A remedy against deceivers. Colossians 2 and verse 6 says,
as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so 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 spoil you through
vain 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 also you are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in 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 him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
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. Remedy against deceivers now
the Apostle here at the beginning of this chapter gives his desire
He desires something for this church at Colossae that they
should be comforted verse 2 He says that your hearts may be
comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of full
assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery
of God and of the Father and of Christ. The apostle wishes them to be
comforted and knit together in full assurance, how? Through
the mystery of God, the mystery of the gospel of God. I don't know if you understand
this very well. I'm sure that most of you do.
The gospel itself is a mystery to the natural man. To the natural
man, the gospel is a mystery, an enigma. It is something that
he cannot understand, something he cannot receive, something
he cannot know. It is a mystery. Did you know that no man can
come to God, believe on Christ, by all the wisdom and intellect
of the whole human race put together. If all men were to gather together
and have an intellectual conference as to how to come to God, how
to be pleasing to God, how to be accepted of God, do you realize
that no wisdom of man could ever come up with the answer? None.
Take all of them, Einstein and the greatest minds of the human
race, you put them together and they could not come up with it.
They could not. Reason it out. Take all the great
philosophers of human history, all the greatest minds and put
them together. They can't come up with it. Impossible. If every man set his heart to
it, if all his life's work were to bring himself to a knowledge
of God, to come up with the greatest and highest thoughts as how to
please God, yet all his labor and thoughts and feelings and
dreams and works and decisions and washings and ceremonies and
rituals are empty and vain. Can't do it. The best ideas of
God are nothing more than the imagination of a man's
heart. That's the best he can come up
with. I think God is like this. I feel God is like this. And
someone comes along and says, well, I feel God is like this.
I think God is like this. You listen, they're both wrong.
If you're describing God as to how you think God is or how you
feel God is, it's not God. That's a product of your own
imagination. Every God that is created by
man is the works of his own hand. Therefore, the gods of men's
wisdom are made by men and therefore are of lesser power than their
creators. Isn't that right? You make something,
you are greater in power than the thing you made. Is that not
so? It is. I remember Spurgeon mentioning
this crucifix maker. I've told you this, I'm sure,
before, but it's a good illustration. There's a man who made beautiful
crucifixes for the Catholic church. He was the best at making crucifixes. They were most detailed and beautiful
in every way. And this man came upon his time
of death. He was laying in his bed, waiting
to expire, and he called the priest in. And just as he is
about to go out into eternity, the priest holds up one of those
crucifixes and says, behold, your God. And the man looked up in despair
as he was about to face God in eternity and he said, I made
that. And he died. He died trusting in something
he made. The gospel of Jesus Christ is then to the natural man a
mystery, a mystery. But to all of us who are born
again, it is not a mystery, is it? It is revealed. It is a mystery that is revealed
to us. We could not have full assurance
as Paul desires if it had not been revealed to us. The gospel
is revealed. I understand it. Not because
of my intellect. I understand it not because I
made it. I understand it because God revealed it to me. He revealed
it to us. You see, we know the gospel.
We see the gospel is not what men vainly think it is. The gospel
is not a system. It's not a system to be learned.
It's not a checklist. Well, I've learned that. This
is why men come in, they hear the gospel and they learn, they're
excited to learn. And as soon as they learn something,
what do they do? Check. And then pretty soon they got
all their checks and where do they go? They leave. Why? Gospel
has not been revealed, it's just a system to them. System to be
learned. No, it's not a creed or a confession
to be memorized. The confessions, I've read them.
They're orderly, they're very good. Some of them are very good.
That's not the gospel. They're just supposedly setting
forth the gospel in those things. Why don't do creeds? Because
soon men would hold to the creed and forsake the gospel. You see, the gospel is not a
creed. It's not something you write down. It's a person. It's a person. The gospel is
Christ. The gospel is the Son of God.
The gospel is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is what Paul
said, I determine not to know anything among you save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, His person and His work. That's the gospel. That's the
message of salvation. Now look at your text here and
I want you to see this in the very next verse in verse three.
Listen, this is the mystery of God. In whom? You see that? Not in what? In whom? Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. In
whom? The gospel is a person. In whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Herein is the mystery of the
gospel. Here it is. The question of all questions.
