Well, come with me to Colossians
chapter 2. I want to look at the first seven
verses this morning. This letter, let me remind you,
was written by Paul from his house arrest in Rome in the last
two years of his life to the people at Colossae and also at
Laodicea, because he says, get the people, your neighbours at
Laodicea in southwest, inland southwest Turkey, as it is today. He said, let them read this letter
as well. But it's not just for them, it's for us, nearly 2,000
years later. And it was written because the
minister of the church at Colossae, Epaphras, had come to visit Paul
in prison. No doubt he was a disciple of
Paul and he'd come to visit him. And he brought a report about
the saints, the people of God, the believers, the Gentile believers,
the Gentile believers that were there at Colossae. And Paul is
greatly encouraged when he hears that they are the true people
of God. They're true people of God. They're saints and faithful
brethren. Because why? They exercise faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and love for the brethren and for
God, and hope of eternal life. That's their situation. So he's confident in them, but
yet Epaphras also brings reports about certain dangers, which
we're going to get into in this second chapter. And Paul is concerned
for them. He has a great concern for the
Colossian Christians. We saw it in chapter 1 that his
prayer, his desire for them, was that they be filled with
the knowledge of God's will. The will of God is the salvation
of his people. The will of God is the triumph
of his kingdom. That they be filled with knowledge
of that, that they have spiritual understanding. A lot of religion
that calls itself Christian says, oh, you can spend far too much
time studying your Bibles and with your heads in theological
books and things like that. It says, you don't need to do
that. It says, actions speak louder than words. It's all right,
you studying, but let's get out there and get doing things. And
the result of that is this, there are people who think they're
Christians who are completely ignorant of gospel truth. There
are people who claim to be Christians in churches and there are hordes
of them, even today, in this irreligious day, there are hordes
of them with minimal spiritual understanding. They have no idea
about the doctrines of this book. They have no idea of the doctrine
of God, of his electing grace, of his people chosen in Christ
before the founder. They have no knowledge of it,
and yet they claim to be Christians and working for Christian objectives.
But minimal understanding, and it leads to disunity. It leads
to them being easily swayed. They're like children. They're
not men in understanding, in their minds. In understanding,
says Paul, be men, not children, tossed about to and fro by every
wind of doctrine that comes along. His ministry was to the end with
the objective, look in verse 27 of chapter 1, to whom God
would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,
so that he might, in verse 28, present every man perfect. in Christ Jesus, that he might
present all believers, that by teaching, by them growing in
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might present
them, when they leave this life, into heaven, perfect. How good must you be to get into
heaven? Answer? The biblical answer is perfect.
How can you be perfect when we know that there in us, in my
flesh, there dwells no good thing? Only one way. in Christ Jesus,
perfect in Christ Jesus, to land you safe in glory. Whereunto
I labour, he says, striving according to his working, the working of
God, which works in me mightily. Paul is striving to teach them. He doesn't leave it to fatalism. He doesn't leave it, oh, well,
if God's sovereign, he's going to do it anyway. He gets on with
it. He labours. Do you believe the gospel? Do
you trust Christ? Those that would say they do,
there's a huge spectrum from, let's say, the penitent thief
on the cross who had no chance to do any works of self-sanctification,
if I can put it that way. He was nailed to a cross all
of his believing life, which was, what, an hour or two, three? There's a spectrum from that
to the Apostle John, who we know lived well on, probably to 95
years old. But all, all are looking to be
presented perfect. From the weakest to the strongest,
we're all the same in Christ Jesus. Read that article in the
Bulletin, that Erskine article. The branches of a tree, there
are some incredibly big, thick, strong branches of a tree, and
there are some incredibly weak, tiny little twigs, but they're
all part of that tree, and they're all alive because of the sap
that comes from the root, all one in Christ Jesus. He's looking
to present all perfect in glory. It may be a long journey, it
may be a short journey, but how do you stay the course? Four,
I am increasingly Convinced. We went through Zechariah and
the same message. It's the message of this book
that God has a people in this world who he calls out in this
world. He chose them before the beginning of time. He redeemed
them from the curse of the law in the Lord Jesus Christ in union
with them. He took their sin and he paid
for it in his own body on the cursed tree. And the Holy Spirit
comes and makes every one of them alive and every one of them
will be taken to eternal glory. But there's a course to run.
