We face a new year. There are some things that I
think are necessary for me and necessary for you. And it's something
we labor at all the time. But here in Colossians 2, in
verse 6 and 7, it says this, As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and
built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." I want to talk
about established in the faith, established in the faith, grounded
and settled. Paul said over here in verse
23 of chapter 1, he said, if you continue in the faith, grounded
and settled, and being not moved away from the hope of the gospel,
which ye have heard, which was preached to every creature under
heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Now, you notice here
it says, you know, rooted in verse 7, rooted in build up him
established in the faith as ye have been taught. It's a great
and a necessary responsibility of a pastor, of a preacher, is
to instruct the people, to teach them. Paul told Timothy, you
know, you must be apt to teach. Establish people in the faith.
Preach the faith. And you know, that's what we
do. We are instructed. That's what Paul says. We minister
that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. We preach
the gospel. But I'm not only that, but it's
also a great and necessary responsibility of professing believers. to see
that they are grounded and settled in the faith. You know, you're
not only responsible for what you do know, but people are also
responsible for what they could have known. If you don't believe
that, you just mark these verses down and look at them when you
get home. I won't use them this morning. But Luke 12, 47 and
48, that's what it tells you then. That if you know, you're
not only responsible for what you do know, But you're also
responsible for what you could have known. Could have known. And so, you know, it's my responsibility
to teach you. That's what it says, and be established
in the faith as you have been taught. That it's also, as you
have received, therefore, Christ Jesus the Lord, as you have done
it, walk ye in Him, rooted and built up Him, as you've been
established. So I have a responsibility to teach you, to instruct you,
But you have a great necessary responsibility to believe, to
see that you, yourself, are grounded and settled in the faith. You
are. You know, we should know what
we believe and why we believe it. You ask people, you can ask
a dozen people, go into a Baptist church or Pentecostal church
or any other kind of church, you ask them what you believe,
and most of them could not possibly tell you. And how did we come
to know what we believe? How do we come to know what we
believe? How do we come to that place? How do we become grounded
and settled in the faith? How do we do that? How do we
become established in the faith? Well, I'm going to tell you this.
Look with me over in Acts chapter 20. You keep Colossians and look
in Acts chapter 20. Become established by the Word
of God. That's the only thing that will
establish us. Our feelings come and go. But the Word of God, it endures
forever. It's forever settled in heaven.
And that's why he says, I've hid Thy Word in my heart. I've
hid Thy Word, Your Word, Lord, in my heart, that I might not
sin against You. He says, Thy Word is a lamp under
my path, a light under my feet. And so here we have in Acts chapter
20 and verse 32, look what he says here now. And now brethren,
Acts 20, 32, and now brethren, I commend you to God, now listen
to this, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build
you up. The word of His grace is able
to build you up. And to give you an inheritance
among all them that are sanctified. Now what's able to do that? The
word of His grace. The only thing that can build
you up, give you an inheritance, and make you know you've got
that inheritance and establish you is the Word of God. And by
way of introduction, let me give you three reasons. Let me give
you three reasons it's necessary for believers, for you that are
professed believers, to be well instructed in the foundation
of true religion. I mean, we're talking about true
religion. To be grounded and settled, to be established in
the faith. Let me give you three reasons.
First of all, it's a duty. It's a duty of believers to be
settled in the doctrine of faith. And when we're talking about
the doctrine of faith, we're talking about the doctrine of
Christ. We're talking about all that we believe, not just, you
know, if you get a The Philadelphia Confession of Faith, the London
Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Confession of Faith, what that
is that men put in an order of things that people believe. And
this Scripture has a faith. He says, Be solid in the faith,
established in the faith. The faith was delivered unto
the saints. The faith is all that we believe. It's the compendium
of everything that we believe. And the reason we have to be
settled in the doctrine of faith is that so we may walk and abound
in Christ. Ain't that what he says there
in verse 6 of Colossians 2? As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him. You can't walk in Christ
and abound in Christ unless you're established and settled in the
faith. And secondly, the best way for believers to be settled
is to be well-grounded. You've got to be well-grounded.