How can God be just and justify the ungodly? There's the question.
How can God be just and justify the sinner? This is the question
that must be answered. It is the question that is spent
all of the scriptures answering. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? If a judge were to somehow take
a guilty criminal and out of love and compassion completely
pardon him with no exercise of legal prudence. How then could
that judge be just? He wouldn't be, would he? He
would be himself a criminal. But how can a judge set a guilty
man free without breaking the law? That's a question. Behold
God is just. The scriptures spend so much
time teaching us that God is holy, that God is just, that
God is righteous, that God is immutable in his person, that
he cannot change, that he is righteous from eternity to eternity,
and he does not change, he's immutable. He cannot be anything
but holy and just, yet the scriptures teach of mercy, do they not?
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion and will by no means clear the
guilty. You see the conflict? You see
the trouble? This is the trouble. This is
the conflict of man. How can we who are born sinners
obtain such perfection? God from eternity is purposed
to show mercy. He's purposed to show compassion. Scripture says that from eternity
he has chosen a people to be holy. According as he had chosen
us, Ephesians one and verse four, according as he had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. How should he do all of this? How can we who are sinners obtain
perfection? How can we be holy seeing we
have broken the law? How can we unbreak that which
we've broken? Can't be done. That's a simple
answer. The simple answer is it's impossible.
that in my flesh, no man can please God. In the flesh, no
matter what you do, how hard you try, you cannot please God.
Think the highest thoughts, live the most moral life, and you
will die in your sins, and God will judge you and punish you
forever because you have broken his law. You see, we cannot be holy simply
because our father, who is our representative, has plunged us
into complete ruin. Our father Adam has plunged us
into complete ruin where we, when he broke the law of God,
when he disobeyed the law of God, we all died spiritually
in that representative. Therefore, we were all born dead
in sins. And listen, have any of us sinned
unwillingly? No, we desire to sin. We loved
our sin and we hated God. So then how should a man be made
righteous? The same way he was made a sinner. By a representative
man. By a representative. Jesus Christ
is coming to the world as a representative man. This is the mystery. That
Jesus Christ, by his own love for God and obedience of God,
obtained for his people the righteousness of God. And Jesus Christ on the
cross hath made to bear our iniquities in his own body on the tree,
thus satisfying the justice of God on the behalf of his people. This is the gospel. Substitution. Substitution. A man doing something
for us that we ourselves could not do. And the only man that
could do that is the son of God. The only one who can be as righteous
as God is God. Therefore God came down, became
a man and died in the stead of his people. This is the mystery
of godliness. Listen, God was manifest in the
flesh. Paul says in this chapter, he
says in verse nine, for in him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead,
listen, bodily. God became a man. The mystery of God's will is
that all of his elect should be made holy by Jesus Christ. That verse I quoted you in Ephesians
one, it says that they should be made holy, they should be
made sons of God, how? By Jesus Christ. by Jesus Christ. Now why should God save people
by this mystery? Why should God save people by
this way? Because it's the only way God
gets all the glory. You want to know why God does
something? He does it for himself. Men don't like that. They want
God to do something because of them. No, no, not unto us. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto
thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. You remember
that covenant in Ezekiel, the covenant of promise? I'll give
them a new heart. I'll take out the stony heart.
I'll give them a heart of flesh. I'll be their God. They'll be
my people. That's a covenant God made with himself for us. And listen, in Ezekiel 36, he
tells us, For whose sake he did it? He said, not for your sakes
do I this. I don't do this for you. I do
this for me. Not for your sakes, saith the
Lord, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your
ways. I do this for my own glory. God's
doing it for his own glory. And so, it will be throughout
eternity that all the saints then will praise God for his
Glory the glory of his grace revelation tells us that the
four and twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne
and Worshipped him that liveth forever and ever and cast their
crowns before him saying thou art worthy O Lord to receive
honor and glory and power for thou has created all things and
for thy pleasure they were created This is a mystery It's a mystery God chose a people, purpose to save them through
Christ. Christ came, died for them, rose for them, sends his
spirit into the world to call them. He calls them, arrests
them, saves them, quickens them, brings them in, and keeps them. And then he brings them all to
glory. That's the whole thing, isn't
it? That's the whole plan. That's the whole purpose of God.
