Colossians 2:1-2

Colossians chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 this morning for our text and our study. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, for them at Laudicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and all riches of the fullness, of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. May God bless to us His sacred and His Holy Word this morning. In ancient time, watchtowers were constructed on high hills or mountainsides. for someone to view the area, to be on the lookout for enemy approach, for military observation purposes. And now the watchman in the tower was responsible. Couldn’t fall asleep. He couldn’t be daydreaming up there. He had to be constantly on the lookout that he might see the enemy, shout down below or below the trumpet to warn the troops in the camp so that they would grab their weapons and be ready to take on the enemy. God says that Christian leaders are appointed to be watchmen for the people of God. You remember God told Ezekiel, I have set via watchman for the House of Israel. Paul uses this kind of language when it talks about himself as a watchman for the church. God has set elders in the church. church that they may watch out for your souls, as the Bible indicates to us. And God declares that spiritual leaders will be held accountable, as Paul indicates, I’m free from the blood of all men, because I have declared under you the whole council of God. So Paul sees himself as a watchman for the entire church. He’s careful to alert them to the danger, to the enemy that he sees prowling about. that would trouble the people of God. Now let me begin by saying that true ministers are greatly concerned about your spiritual state. As we see here from verse one, he says, for I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, for them at Laodosia, and as for as many, as I have not seen my face in the flesh. Ministers, find great conflict in the care. of the flock of God. Paul, having expressed the true message concerning Christ in the gospel in Chapter 1, now turns his attention to dangerous error that’s confronting the church in Chapter 2. As an apostle, Paul’s watch care was especially aroused for those who have not seen him in the flesh. He has not seen him in the flesh. personally preached the gospel to these individuals. Evidently, these individuals have heard the gospel from Apaphras, as we read in chapter 1 and verse 7, and others, who had heard the apostles, or at least had heard Paul, and was giving the same message that Paul himself had preached. But the Colossians, the Laeo Deceans and many other churches established by Papyrus or others, did not hear, Paul actually articulate the message himself. He seems to be concerned that these churches may be more vulnerable to spiritual predators. And Paul sees himself here in a great conflict, a fight, if you would, a contention, a contest of some sort with regard to taking care of the church. As Paul told the Corinthians and said, 2 Corinthians 113. But I fear, less by any means, as Satan begowed E. through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. He was afraid that someone with Satan’s instigation would draw them away from the simplicity of just simple faith in Christ for just justification before God. David relates that while he was watching his father’s sheep out in the fields, he had to be diligent. One time a fearsome lion came and snatched one of the sheep. Another time, there was a hungry bear that did so. And who knows how many predators David had to drive off with his slingshot. And he had to go after the lion and the bear in order to rescue the sheep. sheep that have been carried off. Ministers are called shepherds. They’re called shepherds not only because they are to feed the sheep with the word of God, but they’re also to drive off the predators. They are also to warn the sheep, to protect the sheep. So Paul sees himself in combat, if you would, in conflict with these false teachers who he classifies, you remember, in the book of Acts as wolves, who would come and pray upon the flock of God. And so he must strive and earnestly contend for the faith of the gospel of Christ. But these agents that Satan are trying to carry off professing believers, trying to pull them away from Christ. A minister can’t give place to them, but must defend the truth and refute these evil friends. There are many spiritual predators who are daily threatening to harm God’s people. And we should be aware of this. They appear or could appear as angels of light to deceive you, but actually they are messengers of Satan himself. Paul’s fear was that professing believers would be seduced here. into error, drawn away from the gospel, and perhaps make shipwreck of their faith. So preservation of the flock was of great priority. His goal is to present every man perfect in Christ on that day of judgment in verse 28 of chapter 1. That’s his goal, and he doesn’t want any of them here to be harmed. Ministers must seek to, in some way divert the danger away from the flock and spare the sheep. Now, in order to do that, the minister must first be in perpetual prayer for the safekeeping of the flock. Paul told the Thessalonians, we pray always for you. He told the Philippians, I always make requests for you in all my prayers. And here in chapter 1 and verse 9, for this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. So he’s been praying for the churches, concerned that God would preserve the people of God. We must realize that ultimately it is God alone that preserves the flock. It keeps your feet from falling. The enemy attacks can be so subtle, so deceptive, so powerful, that no believer would survive were it not for the preservation power of God that not one of his elect would ever be lost. How grateful we should be for Christ intercession as well. And we think about John 1711, Father, Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me. Christ prays for his elect that the Father would keep them and that they would not be lost and none of them shall be lost. But it’s the duty