The Christ-Given Rest

The Christ-Given Rest

(No. 2298)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MARCH 5, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.

I AM afraid that we have not always noticed the fullness of this
promise. Usually the text is preached from as an invitation to the
unconverted to come to Christ and, very properly so–"Come unto Me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is an
invitation to all of you who are laboring after salvation, or are heavy
laden with a load of sin, or the burden of your daily cares. You may
come–you are bid to come to the Lord Jesus–and He has promised that
He will give you rest. But I must leave you, tonight, so far as my
sermon is concerned, for my main business will be with those who have
come to Christ. After having given the invitation to those who are
outside the Church of Christ, I pass inside, and I want those who are
within to come into sweet communion with their Lord, tonight, while I
dwell upon this very gracious promise, "I will give you rest."

I do not find, in this world, if I promise anything, that anybody ever
forgets it. You try any of the societies connected with the
Tabernacle–promise them a guinea and see if they do not wait upon you
for it! But the curious thing, the wretched thing is that many of our
Lord's promises are neglected by us. We do not wait upon Him to have
them fulfilled. After having read the promise, it passes out of our
thoughts. Do not so, tonight, I pray you. Here is the promise, "I will
give you rest." Let no man here who has come to Christ be content,
tonight, unless he gets the rest which the Lord Jesus promises to give.
Jesus does not play at promising. Do not play with His promises–be as
ready in receiving as He is willing to be in giving. "I will give you
rest." This ought to be a very precious word to all Believers. You have
come to Christ. He promises to give you rest–be sure that you get it.
Do not rest content until you have that perfect peace which He alone
can give you, that peace which is here called, "rest."

This evening I shall not have much time, but I shall, first, exhibit
this pearl, this pearl of rest. Secondly, I shall point you to the
hands which give this pearl–"I will give you rest." And, thirdly, I
shall, for a few minutes, dwell upon the promise which Jesus makes–"I
will give you rest." It is a positive declaration of our Lord to those
who come to Him– "I will give you rest."

I. First, then, let me EXHIBIT THIS PEARL. Mild and soft is its
radiance. I call it a pearl because it is so precious, so blessed a
thing. "I will give you rest."

Jesus does not say in what part of the mind He will give rest, for He
will give it in every part of the mind. He does not say in reference to
what He will give us rest because He will give us rest in reference to
everything. When a promise is general, you may take it in its widest
possible meaning. Particulars restrain and restrict, but where there
are no particulars, then you have unlimited range. "I will give you
rest"–rest about everything, rest at all times, rest in every part of
your nature!

This promise includes rest of the mind, or fixedness of belief. Just
now there is great restlessness concerning what we are to believe and
many persons are much tossed about by the contrary winds that blow.
They believe black, today, and white, tomorrow. Some have fallen into
such a condition that they believe nothing, unless, indeed, it should
not happen to be in the Bible–and then they will believe it! But if it
is in God's Word, then, of course, they feel it necessary to doubt it.
I suppose there is nobody that is not affected, to some extent, by the
tornado of doubt which is sweeping over this island and over the whole
world!

Now, is there any child of God here who is perturbed in mind? You say
to yourself, "I used to be a simple-minded Believer, but I have been
worried, tried and troubled. I think that I shall have to buy some
books upon Christian evi-

dences, so as to look into the subject and find out the strongest
arguments. Or I shall go and talk to some old Christian and hear what
he can say to strengthen me." Listen, my Brothers and Sisters. Your
Lord and Master says, "Come unto ME and I will give you rest." There is
a surer intellectual rest to be found in personal communion with Christ
than anywhere else! If I get my head on His bosom, none of the
philosophers can make it ache. When I once put my finger into the print
of the nails, I am no more faithless, but believing! I believe that
living in communion with God is the only sure cure for doubt. Trusting
wholly to Christ Crucified, resting in His precious blood and daily
seeking to have it applied to the conscience–and then walking in the
Light as God is in the light, is the surest way to end all those
undermining processes which seek to destroy the very foundations of our
hope!

