Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. Knowledge of the things of God, wisdom that comes from the Word of God, spiritual understanding—this is the foundation of everything in the Christian life. This is the key to a worthy walk.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller and glad you're with us as we continue our study in the book of Colossians. And Jonathan, as you point out, we are called to walk worthy. But if we're going to do that, it really means we actually have to know what God says is a worthy walk. We actually have to know his word, right?

Jonathan Griffiths: Absolutely. And here in the passage we're going to spend some time in today, Paul really makes that connection here in the opening chapter of Colossians. He emphasizes the fact that knowledge of the truth, knowledge of God's will, is going to be connected to, is going to lead to a worthy walk.

I think one of the lessons we take away from that is that if we want to grow in godliness, if we want to develop that worthy walk, we've got to be grounded in the Word of God. And of course, that's what we're all about here at Encounter the Truth. That's what we're doing today in today's message.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's do that. Let's open up our copy of God's word together. We are going to be in the book of Colossians. We're in chapter one, really focusing for the most part today on verses nine to fourteen as we begin our message, A Worthy Walk. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: I think we all know the fearful and regretful sense of living in ways that are unworthy of the Lord who has given himself for us, who died for us in mercy, who redeemed us in grace. It's a grievous thing to consider ways in which we've not honored him as we should honor him, ways in which we've not pleased him as we should please him. We all know that feeling, of course.

And so if we know him and if we love him, we long to live lives that are worthy of him, lives that please him fully. I take it that any real Christian person desires this in sincerity, longs for this ardently. But how do we do it? That's the question, isn't it? How do we do it? What does it look like to live a life that is worthy of our Lord and our Savior, a life that pleases the one who gave his life for us?

Now, this is the theme of Paul's prayer for the Colossian Christians. This is the heart of his concern for them. And here in our passage this morning, Paul gives us a window into his prayer life and a window into the inner logic of his prayer for the Colossian Christians, for these believers. And in doing so, he paints for us a picture of the worthy walk of a Christian believer.

You remember that Paul has learned of the faith of the Colossians. He wasn't there personally, but he's heard the report. They've received the gospel. They have come to new life in Christ. Paul is filled with thanksgiving as he's heard the reports of all that the Lord is doing in them and through them, the genuineness of their conversion, the evidence of spiritual life.

But having learned of these things and having given thanks for them, he now turns to lay out really what he longs to see develop within them and grow within them. He shares what it is that he prays for them going forward. And just as a side note, this itself is such a beautiful thing that Paul does this. Paul is such a model for us in prayer. Just notice his care and concern and heart for these people.

Verse nine: "And so, from the day we heard, the day we heard of your conversion, we have not ceased to pray for you." From that day, unceasing, daily prayer. What a model of care and concern for other believers. What a model this is of Christian ministry. How much we have to learn from Paul about praying for other believers in whom and about whom we have a spiritual interest.

But not only is the fact of Paul's praying instructive for us, it is the content of his prayer that teaches us. And that's where I want to focus our attention. Notice what he asks for, middle of verse nine: he has not stopped praying for them, "asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him."

Paul wants these believers to be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He wants that because there are false teachers around about them who are offering them knowledge and wisdom of a spurious kind, of a false kind. We mentioned that last time. We're going to see more of that as we go through the letter.

But he wants this more significantly because knowledge of the things of God, wisdom that comes from the Word of God, spiritual understanding—this is the foundation of everything in the Christian life. This is the key to a worthy walk. Now, you might hear that and see that emphasis and say, "This all sounds a little bit dry. It sounds a little bit intellectual to me. Me, I just want to live for Jesus. Just want to follow Jesus. I want to be in a relationship with him, in that relationship of warmth. I want to serve him and walk with him. Please do not press upon me learning and reading and study and the intellectual side of things."

I don't know, maybe you feel that way. But look at the connection between verses nine and ten in our passage. Paul wants them to grow in knowledge and wisdom and understanding. Verse ten: "so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him." There is a close link, an unbreakable link, between knowing and walking, between our head and our feet in the Christian life and in the life of discipleship.