Jesus said, I pray not that you take them out of this world,
but that you keep them from the evil. So how do you stay the
course of this life? With all of its distractions,
with all of its threats, with all of its dangers, this epistle
and others, God's Word instructs and encourages in the way of
God to the eternal bliss of his triumphant kingdom at the end
of this life. You know, we're all If you're
in Christ, we're all going to that kingdom of eternal bliss
with God. All God's elect will finish the
course. All God's elect will finish the
course. There are so many encouragements for the true believers, those
who truly rest in Christ, not to be distracted by any frailty
on their part. For all God's elect, all who
believe, all who have called on the name of the Lord, will
finish the course. But at the same time, There are
plenty of warnings in scripture for us not to be complacent,
for us not to be presumptuous. To beware of falsely assuming
that you are among the people of God when you might not be. There are warnings aplenty. Forewarned
is forearmed. So give diligence, as Peter says
in his second epistle, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. So, two main points this morning.
Number one, never leave the solid foundation. And number two, be
alert to the threats that there are. So number one, Never leave
the solid foundation. If you look at chapter 2 verse
1, Paul says, 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, you see, they hadn't seen his face in
the flesh. But nevertheless, he had this conflict. What is
conflict? Look in your margin if you've got one. It's a fear
or care. He's concerned about them. Doesn't
God's word tell God's people not to be anxious for anything?
Well, yes, yes, yes. God is in control of all things.
If God is for us, who can be against us? Yes, yes. But in
this world, in this world of flesh, Paul loves these people
as children in faith. Now then, those of you that are
parents, that have been parents, do you remember I remember, and
I don't want to cause any embarrassment, but I remember the most alarming
thing to me, the most concerning thing to me, the greatest conflict
that I ever had, was when my sons had learned to drive and
they went off with a car on their own. And those of you that have
had children do the same, you know that. It doesn't matter,
you know, you know that God controls all things, but nevertheless
you have a concern for them, don't you? You have a concern
for them venturing out on their own. And Paul, in that kind of
Christian fatherly way, he's not a father. Don't worry, we're
not getting into calling men father on earth. But in this
kind of father in the faith way, he's concerned for them. He's
aware of Satan prowling. You know what Peter says in 1
Peter 5, verse 8? He says to believers, your adversary,
the devil, is like a roaring lion. He's walking about, seeking
whom he may devour. Paul doesn't want one of those
professing believers to turn out to be false. He wants them
to be aware. His concern extends to all Christ's
sheep in this world, including us today. By the ministry of
this epistle, Paul's desire is to present each one of us perfect
in Christ Jesus. each one of us perfect in heaven.
He firstly desires that we be strengthened in fellowship. Look
at verse two. What is it that his concern,
his conflict, his fear or his care, that your hearts, all believers,
you are... Colossi, you at Laodicea, your
neighbours there, and everybody down the ages, all who claim
to believe that your hearts might be comforted being knit together
in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.
He wants them to be strengthened in fellowship, knit together
in love. You know, any of you that do
knitting, you know what you do, you take a single strand and
you knot it and tangle it round him, whatever the way it works,
to end up with something that is this unity that you can actually
put on and wear. As God loved his church, so ought
his members to love one another. To love one another. And it's
a selfless care for one another. It's a care that might cost you,
but so what? It's like if your foot hurts,
the rest of your body's in sympathy with it. If one member of the
body of Christ is hurting, is in need, the rest are in sympathy
and seek to do what they can. We're knit together, knit together. What does it say? Unto all riches
of the full assurance of understanding. He wants us to be strong together
in understanding the truth we've believed. He means fellowship,
fellowship together in the doctrine of God and of Christ, the truth
of God's will, the hope of his kingdom. Look what it says. He
wants the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the
Father. You know, that mystery is hidden
from generations, it said in the previous chapter. It's hidden
from the natural man. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him, neither
can he know them. Why? For they're spiritually
discerned. Where do you get spiritual discernment?
