In the growing field of podcasting, social media, and books, we see the genre of self-help on the rise. These gurus exist in different genres and subcategories, like business, or health, or mental health, or spiritual formation. You name it, there is someone that exists making it their mission to optimize and synthesize beliefs and practices, and that will apparently, if you believe them and you do them, they'll apparently help you flourish in that field. These people have these plans and quotes and protocols promising life. And to me saying this, I'm not condemning those resources, maybe some of them I might, many of them I like. But there are some that can be dangerous. They can be disruptive to your faith. Because beneath these resources is a philosophical system at work that is in opposition to Christ. There are beliefs that guide behavior, there's doctrine in these podcasts and books that dictate duty, and Paul here is dealing with that taking place in Colossae. In the church, there are false teachers giving direction for the faith that contradicted and belittled Christ. Promising life, promising growth, promising wholeness, all apart from Christ. Saying that there's a new way to really grow. And if you worship the moon, or if you fast this many times a week, or if you communicate and worship angels, then you will know the good life, you will know spirituality. Paul actually gives those exact examples in next week's sermon text, so you can look forward to what that means and how that is explained. But this is helpful to know as this is what Paul is up against in Colossae. But this is what Paul tells us. He tells us that growth in Christ comes from what is true, not new. And this temptation still exists today. It's not just for productivity hacks, but also the faith. We can be tempted to believe that there is a get faith quick scheme that exists. That there are certain pious actions, or if we know some form of hidden knowledge, that then we have made it in the Christian life. And to that, Paul says no. Growth comes from what is true, not new. And so Paul instructs the church, he says, continue in what you have received. Beware and do not be deceived, and revel in what Christ has achieved. And these are the words for us this morning. That growth in Christ is found in these three truths. And we will look at them one by one, and they will serve as our outline this morning. You can follow along in the back middle portion of your bulletin. It might be hard to flip back and forth between the scriptures, maybe a Bible, but it will be helpful to you if you can follow along with the sermon. It's our first point to grow in Christ. It's not by following what is new, but what is true. So continue in what you have received. Look at me at verse 6. Look at me at verse 6. The verse begins with the word therefore. Whenever we see that word, especially in Paul's letters, we should know that what Paul is about to say connects with what just came before it and what comes after it. In this instance, Paul is saying, I labor for a steadfast faith among the saints, which was the verse before it. I'll read it just for context sake. Verse 5 of chapter 2. I don't know if I can come up on the screen there if it can't. That's okay. I'll just read it. For though I'm absent in body and I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and firmness of your faith in Christ. Because of that, therefore, he says, hold fast to what you've learned about Jesus. Continue in what you have received. Continue in believing Jesus's Lord, walk in him, being grounded in him, growing in him and grateful for him. This is the path to steadfastness, to endurance, and most importantly, to growth. And as I say that, you might feel like Paul is repeating himself or that I'm repeating myself. But despite the repeated language, well, Paul is saying here is different than the prayer that we studied a few weeks ago. In the prayer, Paul is asking God to work. In these verses, Paul is encouraging the church to work. As you have received Christ as Lord, you've believed in him, you've been united to him, live in him. To be grounded in him or rooted in him, growing in him. It's just my translation for built up in him, leading to an established faith as they stick to what they were taught, being thankful for Christ. That is where growth is found. That is where growth is found. Though Paul does not explicitly say the motivation of the Colossian heresy, we can see here that what Paul says positively about Christ and his benefits could be what the false teachers were trying to co-opt. They were trying to say that to have the grounded life, the growthful life, the life of gratitude, you must have something else. Saying that growth in the faith or longevity in the faith is found elsewhere and Paul says no. It is in Christ alone that you should be rooted, built up, walking and grateful, not in anything or anyone else. So as you have been taught about Jesus, as you have received him as Lord, continue in him. This is a good place to note quickly that Paul uses the