Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No.05 – February 1968
Worthy Of The Lord
Sermon by Rev. K. V. Warren on Colossians 1:10
Scripture Reading: Psalm 1, Colossians 1:1-20
Psalter Hymnal: 14:1,2; 441:1,5 after law; 372:1,2,3; 454:1,3; 469:3
Congregation of our Lord,
I don't know exactly how it is today, but it does seem that, in the past, parents COULD and DID help their children more with their homework from school than they do NOW! Once again, I don't really know whether it IS true, though it SEEMS to be like that. Someone has jokingly said: we live in times when parents grow dumber and children grow smarter, and it is a fact that EDUCATION and STUDY is becoming more important all the time!
And especially in the world of today there is a great future for science and brains and knowledge; more and more schools are being built, universities are crowded, learning is here to stay. And rightly so; we cannot do without it!
But we all know – also our young people know – that there are really TWO types of learning, TWO different fields in which we study.
On the one hand, well, for young people, there's geography and maths, physics and soc.studs (as they call it); and for US ALL there are many things to learn: how a new machine works, about the planets, and about this nuclear power, and in some of our homes there might be one of those beautiful sets of encyclopaedias, very worthwhile if you can afford them; children use them for projects at school, and even grown-ups like to read through all these educational books and magazines. But this is only ONE TYPE OF LEARNING!
There is yet a different kind of study, and yes, I'm sure that you know what I am referring to. That is the study you don't do at school, and you don't do it to please your teacher, or to get a good job in life, not a study for high marks really, but it is a study that you do with ONLY ONE THING in mind, and that is: TO GET TO KNOW GOD BETTER, to get to know His Book better! That is the other type of learning.
Alongside the school, there's the church!
Alongside the encyclopaedia, there's the Bible!
Alongside the classroom, there's the Sunday School.
Alongside your hockey-team, rowing and cricket, there's catechism- class and youth club.
TWO kinds of study!
One has to do with our life on EARTH, and the other one, yes, THAT TOO has everything to do with our way of life, here and now, but it also has to do with HEAVEN!
TWO kinds of study. And that is why Christian young people are BUSY young people, busier than their schoolmates, for they have to do a double amount of work. And Christian PARENTS are busy parents, for they have to check on things, and many should be the hours we spend with our children, helping them with their learning, encouraging them in their studies within the framework of the church.
Don't get me wrong: I don't mean to say for one moment, young people, that your studies at school are of much less importance than your studies in the church; they are BOTH good, they're both important and, just as you cannot do without the one, so you cannot do without the other.
As long as we realize that the result, the RESULT is so different! The knowledge that we get at school or university, or just by reading books: certainly it will help us. It makes us wiser and in this way we will probably get a better job. But the OTHER knowledge, knowledge about God and about His Word, now then: it ALSO helps us; it ALSO makes us wiser; through it we become better believers, or to say it differently: we become more Christlike Christians!
Now THAT knowledge – THAT is what we are thinking about this morning. Tomorrow – Monday – there is plenty of time to think about the other knowledge, yes, the whole week through, but for NOW, something different. Yes, it’s also SCHOOL TODAY, but it's the school of Christ! Learning at the feet of the Master, learning the will of God. And that really is the wisdom that counts!
And this wisdom is what Paul writes to the Colossians about; this is what he wants them to have. Notice in verse 9 how he puts it. Now he does NOT say to the Colossians: "It's about time you knew about the will of God. You have been Christians long enough you ought to know by now. Come on, pull up your spiritual socks, and DO something, GET it, see that you're in with it."
No, the apostle does not talk like that at all. He knows of a much better way: he PRAYS. He prays for it every day, all the time.
He does not stop praying – that the Colossians may indeed have the full knowledge of God's will! That they, as it were, are going to see things from God's point of view.
What a first-class minister Paul is! What a pastor, what a leader to his people. "I do not stop to pray that you will have it." That wisdom that you cannot find at schools, or universities, or in the many books of learning. This wisdom is: from the HOLY SPIRIT. And surely: we have to ask Him for it.
And do we know what it does: this knowledge? Do our young people know this: this knowledge of God and His Word and His will? What is the good of it?
Why do the smaller boys and girls do this Sunday-school work? And our Juniors, doing their Bible-studies – sometimes rather difficult? And why all that time of Catechism instruction, year after year, one book after another?
And your Scripture Union notes; and reading your Bible at night, or in the morning, or both; and your discussions at Senior youth club, your ‘introductions’?
