Colossians 1:21-29; 2:1-10, Rooted and Grounded in Him

Colossians 1:21-29; 2:1-10, Rooted and Grounded in Him

This morning, if you have your Bibles, we want to continue our study through the book of Colossians. If you’d turn with me, we want to pick it up where we left off last week in Colossians chapter 1. The Apostle Paul, as we have been studying in the book of Colossians, is writing to the church at Colossae as well as the other churches in that area. I believe in the lesson today we’ll get to a verse where he actually makes reference to the church at Laodicea.

Laodicea was a city that was just east of Colossae, probably about 30 miles or less. And the gospel had been brought to that area by believers, but not by the Apostle Paul. He had been at Ephesus and he’d been in other cities in the region, but he had not met any of the believers at Colossae.

But he’d heard of them and heard of their faith from those that would come and that he would minister to and that would come to minister to him. And as I mentioned, the first week we came together to study this book, one of the things that was happening is there were false teachers coming in to that region and coming to the churches saying they had things that needed to be added to the gospel. It wasn’t just Jesus enough, but it was Jesus and other things.

And Paul’s going to address those in this letter. But to start with, he’s laying the groundwork of what our faith is and what it’s founded in. Some of the hymns that we sing today deal with the fact that we have one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord.

There is no other foundation upon which our faith is built. There is no other means of salvation. And we don’t have to experience anything else but a relationship with Jesus in order to be saved.

And off of that salvation comes growth and maturity, where we become more Christ-like in our character, more gain wisdom and understanding according to God’s principle and who He is and His truth, and that you and I can be able to stand and fight the spiritual battle in this world against wickedness and evil. And not only that, we also sang about the fact that it’s not just enough to say that I’m able, but I actually need to get up and do something for Jesus. I need to be involved in walking with Him daily, seeking to honor and to glorify Him.

And that my trust needs to rest in Him because truly He does lead me. And that brings us to our lesson this morning. So if you have your Bibles, it would turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. And I’d like to begin at verse 21.

And I’m going to read a little ways into chapter 2. And we probably won’t get through all of these verses this morning, but I want to do this for context. So Colossians chapter 1, beginning at verse 21.

21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled

22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;

26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

1 For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

2 That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

5 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Col 1:21-29; 2:1-10

If you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard and which was preached to every creature which is under the heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the church. Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God.

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

For unto I also labor, striving according to His working which worketh in me mightily. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of the fullness assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.

Rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit and the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him which is the head of all principality and power.

Let’s just bow in prayer. Dear Heavenly Fathers, we come before you this morning. Lord, I pray that you would just help us to understand the importance of walking with you steadfastly every day.

Lord, help us to realize that we’re in a constant spiritual battle. We have an adversary who desires to undermine our commitment to you, desires to destroy our trust in you. But Father, you have revealed to us that you are greater than he.

And you have revealed to us that if we are rooted and grounded in you, you will help us to be able to not only gain victory over him, but you will help us to grow and mature and be more like your Son every day. Lord, speak to us through your word this morning and help us to understand the importance of what our relationship is with you and what it means to be walking with you daily and to be yours. This we ask in Jesus’ name.

Amen. As the Apostle Paul is writing this letter to the church, as he says in his own words, he hasn’t ever met these people, but they’re on his mind. And he cares deeply about them.

One of the things that God has given to us is his spirit works in the hearts of his believers. And Jesus said that his spirit was going to be given to everyone who trusts and gives their heart and life to him. He was going to send to them a comforter who would indwell and empower them, give them understanding, enabling them to walk with the Lord.

One of the amazing things that my wife and I have had happen to us when we’ve gone on vacations to various other states and even in different parts of the world, one of the things that is amazing is when we meet people who are believers in Christ. And it’s like you have this common bond which is pulling you together. And you have this common love in Jesus.

And it was amazing. I remember a few years ago, we were on vacation in another state and we stopped at a rummage sale. I don’t know why we were going there because we had to fly home so we couldn’t buy too much.

But when we stopped there, we began to talk to the people and found out, wow, these people, they seem to think like we think. And we began to talk and we asked them, do you know the Lord? And yes, they were believers in Christ. And they began to share with us how God had redeemed them.

And they shared with us some of the struggles they were going through but some of the blessings they were experiencing. And it was just a real joy to have that relationship with them. I want you to understand, you’ve got something special that the world doesn’t have.

