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Greg Elmquist

Complete in Christ

Colossians 2:8-10
Greg Elmquist February, 1 2023 Audio
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The sermon titled "Complete in Christ" by Greg Elmquist explores the theological significance of believers' completeness in Jesus Christ, emphasizing that Christ embodies the fullness of the Godhead and is sovereign over all creation. The main doctrinal points include the sufficiency of Christ for salvation, the dangers of philosophy and human wisdom that detract from this truth, and the assurance that believers are positionally complete before God through their union with Christ. Key scriptural references include Colossians 2:8-10, where Paul warns against being spoiled by man-made philosophies, and Ephesians 1:19-23, which highlights Christ's authority and preeminence. The practical significance of the sermon lies in encouraging believers to rest in the finished work of Christ alone for their salvation and identity, rejecting any notions of needing to add to Christ’s work.

Key Quotes

“For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him.”

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit... and not after Christ.”

“All wisdom and all truth and all light and all life... is found in Christ.”

“You are complete in Him, immutably saved, completed.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Good evening. If you would turn
to page 21 in the spiral hymnal here. We'll stand and sing this
together. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast, God my Father chose his own in the person
of his Son. and ordained that I should be
one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. would keep God's holy law and
retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. For my price he offered blood
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, Heavenly Dove, in love, bringing life and peace
and grace to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals
the lame, and he brings us to the Lamb. By his mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
for God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Covenant God, I am yours by ties
of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Be seated. We're going to read for our scripture
reading tonight the passage that I'm going to try to preach from.
So if you'd like to open your Bibles to Colossians chapter
2. Colossians chapter 2. I was thinking that repetition
really is the first law of learning and we can't hear these things
too often. We'll begin reading in verse
six. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up
in him and established in the faith as you've been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware. Lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality and power. in whom also you are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting
off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,
buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from
the dead, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven
you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that is against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to the cross, and having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. Let's pray together. Our blessed, glorious Heavenly
Father, what hope, what comfort, what
joy and thanksgiving you give to our hearts as we read your
word and reminded once again of the accomplished work of thy
dear son in nailing our sins to the cross, putting them away
by the sacrifice of himself once and for all. Lord, we pray that
your spirit would teach us. We know that if he does, he will
lead us to Christ. And so, Lord, we look forward
to this hour where the Holy Spirit would point to us and point us
to the Lord Jesus and enable us to find our comfort and hope
in Him. Father, we have loved ones and
friends and brethren that you have afflicted with illnesses. And we know, Lord, that With
those afflictions comes sufficient grace, and so we pray for these,
Lord, and we ask that your hand of grace and strength and mercy
and hope and healing would be upon them. We ask it in Christ's
name. Let's stand again and sing hymn
224 from the hardback hymnal, I Know Whom I Have Believed. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me He hath made known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love
redeemed me for His own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
? To me he did impart ? ? Nor how believing in his word ? ?
Brought peace within my heart ? ? But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded ? ? That he is able ? To keep that which
I've committed Unto Him against that day I know not how the Spirit
moves Convincing men of sin Repealing Jesus through the Word, creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
And am persuaded that he is able To keep that which I've committed
Unto him against that day I know not what of good May be reserved
for me Of weary ways or golden days Before his face I see But
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. i know not when my lord may come
at night or noonday fair nor if i'll walk the veil with him
or meet him in the air but i know whom I have believed and am persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him
against that day. Be seated. Thank you, Adam, Joy. I love
that verse. We know that he is able to keep
that which we are trusting him for. That's what that word committed
means. Actually, it means to make a deposit. It means we've
got everything invested in and resting in Christ for all our
hope. And that's what our text tells
us again tonight. If you'll open your Bibles with
me to Colossians chapter two, I've titled this message, Complete
in Christ. Complete in Christ. And I'm sure this is always the
case, but it struck me particularly heavy in preparing this message
that this subject is so glorious and it's so infinite that there's
no way to describe it or explain it or define it. The best that
we can do, and it is, as I said, probably always the best that
we should do, is just declare it from what God has said. and
trust the Holy Spirit to apply and to give faith to the declaration
of what the Lord has told us in his word about our completeness
in Christ. We begin reading in verse eight,
beware lest any man spoil you That word, spoil, means rob you. Beware lest any man rob you.