You know, they say, boy, that fellow's well-grounded. They'll
talk about young people and say, boy, he's well-grounded. He's
not here yondering about. He's really well-grounded. He's
all around, you know. And that's what it is for us
as believers. We need to be settled to be well-grounded. And before you can be built up,
you've got to first be rooted in Him. Ain't that what it says
there in verse 7? Rooted. When you root something, I mean,
you know, when you plant a tree, you want that thing established.
You won't roost to go way down deep. And oh, and that's what
he says here. Rooted in what's this? And built
up in Him. Rooted in Him. You've got to
have a good foundation if you're going to be settled and well-grounded.
And there's no other foundation can be laid than that which is
laid, which is Christ Jesus. You know, when the Lord Jesus
says, you know about the wise man and the foolish man? He said,
He that heareth these sands of mine, and doeth them, I liken
them unto a wise man who digged deep, and built his foundation
on a rock. When the storms came, that rock,
that house stood. It stood. The one is a foolish
man who builds his house on the sand. And our Lord Jesus, over
in Psalm 1-3, it says, You know a tree. He's talking about that
man who delights in the law of God, the Word of God. He said,
He's like a tree. planted by the rivers of water. And whatsoever he doeth shall
flourish, and whatsoever he doeth shall fall, and he'll bring forth
his fruit in his season." And it's got to be planted, it's
got to be well grounded. And you also remember when the
Lord Jesus came to this fig tree, and there wasn't no figs on it,
and he uses a parable, he says, you know, just cursed it, and
then he says, there was a man who had a a tree in his vineyard. And he told him, he says, well,
cut it down. And they bought fruit for three
years, just cumbers the ground and just cut it down. He says,
give me one more year, one more year. And there comes a day,
and this is a fact, there comes a day when there is not any fruit
brought forth and God says he cumbers the ground, just cut
it off. And that's one of the most fearful things in the world
for God to just leave man alone. That's why we want to be grounded
and established in the faith. We want a good foundation. And
thirdly, those who are not grounded and settled and not established
in the faith, not rooted and built up in Christ, will eventually
be moved away from the gospel. They will eventually be moved
away from the gospel. You know what it says here in
verse 8, Colossians 2? Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit. You know, evidently somebody
came in there with philosophy, with vain deceit, beguiling them
with enticing words. And you know what philosophy
is? I'm going to tell you all that philosophy is. And there's
lots of philosophers. But philosophy is just a man's
opinion, a man's view of the world. I don't care what philosopher
it is. Aristotle, Plato, or Voltaire,
or any of the main philosophers of this day, it's just his ideas
and his opinions and views of the world around him. And that's
what he says. A fellow comes along with his
views. His ideas, his opinions, his
reasoning for what the way things are, and he said he'll come along
and he'll deceive you. And he says when he does, it's
a vain deceit, because it's really everything he's teaching is vain. And if you believe what he says,
you're vainly deceived. And oh, you've got all kinds
of people through the Scriptures. Demas have forsooken us. Judas, Alexander the coppersmith,
Hymenaeus, Philetus, Moved away from the hope of the gospel.
So you see, there's three reasons why we need to be. Certainly,
you don't want to be moved away from the hope of the gospel.
All right, here's my first point. It's our bounding duty. It's
our bounding duty as believers to be settled, to be established
in the doctrine of the faith of Christ. Huh? Look with me. Now, you keep Colossians. Look
over here with me in 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter 5. You know, because if we don't,
Jude said it this way, he says, you know, there will be those
who come among you, they'll be like clouds without water. Wondering stars, to whom the
mist of darkness is reserved forever. When he talks about
wandering stars, you know, and their people have shined for
a while, and they wander from one opinion to another. They
wander from one doctrine to another. They lose their steadfastness.