It is the gift of God. God must give that. He must reveal
this mystery, the mystery of God and of the Father. There's
so little seeking after the things of God in this world. This is
the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, because
in God. in the persons of the Godhead,
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the
meaning of life, the the richness of life, the gift of life from
God. All the treasures of this are
hidden. All the treasures of that wisdom and knowledge are
hidden in God, that he might give us that understanding, that
we might grow together in that knowledge. The mystery is being
revealed to his saints through the preached word. It doesn't
just have to be audible preaching. You can read good books on it. There's never been a day in which
so many sermons have been readily available to us via the internet.
Never been a day quite like this. Avoid that which is bad, but
of course, the true people of God, the true sheep of Christ,
can hear the true shepherd's voice. When they hear a man preach,
they say, that's the good shepherd's voice speaking to me. But knowing
and growing together in understanding is a powerful force. It's a solid
anchor to the foundational truth of saving grace. Knowing and
growing together in understanding, in fellowship, that your hearts
might be knit together in love. Sometimes for the cause of God
in a hostile world, believers can find themselves feeling entirely
alone. We know of examples. In 1 Kings
chapter 19, there's Elijah. Elijah, the great prophet, and
the things that he'd done on Mount Carmel, and the brought
down fire from God, and there he is. You'd think he'd be triumphant,
but then he says, I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord.
I, even I only, and they seek my life to take it away. John
Bunyan, preaching in Bedfordshire, was locked up for 12 years in
solitary confinement to try and stop him from preaching. He was
in that situation for the cause of the gospel of God and the
opposition of those that opposed. But let me tell you this. Believers
today should never put themselves in that position when there are
other believers to commune with readily. And if you can't physically
join with others, if you can't physically do it, then yes, use
the internet and use stream services. I'll just make a point here.
I said that there are so many sermons available online, and
there are, and that's a very good thing. But I do have a fear
that some just use sermon audio and the like as a great big library
of nice spiritual goodies to have, you know, to suck and to
taste and to compare this one with that one with that one.
That's not fellowship in the gospel. Yes, it's useful, but
that isn't fellowship. If you possibly can get to a
service where others are coming together to worship God. If you
can't physically do that, then go on the internet where you
will find live stream services or recordings of live stream
services and participate in the service, not just listen to the
preaching bit of it. Participate in the service because
it's about fellowship. It's about fellowship with the
people of God. You know, the worship of God isn't just listening
to a sermon. The worship of God has these
elements, the preaching of the word, the singing of hymns, praying
and reading his word. It has those elements. Join in
with services. If you can't get to one, join
in with a stream service online and commune with one another.
You say, well, if I'm separated physically, how can I commune
with other people? Well, I know plenty of people
that do use email and other communication media to do it. I know some have
difficulty with it, but use it if you possibly can. because
fellowship strengthens faith. I've looked at this before with
you, Ecclesiastes chapter four and verses nine to 12. It says
this, two are better than one because they have a good reward
for their labor. For if they fail, the one will lift up his
fellow. But woe to him that is alone
when he falleth, for he has not another to help him up. Again,
if two lie together, then they have heat. And how can one be
warm alone? And if one prevail against him,
two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly
broken. There it is, Old Testament wisdom,
3,000 years old. But it's telling us the truth,
isn't it? That a threefold cord is better than one, it's not
easily broken. And so it is, get together with
other believers, to worship God together. And it comforts our
hearts. It is that your hearts might
be comforted being knit together in love. Look at 2 Corinthians
and chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. We're in verse 3. He says, this
again is Paul writing, blessed be God, even the father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all
comfort. The God of all comfort, this
God of all comfort, our God. comforts us all in our tribulation,
in our trouble, that we may be able to comfort them which are
in any trouble, your brethren in the fellowship, by the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings
of Christ abound in us, so also our consolation aboundeth by
Christ. We comfort one another by fellowship
together. So, In verse 6, as ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Never move
away from what you first believed. How are you going to keep on
the road to the goal, to be presented perfect in Christ Jesus at the
latter day, at the end of your life, or when he comes again?
