Rush Witt - Jesus and His Treasures - Colossians 2:1-5

well thank you very much let me invite you to turn with me in my art text for this morning which is Colossians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 Colossians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5 this is what the Apostle Paul says as he is encouraging these believers in this church he says for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for all those who are at Laodicea and for those who have not personally seen my face that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth becomes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that is Christ himself in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument for even though I am absent and body nevertheless I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ let's pray once more and ask God to bless our time considering what he said to us in his word our Father in Heaven we come before you as the God who is there the God who has personally intervened in our lives and the person and work of your son we are grateful for your grace and mercy and we do pray yet again this morning with all dependence that you would illuminate our hearts and minds to hear your word and then it would bear fruit in our hearts and our lives we pray that this would be true every day we pray this in Jesus name Amen well every visiting preacher in every pulpit feels compelled to say it's my joy to be with you this morning I don't know if you know this or not but in some cases when they say that it is not true it is not their joy to be with you that morning but I am happy to say today that it sincerely is my joy to be here this morning every time I have an opportunity which is not frequently to be back at South Eastern or back here in Raleigh it is a real joy because it brings back for me a flood of rich memories it was sitting here facing pulpits like this in Chapel or in my local church that I heard edifying clarifying life-giving truth like I had never heard before I had opportunities to hear preachers who were held in such high esteem by so many including myself dr. John Phillips is one that I remember dr. Aiken dr. Mohler so many others which was such an example to me of the importance of expositional preaching and at that time the chapel was kept in the single digits to keep us from falling asleep it feels much better in here than it did then but I assure you the truth that I was hearing was on fire and so my time here was interesting because even the the feeling of inadequacy that I feel now is one that I have really gotten used to it seems to have been with me since the day I came to Christ my family my wife and I arrived here in 2002 and I came here some of you may identify with the honesty of this story I came here ignorant of almost everything I didn't know anything about anything I didn't know anything about expository preaching I knew nothing about biblical counseling or a reformed theology or local church meaningful membership I didn't know anything I didn't even know what questions to ask let alone the answers to those questions on top of that not only did I have zero answers but my wife and I were bringing with us two Bostwick 21 26 foot truck full of troubles my wife had come to Christ at an early age about 11 a strong Christian family but in late middle school early high school really began to struggle with anxiety and depression and panic attacks she attempted suicide or senior year in high school which ended up placing her at a prominent psych ward in Kansas and there she finished her senior year in high school and actually graduated there in the hospital came out went off to Murray State University in which the first semester in her dorm room attempted suicide again back in the hospital again and without the knowledge of of deep rich gospel centered soul care that we know in our family today she ran the full gamut of secular treatment and approach to these daunting problems that she faced even to the point that just after we were married those problems continue to increase such that she was back in the hospital and underwent a lengthy course of electroconvulsive therapy and it wasn't but a year and a half later that by God's grace we landed here with all of these troubles with us knowing nothing and we took a class the first class we head together was a class called pastoral care and counseling and that class turned our lives inside out we had never heard anything about the sufficiency of Scripture about the grace of Jesus Christ through the gospel by his Spirit to change us and to care for our souls so we we went to this professor we went to two pastors in our church and we asked for help we've never heard these things before you've got to help us and through a persevering lengthy season of true beautiful biblical gospel centered soul care the Lord did a fantastic work in our lives he changed our hearts he renewed our minds and he continues to do that work even now those troubles that we brought with us seemed to fade a bit into the background in Christ and his glory rose into the foreground of our life and we were convinced and we were all in on everything that southeastern was investing in us and it changed our lives now as I think back about those seventeen now seventeen and a half years while time really really flies many many passages of Scripture speak directly to Jesus power to care daily for our souls even even today but one stands out and that's the one that I want us to consider this morning again Colossians two one through five let me read this passage just once more we're gonna focus in on verse 3 Paul again talking to these believers wanting to encourage them and share his heart for them his prayers for them he says I want you to know a greatest struggle I have on your behalf and for those who at Laodicea for all those who have not personally seen my face that their hearts may be encouraged having been there