Come to Jesus tonight! Come to Jesus at the Communion Table and enter
anew into fellowship with Him, and you will be able to say, "My heart
is fixed! O God, my heart is fixed! I will sing and give praise." After
being with Jesus, half the questions that trouble you will be answered
and the other half will not seem worth the asking. After having been
with Him, most of your doubts will vanish and the rest will not concern
you one jot or tittle! You are His beloved, and your heart rests in
that blessed fact.

Our Lord next gives rest of the conscience, or a sense ofpardon.
Conscience is a great source of unrest even to the best of men.
Conscience makes cowards of us all, even those who are most daring in
sin. With the child of God, there is no death of conscience. On the
contrary, he who lives to the Lord has a more tender conscience than he
ever had before he was saved. A tender conscience is a great
blessing–never try to get rid of it. A morbid conscience may be a
torment, but a tender conscience is a benediction–cherish it. Many
blind persons read with their fingers, but if the fingers grow hard and
callous, and the poor folks cannot feel the raised letters, it is a sad
trial for them. We can often read the mind of God by the tender finger
of conscience. Take care that your conscience never gets seared, I mean
you Christian people. You need to keep your conscience more tender than
that of anybody else.

But suppose the conscience becomes restless, what are we to do with it?
Brothers and Sisters, there is no purging the conscience from dead
works except by drawing near to Christ, again! Have any of you
Christian people slipped with your feet? Have you dishonored the sacred
name you bear? Be ashamed and be confused. Who among us has not much to
make him ashamed? But remember that the Christ who invites the erring
sinner before conversion, invites the erring Believer after conversion.
Come, all you that labor within your spirits and are heavy laden under
a sense of your imperfections– come to Christ, again, tonight! Where
you once found rest in the atoning Sacrifice, you shall find it again!
Do not let me go a step further till you have done this. Let us
practice what I preach as we go along! You with your intellectual
brilliance, come to my Lord, tonight, and see Him on the tree, and look
your doubts away! You with the troubled conscience because of your
unworthy walk, come to the Fountain and be washed anew–and let your
conscience find rest.

Supposing those two rests to be enjoyed, there is still a struggle
going on and, therefore, Christ gives rest of the soul, or confidence
of victory. The soul, even when it knows its pardon is sure, even when
it has settled its doctrinal difficulties, is, nevertheless, engaged in
a struggle against the old nature. Do you find that you have completely
gained the victory yet? Do you never feel a struggle within your
spirit? I must confess that I have a daily fighting of my better self
against the old self, the newborn nature against the old nature which
will, if it can, still keep its hold upon me. "O wretched man that I
am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" is my cry as I
begin the battle. Yet before I end it, I can say, "Thanks be to God,
which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." If any of
you are asking, "How shall I ever get the victory? See how I am
tempted. See how weak I am in certain directions, constitutionally
weak, and apt to slide! O Sir, shall I ever be perfect? Shall I ever
master inbred sin?"

Listen, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest." Jesus will give you rest in the sweet confidence
that you will get the victory! He will bruise Satan under your feet.
Surely, Beloved, there will come a day when there will be no sin left
in us. When we shall see the face of our Savior in Glory, we shall be
like He–all our doubts will be dead, all our sins will be
forgiven–and all our sinful tendencies will be forever destroyed!–

"Then shall I see, and hear, and know All I desired or wished below,"

and then shall I be rid of all that plagues me and that grieves my God.
Come to Jesus, tonight, wrestling Believer, and have fellowship with
Him–and you will have rest, even, in the midst of the conflict, for
you will be sure that you shall ultimately overcome through the blood
of the Lamb!