Through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in
him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and ye are complete. Complete. full in Him, which is the head
of all principality and power. I want to take these three verses,
if you will, in reverse order. Let's consider the last phrase
that we just read, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of all
principality and power. Now, I don't know if you remember
a few months ago, I preached a series of messages on the miracles
of John, the seven miracles of John. And the first miracle was,
of course, that one recorded in John chapter two of the Lord
turning the water into wine at the wedding feast at Canaan. And the scripture says in that
text that it was the first miracle. And I called that message the
Arch Miracle because that's the word for first. We have that
word in Archbishop. We have it in Patriarch, Archangel. It means first. Now, the reason
I'm bringing that out to you now is because this word principality
is that word. It's the same word. It's the
principle thing. It's the first thing. It's the
beginning of all things. And what the Lord is telling
us here is that the Lord Jesus Christ is head over that. He
must be. He's the one who had no beginning
and no end. And so the only way that the
first things could be is that he would have to be the head
over that. And that's what we're being told
here, that Christ is the head of all the beginnings. He is the alpha and the omega,
without beginning and without end. Turn with me to Colossians
chapter 1. This is so important for us to
understand and more important for us to believe in order for
us to rest in our completeness in Christ. We're talking about
being complete in everything that God requires, all that we
need in Christ. And Look with me at chapter one
at verse 16, for by him were all things created that are in
heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created
by him and for him. So the Lord is telling us the
same thing in our text, that the Lord Jesus Christ was before
all things. He was the cause of all things,
the first cause of all things. He is the head of all things.
He is the uncreated eternal God who spoke creation into existence. He was there before the angels, before the heavens, before the
planets, before the earth, before Adam. He was the head of those
principalities. Whatever you want to talk about
in terms of first things, the Lord Jesus was the head of that.
Now here's our comfort, brethren. He was sovereign and had, I want
to preface what I'm about to say by saying that we are in
no way excusing ourself for sin. We sin when we're carried away
by our own lust, and we're not accusing God in any way of sin.
But if he's the head of all principalities, the first sin that Adam created,
he was the head of that. He ordained that. Adam bears
full responsibility just like you and I do, but God ordained
it. He's the head of the first. He's
the head of the arch. He's the head of the principalities. He caused all those first things
for his glory and for his purpose. That's what we're being told
here in verse 16. All things were created by him
and for him. Look at verse 17 in chapter one.
And he is before all things and by him all things consist. And
he is the head of the body. church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that
in all things he might have the preeminence. Now the reference
to the Lord Jesus Christ being the firstborn from the dead is
his resurrection and he's the head over the resurrection. And the hope that we have of
being raised from the dead is his resurrection. He's the head
of all principalities, all first things. He is the first cause
of all those things. Chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He was a head over that. He's the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. I mentioned to some of the men
last Sunday that I've been talking with a man in Africa who has
been listening to our services. He's a preacher over there. and
had a relationship with some other churches in America. And
I asked him, I said, well, what caused you to lose that connection? And he said, eternal justification.