together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that is Christ himself but one of the most profound passages in my life but I want us with the time that remains to focus in on the next 11 words I think these eleven words are critical to our lives to our godliness to our ministry as we are studying and preparing and training and serving even in our local churches I want you to see first just these two words in verse three in whom and in this I want you to see first what Paul is saying because here there they are fundamentally important words that Jesus is a person now that does not sound to many of us like earth-shattering truth but it is that Jesus Christ is a person these two words along with the rest of Scripture point to him repeatedly in this way as the lover and the one who can care for our souls the Scriptures do not point us to a system they don't point us to a program or to a lifestyle or to a list of do's and don'ts although we know that if we love Him we will obey Him the Scriptures don't ultimately point us to a book although we know that God has revealed him to us in his inerrant Word but rather the gospel points us to a person this is one truth that was so driven home and it is one that I need continually driven into my heart perhaps you do as well especially here on a seminary campus that Jesus is a living Savior he is a present person I fear that it is easy here to lose sight of that we've been giving so much truths and and so much so much important life-giving doctrine that somehow it is it is confounding to me how it happens in my heart but that the Jesus can drift away to become just a figurehead he's he's just the the face of the organization rather than a person as a church planter my family has been helped by some supplemental income and for me I've been able to work for a publishing company helping to oversee counseling books and it's been a real joy and a real help to our family and and and as I have thought back about books that have really made a difference in my life and authors the some that really stand out one is J I Packer I know many people here have been greatly impacted by the writing and ministry of jihad Packer knowing God brought such clarity and end has helped me and along with a number of other writings to refine my my view of Christ in my theology and I see him so high as a giant of the faith well this position that I've had has given me an opportunity to talk to some of these people that I've never gotten to meet and so I was needing to work on a book and try to gain an endorsement for one and somebody suggested you know Packer would be a great person to endorse this well how in the world you get in touch with GI Packer I guess you contact his people and then his people talk to him and they work something out and then he gives the endorsement and somebody said here's a number you could use to try to get in touch with his people and so I called the number just on a whim driving down the street between appointments I was making in and the phone rang and it rang in a train and then it picked up hello Jim Packer and I froze the first thing that I thought in the brief moments of silence after he answered his iPhone don't say anything stupid and then right after that I said something stupid dr. Packer how are you today now that's stupid because that's what that's what every unknown caller says that's what the telemarketer always says that's the worst thing that you can say to which job Packer said well I don't know what you mean I'm alive I suppose that's an answer yes sir that that's an answer that's wonderful but I'll tell you something happen over the next 15 or 20 minutes J I Packer the exalted giant of the faith the king of knowing God became a person he talked to me like I was his grandson at the end of our conversation he said now I want you to know you can call me any time you want now I never did but I could have and it was this experience almost like a like a kid imagine coming down and finding Santa Claus actually in the living room dispersing the presents under the tree realizing he's a person my friends I think that what we need repeatedly in our lives is for this to dawn on us about Jesus Christ that he is a person do you want these benefits the Apostle Paul is exalting to be encouraged to be knit together with believers in your church to know the riches of assurance and understanding it will only happen if we learn to go to a person this was a key truth and in all the the biblical counseling training that I received and I was trying to fumble through and learn how to care for Souls what we can look at the the way that we do counseling and care for people in the way that the world does counseling he cares for people and we see a lot of similarities but what is the striking central difference there's a person in the room he is present he is here by his spirit now he is ministering to your heart right now as a person and this is a life-giving truth do you know that there are people out in the world who don't believe that Jesus is a person well at times this room at times my church times my house is full of them sometimes I'm someone who doesn't believe that Jesus is a person I need a I need a system I need a program I need something else and it keeps me from going to this person that was early on being discipled the shortly after coming to Christ I was warned about the devil's work and they said if the devil can't make you bad he'll make you busy that's not what I have found what I have found if there's anything like that if the devil can't make you bad he will make you bored bored with Jesus Christ yeah yeah yeah Jesus that's great give me the real stuff give me the stuff that'll blow my hair back give me the stuff that will confound Jesus Christ so as we look at these two words I hope that all of us can can take away some encouragement and challenge to intentionally do this personalized Jesus in your daily life he can be depersonalized