This is. It sounds, reads just like Ephesians,
doesn't it? That's by design, because it's
all the same. The title, subject, text is verse
10. You are complete in Him. How does that sound to you? Well, in verse 8, he says, beware. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments or elements of the world, and not after Christ. Verse 16 says, Let no man judge
you, neither drink in respect of a holy day and new moon. You
know, I look at my phone for various reasons, and I've got
a Bible concordance on there for quick access And they have
ads at the bottom. I hate them. But anyway, this
is supposed to be a holy week. That's what it said. I don't
know what's going on, you know. There ain't no such thing as
a holy week. There's no such thing. Holy day. One day more holy than another. That's the tradition of men.
That's what Paul's going to warn us about here. Holy days, new
moon, Sabbath day. Verse 18, let no man beguile
you. Verse 22, he said all these things
are to perish. Don't be fooled by the doctrines
of men. So he's telling us to beware
of men. Deceivers. And that's what our
Lord said to the disciples when he sent them out, didn't he?
Beware of men. Satan is called the man of sin, and the beast,
the Antichrist, his ministers are men. And they're the deceivers. They're the deceivers. He warns
us. He warns us about the beware
of men. There's a young man who's been
coming here. I don't know if he's listening
to this right now, He is very wary of us, of me. That's what he should be. He should be, shouldn't he? Everyone
should. Try the spirits. Many false prophets
have gone out of their way. We need to try them. Put them
to the test. How? Right here. And getting a little more in-depth
to it, Paul tells us, is that if they don't preach Christ,
if they're not holding forth Christ always, all the time,
all the time. Anyone says there's something
more, no there isn't. Christ is all. So he says, beware lest any man,
verse 8, spoil you. That's what men spoil is a fellow
go into a town and get everything for himself. Those are the spoils.
And that's what men do. They draw away disciples after
themselves, not Christ. They don't want to follow Christ.
They want to follow them. They want to be part of their
congregation, part of their church, part of their organization. That's
what men want. They don't want people in the
kingdom of God, per se. They want them in their church. Right? That's the way they encompass
sea and land to make proselyte. That's what proselyte mean. Follow
us. No. John, one time, had two disciples. I loved him. He had two disciples,
and there was Christ. He said, behold the Lamb. And
they quit following John and started following Christ. John
said, my work is finished. He had two church members, lost
them both. He said, revivals come. That's a fact. That's a fact. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy. Philosophy is human reasoning,
opinions, whatever man thinks about God, about man, about life,
that's philosophy, human philosophy. Greek, you've read, some of you
have read Greek philosophy. Did it do you any good? Aristotle
and Plato and all these, did it do you any good? God's Word says, hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world? It's just foolishness.
The world, by wisdom, doesn't know God. by the preaching of
the gospel, which they call foolishness. Humanism, philosophy, our universities,
our schools, our colleges, the world is full of it. And so therefore
full of themselves and full of sin and have missed God and missed
Christ. It's not philosophy. Vain deceit, verse 8, it said,
vain deceit. Vain means empty. Pain means
empty, empty knowledge, useless knowledge. Some of you did take
philosophy or sociology, didn't you? Psychology in school, didn't
you, Ron? You just had to, didn't you?
You wouldn't have taken it. What good did it do you? It's all about man. Man's worth, man's works, man's
value, man, man, man, man. The scriptures, the truth is
the opposite of everything God said. I mean everything man said,
opposite. And it's vain, it's empty. Man is full of vanity, that is,
vain conceit. He thinks he's something, but
he's nothing. Thinks he knows something, but he knows nothing.
Thinks he can do something, but he can't do anything without
God. It's all him. In Him we live and move and have
our being. What's the meaning of life? God.
Christ. So beware, he says, vain deceit. This lies. Paul warns and warns
and warns the evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived. They themselves are deceived.
They're very zealous, they're very bold, they believe what
they believe. Yeah, they believe lies. Satan's
a master of it. And he's behind it. He's the
father of lie. And the way he lies and what
appeals to people is flattery. That's what he did to Steve.