Eternal justification. They believe that justification
is something that only happens after you believe. And we've
been listening and we believe what you believe, that justification
is eternal. that Christ is the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world, and that this was so important
to us that we were willing to break fellowship with Him over
that glorious. This is who the Lord is. He's the head over all principalities,
over all first things. He is the head over those as
our surety in the covenant of grace. We just sang about that,
Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
head over that principality. You see, this is the order that
we looked at Sunday before last. The order of salvation. Remember
when Paul said, I'm observing your order? And it has to do
with first things. And if all of this didn't, if
the Lord Jesus is not the head over all things, then what hope
do we have of being complete in Him? If there's a possibility
of something happening that He's not the head over, or if something could be first
before Him, then there's no hope that we would have of being found
complete in Him. Not only is He head over all
first things, that's what the word principalities means, but
He's the head over all powers. We know that the heart of the
King is in the hand of the Lord. This word power actually translated
means authority. And I love it when Pilate said
to our Lord, do you not know that I have the authority to
crucify you? I have the authority to release
you. And what did the Lord say? You
have no power at all. Except that which I've given
you. Whatever power you have, I gave it to you. That's not
exactly what he said. You have no power at all, except
that was being given to you from heaven. But here's the point.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the head over that. So he delegated or
gave power, gave Pilate that power. When the centurion came to the Lord
with a a dying servant who obviously he loved. The Lord said, I'll come. You
remember what that centurion said? He said, oh no, I'm not
worthy that you should come under my roof. You just speak the word
and my servant will be healed for I know what authority is.
I'm a man of authority. I tell this one to go and he
goes, I tell another one to come and comes. And you have all authority. All you have to do is speak it. He's the head over all principalities
and over all power, over all authority. When they went to
arrest him, they came back and they said, uh, no one ever spake
like this man. He speaks with authority, with
authority, not as the scribes, not as the scribes. Now, Our
authority comes from the simplicity and the truthfulness of the gospel. And so we have that authority in
Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. You are complete in Him, and
He is the head. He's the head, just as your body
has a head and the head controls everything in the body. He is
the head over all first things. He is the head over all principalities. He is the head over all authority
and over all power. He has the power to forgive sin.
Remember when they brought that man who was sick with a palsy
to him and the Lord said that, he said, the scripture says he
solved their faith. And he said to that man, be of
good cheer. Your sins are forgiven you. And
they began murmuring. Who does this man think he is?
Who does he think he is? Only God can forgive sin. And
what the Lord, the scripture says, the Lord knowing their
hearts, they didn't verbalize these things he knew what they
were thinking and uh he he said to them uh what's easier to say
your sins are forgiven you or stand up and walk but that you
might know that the son of man has the power to forgive sin
i say unto thee take up thy bed and walk and immediately he stood
the lord jesus christ is the head over all principalities
he over he's the head over all power He has the power to put
away our sin, the power to save, the power to forgive sin. He's
the head over that. There's nothing, you see, he's
the head over first things and he's the head over authority
and over all power. There's nothing before him. There's
nothing before him. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
one. Ephesians chapter one. This glorious truth gives so much power and light
and hope to what God is telling us that we are complete in Him. You see, there's nothing lacking
in Him. And if we're found in Him, then
everything that He is, we are. Look at Ephesians chapter 1.
beginning at verse 19. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe according to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly
places, far above all principalities and power and might and dominion
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in the world which is to come. and hath put all things under
his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church. To the church. You are complete
in this one, who possesses all power, who is seated at the right
hand of the majesty on high, which the church, which is his
body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. We're talking
about our fullness in Christ, but what the Lord's told us here
is the body cannot have life apart from the head, but the
head is not complete without the body. The Lord is likening the Lord
Jesus Christ and the church to the physical head and body of
our... He's saying that this is the...
This is beyond our understanding, it's beyond our ability to, we
just have to glory in the fact that what, let's read this last,
which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. The church is the fullness of
Christ. You see, that's why eternal justification
is so important. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ has always been
his body. That's why there's nothing lacking
in him. Fullness, complete. The Lord tells us in John chapter
one at verse 16, And of His fullness, and of His fullness have we all
received from grace to grace. Of His fullness have we all received
from grace to grace. And then he goes on in the next
verse to say, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and
truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. The head over all principalities
and power. And you are complete, complete. Nothing lacking in Him. You have your Bible still open
to Ephesians. Look over with me to Ephesians chapter three.