And look here what he says in 1 Peter 5 and verse 10. But the
God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after that you suffered a while, make you perfect,
establish, strengthen, settle you. God do that for us. Huh? God do that for us. And
oh beloved, you know it. His wife's are bound in duty
to do this because you look at Reuben. Reuben was Jacob's first
son, oldest son. And you know, when Jacob was
blessing those fellas, the first thing he said about Reuben was,
says, Reuben is unstable as water. Now, you know, water is an unstable
thing. You can't control it. When it comes fast enough and
hard enough, you can put dams up against it. You can lay sandbags
down, but it's going to run over. If it comes fast enough and hard
enough, you can't control it. It's unstable. And I'm not always
at unstable, but it takes the form of the container it's in.
Whatever form you put, whatever container you put it in, it takes
that form. You put it in a square, it's going to show up square.
You put it in a round, it's going to show up round. And I'll tell
you something else. Cold affects it. You can freeze it. And then
you put heat to it and it'll boil. And that's the way a lot
of people are. They're unstable as water. They get cold, they
take the form of the people they're around. If they're around a bunch,
they get cold. If they're around hot, they were
cold one time, real hot the next. And whatever where they're at,
whatever they're with, they take that form. And that's why we've
got to be steadily established in the faith. And I tell you,
let me show you this. Look over here in 2 Peter 2.
I want you to show this. This is what folks really, really
don't understand. And I mean we need to understand
this, and that's why we won't compromise when I talk about
being established in the faith. 2 Peter 2 says this, verse 1
and 2. But there were false prophets
also among the people. Many false prophets among them.
Even as there shall be false teachers among you. And who probably,
they won't get up and start, you know, right out of the bat,
getting up and saying things. Who probably shall bring in damnable
heresies. Even denying the Lord that bought
them and bring upon themselves swift destructions. You know
a man will go to hell for heresy as well as adultery. I told somebody the other night
there's a special place for preachers in hell. For preachers that tell
up, get up and stand and tell people that God cannot do anything
for you, cannot do anything for anybody unless you let Him. That
man ought to go to hell. And to get up and preach that
man's free will can withstand the grace of God, the power of
God, the word of God that man cannot, God cannot save him without
his permission or his cooperation. That's a heresy, and that man
will go to hell too. And everybody that believes it's
going to go with them. When somebody spends their whole
ministry preaching seed faith, Telling men and women that if
you'll give whatever you give, that God, you sow it in His kingdom,
He'll give you twenty, thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold, He's
a hurricane! And people get mad because folks
commit adultery and all that, but they don't get it, neither
do preachers, for lying on God! Our Lord Jesus told that generation,
how are you going to escape the damnation of hell? How are you
going to do it with your doctrine? How are you going to do it with
your lies? How are you going to do it with your deceptions
against these people? Robbing widows, promising them
life and eternal life. The more they give, the more
they are building up bricks for their mansion in glory. Robbing
widows' houses. And look what else he goes on
to say. And this is what else happens. bring upon themselves
swift destruction, and many shall follow their pernicious ways,
deadly ways, lascivious ways, and because of them the way of
truth will be evil spoken of. I was seeing a fellow over here
in Sevierville, over around Pigeon Forge, they've got a great big
TV ministry over there, and he took on the five points of Calvinism
and showed how wrong they all was. And he used the verse scripture. Heresy! Heresy. And to be unsettled
in religion shows a lack of judgment. Tossed to and fro as children. And, oh beloved, the purpose
of the Word preached, the purpose of the Word preached is to settle
us in the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Back over here in Colossians
2, look what he says here. Verse 23, or verse 2, up here in verse 2 and
3, it says here, Colossians 2 and 3, that your hearts might be
comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches
of the full assurance of understanding. You know, the more you understand,
the more assurance you have. And oh, this full assurance of
understanding that we acknowledge the mystery of God. God manifest
in the flesh, the mystery of God's eternal covenant, the mystery
of God's electing love, the mystery of God coming into this world
and saving Gentiles, and Christ in you, the hope of glory, things
that was never seen before, never known before, and this knowledge
in the mystery of God and the Father in Christ. Watch this,
in whom hid are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You
want wisdom and knowledge and full assurances in Christ, he
says. And over here in Ephesians, let me show you this real quick. You know, that's why I love studying
myself. That's why I love preaching through
books and things. It makes me study. And after
all these years of reading this book, Ephesians 4, all the years of preaching this
book, it's bigger now than ever. Bruce Crabtree brought up a meeting
the other day. He's preaching through Ephesians.
