Alright, good morning brethren.
Let's go to Colossians chapter 2. Picking up in verse 8, Paul warns
the believers. He's warning us of man's philosophy. He's warning us of the ideas,
the thoughts that man has. He calls them vain deceits. Vain deceits. He describes or
speaks of the traditions that we have in the flesh and the
forms that we adopt and think, this is righteousness, this is
for our good, this is for our salvation. But what Paul does
here in Colossians 2 is after speaking of that, after warning
us of this, he goes on to show us the sufficiency of the Lord
Jesus Christ for our salvation, for our righteousness, for our
acceptance and justification with holy God. And so what our
Lord is teaching us, what He's showing to you that are His beloved
children, what He's showing us here is that there's nothing
more that you need besides the Lord Jesus Christ. He's making
you to know that Christ is sufficient to save his people to the uttermost. So don't look to all these other
things that men naturally trust in. So Paul writes in verse 8,
Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. These are strong words. He wants
us to hear it, vain deceit, worthless things that are deceitful things
that take us away from the truth. They're made after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Do you think that our focus and
attention is to be on the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely. Absolutely. Do you mean that
when we come to worship God, we come in the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that He's our entrance unto the Father? Yes,
that's exactly right. Turn over to Luke. We go here
a lot, but it's good. It's good to be reminded of this.
Luke 24. Luke 24, and we're gonna pick
up in verse 44, and read together down to verse
48. This is the risen Savior. This is Christ after he's accomplished
the redemption of his people on the cross. He was buried and
he's raised from the dead and he comes to his disciples. And
he said unto them, verse 44, these are the words which I spake
unto you while I was yet with you. that all things must be
fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the
Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me." He's reminding them, he's
bringing them to understand and to know these are the things,
this word here is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 24,
the whole of this Bible is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, having said that, then
opened he their understanding, verse 45, that they might understand
the Scriptures. We have an understanding of this
Word. We see nice stories, moral stories,
good things for us to know and tell our kids about, but that's
not salvation. When the Lord opens your understanding,
you're going to see the Lord Jesus Christ in this word. That's who this word testifies
of. Verse 46, And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and
thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the
third day. All this word is testifying to
us the need for the Son of God, the Christ of God to come. in
the flesh and to lay down his life for our salvation." All
this word is testifying, showing us that we're sinners and our
salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that repentance and remission
of sins, forgiveness of sins, should be preached in his name
among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And he says, ye, my
church, are witnesses of these things. That's what we're here
to witness of, to bear witness of, the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he is the salvation of God. There's no sense in playing little
games, little religious games. They're not salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the salvation of God for his people. Therefore,
Paul was wise to warn us in verse 8, Colossians 2.8, 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. So I was thinking of that word
rudiments or elements. It's also spoken of in Galatians. These elements, these rudiments
of the world. And what it means is these are
the base forms of religion. For the Jews, it was the law. It was the form and the practice
of the law. All the little pieces, all the
things laid out in the law, these were elemental, rudimentary things. For the Gentiles, it was their
pagan idolatry. They're bowing down before stumps
and rocks, coating these things with silver and gold. They're
looking at the wind and dancing under trees, under the moonlight,
and worshiping the sun. They're looking at the elements,
the rudimentary things, and they're not coming to a knowledge of
God. Now we can look at some of those things and we can see
pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't worship those things,
we worship Christ. For example, I was recently with
a brother, and we were driving down the highway. And at the
end of the highway, we could see the fullness of the sun. It was gigantic. It was massive. And it's there at the end of
the highway, just sitting there right on the horizon. And he
said, you know, when the sun is in the sky, In all its brilliant
glory, we can't look at the sun without frying our eyes. They
burn our eyes. We can't behold the glory and
the beauty of the sun. But as it comes down, down, down,
down, and it kisses the earth, it touches the horizon, now we
can look at it. I was looking at a big, massive,
orange-y glowing sun, and it was beautiful. That's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't now run and worship
the sun. No, we worship Christ of whom
the elemental things picture and show us a beautiful picture
of the son of God laying aside his glory and coming to the earth
in the flesh to obtain our redemption. to bless his people in himself. So Paul's warning, he's saying
don't give ear to the Greeks and to the Jews who come in after
we've preached the gospel to you and turn you back now to
elemental things. They're taking you away from
Christ and they're turning you back to the forms of religion,
and to do this thing, and you gotta do that thing, and this
is your righteousness. He's saying, look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's everything that you and
I need. He's everything that a sinner
needs to stand before holy God, accepted of Him. That's how precious,
how wonderful the Lord Jesus Christ is. Men speak of various
forms of religion because they don't know the mystery of God
revealed in Christ. And that's why there's so much
religion in the world, and so many varieties of it. And that's
why men even become preachers in our day, and they're nothing
more than motivational speakers. And they're just trying to give
you an inspired life. And others, they'll come and
they'll teach you doctrine out of this book. Many doctrines
that are good and are true and are profitable. but they miss
Christ. They miss Christ and they put
all your attention on the doctrine and the need to know the doctrine
but it has no tie, no relation to Christ and what He's done
for us and are not showing you the beauty and the sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1.18
that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness
but unto us which are saved it's the power of God. It's how, it's
what God declared to us and opened our ear and opened our heart
to hear Christ and what he's accomplished for us. And that's
what he's saying. He's saying, look to Christ,
hear what Christ has done on the cross for his people, because
this is where God blesses his people with every spiritual blessing. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. You know, that verse
there, that's Ephesians 1, 3, that verse there, heavenly places,
again, it takes us right back to the foundation of the world.