Besides this, Jesus gives rest of the heart, or satisfaction in love.
Some people appear to have no heart or, rather, their heart is a kind
of valve made of leather. I have sometimes looked at certain people
with great wonder when I have seen how little they have ever been
affected. They never have much joy. They never have much sorrow. They
seem to have been placed between two millstones and to have had all the
juice pressed out of them–they appear to have no heart! But commend me
to a man or woman with a big heart. Some seem to have a most
affectionate nature–they must love! These are the people who have the
most sorrow, though, mark you, they also have the most wonderful joy!
Well, now, it may be that you have loved and you have been deceived, or
you have loved and the fond object of your affection has been removed
by death. You are here, tonight, with a sad countenance. You are
saying, "What shall I do with this heart of mine? Where shall I love
wisely, truly, without the hazard of another broken heart?"

Jesus stands, tonight, invisibly in our midst and He says, "Come unto
Me and I will give you rest." If you will love Him, (and oh, how well
He deserves your love!), if you will take Him to be your Companion,
your Friend, your Husband. If you will let Him enter into your heart
and dwell there–if you will love Him beyond all else, He will give you
rest and that kind of love which it is allowable to give to the
creature! You shall be able to give without fear when you have once
given the heart, itself, to Him who never fails, never disappoints and
never is untrue. All you who wander with your great loving hearts
aching for lack of love, come to my Lord and He will give you rest!

I see you, tonight, like the vine with its tendrils, seeking that by
which you may climb higher. Come and let your tendrils entwine
themselves about my Lord and His sweet Words of Grace, and you shall
get a good hold, and grow and climb even to the skies!–

"Are you weary? Are you languid? Are you sorely distrest? 'Come to
Me,'says One, 'and coming, Be at rest.'"

I will not enlarge upon this point further than to say, as I have
already told you, that Christ gives rest to the entire being, or peace
about everything. Are you troubled, dear child of God, tonight? You
ought not to be troubled about anything. "Ah, Sir! You do not know my
position." No matter, Friend, that I do not know it–HE who bids you
come to Him knows it! "But, dear Sir, my affliction is peculiar."
Listen–"In all their affliction He was afflicted." Yours cannot be
peculiar, therefore–Jesus must know all about it–and if He knows, it
is better than my knowing. "But I have such a heavy cross to carry." Is
it heavier than His? "Ah, Sir, but I have so many trials!" Are there
more than He can enable you to endure? Come to Him, I pray you!

Now then, if you can, at least for a few minutes, divest yourselves of
your cares, your anxieties, your doubts, your fears–there He stands,
He of the pierced feet and the nailed hands, and the crimson side!
There He stands in Glory and He bids you come to Him and trust Him! Lay
your burdens down at His feet. Why should you carry what He will
readily carry for you? Tell Him all your griefs. Why do you hide them
from Him? Should He not know your heart if you are married to Him?
Should there be a secret kept away from Him? I am persuaded that I am
preaching to you what will be more healing than the balm of Gilead, and
sweeter than the sweetest music to lull you into a delightful peace if
you will but listen to this Gospel invitation and come to Jesus, by a
simple act of faith, and by a great resolve of fellowship, for He says,
"I will give you rest."

So much, then, about this pearl, rest.

II. Now I want you to look, for a minute or two, at THE HANDS WHICH
GIVE THIS PEARL–"I will give you

rest." If Jesus Christ will give me anything, I will be glad to have
it. The least possible gift from Him has a special sanctity about it
because it comes from His dear hands. Your friend gave you a broken
sixpence and you have kept it. Your mother gave you, (alas! you have no
mother now), a little book with her name in it–and you would not sell
it for its weight in silver. Now, whatever Jesus gives is a keepsake to
His people. They lay it by and they love it. Listen, then–He says, "/
will give you rest."

If He will give me rest, then I know that His giving it guarantees its
genuineness. I shall have no false peace if Jesus gives it to me. He
will never give counterfeit coin to His people. If He gives me peace,
it is peace! "When He gives quietness, who, then, can make trouble?"
Beloved, do you not see that the fact that Jesus gives it will make
your peace to be to you, beyond all question, the true peace of God
which passes all understanding?