And he says, how in the world is Christ, let me see where he's
at over there. No, that Christ is, how
he can be in you and how he can be in your heart, how he can
be in you and yet you walk in him and he walks in you. How
can Christ walk in you? That's what he's talking about.
How can Christ walk in you? How can Christ abide in you?
And yet you walk in Christ too. He said, how is that? And that's
what it is. But over here in Ephesians 4,
look what it says. Verse 11. The purpose of the
word preached is to settle us in the truth as it is in Jesus.
Settle us in it. And he gave his gifts that Christ
gave to the church. He gave the church some apostles.
No more apostles. They're gone. He gave some prophets. And he gave some evangelists.
And some pastors and teachers. Pastors and teachers. One and
the same. Same office. And here's the reason he gave
these gifts. For the perfecting of the saints. That they might
grow. That they might be mature. For
the work of the ministry. For the edifying. The established.
The building up. of the body of Christ, until
we all come in the unity of the faith. That's where we're all
supposed to come. That's what we're supposed to
do. Bring us all to the unity of the faith. We see the same
things, believe the same things, rejoice in the same things, have
the same faith, understand things, and rejoice in the same things.
Now watch this. And of the knowledge of the Son
of God, We want us to come to a knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, a strong man, a mature man, unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And that we be no
more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind
of doctrine. Children, you know, they just
want this and they want that, and they get upset with this,
and they'll get a toy, and that's not good enough, and you buy
them a fortune for the toys, and then they play with the boxes.
I mean, you're just tearing yonder. That's why He says, don't be
like that. And we don't want children. We want grown people. And oh, beloved, we preach not
only to enlighten souls, but to establish the saints. Not
only to show the right way, but to keep men in the right way.
And here's another reason, beloved. It's to a believer's honor and
good. to be settled in the faith, to be established in the truth
what's in Christ. You know what it's called? It's
called walking in Christ. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. And over there it says,
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. Walk worthy of
that. And oh, beloved, it's continuing
in the faith, continuing in the faith, on and on and on. Just keep on keeping on. Paul
said it this way, told the Hebrews, he says, you know, we are not
of them. We are not of them who draw back
under perdition. But we are of them that believe.
Who believe? Who believe to the saving of
the soul? I mean, you believe right up
to the time you leave this world. And oh, beloved, I tell you,
that's why I said we're persuaded better things of you and things
that accompany salvation. You wouldn't think much of someone
who didn't know their particulars. You called an electrician and
he didn't know anything about electricity. You'd say, man, I don't believe I'll let him
work on my electrician. I don't believe I'll let him do anything
for me. If you call a plumber and he don't know what some things
you run through the drain. Snakes is? If you don't know
what a snake is, and you don't have one, send him packing. If you go take your car to a
mechanic, and he lifts up the hood, and he starts looking there
and says, oh boy, what's that there? What's this over here?