We go right back to Genesis chapter 1, and we're reminded of day
2, when God made the firmament. That firmament, that heavens
there, is that covering in which all living things dwell. Without this covering, we could
not live, we could not exist. But under this firmament which
God put around the earth, over the earth, we live and we move
and have our being. And it's a picture of the covering,
the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a picture
of Christ. And so, we can go to the Old
Testament, we can look at the elemental and the rudimentary
things, but not like the pagans and the idolaters do, who aren't
profited by it at all. They end up worshiping sticks
and stones and doing weird, kooky things. We see Jesus. We see the Lord Jesus Christ. and he's being testified to us
from the very foundation of the world. His blood redemption is
being testified to us right in the very beginning. And every
day of creation we can see Christ, some picture of what Christ accomplished
for us. Even so, the law of Moses, it's
made up of elemental things. There's baptisms and washings,
there's robes and phylacteries, there's an altar and a temple
and there's sacrifices and all these things. Man looks at and
thinks, oh, this is how I'm to make myself righteous. And they
don't see it's speaking of Christ. It's testifying of Christ who
must lay down His life for our life. He must shed His blood
to obtain forgiveness for us. Paul said, because they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The law is satisfied. It's accomplished its purpose.
It's shown us our sin and shown us our need of Christ. Look to
him. look to the one whom the Father
had sent to save his people from their sins." Our Lord did not
shed his blood to make us enlightened little Pharisees to now take
another shot at the law and do a little better than our dead
fathers did under the law. The forefathers did. That's not
why Christ saved us. He's given us his life, to give
us life, to give us salvation and a hope, a good hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In John 6, 49 through 51, our
Lord said to the Jews that were there, he said, your fathers
did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. They are spiritually
dead. They ate of the elemental rudimentary
things, this little component which God gave to the Jews under
the law. They ate the manna and all them
are dead. They're all dead. This, he said,
is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat
thereof and not die. What, the little coriander seed
like bread, this manna thing? No. Christ, the Father sent Christ
to save you. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
any man, doesn't matter what race he is, if any man is a sinner
and eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that
I will give, the bread that I'm talking about, Christ says, is
my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. Every,
all my chosen people, Jew or Gentile, doesn't matter. They
are saved one way, by the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so, our Lord's teaching us,
if any man will be saved, he's going to be saved entirely by
the Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ is all and in all. He's everything. Everything.
Sinner? Only Jesus Christ is able to
save them to the uttermost who come unto God by Him. He is able. He is able. Doubt no more. He's able to save
you to the uttermost. Those who come to God by any
other way, by another gospel, we're instructed in this word,
is no gospel at all. It's not good news. It's works,
it's labor, it's bondage, it's suffering, it's death. If you
add in any of the elemental and rudimentary religious things
for your righteousness, such as the law for righteousness,
What our Lord is saying to us is, you're striving to come in
on the broad way that leadeth to destruction. And many there
be that go in there at. Look at the world and all its
religions, what men are working for and doing and all their various
forms. These are all the rudimentary
things, the elemental things. They're all vain deceits. And it's a broad road. It's a
wide road that takes in all the religions of man, all the religions
of the flesh. And it's not going to save them.
