Amen. All right, if you take
your Bibles and turn me to Colossians. Colossians. Well, thought I had it up. There
it is. Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. Entitled this message, A Remedy
Against Deceivers. A remedy. against deceivers. Let's begin our reading in verse
6. The scripture says, As you have therefore received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. And this is how we're to walk
in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith
as you have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware,
lest any man spool you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and
not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, which is
the head of all principality and power, in whom you also are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and the putting
off of the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, buried with Him in baptism, wherein you also are risen with
Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with you, having forgiven all your trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which is
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. The apostle here, at the beginning
of this chapter, he desires both the comfort of the saints and
the unity of the saints. Look at this in verse 1, I mean
verse 2. He says, that your hearts might
be comforted, being knit together in love unto all the riches of
full assurance of understanding. to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of the God and of the Father and of Christ. Now this
mystery that both comforts and knits together the saints is
nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel
of Jesus Christ that is a mystery. That is a mystery. Did you know
that, that the gospel is a mystery? An enigma? Well, you ever try
to witness? Well, who knows? You know, that's
kind of the attitude they have with you. Well, how do you know
you're right and this person's wrong? And nobody really knows.
It's a mystery. It's confusion. The Gospel by
man, no matter, if you were to take all of the intellectuals
of man and put them together, All the Einsteins and all of
the theologians of man and you put them together in a room and
they come up with the best intellectual understanding of the gospel.
If they were to come together with all their knowledge and
come up with the highest thoughts that they can think of God, yet
all their labor and thoughts and dreams and feelings and ceremonies
and rituals would be empty and vain and further from God than
they started. The best ideas of man can come
up with by his own wisdom are gods of no power and no use. Why? because they are the works
of man's hands. They are the product of a man's
imagination. If you make a god in your own
imagination, listen to me, you're the god of that god. You're the
god that made up that god. So your god is even less useful
than you are. He is of less power than you
are. You made him. You remember that
story, I've told you this often about the crucifix maker in the
Middle Ages. He was the best crucifix maker
for the Catholic Church. Every church wanted his crucifixes,
and so he made the best, the most beautiful. And upon his
deathbed, he called the priest into him, and he's about to expire,
he's about to go out into eternity. And the priest holds forth the
cross and he says, Behold your God! And the man in despair looks
up at it and says, I made that! I made that God. And he died
with no hope. His God was useless. And so the
Gospel poll relates it as a mystery to the natural man, but to us
who are born again, it is not a mystery. This is not an enigma,
this is something we know. How many times did Paul say that?
We know. We know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are called according to His Word.
We know these things. John says it many times, that you may know,
that you may know. These are something that can
be known. The Gospel can be known. We see the Gospel not as we vainly
thought it to be. It's not a system to be learned,
is it? The gospel is not a creed to
be memorized. It's not a set of rules to obey. That's as high as a man could
think of the gospel. The gospel, my friends, is a
person. Jesus Christ is the gospel. He is the good news. Paul says
this in We even say that there is something
within us that seeks to rob it, to say that's not right. Well,
that's mighty selfish of God, isn't it? No, you're selfish
because you want the glory. The glory belongs to Him, not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be glory, for
Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. When we get to glory, every
believer is going to, this gospel mystery, this thing that's been
revealed to us, we're going to praise God for it. Worthy is
the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wisdom and glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. Repeat verse 1. Worthy
is the Lamb that was Yes, we're going to repeat this forever
because He is worthy. Thus, the gospel by the Spirit
of God. What does this gospel do to us
who believe? It comforts us. It strengthens
us to know this, that salvation is of the Lord, period. He ordered it. He ordained it.
He purposed it. He accomplished it, He applies
it, and He keeps it. This is the mystery of the gospel
that is revealed. This is the gospel that knits
our hearts together. When I set forth Christ and we
both look at Him, we love each other and look at Him. We say,
hey, look at Him. I know, I'm looking at Him. How
about you? I'm looking at Him too. We adore Him and we love
one another by this gospel. Now then, look at verse 4. He
says this, and then He gives a warning. He gives a warning
in verse 4, and this I say, now I've said this because of this,
listen, this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing
words, beguile you. Now, any man deceive you. That's what the word delude.