Certainly quite a bit when we take it altogether.
What a PRIVILEGE, parents, that our children MAY have all this instruction, and yet compared with school, it isn't very much, is it? But NOW: WHY all this study, this knowledge?
Is it to get you ready for your confession of faith? Is it to make you militant Reformed young people who know what you stand for? Yes, that comes into it too, and much more, but... and this is what the apostle Paul wants to get across, this better knowledge of God and His will, it is also very... PRACTICAL! For the more you know (spiritual knowledge, that is) the better you will be able to live as a Christian. THAT is what Paul means: right knowledge leads to right behaviour! As long, of course, as that knowledge not only stays in the head, but goes down into the heart!
True, all this instruction in the things of the Lord, in the church, in the home (yes, don't forget the home!) it will help us, older people too – every one of us – to live in a way which pleases the Lord! No, not in the first place pleasing to others, or pleasing to ourselves (and don't think of that too lightly: aren't we often keen to have things OUR way?); no, pleasing to the LORD! Walking worthily of the Lord! In every day life. Being WORTHY of the name Christian. Being worthy of belonging to His people. That's an interesting word, that word "worthy". In the Greek it has the idea of HEAVINESS, WEIGHTINESS. In other words: your life has to be heavy enough, so to speak, in the eyes of the Lord. You can think of an old type of scales, you know: a balance, a scale here, a scale there. On the one scale, the Lord places HIS requirements: His law, His will, His plan for our lives; and on the other scale, yes, there's myself.
And how are these scales placed over against one another? The Lord's scale right down there (because it's heavy, sure, His requirements are not so very simple) and my life, the scale of MY life being way up there, having hardly any weight at all?
Or.... is it coming down? My scale? Is it at least trying to be on the same level as the Lord's? Is there some weight in my life, some real, genuine weight? Is it worthy?
A young person said to his minister once: "Why do we have to learn that much? We're being overfed, getting too much of it; why not just keep it very simple? We don't all have to become little professors, do we?"
No, we don't have to, but the LORD DOES want us to live better lives. And the apostle Paul says: this is the way to get it. This is the way to start pulling your weight, to be worthy!
Worthy of Jesus. Worthy of your Lord. In the whole of your life bringing credit to your Master's Name! Who died for us, who went as a sheep to the slaughter to be crushed under OUR guilt. Living worthily of a Saviour, who did such great things for us.
Think of that, young people, whenever you have to memorise one of those long and difficult hymns, or fill in all those questions on your Sunday-school paper, or your Bible discussions, your ‘introduction’. Think then what a very good way this is of getting to know the will of God, and getting a weighty enough life; worthy, pleasing, not to yourselves, but to the Lord.
And that of course goes very much for Churchgoing, on the Sunday ("Oh, not again, I don't feel like it this morning"), and it goes for the Ladies' Guild, and it goes for the Bible-study group ("Don't think I'll go tonight, wrestling on channel 9, must see it!"). And it goes for the Catechism classes for young people, one of the first and foremost means to get more knowledge of the Lord. Don't say: That's not for me. I can't be bothered. I don't like it.
How could you say that? Jesus went all the way to the cross, so that you could come to catechism class. The Son of God went right into hell, forsaken even by His Father, so that you could be instructed in the things of His Kingdom.
And when you leave YOUR place open, without a worthwhile reason, is that not coming very close to shrugging your shoulders at the bleeding Man of Sorrows? Remember: God has laid a claim on you. Live, then, as His child, a child of the KING. Young people, live as princes and princesses!
Do we WANT to walk as those who are worthy of the Lord? Sure we do, I can't imagine anyone here who would say: I cannot be bothered at all. Surely we all want to show at least SOME of our thankfulness for the cross, for the open grave. Well, this is the WAY: knowing the will of God, through all these different avenues. Everyone in his own way, but all being at it. And praying the Spirit of God to bring it all home to our hearts, yes, our HEARTS.
Time and again in the Christian church you can meet people who honestly say they want a richer Christian life. Others don't say it, but of course that does not mean that THEY are perfectly satisfied with the way things are.
Is there not a poverty, an emptiness in EACH ONE OF US? Our lives – they are not worthy enough, are they? They are not weighty enough. But please note: it won't do us any good to keep complaining about it. THAT does not help. But... going about it in THIS way – the way the Bible pictures – getting more of this spiritual wisdom and understanding... is THAT REALLY what you want? If we really desire it, what is stopping us? There is nothing that would prevent us from drinking from that fountain of knowledge. NOTHING, apart from the devil, the world and our own flesh.