Christ's gift of this rest also proves the value of the gift. Jesus
does not give us pebbles and straws. If He gives us rest, it is rest
worth having. Oh, Beloved, did you ever enjoy the rest that Jesus
gives? Were you ever tossed about with a great trial? Did you ever have
a heavy load of care? If you have never had such burdens, I have–I
have lain awake at night wondering whatever I should do in certain
cases. And at last I have come to the conclusion that I could not do
anything and that I must leave all with the Lord. Did you ever wake up,
after a little sleep, when you had cast all your care on Christ and
left your troubles with Him and found yourself perfectly at rest? I
have, sometimes, in the midst of great pain, sat up in the night and
been afraid to go to sleep for fear I should lose the heavenly calm
that I was enjoying. When I have left everything–and God knows that I
have more cares to carry than most men–when I have left everything
with Him and submitted myself absolutely to His sweet will, and had
full fellowship with Christ, I have wondered what I could fret about if
I tried! I have said to myself, "There is peace for me in Heaven. There
is peace for me on earth. There is peace for me in the grave. There is
peace for me everywhere."

It was with my heart, as it was with the stormy sea when Jesus said,
"Peace, be still." "And there was a great calm." This is the kind of
rest that the Lord Jesus Christ gives–rest of the deepest, truest
kind–rest which the world cannot give and which the world cannot
possibly take away. If He gives rest, it is no second-first rest–it is
first-class–it is beyond measure precious if it comes from His hands.

Note again, Jesus says, "I will give you rest." If His hands give it,
this ensures your getting it. Jesus does not say, "I will send you
rest." It might be lost in the post. He does not say, "I will
commission an angel to bring you rest." He might miss his way. It is,
"/ will give you rest." Come to Jesus and you shall have rest out of
His own hands put into your hands–no, put into your heart. You shall
certainly get it. There will be no missing it–between the cup and the
lips there shall be no slip!

Jesus says, "I will give you rest." This ensures your right to it. When
a Believer is at peace and rest, if the devil were to meet him, he
would ask, "Why are you so quiet?" If you did not answer him, he would
say, "What right have you to be at rest? You are a long way off being
perfect. Look at the imperfections of yesterday! Why, even in your
prayers you sinned!" "Ah," says the child of God, "I am not going to
dispute with you, Satan. But I have a right to rest, for Jesus gave it
to me. I am sure that He did not steal it and I am certain that He gave
it to me. My title deeds are clear enough. A free gift through Jesus
Christ–who can ever dispute that?" Oh, child of God, enjoy what Jesus
gives, and be not afraid that anyone will take it from you!

Do you not think that when Jesus says, "I will give you rest," this
should encourage you to enjoy it? I believe that some Christians are
afraid of being too happy. Do I not recollect when I first knew the
Lord? I was as merry as a lark. I felt so glad that my sins were
forgiven, I said within myself–

"I am so glad that Jesus loves me." Some good old Christian man shook
his head. "Ah," he said, "the black ox has not trodden on your toes
yet." Well, I had not seen the animal, so I went on rejoicing! Then
another said to me, "Some Christians are many years before they come to
anything like assurance." That did stagger me a little, and they told
me about the dragons and the giants that there were on the Pilgrim's
Road. I have not seen any of them, yet, but those good people tried to
frighten me with them. Now look, here, Beloved–there is none too much
joy in the world! Do not you go about killing any whenever you see it!
Rather try to encourage it, and if you see a young Christian happy in
believing, and you do not happen to be as cheerful as he is, do not try
and take his joy from him. Leave the black ox alone! The ugly beast
will come in due time.

Warn the young Believer of all the sin against which he should be on
his guard, but do not hold up before him a gloomy view of the Christian
life. You, Christian, have a right to perfect peace and if, between
here and Heaven, you never have a doubt–if between here and the
Eternal City you never have an anxious care–you have a perfect right
to that complete serenity! It is, I say, provided for you in the Word
of God. If you do not have it and enjoy it, that is your own fault, but
there is ample provision made that we should have Heaven below as well
as Heaven above! Oh, Christian people, if we lived up to our
privileges, if we realized the Truth of God of the text, "I will give
you rest," we would commend the Gospel! We would win converts! We would
glorify God! We would be vastly more useful ourselves! "I will give you
rest," is an encouragement to the enjoyment of the rest that Jesus
gives to those who come unto Him.