Ephesians chapter three. Look at verse 17. That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and the length and the depth and the height, and to
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might
be filled with all the fullness of God." So, the filling of the
fullness of God, which we have in Christ, is revealed through
His love. It is the love of Christ that
constraineth us. We're talking about first things,
the first cause of our salvation is love. Not election, love. Not justification, love. Not
redemption, love. All those things came as a result
of His love. Placing His love on His people. How glorious is this? As He is. So are we. And this is our boldness
in the day of judgment. We need not fear the wrath of
God. The full wrath of his full fury of his wrath was poured
out on Christ on Calvary's cross. He is the head of all principalities
and powers and of his fullness. We've received grace from grace
to grace. That means we can't be any more
holy than we are. Colossians, go back with me to
our text. Colossians chapter two. We know
that he's holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. heaven and earth is filled with
his glory. And now look with me at verse
22 of chapter one, in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in the sight
of God. We have received, look at, look
at, Look at verse 10, and you are complete in him, which is
the head of all principalities and power. Perfect, righteous,
can't be more perfect. Can't be more righteous. Can't be more saved. Can't be
more holy. That's what the Lord, go back
to the arch miracle, the changing of the water to wine at the wedding
feast in John chapter two, what's the first thing the Lord did?
He filled those six water pots, stone water pots to the brim. Complete, full. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. Those stone waters, six of them,
six, the number of man, stone, the condition of our hearts before
the new birth, dead. He filled them up. He filled
up sin. He took it away. You are complete
in Him. Nothing more can be added. Nothing
more can be done. Here's our hope. Here's our hope
to stand before God, that we are found in Him. That's what
David was saying when he said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Now you and I got a pretty good
wanter and we end up wanting a lot of things, don't we? But
that's not what David was talking about. Dave was saying, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not be in want of anything. He's going to provide everything
that I need. I'm complete in him. I'm complete
in him. Everything that God requires,
the Lord Jesus Christ is my shepherd provides. And God is satisfied
with everything that he's provided. Just as the head has no life
without the body, the body is, just as the body has no life
without the head, the head is not complete without the body.
Cannot separate Christ from his church. That's what our Lord
is telling us. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, which is
the head of all principality. All the fullness of the Godhead, The uncreated, self-existent,
glorious I Am. Creator and sustainer of all
things. The head of all principalities.
That's who our God is. The one who's not dependent upon
anything. The one who stands within himself. The fullness of the Godhead. Never had a beginning. can't have an end he gives to
us eternal life because he's giving us himself as our life
and he himself is eternal so here here's what he's saying
for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you
are complete in him you're complete in him he's the ancient of days He's
our Melchizedek without father, without mother, without descent,
neither having beginning of days nor end of life. He is eternal,
eternal. And you are complete in him. He's holy. This is the nature
of God. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, higher than the heavens. Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God of hosts. And you're complete in Him. You're
complete in Him. He's gonna present you in Christ,
holy. Holy, we saw that. Unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight. If God says that we're holy,
then we're holy. That's why the Bible says without
holiness, no man will see God. Without holiness, how am I going
to be holy? I'm going to have to be found
in him. And that's what the Lord's saying.
You're complete in him as he is, so are we. In this world,
this is the boldness that we have in the day of judgment.
God can't have anything that's not holy in his presence. And this matter of holiness is
more than just sinful perfection. It's sinless perfection. It's
the nature of God. He is the Holy One of Israel.
And he calls Israel a holy nation, a holy nation and a chosen people. That's the church. That's his
body. Just as the head is holy soul, the body is holy. Revelation chapter 22, verse
11, right at the very end of the word of God, let he that
is holy, let him be holy still. You see. By imputation of His
righteousness and by virtue of our union with Christ, being
found in Him, we are holy now and we always will be. You are
complete in Him. You can't add anything to what
He's done. Immutable. Here's, we're looking
at, we're looking at this verse nine in our text. For in him,
in the Lord Jesus Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. Bodily. He's the immutable one. I am the Lord and I change not.
And therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And as members
of his body, his eternal body, Nothing can be changed about
our salvation. You see, that was determined
in the covenant of grace before time ever began. There was never
a time when we weren't found in Christ and loved in Christ.