You'll be his god. He's been lying ever since, and
all his ministers are liars. Anybody who preaches man is a
liar. God's ministers preach Christ,
the man. Behold the man, Christ Jesus. He's all. He's all. The tradition of man, look at
verse 8, after the tradition of man. Go to Mark 7 with me. Our Lord says this four times
in Mark chapter 7 about the tradition of man. Mark chapter 7, the Lord
deals with it. And this always has been and
is now. Men hold their traditions. been
handed down, what their fathers believed, what their grandfathers
believed, what their churches and denominations believed. That's
what people hold to. It doesn't matter what God's
Word said. Mark 7, it said the Pharisees,
verse 3, except they wash often, holding the tradition of the
elders, verse 4, they come to the market, they wash, they don't
eat, and many other things there be which they have perceived
to hold as washing of cups and pots and raising vessels and
tables, verse 5. And the Pharisees and scribes,
they noticed his disciples weren't washing thoroughly. Well, that's pretty appropriate
right now, isn't it? But anyway, why walk not thy disciples according
to the tradition of the elders? They eat bread with unwashing
hands. And he answered and said unto
them, well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites. See, always
call them hypocrite. You're playing a part. What you
do is to be seen of men. That's why you wash. One time
he said, you've washed the outside of the cup and the inside's full
of extortion. Cleaned up your life, but God
looks on the heart. Verse 6, he answered and said,
Isaiah said, this people honoreth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. How in vain do they worship me? It's empty religion. Teaching
for doctrines are commandments of men. Read on. Laying aside
the commandment of God. Never mind what God's Word said.
This is what our denomination said. Behold the tradition of
men, like washing of pots and other such like things you do.
Verse 9. He said, and if full well you
reject the commandment of God, you may keep your own tradition. Look it down at verse 13. Make
the Word of God of no effect through your tradition. Now look
at this. This shocked all those religious
people. Verse 14. He called all the people
unto him and said, Now, come here. I want you to listen to
me. Hearken to me. Every one of you. And you need to understand this. Verse 15. There is nothing from
without a man. Entering in him can defy them. Oh my, they lost it. We touch not, taste not, handle
not, we keep the law, we don't do this, we do this, we don't
do this. If that's your salvation, Christ died in vain. That's how serious it is. If
righteousness come by the law, Christ is standing there. The second Adam, the covenant
head, the only mediator between God and man, the only righteous
man God will accept, the only person God will hear. And they
said, we don't need you. We're doing fine without you.
We're going to work our way to God. Okay. You see, it's all in him. It's all up to him. And like striving, we've been
looking at this, how do you get into the kingdom? Ask. Not do. Ask. How do you get into the
kingdom? Believe. Look. That's not enough. Yes it is. Christ is enough. God says, my son's enough. I'm satisfied with Him. Look
to Him. Look and be saved. He's God. There is none other. Boy, I just
told the gospels. Beware. Beware. And it says in our text, it says,
beware of vain deceit, the tradition of men, the rudiments of the
world, the elements. That which is flesh is flesh. There's nothing you can do by
your flesh to inherit the spirit world. That's what Christ said. That which is flesh is flesh.
That which is spirit is spirit. And not after Christ. Not after Christ. Down in verse
19, it says they don't hold the head. There's some, they're not
holding the head. which all the body by joints and bands of nourishment
minister knit together, see it's all up to the head. Look at verse 10, it says, you're
complete in him, he's the head of all principalities and power.
All right, look at verse 9. It says, now in Christ dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All the fullness. Chapter
1, verse 19. We've already looked at this.
Oh, my. We didn't scratch the surface. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. All we need to know and believe
about God and about eternal life is in Jesus Christ. He summed
it up these three ways. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That takes in everything, the
way, the truth, and the life. Truth about what? Anything. You
can see it. The way. Life. The meaning of life. What is
it? He that hath the Son hath life. It's all right there. All fullness in Him. Verse 9
says, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 1 Timothy 3.16. This ought to
be a memory verse. This is, my, my, what a verse. 1 Timothy 3.16. Most people know
John 3.16. Well, they can quote it, they
don't know it. But 1 Timothy 3.16, my, my, this is just as
marvelous. That's John 3.16. You have it,
1 Timothy 3.16. Now this is without controversy.
Though there's a controversy among men, no, no controversy. This is the truth. Great is the mystery of godliness.
