Colossians chapter two. A true God called preacher of
the true gospel. is a man who cares for and watches
out for the souls of those he preaches to. He is, as Paul said in Hebrews
13, 17, a man who must give an account. An account unto God. He's one who realizes something About the statement, he speaks,
not as pleasing men, but God. Which tried the heart. He dares not keep back anything. Profitable, he dares not shun. Or avoid preaching the whole. Council of God. Like John the Baptist, he does
not want his name to be honored. He does not want any glory or
credit to himself. He's not out to make a name for
himself or see how many disciples he can get. But rather, he points men and
women away from himself. and points them to Jesus Christ. All the time, he declares, he must increase, but I must
decrease. Now, if you can ascertain that
a man's ministry is in that vein, and you can listen to a man like
that, You can safely listen to a man like that. A man whose
heart's desire and prayer to God is that you might be saved. That you might know Christ, worship
Christ, be found in Christ at that final day. You can listen to a man like
that. And such a man was the Apostle Paul. He was a man, like
David, after God's own heart. That is, he was chosen by God.
He was anointed by God. He was called by God. He was
loved by God. A man after God's own heart.
And he was a man with Christ in his heart. He wanted more
than anything to know Christ, to win Christ, to love Christ,
to be obedient to Christ, to believe Christ, to follow Christ. He was a man after God's own
heart. He was a man with Christ in his
own heart. And he was a man with a heart
for the people. Oh, he poured out his heart in
these letters. If we could just see, if we could just read it
like he wrote it. It was a man with a heart for
the people of God. He didn't speak with the tongue
of men and of angels. And in one place he said, I'm
rude of speech. He said, I've heard to talk.
He said, I've heard to talk. People are saying about me that
his letters are weighty and are powerful, but his speech is contemptible. His bodily presence is so weak. But I tell you, he didn't speak
with the tongue of men and of angels, but he had the greatest
of gifts. What is that? Love. To love to preach is one
thing. To love those to whom you preach
is quite another. And it'll come out in your preaching.
And it came out in this man's preaching. He loved the people
whom he wrote to. Whom he preached to. And now
he writes to this church folk, these church folk here in a little
town called Colossi. And it applies to us. It could
have been written to Rocky Mount, Virginia. He writes to these
Colossians and it begins in chapter two of verse one, verse one of
chapter two and says, I would, you know, I would that you knew what great
conflict I have for you. Any man worth his salt, any man
that's really in this thing, called by God, can say the same
thing to those that he preaches to. I guarantee you the Apostle
Paul lost many an hour of sleep over the people he preached to,
yearning, desirous of their salvation, of their spiritual growth, of
their good, their edification, concerned about what he was going
to say, concerned about everything he did. Guarantee you. I would that you knew, he said.
I would you knew. I wish you knew my heart felt
fear over you, my care for you, my love for you, my concern for
you, my desires for you. But your heart, look at that.
And for them at Laodicea and as many as have not seen my face
in the flesh, those who haven't met me, my I wish you knew what
the conflict, the care I had for you was, that your hearts,
verse 2, your hearts might be comforted." And we are. We're like a leaf on the ocean,
aren't we? So up and down, so taught to
and fro with every worry, every fretfulness, every fear, every
care, just up and down all the time. And Paul says, I wish you'd
be comforted. Oh, he says, I wish you could
just be comforted. Now, where is our comfort to
be found? There's only one place to find comfort. He said it over
in Isaiah 40. I was going to have you turn,
but don't turn. God started it. God told his preacher, he said,
you go comfort my people. Comfort ye. He said it twice. Comfort ye, my people. He said
it three times. Speak comfortably to them. Tell them, what do I say to them?
Tell them the warfare is over. The warfare is accomplished.
Iniquity is gone. Sins are pardoned. The people
have received double. Double. Where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Double for all their iniquity
and sin. Comfort them. Speak comfortably.
He doesn't say speak. Don't yell at them. Don't yell
at them. Speak comfortably to them, plainly,
boldly, dogmatically, truthfully, yet comfortably, to the heart,
sincerely. As much as life is within you,
as much sincerity as you can muster, as much as God will give
you, that is, speak to them. Speak to their hearts. Don't
preach to their heads. Preach to their heart. And this
is the only source of peace and hope and encouragement and help.