There is an unbreakable link between knowledge of the Lord and living a life that is worthy of him and pleasing to him. You will not grow in holiness—I can tell you this much—you will not grow in Christlikeness, in godliness, if you do not grow in your knowledge of God and of his word. Now, it's possible to grow in knowledge of God and of his word, but not then to grow in holiness of life.

One does not automatically grow in the latter simply because the former takes place. Plenty of people build up Bible knowledge without growing in Christlikeness. But you cannot bypass knowledge and wisdom and spiritual understanding in the road to spiritual growth. You know, if you've ever had occasion to travel across the great city of Toronto by car, if you need to go from the east end to the west end to get to the airport—anyone who has had to do that in rush hour knows what a headache that can be.

The 401 Highway, which is sixteen lanes wide at its widest point, one of the largest highways in North America, it can turn into a place of nightmarish gridlock at peak times in the day. And if you know you've got to make that journey, you always know that there is the opportunity to pay a premium and take a toll road, the 407, which runs parallel to the 401, just a little to the north.

It may be that my Scottish genes are to blame for this, but I can never bring myself to pay that premium, no matter how bad the traffic, no matter how urgent my journey. I can never do it. I think I've maybe done it once. And then I just sit through the gridlock. But the option is always there. You can avoid the agony. You can purchase your way to a speedier route for a premium. You can beat the crowd.

Now, we might like to imagine, especially if we don't much enjoy reading and learning and study, that there is some fast track, there is some shortcut to spiritual growth that bypasses all the discomfort of the study that might be involved. Well, don't be fooled. Growth in godliness, growth in character, growth in Christlikeness, it flows from a knowledge of God that comes from his word.

I take it that if you and I know the Lord Jesus Christ, if we've been saved by his grace, if we've received his gospel, we will indeed want to do this. We will want to walk in a manner that is worthy of him. We'll earnestly desire it. But there is then the question: what does it look like to do this? What does it look like to please him?

Well, within this report of prayer, Paul sets out four key elements of a life that is worthy of the Lord, that is pleasing to him. And here they are. We're going to look at each of them in turn: fruitfulness, knowledge, strength, and thanksgiving.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths and a message called A Worthy Walk. It's part of our series Walking Worthy, looking today at Colossians chapter one, verses nine to fourteen. And we're going to get back to this message in just a moment.

Jesus offers forgiveness for those who sin. Scripture is pretty clear about that. Also clear that Christians are to pursue obedience and holiness. But what does it mean to walk in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of Christ, like it talks about in Philippians chapter one? How should that look in the life of a follower of Christ?

Sinclair Ferguson writes about that in a book that Jonathan has picked out this month. It is called *Worthy: Living in Light of the Gospel*. And one of the things that Sinclair Ferguson looks at is clarifying the difference between biblical obedience and legalism, and then pursuing believers to pursue Christlikeness and offering some examples from Scripture.

We'd love to send you a copy of this book as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can find out more or give online at encounterthetruth.org. Or call us at 1-833-99-TRUTH. Again, that's encounterthetruth.org or 1-833-998-7884. Back to the message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Characteristic number one: fruitfulness, fruitfulness in good works. There it is in verse ten: "bearing fruit in every good work." The greatest misunderstanding of Christianity, I believe, is the idea that we are saved by our good works, by our own efforts. That is always the default assumption of the human heart.

If we reform ourselves sufficiently, if we try harder, if we do a little bit better, if we make some kind of contribution to the community and improve the lives of others, if we do something truly costly and sacrificial for the Lord, if we give up a bad habit, then we're going to be good enough for God and he might admit us into his heaven. We will merit his forgiveness, his salvation.

Now, all other world religions, so far as I can tell, operate upon that principle in some way, shape, or form. Do enough good, and the deity will be pleased with you, will forgive you, will accept you. Now, we need to be very, very clear. That summary is actually the polar opposite of what the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us. Many people assume that that is the Christian message, but nothing could be further from the truth.