word received the Lord, not achieved the Lord. Jesus is the gift of God's grace by whom we have relationship with God, can know eternal life, be freed from our sin and death. We cannot somehow achieve his favor by works or by welcoming him into our hearts. It is by grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, not by any works. Instead what we should see here is that after we have received Christ, believed in him, then we work. Works follow our faith. They are a byproduct of faith or they are produced by faith. Works do not precede faith, come before them. They don't somehow prime us for faith. They are a byproduct of our faith. And as you have received Jesus as Lord, walk in him. That is what Paul says here. Live out the reality of Jesus being Lord over your life. Jesus did not come as some form of a self-help coach. He came as Lord, the Lord of life, the one who dictates how we should live, the king who leads his subjects, telling them what to do, where to go and what to say. We can be tempted to somehow baptize our desires and our goals and say, well, Jesus, you can just come along for where I'm going. That's just not it. He came to rule us, to renew us, to change us, to conform us to himself. In one sense, Christ walks with us. But in the greater sense of what we see here is that we are called to walk in him, to have our lives conform to his, to walk as he walks, talk as he talks, live as he lives. And this is the picture of lordship. This is the picture of walking in Christ. Church, this is where growth is found. Is found in Christ. The idea of walking in him is both relational and transformational. We, like the church of Colossae, are called to walk in Christ. And that involves knowing him relationally, but it also practically looks like following him. Obediently. This exercise of walking in Christ is the means of grounding our faith, of deepening it. It is also the means of growing our faith that we would flourish in it, being fruitful as God has intended. And as we live and experience this, we will respond in thanksgiving. That is the right fruit of our faith. It is the correct response that if we have been taught Christ, then we will respond in thanksgiving. That we will respond in gratitude. And if we do not respond in gratitude to Christ, I would say that we must consider what we've been taught. Have we failed to see the grace of God in our lives? If that is where you're at today, where your gratitude feels more like languishing than it does abounding, then I pause it for you to ask yourself, have you really been taught? Do you really know Christ? And that's not for you to question your faith, that's just for you to wrestle with. It's a hard thing. It is because Horatio Spafford, the author of It Is Well, knew that Jesus was Lord that he could say in the hymn, though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, that he had shed his own blood for my soul. He really understood this. And Spafford was a man that knew trial. He knew tragedy. If you know what has inspired this song, you'd know that Spafford wrote this as he was travelling across the Atlantic over the spot where his four daughters were shipwrecked and died. And even before that, Spafford was a man where his investments in Chicago burnt the ground in the great fire of Chicago, where his son had passed away from scarlet fever. And these are the words of assurance that he held to as he knew his Lord. He knew his Lord. He knew what Christ accomplished for him, and he knew to walk in him, being grounded, growing, and grateful for Christ. So church, continue in what you have received. Jesus' Lord. Walk in him, obeying him, thus growing deep in him, flourishing by him, abounding in thanksgiving for him. This is where growth in Christ begins. So the growth in Christ begins in continuing in what you have received. But secondly is being aware that you do not be deceived. Look at me at verse 8. Paul not only tells us to continue in what we have received, but to be aware of what we beware and not be deceived. He not only makes clear what the church should do to grow, but also what the church should not do. The quickest way for us to disintegrate our faith is the phrase, Did God really say? I'm not talking about personal doubt. I'm speaking about teachers, philosophers, pastors, spiritual leaders who deny the scriptures and teach others to do the same. This kind of teaching is the teaching of demons. Paul calls them elemental spirits. The phrase, Did God really say, is what Satan used in the garden to deceive Adam and Eve. He and his demons still use the same language today. Whether it is in the philosophy of universalism that all roads lead to heaven, all faiths lead to heaven, or the empty deceit of the prosperity gospel that somehow God, undiscriminally, if you believe in him, will somehow bless you and that you will have wealth, or the human traditions of the papacy that somehow the bishop of Rome has the authority of Christ. These are worldly philosophies that elevate man and not God. The tactic of Satan is not only to