And, once more, if Christ says, "I will give you rest," how it endears
Him to us! If all my rest is what He gives me, shall I not love Him?
Oh, if my weary spirit is like Noah's dove, finding no rest for the
sole of its feet till it comes back to

Noah, to Christ, and to the ark, shall I not love Him who is my rest?
Shall I not prove that love by consecrating to Him the life which He
has made so happy? Shall not every step I take seem to ring out music
of praise to His name? Shall I not open the gates of the morning with a
song and draw the curtains of the night with a new note of
thanksgiving? Truly, God has given us this rest!

The Romans said of a certain peace that they enjoyed, "a god has given
it to us." Behold, the Son of God has given us that deep repose which,
as Believers, we have a right to enjoy and which, I trust, we enjoy
tonight! If you do not enjoy it, do not let me go any further until you
get it! Come, child of God, I am not simply going to talk about this
matter–I want you to practice it! There is the hand, the pierced hand
which gives you rest–take the rest from it and enjoy it now–and then
kiss that hand with a fervor of deepest reverence because of this
priceless gift which it has bestowed upon you!

III. I close by noticing, in the third place, very briefly, THE PROMISE
WHICH JESUS MAKES–"I will give you rest." It is a great blessing,
sometimes, not to be able to read well. You remember how Mrs. Beecher
Stowe, when she wrote, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," pictured Uncle Tom as
having to spell all the words over? Now, it is a great blessing if a
person is obliged to read the Bible like that.
"I–will–give–you–rest." Every Word of God seems to be emphatic if
you will just let it speak! All these bells ring out music, but I have
no time to ring them tonight. Will you please listen to their melodious
chimes all the week?

"I–will–give–you–rest." To this promise there is but one condition.
That we have already fulfilled if we have come to Christ and,
therefore, there is no condition at all attached to the promise, "Come
unto Me, and I will give you rest." We have come to Him unless we are
hypocrites. We who are coming to the Communion Table have first come to
Christ. We have really, truly, sincerely, looked unto Him, trusted Him,
come to Him and hidden ourselves in Him. Very well, then, you have
fulfilled the one and only condition attached to this promise of the
Lord Jesus–and there stands the unconditional promise which applies to
you tonight! Let me go over it again, "I–will–give–you–rest."

This promise is made only to one character–and that character we can
easily feel to be our own–"All you that labor and are heavy laden."
You are the children of God, but you still have to labor. The most of
you have to work hard every day and you have, also, much spiritual
labor to serve your Lord, and to keep off the adversary. You labor both
for the meat that perishes, and for that which endures unto eternal
life. I am afraid that there are none of us who do not, at times, get
heavy laden, especially when we get away from our Lord. Oh, what a load
comes on us unless we keep close to Him! Very well, then, if tonight
you labor and are laden, come along with you, and Christ will give you
rest! I mean my fidgety Sister over yonder, who is always fretting–you
love the Lord–and yet you keep fretting! Come, have done with it, for
He says to you, "I will give you rest." I mean, also, my timid Brother
over there who is always afraid of something that never happens! Give
up that nonsense! Come along with you, you weary and heavy laden
one–Jesus says to you, "I will give you rest."

I mean that dear Brother, there, who has a darkness over his mind that
he cannot shake off. Come to Jesus and He will give you rest. I mean
myself, caring about the Church of God and almost broken-hearted, at
times, as I see how ill it fares in these evil days. I will come to my
Lord, tonight, and He will give me rest about that, for, after all, I
have not to manage His Church and guide His affairs. No, all
responsibilities and all dreads about the future I lay down at Your
feet, You great Head of the Church, You great Master of assemblies!