You ever delude something? Some of those cleanings are so
strong, and you have to put water in it and delude it. It makes
it less strengthened, right? Well, some people have come in
so as to delude this gospel. Now, in 2 Corinthians 11 verse
13, Paul says this, I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
Eve, through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ. That word beguiled, that
he beguiled Eve, that word means totally deceived. Eve was not partially deceived,
she was totally deceived. She totally abandoned God's word
and totally took the word of the serpent. She was beguiled. And I'll tell you, there are
some men who come in the church and they profess to believe on
Christ and then they leave. They go totally away. Now those
people are totally beguiled. Those people are totally deceived. I've seen many come in and just
go out believing some other false gospel completely. But this word in our text, this
word begot, is not the same word. It's not the same word. These vain deceivers are not
openly defying the gospel, but rather mixing the gospel with
human reason and wisdom. They are deluding it. Beware
lest these men come in and delude the gospel. Water it down. Water it down. You see, these
men are not going to openly deny Christ, they're not going to
deny His death, they're not going to deny His resurrection. These men do not seek to remove
you completely from Christ, but rather delude you to believe
that you have some part in this salvation. Now listen, when these
men come in, they're going to profess all of the things that
you believe. But then they're going to add
something. They're going to add some work you need to do, something
you need to accomplish in order to make what Christ did effectual,
powerful. They're going to try to add some
small work or ritual to perform to make His work good. Such deception
is all in the Church of Free Will Works religion. All such
men who preach Jesus Christ's blood plus some work of the flesh. These have diluted the gospel. They preach some ceremony of
religion, some act of the will. Anybody who preaches Christ plus
anything, you pay attention, beware of them, beware of them. Run from them. They are not ministers
of Christ, but ministers of Satan. They are antichrist. They are
antichrist. John told us that there are many
antichrists, even in his day. There are many antichrists. Look
at verse 8 and you see what they do. In verse 8 he said, Beware
lest any man spoil you through what? Philosophy. Vain deceit
after the traditions of men. After the rudiments of the world
and not after Christ. Now listen, this has become very
keen to me in the recent days. Audrey, in her school, I go to
a, quote, Christian school, which is not. They have this new class,
these classes, what they call apologetics, Christian apologetics. And what this does is they take
human wisdom, human philosophy, human reasoning, and they dilute
the Word of God with it. They put them on equal planes
and say philosophy says this, therefore the Word of God is
true. No. The Word of God is true regardless
of what philosophy says. The Word of God is true regardless
of what men think or what men feel or how men reason. The Word
of God stands on its own. It doesn't need human philosophy
or reason of men to get men to come to Christ. It's a fool's
errand. If you're trying to win souls
to Christ based on philosophy, you have deluded the gospel and
you're a deceiver. Beware of them, Paul says. Beware
of them. They mix philosophy, traditions
of men, and rudiments of the world. Now, I'm going to explain
that. That means the law. These men are going to mix the law.
When Paul uses rudiments of the world, you can mark it down,
he's talking about the law. The law is carnal, isn't it?
It's a rudiment of the world. It's based in fleshly actions,
fleshly things, fleshly works. Friends, these vain deceivers,
but they're not openly known. You're not going to just see
them coming. These are very educated men,
they're wise men according to the world, they're moral, they're
religious, and above all, they are zealous. And a lot of times
you and I will be jealous of such zealousness. I mean, you
see them, and they have a zeal. Paul said that of the Jews, didn't
he? I bear them record, they have a zeal, not of God. They have a zeal, alright. These
men are like Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ. Korah, who
defied Moses' office. They're like Simon the sorcerer,
who seemed to have a work of grace, but only wanted the preeminence
in the church. And so the question is this,
and this is the question I'm posing to you, how do we stand
against these deceivers? Paul is giving us the way we
are to stand against these men. And it's not fleshly. We don't
pick up weapons. We don't pick up carnal reasoning
either to try to debate them or argue with them. How do we defend against this?
I'll tell you, I've seen many come through who seem to be mature
believers. I've seen many who were above
me in so many ways. And I've watched them as they
dabbled with these deceivers, as they tried to win them. And
you know what happened? The opposite happened. Their
gospel that they believed so strongly in became deluded. Why
do you think he says beware? Oh no preacher, I'm just way
too strong for this. These people aren't going to
get me. You don't know it. but you're
on the down slope. If that's how you think, you've
already lost. You've already lost. Don't think
we are above being deceived. I'm your pastor, but I am not
above being deceived. In the moment I think I am, I'm
in trouble. I've seen men who seem to be
masters in the faith drawn away and give consent and validation
to these false deceivers. And they do it for the most logical
reasons. I know a man whose children were
in a false church. They were really bad children.