and this will be a fight for us to wake up to a person and walk with a person and lay our heads down to sleep to this person that is the call of the Apostle Paul in these two simple words in whom not in which not in that in whom why is this so important because what we need most in life is hidden in this person notice what Paul says next in the next few words he says that he he wants us to have a true knowledge of God's mystery who is Christ himself in whom are hidden all the treasures are hidden and we know Deuteronomy 29:29 that our God is a secret keeping God how'd he feel about that he's keeping secrets from you the secret things belong to the Lord but those that are revealed are for us and for our children forevermore he is keeping secrets this word here though that Paul uses is not a secret hiding they Sal Ross is a is a hiding away like treasures in a Treasury collecting all of the treasures in a box or a chest but of course we know make no mistake they are hidden in a person you can picture it as these treasures are hid in his hands they are collected they are protected and they are what we need most that's what we need most daily personally it's what people in our churches need it's what what the people of our world need and in this hiding there are some connected realities what does this mean that the treasures are hidden in this person it means they're owned by him they are controlled by him and they can only be granted by him this is why no one can simply wake up and choose to be a changed person either by conversion or in sanctification because these treasures must be granted by the person in whom they are hidden therefore this can only happen these benefits these joys of the gospel these gospel blessings can be ours only by venturing into Christ who holds in his hands what we need we cannot mind them from him we cannot steal them from him we can only gain them by bowing before her and again this is not just a truth of conversion of course everyone must bow a knee to Jesus Christ then one day everyone will but it is a daily it is a daily devotion to bow to him walking in Christ listen to what else Paul says a little bit later in Colossians 2 for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him you have been made complete he is the head over all rule and all authority do you hear him salting Jesus Christ is the one who is in all control and the one who has all the treasures hidden in him you may have seen in the news just a week and a half ago that the largest heist since World War two was perpetrated on a Dresden Museum 1 billion euros worth of art and jewelry were stolen this is impossible without gaining entrance into the Treasury well you can't break into Christ you must bow so many times I have tried to preach I have tried to counsel people I have tried to disciple my children without bowing to him with no thought of him I think about the principles I think about the books but no thought of him even then only by his grace if anything was accomplished in those sermons or in those counseling sessions or in my children of course it was by grace alone he is he is confounding me he is working despite me but that's not that's not what I want it is bowing before him it is seeking the treasure that is hidden in him by seeking him as our treasure we must not let that become played out treasure Christ it's like gospel-centered it's something that we say so many times it it could just lose its luster and it becomes routine right are you treasuring Christ are you bowing before him in the hour of study in the hour of learning in the hour of preaching lab and the hour of friendship are you bowing before him I know that you and I need this because every single person in my church tells me they need this we will routinely ask people in our church how can we pray for you you know number one almost everytime prayer request is in a church where people are driven to scripture they are hearing all the time rich truth from the Word of God expound it for them ministered to them what is the one prayer request they keep coming back to pray that I will learn to seek Jesus because I'm not doing that I'm doing all of these other good things I'm just not finding time to be in his word I'm not finding time to commune with him to bow before him to walk with him intentionally and because I know that you're just like me I know that that statement right there is hitting you the way that it's hitting me that's me it doesn't make any sense here at a seminary basterd truly bastion of truth focused on a mission and we still don't find time to read the Word of God to bow before Christ to worship Him god help us but that's what paul is doing isn't it he's helping us in whom are hidden all the treasures and then finally these last few words what does Paul do he highlights something in particular that Jesus is hiding it's hidden in him and he calls them the treasures of wisdom and knowledge wisdom Sophia knowledge gnosis I have a daughter named Sophia my other daughter's name is gnosis that's not true that would be weird but you might as well because that's what Paul is doing he is saying you want to seek something of value from Jesus Christ you want to know the treasures that are in his hands they are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge there's nothing more valuable than these two children that we would seek for them to be ours and I'm I'm so glad for this how many times do I how many times do you on a on a daily basis I cry out god I need wisdom I don't know I don't know what to do I don't know what to do in my marriage I don't know what to do with my kids I don't know what to do in my church I don't know what to do in my personal battle with sin I'm really struggling God helped me here are the treasures the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that inform every thing in our lives the way that we see everything what we desire and once our affections are our words