Well, we're back in Colossians
chapter two this morning. I just want to read the first
10 verses to start with, to remind us of what we thought about last
week in the first seven verses, and then to focus on the verses
we're going to look at this morning. Paul writes, For I would that
ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea,
and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto
all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And
this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the
spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness
of your faith in Christ. 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 ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. 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. 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. The Christian life is a journey
to paradise, to the paradise of God. It's a pilgrimage. graphically
illustrated by Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. It's a pilgrimage from
this life on earth, in the flesh, to the paradise of God. And we're
to set our hearts on it. Look at verse 2 of chapter 3,
where Paul is absolutely explicit. Set your affection, the things
you want, the things you love, the things you desire, set your
affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Set your
affection there, is what he's saying. Cultivate a desire for
heaven, because believers The people who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, his saints, are not citizens of this world, but are citizens
of the kingdom of God. And that kingdom, as Jesus told
Pilate, is not of this world. He said himself, he said in John
8, 23, he said to them, you, the Pharisees that he was talking
to, the unbelieving Pharisees, he said, you are from beneath,
I am from above. Ye are of this world. I am not
of this world, for he was from heaven, and the people of God
in Christ are citizens of that kingdom. We use the world, we
enjoy aspects of the world, but it mustn't be our must-have collection
of things. Paul has encouraged the Colossians
to continue in Christ exactly as they started with the same
faith that they believed in coming to the knowledge of the truth
and salvation in him and that they might grow in knowledge
of the truth and that they might grow in love for one another
and fellowship and mutual encouragement together. He warned of those
that might impede their course, their progress towards that paradise
of God with what he says in verse 4, enticing words, beware lest
any man should beguile you with entice, words that would lure
you, words that would appeal to you and lure, oh I like that
philosophy, yes I can go along, beware lest any man entice you,
beguile you with enticing words. So now he continues the warning
in verse 8. In verse 8, He tells them, he
tells us, beware of this world's philosophy. And secondly, because
find all that you need in Christ. There's a serious warning, but
there's such an encouragement. So first of all then, beware
of worldly philosophy. Here it is, 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.
You're on a journey to the celestial city. You're on a journey to
the paradise of God. Beware, lest anyone in this world,
anything in this world, tricks you, spoils you, takes you captive
through its philosophy, its godless philosophy. Beware of it. We've
already heard last week, Satan, Peter says it, Satan is prowling
like a lion looking for the saints of God, seeking whom he might
devour. Satan is in a war with the people
of God. It says that in Revelation chapter
12, where the church is pictured as that woman, that woman with
stars around her head, that's the church. And from her comes
the Christ who accomplishes redemption and returns to heaven. And Satan
is cast down. And how is he cast down? He's
cast out because Christ has taken away his ability to accuse the
brethren. The accuser of the brethren is
cast down. And Satan is cast out of heaven,
down to the earth. And woe to the peoples of the
earth, because he's down here amongst us now. And it says in
verse 17 of Revelation 12, that he was furious, wroth with the
woman. He was furious with the Church
of God. He was furious with the woman
and her children. Her children are you and me if
we're believers. We're children of the Church,
the true Church of God. And he's at war. It says he makes
war with the woman and her children. War? What war? What am I talking
about? War? There's war going on in
different places. But what am I talking about?
With us, war? Yes, war. The kingdom of Satan versus the
kingdom of God. That's the war that we're in.
We're all in it. There's no opting out. The kingdom
of Satan versus the kingdom of God. And it's a war of ideas. It's a war of ideas. And this
is at the fundamental of it. You get this and you understand
so much. Satan says, that you can attain
a heavenly type of utopia without the satisfaction of the justice
of God against sin. That's what Satan says. That's
Satan's banner, Satan's message is, you can achieve happiness,
a utopia, a heavenly experience, without the justice of God for
sin being satisfied. And it was first graphically
illustrated in the Bible in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel. With
the Tower of Babel, which was an attempt by Global man they
were all in unity all speaking the same language and they were
building a tower whether it was a literal tower doesn't matter
the point is they were trying it says to attain to heaven by
man's Ingenuity and not by satisfaction of the justice of God and that
is a lie Where does it come from it comes from Satan? Who is he?