It's the gospel of God's glory. He went on down to say, in that
same chapter, Isaiah 40, he said, tell them, cry out loud. Cry
dogmatically, emphatically. Without reservation, tell them,
Behold your God. Tell them that. Cried from the
highest rooftop and mountain. Behold your God. Yeah, Abraham's
God is your God. I never really thought about
that verse in this manner. I always talked about it in reference
to God's sovereignty and God's power. Yes, He is. That's what
that's talking about. He's your God. You can call Him
your God if you believe Him, trust Him, worship Him. Behold
your God and the gospel of God's salvation in Christ. It says
that He hath come. Behold your God. It goes on down
to say in verse 10, your God has come in the flesh. The Word which
was with God, the Word which was God, was made flesh and dwelt
among us. God walked the earth. The God
in whose hands your breath is, the God who gives you everything,
in whom you live and move and have your be, He walked this
planet. He didn't have to, but He did for you. Your God came for you. Oh, I wish I could get a hold
of that. Your God, Nancy Parks, came for Nancy Parks. If we could get a hold of the
gospel in this fashion, me, we could worship. Do a little praising. It says, Your God has come to
reign. Not make an offer, not make an attempt to get some people
in the notion of loving God, but to reign. He came to reign,
to establish his kingdom in the hearts of his people. It says
he came to rule. Your God shall come and he'll
reign, he'll rule. Not invite people to make him
their Lord, but rule over them. I am so thankful I don't have
to make him Lord. I'd dethrone him every day, wouldn't
you? I'd enthrone him one day and dethrone him the next. Why?
I like being Lord. Sometime. Don't you? Sure we
do. But God made him Lord. I like
that. That means he's always Lord.
Reigning, ruling, everything's in his control under his power.
I like that. Wouldn't have it any other way.
And it says his reward is with him. His reward is with him. What reward? Reward me? Reward
me for my faith? Reward you for your faithfulness,
for the moral life you've lived, for the outstanding life that
we've lived on this planet, for how much we owe, how I love Jesus. He's going to reward me for how
much I love Jesus? Oh no, His reward is with Him.
It says His reward is with who? Christ. He said to Abraham in
the beginning, He said, I am thy exceeding great reward, your
portion, your reward. I'm what you get. Lot gets the
world. Lot gets the well-watered plains of Sodom. And with it,
death and destruction. You know what you get, Abraham?
You get your God. Your God has come for you. And
you know what he gives you? Himself. It's the greatest thing
we can give to those we love and ourselves. And his reward is with him. And
it says his work is with him. Not our works. His work, it's
not what we do that saves us, it's what he has done. His work
is with him. His work is with him. This work
of salvation is with Christ. It's in Christ. Not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he has saved us, Titus. Right? His work, not our work. And he went on to say that he's
the good shepherd, and it says that he'll gather his sheep.
I'm quoting from Isaiah 40. He'll gather his sheep in his
bosom. In fact, the great shepherd that
he is. He doesn't come to make the first
step, does he? He didn't come to take one step and just sure
hope that you make it the rest of the way. No, he comes like
that good shepherd that he is, like the sovereign Savior that
he is, and gathers his lost sheep, gathers them up and puts them,
tucks them away right there. Like Calper's little bird that
flew in the window, you know, flew in his coat. And he wrote
that song, Hide Me. Oh, my Savior, hide me while
the storm of life goes by in the past, and he takes us and
puts us in his bosom. Who's in the bosom of the Father? Huh? Who came from the bosom
of the Father? What is the bosom, buddy, of
God? Huh? The Son of his love, that's
who it is, the Son of God. And he takes us, like the good
shepherd that he is. God said, I'll be their And he
comes, God in human flesh, and gathers us together, his sheep,
and puts them in his bosom. Puts us in Christ. Safe. Safe. Picks us up, not helps us out. Picks us up and carries us all
the way home. Puts us in Christ. Safe, secure,
saved eternally in the hearts and hands of our Savior. Once
in grace, always in grace. You better believe it. Once in
Christ, always in Christ, because he said it, I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. And no man shall pluck
them out of my hand or my father's hand for that matter. Now, there's no other comfort
to be found anywhere else, uh-uh, any other gospel. Any gospel
that makes Christ a failure, any gospel that makes the atonement
an attemptment is not the good news. It's not the gospel. Nobody
will get any comfort from that. They'll get a lot of self-righteous
pride from it, about what they try to do, about what they try
to accomplish, and then they'll go to God in the end and say,
We did this, we did that, we believed, we loved, we served,
we won souls to Jesus. Here we are, and he'll say, get
out of here. Oh, it may comfort you temporarily
in some false refuge, but it won't comfort you when you get
up there and need the comfort of all comforts. When Christ
stands beside you and says, he's mine, I loved him and gave myself
for him. Now there's the only place to
find that comfort, right? in his bosom. No other comfort
to be found. You have no assurance unless you have a surety. You
write that statement down. You have no assurance unless
you have a surety. Now in the text here, he says,
I would you knew what care I had for you, and I would you were
your hearts were comforted, being knit together in love. Knit together
in love. In love to God. Like I said, these things that
people call church socials, these aren't church socials, these
dinners and things we have when we get together, church meetings.
