Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Colossians. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2. Be looking several verses in
this chapter for your encouragement, for your strength. for the strength and encouragement
of believers. And that's Paul's purpose of
this. He tells us his purpose there
in verse 2 about the hearts being knit together. But my text, I
want you to see this first, my text is found in verse 10. And ye are complete in Him. which is the head of all principality
and power." You are complete in Him. Now, to every believer
in Christ, listen, I have just expounded to you the gospel. You, believer in Christ, For
your comfort, for your encouragement, for your motivation to stir your
heart, this should do it. You are complete in Christ. You're complete. In other words,
salvation completely accomplished. Salvation completely accomplished
in Christ. Your salvation is done. Done. Finished. And Paul gives this
message and he tells us this in verse 2, his motive. He's
talking about this church at Laodicea that had not seen him
in the face. He said that their hearts, this
is his reason for writing, that their hearts might be comforted,
being knit together in love. And unto all riches of full assurance,
the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the
mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom..." Remember,
in Him we are complete. "...and in Him are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Now, what believer does not desire
full assurance? Full assurance. Who among us does not desire
full assurance of our salvation? But listen, the moment you start
looking for assurance, you've lost it. The moment you start
looking, you're looking because you don't have it. Isn't that
why you're looking for it? Because you don't feel it. You
don't feel it. So what are you looking for assurance
in? Your feelings. The circumstance is not right.
Something's wrong. And you don't have assurance.
What were you looking at? You were looking at the circumstance.
That's why you don't have full assurance. You know, in Scripture,
three times this is mentioned, assurance in the New Testament.
You know that word full is with it every time? Full assurance.
There's no other kind. It's an all or none principle.
You either have full assurance or you have no assurance. But
I want you to see this. Assurance has absolutely nothing
to do with your salvation. Nothing. But I tell you this, believer,
you have full assurance. Full assurance is yours. Full assurance is yours. How? Through the knowledge. He said full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. What is he talking
about? He's talking about the Gospel.
That Gospel. He calls many times a mystery. A mystery. But yet what is a
mystery to everyone else is full assurance to us. Full assurance
to us. Full assurance is understanding
and believing. It is acknowledging the truth
of the gospel as it is in Jesus Christ. Not how you feel it is,
not how you maybe even desire it to be. How it is in Christ. Full assurance is acknowledgement
of the Gospel as it is. As it is. Now, the Gospel of
Christ, Paul here calls it a mystery. He calls it the mystery of God. The Gospel of Christ is not as
this self-righteous religious world believes it to be and suppose
it to be self-evident. Isn't that how most people view
the Gospel? As though it's self-evident. Like, I don't need to preach
the gospel. Everybody knows that. They believe
it's just common understanding, common knowledge among men. Paul didn't say that, and neither
do we. The gospel in itself is a mystery. A mystery. It is not known, nor
can it be known or received by any man in his lost estate. In His natural condition, it
cannot be known. I tell you this, you can learn
it in your mind. You can set it down and you could
write a book about it. You can understand systematic
theology to the nth degree and still not know the gospel. Even because the gospel is not
a thing, it's a person. The reason it's a mystery is
because they think it's a thing. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Not what I believed. Paul knew
what he believed before he was converted. Now he knows whom
he has believed. You see, the gospel is a person.
And if you don't know the person, you don't know the gospel. It's
still a mystery to you. And the only way you can know
Him is if He reveals Himself to you. That's it. This gospel is a mystery. Go
to 2 Corinthians. This is 2 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. Sorry, 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In verse 2, Paul says, "...for
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified." Now listen, there was a lot of problems in Corinth.
You know this? This is probably the most problematic
church ever. This church was a mess. There were schisms, there were
all kinds of divisions, there was people elevating themselves
above others and putting away the poor people in the back.
A whole bunch of bad things were taking place. Fornication, adultery,
incest, a whole lot of problems he could cover. You know what Paul decided to
do? He said, not to know anything among you.