Next, notice that this promise is most positive and unreserved–"I will
give you rest." Jesus does not say, "I will give you rest in every
respect but one." No, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest." And the
mercy of it is that this promise is as sure as ever! A hundred years
ago a man went to the Lord Jesus with this promise, "I will give you
rest," and the Lord Jesus gave him rest. Fifty years ago another man
went with this promise and he said "Lord, there it is! You said, 'I
will give you rest,'" and the Lord gave him rest. Now, tonight, take
that promise for yourselves! It is just as good as if it had never been
fulfilled! I give my neighbor a check–he goes with it to the bank and
gets the cash for it. Now suppose the banker returns that check to
me–and I go with it to the bank and try to cash it again? "No," they
say, "we have cashed that check once, and that is done with." But you
may take God's check and go to the Bank of Heaven every day! And every
hour in the day! And the check is just as good as if it had never been
cashed before. "I will give you rest." You tried that when you were
21–try it now that you are seventy! When you were 40, in the day of
your trouble, you said,

"Lord, give me rest." Now that you are 80, the promise still stands
just as good as ever! God's promises are not like a bundle of old
checks that are done with and sent back to the drawer–they are always
fresh and always new!

Many of you are coming to the Communion Table. This rest is set forth
to you in the ordinance. That Table seems to say to you, "I will give
you rest." I shall not ask you to come up to the platform and to kneel
down and take the bread from my hands. I shall ask you to sit as much
at your ease as ever you can, because, at the Lord's Supper, that is
the right posture. When Christ broke the bread, the disciples did not
even sit, but reclined around the table! You miss the very spirit of
the Supper if you come and kneel. It is a festival of rest–and when
you come to it, you have nothing to do but to eat and to drink. That is
the form in which Christ puts fellowship with Himself, "You shall eat
with Me, and you shall drink with Me"–so that, in the ordinance He
does, by the outward symbol, say, "I will give you rest."

This promise will be completely fulfilled at the last. By-and-by,
by-and-by, Christ will give us eternal rest! There is a Brother to whom
I have been accustomed to take off my hat every Sabbath as I passed
along. He was one of a goodly number of regular old friends, all along
the road, that I could not speak to, but we just bowed and wished each
other well as we passed. Last Lord's-Day I missed my friend from the
place where I generally passed him, and I asked about him, and they
told me that he had gone Home. There have been many who have gone Home
since I was with you before. Well, then, we, also, may expect to go
Home, by-and-by, and here is the Master's promise about that matter, "I
will give you rest." "I will give you rest when the last hour comes.
When the time of weakness, old age and sickness come, I will give you
rest." Be not afraid–

"Death is no more the king of dread, Since our Immanuel rose"

and all the Lord's people may go up to their beds and rejoice to think
that there is an end to this life of conflict, and a beginning to the
life of victory, for Jesus says, "I will give you rest."

Oh, the perfect repose, the unutterable bliss that will be yours and
mine before long! I say, "before long," for in this great congregation
I do not doubt that there are several Brothers and Sisters who will see
the King in His beauty before many weeks are gone. I could wish that it
were my lot to go first among you, but if it may not be, well, you
shall go on a little ahead, my Brothers and my Sisters, and we will
follow in our turn. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth: Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors;
and their works do follow them."

I have done–at least, I mean, I have only begun! I have begun to enjoy
the text, myself, and I hope you have done the same. I must, however,
just remind you that, when Jesus says, "I will give you rest," He does
not mean that He will make you lazy. Lazy people cannot rest–they
never know what rest means. There must be labor to give us rest. When
Caesar Malan had 17 days' rest, in which he was charged by the
physician not to exercise his mind, or do anything, he wrote 53 of the
best hymns he had ever written and some of the best in the French
tongue! He said that he could not help it–he wrote the hymns because
he was resting, and they were a part of his rest.

God sometimes makes His servants to be like those birds that rest on
the wing. Stretching their broad pinions and taking a mighty flap, they
seem to pass mile after mile at every stroke of their wings, resting
while flying. Thus you may stretch your pinions of progress, and of
holy aspiration, and rise higher and higher, and yet be still at rest!
Like the stars that have a deep and profound rest, both by day and
night, and yet keep their courses and know no fatigue, so you and I,
blessed of God, shall keep our places and serve our God, and shine on,
and yet shall rest till we enter into the Rest that remains for the
people of God!