They were really out there. And all of a sudden now they
got religion. And the parents say, oh man,
I'm just glad they're in a church. You shouldn't be. And what do
you do? As a parent, you want to encourage
them to do good, so what do you do? You give validation to their
false gospel. You've deluded the gospel by
doing that, by giving validation. I've seen strong men do this.
Men I admire do this. They do it for their children.
They do it to desire to gain a hearing. In other words, they
have a good intention to want to win them. They go into that
church thinking, well, I'm not going to listen to this guy,
but I'm going to win everybody around me. No, you're going to delude
the gospel that you believe. I'm talking about believers now.
We are susceptible to these things. So how do we defend? Here it
is. Look back in your text. Paul says this as verse six. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. The first way we are
to defend of this is simply this, to walk by faith in Christ. As you have received Him. Now the question then comes,
how is it you have received Him? How is it? If you're going to
walk this way, how is it you've received Him by faith? I know
this is a question that every one of God's servants desired
to ask. You desire to worship God. What
is my rule of life? It's not a bad question, it's
a good question. How am I to walk in this world? How am I to live in this world? By what rule do we walk by? And
the liars will say this, the law. The liars will say, the
deceivers, the deluders will say, yes, salvation is by grace
through faith in Christ. But in order for you to be sanctified,
to become more holy, you yourself must obey the law of Moses. And what do they do? They take
scissors and they start cutting out the ones they think they
should obey. And the Ten Commandments are
the first thing they cut out and put up there. Next one they'll
come out there and put up the Sabbath. They don't do circumcision
anymore. That was one in Paul's day. They
deny that you don't need to be circumcised. We got baptism,
because baptism is through circumcision. What? Wait, where do you read that?
Oh, you don't? Deluded. You've deluded the Word
of God. We walk not by law. Let's see
this. I want to prove it in the Word
of God. Go to Galatians chapter 3. These people were deluded.
These people were deceived in Galatians. Look at Galatians
chapter 3 and verse 10. He says, For as many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse. Notice he doesn't
say blessing. As many as are of the works of
the law are under the blessings of the law. Why does he say curse? Because you've broken the law.
They're under the curse of the law. For it is written, Curse
is everyone that continueth not in... What is it? What does it say? All things. Put away your scissors. If you
want to be under the law, take the whole thing. Take the whole thing. As it is
written, it is written by the hand of the living God. If you
are to take one portion of the law, you are to take all of the
law. All things which are written in the book of the law to do
them. And we must confess that before we came to Christ, we
did not obey that law. And after we have come to Christ,
we have still not obeyed the law. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in this sight. So the idea of
progressive holiness needs to be thrown away. And if you've
been deluding with these people, leave them alone. Leave them
alone. They'll only hurt you. You won't
convince them, they'll only convince you. The scripture says, know that
Christ is our sanctification. God made him so. But of God are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto you what? Wisdom,
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. He has made our
sanctification. Look at this in verse 13 of chapter
3 in Galatians. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Here's another
thing. It is written, it is written, Curses everyone that hangeth
upon the tree, and by his death, listen, he has made us holy.
By his death he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. What is sanctified? We are sanctified,
but who did the sanctifying? God did. God sanctified you in
election, God sanctified you in redemption, and He sanctified
you when He called you by His Holy Spirit, giving you a holy
nature. You are sanctified. There is
no progressive sanctification. Now if you're talking about setting
yourself apart by what you do, that's going to naturally happen.
If you believe Christ, if you follow Christ, of course you're
not going to do the things you normally did. And if you're talking
about outward things like that, I understand that some believe
that's sanctification. Does that make you holier because
you don't do the things you did? No. What you do has nothing to
do with your holiness. Holiness, my friend, is an all
or nothing principle. Either you are holy or you aren't. I'm kind of holy. Well, how's
that going to fare with God? No. See, faith in Christ and
the law cannot be mixed. Cannot be mixed. So then, what's
the defense against this? How did you receive Christ? Was
it by law or by faith? Which was it? Look at that in verse 2 of chapter
3 in Galatians. Paul said, I want to know this.
Listen to me, this is what I want to know. How'd this thing begin?