I didn't care about any of those other things. Why? Because I
knew the only thing to fix those other things was this thing,
the gospel. I determined to preach Christ
and Him crucified to you. And he says, I didn't do it with
such great skill. He said, I came with weakness
and fear and trembling. My speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration. of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God." As he preached, the demonstration of the power
was not in the man. It was in the message. It was
in the Spirit of God taking the message and applying it to their
hearts. And what was the result of this
power? They believed. So you see that
salvation is by the power of God. It's not by the will of
man. It's by the power of God. You that are born again, you
are born again not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. And this is the demonstration
of the power of preaching the gospel. Your faith. You believed. You believed not
because of our eloquence. You believed because of the power
of God. You believe the gospel because
of the power of the Holy Spirit. And notice this, how be it we
preach wisdom among them that are perfect. You know, Paul tells
you his audience. You know who I'm preaching to?
Perfect people. That's right, I am. Did I not
just tell you the gospel? You are complete in Christ. So I am preaching to you who
believe. You are perfect people in Him. You are made perfect in Christ. So our gospel is only to the
elect, only to those who are made perfect by Christ. Our message
is not in the world's wisdom. It's not in vain false works
religion, which Paul says comes to nothing. He said, yet not
the wisdom of this world, nor the princes of the world, which
come to nothing. How large is the false religion
of our day? Is it not vast and huge? Does it not encompass so many
millions of people and billions of dollars and everything and
all the labor and the work and the effort? And where does it
come to? Nothing. Nothing. You know, God don't save people
by false religion. You don't save people by false
religion. They may even stumble up and preach the truth once
in a while. On accident, not intentional. They may say something
that's true. You know what? Balaam did too.
Was Balak saved when Balaam did that? No. No one was saved. God
doesn't save people by false religion. And it comes to nothing. But we speak, what do we speak?
The wisdom of God in a mystery. even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of
the princes of the world knew." You know who that is? The Pharisees. They were the princes of men.
They were the best scholars the world of Adam's race could produce. They were the most moral, most
religious people that ever existed upon the face of God's earth. And yet none of them by their
study knew. They looked at the face of the
Son of God and had no clue who He was. That's because man, at his best
state, David said, is altogether vanity. They could not know the gospel.
Why? Go down to verse 14. But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness to him. You know, that message of you
are complete in Christ is foolishness to the world. Yeah, yeah, you're
complete, but... but... you have to... fill in the blank,
whatever it is. Join the church! You have to.
You have to be part of this covenant body in order. You have to be
baptized. You have to eat of the Lord's
Supper. You have to, of your own volition, accept Jesus as
your Lord and Savior. Then you are complete. No! You are complete. You are complete. Man doesn't accept this because
he's depraved, he's spiritually dead, he's discerned. That's
what Paul says, they receive not the things of God, they're
foolishness. Neither can he know them because they're spiritually
discerned. So you have both will, they're
foolish. This is foolishness. This is
foolishness. And they can't. They can't know
this. Only then, therefore they cannot
come to Christ except by divine power to draw them, to quicken
them to life, to open their eyes and ears and hearts so that they
may receive the gospel. So if you receive the gospel,
if you believe the gospel, it is no light thing, you believe
it. Why? Because to the rest of the world
it's a mystery. And only then will the mystery
be revealed to them if God opens their eyes. That's it. And this
is the gospel. You are complete in Him. And
only ones who are quickened understand that. And you know what we find
in it? Full assurance. We find full assurance. Now, our gospel is not a mystery
because it's complex. It's simple. Salvation is of
the Lord. Did I go over anyone's head?
Mentally, I just can't. I'm not capable of going over
anyone's head about this matter of salvation. Salvation is completely
and absolutely 100% the work of the triune God and none of
your own work. That's salvation. It's not complex. It's not a mystery because it's
above the understanding of the human mind. It's not a mystery
in that all our Savior did was hidden or done in a corner. This
thing was done openly. God never left Himself without
witnesses. I have 5,000 years of Christ
or more right here. all pointing to Christ. This
is not hidden. It's not in a mystery. It's not some dark, ancient secret
kept in a cave. God openly displayed it. It's
not a mystery in that way. Paul says in another place in
2 Corinthians, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine in them. Behold the clarity then of our
gospel. We preach not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Christ's sake.