He's the father of lies. He knows he's defeated because
he's been cast out of heaven. He's excluded from God's kingdom.
And he strives to prevent, to stop all humanity from attaining
it, any of humanity from attaining it. So you believers, beware. All of us, beware. Because Satan's
agents You know it's like a war, you know in the Second World
War you see movies about German spies coming and infiltrating
British society and seeming so nice and seeming... Seeing so
plausible and so likable and wouldn't harm anybody and yet
underneath they're the agents of the enemy. Satan has his agents
all around the people of God and the church of God. Who are
his agents? Who are his agents? Oh, global
organizations. The World Economic Forum, yes,
yes, that's an agent of Satan, yes. Globalist ideas of government,
yes, that's an agent of Satan. National governments, yes, they're
evil. We don't have to look far, do we, in this nation of ours
to see what evil governments can do in the name of what they
call right, in the name of the doctrine of Satan's kingdom.
Scientific institutions, well, aren't they just objective truth?
The idea was that they used to be, but I don't think they are
anymore. Scientific institutions, yes, they're the agents of Satan
in this world, trying to come up with ideas that will knock
you and me, believer, off the course of our path, our pilgrimage
to heaven. Education. Oh, what can be wrong
with education? What's the mantra of any politician
that wants to get elected? What's his main theme? Education,
education, education. Do you know academia is riddled
with ideas that will knock you off the course from this world
to the paradise of God? Don't be in any doubt. Medical
organizations, pharmaceutical organizations, oh, writers of
literature, but isn't all literature good? Aren't books good? I didn't
say they were bad, but think of this. The writers of those
books, do many of them know anything of the gospel of grace? And therefore
what they write is written from the perspective of the kingdom
of Satan and not the perspective of the kingdom of God. Directors
of films and of plays, drama, They do it from the perspective
of the kingdom of Satan. I don't know, I just do not watch
any drama on BBC television anymore for this simple reason. The people
that they commissioned to write have an agenda which is completely
aligned with the kingdom of Satan. and its attempt is to destroy
anything to do with the Kingdom of God. Artists of all sorts
are the agents of Satan in this world. The TV, the BBC, which
used to be respected as the pillar of objective, truthful reporting,
It's now the mouthpiece of the agenda of the kingdom of Satan,
as the mainstream media. Oh, we can all agree, they are
definitely the agents of Satan, aren't they? And we need to be
aware of all of those. Can I just go a little bit closer to home?
What about close but unbelieving acquaintances? We interact with
them all the time. What about close but unbelieving
family members? I'm telling you, according to
the scripture, They are Satan's agents, trying to knock us off
course, trying to beguile us, to spoil us, to give us enticing
words. What is it that unites them?
What is it that unites them? Just as at the Tower of Babel,
they deny that Christ's redeeming blood is the only qualification
for entry to God's kingdom. Why do I say that? They're no
harm to me. If they didn't deny it, they
would embrace it. That's the point. If they didn't
deny it, they would embrace it because there's no sitting on
the fence. Listen, we aim as believers as much as we can to
live at peace with all men, to be sociable, to be friendly,
but don't be deceived into thinking that the unbelieving world around
us thinks like believers because they don't. Beware, beware. It says here, Paul says, beware
lest any man spoil you. Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit. What does it mean? The word there,
spoil, doesn't just mean make a mess of it, you know, like
you might spill something on a nice clean shirt. No, it doesn't
mean that it means make you a spoil of war You know the spoils of
war where the victor takes all the spoils of war beware lest
the kingdom of Satan and his agents Make you a spoil a captive
of his kingdom make you a spoil of that war That's between the
kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God make you captive to worldly
thinking How do they do it? Look look it says beware lest
any man spoil you how are they going to do that? through philosophy,
through philosophy and vain deceit, through philosophy. What is philosophy? Literally it means, philo is
love, philosophy means a love of the wisdom of this world.