our actions our thoughts in one sense this wisdom the knowledge is like a pair of glasses colors everything if there are only two kinds of people you know in the world there are covenant keepers and there are covenant breakers covenant breakers have the lenses of the world on their face there rose-tinted and changes the way everything is seen but that's what we all need we all need a new set of glasses we need the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to change the way that we see our lives you need that today I need that today to borrow a picture from Cornelius Van Til another giant of the faith to me they put it this way that even when you have these two people a covenant keeper who is in price trusting him walking with Him and the covenant breaker who has rejected him and is living in his own autonomy and independence in the way he sees the world they both see a cat walk across the street but they have two radically different interpretations even in that the covenant breaker sees a cat that is simply a that a conglomeration of molecules is just thrown together by chance in a random world where there is no God the covenant keeper sees that same simple cat walk across the street and that is something that belongs to our Creator that is something that is to glorify Him and change him friends that is the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to change the way we see even a cat walking across the street so you better believe that these treasures of wisdom and knowledge are what we need even in daily life even in seminary to change the way that we see God's world such that we would apply this to our lives by seeking daily from Jesus the wisdom and knowledge of God are you doing that regularly is that a regular discipline of your life to bow before Jesus the present person the living Savior who is with us now by His Spirit who has by grace alone opened his hands to reveal to us and give us the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in him because we have become hidden in him to say Jesus show me the treasures change my glasses fix my eyes renew my heart I want to see the world the way you see it I want to think your thoughts after you this is the great fight of the Christian life is it not even sitting here today this I believe is what we are in desperate need of and of course that begins by coming to Christ I'm not so naive as to believe that there's not someone here who may need to come to Christ and it is our challenge to you it is our prayer for you that even right now you would cry out to him and ask God to give you everything that you need so that you might believe in him so that you might come to know this person and you might receive his hidden treasures and his wisdom and his knowledge would come to rule your life and then beyond that however God chooses to use you in life and ministry wherever around the world in local churches on mission for him in the gospel taking it to the to the remotest part of our world I want to leave you with one conclusion and it is one that comes from another giant of the faith in my life whose name is David Callison he recently passed away great leader of the biblical counseling movement in a an incredible someone who's made incredible investment in my life and number of others if I could boil it down though to a central charge for me and for you it would simply be this borrowing his words that we ought to never degenerate hear that word that's a powerful word never degenerate into doing ministry or life that is disconnected from the person of Jesus Christ crucified risen at work and coming again this is the charge to you this is my prayer for you and for me that this would be the reality of our lives when this is true of us we will have no fear of Paul's concern in verses 4 and 5 that no one would delude us with persuasive argument that even though he is absent in body nevertheless he is with us in spirit Christ is caring for us as well and rejoicing to see our good discipline and the stability of our faith in Christ a stability that only comes by knowing the person the person who is Jesus Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge when they pray for us our Father you are the king we desire nothing more this morning than that our King would be exalted and that as we exalt you as we set our eyes upon Christ as we submit ourselves to the work of your Holy Spirit that you would change us that you would calibrate us that you would bring us back to the single-minded focus upon Jesus Christ and his glory even in our daily lives and so it is my prayer this morning for myself and for my friends who are here Lord that you would focus us cause us to see Jesus and to bow before him as the person who is so marvelously intervened in our lives and in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge we need your treasures we ask that you would grant them to us all by your grace that this would be a defining characteristic of our lives and our ministries in the days to come I pray every blessing upon my friends I pray that you would use them but he would strengthen them and I pray that you would glorify yourself through all of us however you wish we pray this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Southeastern Seminary

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Keywords: Southeastern, Baptist, Theological, Seminary, Chapel, Message, Jesus, Preaching, God, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Gospel, Danny, Great Commission, Training, Education, Southern, Boyce, SBTS, Al, Mohler, MWBTS, NOBTS, Jamie, Dew, Gateway, Universtiy, ERLC, Matt, Chandler, B21, IMB, NAMB, SBC, SBC20, NCSU, ECU, UNC, Duke, Divinity, School, Platt, Greear, JD, David, Whos, Your, One, Midwestern, Akin, RDU, Conversations, That, Matter, New Orleans, Critical, Race, Theory, Orlando, Florida, Kanye, West

Id: COEzjcFPIZg

Length: 32min 8sec (1928 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019