I don't like to talk about going to church. I'm not going to church.
I'm going to God. You going to church today? Well,
I hope I'm going to God. I hope I'm coming to God by Christ
to worship him. Going to a building, not going
to a place, not going to an affair, not going to a social. Their
heart would be knit together in love to God. If we don't love
God. If we don't fall in love with
God, with his son, with his gospel, we'll quickly fall out of the
church. What keeps us in the church, keeps us in love with
God's people is love for God, his son, his gospel. that their
hearts might be knit together in love, to know the love," he
talks about in Ephesians, the love of Christ, which passes
a mere intellectual knowledge. And I worry about us. I would
you knew my worry for you people here. We've had the truth preached
here. Oh, that's not a mistake. It's undeniable. Some of us have
come through some solid true Calvinistic background. It's
the truth. It's the gospel. Oh, but I would
you knew my care for you that you wouldn't, didn't have a false
refuge in your head, not knowing Christ in your heart. I would
you knew. I would you knew that my care for you, that your profession
of faith, that your baptism you made wasn't just professing doctrine. I would you knew. It's your hearts. How many times
do we read this throughout the scriptures? It's your heart!
I would that more than your body was here, I would your heart
was here in this thing of worship and cry. Knit together in love. Love one
another now. This enters into there. Love
to one another. Oh, how I wish that, as I said
earlier, I said, talked about the reason I come to these things
is because I love to see my sisters and brother. Now tell me, you
tell me how long you could go without seeing your child. Huh? How long can you go without,
some of you drive hours, your children live out of town, you
like to drive hours. If you had the time, the money,
you'd drive every week. How long can you go without seeing
your children? How long would you be willing to do without
your husband and your wife? I've got sisters and brothers here.
I don't like to go very long without seeing them. And when
I see them, I go up to them and put my arms around them and tell
them what I think about them. We come in here. Somebody comes
in here and you haven't seen your so-called brother and sister
in a week, two weeks, and don't speak to them. I would that your hearts were
knit together in love, and it won't be unless you love Christ.
You'll not love somebody who is of a different personality,
different blood. Blood's a whole lot thicker. You'll not love
that woman like your flesh and blood sister unless you love
Christ. No, you won't. I don't care how
much you try to fake it, it won't last. I would you." Your hearts were
knit together. He says, "...unto all riches
of the full assurance of understanding." Full assurance of understanding
unto all riches. Would somebody like to get up
here and finish this off for me, please? Somebody get up here
and talk and expound upon the riches of the full assurance
of knowledge. Somebody get up here and talk
about the mystery of God and the Father. Somebody get up here
and talk about the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Somebody
get up here and talk about the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
in a few minutes, so that we can understand. You see what
this requires? Not my head, not my body, my
heart. Lord, teach me. Your heart crying
out. Ejaculatory prayer, they talk
with the Puritans. Going out to God. Teach me. Speak
to me. This is a mystery. I'm blindfolded. Open this up to me. That's what
I'm just bursting out with right now inside of me. Now, we got
the doctrine down pat. Do we have the heart of it? God's
speaking here. These aren't words. These aren't
doctrines. This is the Word of God. And
Paul says, I would that you had the riches of the full assurance
of knowledge, to know the love of Christ, not just knowledge,
hidden knowledge, the riches of full assurance. If you can be satisfied with
anything less than full assurance, your faith is suspect. If you
can be satisfied with worshiping in any way but all-out worship,
Your faith is suspect. If you can be satisfied with
coming and hearing the Word of God without it touching you,
your faith is suspect, right? My faith is suspect. If I can
be satisfied with preaching this with anything less than all of
my heart, soul, and mind, my preaching is suspect. My position
is suspect. Get out of this piece of wood
and let somebody up here that'll do it. with a heart and a mind
and a soul for the people who are sitting there. Our souls
are at stake. Eternity is coming upon us. Hell
and judgment is rising up to meet us. We've got to know Christ. We've got to wake up. Do not
sleep as others. We've got to wake up. the riches of the full assurance,
that inexpressible joy. Wouldn't you like to know a little
more joy than you've got right now? Huh? Inexpressible joy. He said, joy
unspeakable. He said, my joy I give unto you.