If you, it is my desire then to preach Christ always clearly
and plainly so that none can misunderstand me. And here it
is, the mystery of God. The gospel that no man can or
will receive, that only the Holy Spirit can
reveal. In Christ are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. How can a man know God? Only through Jesus Christ. He is the only revelation of
the Father. You cannot know God by walking
in the forest. You cannot know God by your own
study. You cannot know God by your own
desires, because the only thing you and I can produce is a false
God, a false view of God. And the only way we can know
God is to see Him as He is in Christ. He is the revelation
of the Father. There is no other revelation.
You won't find God anywhere else. So the wisdom of salvation is
only found in a person, in Christ. And this one, before the worlds
were, before the foundation of the earth was laid, before there
was any created being, God the Father loved a people. set His love on a people and
decreed that they should be holy, that He should save them of His
own free grace. And according to the Father's
mercy, He gave that people to His Son, and His Son gladly,
voluntarily took them in a covenant of grace and purposed to save
them. He became the surety of those
people. You know what that word means?
Guarantee. It is one who takes full responsibility
for another. You remember Judah, when he was
confronted by Joseph, he said, you go get your younger brother
and you bring him to me. And Jacob said, I won't let him
go. I can't let him go. My soul is tied to this boy.
If this boy dies, so I'll die. And Judah said, I'll be a surety. If I do not bring the lad to
thee, let me bear the blame. Do you not see what Christ had
done? Father, all that you have given me shall come to me, or
I bear the blame. This is the gospel. This is the
message that is a mystery to everyone else. That Christ came
to save a people The Scriptures are not ambiguous. They're not confusing. Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save, who? His people from their sin. His people from
their sins. You see, His people were no different
than anyone else. His people were sinners. If they weren't sinners, they
wouldn't need a Savior. But just like everyone else,
we fell in Adam. Adam represented us and we fell
in Him. You know, if Adam did anything
perfect, he'd perfectly fail. His fall was complete, absolute
and perfect fall, so that he had no righteousness whatsoever,
no hope whatsoever. There's no way he could ever
return to God, and he wouldn't. Yet God was not surprised by
this, was He? Who came to who? Who revealed
salvation to who? God came to Adam. God revealed
salvation to Adam. That salvation should come by
His Son. The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent. And how shall He crush the head
of the serpent? How shall He put away sin? He
shall bruise His heel. He shall be crucified. God was willing to show His grace. What He had purposed before the
world began, God was willing to show. Now, what did Adam know
of election? What did he know of election
before God saved him? What did he know of grace? He
knew nothing of grace. He was living on his own merit.
For however long that was, he was living on his own merit. It was only after the fall that
we were able to see the overwhelming abundant grace of God. That's
why God allowed the fall, so that He might display what He
had purposed in a mystery before the world began, a hidden mystery
that God only knew. He desired to display it to His
people. And therefore in Christ in whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All the prophets and law spoke
of his work and his coming. And as we drew closer and closer
from Adam, did not the types get more vivid? I like that picture. I don't have it in my notes,
but I'll tell you. The picture of Ezekiel, when he comes to
the outside of the door of the tabernacle, he sees water coming
out of the right side of that door, and it trickles. And he
follows it along, and the stream gets wider as he goes. And then
all of a sudden, it's a large river. filled with trees and
life and all things. That's the gospel, isn't it?
Start out as a little trickle. The seed of the woman shall bruise
the head of the serpent. Then you've got a sacrifice being
made. Now the picture gets a little
clearer. Then you have the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The picture
gets a little clearer. You have the prophets saying,
Who shall it be believed I'll report to whom His arm of the
Lord revealed. That prophecy in Isaiah 53 is
clear. It's as though it was written
after Christ had come. And so now then, What we had
in shadows and types and pictures are now full revelations. When I go to the Old Testament,
what do I do? I preach Christ from it, because I can see it
clearly. See clearly now. Why? The dawning has, the sun
has arisen. The darkness is gone. No more
need for shadows. These shadows only pointed to
show us Christ. Now back in your text. Christ being the fulfillment.