try and take words out of God's mouth, but to put words in them. These worldly philosophies will either deny the scriptures or demand the scriptures, all for their own preferences and desires, and they will teach others to do the same. That is what Paul is saying here. He is saying, Beware and do not be deceived. As I say this, you might have a plethora of beliefs that people that are, quote unquote, spiritual leaders that have taught him to mentor the scriptures. If that is where your heart is at, that is a good thing. I believe that is a gift of discernment. It is only by seeing this lie that you, or it is only by knowing the truth that you can spot the lie, so that deception does not take root in your heart, that you would not be taken captive by it. I want you to think of a garden. Deception takes root the same way that weeds take root in a garden. If you do not pluck them, or use weed killer, or torch them, the weeds will overshadow the real growth in the garden. They will take the garden captive. The same way that worldly beliefs can take you captive if you are not aware or on the offensive towards them. Just like a regular garden, you and I can be fooled by the weeds if we really do not know what the right plant or the true plant is. If we are not careful, we can be cultivating a garden of dandelions instead of a bed of tulips. If we want to know what these worldly philosophies are, and we want to be able to pluck them out of our hearts and our minds and remove them, so that they do not take root in us, or in our families, or in our church, we do this by first and foremost knowing the teachings that actually accord with Jesus Christ. That is the objective of what we need to do. This requires for us to know the object of our faith better, to know Christ better, to know His precepts, to know His principles, all the more. This is where we need to start, or where you can start in this. It is simply by God's means of grace. The word, prayer, and fellowship in the sacraments. It is personal Bible reading, or it is attending a Bible study, or a doctrine class, or reading the study notes in your study Bible, or gathering with people in the church doing what the Puritans called conferencing, which is simply a Bible and doctrine discussion. All of these, if done well, will allow us to know Christ better, knowing the real flowers of the faith, and being able to see the fakes. Simply what I'm saying here, is what I said earlier, to be able to spot the lie, we must know the truth all the more. There are many ways that the world, Satan, and the flesh want to take us captive by worldly philosophies. The question is, will we be discerning and knowledgeable enough to know to not be taken captive? And the best way for us to combat this is by knowing Christ all the more. And this, this point is where Paul goes next. To grow in Christ, we continue in what we have received, being aware that we would not be deceived, and lastly we revel in what Christ has achieved, knowing what Christ has done. Look at me at verses 9 to 15. Paul here seeks to make clear what Christ has achieved for the Christian. If you look at the language, you will see the repeated phrase of in Him, with Him, repeated over and over, highlighting what theologians called the doctrine of union with Christ. If you have believed in Jesus by faith, all His merit, all His benefits are yours. This fundamentally changes our identity, our security, and our eternal destiny. You see this in verses 9 and 10. Paul reminds us what we learned last week, that Jesus is God. That God fully dwells in Him, truly God, truly man. Not only being God's representative, but being God's revelation. I want you to think of even the scripture reading we had this morning from the Gospel of John. John describes Jesus as the word that dwelt among us, that tabernacled with us. God's only Son that made God known. Unlike last week where Paul mentioned this, and he spoke about the implications of this truth corporately for the church, he moves to speaking about what this means for the individual. And so, if you are a Christian, you are filled in Him. You are filled with Christ, sharing in His rule and authority over all things. In many ways, that's such a loaded statement that should bring a version of shock and awe to us. In no way does this mean that we're some form of demigod or godlike, but by virtue of our union with Christ, we have authority over angels and demons. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians that, do you not know that you'll judge angels? I don't know what that looked like, but this is the same idea that Paul is trying to speak to us. How this plays out is difficult to understand, but it is a comfort to the Church of Colossae as they lived in fear of these spiritual beings as evidence throughout this letter. And this aspect of being united to Christ, being filled in Him, also did away with what the Colossians are trying to do to find a new and better way to God and growth. There is no need because Christ is sufficient. All the fullness of God is in Him, and we are united to Him by faith, giving us a new identity and authority. And so there is no need to look for another mediator or mystic or practice or supplement for our salvation. See the magnificence of what is promised to us in Jesus Christ. A grandeur of something that we struggle to fathom. We find difficult to comprehend. And all that we can do is simply revel in it, to see what Christ has achieved. And what He has achieved is signified for us in baptism. Look at me at verses 11 and 12. Paul says, in Christ you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, putting off the flesh, being buried with Him in baptism, raised with Him by faith. It should be said that these verses are a proof text for us Reformed folk. Why we believe that baptism replaces the covenant sign of circumcision. The covenant sign of circumcision looked forward to the cross of Christ, and baptism looks back to the cross of Christ. But both are pictures of marking out God's people. God placing His sign of promise upon them, signifying the cutting off of the flesh or the cleansing from sin. And in baptism Paul reminds us that this unites us to Christ's death, burial and resurrection. It also must be said that this does not dictate mode of baptism. And even if it did, Christ was not buried in the ground, He was buried in a tomb. And as a church we believe that it is right and good to sprinkle because it is an image of Christ's blood of cleansing, or Christ's cleansing blood. It also should be said that these covenant signs do not guarantee salvation. That they were Israelite boys who are circumcised but did not believe. This is the teaching that all Israel is not Israel. This is why in good conscience we can baptize His infants as a sign and seal of being marked out to God. Being set apart to Him in His community. Not guaranteeing their salvation but trusting that God is doing something in baptism. That God is the main actor in this action. This is where elsewhere in the New Testament the apostles say, remember your baptism. And as you remember your baptism, you remember the work of Christ. Being marked out as His people. Remembering His death, burial and resurrection. Reveling in what Christ has achieved for us. Church, this is growth in the Christian life. It's not found in novelty. It's not found in new teachings. It is found in Christ Himself. Christ not only justifies us, the idea of making us righteous, but He sanctifies us. The idea of making us holy. Both are a result of union with Christ. If you want a good explanation of that you can turn to the front of your bulletin and you see John Calvin's quote for you there. Being united with Christ is the work of Him clearing our debts. Nailing it to the cross. That all of our sin, all of my sin, if we have confessed it and trusted in the Lord Jesus is no longer standing against us. It is cleared. The balance reads zero. It is nailed to the cross of Calvary. So that we can be alive together with Him today. What we are called to do is to revel in that. To revel in the reality of what Christ has done both in the seen and unseen realm. And Paul concludes this section speaking of the unseen realm once again. How Christ's victory on the cross not only defeats the forces of darkness but brought them to open shame. This would have been a comfort to the church of Colossae as it should be for us. There is no evil, no power that is greater than our God. He is one. And there is no victory that can somehow reverse or somehow bring a loss to Him. His victory will come and it will come in full. So may we revel in what Christ has achieved. See what our God has done. See if you have believed in Him that you are united to Him. But if you haven't, if you haven't believed in Him, that record of debt for your sins still stands against you with its legal demands. The Scriptures teach that the wages of sin is death. That sin's payday, what sin actually gives you is death. And its consequences and its judgments are hell. Justice is required. Payment is required. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Entrusting in Him, entrusting His life, death and resurrection, He takes the penalty for you and I. Dying the debt that we deserve. Raising to life that we get the life that we do not deserve. New life in Him. Be united to Him now and forever. And so if you have yet to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, turn to Him today. Receive this in faith. May God open your heart, giving you His Holy Spirit to believe in your heart and your mind as Jesus says Lord. Knowing what Christ has achieved so all would believe. And to those who have believed in Him, know that there will always be a new pundit peddling His teachings or Her teachings just as they were in Colossae. But we must see that the true path to growth is not in what is new but what is true. Knowing that growth comes from continuing in what you've received. Being aware and not being deceived. Reveling in what Christ has achieved. So may our God grow us as we commit ourselves to what is true and not new. Let us pray.