We are not saved by good works because our good works would never be good enough, never good enough to pay the price of our sin and to undo the wrong we've done in the sight of a holy God. No, the gospel of Jesus is this: it is that he, the truly good one, the only sinless one, stood in our place and died the death that we deserved, so that we could be forgiven through his saving work, accepted by God our maker and our judge.

It is not on the basis of our merits, but on the basis of his merits, not on the basis of our good works, but on the basis of his perfect life and his atoning death. Now, if the biggest misconstrual and misunderstanding of the Christian message is that we are saved by our good works, I think the second biggest misconstrual is then this: it is the idea that God does not care about good works at all.

You see, sometimes we hear so clearly that we are not saved by our good works. We get that. We come to understand that. We can get that message then so deeply embedded in our hearts that we come to think, wrongly, that God just doesn't care at all about our behavior as a saved people. But that's not true. That's not true at all.

Our good works, they could never save us, that's true. But God has saved us, the Bible teaches us, in order that we might be able then to go on and do good works as a saved people. We are not saved by our good works, but we are saved for good works. God has saved us, he has cleansed us, he has forgiven us, he has restored us, he has placed his Spirit within us in order that we might go on to do good works for his glory.

Do we need those good works to be saved? No, Jesus has done the work to save us. It's all of grace, it's all a gift. But do we need to do good works in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord who has saved us? Do we need to be fruitful in good works in order to be fully pleasing to him in our way of life? Does our conduct matter at all to God our Savior? Oh, yes, it matters to him.

You see, it's possible to be saved but then to go on walking in a manner that is frankly unworthy of the Lord who's saved us. And if we're honest about it, we know that because we so often fail him ourselves. We walk in ways that aren't worthy. It's possible as a saved person to live a way of life that is far from fully pleasing to the Lord. A life where our works are unfruitful and frankly unfitting.

But the Lord's desire for us, the Lord's expectation of us, is that our lives would come to be filled with the fruit of good works, filled with growth in godliness, in Christlikeness, filled with fruitfulness in terms of Christian service, giving of ourselves to make the Lord Jesus known as we have opportunity to reach the lost, to serve, to encourage the people of God. That's what we're saved for.

So let me ask you the question: is your life marked by fruitfulness in good works? Are you and I giving care and attention to our growth in godliness, to the development of our Christian character, to our battle with sin, to building habits of godliness like reading the Word of God, spending time in prayer, prioritizing meeting with the people of God for encouragement?

Are you investing your time and treasure and talent in the work of the gospel, in kingdom work, finding ways to serve the people of God? Are you being fruitful in good works as a Christian disciple? It's possible that we can become so schooled in grace that we come to neglect or devalue the good works that flow from grace. It's possible that we've neglected fruitfulness in godliness and service. But that's at the heart of what it looks like to walk worthily.

Characteristic number two: knowledge. Knowledge of God or, more precisely, growth in the knowledge of God. Verse ten, notice it again: "so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." I don't know if you are familiar with the concept of a virtuous cycle.

We all know about the reality of a vicious cycle. You eye up the bag of potato chips in the cupboard one evening and you think just one or two will deal with the craving and then you'll put them aside. You'll have one and you'll be done. But you open up the bag, and one chip leads to another. The first dip into the bag leads to the second handful to the empty bag. Vicious cycle.

I looked up the term virtuous cycle, and the dictionary offered this example: "Exercise creates its own virtuous cycle. You feel so good, you want to continue." I read that and I thought to myself, I am pretty sure the author of that definition has never ventured onto a treadmill in his or her life. Who would do that and then write that kind of nonsense?

I mean, who honestly really feels like that after a workout? You just feel so good, you just want to continue. I stagger off that thing in the midst of what can only be described as a near-death experience, wishing I'd never handed over good money for that thing, that instrument of agony, unable to contemplate whatever might motivate me to revisit the experience.

But faulty definitions aside, we get the idea of a virtuous cycle in theory. A good thing leads to another good thing that leads to more of a good thing. Now, I want us to see the remarkable virtuous cycle that Paul sets out for us here. Just notice it with me. Very, very interesting. Paul prays, verse nine, that the Colossians will be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual insight and understanding.