A love of the wisdom of, they'll give you, they'll try to deceive
you, they'll try to take you captive with a love of the thinking
and the ideas and the philosophy of this world. Because you know
that it says in the scripture, in 1 Corinthians chapter one,
that in the wisdom of God, which is the only true wisdom, The
world, through its wisdom, knew not God. This world thought we
can attain to heaven without the knowledge of God. Through
our own wisdom we can get to God, but in the wisdom of God
he said they can't. that the world through its own
wisdom cannot know God. The world's ideas of origins,
the world's ideas of this life that we live, of relationships
within this world, of destiny, ultimate destiny, without God,
the world's ideas, without any influence of the truth of God,
are but, what does it say there? Vain deceit. Vain deceit. They can only deceive you. They
cannot reveal the truth. Human wisdom, don't get me wrong,
human wisdom has great uses. God's commission to man was to
subdue the earth, to exploit it, to use its resources. You
know, we actually have a commission from God to go, as Donald Trump
says, drill, drill, drill for oil and gas and do all of those
things. We actually have that commission from God to subdue
the earth, to use its resources, to make useful things. This is
true science. This is proper engineering. This
is truthful medicine, but when it purports to declare the truth
about where we came from and where we're going to, as it does
all of the time about life and its eternal destinies, it is
utter, vain deceit. I love music, and I was listening
on the radio to a BBC promenade concert the other night, and
the discussion going on, it was something to do with origins.
They were having this great long discussion and I switched it
off because it became such abject, vain deceit, such utter nonsense,
because all they were trying to tell us was that the Bible
is a load of mythological rubbish and now we as people in the kingdom
of Satan know the truth. It's vain deceit! All of it is
driven by man and the thoughts of man. And what does Romans
1.28, that Stephen read to us earlier, say about that? Man
did not like to retain God in his knowledge. I put an article
in the Bulletin by B.H. Carroll, which I hope you can
read. You probably need to read it two or three times to get
it. But it's about human philosophy. And within it, he says this.
About philosophy, human philosophy. Within bounds, within limits,
it has a great place, great use. But even in that place, its value
may be greatly overestimated. I am quite sure that more than
half of the matter in the textbooks on philosophy in all our schools,
colleges and universities is the most worthless rubbish, and
some of it rank poison." I 100% agree with that statement. But
anyone questioning modern worldly wisdom is immediately labeled
conspiracy theorist. Oh, you're a conspiracy theorist!
One of my neighbours keeps telling me that I'm a conspiracy theorist
because I hold these views that don't buy and swallow all the
theories of this world. The BBC, that once respected
organization has now set up what you would think would be a very
good thing. It's an outfit called BBC Verify. Its sole purpose is this, to
declare anything that doesn't align with the philosophy of
this world, with the doctrine of the kingdom of Satan, to be
wrong. That's its sole purpose. So anything
which is of the truth, BBC Verify will tell you that it's a lie
because it doesn't align with the doctrine of the Kingdom of
Heaven. And where does the rubber hit
the road, as it were? You get cases, I read about them
all the time, of honest doctors trying to do an honest thing,
trying to do the right truthful thing, being struck off by the
General Medical Council. Tradition of men, look there
it says, after the tradition of men, godless thinking of one
generation passed down to the next and so on. And it's all
based on the rudiments of the world, after the rudiments of
the world, the elements, the basic ideas of fallen mankind,
of the kingdom of Satan. We're not just talking about
godless philosophy in the world as it is, but religious as well. In the context of this letter
to the Colossians, and another one to the Galatians, a couple
of epistles earlier, In the context, the biggest thing that would
threaten the believers on their road to the paradise of God was
the influence of Jewish Old Testament religion hanging on, seeming
to threaten the Colossians' peace and their assurance that they
were right in the Lord Jesus Christ and they didn't need all
of those things. Look how the Old Testament types
have been adopted by false Christianity right down to our day today. You look at Anglicanism and Catholicism
and the robes and all of those things attempting to mimic the
robes and the priesthood of Aaron and his sons and the Levitical
priesthood. The cathedrals attempting to
mimic the beauty of the tabernacle and then the temple in Jerusalem.