You’ve got a bond with other believers that is found in Christ where He’s knitting you together with them. And as the Apostle Peter tells us in his letter to the church, building a holy temple unto the Lord and we are the lively stones that are part of that. And as the Apostle Paul comes in writing to these people, he has a heart for them because they are dear to him even though he’s never met them.

And he wants them to understand the significance of their calling, the purpose of their calling, their relationship with Christ and what that means because there are those who are going to try to undermine and destroy it and get you to turn from Jesus. And just as they were doing that during Paul’s day, it’s even becoming more evident during the day in which we live. How do you become someone that can discern truth from error, that can understand when false doctrine is being presented and that will be able to deal with people who are being led astray to help them to get back to the Lord and to not have their faith undermined by false prophets and teachers? Well, Paul is going to give us some of that groundwork this morning.

Let’s take a look and begin at verse 20. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him that reconciled all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they are things on earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. I want you to understand the reconciliation that’s occurred in your life was only done because of Jesus Christ.

And what that reconciliation means, Paul just got done telling us, you were once alienated from Jesus. To be alienated means you wanted nothing to do with God. You wanted nothing to do with Jesus.

You wanted nothing to do with his word. You’d believe everybody else but this book. That’s being alienated.

It means that you have no relationship at all. And that’s where we all were prior to coming to Christ. You were alienated, but not only alienated, you were enemies.

That’s a stronger term. Before you became a believer in Christ, you wanted to destroy the things of God. You know, as you look at the world today and look around and you see, you wonder, why do people act the way they do? Why do people who are so selfish that they want everything at the expense of others, even if it means the destruction of things that ultimately should be dear to them? Have you ever stopped to think? There’s a book out on the table and it’s called Reunion.

It’s written by Mark Cahill. And in that book, he goes through a bunch of young people that graduated from high school together. And at the time of this reunion, it’s way later in their life.

It’s like 50 years later. It’s one of the late class reunions and they’re all older. And they get there and he goes and shares things from their life and what they’re thinking as they’re meeting at this reunion.

And I just want to focus on one of his characters. There was a young woman, well, she was young when she was in high school. And she graduated in the book and when she got out into the world, she believed everything the world said.

She believed she became someone who became a woman’s liver. And she wanted nothing to do with the family. She wanted nothing to do with children.

She wanted nothing. She wanted to have a career. And she wanted to make a name for herself in this world.

And she did. And now, she’s probably, if it’s a 50-year reunion, she’s in her late 60s or 70. And she’s coming.

And she’s hearing from some of her other classmates. Some of them are talking about their children and their grandchildren. She has none.

They’re talking about their husbands and their wives. She doesn’t have one. And she realizes that she had been duped into becoming an enemy of all that was real and true and believing the lies of this world.

And it had impacted her life, not for good. Now, the amazing thing is, when you read the book, she had become a Christian in her later life. And she realized all that she had missed, but what she had missed was because she had become an enemy of God.

And she didn’t believe what he said was true. She didn’t believe that having a family was what God ordained as a great blessing. She didn’t believe when she was young that getting married and being committed and having a covenant relationship with another person was more significant and important than whatever career you could have or whatever accolades you could gain in the world.

But now she did. You see, when we don’t believe what God’s Word says, we do the opposite and we become an enemy. An enemy desires to destroy.

An enemy desires to come against and make ineffective what the one he’s fighting against is doing. That’s exactly what Satan does in this world. You can look at the world and if you stop and look at what’s happening in our world.

I want to take the Middle East, for example, because that’s in the news a lot. You look at Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, the whole concept of the belief system that they’ve incorporated into their lives. They are a people that have bought the lies of this world and the lies of Satan to the point that hatred is what motivates them.

Hatred of the Jewish people to the extent that they would have everything destroyed around them if they could just kill one more Jew. What kind of motivation would that be? Hatred where they will take their own children and their own citizens and use them as human shields so they’re killed so they can live. Why would people do this? Why would people, when they’re offered peace, only gather more armaments because they’re going to get ready for another war? It’s because they hate God.

They hate the God of love, they hate the God of life. It’s interesting, Golda Meir a number of years ago said, Peace will not come to the Middle East until the Arabs love their children more than they hate us. I want you to hear what she said.

Because literally, what is taught to many children in this world is hatred from the time they’re little. I want you to understand the same philosophies are in our culture. We teach our children to hate what they are.