I want that, Deborah. I want the joy Christ can give
me. I want to know and understand
the mystery of the gospel, which has been kept hid from the foundation
of the world, but is now revealed under the church. And if I'm
a church, I want to dig into these mysteries. I want to know
something about them. I want to walk in them, talk
in them, talk about them, be taken up with them, until possibility,
God just remove me from this place and say, come on in it,
come on home. Don't you, John Sheasley? Oh,
yeah. The mystery of God and the Father
and of Christ. Do you see that? Look at that,
verse 2. The mystery of God and the Father and of Christ. Sounds
like the Trinity to me, doesn't it, you? Acknowledgement of the mystery
of God, the Father and of Christ, the Spirit, the Father, the Son.
In whom? Like I said, somebody please
take over now. Stand up here, I'll give you
my notes, you can do what you can. In whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Oh, we spend a lifetime accumulating,
pursuing after foolishness, don't we? Didn't he call it in 1 Corinthians
1 there, Henry? We've been studying it. The wisdom
of this world is what? We spend a lifetime pursuing
a career, whether it be whatever career it is that we pursued,
foolishness, all together taken up with. But it says here, in
Christ, in the one we claim to be standing or sitting and worshiping
today, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And we give him ten minutes a
week. In him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. Listen, though Christ was veiled
from human view by man's body, God was veiled, and we're veiled. We've got flesh. We've got eyes
of flesh. He's veiled. We can't see Him. The reason
we've got to have spiritual eyes is the reason we've got to call
on the God who is Spirit to give us spiritual eyes. And unless
we do call on God to give us spiritual eyes, it's a probability
that we won't get them. It's the means that He's chosen
for us to be given sight or open. blind Bartimaeus would have never
seen unless he'd have called on the Son of David. Would he? How do we expect to worship?
How do we expect to do anything in the Spirit and in truth unless
we call on God and keep calling? Lord, open
my eyes. I will not let you go unless
you bless me. Though veiled from human view
by a man's body, that one That man, I tell you, the principalities
and powers of this world are at work right now. I'll try to
keep you from hearing this gospel. That one, that man who walked
this planet, was God Almighty. He knows all. The one who knows
all, sees all, controls all. The one who knows us right now,
who sees us right now, who knows what we're thinking right now.
And it says, "...in him, in whom are hidden, are found the source
of all wisdom and knowledge." Now listen, everything you need
to know, everything you need to know, all true knowledge,
any truth at all, any truth at all, all science, all biology,
all history, all astrology, all theology, certainly, has its
answer in the Lord Jesus Christ. His story is his story. Yeah, it is. It's all about him.
Uh-huh. He's the Alpha and Omega. He's
the beginning and the end. His story is his story. Unless a man knows something
about his story, I don't care how much he thinks he knows about
history. He doesn't know anything. It's just called, falsely so-called,
a study of truth. Science is Christ's. Science is Christ's. Why? He
said, I'm the truth. Those wise philosophers and scientists
and doctors and lawyers stood before Him with their degrees
and their broad phylacteries and so forth and questioned Him.