And so our salvation is immutable. I love thinking about, you know,
when we pass from this life into the next, we're not gonna step
into glory and look around and start, comparing what we're now
experiencing to what we came out of? No, no. We're going to discover that
we've always been there. Always been there. Now I know
we're, we're slaves to time and space and that's a hard concept
to understand, but, but that's the truth. We're not going to
have any thoughts or memories of this life. We're going to
experience. what we've always been eternally
in Christ. You are complete in Him, immutably
saved, completed. Light, love, life. Oh, these are the fullnesses
of the Godhead that reside in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the light of the world. In him is life, and the life
was the light of men, and light came into the world, but men
loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
But those who have the work of God wrought in them, they flee
to the light. I was talking to Bert yesterday,
and we were talking about a message
that he had just heard. We were talking about what it
means to fear God. And you know what, Adam feared
God in a very slavish way, in a very fleshly way. And that
fear caused him to hide from God or to attempt to hide from
God. But godly fear does just the
opposite. Godly fear causes us to flee
to Christ, that we might be complete in Him and find in Him our all
in all. There's the difference, which
way we're running. We're either running to Christ
or running away from Him, one way or the other. I said we'll want to take this
passage in reverse order. So let's now do verse eight.
This is who we are. This is what we are in Christ. This is who he is and what he's
accomplished. And this is God's promise and
declaration of the body of Christ being complete in the head. who
is the head of all principalities and powers, who possesses in
himself the fullness of the Godhead bodily, who has provided everything
necessary for the salvation of his people in himself. And now in verse eight, he says,
beware. It's the warning. This word beware is the word
to see. To see, open your eyes, take
notice, For if the eye be single, if the eye be single, the whole
body shall be full of light. But if the eye be evil, and that
word mean, that word evil means full of labor. If you're looking
to add something to the completeness of the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you don't believe that he's sufficient and that he needs you to do your
part in order for him to be able to make you complete before God,
then that's an evil eye. The eye be single, the whole
body should be full of light. If we're looking to Christ alone
for all the hope of our salvation, then the whole body is full of
light. But if the eye be full of labors, the whole body should
be full of darkness. And here's what the Lord said,
and if that darkness be light, how great is the darkness thereof. In other words, if a person looking
somewhere other than the Lord Jesus Christ is finding comfort
and hope in those things outside of Christ for the hope of their
salvation, how great is the darkness thereof. This is a description
of one who thinks they're saved because they're looking to the
evidences of their lives for the hope of their salvation rather
than looking to Christ. And the person who is the blindest
of all is the one who thinks he can see when he can't. The
Pharisees who said, are you saying that we're blind? And what'd
the Lord say? If you were, then your sins would be forgiven you.
But because you say that you can see, therefore your sins
remain. Oh, that's the word here. Beware. Beware, look. Look with a single eye toward
Christ. Lest any man spoil you, rob you
of your hope and of your joy. That's the spoiling. Taking away your hope of salvation
and your joy in Christ. Why? Because you're looking somewhere
other than Him. Beware lest a man spoil you. With what? With philosophy. Now in Acts chapter 17, you remember
when the apostle Paul went to Athens and he went to Mars Hill
and he spoke with the philosophers of Athens. And the scripture
says that there were two groups of philosophy that were meeting
on Mars Hill debating The truth of life. That's what
philosophy is. Philos, love, Sophia, wisdom. The word philosophy means the
lover of wisdom or a person who pursues wisdom outside of Christ. They're trying to find light
and truth and meaning outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
that's what the Lord's warning us. Don't look for these things
outside of Christ. They're all bound up in Him. Remember there were the Epicurean
philosophers and the Stoic philosophers. And if I can oversimplify this,
philosophy hasn't changed since 2,000 years ago. The Epicureans
believed that the meaning of life was to be found outside
of oneself through the pursuit of things in the world. The Stoics
believed that the wisdom of life and the meaning of life was to
be found inside oneself by reflection and sacrifice and Stoicism. And let men talk about philosophy
all they want. All the philosophies of the world
fit into those two categories. And they're both a lie. You don't
find wisdom and truth and hope and life and salvation out there,
nor in here. You find it in Christ. You find
it in Him. So that's why he says, beware
lest any man rob you, spoil you of your hope and your joy and
your salvation through philosophy, looking somewhere else other
than Christ. And vain deceit. Well, you know
what vain means. Empty. And you know what deceit
means. Lies. Empty lies. Oh, men make all
sorts of promises. Well, you know, you can find
it. You can find it here. You can find it there. You can
find it in science. You can find it in man-made religion.