of every minister then to be constantly praying for the preservation of the flock, so he’s concerned about this situation. Secondly, your minister must vigorously attack error. A shepherd must be valiant for the truth, as the scripture would indicate to us. Exposing error. Refuting the seducers, expounding the true doctrine, earnestly contending for the faith against any false teacher that would arise. Paul did not spare even Peter himself, you recall, when through weakness he fell into error which would have compromised the gospel in Galatians chapter 2, and he had to address Peter with regard to his mistake. What love this displays that such diligence would be used to protect the people of God, and We see here that your minister is in great conflict. He’s concerned about the flock, and he should be. He needs to pray and he needs to protect the flock of God. Now notice also here, you can be ignorant of the danger to your spiritual state. He says, for I would that ye knew what great conflict I had for you. Now, Paul certainly wished them to realize what care, he extended on their behalf. I’m sure that was part of this. But I think it goes deeper than that. May I suggest there is more to this? You can be unaware of the fact that you’re falling away from the truth and not realize it. You can be tricked by these false teachers and you’re not even aware of the danger. And Paul says, I wish you knew the conflict I have for you. The apostle wants you to know how greatly he is concerned. Notice the church at La Eadesea here is mentioned, which lies in close proximity to Claussing, and would be exposed to similar error. Read the account of the church at Laeotica in the book of Revelation. And what do you find there? We find much laxity and coldness and many spiritual defects among the flock in Revelation in Chapter 3. In fact, you find Christ in a sense, outside the door of the church knocking that he might have fellowship with those inside. Because they have drawn away from Christ is the impression that we are given there. And the sad thing is, the La Eadesian church didn’t even know. They thought they were rich. They thought they were increased with goods. They didn’t think they needed anything. and didn’t know that they were poor, blind, and naked, and that Christ was in a sense was on the outside. They were out of fellowship with him. If we look at the errors that Paul has to address in this chapter, for instance, in chapter 16, or verse 16, excuse me, he addresses the error of the necessity of observing the mosaic law for justification. In verse 18, he addresses the worship of angels that taken, that was taking place. In verse 20 to 23, following superstitious restrictions of human invention, he has to take up that error. Accepting popular philosophy as truth. He takes up in verse 8. So it is clear that the Colossian church had all kinds of serious error confronting it or infiltrating. Doesn’t mean that everybody in the church was involved in this. but that there was influence there. There was corruption there that he saw and needed to be addressed. And some of them evidently did not even realize the danger it posed to their souls. You can consider the Corinthian Church as another example. They thought they were quite special. Because they had all the supernatural gifts here of the Spirit of God given to them. They were proud Christians. But some among them denied that there was, was a resurrection of the dead. And Paul has to say, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1st Corinthians 15. Don’t you realize that by taking this position, you’re undermining the gospel itself? They didn’t seem to catch that. They didn’t realize they’re error. My friends, how blind we as professing Christians may be sometimes to our own real spiritual state. you may think you’re flying spiritually when maybe you’re on the brink of disaster. And so we have to realize that God must awaken us at times through the minister or others to the danger that surrounds us that we may be careful in this regard. He says, I got a great conflict concerning you. He has for that. You know, fire ants have greatly multiplied in our country, especially in southern, United States, amazingly, they are adaptable. They’re quite aggressive. Insect sprays don’t work very well against them to control them. However, people have come up with the scientists, have come with a crafty way of dealing with them and destroying their whole colonies. Pellets of the ants’ favorite food are tainted with an odorless, tasteless, tasteless, poison. And then these poison pellets are sprinkled outside the ant mound, and the worker ants, gather them up, take them down into the colony, and feed the queen bee with them. And slowly but surely the queen bee dies. And then there are no more worker, excuse me, the worker aunt dies, and then, or the queen ant dies, and then slowly but surely all the, when the queen ant dies, then all the rest of the ants are going to die out as well. The whole colony will disappear. in a couple of weeks. So it is spiritually with false doctrine. When false doctrine gets imported in the church, it may start out very slowly and trickle in. But when it becomes, when people are being fed false doctrine over a period of time, it corrupts and kills and can destroy a church. And so true ministers are greatly concerned about your spiritual state. Secondly, this morning, why true ministers are greatly concerned, that you persevere in the truth of the gospel. One, he says here, that your hearts may be comforted. That their hearts may be comforted, he says here. Now we need comfort. There’s a lot of things that disturb us. We have indwelling sin. We have the temptations of Satan. We have false teachers. We have dark providences at times. Sometimes if we feel like God hides his face from us, you’re happy. requires, however, that you adhere to the gospel of Christ. And this will provide calmness and tranquility amidst all the storms of life that we have. True doctrine allows you to sweetly trust in the promises of the gospel despite all your failings and despite all your imperfections. All heresy and error in religion disturbs the consolation. and the peace of the church. And you’re comforting Christ. Therefore, we should be jealous about the purity of the gospel because once it gets compromised, it stirs up division and strife. Once justification by grace alone through faith in Christ alone is compromised, your mind can no longer be at peace. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, God hath given us everlasting consolation and hope through grace, the Bible says. You know, the greatest danger is the teaching that we have today, the justification is by faith plus works. We find this in the Roman Catholic Church, we find this among the federal visionists, the cults, many different religious groups. We’ve told that salvation depends upon what you do, in addition to faith in Christ. when it comes to justification. And this is important that we properly understand this. Look with me at Matthew chapter 7, if you would, in verses 1 to 3, or excuse me, verses 21 to 23. Jesus says here, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out death. Devils in thy name done many wonderful works. Then, and then will I profess unto them, I knew you not, depart from me, you that work iniquity. Now this passage has been widely distorted and misunderstood. John MacArthur in his book, the gospel according to Jesus, I think, has a misinterpretation of this passage of Scripture. Norman Shepherd certainly does. The Roman Catholic Church and many others. They wish to teach the justification before God includes doing, as well as believing. Those who do the will of the Father enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now, you’ll notice that many are said to have this wrong idea. In verse 22. In that day here, of course, is the day of judgment, because all men will stand before Christ. and give an account of their thoughts and their words and their deeds. Notice that these people call Jesus Lord. It’s not that these people are heathen, that they don’t have any recognition of who Christ is. They’re actually classifying Christ as Lord, and doing things supposedly in his name, such as prophesying and so forth. So they weren’t near mere professors. They certainly were practicing, weren’t they? At least they. they were active in church work. And yet, they’re cast into hell. Why is that? Didn’t they seem to have a belief in Christ as the Lord? Didn’t they engage in what we might classify as Christian works, such as prophesying and so forth? And yet they’re classified as wicked. People corrupted by their iniquity and not known by the Lord, therefore not his people. So what consolation or comfort is found in this doctrine that salvation is by faith in Christ plus good works? If this is the end, how many good works are enough to gain you entrance into the kingdom of heaven? When can you ever say, okay, now I am justified and heaven is secure? Have you figured out how many good works you have to do to reach that point? The question is, what is Jesus? is teaching here then. What is required to do the will of his father? Now, if you hold your place here, but look at John’s Gospel, chapter 6, verses 28 and 29. Then they said unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? and Jesus answered the son of them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sat. Verse 40. And this is the Lord. This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. Those condemned by Christ in the day of judgment are those who seem to be trusting in their own good works to find acceptance in addition to Christ. Those who enter into heaven are those who place all their trust in Christ. blood is sacrificial death as a substitute and Christ’s righteousness not their own works. Those are the people whose hearts are comforted. Those are the people who have assurance of salvation. My friends, it’s not that the Christian is not supposed to be zealous of good works, for he should be. But if it comes for our justification before God, we’re not justified by our works. We’re justified by what Christ has done and what Christ is done alone. And therefore, if we are thinking that somehow or other our acceptance is based upon what we have done, whether it’s a great work or not, we are heading in the wrong direction here. Justification is by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone. So if your heart is going to be comforted, it must be relying upon Christ alone. when it comes to salvation. Now notice here, he also asked that you may be knit together in love here. Christians are united around the truth. This is what binds us together as brothers and sisters in Christ. The multitude of them that believed the gospel were of one heart and of one mind, one soul if you would, as we read the book of Acts chapter 4. False doctrine troubles Christian unity. It creates division. It creates strife in the church. False teachers are like stormy winds that beat upon the church and disturb its peace and its tranquillity. Unity of mind and mutual love is the result of the unity of the faith. And of course, certainly the work of the spirit. Friends, it is folly for us to think that we can have any firm union between those who differ on the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. When King Joram inquired of Jahue, is it peace? did you come in peace? Jahue responded, what peace, so long as the hordoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? I can’t have peace with you. you when you’re engaged in this false worship. So do those who adhere to the true faith have the same spirit? We have to reply, and rightly so, to those who have maintained false doctrine, what peace can there be between us? If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, the Apostle’s doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God’s speed. 