He said, did you receive, receive you the spirit by the works of
the Lord, by the hearing of faith? We know this it's by faith and
not the law. Look at verse 11, but no man
is justified by the law on the side of God is evident for the
just shall live by what? How are you going to live? What's your rule? Faith. Just shall live by faith. And
you listen to that second verse, verse 12. And the law is not
of faith. See how easily that's done away
with? That deception is easily rooted out if you just read the
book. So what's the purpose of the
law? Paul said this in verse 24. He said the law has a purpose. The law has a purpose. The law
is not unjust. The law is good. Who's saying
anything bad about the law? The problem is us. It's not the
law. He said the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. Isn't that what God used? He
used the law on that purpose to show your guilt, your sin,
your inability to come to God. He used the law for that purpose.
And so even as you have received Christ by faith, what are you
to do? Continue to receive Christ by faith. Believe on Christ by
faith. And so what is the rule of life? It is faith that just shall live
by faith. Believer, do not be deceived
or beguiled to look to Jesus Christ by faith and then look
to something else to help you make it to glory. Something else
to commend you to God. You don't need anything else
to commend you to God. Christ is enough to commend you to God.
That's all you need. I like that. Paul said that you
be not moved from the singleness that is in Christ. He's the only
thing, the only object of faith is Christ. He's the only object
of faith. Single. That's it. And the moment
you put something else, it's diluted. You're beguiled. And the second thing is, what
manner did you receive Christ? How did you receive Christ? Now
you received Him by faith, so walk by faith. But how did you
receive Him? Everyone who has received Christ
did so as a sinner. And how you received Him as a
sinner? You come to Him bankrupt, ruined, vile, helpless to save
yourselves. That's how you came to Christ.
You came as needy, undone. And then, in necessity, you received
Him. You received Him. We trusted
our souls and our lives upon Christ's blood and righteousness. Not by merit, not by our power,
not by our will. As many as received Him. How
did you receive Him? By faith and humility. As many
as received Him, to them gave ye the right to become the sons
of God, which were born. How were you born? Not of blood. Not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man. You were born by the will of
God. You were born again by the will of God. And so as we received
Him the first time, this is how we are to continually receive
Him. Humility. Walk by faith in humility. If our understanding of the Gospel
gives us any pride, then you've misunderstood it. We come to His feet. We bow before
Christ. And we gladly receive Him as
our only hope. We mortify the deeds of this
body. Why? Because in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. The will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I don't know. I don't know. O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Listen, this is how we're to walk. Trusting Christ, laying
ourselves at His feet constantly, perpetually, leading on Him alone. And you won't have time for these
delusioners, these deceivers. You won't have time for them.
You won't have any tolerance for it. In Isaiah 51 it says this, hearken
to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek
the Lord. Is that you? You seek the Lord? Listen, look
unto the rock whence you were hewn. Who's the rock? Christ is the
rock. the hole of the pit from which
you were digged. That's Adam. Look at both of them constantly
and you will have no time for deceivers. To look and believe
on Christ is to abide in Him. To believe on Christ is to behold
His loving arms, His eyes of kindness as He calls us, as He
saves us. To look by faith to His person,
His office, His work. And so that's the first remedy.
The second's likened to it. Look at this. How are we then
to walk by faith? Here it is. Rooted, go back to
your text now, I'm sorry. Go back to your text in Colossians.
It says, As you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk
in Him by faith and humility. Listen, rooted and built up in
Him and established in the faith. Rooted. As the roots of a tree. are its foundation and source
of life. Even so, Jesus Christ is the
foundation of our life and the source of our faith. Christ is the foundation. Even
so, Christ is our foundation. I remember when I came here.
You remember that hurricane come back? I think it was in 2000.
I came here in 2008. I think it was in 2008, wasn't
it? Maybe 2009. Anyway, that hurricane followed
us all the way from Houston. Went right straight through,
come all the way up here. And I remember driving around after
that hurricane, and I saw these massive trees, huge. You ever
seen trees this big before? And they were all just flopped
over on their side. And so somebody just come and
just push the tree over. And what really stuck with me
was the roots of these trees were little, were just little
tiny roots, like you'd see in a flower bed or something. I think they were ash trees.