But did not Jesus overcome these enemies? And does not the Bible say: "Let him who is thirsty, come (yes, yes, thirsty: all of us!); let him who desires take the water of life freely. Without price.”
Now you all know what happens when someone or something that is thirsty, it drinks in, takes in WATER! You only have to look at the parched land after a dry spell. Rain! Water! The magic word! Again there is growth! Things become green, healthy; there is life! JUST SO WITH US! When we drink of Christ – for THAT of course is the knowledge Paul has in mind – through Him, through the Lord, being filled with the water of Life, Christ our Fullness... knowing IN HIM the way of the Father with His children; then of course something IS BOUND TO HAPPEN!
Did you know that the words of Psalm 1 — we read that Psalm earlier — THEY fit this whole idea of Paul so wonderfully. That first Psalm talks about a man (and of course we can also fill in: a woman, a boy, a girl), a man then whose delight is in the Law of the Lord. And (yes, we read that there too): meditating on God's law day and night.
Do you dare to fit yourself into that picture? I think you MAY. Or rather: you MUST. We MUST be able to do this. Young people too, boys and girls too. How about reading it like this: Johnny's or Mary's delight is in the law of the Lord. Well, that fits, doesn't it?
When you are sitting there in Sunday School, or working out your answers for your Bible studies, having your discussion sessions at Youth-club, coming to church, listening to the preaching taking to the Bible just for a few quiet moments on your own, oh yes, then you are meditating on the law of the Lord.
So by all means, when you can fit yourself into this picture of Psalm 1, do it, for now it follows: "This person is like a tree, planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Just imagine, Bill and Jane and Harry, you may be a TREE. In the eyes of God: a tree. A strong one, a solid one, roots deep in the ground, and the branches heavy with fruit. I wonder, did we ever look at our congregation like that? As an ORCHARD, full of fruit trees? And on every tree there's a name, my name is there too; so is yours. And how is the harvest, how is the crop, my brother, my sister? No, don't worry in the first place about the other trees: but YOUR tree! Heavy with fruit? No apples, pears or apricots, but: LOVE and JOY and PEACE; KINDNESS, MEEKNESS, SELF- CONTROL. Heavy with fruit? Is there a good WEIGHT on those branches? Remember, walking worthy of the Lord, this idea of WEIGHT. Here it is once more – a tree weighed down with fruit in a great variety of good works.
Don't you agree that this is the very problem in the church today? Not enough fruit, and not enough growth! Someone once said that there are too many people in the Christian church who still have to be nursed. Instead of being growing members, spiritually strong members, many are just babies (even though they're 30,40, 50 years old!) just babes who must be cared for. And because of that, the church, instead of being a workshop, becomes a nursery; call it a hospital.
But the Bible shows us something different: "When I was a child", says Paul, "I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things." Wish we would find THAT attitude more in the church, and in the homes. No babies in Christ, but grown-ups, spiritually mature in the living Lord! Not a child in the Lord, but a MAN in the Lord. And you know the difference: a man WORKS, but a child MAKES work for others. They don't help, they hinder!
Yes, be hard on yourself, be hard on your congregation, apply this truth right here and now. Are there possibly those here who have never got out of spiritual babyhood? Who have never cut their teeth? Who are permanently dwarfed in spiritual infancy? People who cannot take the meat of God's Word, but who have to be nursed from the bottle, even though they might be 55 or 65 or even older. Babes in Christ? No growth? Not a strong man, a strong woman, a strong teenager, a strong child, in Christ Jesus?
If that is so, do you know the reason? Because we don't take the proper food! We are to grow in grace and in KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We cannot grow in grace in any other way! We MUST have God's Word. And many are drinking milk who ought to be eating meat!
Oh, it is no disgrace to be a baby. But we must not remain babies. Religion, true religion, is a growing; a GROWING in holiness, an increasing in the knowledge of God.
Young people, this is the wisdom you should be after! Most of all. No, it may not bring you money, or a good position, but it does bring you something far more important: the favour of the Lord!
An exciting thought that is; tremendous! Going through life fully pleasing to God, as trees, bearing fruit, and growing. That too is what a good tree is supposed to do: to grow!
And that's the difference between a TREE and a POST. When you put a tree in good soil, it starts to grow. But when you put a post in the ground, it starts to rot!
Here is a prayer to pray:
Oh God, make me a good tree. Never let me be a post!
Amen.