How man can know God, be with God. Godliness. God was manifested
in the flesh. That man named Jesus. is the
one who made the planets. The babe in that mother's arms
made her. I don't understand. No, we will
never fully understand. Because it's a mystery. We believe. Justified in the Spirit, the
Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit justified Him, declared Him to
be the one, the Christ, That's what his name means, Christ,
the anointed one. Seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up unto glory. God was manifested
in the flesh. All the fullness of the Godhead
in a body. Jesus Christ. He is God. They didn't believe it when it
came. They said, you're just a man, you make yourself to be
God. No, I am. They said, if you be the Christ,
tell us plainly. He said, I told you. You believe
not, because you're not my sheep. My sheep here, they know me.
Who are you? I am that I am. I am. God manifested the flesh. God, the Father. He said, he
that hath seen me hath seen the Father. They said, you're not
50 years old. Have you seen Abraham? Moses wrote me. You can't be,
you're just a man. People really don't believe more
than that now do. They still think of him, refer
to him as Jesus. They call him Lord, because that's
who he is. They call him God, because that's what he is. Godhead
bodily. Godhead bodily. God the Father is a spirit. You'll
never see God. No man has seen God at any time.
Can't see. But Job said, I'm going to see
God. Who's he going to see? Jesus
Christ. The only begotten bodily image. Let us make man, God began, By
saying, let us make man in our image, our own image. All of
them together. Father's a spirit, the Spirit's
a spirit. The Son was made flesh. A body has to prepare me. Why?
To speak, to deal with human beings. To condemn sin in His name. Flesh. That's right. Because
that's what we are. Flesh is sin. The body of sin. And Christ was made flesh and
then made sin. It's all up to Him. It's in Him. It's in Him. All the fullness of the Godhead
body. He's the only God we will ever see. He's the only God we'll
ever hear from. He's the Word. He's the voice
of God. God said, He just pleased me. He made a whole universe for
His Son. Such a mystery. Boy, you're talking
about, I'm talking about things too wonderful for me, but this
is the truth. All right. Verse 10 says, Now
you are complete. in Him. He's the head of all,
principality and power. You're complete in Him. What
this is talking about, and Paul wrote it in Ephesians and Colossians
and all through the Scripture, is this union God's people have
with Christ, in Christ. Like a child in the womb. A child in the womb. Everything that mother is, the
child is. The child owes its life to that
mother, right? In her, it lives and moves and
has its being. Born of water. When she gives
birth, there's water and blood. What a picture that is of our
Lord. We're in Him. In Him. Child in the womb. Everything
she does, the child does. Whoever loves her loves it. Can't
love one and not love the other. If she's accepted, the child's
accepted. That may be a simple illustration,
but it's as good as I can come up with. It's this union with
Christ. We're in Him. And there are just
hundreds of verses that say that. In Him, in Him. This is union. All right, here
it is in a nutshell. Before the world, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, purposed a kingdom of human beings,
men, women, young people. And they called it a new spiritual
kingdom. They called it the kingdom of
God, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God's dear Son. The kingdom of His dear Son.
He met God the Father and Spirit. Christ, they all agreed that
Christ would be the head over it all, the husband of the bride. And so God purposed this kingdom
and put all things, the whole of this kingdom, the whole of
this work of salvation, all these This bride of Christ has fallen,
they're forlorn, they're sinful, they're wretched. And so God
vested everything, the salvation, the bringing of his people, in
Christ. They gave it all to Christ. Okay? Put all things in the hands.
Preachers give themselves away when they say God has no hands
but your hands. They don't know God, they don't
know Jesus Christ, they don't know salvation, they don't know
it. And that's been said for years, hasn't it? But it's a
tradition of man. It's foolishness. God has no
hands? We're in them. Whose hands? God does have hands. God has
a body, and that body is Jesus Christ. And we're in His hands. Jesus Christ's hands. Didn't He tell His disciples
when they were just amazed after He rose? I didn't believe it
was him. The first thing he said was, hold my hands. See, God gave everything to Christ
like the high priest of old. The salvation, the acceptance
of God, of the sacrifice, everything was placed in the high priest
of old who will go into the holy of holies, not without blood.