He takes you forever to even get the hood up, and then when
he gets it up, you've got to run over and look at the book
real quick. You know, if you'd asked a mechanic,
Oh my, if they don't know what they're talking about, and that's
the same thing with this business of being a believer. You ought to know what you're
talking about. You ought to know what you believe. And all those
who are not settled and established in the faith, in Christ, will
most likely put Christ to an open shame someday. And once
you do that, once you do that, People use Hebrew 6 to teach
that you can backslide, that you can be lost again. But Hebrew
6 teaches just the opposite. If you ever put Christ to an
open shame, crucify Christ as Christ, if you deny Christ, once
hastened to the heavenly gift, once been enlightened, once been
a partaker of the Holy Ghost, and you forsake Christ and put
Him to an open shame, you crucify Him afresh, and you put Him to
an... And then it says it's impossible, impossible, impossible to renew
them to repentance again. You know why that is? Because
Christ cannot be crucified again. He cannot be offered again to
put away your sins. You walk away from Christ, you
walk away from the Gospel, you walk away from the faith, and
you'll never, ever, If you do that deliberately, knowing the
truth and walk away from it, no hope for you. And that's why
it's impossible. That fact that they say that
teaches you, that's why it teaches just exactly the opposite of
that. That's why they say, well, the Lord will take you back.
No, no, you only come to Christ once. You only have a new birth
once. Ain't that right? And oh, listen,
to not be settled, to not be grounded, to not be established
in the faith, it provokes God. Look over here with me in 1 Corinthians
10. You know, to not be settled, to not be grounded and established
in the faith, it provokes God. You know, it says that they provoked
Him, they angered Him. And oh, when you provoke God,
God's revealed the way. And He isn't playing games with
us. We're a fool if we play and trifle with Him. But look here
at Goliath, 1 Corinthians 10, look what it says. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that you should be ignorant, how that all of our fathers were
under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. That cloud,
you know, that was covered and gave them Shade by day and light
by night, and all of them passed through the Red Sea. And all
were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in that sea. They followed
Moses. They confessed Moses to be their
prophet, their leader, the one that God called. And did all
eat that same spiritual meat. Every one of them ate that manna
that came down from heaven. And they all drank that same
spiritual drink. They all drank from that rock. That spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Now watch
this. But with many of them, God was not well pleased. They
all partook of the same things, for they were overthrown in the
wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent
that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted,
neither be idolaters as were some of them. As it is written,
the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. They
sat down here to eat that spiritual food, drink that spiritual rock,
and then they got up and went to playing and acting like nothing
amounted to anything that their food and the drink that they
had God provided for them was nothing but to just go off and
trifle in. And watch what he goes on to
say. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed, and
fell in one day, 23,000. Watch this now. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted and were destroyed as serpents.
Neither murmur. Murmur. I don't like the way
you deal with me. I don't like the way you call.
I don't like the preacher. I don't like the prophet. I don't
like the Word. The fellow got up the other day and he said
this, he talked about the Romans chapter 8, and one of y'all told
me this the other day, got to Romans chapter 8 and said, this
chapter here causes lots of controversy, so we'll just pass by this one.
We won't deal with it, it's too controversial. Ah, that's tempting
Christ. Murmuring, destroying, oh, listen,
now all these things in verse 11 happened under them for examples.
For examples. And they're written for our admonition,
for our instruction, to admonish us. That means, boy, telling
you very sternly and strongly, upon whom the ends of the world
are come. Now watch this. Don't do like
them. Let him think as he standeth.
That's what they thought, thought they was all standing. Lest he
take heed, lest he fall. Oh, be established in the faith.
Be established in it. We don't want to provoke God.
And let me tell you this, those who are never settled, those
who are never grounded, never established in the faith, and
through religion, they never grow. Never grow. You always
wonder about them. You know, grow. Paul, Peter says,
you know, I pray that you may grow in the grace and knowledge
of Christ. You grow in grace as you learn
more about Christ. And here's the thing about it.
If you had a baby, and you're feeding that baby, and it ain't
growing, and it ain't learning, and if it ain't manifesting signs of growth and
health, you're going to find out what's the matter with it.
You're going to change its diet. You're going to do something.
You're going to find somebody knows what's the matter with
it. And that's what the Word of God does. It's what shows
us where we're at. That's why it says, as newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the Word. And it talks about
growing up into Him. Grow up into Him. Build up in
Him. Now, I know this without a shadow of a doubt. I know this.