You can find it in education. You can find it in philosophy.
No, you can't. That's what the Lord's saying.
These are the things that men love to debate. No, we preach Christ. You know, if we put a sign out
on the road here and published a series of messages on parenting,
or marriage, or living a victorious Christian life, or prophecy,
that'd be a big one, wouldn't it? This place would be packed. Be packed. That's what he's talking
about. Trying to find something outside
of Christ. Men love it. Here's what the
Lord is telling us in this passage, brethren. All the fullness of
the Godhead and all wisdom and all truth and all light and all
life and all forgiveness and all power and all authority is
found in Christ. Let the world seek it outside
of Him. Don't be persuaded. Don't be deceived. Don't look
to those empty lies. Don't look to the philosophy
of men. Look to Christ. The rudiments of the world. They beguile you with enticing
words. And I'm not saying, these things
are not, it's not the openly profane, irreligious man that
would tempt us away from the gospel. It wasn't the Romans
that sought to destroy the church. It was the Judaizers. It was
the Judaizers. Paul, when he met with the elders
at Ephesus, he said, I know that in my departure, grievous wolves
are going to come in from and some are going to raise up from
among you and draw disciples after themselves. Here's the
enticing words of man's wisdom, looking somewhere other than
Christ. all the fullness of the Godhead
and all salvation and all forgiveness and all grace is found in Him. Let me just look at the last
part of verse eight. After the rudiments, the elements
of the world, human wisdom, man-made reasoning, and not after Christ. Now, there's nothing after Christ
chronologically. The Lord is the head of all principalities
and powers. He's the first, he's the last,
he's the ancient of days, he's the beginning of time, and he
is the alpha and the omega. There's nothing after him in
that regard. What is he talking about? He's
talking about our pursuit. Our pursuit, it's what Paul said
in Philippians chapter three, when he said, I've not yet apprehended
that which has apprehended me, but this one thing I do, this
one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching
forth, reaching forth to that which is before, I press towards
the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.
Pressing towards Christ. looking to him for my everything. Seeking the Lord while he may
be found. And that which is after Christ
comes from Christ. It leads to Christ. It rests
everything upon Christ and is holy of Christ. Beware, brethren. Open your eyes. Have a single
eye towards Christ. As there are, there are men who
would distract you from the truth and lead you somewhere other
than being led after Christ. For in the Lord Jesus Christ,
In the Lord Jesus Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him who
is the head of all principalities and all powers. Amen. Our Heavenly Father, forgive us for having an evil
eye. Forgive us for seeking truth and light and hope and peace and forgiveness
in the law or in anything that would be the rudiments of this
world. Thank you for this clear, simple
declaration of the simplicity and the completeness that is
in Thy dear Son. Give us faith to look to Him,
to rest in Him, and to follow after Him. For it's in His name
we pray, Amen. Adam, 27, number 27, let's stand
together. Free from the law's grip. we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by his hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of wrath, ?
No more constrained by fear ? We worship and we serve our God
? With gratitude and cheer ? In Jesus we are free ? In Jesus
we are free Free from all sin and from all guilt, we live in
liberty. We'll join the happy song. with all the blood bought from,
and sing the praises of the Lamb, whose grace makes us His home.
Greg Elmquist
About Greg Elmquist
Greg Elmquist is the pastor of Grace Gospel Church in Orlando, Florida.
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