You are complete in Christ. And that by His coming, He has
brought salvation to you. But Paul gives us a warning here
in verses 6-8. He says, As ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him. How did you receive Him?
By faith. By faith. How do you walk? How
do you walk? By faith. The just shall live
by faith. rooted, 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 philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Paul warns us who are complete
in Christ that there are men who desire
to draw you away from Christ. Draw you away from the simplistic
gospel. The simplistic gospel? You are
complete in Christ and have need of nothing. It's done. Salvation is done. So what does
false religion come in and say? Well, salvation's done only to
a certain point. But what we have to do is we
have to finish His work in some measure. You have to finish it
in some measure. And so what do they begin to
do? They say, well, Dr. So-and-so said. Rabbi so-and-so, being a great
man, said, Traditions. My daddy said, I don't care what
your daddy, your rabbi, or anybody else said. If it draws you away
from the simplicity of Christ, let them go to hell. Beware of them. Why? Because your flesh is still just
as prone to wander from Christ as it was before. The old man is still drawn to
the fleshly things of the world. This is always the way of false
religion, to appeal to the flesh. And you better not mistake it,
it is appealing. If you say it's not, you're lying. Because it is appealing. Is not
their music beautiful? The sound of thousands of people
singing at one time. Do not think that won't move
your flesh to do anything. It will. Their plays are so eloquent,
their stages, their lighting, their whole thing is beautiful. The ceremonies are outstandingly
gorgeous. They're appealing to the flesh. And what is their appeal when
they appeal to the flesh? It draws you away from faith
in Christ. Somebody said this once and I really hold to it.
It's true. The more ceremony a church has,
the less truth. The more ceremony, the less truth. Why do they got to fill their
time with something? I've got to fill it with something.
So what do they do? They put in music and plays and the guy
stands up for ten minutes and reads the passage of Scripture.
He don't know what it means. They don't know what it means.
But the music was great. Healing to the flesh. All those who disregard the Word
of God for the traditions of men and popes and priests and
bishops, listen, that is antichrist. I know everybody thinks antichrist
is one person. Yes, there will be an antichrist,
but there are many antichrists now. John said that. There are
many antichrists. who is an Antichrist. Anybody
that says salvation is not by the free grace of God alone through
faith in Christ alone is Antichrist. Salvation has anything to do
with you and your works and your free will is Antichrist. It's against Christ. Therefore, you who are believers
in Christ, you who understand the mystery, that's why He exhorts
you, be rooted. Be rooted in it, even as you
have been taught. Don't move away from the simplicity
that is in Christ. Always, always look to Christ
alone. Always. Don't take your eye for one minute
off of Christ. The moment you do, you lose all
assurance, all hope, Because in Him is everything. Be rooted and grounded, built
up. You know what that yields Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving, doesn't it? If your eyes are on Christ and
salvation is all of Christ, that yields Thanksgiving. It can't
yield anything else. It doesn't yield murmuring. Why? Because we don't deserve anything
but hell. No murmuring here. Beware lest they spoil you with
the rudiments of the world. That word rudiments, elements,
how many people try to mix the law and gospel ordinances today? It's a massive number too. Massive
number do. They say baptism and circumcision
are basically the same thing. And so what they do is say circumcision
is now baptism. I don't know how they do it. They
just do it. They just say it, obviously, and sprinkle holy
water on it and say it's done. I don't know. It's not in Scripture. You won't find it. Circumcision was for a picture. Circumcision was for a picture.
Paul says that. "...in whom you were circumcised with a circumcision
made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the
flesh by the circumcision of Christ." What is circumcision? It is a cutting off of the flesh.
That's what it is. What was Christ doing on the
cross? He was cutting off our sin. That's what He was doing.