The roots were just so small. And I said, no wonder the tree
was blown over. It was top-heavy. It didn't have
anything underneath to hold it. So it is with man who bears his,
an outward profession but no true roots. So when the storms of life come
and the winds of trouble come, what? They're easily moved. They're
easily fell over. But one who has true faith in
Christ, we are in Christ by faith. I tell you this, we've been there
longer than we've experienced. I've been there a lot longer,
I've experienced being in Christ only a few years, right? Only
a few decades. Listen to this, I've been in
Christ a lot longer than that. You illustrate this by the mighty
oak. Where did the oak tree? It comes
from a seed. It begins as a small seed, so
everything in the oak is already in the seed. The oak is in the
seed. Just as a mighty oak is contained
in the seed, before it sprouts and branches
its majestic branches, It's already in there. Even so, we were rooted
in Christ before the world began, of old eternity. How God in love
set us in union with His Son that He should be our surety,
that He should be our high priest, that all His righteousness and
blood should save us from our sins. This was already determined
by God and planted in eternity. And see, my salvation began long
before my experience. Before I had no part in its conception,
I have no part in its accomplishment. For Jesus has accomplished all
of my salvation before I knew Him. He had redeemed all my sins before
I committed them. So then, if we keep our eyes
fixed upon Christ, who is the root and foundation, we shall
not be moved Our faith shall stand firm and fixed, seeing
Christ as our root, our salvation is immutable. You take a tree, even a mighty
oak tree, you see a big tree, branches may break off, its leaves
may fall off, but you know what doesn't move? The root. The root. We are rooted in Christ. We shall not be moved. You see, God uses Christ. He uses this illustration
to show us that if we are rooted in Christ, we shall not be moved
from Him. You see, to get us, you realize
this, that Christ has to be dethroned. He has to be a failure. For me
to miss glory, Christ would have to fail. And that just won't
happen. Second thing is, he says, being
built up in Christ. Seeing our salvation is rooted
in Christ from all eternity, seeing He has accomplished it
by His blood, and the Holy Spirit springs it forth, we begin to
grow. Isn't that what a tree does?
It's rooted, it's planted, the roots come out first. And then
what? Springs up. And that's the experience
of grace with us. This was rooted in eternity,
but in time it was manifest. God gave us life. God gave us
faith. And then what? We began to be
built up. We began to grow up in Christ. We experience and rejoice in
the fruits of the Spirit. Love. Love for Christ. You love Christ? This is a fruit
of the Spirit. Love for His brethren. Joy concerning
the grace and salvation of God. Peace, meekness, temperance,
faith, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness. These are things
we desire to be built up in us, to grow up. And why do you desire to love
Christ? Because of the roots. Because you're rooted in Christ.
These are what spring up in us. May God, by His grace, build
us up in Christ, cause us to grow in grace and knowledge of
Christ. So far we see the remedy is,
as you received Him, walk in Him by faith and humility, seeing
He is the root of our salvation, seeing He has built this salvation
in us, seeing that He now produces fruit in us. He says this next,
established in the faith that you have been taught. This is
to be established in the Word of God. You want to be able to
not be deceived? Know this. Be established in this, in the
Word of God. If we are to abide in the truth
and not be deceived, we must be established in the Word of
God. We must know what God said and trust it. This book alone is the source
of all the believer's faith and practice, not creeds. Why do you think I spend no time
talking about creeds? I've read them. Why do you think
I spend no time talking about them? Because they're not the
source of my faith and practice. This book is. There are errors
in the creeds. Traditions. Confessions. Not opinions, not visions or
dreams or miracles, not philosophy or human wisdom, but the Word
of God alone be established in the Word of God. Listen, the
moment you speculate, you've diluted the Gospel. I don't speculate
up here. I do not speculate. If I ever
do, don't listen. We're not to speculate the moment
that we use the words I think is discredited. Who cares what
you think? Who cares what I think? What
does God say? What does God say? The church for the most part
is led about by human reason and emotion, human wisdom and
philosophy, and they neglect the word of God. I'll give you an illustration
of this, even in the Reformed theology, called the doctrine
of necessary consequence. That's right, Scott, I think
it is. Necessary consequence. What it means is, is they infer
things. They see something in scripture
and say, well, that means that it must mean this. It's not actually
said or stated, they just infer it. I think one of them is that
Cornelius and his whole house were baptized. Well, that must
have been an infant in there. There must have been an infant
being baptized. So we're going to start baptizing infants. You find it and we'll do it.
You find me one and we'll do it. There's not one in here. Altar calls. You won't find them
in here. Man-made religion. Decisional
regeneration. Baptismal regeneration. All lies. All lies made up by the thoughts
and traditions of men and not the Word of God. Now believers,
therefore, be established in this Word and you won't have
any deception. They won't be able to deceive
you. Be rooted, built up in Christ and established in this Word.