Oh, my. Truth. Biology. Biology begins with
Him in whom we live and move and have our behavior. Biology. The leaves speak of Christ, who
is the tree. The rocks cry out unto Him, who
is the rock of ages, from whom all rocks come. The oceans, the
rivers, the creeks, the streams sing praise to Him, who is that
One who speaks with a voice of many waters. Right? The earth
cries out unto him who made it. Christ is all wisdom. All wisdom is found in him in
whom the angels praise. The wisest men and women who
have ever walked this planet, I mean in the wisest, because
wise men seek him. But the wisest men who have ever
walked this planet, you know what they're doing right now?
Those that have passed on, that is. sitting at his feet like
little children. Jonathan Edwards, arguably one
of the greatest theologians ever lived. Charles Spurgeon, they
call him the Prince of Preachers. John Gill, the great Dr. John
Gill. You know what he's doing? Sitting
like a baby at the feet of Christ with his mouth gaping open, listening
to one word. Such profoundness. Such wisdom,
such knowledge, one word out of his mouth. In him, in Christ,
are hid all the treasures. Dare we, do we pursue anything else? Dare we
pursue anything else with more enthusiasm? My soul, my soul, my soul, my
soul, my soul. Verse four, and this I say unto
you, and Paul said, I say this unto you, lest, lest any man
should beguile you with enticing words, persuasible, impressive,
eloquent words of man's wisdom, man's knowledge, man's philosophy,
man's religion. We've been talking about this
throughout 1 Corinthians. The scriptures talks about to
the law and the testimony. If they speak about, if their
ministry involves anything but the Word of God, which is, who
is? Christ. If they speak not according
to the Word, which is Christ, if they're taken up with anything,
any message other than Christ and Him crucified, it's because
there's no light in them. They're dark. They're in darkness.
They're blind, they're religiously blind. And I say this to us in
here, if we've never seen the sun shining, if we've never seen the S-O-N
shining in all his glory, in all his power, in all his strength, we're in darkness. We're in spiritual
darkness, we're blind. And we need to cry out to the
Son of David. And he asked us, what do you
want? And we need to, oh Lord that I may see. I'm a flesh and
bone, blood human being, a worm, I'm no man. I sure would like
to get a glimpse of the Son of God. Verse 5 and 6, he said, though
I be absent in the flesh. Now, Paul's writing this letter
to the Colossians, some of them who have never seen him. He'd
been away a while. I'm absent in the flesh, yet
I'm with you in the Spirit. Joy and beholding your order,
steadfastness of your faith in Christ. Now, as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him. Walk in Him. The gospel I preached. And this, Paul, I say the same
thing dogmatically. If any man preach any other gospel,
you go anywhere and hear any other gospel than what I have
preached to you, let that man be accursed. Don't listen to
him. If you hear or receive any other Jesus than the one we've
declared from this pulpit, yes, you'd do well to bear with me.
You'd do well to listen. to this preaching here. Come
thou with us, we'll do you good. Why? We've only got your good
in mind, in heart. We've only got the glory of God,
the gospel of Christ foremost in our preaching. You'd do well
to bear with us here. You'd do well. The gospel I preach,
Paul said, many claim to preach it. As you have received, he
said that in Galatians 1, twice. The gospel you've received from
us, that is who God is. who we are, who Christ is. And he says here, that gospel
you've heard, look at it, verse 6, walk in him. As you've received
Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him. By faith, lean upon him. Look to him, depend upon him,
have no confidence in any other. Certainly not in self. Be rooted,
verse 7, rooted and built up in him. Rooted. Get your roots where they belong.
Rooted in Him. Not in this world. Rooted in
Him. Built up in Him. Rooted, standing
firm on the solid rock Christ. Hidden in the cleft of the rock.