But he was doing this for a lot of people. Israel, his 11th,
okay? And on his shoulders were names,
weren't there? Twelve tribes, all names. On his breastplate, that's Christ's
heart. On his shoulders, Jesus Christ,
the weight of all of God's people was laid on his shoulders. Can he bear it? He did. He does. There's an old foolish tradition
that Christ fell beneath the load of the cross. He did not. That's not in the Bible. He didn't
fall down under that cross, no sir. Well then why did another
man bear it for him? Well, we'll preach the whole
message on that. Because we're going to bear his cross too.
But he didn't need help. Didn't he? That's a picture of
how the Lord, we bear his cross. His cross. Well, God laid on
him, put on him, on Christ, the weight of all this work on his
shoulders. He had names on his shoulders,
he had names on his breath, and it says they were graved on the
palms of his hands. Now, what God said and the Spirit
said, go, son. Now, just like a parable. Go, son. Save them all. They can't do it. Go. Save them.
Wash them. Justify them. Sanctify them.
Redeem them. Find everyone that's lost. Find
them. Bring them to me. Justify them. They're guilty.
Keep the law for them. Bear their blame. Bear their
sin. in your body on the tree, bear their curse, bear their
guilt, be made their wisdom. They don't
know nothing. Be their wisdom. Be their righteousness. They're just sinners through
and through. Be their sanctification. Whatever you do, I'll accept
on their behalf. Be their justification. Be their redemption. They can't
pay for one crime. You pay it all. Do it all, son. It all depends on this. Did he
do it? All of it? Is there anything left undone?
Incomplete? He paid it all. He did it all. He finished hanging on the cross.
He said, it is finished. What's finished, man? It's finished. Complete. I completed it. It's done. It's done. But what? It's done. Now what do we do? Nothing. It's
done. If it's done, it's done. Everybody
knows what done is. That's what that one woman said
to this A fellow about his religion said, your religion consists
in two letters, D-O. Mine's four. D-O-N-E. Done. Done. Complete. Finished. Before he went to the cross,
he took three disciples, three chosen disciples, Peter, James,
and John, up onto a mountain. for them to see who he was, really
was, why he came. And there met with him two men
that represent all the Bible, Moses, the law, and Elijah, the
prophets. They met there. You know what
they talked about? They talked with Christ and the
disciples were overhearing it. And they says they spoke of the
death he should accomplish. What's accomplishment? Finished. Complete. Done. Nothing left
to be done. It's over. The death he should
accomplish. What's that? The death of death. Brought life, immortality to
life through the gospel. To him give all the prophets
witness. Moses wrote of him. The whole Bible is about this
one who is to come. The Old Testament said someone's
coming. Who? The one that's going to save
you. The gospel said he's here. The epistle said he did it. He's
coming back for those that he bought. Going to take them all
to glory. Going to get every one of them
he paid for. Now, where are we in occasion? Okay, where are
we in the equation? In him. In him. Nothing's up to us. Nothing. Nothing. Some people say, well, this is,
that's, whatever, I had to know him anyway. I don't, say what
you want to. This is salvation. It's in him.
You're complete in him. Completely washed. Completely
justified. But this Peter one time, when
the Lord was washing feet, he said, oh Lord, don't just wash
my feet, wash me all over. My mind, my ears, my head, I
just feel filthy all over. He said, you're washed. You are
washed. He said, you're clean, is the
word. You're clean. They didn't understand that.
We don't completely understand, but we just need to know that
he did it. Okay? He did it. Washed. Completely
justified. Completely sanctified. Completely
redeemed. Completely accepted by God on
behalf of Jesus Christ. Completely. Completely. Completely. You're complete in Him. Don't
need anything else. Is that good news? I'm having
a hard time not just bursting out of that. Complete. Boy, Paul loved that. He's the
one that wrote this, the Lord wrote it, because he spent most
part of his life trying to keep the law. Oh, he's so glad he's
not in the law. Beware. So he said, beware. You're completing him. Verse
10, he's the head of all principality and power. Because he did this,
God said, I've made him Lord over all, the dead and the living.