But you listen. Paul then gives a warning. He
gives a warning. He's telling these Colossians,
as he's telling us, there's some men who will come in and beguile
you concerning this mystery of the gospel. They will beguile
you, they will deceive you. Look at that in verse four. And
this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Though I be absent in the flesh,
yet I'm with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order
and steadfastness of your faith in Christ. There are some who
would beguile God's people. Now take notice of Paul's purpose. to remedy this. His desires to
comfort them but there's some who would beguile. Now this word
beguile means to deceive or delude, delude. Now over in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 11 the Apostle says this, he says I fear lest by any means
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility So your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Beguiled,
that's a different word. I looked it up, I was gonna use
this as a reference to show that they were the same. They're not
the same word. The word here beguiled used by Satan is wholly,
completely deceived. Wholly deceived her. You remember
when Satan tempted Eve, he said, God hath not said. In other words,
that's a lie. He openly defied God and she
failed for it. Openly. She was totally deceived from
God, removed from God's word. Even so, some false professors
of faith who claim to believe the gospel but really have no
faith, those people are completely removed from it. Have you seen
that? I've seen that in my lifetime. I've seen men come in, they claim
to embrace the gospel, and then by and by, they just totally
reject it. They go totally the opposite
way. I know of a man and a believer
and his children, they came in and they seemed to embrace the
gospel. They're total atheists now. Totally went the other way. See, that's the word there, beguiled.
They are totally removed from the word of God. This word's
slightly different. This word's slightly different. This does not mean to totally
remove oneself from the gospel. In other words, these men use
the gospel partially. These men don't mean to take
you away totally from Christ, but they seem to want to add
things into the gospel. They want to mix it together,
make it muddy, so that it's unclear, really, and it's your opinion,
his opinion. We're all saying Christ, aren't
we? We're all saying Jesus. We all believe in Jesus. Let's
just all get along. Nope. Nope. These vain deceivers, they don't
openly defy the gospel. They do not deny Christ's death,
burial, resurrection. They claim to believe the salvations
of grace. But these men seek to remove,
don't seek to remove you completely from Christ, but rather, listen,
delude the gospel. Delude you. to believe that you
must have some small part, some small work, ritual, you must
perform a work of the mind, decision of the will, in order to make
Christ's work effectual. That's what it is. They want
to add something to Christ. They're not trying to remove
you from Christ, they're trying to add something to Christ. Such
as the deception of free will works religion. That is the deception
that has crept into the church. See, these men didn't come in
openly defying Christ, they came in claiming to believe Christ.
That's why Jude said they crept in unawares. Unawares. Such men preach Jesus' blood,
righteousness, hope, grace, peace, yet they add some work That you
must perform. They delude the gospel. You listen. Paul says they are not after
Christ. They are not after Christ. Verse 8. Beware, lest any man
spoil you through vain philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions
of men, after the rudiments of the Lord, and not after Christ. You see, they're still trying
to remove you from the simplicity of the gospel. They're trying
to do the same thing Satan did to Eve. They're just not trying
to remove you totally. They're just trying to dilute
it, to add something to it. What do these men add? They mix
philosophy and traditions of men and rudiments of the world
to the gospel of Christ. Friends, vain deceivers are not
openly known. They are moral, they are religious,
they are zealous men, and they creep in the church. I know you know this, but Judas,
nobody knew he was a betrayer. They all thought it was themselves.
Lord, is it me? Now John said it after the fact.
He said Judas had the bag and he was the deceiver. He only
knew that after the fact. He didn't know that when it was
happening. And so will we. We won't know them when they
come in. We won't know them. Matter of fact, we'll embrace
them. But this is true. Our Lord told
us that tares and wheat, they're growing up together. They won't
be separated until the harvest. They won't be separated. I don't
know who they are. All I can say, Lord, is that
I don't want to be the deceiver. Lord, please be gracious to me
that I not be moved from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Remember Simon the sorcerer, Philip? He baptized him, he thought
he was in the church, and only till he came and proved himself
by trying to get the preeminence did we know he was a deceiver.
And Ananias and Servira had not the Spirit of God killed them,
we would have not known that they sought the preeminence in
the church. And the question then comes, how do we defend?