2. John, verse 10. They may be knit together and love. That you may abound in full assurance of understanding, he says also. Paul speaks of spiritual knowledge or understanding here of spiritual things so as to be certain of them. There is such a thing as assurance of the faith. Likewise, of an understanding of the gospel and all the truths that are associated with it. We do not need to doubt about the promises of the gospel. We can believe what God has said about salvation in Christ, and that can give us comfort. And we can have an understanding of this. There are those who claim that you can never have assurance of salvation. But that isn’t true, my friends. The scripture tells us in 1 John 513, these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. We can know it because we’re relying on God’s promise in the gospel. God can open the eyes of your understanding so that grant you assurance of salvation and remove doubts about where we stand with the Lord. And we can have such a large and abundant understanding that we might call it all riches of understanding as the text seems to indicate. to us. A vast and extensive knowledge which reaches to the deep things of God, even an assurance of our divine election and our inclusion in the covenant of grace. We may have an infallible assurance based upon the blood and the righteousness of Christ. It seems that the great reformer Martin Luther had imaginary conversations with Satan. at various times and his ministry, even throwing inkwells at times at his adversary. One of the things he saw Satan doing was trying to undermine the assurance that he had in his salvation in Christ. Luther imagined Satan presenting before him a long list of Luther’s sins. And Luther said, well, think a little harder. I’m sure there are some you missed. So the devil, he said, added more sins to the list. And then Martin Luther simply said, that’s fine. Now, right across the list in red ink, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. And Luther was confident that nothing Satan could do could undermine that particular truth. So that he had assurance of his salvation. Yes, Satan could bring out all the sins he’s committed, but it is in Christ that our hope lies and not in ourselves. so that you may abound in a full assurance of understanding. Notice also here that you may have a knowledge of the mystery of God and of Christ. Both of the Father and of Christ. This explains what your full assurance must be based upon. He carefully restricts you here lest you be tricked into relying on something else. You know, false teachers would have you think about, you know, relying on religious tradition, human philosophy, a righteousness based on personal lawkeeping, and all these other things. To arm against this, Paul says, this is what you need to know. You need to know the mystery of God. You need to know the gospel of Christ. And if you have that, you can have full assurance. He calls it a secret or mystery because it was his history because it was his history. with God, and certainly from hidden and way beyond man’s comprehension, unless it was revealed to man, but God must reveal these wonderful truths of the gospel to you, and he does so. It’s the mystery of God or Father. He is the author of it. He is the gracious revealer of it, and he manifests himself in it. You discover in the gospel all that you need to know of God’s nature and will for the attainment of salvation. And it’s called the mystery of Christ. For the Lord Jesus Christ brought the Holy Doctrine to us, manifested by the ministry of his saints through his apostles. He is the principal subject of this ministry, the mediator of this mystery, and without whose personal work, it would be impossible to have any part in the happiness associated with the gospel. So Paul, Paul wants you to have a full and distinct knowledge of this ministry so that your soul is grounded. Now, this observation I will make, it’s your clear duty than to study the mystery of God, as is the mystery of the Father and of Christ. And what I mean by that, if you study these epistles of Paul, he’s always explaining to us the gospel. It’s full, not just the simple basics of it. but the whole spectrum of the gospel, what it all entails, how it involves Christ, who Christ is, and so forth. How what the father’s aspects are on it in this, what the son accomplishes, what the Holy Spirit is doing. It’s the full discovery that we found, find in the Holy Scriptures, really from Genesis 315 on, the gospel is revealed to us. In more details we go. with the full discovery, certainly we have here in the New Testament in its brightest element. May God grant your heart that desires to delve deeply into the truths concerning Christ and the Gospel of Christ and God’s mystery here. Plead that God would open your understanding because this leads us to a full assurance of the salvation that we have in Christ. And our confidence in Christ that if we have Christ, we are complete in him and have need of nothing else. This is what he’s going to argue in this chapter. You don’t need all the ceremonies of the law. You don’t need circumcision. You don’t need all these other things. What you do need is you need Christ. And if you have Christ, you have all that you need. And we’ll be looking at that as we go along. But this is, is why true ministers are greatly concerned that you persevere and the truth of the gospel. These things are necessary for us. Well, God’s ministers are his watchmen, to care for and to warn his flock. There are spiritual predators, and we should always be aware that every day we live, we can run into spiritual predators. Radio, television ministers, books, all kinds of people that we meet could have false doctrine, promoting a false idea of what the truth of the gospel is all about, what Christ is all about. We cannot be ignorant of the fact that they’re here. They’re around us. And ministers are in a great conflict here because their duty is to train you up in the things of God, to warn you of these individuals, and of course, to pray for your souls, that you may be spared by God. I pray that the Lord will bless us as we consider the error here and realize what we have in Christ. Let us not be drawn away from him. As this chapter unfolds, that is the key idea.