If they’re a girl, they should become a boy. If they’re a boy, they should become a girl. Or maybe you should be an animal.

Why don’t you stop what that is? That is attacking God’s creation. That’s attacking the very character of God. And it’s not helping the kids.

It’s destroying them. In our culture, we have become such enemies of God that we exalt living together as a greater thing than marriage. We hate God when we do those things.

And it’s because we’re enemies with Him. Paul says that we’re sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. And all of those are wicked works.

They’re designed to destroy. But, what? Yet now hath He reconciled you. You are one that probably one day in the past would have agreed it’s all right to kill babies.

It’s all right for people to do whatever they want with their life. It’s all right that the real aggressors in the Middle East are all the groups that I labeled and not Israel. But all of a sudden, when you’re reconciled to the Lord, like this woman in Mark Cahill’s book, you look back and see how those decisions are so destructive and so against all that God stands for and all that He has liberated you from.

The amazing thing is, she came to Christ in her later years, but she was only given one time to live in this world. That’s why there’s one of the songs in our hymnal that says, Give of your life to the Master. Give of the strength of your youth.

When should you come to Christ? I’ve had young people say, You know, I want to go out and sow some wild oats. I want to be at war with God, so I’m not going to be reconciled to Him until I get to be old and I’ve done all the things I want to do. No.

You need to be reconciled to God if today’s the day. It doesn’t matter what your age is, but today’s the day. Don’t go on one day at war with God as alienated from Him, but be reconciled to Him.

Why? How are we reconciled? Paul then talks to them and reminds them of how you became a Christian in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Jesus came, went to the cross when He didn’t have to. And He did it for His enemies.

And who are His enemies? We just got done talking about it. All of us that are at war with God before we came in fellowship with Him through Christ. Jesus did it, and the sole purpose, Paul lays it out.

He says that you were sometimes alienated, but now what? In the body of His flesh through death to present you what? Holy and blameless. Holy. The word holy means complete.

Nothing is to be added to it. You are to be holy in the sight of God. It means without blemish, without that which is wicked or evil, but pure.

God is holy. And Jesus died on the cross that we could be holy. That when God looks at us, He doesn’t see the sin, but He sees the righteousness of His Son and how that we are becoming like Him and we are being conformed to His image and we will be holy as He is holy.

And not only that, He tells us unblameable. He makes us unblameable. People say some of the things that people have done in their life, and you look at some of the things that are disgusting, that are despicable, can God forgive? Jesus died on the cross and He died to pay the penalty for sinners.

In our minds, we like to put degrees on sin. And often times, we will compare our sin to other people’s sin to justify our sin. And we’ll say, I’m not as bad as him.

I haven’t killed anybody. I haven’t robbed a bank. But in the eyes of God, He doesn’t put degrees on sin.

If you sin, you sin. Sin means that we are in rebellion against the very things that God stands for. We are literally mocking God and standing in the face of His truth.

That’s sin. And you can do it by difference. That’s why Jesus said, Who’s a murderer? Oh, we look over in the Middle East and we saw many people that were murdered.

They had done nothing to deserve death, yet a bunch of young people were killed and were murdered. Horrible. Those people should be brought to justice.

Well, what did Jesus say? You harbor anger in your heart and malice towards another. It’s as if you have murdered them. Because where does the action begin? It begins in our hearts, in our minds, in our thoughts.

And He said, You do that, you rebel against Me. He talks about the one who commits adultery. When does adultery occur? In the eyes of the Lord, it doesn’t occur when you get together with somebody of the opposite sex who’s not your wife or your husband.

It occurs when you look upon another and lust after them and want them and desire to be involved with them. That is the act. It has already occurred in your mind.

And Jesus said, I’ve made you unblameable from it. I have made you unblameable. This no longer is chargeable to your account, but you’ve been set free from it.

You’re unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. What does the word unreprovable mean? Well, to prove means you have evidence to show. To be unreprovable means you have no evidence left to show.

In other words, what He has done, He’s wiped your slate clean by the blood of Jesus. And you who once had this pile of evidence to justify your judgment and condemnation have now had your slate wiped clean by the blood of Christ when you come to know Him. And so He says, what are we to do? Are we that claim to be Christians then to say, well, I’m not going to accept this.

I don’t want any part to do with this. What would you say to somebody who had a whole long prison sentence in front of them and the judge came and said, the penalty has been paid for your crime by somebody else. I’m going to wipe your slate clean.