We know the mystery of the gospel. We know Christ. We believe on
Christ. These deceivers are gonna come
in. How then is our defense? What is our measure? How do we know them when they
come in? How do we defend against such
things? And I'm not saying try to weed them out. Remember, the
tares among the wheat, our Lord said, don't try to pluck them
up. When you do, you just pluck up the wheat. If I stand up here and try to
beat the goats, I hit the sheep. That's how others do it. I don't
do that, we don't do that. How then are we to know for ourselves? The apostle here gives us such
things as we need to defend against false teachers. Look at this.
First thing, verse six. This is the exhortation now.
He says this, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus, so walk
ye in him. First thing, here it is, walk
in Christ. Walk by faith in Christ. This is often the question of
believers, is it, how am I to walk? How am I to live in this
world? How am I to sojourn so that I
do not offend my God, so that I might serve Him, so that I
might love Him, so that I might trust Him? Here it is, believe
on the Son of God. As you have received Him, do
that right now. Just as you first received Him,
receive Him the same way right now, today. Believe him, trust,
walk in him. How do I walk? Now here's what
the vain deceivers will come in and say. Here it is. Law. This is what the vain deceivers,
so you know who they are. They're going to come in and
say, well, you're saved by grace. Christ died for your sins. He
rose again for your justification. Now then, it is up to you to
sanctify yourselves by obedience to the law. What's the rule of life? And
they say, law, law. 10 commandments, put them on
the door, put them on the wall, write them on your sleeve, wear
a cross on your neck just so you remember. Law, some kind
of bylaw, some kind of religious legalism. But what sayeth the scripture?
Is that the only thing that really matters? What does God say? I
don't care what they say. What does God say about the law?
Listen, the law is an all or none principle. There's no middle
ground with the law. The law is not a rule of life.
The law demands perfection. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written. In the book of the law to do
them How often? Continually. Perpetually. Well, what things? All things. Well, you mean the 10? Yes, the
10 Commandments, and the sacrifices, and the feast days, and circumcision,
and everything written in the book of the law. Well, that's
impossible, there's no more temple. You're right, it's impossible.
You couldn't do it when you had the temple. You've already broken
it. Impossible. We confess we've all failed in
this. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. So what then is our rule of life? What is the law to the believer? We know this, Christ has redeemed
us from the law. He by being made a curse, suffered
under the law, suffered the justice of God in our stead and died
for our sin. He was made a curse for us. And so what does Paul say in
Romans 10 about the law for the believer? He said, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. The end of the law. for righteousness. See then that faith in Christ
and the law cannot be a mixture. You can't have, Paul said that
in the same place in Galatians. He says, I'm gonna ask you a
question. How learned you this? Was either
by the Spirit or by law? How did you come to Christ? Either
by the Spirit or law? Did you come by faith or did
you come by law? Paul said, no man is justified
by the law and the sight of God is evident for the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not a faith. You
got that? You can't mix them. You can't
put them together. So how then do we know the vain
deceivers? They're going to say, law, what
do you say? I say what God says, Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You
can't mix faith and law. How do we live? The just shall
live by faith. How do you walk today? Faith. You believe. When? Now. How often? Perpetually. Why? That's my law. I'm not lawless. Christ gave me a law, here it
is. Believe on the Son of God. That's the law. And it's a law
I love. It's a law God gave me grace
to keep. I believe on the Son of God. How do you walk every day by
faith in Christ? Now how did you first come by
faith? You came as a poor, ruined, rich. How do you come today? As a poor, ruined wretch. How often? Every day. Every day
I bow myself before Christ and believe on the Son of God as
all my hope. As all my righteousness. All my wisdom, all my sanctification,
all my redemption, all my salvation. How often? Every day. We know this as believers, the
flesh does not get better. If you ever grow in the grace
and knowledge of Christ, you'll know more of your own depravity. You'll see more of it, you won't
see less of it. You see, you can know these vain deceivers
because they think you're getting better. These vain deceivers
say, you just need to get better. If you just do this, you'll be
better. No, I won't be better. The flesh
never gets better. God only exposes it more and
more to me as I grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. But
what does this do on the opposite side? It shows me the greatness
of His sacrifice. It shows me the greatness of
His love. How deep He had to plunge in
order to get me. He had to go all the way to the
bottom to pluck me out. So how do I walk? Just as I received
him the first time, I receive him today the same way. Perpetually
humility, perpetually humbling ourselves before the mighty hand
of God. This is how true believers are to root out those who don't.