How? Well, never move away from what you first believed. As ye
have therefore received, as you started out, Christ Jesus the
Lord, so continue, so walk, so live in Him, so keep going in
Him. Be determined with the Apostle
Paul to do what he said in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 2, I am determined to
know nothing else among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That was the foundation, that
was the start, that's how we'll continue. Whilst we are encouraged
to grow, Whilst we're encouraged to advance from the milk that
a baby needs onto the strong meat of a mature person, never
leave the solid foundation. You never leave that solid foundation. In Hebrews, don't think that
there Paul is saying you've got to leave that behind and move
on to cleverer things. Not at all. You don't leave the
foundation, but you build on it. You move on from milk, simple,
easy, digestible food, to strong meat as you grow and as you mature. How did you start on the Christian
road? How did you start believing?
You heard What did you hear? You heard the words of eternal
life. As Peter said to Jesus, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. What are those? The words of
the gospel of God, as it says in Romans 1. It's the gospel
of God. It's the gospel of righteousness,
to be in communion with God. You heard the truth about sin
and about the separation that there is naturally. between us
as we are born and as God, who is our judge in all things. And
you heard the facts, the facts, the historical accomplishment
of redemption by Christ on the cross of Calvary, by shedding
his blood as a substitute for his people. that he in the place
of his people did all that was necessary. You heard that basic
truth. It's in 1 Corinthians 15 and
verse 3. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 3.
I delivered unto you first of all, right at the start, I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received. What's the basis?
What's the starting point, Paul? What is it? How that Christ died
for our sins What told you that, Paul? According to the Scriptures. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he
was seen, blah, blah, blah, and so on. That's where it started,
what Christ accomplished at Calvary. And you repented of your sin.
by the work of the Holy Spirit, you repented of your sin and
you believed the gospel, the good news of your sins forgiven,
of your justification accomplished, of you being made the righteousness
of God in Christ, and you embraced Christ. If you saw it clearly,
if you saw your eternal destiny as a sinner under the justice
of God, you were like a drowning man who was definitely going
under and was going to die. And if that man is thrown a lifebuoy,
he grasps that lifebuoy. He clings on to that life, boy,
and you embraced Christ as that Saviour, that Saviour. So live
on, says Paul here. As you have received Christ the
Lord, as you grasped Him when you understood the elements of
saving grace in Christ, as you therefore received Him, so carry
on. Paul asked the Galatians, a similar
question because they were looking like they were going to move
away from that onto things that they thought were more mature
and more complicated. And he says in chapter three,
the first three verses, he says, oh foolish Galatians, who has
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, that you
should depart from that which you've believed, that you should
not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you. How's that happened? By the preaching
of the gospel. by the work of the Spirit opening
your eyes to it, before whose eyes of faith Jesus Christ hath
been evidently set forth. You've seen by the eye of faith,
the sight of the soul, Christ crucified among you. This only
would I learn of you. Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law, by the things that you would do, or
by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun
in the spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? What he's
saying to them is, how did you start out? It wasn't by the things
that you did that you got right with God, it was by believing
what Christ had done that you knew you had been made right
with God. It was the hearing of faith that
started. And these Galatians were in danger
of drifting away due to false teachers and wolves in sheep's
clothing that were coming to them, peddling religious lies
to them and enticing them away. No, he says, as you started,
so continue. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him. It seems from the report that
Epaphras gave to Paul that the Colossians were, look in verse
five, 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. It seems that Epaphras had told
Paul that they were steadfast in the faith. It was seen as,
as though they were, as Jude says to the people he wrote to,
verse 3 of Jude's little epistle, earnestly contending for the
faith once delivered to the saints. It seems that that was the situation,
that they were strong. Beware of dangers is the second
point. Beware of dangers. Be circumspect. Look around is what that word
means. Be alert to the threats. Verse
four, and this I say. Why does he say carry on, grow
in grace and knowledge? Why does he say get more and
more knit together in fellowship in the doctrine of the gospel
of grace? Because There are those around who would beguile you
with enticing words, lest any man should beguile you with enticing
words. You believers, you professing
believers, beware. There are those around in this
world who would beguile you, who would trick you, who would
delude you with words that sound so appealing, enticing words,
words that would entice you. In the world, there are those
who would beguile the church with error. There are those who
would entice believers away from true faith. They're Satan's instruments. That's who they are. They're
the instruments of Satan as he prowls around, seeking like a
lion whom he may devour. In Revelation chapter 12, where
we have that vision of the woman giving birth to the child, which
is Christ, and the dragon, which is the devil, seeking to devour
the child, and him accusing the brethren and being cast out of
heaven. And what cast him out of heaven
was the blood of the lamb that destroyed all of his power to
accuse the brethren. And it says in verse 17 towards
the end of that chapter, The dragon was wrath. He was furious
with the woman, with the church. The dragon, Satan, is furious
with us, believer, Christ's church. He's furious with us on this
earth. And he went to make war with the remnant of her seed.