Nobody can ever bring up this crime again. You’re a free man. And you would go, oh no, I want to go and sit in that cell and rot the rest of my life.

I don’t want freedom. I don’t want to have my sin forgiven. Paul is saying, is that you? He’s saying, you shouldn’t do that.

See, Christians tend to say, well, I’m not going to accept this. I don’t want any part to do with this. What would you say to somebody who had a whole long prison sentence in front of them, and the judge came and said, the penalty has been paid for your crime by somebody else.

I’m going to wipe your slate clean. Nobody can ever bring up this crime again. You’re a free man.

And you would go, oh no, I want to go and sit in that cell and rot the rest of my life. I don’t want freedom. I don’t want to have my sin forgiven.

Paul is saying, is that you? He’s saying, you shouldn’t be that person. We need to understand what Jesus has done for us. And he says, if we continue in the faith grounded and settled, instead of having that foolish attitude, which would never be the part of a Christian, and never would be the part of a Christian, we are to be rooted and grounded.

This morning we were studying in the book of Hebrews in the adult Sunday school classroom, chapter 6, and they’re talking in there about the person who says they’re a Christian, but really never manifests fruit in their life, and all of a sudden they appear to abandon the faith. The apostles talk about the fact that that person appeared to be with us, but never really was of us. In other words, they listened to the message, they appeared to respond to the message.

One of the comments made was, they became social Christians. It was their society that they belonged to. But it wasn’t a personal relationship, and they didn’t realize in their heart what Jesus had really done for them.

And so when pressure came, they abandoned. Not like David in Psalm 25. When pressure came on David, what did he do? He went to the Lord and desired to get closer to God.

That is why when you judge all the kings of Israel, they always judge them against David. Was he a king like David? Who when trouble came, he reached to God. When difficult times were there, he turned to the Lord.

And that’s what Paul is saying here. We need to be rooted and grounded in Christ, because the difficult times will come, the challenges to our faith are all around us, by people who are saying what you believe is wrong, I’ve got something else to tell you. Are you going to believe this book? Are you going to believe God’s truth? Are you going to abandon the faith? Paul says be rooted and grounded.

Being rooted is you plant your roots down. We read Psalm 1 last Sunday. In Psalm 1, it talks about a tree that is grown by a river.

And this tree, as it grows by the river, its roots go and absorb the water, and it’s grounded at this river. Jesus gave another example of a builder, of a guy who wanted a house. And where would you build your house? Well, if you’re in Florida, a beach home in the face of hurricanes is probably not a real great idea, if you want to be able to stand.

Because Jesus said that there was this guy, and he went out to build his house. And he built the house, and he built it upon sand. And it wasn’t grounded.

There was no roots. There was no foundation. There was no pillars going to something that was solid.

And the storms came, and the wind blew, and the house crashed. He was talking about people’s lives. He wasn’t talking about houses.

He was talking about people who aren’t rooted and grounded in the truth. And the storms of life will come. You lose a loved one.

And guess what? Everyone in this room is going to lose a loved one at some point in your life. You will have somebody die that is close to you. Why? Because every person has one thing, two things in common, birth and death.

And unless the Lord comes and takes His people home in the rapture before we die, each one of us will face death, and each one of us will experience those that are close to us that die. I’ve been to funerals of believers, and I’ve been to funerals of unbelievers. I want to tell you, going to a funeral of a believer is a sad time because you’re not with that person anymore on this earth.

You can’t hug them, kiss them, talk to them, gain wisdom from them any longer. But one day you will, in heaven. Because if you’re a believer and they’re a believer, they’re absent from the body, but they’re present with the Lord, and one day we will be with them.

And the scriptures tell us that we will know each other. But go to a funeral of a non-believer, and what hope do you have to offer them? They talk about all the achievements or non-achievements or whatever that this person had in their life, but guess where that happened? In the past. It means nothing today.

We were moving, and I had some trophies that I had from when I was in speech contests in high school. And I’d moved about five times and drug these trophies with me all the time. And moving to our last house, my wife said, we’ve got to get rid of some of this stuff.

Do you really need those trophies? I never looked at them. I didn’t have them sitting on a shelf anywhere. They were stuck away in a closet.

But guess where that happened? In the past. No matter how much I admired that trophy, it wasn’t going to help me today. So when you go to a funeral of someone who doesn’t know the Lord as much as you admire or may admire things that they had done in the past, it’s still not going to help them today.