We walk by faith in Christ. We come daily as undone sinners. No merit of our own, no power
of our own brought us to Christ. And listen, as we walk by faith,
we know this, no power of our own is gonna keep us. Look around. How many have you
seen go away? How many have left who you called brother? Now why are you here? Did you have extra power in you?
Did you have any extra strength? Were you better than them? We were kept by the power of God. And if you stay until your dying
breath, it is because we were kept by the power of God. So as the first day I began to
walk with Christ even so now I walk with Christ even so by
the grace of God I should die walking with Him by faith trusting
only and always in Him. Now I've got to move on look
at the next one Verse seven, rooted and built up in Christ. Rooted in Christ. As the roots
of the tree are the foundation of the tree and the source of
its life as it grows and is fruitful, even so Jesus Christ is the foundation
and source of all our life. This is the object of our faith,
is that our life is rooted in Christ. Christ When I first came
here there was a hurricane Year, so maybe not even a year after
I got here Hurricane came up through Houston and it pushed
all the way up here followed us all the way from Houston up
here and it blew down these these trees and power it was it was
a horrible storm and One thing I noticed, I was driving by and
I saw this huge, massive tree just laying on the ground. It wasn't that the top was broken.
The top was fine. It wasn't bent. It was straight. It was a perfect tree. It looked perfect. But as it
fell over, I noticed this little roots, big tree, little roots. You see, what I realized, I think
it's a, I don't know about trees, I think it's an ash tree maybe,
or something like that, just little roots, big tree. And I realized this, that tree
fell over because it had no foundation. It had no root system to hold
it in the ground. So is a man who only bears the
outward marks of profession of faith, but no true foundation,
no roots in Christ and no union with Christ. When the storms
of life blow, he falls down flat because he has no root. He has no foundation to hold
him. But one who is a true believer
in Christ, one who is in union with Christ, We were by faith
in Christ. You see, we've been in Christ
long before we ever had life. We were in Christ, we were rooted
in Christ long before we realized it. Just as all the The majesty of the tree is contained
in the seed before it sprouts up, even so were we rooted in
Christ before the world began. Of old eternity, God in love
set us in union with his son so that he should be our surety,
our high priest, our righteousness, that his blood should be all
our atonement. See, then my salvation began
long before my existence. So then if we are accepted, we are accepted in
Christ before the foundation of the world. And Jesus Christ, before we came
to him, he accomplished all our salvation, redeemed us. So then
if we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, who is our root, our
foundation, listen, we're not going to be moved. Remember David
said I shall not be greatly moved Sometimes we feel moved When
the winds come and the storms rage as believers in Christ We
are moved think of that big old tree. The old tree has big roots
deep down now at the top. He may sway He may blow his branches
may break. He's not going to topple wine.
He's got a root system Listen we are often moved But
we are never moved from the foundation We are rooted in Christ and in
for us to be lost He himself would have to be uprooted We may be shaken, but we shall
not be toppled why? We're rooted in Christ rooted
in Christ. Second, built up in Christ. Seeing
that our salvation is rooted in Christ from eternity, now
the Holy Spirit begins the work of grace and we sprout forth
as that tree is in the seed. All of a sudden it has roots.
All of a sudden it bursts forth from the soil. That's our life. That's our hope. And what happens
after we believe in Christ? We begin to grow in the grace
and knowledge of God. We begin to grow. Fruits of the
Spirit, love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance, gentleness, goodness,
faith. These things are not natural.
They're not natural. I know this, you say this, I
just don't understand why they can't believe. Really? You do
understand why they can't believe. You know why they, you yourself
could not believe this was a miracle of grace. God in grace gave you
life and you sprang forth. And what always comes with life
is fruit. Meekness, were you not meek by
your sins, made meek before Christ to bow? Temperance, were you
not holding the things of the world in moderation? Faith, is
not Christ all your object of faith? Long-suffering, is Christ
not long-suffering with you? Yes. Goodness, gentleness, all
of these are things that God gives love for his gospel, love
for his people. Let us ever be perpetually growing
in these things. Not growing better in the flesh.