This world doesn't know much about it. the wrath of God, the hatred
of God against sin, the holiness of God. No, I don't know much
about it. They don't see much of their need of being hidden
in Christ. Now, all I see is people rushing
up to God, you know, waving their hands and carrying on all this
foolishness, you know, just rushing up. We need to be hid, don't
we? Hid in Christ. Hid in the cleft
of the rock. God said, I'm going to pass by
to Moses, didn't He? I'm going to pass by. But you can't see me. You can't
look on me. You've got to be in a rock. You've
got to be put in the quest of the rock. And Christ said, no
man's going to get to God but by me. No man's going to see
God at any time. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He has declared it. Philip, have I been so long time
with you and you have not known me? He that has seen me has seen
God. I want to see the Son. I want to see Christ as being
God more than just a doctrine, right? Rooted and built up in
Him, established in the faith, built up in Him, established. Boy, I tell you, I want this
for you so bad. I want this for me so bad. I
want to be acquainted with Christ. I want to know Him. Not about
Him, Barbara. Know Him. There's a whole lot
of difference, isn't there? I've heard names before, people,
and I've been told some things about people, whether it's true
or not, I don't know. And I know about some people I've never
really met. I don't want to be that way with
Christ. I want to know Him. Earlene, I want to walk with
Him like I walk with my wife. I want to talk to Him like I
talk with my wife. I want to be talked to. by him
like she talks to me. I want to hear those expressions
of love. Sherry, I want him to say, like the psalmist said,
unto my soul, I'm your salvation. I'm your Lord. I'm your friend.
You want anything less than that? Huh? I want to walk with him. I want to be established in him,
built up in him, acquainted with him, thoroughly convinced. I
want to be like Paul, right? I want to be persuaded he's able. I want to be persuaded. I'm inconvinced
beyond a shadow of a doubt, so I want the slightest little,
I stomp my toe and I won't scream. Oh, I'm dying like my child has
a wreck on her back and the world's coming to an end. That's us,
isn't it? The slightest little trial will
come our way. I want to be built up in Him,
a mature, strong believer, not worried about a thing. Though
he slay me," I want to say with Job, though he slay me, I'll
trust him. Why? Why should you do that, Job?
I know him. I know my Redeemer. He's too
good to do anything wrong. He's too wise to do anything
foolish to me. And he's so merciful and so gracious,
he'll not let anything come my way except what's best. He's
my daddy. My daddy loves me. I want to
trust him like that, don't you? I want to cry out my spirit,
Abba, Father, Father. Built up in him, established
in the faith, established. I don't want to be deceived by
all manner of things, every wind of doctrine. I don't want to
turn on the TV and see some fellow and he's saying some good things
and my puny little brain goes, hey, that sounds pretty good.
You don't even spit in the distance of the truth. I don't want to
be persuaded by any of that. I want to be grounded, rock steady,
solid on Christ and nobody else. Nothing else. Gospel. I want
a joe. I want my heart strings to be
tuned to key of C, don't you? And I hear any other tune, I
say, that's out of key. That ain't much music to me. Don't you stand? When I hear
any other message than pure Christ, I said, something wrong about
that. It just ain't striking. It ain't plucking my string.
Like that old fella that, that old fella that was playing the
bass fiddle, John, that's the way, playing one string the whole
time. Fellas that hired him thought he could play it. Picking one
string, you know. He said, is that all you know?
One string. He said, well, everybody else
is running all up and down this neck looking for it. He said,
I found it. Everybody else running up and
down looking for answers, and so I turn around. He found me. Abounding, look at this. Oh,
built up in him, established in the faith as you've been taught,
abounding therein with thanksgiving. Oh, my soul. Oh, I'd love to one time worship
God, wouldn't you? I'd love one time for one of you ladies that
feel like shouting to do it. Aboundly, like Paul said in 2
Thessalonians 2 verse 13, we're bound to give thanks to God,
beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you. Who, me? Yes, you. Me? Yeah, you. Hallelujah. Bound with Thanksgiving. Bound
up, running over with it. I'm running over with blessings,
surely I ought to be running over with praise, shouldn't I?
Abounding with thanksgiving. Now he says, verse 8, he gets
to warning them. Beware. Oh, I ought to preach
like this all the time. I ought to preach verse by verse.
There's no other type of preaching, is there? Verse 8, Beware, lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, not after Christ."
Now, turn quickly back to Mark 7 with me, for some who may not
have seen this before, and for those who have forgotten it.
Mark 7, he said, Beware. That reminds me of Philippians
3 when he said, Beware of dogs, religious rovers. Pharisaical
pharaohs, monastic mongrels, Methodist
mongrels, dogs. Yeah, there are the dogs. These
preachers are dogs. Boy, that's awful hard, isn't
it? Paul said it. I didn't say that. First Paul said it. They rove it. Stay in there.