And his aim then, we saw it, is that they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. And that's going to then mean increasing in the knowledge of God. It's a cycle. If we are filled with the knowledge of God's will through immersing ourselves in his word and sitting under the teaching of his word, here is what will happen: we will begin to live in a manner that pleases him, and what's this going to involve?

It's going to involve increasing, growing more in the knowledge of him. When we have the knowledge of God through his word, we get an appetite for more of it. We hunger to know him better. We long for his word. We find nourishment and delight in his word that we can't find anywhere else. And one of the things we discover about the Bible is that there is always more to discover.

There's always more to learn in the Word of God. If you've got a favorite novel, you read it and you reread it—eventually, you do get to the place, no matter how good it is, where you conclude there's not much new to discover within this particular novel. Or you've got your favorite film or TV series and you watch it and rewatch it, and eventually you reach a point where there just isn't that much new to discover within it.

But within the Bible, which is not merely a human document but a divine document, that is never the case. It never runs dry. You never feel you've plumbed the depths. There's always more to discover. There's always more to find. There's always a greater depth to plumb. And it is a mark of the worthy life, the pleasing life, that this life will hunger for the Word of God, that there will be an insatiable appetite for the Word of God.

This will be a life that longs to know God better and so is always growing in the knowledge of him. It's a striking thing in my experience that the saints who know God best are at the very same time the saints who long most to know him more. Have you ever observed that? It is a truism.

Friends, are you hungry? Are you hungry for the Word of God? Are you longing to know him more, to feed upon his word? Do you come to these services week by week with a sense of expectancy, eager to hear from him, desiring to know him more deeply? Characteristic two of the worthy life: knowledge, that is, growth in the knowledge of God.

Now, characteristic number three: strength, strength to endure. Verse eleven: "being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy." Here's an interesting characteristic, a mark of the worthy life, a life that pleases God. A mark of this life is that something is being done to it and not by it.

The life that is pleasing to God, worthy of God, is a life that is being strengthened by him. Now, I take it that the person who is being strengthened by God is availing himself or herself of the Spirit's strength. But the source of the strength is from God. It is a passive thing for the person. He or she is being strengthened. And I take it that to be strengthened we need to come to him in weakness and ask that we might receive his strength.

But to receive this strength, to avail ourselves of it, this is the mark of a worthy life. You know, we don't walk in discipleship in our own strength; we would only stumble and fall. But daily as believers, we receive his strength. We don't act in our own power—we never could—but we humbly rely upon his.

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths continuing to look at elements of a life worthy of the Lord: fruitfulness, knowledge, and we've just begun to look at strength. We'll continue this message on our next broadcast. If you ever miss a program, come and listen online at encounterthetruth.org.

Encounter the Truth is listener supported. It is your generous gratitude that keeps Jonathan's teaching on this station. So thank you for giving to and supporting this ministry. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a book Jonathan has picked out. It's called *Worthy: Living in Light of the Gospel*. And Jonathan, how is reading this book going to benefit us?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, I hope it's going to impact your heart and your life. I hope it's going to feed your soul. The purpose of this book is simply to encourage us who know Jesus to live faithfully as his people, to allow the gospel to transform our way of life. And I just find I need those encouragements, I need those helps, and I find it especially helpful if the book is readable and not too long.

And this book, which is rich in content and thoughtful—it's written by seasoned theologian Sinclair Ferguson, who's always full of rich insight—but he's made it accessible, and it's designed yes to feed the mind but to nourish the soul. And I believe it'll do that for you if you read it, and we'd love to get it to you.

Steve Hiller: Well, a gift of any amount and we're going to say thank you by sending you a copy of *Worthy: Living in Light of the Gospel*. You can call, give your gift, and request a copy. Our number's 1-833-99-TRUTH. Or give online at encounterthetruth.org. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org.

You can also write to us at Encounter the Truth, P.O. Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario, K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Barrett, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.