Sermon Cloud

Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Let's establish a few things here from the outset;

1. Paul is writing to people who know Christ, Colossians 1:3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; ⁵ because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, ⁶ which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

• Hearing and understanding the Grace of God in truth is the key that starts the engine of your Christian life.

• It is accompanied by other more spiritual things that we do not have time to go into right now, but form the standpoint of human experience this is where we must begin.

• Have you heard the grace of God?

• Do you understand it?

• By definition it is an undeserved gift.

• Its like Ed McMahon showing up at your door.

• Grace is God acting on our behalf to accomplish what we could never do.

• In that sense it is the Gospel Reiterate the details of the Gospel

• Colossians 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. ²¹ And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

• If we understand the Gospel it will grow and bear fruit in our lives, we will never be the same.

• Testimony...?

2. Here is the proper response to grace, Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

• You see, we have gone from His enemies to being raised with Him in glory.

• The more sinful things we do the less we like God.

• Our minds should be consumed with His goodness!

• Romans 2:4

• Do you know the Lord today?

• Are you living like it?

Paul tells us next, Colossians 3:8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, ¹⁰ and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

• Part of this fruit that we are supposed to bear is that we do not act as we did before we knew the Lord.

• There is a removal of the OLD and a putting on of the NEW

• This is done in knowledge! Where do we get this knowledge to live rightly in the light of what God has done for us?

• Note: If you think you will just get out your Bible and make a list of behaviors that please the Lord and then try to do them you are mistaken. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!

• REDEEMED PEOPLE GET KNOWLEDGE ON HOW TO LIVE FROM THE WORD!

• Charles Spurgeon, a great preacher from the mid 1800's, the greatest preacher in London and probably of his day once said this to his congregation of over 5,000 “There is enough dust on some of your Bibles to write the word damnation with your finger.”

• I hope that is not true of you, but I would say that it is probably truer of most of us than it should be.

• You say, I don't want to be so heavenly minded that I'm no earthly good!

• I like what Alistair Begg said in one of his sermons that I heard last year, “This in not a real big problem in the Church, rather don't be so earthly minded that you are no heavenly good.”

I want to focus on the first part of our verse now; Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,

• What is the Word of Christ?

• Is it just the red words in your Bible? No

• It is all of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments 2 Tim 3:16

• Its all about Christ; Old and the New, It is all God's Word.

• What does it mean that it should “dwell” in you?

• God's word lives in you.

• John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ⁸ By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

• Jesus here equates abiding in Him with abiding in His Words in Verse 7. This is a big deal.

• Jesus also said, Why to call me Lord and do not the things that I say? Luke 6:46

• One of my favorite O.T. References to this idea is Deut 6:6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

• What is the place of God's Word in this household? What is it in yours?

• Job said, “I esteem the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” Job 23:12

• I would like to plug memorization here!

• Psalm 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. ¹⁰With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! ¹¹Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. ¹²Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes. ¹³With my lips I have declared All the judgments of Your mouth. ¹⁴I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches. ¹⁵I will meditate on Your precepts, And contemplate Your ways. ¹⁶I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

• Why am I saying all of this?

• Firstly because I feel that this is am important thing for the Church to pay attention to in our day of gimmicks and fads.

• Secondly because the Lord has lain this upon my heart in light of your search for a new pastor.

• We pastors are saved by grace and have to deal with sin in our lives as much as any person in this room.

• I am standing here behind this pulpit today not because I am some gifted and eloquent man, I am just another trophy of God's grace.

• 1 Cor 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

• The point here is that God will use every one of us if we just draw near to Him and obey His Word.

• This must be your direction as you pursue the installment of your new pastor.

• As a pastor, when I talk to someone who is studying it through for himself I am far more pleased than I am when I have a big class who listens and goes away without a desire to know more.

• A pastors job is not to know everything and do everything. It is not to get you to bring your friends to church to hear the Gospel.

• I ask my youth from time to time, what will you do if you are faced with a situation where you actually have to talk to someone about your faith and sometimes they say, “I'll tell them to call you.”

• That is not the answer I am looking for!

• My job, your pastor's job, is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Eph 4:11-12

• Your job, if you know Christ is to get to know Him better!

• The Word should dwell in you RICHLY

• πλουσιως ; copiously, that is in full supply, completely furnished. Is your spiritual life and empty room?

• Its like going on a trip, taking a vacation in your car or van....

• But this is your journey of faith!

• You can't leave without checking the tire pressure, the oil level and making sure you have a full tank of gas.

• We do it all the time though, we try to make the 500 mile journey on 5 gallons of gas in the spiritual when we know we can never make it, but we say, “I'm just trusting God.”

• Don't just read a chapter a day to keep the devil away.

• Read it, take some time to study it out. We have more tools available to us, more things to make it easy than any generation in the history of the world!

• Since I began teaching 11 years ago I cannot believe the progress in technology that has radically changed the way I study....

• Next question, What is your mind full of?

• Worry, selfish desires like lust or greed?

• Remember Paul told us to put those off and put on the new man!

• You can't fill up on good things if you are already full of junk! That's why mom wouldn't let you eat desert first! Remember?

• The Scripture is full of admonitions to fill up on the good things and abstain from the things that will draw you away from God, Phil 4:8, Psalm 1, (James 4:4 world)

• Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly IN ALL WISDOM.

• There are two ways in which this is understood by the theologians

1. This is the means of getting wisdom

2. This is the means of communication wisdom to others, (in all wisdom teaching and admonishing...)

• I say, you have to get wisdom to teach it and I see that the two are certainly one in this manner.

• You say, “I am no teacher, I am still learning myself.”

• As am I

• If you have a wife, you are her teacher (Read Eph 5:25-33)

• If you have children you are a teacher (Read Eph 6:4)

• If you know someone who is less mature in the faith than you are, you are a teacher.

• Some of us spend more time learning the intricacies of a video game than how to live for Christ who died and rose again for us.

• Some of us spend more time training for our jobs than teaching our children how to live for Christ!

• It is a real struggle to live in the world and not be of the world, I know this as well as any of you.

• But I will challenge you with the words of Paul again in Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

•  

I know these may sound like kind of hard words, but this is my passion, that you would live a life that glorifies God and benefits yourselves and those around you.

Why, because I want this? NO. Because it is God's will for you!

With Paul I pray for you, from Colossians 1:9 and following

At our church we sing it every Sunday when we count our Bibles in Sunday School,

We have a wonderful treasure.... Don't just carry it with you, carry it in you!

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing on another...

Get it in you,Read it and study it and memorize it and then teach it to others.