it, it hurts me, and I don't want to do it. But I know I need to. I know I need to in order to make progress in those two infinite journeys. I know I need to, and I won't make a single step of progress internally or externally, without it. What about you?