Hospital wolves, aren't they? Hospital hounds. religious rovers
roaming the halls of hospitals like wolves praying on the weak
and the sickly, aren't they? Put a notch in their soul-winning
belt. Some man's gasping for air. Sure, he'll say anything
you want him to say, won't he? Oh, he'll cry to the devil if
the devil will save him from this. And you get him to accept
Jesus and you've given him a false profession? You're a hound. You're a dog. Beware of preachers, he said,
who will spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, and not after
Christ, who don't preach Christ. The Word. Look at Mark 7, verse
7. Our Lord says this four times
here to these Pharisees. He said, you hypocrites. Verse
6, he said, Isaiah prophesied to you hypocrites. honor me with
your lips, so religious your heart is far from me. But in
vain," he says, verse 7, in vain you do worship me or pretend
to worship me. You teach for doctrine. Here's
your preaching. Here's all your preaching amounts
to, commandments of men. Verse 8, he said, you lay aside
the word of God. You've seen that, haven't you?
Lay aside the commandments of God to hold the tradition of
man. And you literally see them do
it, don't you? Read one verse, lay her aside, Mac, and go to
preaching, you know. Crimes of sin. Sure you sin. You're sinning
by not getting in this book, man. That's where you're sinning
more than anything else, by not feeding my sheep. You're feeding
on them. washings and pots and cups and
quitting this and quitting that and doing this and doing that,
such like things you do. He said, verse 9, he said, Oh,
well, you reject the commandment, reject the Word of God to keep
your center traditions. Anybody been down 220 lately
and seen that ridiculous sign there in Boone's Mill? It says C-H and then blank, blank,
C-H, C-H, blank, blank, C-H. He said, What is missing? Thousands, literally hundreds
and thousands of verses of Scripture, the very Word of God Almighty,
and they put that ridiculous foolishness up there. I'd like
to talk to that guy face-to-face. I feel like calling him. Ain't nothing missing from the
church. If you ain't in the church, you ain't missing. He said, My sheep will hear my
voice. Every one of his churches is in the church, and will be
in the church. Oh, my soul. Verse verse 13,
making the word of God of no effect through your tradition,
which you've delivered and many such like things you do twist
and turn and pervert and corrupt and abuse men who are unlearned
and unstable, do pervert, corrupt word of God. Twist it, turn it, make it say
what they want it to say, add to it, take away from it, don't
preach it. Anything but the Word of God, right? Through their
philosophy and vain deceit, things that impress people. Tradition
of men, he talks about. Man's thoughts, man's ways, man's
interpretation, man's opinion, man's work, man's morality, man,
man, man, man. It's a man-centered preaching
today. I'm preaching about a man, all
right, the God-man. That it's his thoughts, that
man's thoughts, that man's ways, that man's interpretation or
word, that man's opinion, that man's works, that man's morality.
It's dependent upon a man, all right, the God-man, Christ Jesus,
and the rudiments of this world. Look at this now. This will help
you. And not after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world. You know what rudiments mean? Elements. Anything has
to do with the flesh. Elements. Fleshly. Fleshly. Things. Ceremonies, great outward
shows of religion. The bigger the building, the
more spiritual. Huge religious edifices. Great
robed choirs and cantatas. People need that. They need all
that on the outside. Why? Ain't nothing on the inside. Statues, symbols, why? People
have got to be made to feel religious. You have got to get them into
a spirit of feeling religious. Crosses, ceremonies, liturgies,
impress them with what you are going through. Wow, God must
be here. Learn. I will tell you where God is. In Him, when a man stands up
and preaches boldly, plainly, so that everybody understands,
it says, in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, word
after word after word that speaks of Christ. God's in this place.
That's where God is. wherever his son is being prayed.
Like David said, O Ammaeus, he said, What about my son? He didn't
have the message. But Cushiah ran up and said,
I know all about you, son. And the king said, Let's hear
it. Let's hear it. The rudiments
of this world, anything having to do with the flesh and man's
doings, and not after Christ. Christ. I tell you what. Christ and him crucified. Christ
and him crucified is our message. Determine not to know anything.