I wish that it were possible for me to make every child of God, here,
quite restful tonight. I know that I shall fail, but there is a blessed
Spirit who can do it! When you are all quite restful, go home and rest.
Go home, dear wife, with a restful heart. Perhaps your husband will
meet you with an angry word. Be so restful that you will not mind it!
Go home, dear young people, who have to work for your living. Perhaps
you will sleep, tonight, in a room where there are many who will mock
you if you kneel down to pray. Get such perfect rest that it will not
matter to you whether they laugh or not! Take no more notice than you
do of the grinding of the cab wheels outside this Tabernacle. The Lord
can give His people such absolute peace that it would not matter to
them if Heaven and earth should pass away!

God grant to us that perfect peace! If any of you do not know anything
about it, I wish that you did–but there it stands in the text, just as
Christ said it, "Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." God help you to come and take the rest that
Jesus gives! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON. COLOSSIANS 2:6-17.

Verse 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
you in Him Do not go away from Him. You have received Him–stay with
Him. Whatever He was to you at first, let Him be that to you to the
very last. Do not begin with Christ and then go back to self–let it be
all Christ from first to last.

7. Rooted and built up in Him. Growing in Him. Have your very life,
like a tree, rooted in Christ and, like a temple, built up in Christ.

7. And established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding
therein, with thanksgiving. Do not forget what you have been taught! Do
not reject it–keep to it. He who should learn one system of
philosophy, and then unlearn it, and begin another, and then unlearn
that, and begin another, would be more likely to turn out a fool than a
philosopher! And he who begins to learn the faith in one way, and then
tries to learn it in another way, and then attempts to learn it in yet
another way is more likely to be a skeptic than to be a saint.

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. Plenty of people would spoil you in this way, by teaching
you their profound thoughts, their grand inventions, their bright
ideas. Beware of all of them!

9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Everything, then, must be in Christ if all the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Him! Why do you need to go anywhere else for wisdom? What can
you find by going elsewhere? "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily."

10. And you are complete in Him. You are like vessels filled up to the
brim. You are like warriors thoroughly furnished, fully armed for the
fight–"You are complete in Him."

10, 11. Who is the Head of all principality and power: in whom also you
are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting
off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
All that the Jew ever had, you have in Christ, only you have the real
purification of which His rite was but a symbol.

12. Buried with Him in Baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him
through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the
dead. It is only as you are one with Christ that Baptism will be to you
what He intended, but, "buried with Him in Baptism," you are dead to
all besides and all your life lies in Him.

13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision, of your
flesh, has He quickened together with Him. All your life is in Christ.
You are "quickened together with Him."

13. Having forgiven you all trespasses. Your pardon is given to you in
Christ. Oh, how full and how free is that forgiveness that comes to you
through Christ Jesus!

14, 15. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
Cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of
them openly, triumphing over them in it. His Cross was His triumph!
Then He led captivity captive. What more do you need? Your enemy is
vanquished, your sins blotted out, your death changed to life, your
necessities all supplied! Will you not stay at home with Christ? "Why
do you gad about so much to change your way?" Can you have a better
lover than your Lord, a dearer husband than the heavenly Bridegroom?
Oh, love the Lord, you His saints! Cling to Him and make much of Him!
Let Him be All in All to you!

16. Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in
respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath. Do not
let anybody come in and tell you that it is necessary for your
salvation that you should abstain from this meat or that drink, that
there is a merit in fasting for 40 days in Lent, or that you cannot be
saved without observing such and such a holy day. Your salvation is in
Christ! Keep to that and add nothing to this one Foundation which is
once and for all laid in Him!

17. Which are a shadow of things to come. That is all that they are–"a
shadow of things to come." 17. But the body is of Christ. Christ is the
real one thing necessary.

Mind that you have the Substance, for then you can let the shadows go!
May God bless to us all this brief reading of

His Word!