And verse 11, read on with me, it says, in him you're circumcised
with a circumcision made without hand, putting off the body of
the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. What
does that mean? It means, what that's saying
is talking about Christ crucified. In His flesh, in our flesh dwelleth
no good thing. In His flesh dwelleth no sin. No sin. He's the second Adam. In Adam, all die. In Christ,
all made alive. God deals with two men, Adam
and the second Adam. In Adam, we all die. But in Christ,
if we're in Christ, we're made alive. In Christ came flesh. A body has to have prepared man.
It shall be perfect, God said, to be accepted. Without spot,
without blemish. The flesh, the flesh, flesh and
blood can't inherit the kingdom of God because we're sin. But
Christ came in the flesh, a man, and kept the law perfectly. But didn't just do it, He spoke
it, loved it. And God said, I'm well pleased
for His righteousness. This man, everything about him,
even his flesh is holy. Why did He do that? Well, not
show us how, but for us. Then God, in a mystery, made
him to be sin. In him was no sin. In us is nothing but sin. And God switched places, made
him sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
I don't know, that's just the way it is. And His flesh was
an offering to God. And His soul was made an offering.
The soul that sinneth shall surely die. Flesh, this body of sin. Christ condemned sin in the flesh,
bore our sin in His body on the tree. All the sins of all of
God's people, from the beginning to the end, were laid on Him,
put in Him, and God punished all the sins of all of God's
people. His blood was shed for the remission of our sin, and
God satisfied. That's it. Christ crucified. Circumcised. Cutting off of useless
flesh. That's what Christ crucified
did. The flesh can't inherit. Christ did it in the flesh. All right, verse 12, he says
we're buried with him in baptism. The soul that says it must surely
die. We're going to die. This body's going to die because
it's a body of sin. It's a body of... It's going
to die. It's going to die. Christ was buried with him. Buried. And that's a picture of how that
if we're dead, if Christ was crucified because of our sin,
and Christ was buried, that's over, it's finished. You can't punish a dead man again,
can you? If he's, all right, the law has
come, guilty, condemnation is death, death, okay, you put him
to death, the law says, Sold it, sent it, made him a sinner. He's dead. Oh, we found something
that he's guilty of. You can't dig him up and kill
him again. He's dead. That's enough, okay? You're dead. You're crucified
with crime. Isn't that good news? He's not goat hunting, and he's
satisfied. Dead. Buried with Him in baptism. Baptism. Picture that. That's
what we're saying when we're baptized. We say, I believe that
all that Christ did, He did it for me. I can do nothing. I believe
He did it all. But He rose. If He'd have stayed dead, if
He hadn't have come out of that tomb, He's just a man like us.
But He arose from the grave. What's that mean? God accepted.
God's pleased with everything he did. And it said, but you're
risen with him. Why? You're in him. You're in
him. And he went back, and where did
he sit at? At the right hand of the majesty
on high. What Scripture said? We're seated in him. We're with
him. We're in him. This is wonderful. And verse
12, and I've got to quit. It says, through the faith of
the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. Faith, by
grace you say through faith. That's not of yourself, it's
the gift of God. And believing Christ, looking to Christ, knowing
these things in part, but we do know and we believe and we
trust Him, we look to Him, we love this so great salvation,
is the operation of God on a human being, in a human being. It's
not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. It's the working of his
mighty power. And he often takes religious
people, like Saul of Tarsus, who's just so steeped in tradition
and works and all of that. Surely there's something I've
got to do. And he completely gives them the mind of Christ,
fills them with the knowledge of Christ. He makes them have the mind of
Christ. Christ is all. Christ is all
my salvation. And quicken together. There's so much more to say,
and we'll have to pick it up next time. I want to go on, but
we'll wait right there. You're complete. Your salvation
was completely up to Jesus Christ. And he did it. Everyone that
believes him, trust him because he completed it.