How are we established in this Word? How are we not drawn away
by error? By constant remembrance of these
things. These things that I told you
about the mystery of God, how God chose a people, how Christ
redeemed them, how the Spirit called them, how they are kept
by the Spirit of God unto eternal life. These things you know. I constantly repeat these things
on purpose, friends, because you need to be reminded again,
so that you should not be moved, you should not be deceived. And fourthly, here's another
remedy, be thankful. Look at that in your text. As we receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established
in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with
what? Thanksgiving. What's one way deceivers get
in is they hear you murmuring about something. Am I right? You're murmuring about something.
Man, can't the pastor preach something else? Whoa, wait a
second. I got something for you. Come over here. This guy said
something over here. It's really interesting. Just listen to this.
Well, I never heard that before. If you ain't never heard that
before, you need to be very careful. They'll be thankful. Be thankful. If we are thankful, then we will
have no room for murmuring and they will have no entrance. They
will have no entrance into us. And lastly, I want you to look
at the joy and hope of all who are walking by faith, all who
are rooted and established, built up in Christ and His work of
redemption. We who hold fast the Word of
God, we shall not be deceived by vain talkers. Here is the
solid ground. Look at this. Beware lest any
man spoil you through vain philosophy, deceit and vain philosophy after
traditions of men, the rudiments of the world and not after Christ.
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Listen,
here's what you're rooted and built up in, that Christ is the
only God-man mediator. That in him dwells the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He is our mediator. He came in
the flesh as our representative and atoned. And this is our joy
because of that. What's the result of Him doing
that? Look at the next verse. And you are complete in Him. Listen to me. Just those words
are enough for you to put away all vain deceivers. You are lacking The way that they get you is
to deceive you that you're missing out on something. You're missing out on some joy
over here. In Christ I am complete. I am
complete. Look at the people around you.
What are they seeking? They're seeking happiness and
joy and contentment by the things of the world, by the rudiments
of religion. They're looking to fill the void
that the fall left. But we know this, that it cannot
fill that void. And I'll tell you this, for us
the void has already been filled. In Him you are complete and lacking
nothing. And He said this, You are complete
in Him which is the head of all principalities and powers. Now
when Christ rose again, was He missing anything? When you seek
Christ, is He going to be missing anything? Paul said He's the
head. He's the head. And you're what? You're the body. For one of His elect to be missing,
Christ would be incomplete. And you are complete in Him. In Him, you are complete. All
sin has been removed. Look what he says next. in whom you also, you are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands and the putting off of
the body of sins of the flesh. Putting off of the body of the
sins of the flesh. Who does this? You or Him. Look at the text.
How was this body of sin put off? It was put off by the circumcision
of Christ. He did it. He removed our sins. from us. Cut him off. Gone. Dead. Buried with him in baptism wherein
you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God. Where did that faith come from?
The operation of God. How do you keep believing? The
operation of God. The operation of God who hath
raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together
with him, having forgiven all your trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Where are your sins? You are
complete in him. They're gone. Let no man beguile
you. Let no man entice you to go back
to the law. Let no man say, oh, you're missing
something. No, I'm complete in Christ. Now
be rooted, grounded, established in that. As you have received Him, continue
to receive Him by faith and humility. Well, how often do you do these
things? Every day. Every day. Isn't that what faith
does? Receive Him every day? We believe
in Him every day. We trust in Him every day. And
I don't want to rely on old faith. I need faith now. I need humility now. I need to
be rooted in Him now. I need to be built up in Him
now. I need to be established in this Word so I'm not easily
moved. Know this, you are free from
these things. Therefore, we're not to debate these vain talkers. That's not our purpose. Paul
doesn't say beware these men and engage in debate with them.
No, walk by faith. We're not here to argue the gospel.
Declaring the gospel is what we do. Debate gives them the same level
of a platform, doesn't it? If I were to say, we get two
men up here debating, what have we done? We put the word of God
and whatever else on equal playing field. No. I'll close with this illustration.
It was Mike Walker preached a message on Joe Abner. Remember Joe Abner? They got those, I think 12 men
from each side or 24, I can't remember. And they all went out
in the middle of the field. Each on his one side, Abner and
Joab's men on the other side, they got close together, they
grabbed each other by the hair and they stabbed each other.
They all fell dead. That's debate. That's debate. Nobody lives. But when Joab did what God said,
Pursue after them and you will prevail. Be warned. We do what God says. Lies, they
just fall apart. Believe Christ. Trust Christ. Abide in Christ. You are complete
in Him. What do you need these other
things for?