And it’s sure not going to help your relationship with them in the future. They needed to be rooted and grounded in Christ. And so Paul tells us, as he’s getting ready to talk about all these false teachers in the world, what do you need to do to face them, to have a discerning spirit? Jesus tells us when He spoke the last portion of that parable.

He said there was a wise man. The foolish man built his house on the sand and it collapsed. The wise man built his house on a rock.

It was grounded. The same storms came. The same wind came.

But the house on the rock stood fast. It didn’t collapse. Because the man had wisdom.

He built his house where it was rooted and grounded. Jesus is saying, where are you building something more significant than a place to live in on this earth? That’s your life. Where are you building it? On things that are like sand? Are you trusting in the words of the musicians that come out of Hollywood? The movies that are put out by Hollywood? Politicians that will tell you whatever you want to hear? And then the storms of life come and there’s nothing solid.

Or are you building it on that which will last eternally? Jesus Christ. So He tells us, as believers, you and I are to be rooted and grounded. Well, how are we rooted and grounded? He goes on and He says, if you continue in faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel.

The first thing He says is, never ever believe anybody that would say, I’ve got a better solution to your problems in life than the hope of the gospel. Because there is none. Just ask someone who has lived the majority of their life as an enemy of God and comes to faith at God at the end of their life and realizes, I should have given my life when I was young.

He says, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, where have I, Paul, made a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body’s sake, which is the church. He’s saying, I’m willing to have difficulties in life to make sure people are rooted and grounded. That’s how important it is.

As I mentioned at the beginning of our study in Colossians, Paul is in writing this from prison. Being a prisoner at this time in history was not a great deal. I believe when he’s writing this one, he was under house arrest, which wasn’t as bad as the second time he went to prison in Rome where he ended up in a dungeon.

Either way, you had no freedom. You could only go when they let you go. But Paul said, I am willing to suffer this for your sake.

I am willing to have afflictions. Why was Paul in prison in the first place? He was in prison because he preached the gospel. Go back in the book of Acts and you’ll see why he ended up in prison.

He ended up in prison because he was accused by the Judaizers and the high priests and the Sadducees and Pharisees of coming against Rome and trying to establish a new kingdom and following a different king. That’s what the accusations and basically because he was preaching the gospel. They wanted to silence him.

They wanted him put to death. And Paul was a Roman citizen as well as being Jewish. As a Roman citizen, you had the right to appeal when an accusation was made against you.

You had the right to appeal to Rome, to appeal to Caesar. And he would judge whether the accusation was truth or not. It would be similar to our appealing to a higher court and ultimately to the Supreme Court.

That’s what Paul had the right to do as a Roman citizen so he appealed to Caesar. And the whole time right before he appealed to Caesar he was before Festus and then he was before Agrippa and to both of them he preached the gospel. And all he had to do was deny the gospel and they would have set him free.

All he would have had to do was be silent about preaching the gospel and about having people get grounded in God and those were his accusers would have let him go because he had originally been one of them. But he wouldn’t. He preached it to Festus.

Festus left. But when he preached it to Agrippa you can almost see through the pages of Scripture Agrippa sitting on his chair listening to what Paul was saying because Agrippa even though he was an Edomite whose background came out of the Roman Empire and the country of Edom he had studied Jewish law and he had studied the Jewish Scriptures because he wanted to rule the Jewish people so they wouldn’t give him problems. And he knew the prophets.

He knew the law. And he’s listening to Paul speak of Christ. And as you see him in your mind almost sitting on the edge of his chair Paul comes to the end and these are the words of Agrippa some of the saddest words in all of Scripture Almost this day you have persuaded me But he didn’t.

And unless he gave his heart to Jesus Agrippa, even though he had it all up here was never grounded and rooted and will be eternally in hell. Paul ended up in Rome and eventually in prison for crimes he had not committed but he said, I am gladly suffer that you may hear the gospel. He had preached throughout what today would be Turkey and Greece and over along north of Beirut Lebanon and Syria He preached that whole area and he preached the gospel and brought people to Christ and established churches and it suffered greatly but he said, I do it all to see you rooted and grounded in the word of Christ.

And so he goes on and he says whether I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God even the mystery which hath been hid from the ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints. He said, I have done this and do you realize what you are the beneficiary of? Why you should desire to be rooted and grounded in the word of God? This is a great mystery. There has been hidden for centuries.