Christ is the narrow way. How narrow is the narrow way? It's as wide as Christ's shoulders
are wide. And it's as tall as he is. We
follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We come on Christ. That's how
narrow the narrow way. It's following Christ. It's not
bringing, there's no room for any other baggage. There's no
room for any other hope. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the simplicity of the Lord Jesus Christ. So don't be taken away
with vain deceits. Don't be caught up in all the
extras and all the other lights and shiny objects. They're not
salvation. They take away our eyes from
looking at the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And so, those who do walk
that way, they're called in the scriptures the remnant according
to the election of grace. It's a gracious work that God
does for them and not for others. If it's by grace, Paul said in
Romans 11, 6 and 7, if it's by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
What then Israel who partook in the rudiments of the law,
they were partakers, they even ate the manna, hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it,
and the rest were blinded. And so to strive to come to God
in the law now, to have heard of Christ and what he's accomplished
for his people, it's done. The victory is won in Christ.
And so to come now to God through the law for righteousness is
to come that same path, to walk that same way that those with
slumbering eyes, closed eyes and ears so full of fat and stuff,
they couldn't hear the truth, to go the way that they went.
And Paul tells us in that same chapter of Romans 11, verse nine,
that it's a snare. It's a trap. It's a stumbling
stone. It's a stumbling block. Don't
go that way. Well, if my form of religion
doesn't bring me nearer to God, how then am I to approach God? People will still have that question.
After hearing me declare Christ, Christ, Christ, they still have
that question. How am I to come? by faith, believing, resting
in the righteousness of Christ, that God is satisfied with the
blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him, all
the grace of God is given. In Him, all the spiritual blessings
of God are received. You don't need to go anywhere
else outside of Christ. It's all given in Him. Jesus
Christ is the day star that rises in the heart of the sinner that
when he shines that light we see him and behold his glory
and That burden that weight of sin rolls off the back because
we see he's everything He's obtained salvation for me. He's obtained
my righteousness. I have everything I need to stand
before God for all eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what God is saying. Believe Him. Trust Him. Have
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Stop looking to your work. Stop
looking to what you do or don't do. Our Lord said this in John
12, verse 45 and 46, he that seeth me seeth him that sent
me. He's saying I'm the very manifestation
of God's gracious will and purpose for you. Look to me. and you'll
know exactly what God purposes for you as child. You look to
Christ. I am come a light into the world
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. You know, in the next hour we'll
be back in Genesis and we'll see in Babel, when Babel was
being set up, all that darkness, that false religion just spread
throughout the world. Christ has come, the light of
God, to bring light to our dark hearts, to show us that He is
the way of salvation, to look to Him. We don't know God by
nature. We don't know how to worship
Him. We don't come to Him and worship Him in spirit and in
truth. We come in form, in the outward form of things. We come
thinking this is salvation. And we're not going to find God
by dipping ourselves in various rivers for righteousness and
doing various works to save ourselves and to give us some understanding.
Lighting candles and standing before stations and pictures
of spiritual looking things or worshipping in great stone cathedrals
with stained glass under crosses. That's not salvation. I don't
need to wear a robe. I don't even need to wear a suit.
I just do it to at least look respectable to you. But that's
not our salvation. That's not our hope, these things.
Our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's blessed us to hear this
message, to hear this word, how that God is just to be merciful
and gracious to you who are sinners. And it's all in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That simple. It wasn't simple. He gave his life. He suffered
under the wrath of God, but what he did delivered his people from
death once and for all. And by this word, this gospel
word, our Savior, our God, calls his people out of that darkness
to see him, to see Christ, and to rest Christ to rest in him
back in Colossians 2 9 it says for in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily the fullness of God Father Son and Holy Ghost
is all Right there in Christ saying this is salvation. This
is your Savior. This is your salvation your Lord
in Christ Come to him believe him rest in him You know, we
could take another rudimentary picture that God gives us in
the Old Testament. We read it because this is the
gospel right here. And it speaks of the temple,
right? That's a rudimentary thing. There's
a temple that God had them build. And Israel worshiped God there
in that temple. And this is where God met with
his people in a special and in a peculiar way, in that temple. And he established a priesthood
for them, another rudimentary thing. He gave them a priesthood
and they ministered to the people the things of God. And they had
an altar that they built there. And they had animals that they
would offer and sacrifice to make an atonement for the sins
of the people. And they were all pictures, rudimentary,
elemental pictures of what our savior does for his people. God is in Christ. All the fullness
of God is in Christ. He's accomplished all those things
that we see described for us, that gave us pictures of salvation.