If you believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, then Be
in no doubt, you are the object of Satan's anger and his fury
to try to destroy you. All opposition to truth comes
from Satan, the father of lies. All of it does, but it doesn't
come obviously. It doesn't come with a great
notice over it in neon lights saying, this is a lie from Satan,
the father of lies. No, he's subtle and he's deceiving. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
11, and verse 13, where Paul is warning the Corinthians about
those who are false apostles. He says in verse 13 of 2 Corinthians
11, for such are false apostles. You see, false apostles, they're
sounding like they're the real apostles of God. They're sounding
like they're the real thing, but they're false, he's saying.
They're deceitful workers. They transform themselves into
the apostles of Christ. They say, I am an apostle of
Christ. They try to pretend, and no marvel. Don't be surprised,
he says in verse 14, for Satan himself is transformed into an
angel of light. He who is the father of lies
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no
great thing if his ministers, he has his ministers in religion,
Satan has his ministers in religion that they be transformed as the
ministers of righteousness, appearing as righteousness, whose end shall
be according to their works. They'll get their just reward.
God has warned his people always to be aware, always to be circumspect. He says that to the Israelites
having come out of Egypt in Exodus chapter 23, He's just given them
the Ten Commandments. He's just given them the law.
They've come out, they're in Sinai. He's appeared before them,
and they've been terrified at the sight. They've seen the awesomeness
of God. And then God says in 23 verse
13 of Exodus, In all things that I have said unto you, be circumspect. Look all around. Circumspect,
that's what it means. Look all around. Make no mention
of the name of other gods. Neither let it be heard out of
thy mouth. Don't say, oh, those people worshipping that god.
Well, it's nearly like our god, isn't it? We can get on together,
can't we? Because it's so close. Why are we falling out? There's
not many of us in this world. Let's get together with anybody
else that will name the name of a god, and then that will
be good. You know, the sort of thing that I was reading Yesterday,
there was a review of the life of Mother Teresa, who was so
revered while she was alive, wasn't she? And yet, what was
her doctrine? Her doctrine was universalism. It was all gods are the same,
fundamentally. What does God say in his word?
Be circumspect. Make no mention of the name of
other gods. There's only one way to God.
There's only one way to the life of God. Jesus, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. He says, don't let it be heard
out of your mouth. Yet they were frail in the flesh.