And in the process, it's caused them to miss Christ mostly, if
not 100%. No, no, it's not in those things. The truth The way to life, the
way to eternal peace does not lie in the rudiments of the world
and its vain deceit and its philosophy, its love of worldly wisdom. It
lies only in Christ, not after Christ, only in Christ, only
in Christ. Here we come to, that's the negative,
here's the positive. On that road to eternal glory,
you are complete in Christ. Complete, look at it, for in
Him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And you, believer, you, Colossian believers, you, Laodicean believers,
you believers here today in this little meeting room, you out
there with us on the internet, if you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality
and power. Why is Christ the only answer
to the questions of truth and of life. You know, questions
about where I come from, how I navigate earthly life. where
I'm going to when my life is over. Questions that human wisdom
is incapable of answering other than with blatant lies, such
as, oh, you evolved from a pool of slime several billions of
years ago. Blatant lie, utterly impossible. You say, well, there's you standing
alone against the world of the most erudite scientists. They
did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Why did they
not like to retain God in their knowledge? I'll tell you exactly
why, and I've told you many times before, but I think it's worth
repeating. In the 1970s, when I was teaching science, I was
trying to get the science department not to teach evolution as a proven
fact, but as a hypothesis held by some. And I debated with a
lovely lady, now long since gone, but she was a biology teacher.
And we had all sorts of debates. And in those days, you didn't
do it by email. You did it by notes in your pigeonhole in the
staff room. And she would give me a note in my... and I'd reply
to it and put it back in hers. And it finished when she said
this to me. She said these very telling words
to me. She didn't prove to me scientifically
that evolution was true, because she couldn't. But what she did
say was, I hope evolution is true. Because if it isn't, It
means I am accountable to a God who made me. And the thought
of that is appalling. Now, isn't that telling? And
that's it. They did not like to retain God
in their knowledge. For true life, for true knowledge,
we must know God. But as sinners, we can't see
him, we can't interact with him. But Christ, the God-man, manifests,
makes known the hidden God to his people. The hidden eternal
God was manifested. in that baby born at Bethlehem,
as Micah 5 verse 2 said, about this baby born in Bethlehem,
his goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. beyond
our capacity to understand. But we see it because God has
declared it and we believe it. Almighty God, infinite God, as
the hymn writers said, two separate ones I think use the same phrase,
God contracted to the span of a little baby boy. God contracted
to a span. And it says here, look, in this
one, Christ, The man Christ Jesus, the God-man, in him, in that
body, in that human being, in that human person dwelt all the
fullness, the fullness, there's none of it missing, of the Godhead
bodily. That word Godhead there is very
powerful. That word is deity. deity be
in no doubt you can't put any spin on it other than that this
is almighty god in a human body it's a powerful word is that
the fullness of the godhead the deity bodily god in flesh made
for a little while as it says in hebrews made for a little
while lower than the angels god who was equal with God, who thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation,
the second person of the blessed Trinity, and he made himself
lower than the angels for a little while. Why? That he might partake
of the same flesh and blood as his children, his beloved multitude,
as the children, as his people, chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, have partaken of flesh and blood so he did. Why? So that he might suffer the death.
that they ought to suffer under the justice of God but they would
then not be able to inhabit his kingdom and so he did it in their
place that justice be satisfied and that his people might be
justified and that his people might be qualified for his kingdom.