No. Growing in the spirit. In the
things of God. Thirdly is this. Established
in the faith. That is established in the faith
you were what? Taught. From where were you taught? From where does your faith stem?
What is the source of your faith and practice? The Word of God
is our source. You could tell false deceivers
come when they say this, well, I feel, I think, no. What does God say? Well, I had a vision. I don't
care. What does God say? I had a dream. What is the chaff
to the wheat, to the wheat, to the wind? What is that? What
is the chaff to the fire? No, you're just going to be burned
up. What's God's word say? That's what's important to us.
Believer, establish yourself in this book. If you wait to feel like reading,
you'll never read. You got that? I just don't feel. You're never gonna feel like
it. There's always something pulling, it's called your flesh,
that dead rotting corpse about your neck, that is always pulling
you in the opposite direction of being established in this
book. And the only way you could be deceived is if you don't know
the book. Establish yourself in the book be rooted and built
up in Christ as he is described and proclaimed in the book That's
how you defend against these deceivers being established in
the book You should know this book I know you're overwhelmed. It's
a big book 66 of them big book But I don't care where you turn,
Christ is in it. You got one subject in this big
book, Christ. Find him. That's what your object
is every time. I know you're looking for you.
Don't look for you. When you see sinner, you'll see
you. When you see reprobate, we see a wretch, that's you.
Okay, when you see depraved, that's you. When you see Christ,
He's the Savior, He's the Redeemer, He's God. That's what you're
looking for. Every time you turn, find Christ. Find Christ. Be established in
the book. And you won't be deceived like infant baptism, right? I remember you've told me this
story so I've heard it several places but when I think Redeemer
had that over at the Presbyterian Church over there they had started
preaching infant baptism and Brother Don made it very clear
he said you find me one instance of infant baptism in the book
we'll start doing it tomorrow. There's not any. That's why we
don't do it. You see, the book is our source
of faith and practice. So then someone says something,
I don't know what's in the book. Where do you find it? Where do
you find in the book? I gotta know. Be established, be rooted
in the book so that you're not deceived. And listen, here's
a source of comfort then to you who are rooted, built up and
established in the book so that you will not be deceived. Here
it is, verse nine, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. God was manifest in the flesh. Christ is all our salvation and
you are, what does verse 10 say? Look at it, you are what? Complete. In you? In him. What does that mean? Complete. Now you heard that, I get that.
People are always looking to be complete by someone else,
right? They televated that movie that said, you complete me. I
may woo a silly woman, but I guarantee you they're not
complete. They would not be happy. You
can't find completeness in other people or this world. There is no happiness here. It's
vanity and vexation of spirit. But I find my joy in this. I
am complete in Christ. What does that mean? I don't
lack anything. I'm whole. Why then should I complain? If I am complete in Christ, should
I not be the most thankful person that ever lived? What Paul says
next in our text, abounding therein with thanksgiving. If you are complete in Christ,
should you not be abounding in thanksgiving? I love this quote. I have it in my office. Cheryl's
tried to take it from me, so I've had to hide it. I need constantly
to remind myself that all things are of God. Let me not preach
sovereignty and then complain of my lot in life. Let me not
talk of divine purpose and then spend my days murmuring about
my trials and troubles. It is totally inconsistent with
faith in the sovereign Christ for me to question his good providence.
Paul calls covetousness idolatry and said, I have learned in whatsoever
state I am therewith to be content. I pray for submission, for with
it comes peace and rest. Add this and thanksgiving. We
understand that we are complete in Christ, that we lack nothing,
then should not we be the most thankful people? And you listen,
God's people are thankful. They are thankful. I'll close with this illustration.
You remember David when he went to Ziglag and had all of his
wives and concubines taken, all of his servants, their stuff
was stolen. And then David, he recovered,
the scripture says David recovered all. that the Amalekites had carried
away, and David rescued his two wives, and there was nothing
lacking to them, neither small nor great. David recovered all. Now then, can you not see who's
that speaking of as Christ? You see, we were taken in sin,
and Christ has recovered all. Now what are we lacking? This is what we should be rooted
in. This is our rule of life, to believe on Christ, to be rooted
in Christ, to be built up in Christ, to be kept by Christ,
to be thankful for Christ, to love his word, to establish ourselves
in it. And we will not be deceived if
we do these things. Pray God will bless us.