He was fulfilling the picture of circumcision. And who are
circumcised but the Israelites. And that's who God circumcises
our heart by, the Holy Spirit. It's a picture of what God's
doing for the salvation of His people. And then he says, well,
buried with him in baptism. Oh my! Baptism! See, they're
two different things. Circumcision in the Old Testament
was for a picture. Well, guess what baptism in the
New Testament is? It's for a picture! It's a picture. It's a type of what we are in
Christ. When we stand in the water, we
are identifying with Him in faith. We're trusting in Christ and
telling everybody. The only true confession of faith
is baptism. There's no such thing as walking
the church aisle. You won't find it in Scripture. Taking the preacher
by the hand, saying the Lord's Prayer, none of that is scriptural. The only confession of faith
is baptism. And what does it confess? I confess
that when He died, I died. I confess when He was buried,
I was buried. I confess when He rose again,
I rose again and all my hope is in Him. That's what baptism
says. As you go in the water, you come
up. It's a picture of our cleansing. By the blood of Christ, cleanseth
us from all sin. It's a picture. And yet, how
do men take these ordinances and try to incorporate them as
part of salvation? What was the horrific gospel
of Galatia? What was so bad about the gospel
of Galatia? You know, they were Calvinists,
don't you? They were Calvinists. They believed in election and
salvation by grace, but they had to throw one thing in. You've
got to be circumcised. Christ is great. Christ is good. Christ is salvation, but in order
to make it effectual, you have to be circumcised. In order to
be part of this group, you've got to be circumcised. People
do that with baptism, don't they? They say, you've got to be baptized
in order to be saved. No, you need to be saved, then
be baptized. That's how that works. You're baptized because you are
saved. You're not getting baptized to be saved. We're buried with Him in baptism,
risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God. who hath raised Him from the
dead. Do you know that your faith took just as much power to raise
Christ from the dead as it did to give you faith? Your faith is small. You bet
it is. But I tell you, it's no less
powerful because it's the operation of God. It's the operation of
God. And you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all your 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." You being dead. Is that not the experience of
everybody who knows this mystery of the gospel? You being dead.
If you've never been dead, you've never been resurrected. See,
there's a requirement for resurrection. You've got to be dead. There's a requirement for salvation.
You must be lost. Have you ever been dead? Have
you ever been lost? You see, only these are found.
Only these are raised from the dead. And you know what? He has blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances against you. What's that? I think of that Belshazzar, when
I read that passage, don't you? About the hand, on the writing
on the wall, the hand appeared and wrote, says that you are
weighed in the balance and found wanting. You know what God's done with
that writing? He blotted it out so it cannot be seen. He said, I, even I, have blotted
out thy transgressions as a thick cloud, and as a cloud thy sins. God has blotted it out. How?
By nailing it to the tree. God didn't skirt your sin. God
didn't go around your sin. God didn't unjustly forgive your
sin. God paid for your sin. He nailed
it to a tree. When He nailed the Son of God
to a tree who was made sin for us, He nailed our sins to that
tree and Christ paid every farthing. So what's our gospel? You are
complete, lacking nothing. You are weighed in the balance
and found justified. That's our message. What glory do we receive from
this? To us, Christ is all. To us,
Christ is all. Why? Because having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. God has by Christ triumphed over
all that stood in our way to God. You remember the veil that
separated us from God. At one time, only one person
was allowed into that place, and not without blood. But once
that one person was entered, into the holy place, not with
the blood of bulls and goats, but of His own blood. He entered
into the most holy place, not made with hands. Having obtained
for us eternal redemption, the veil is rent in twain. The way to God is completely
open, and I lack nothing to stand before God." That's the gospel. A mystery to everyone else. To
you who believe, it's plain. In Him, I am complete. And because
of that, I have full assurance. Full assurance. When do I have
it? All the time. I may not feel it, but I have
it. I have it. And I feel it so long
as I look to Him completely by faith. I have it. I pray that God knit your hearts
together with this. In love for Christ and for each
other. I pray that God help us.