Be taken up with anything else. Substitution. Substitution. Substitution. Our desperate need
is a substitute. I tell you, when we get to heaven,
we're going Oh, we're going to see our desperate need. When
we behold God's holiness, Him who sits on the throne and the
angels cry, oh, they want to cover those holy, white, hot,
holy angels, cover their faces, and us puny, little, maggot,
black-hearted creatures stand before this all-seeing God, we're
going to want to substitute, aren't we? Where is He? We're going to be looking for
Him. Where is He? Hide me, O my Savior, hide me from the face
of him who sees all." I just want to substitute. God
says, without the shedding of blood there'll be no remission
of your sins. I'll require every idle word that comes out of your
filthy little faggot mouth. I need some blood. Don't you,
Joe? Yeah, I need some blood preaching.
I need an atonement, not an attempt. I need a covering, propitiation. I need pitch to cover this old
vessel that ain't gonna spring a leak, inside and out, not just
on the outside. I need it on the inside, because
my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. I need it covered in
the blood, too. Go on, keep going, verse 9. Let's stay until 2 o'clock. What do you say? "...in him dwelleth
all the fulness of the Godhead in a body." Somebody come up
here. What are we going to say about
this? What am I going to say? What's
this vain Bible going to say now? I'm at a loss for words. But I've got something written
down here, so I'll repeat, though. "...all the salvation of God."
All the love of God, all the mercy of God, all the grace of
God, all the help of God, all the life of God is in the God-man
in Jesus Christ. All the fullness of God dwells
in a man. God is only seen, known, worshipped
in Christ. Only a fool would approach him
any other way. And he tells us here, you beware, and here's
my text, and I'll quit. You beware the philosophies of
vain deceit of the Russellites, the Mormons, the Methodists,
the Presbyterians, yea, the Baptists, Especially the Baptists, they're
so close that if it were possible to see the very lack. Episcopalians,
the Catholics, you beware, lest any man spoil you through his
impressive show of religion, his vain philosophy, all of his
preaching on the rudiments of this world that sounds so good
to your self-righteous nature, and it's not after Christ. Why?
Because Christ is all. A-double-L, it says it so many
times throughout Colossians. Oh, he's all John Sheezy, the
religion you're going to need, buddy. All the religion you'll ever
need. You don't need to kiss my toe. Phew. He'll run you out of here. Kiss the sun. Look to Christ. Believe Christ.
Trust Christ. Cast all your sins and all your
care upon Christ. Cast your future, your family,
your children on Christ. Lay your hands on the head of
the scapegoat and count on it. Count on it. Rest on it. Stand on it. Be persuaded of
it. Verse 10. You're complete in
Him. Man, completely saved. I don't care how sinful you feel,
old boy. I don't care what you've done,
old girl, where you've been. And it doesn't even matter what
you're going to get into. And God knows we're going to
fall terribly, maybe this afternoon. But bless God, John Davis, you're
complete. in Christ. Holy. You need some of that, don't
you? You need a whole lot of it. Unblameable. Oh, I'm so much
to blame. Everything, every trouble, everything
about me, I take the blame. Unblameable. Unreprovable. Oh, to be reproved, I'll be stood
naked in front of everybody and have my whole life exposed. What
a hypocrite. What a hypocrite. What a no-good
bond! Unreprovable in God's sight. Why? Because Christ is the head,
and He's the head of all principality and power. He's in charge here. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And you'll
be complete in me. Trust me, I'll take care of you.
Trust me." Well, I believe I can do that by his grace and by his
mercy. If you read on down there this
afternoon, you read on down through Colossians 2, and notice those
verses that talk about the shadow. It even talks about the Sabbath. Let these Sabbatarians go on
about keeping the Sabbath. You read this afternoon the rest
of Colossians 2. It talks about letting no man judge you. You
say that, Jeanette? Let no man judge you anymore. Do the new moon and Sabbaths,
which are a what? A shadow, and not the substance
of the real thing. I ain't worshiping no shadow,
John. I'm not confining my worship
to Saturday or Sunday, whichever you think is a Sabbath. Christ
is my Sabbath, and no man's going to judge me about it. Right? Paul said that. I'm complete
in him. Why do I have to keep a day?
I'll tell you what I have to keep. Keep hold of him. Keep his word, his testimony.
Cling to Christ. I'm going to cling with all the
tenacity he gives me, too. And if somebody bothers me, I'm
going to say, don't you judge me, man. I've been judged already. You take it up with my head,
my master. All right I hope you can help
stand with.