Take this as a warning. God said that to them, and yet
by the time we get to Exodus chapter 32, and Moses had been
up the mountain 40 days, and they hadn't seen him, and they
thought, we don't know what's happened to him, what do they do? They
persuade Aaron, and he didn't seem to need much persuasion,
to take all of their gold earrings and the like and make a golden
calf. And they rose up to play, and they got into all sorts of
immorality. let us never rely on the arm
of the flesh. Paul says to the Philippians,
because it's a common thing, he says in chapter three of Philippians,
verse two, beware of dogs by which he means, beware of those
who are peddling false works religion, beware of them. The
people who say, favour with God in whatever measure is earned
by the things that we do. No, it isn't. God's true people
have, what does it say in verse three? How much confidence does
it say that we have in the things that we might do for favour with
God? It says no confidence in the
flesh. The warnings are widespread in
scripture. In Romans chapter 16, We see
it again in Romans 16 and verse 17. I beseech you, brethren,
mark them, note them, be aware of them which cause divisions
and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned,
and avoid them. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. They might say
they serve Christ, but they serve their own belly. They serve their
own interests. And by good words and fair speeches,
oh, they sound all right, don't they? They deceive the hearts
of the simple. No, beware of them, beware of
them. And it's not just warnings about
attacks from outside the church. but warnings about attacks from
within. Because, you know, I often quote
it where Paul was with the elders of Ephesus on the beach at Miletus
and he was sailing back towards Jerusalem in Acts chapter 20.
And in that verse 28, he says, look after the church which God
purchased with his own blood. How did God purchase a church
with his own blood? He became a man, because only
a man has the blood to shed for the sins of his people. But then
the next verse, he says this, for I know this. He says, look
after the church, for he says, I know this, that after my departing,
I'm not gonna see you again, after my departing, shall grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. There shall
be those entering in amongst the sheep, the little sheep,
Christ's sheep, and they're like grievous wolves. And you know
what wolves do to sheep? You know, dinner on a plate,
not sparing the flock. And this is what he says. Yes,
some shall enter in, but also of your own selves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them." We need to be aware of these things. We need to be alert
to them. We need to be prepared for them.
How do we prepare ourselves? We strengthen ourselves. How
do we strengthen ourselves? in the truth of God, in the gospel
of God? How do we strengthen ourselves
by fellowship together in these things, by mutual encouragement,
by encouraging one another in these things? How do we apply
this to ourselves? Religion, calling itself Christianity,
is all around us, and yet so much of it is the human wisdom
interpretation of biblical revelation, these words. You know, they even
say in the great catechisms that are more revered than scripture
in many circles, that you can't take it at face value. You have
to use the application of spiritual wisdom to it. No, absolutely
not. Absolutely not. It's this book
and this book alone. What more can he say than to
you, he has said. There are denominational traditions
Denominations. Denominational traditions that
obscure gospel simplicity. Aren't there? Oh, this lot say
that you can't worship God unless... I don't see any of it in scripture. And some will say, ah, but you've
got to see such and such a thing. And don't worry, I'm not going
off down a particular road at the moment. But it's the simplicity
of the gospel. Again, 2 Corinthians 11, verses
one to four. Would to God you could bear with
me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I am
jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused
you to one husband. I've brought you to Christ, you
are the bride of Christ, I've brought you to Christ, that I
may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ, but I fear I fear,
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. The gospel is the deepest, most
profound thing ever apprehended by human minds. Yet, it is simple. The simplicity that is in Christ. And weak believers are made to
fear that their gospel is too simple. Oh no, you've got to
do this and that and the other as well. No, no, no, no, no.
It's too good to be really true. But it is true. Christ is all. Christ has accomplished all.
It's going to tell us that in the next chapter, in chapter
3. All we need for life and godliness, as Peter says in his second epistle. And so, verse 7, rooted and built
up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. I'm going to mention him again
because he's such a good illustration. But this is the simplicity of
Happy Jack. He's rooted in Christ alone. What does he say? What are you?
Where did you learn your theology, Jack? What things have you done?
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. In Christ alone. rejecting any
attempt by egghead theologians or other religious authorities,
man-made, or wolves in sheep's clothing, to entice him away
from the simplicity that is in Christ. Let us seek and determine. like Happy Jack, to be steadfast
in Christ. Paul goes on in the rest of Colossians
chapter 2, as we'll start to look at next week, whether we'll
look at it all I don't know, but God willing we'll go on with
this. In the rest of Colossians chapter
2 he gives specific warnings. regarding those who would try
to deceive the true church of Christ away from the simple gospel
of Christ. And that's what we rejoice in,
and that's what we revel in. Amen.