It's all fulfilled in Christ. John, when he was writing of
the heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation 21 verse 22, he said, I saw no
temple. I saw no temple there. For the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. In Christ
Jesus is where our God meets with us. we worship God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. For in Him, it pleased the Father
that all fullness dwell. And so with this gracious purpose
of our God completely fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, is
there anything that we're gonna be gained by? Is there anything
to gain by going back to rudimentary and elemental things? Would there
be anything gained by us by going and building a temple, and setting
up another priesthood, and setting up an altar, and sacrificing
animals on that, just to give us another picture? There's people
that profess the Lord Jesus Christ that go out and are still blowing
trumpets in the evening. For what? What are they doing
in that? Look to Christ. hear his voice,
hear him, look to him. It doesn't add anything to our
salvation. It just slips our neck under
a yoking bondage. It weighs us down. It turns us
from our Lord. And so in our day, there's only
a few that would think we'd be profited by a temple to worship
God, and yet There's many millions that think that they were to
come to God in the law for our righteousness, that we are doing
things to sanctify ourselves and to set ourselves up to be
more savable by God and to put ourselves in better circumstances. Just come and hear the word.
Just come and hear the word. Your good works aren't going
to do anything. You'll be profited in hearing the word of hearing
of Christ. That's where you'll be profited
in that simple thing of just hearing Christ, resting in Him,
praying to Him, reading His word, asking Him for mercy and grace,
asking Him to help me in my studies and to preach the word clearly,
faithfully to you of the Lord Jesus Christ because He is all
our salvation. He's all our hope. He's all we
need. And the sinner saved by his grace wants for nothing more.
And when we do, he's gracious and merciful to forgive and to
turn us back to Christ. Of him, Paul wrote, are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. He's everything. That according
as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Don't
glory in what you've done, glory in what Christ has done. And
so it follows in Colossians 2.10, and ye are complete in him, which
is the head of all principality and power. He's over everything. If you were looking to do something
and the president of your company bypassed four managers between
you and them and said, you do this, do it. And if you get in
trouble, it's going to go right back up to the top that your
boss is the one who told you to do it, and you were doing
what he or she said to do. And so that's what it is. We listen to our Lord. We trust Him. We believe Him.
He's everything for us. We're not going back to elemental,
rudimentary things. For what the law could not do,
Paul wrote in Romans 8, 3 and 4, in that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, enforcing condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the law. And so Christ came. He is the
surety of God for his people. He's paid all the debts. There's nothing more you need
to pay. Rest in Him. Believe Him. Our Lord sent His Son. He came
as the shorty, laying down His life to settle all debts for
us, to obtain eternal forgiveness for us. He died in the place
of His people as their substitute, was buried, and God raised Him
again to declare our justification. We're justified in Him. You that
believe Christ and rest in Him, You're justified of God. You
have eternal life. You have all the blessings of
God in Christ. And He'll continue to reveal
Him to your hearts more and more. Shine that light more and more
in our dark hearts and minds to know Christ really is everything. He really is the salvation of
God. He really is sufficient to save
me to the uttermost. And that's what our Lord is saying
here is don't be turned by the philosophies and the vain deceits.
Believe the Lord Jesus Christ. He's everything you need. He
is sufficient to save you to the uttermost. Rest in Him. Believe
Him. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace and your mercy, fully, freely, abundantly provided
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, grow us in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We don't want to
stop. We want to follow, and we want
to follow Christ. We want to see him. Lord, call
us to him. Keep us looking to him, walking
on that narrow way that's as wide and as tall as he is. Lord,
let us follow Him. Keep us in that perfect way,
that right way, that way of righteousness, in Christ, in Christ alone. It's
in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Yeah, it says... Did I? I'm sorry. Hold on. Let me see how it's
written in here. I mean, I copied it. For what
the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in likeness as sinful flesh, and forcing
condemnation in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. What did I say? I thought you
said law, so. Who walk not after the flesh,
but after the law? Yeah, that's what I thought you
said. And I thought, well, mine doesn't say that. No, no, no.
It says spirit there, so. OK. OK. No, no, all right, that
was just a... Yeah, sorry.