What is the mystery? Well, it’s not like you go to an Agatha Christie movie or book. It’s not that type of a mystery. But it’s a mystery in the sense that if you go to the Old Testament Jesus is revealed in the Old Testament but the revelation is guarded in that it doesn’t come out and say this is exactly who I am speaking of.

It’s given prophecies about this coming Messiah. It’s talked about the coming Messiah. It’s talked about the fact that there had to be a penalty paid for sin.

All of those things are evident and it’s all pointing to this one who is coming. One Bible teacher that I heard said in the Old Testament concealed in the New Testament revealed. In the Old Testament Christ is there but he’s concealed.

He’s not as easily seen. You can find him and men and women found him. But you and I, this mystery has had the concealment pulled back and it’s totally revealed.

What is this great mystery? This great mystery is there is one who has come that paid his penalty of sin, our sin, paid the penalty of he who is without sin, died on the cross for our sin, that you and I could be rooted and grounded in his truth and be no longer enemies of God but walk with God in fellowship with him and you and I could have the mind of God. Knowing truth from error and having discerning spirits based upon the truth of God’s word. The mystery revealed.

It’s found in Jesus. And he said, I have come to reveal this mystery to you to whom God would make known what is the riches and glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. I want you to understand, the Gentiles going back in their history they’ve been exposed to God.

As a matter of fact, Paul deals with the whole first portion of the book of Romans with the fact nobody stands unaccountable to the Lord. Because every person knows there’s a God. And every person, if you call out to God, God is merciful and gracious and God will reveal himself to you.

Go to Muslim countries today. People are getting saved. They’re coming to Christ.

They don’t have churches. They don’t have evangelists. They don’t have, as a matter of fact, in most Muslim countries, Christianity is outlawed.

And the Bible, if you possess one, will throw you in prison or worse yet, cause you to be put to death. So how are people coming to Christ? Because they know there’s a God. They look at his creation and they see there’s a God.

God has given man a conscience where he knows when he does that which is wrong. I remember watching the film about the five missionaries that went down to the Alca Indians in South America. And we showed it here at church.

The Indians got saved after they had killed these missionaries. They had in their culture to kill people. That was their culture.

But one of the men, when he came to Christ, he was talking, I believe it was to the wife of one of the missionaries. And he said, that day, when we killed your husband, I went back and told my friends, we have done something very bad. Very bad.

Why would he say that? Because they killed people all the time. They killed their own family members. You see, God’s given us a conscience and God was bringing conviction on those people that there was something different about these missionaries.

Because they’ve been spending a number of weeks trying to show that they cared about these people and they wanted to come and meet with them. And they killed them. He was without excuse.

But he came to Christ and just as Paul said, his sin was unprovable. His slate had been washed clean and he was now a believer in Christ. He was a brother in faith of that man’s wife.

The one who he had killed was in heaven and one day he’d be with him praising the Lord before his throne. And Paul is saying, this mystery was unknown to the Gentiles. They knew there was a God.

They knew that they had a problem. But what is the solution to their problem? And he says, I have brought you the solution. It is Christ, Jesus.

And I turn back the concealment of the mystery so that you can clearly understand it is Christ. And Christ alone. And the desire is that he would make every man perfect.

That means not that they’re without sin when they’re living on this earth, but rather perfect in the eyes of God who would come to know Jesus. Paul said, this work was done in me too. And it was mightily done in his life.

He doesn’t give us his testimony here. He gives it in another letter. He says, Man, if there’s anybody that didn’t deserve the grace and mercy of God, it was me.

But in my eyes, I thought I had it made. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. A Pharisee of Pharisees.

Of the tribe of Benjamin. I’d done all these things. Held all these positions.

Had this lineage. But he said, I count all of that as done. Apart from coming to Christ Jesus.

Because I’ve been set free from my sin. The great mystery of salvation. The freedom found in Christ.

And so he’s laying the groundwork, and we’re going to get into it even deeper next week, of what it means to have a walk with Jesus so that when the forces of evil in this world and from the Satan and the devil himself come against us, we can stand. Because we’re rooted and grounded in Christ. Let’s just close.

Father, I pray that you would just help us to understand the importance and significance of being rooted and grounded in you. Lord, I pray that you would just go with us this week and help us to be able to share the gospel unashamedly. Realizing that in you we can stand.

And help us to proclaim the truth that you have revealed to us. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.