If you would find the answer to the questions of life that
the world's philosophy vainly deceives to answer, and it does
it all the time, look only to Christ. Why? Verse three, for
in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In him
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. How do
we get to know them? Only by the revelation of God
the Holy Spirit. They're revealed in his word
by his Spirit. The elect multitude that God
chose in love before time, and that he united with himself in
Christ the Son, under divine justice, are declared by God. That multitude, and you included,
if you're in there, if you're a believer, if you're trusting
in Christ, not because of anything you have done, but where you
find yourself trusting Christ, you are complete in him. You know that you are counted
amongst that elect multitude, not by virtue of any good in
you, but by virtue of the fact that God has given you the gift
of faith. You believe him. What is the work that we must
do? That we do the work of God. This is the work of God, that
you believe on him whom he has sent. You bow to his lordship. You submit. You know that in
every other respect, in every respect, man is a liar and God
is true. You embrace him. You embrace
him as your master. Willingly, with your ear bored
through as they did with the slaves, the ones that loved their
master. Pierce the ear. You embrace him
as a master. You love him as your friend because
he said, I call you no longer servants, though you're a willing
servant. He says, I call you my friend. You seek to follow
him. We trip up and we stumble and
we are subject to the vagaries of the flesh and of sin all the
time, but we seek to follow, to serve. We seek to proclaim
him in this fallen world. And by virtue of that union with
him, you are fully qualified for God's eternal kingdom. You
need payment for sin. Romans 8, 34. Can the accuser
of the brethren accuse you of sin and thereby exclude you from
heaven? No. Why? Christ has died for
you. You know by faith he's died for
you. He's died for you. He's paid your debt to the justice
of God. His lifeblood has paid redemption's
price. Ah, you need holiness, don't
you, before you can get into heaven, don't you? You need to
be working at it now, don't you? No. God made him his son who
knew no sin. He made him to be sin. Why? So that a monumental transaction
might take place. He was made sin and paid its
penalty so that the people he did it for might be made the
righteousness of God in him. You are complete in him. You
need protection from Satan and the world and the weakness of
the flesh. He's promised that he'll never
let you go. Nothing can snatch God's children
from the Father's hand. You need to be ready for heaven,
don't you? You need to be appropriately attired. You wouldn't go to the
marriage supper of the Lamb inappropriately attired, would you? There are
parables about someone trying to do that and being cast out
of heaven. No, no, you need a wedding garment
suitable. How are you going to get that
for the marriage supper of the Lamb? He has provided it. You
are complete in Him. He has clothed each of His children,
all of them, He's clothed them, irrespective of their sense in
the flesh and this world, he has clothed them. Whatever you
feel like in this world, we know, as sinners in this world, we
feel unfit. But his word assures us that
by the decree of God, you are clothed with the garments of
salvation, with the robe of righteousness, as it says in Isaiah 61 verse
10. You are complete in him. You're complete in him. He is
the head of all principality and power. He is the preeminent
one, as we saw in chapter one. In Him all the fullness of the
Godhead dwells. He is preeminent over all things. All of it was made by Him and
for Him for His purposes of grace to recover His people from the
fall and from the curse of sin. All of it is in Him. We have
it all in Him. Beware, lest any man, this world,
agents of Satan in this world spoil you. through the philosophy
of the kingdom of Satan, through the vain deceit of the kingdom
of Satan, through the tradition of men. Well, my dad told me
this and his dad told him that. No, after the rudiments of old.
No, after Christ, for we are complete in him. Remember, and
I'm gonna finish very soon. Remember, this was written by
the man who was Saul of Tarsus. A young man, he was Saul of Tarsus.
He was a top-ranking Pharisee. There was no one more ardent
than Saul of Tarsus. And his objective then was to
crush the sect of those who followed Jesus, because he regarded them
as dangerous and in need of being crushed. Now, when he's writing
this, He's a prisoner in Rome in about A.D. 60, thereabouts. And he soon, he's in his final
two years, he knows he's going to be executed because he will
not deny Christ. He'll go before Nero's court
and he's going to be executed. Now, to him, the one he once
persecuted How did he persecute Jesus? He says, I am Jesus, whom
you persecute. Why are you persecuting me? How
did he persecute him? By persecuting his followers.
Now, to him, the one that he was trying to crush, in verse
11 of chapter three, he calls him Christ, who is all and in
all. Christ is all and in all. Beware, lest any man spoil you,
through its philosophy of this world, and not after Christ,
for in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in him. My prayer is that I, and all
who profess to know him, that in this world we would nail our
colors firmly to his banner. Amen.