I know this. You know why people don't grow,
why they don't understand a lot of things, and why they're just
here yodeling about? To grow in the spiritual realm,
You have to have the same ingredients you do in your natural life.
What it takes for us to grow in our natural life, you've got
to have the same thing in your spiritual life. First of all,
you've got to have life. That's the first thing. You can't
grow if you ain't got life. And I can't give life. Only God
can give life. Only Christ can give life. Christ
is our life. And then when you have life,
you've got to be fed. You've got to have food. You've
got to have food, and you've got to have food that's necessary
for your growth. Ain't that right? And oh, listen. You know, the only food we have
is Christ Himself and the Word of God. Thy Word was like honey
to my taste. And listen, He's our bread, His
flesh is meat indeed, His blood is drink indeed. And we've got
to have water. You've got to have water. Christ
is the water of life. And then you've got to have love.
You know, you've got to have love. You've got to be married.
You've got to be loved. You've got to be cared for. You've
got to go someplace where you have some love shown to you,
some care shown to you, some interest taken in you. You've
got to have care. Then you've got to be instructed.
Instructed. Then you have to be disciplined.
Oh, you've got to be disciplined. And you've got to have exercise.
Little old babies, you know, they just kick and move and all
this, and move this way, that way. What's the way of getting
exercise? And you get them up and bounce
them, get them on their feet and all that. You want them to
learn how to walk. You want them to learn how to stand. You want
them to learn how to sit. You want them to learn how to teach them. You
want to feed them. And that's why you've got to exercise. You've
got to have your faith exercised, your spiritual senses exercised.
And the Word is all of these things to us. It produces life,
and it's effectual. And we need to be settled. We need to be settled, established
in the faith, because there are so many things, so many things
to unsettle us. Oh, so many things to unsettle
us. Oh, so many things to unsettle us in this world. Huh? Ain't
that right? Put it back there again in verse
8, Colossians 2. Beware lest any man spoil you.
After the philosophy, after the tradition of men, after the elements
of this world. No, I'm not after Christ. You
know, Paul told Timothy, he said, evil men shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you, But you abide in wherein you've
been taught. They're deceiving, but you have
been taught. And you abide wherein you've
been taught. You have been taught the faith in Christ. You abide
in that. And there's men who make merchandise
of men's souls. That's all a man is to them is
just merchandise, just money, just money. Souls, their souls
are just merchandise to them. The more they got, the more money
they make, The more they can brag about them. And they have
something to sell to you. That's why the Scriptures call
them hucksters. You know, the Scriptures call them hucksters.
We're not hucksters of the Word of God. And they have something
to sell. They don't have anything to give.
But what they have to sell, they're not worth having. For when you
have them, you don't have anything. As seducers. And their way of
seducing is this. Satan's ways is they'll use wisdom
of words. Wisdom of words. Got to make, you know, folks
think that, you know, they're really, really using great, deep,
mysterious things, you know. And then they'll talk about extraordinary
holiness. Oh, man, extraordinary holiness,
extraordinary zeal. Oh, if you'll just really dedicate. It'd be untold what God would
do with somebody who was really dedicated. Oh my. By vilifying, falsely accusing
sound preachers and teachers. And to unsettle believers by
persecuting them. There are so many ways to be
unsettled. But the best way, and I'm about done. The best
way for us to be settled and established is to be well-grounded. And let me tell you what he says
here. In verse 6, Colossians 2, as you have therefore received
Christ Jesus, that's the first thing, receiving Christ. Through
as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons
of God, which were born, neither will of flesh, nor the will of
man, nor of blood, but of God. Rooted. Rooted. Rooted and built. Now you see it says built, Now,
for you to be built, you've got to have a foundation. God had
made Christ as a chief cornerstone, as a sure foundation, a tridestone,
a sure foundation. And that's what you've got to
have. You've got to have a good foundation. If we would be grounded,
if we'd be grounded in the faith, settled in the faith, I'll tell
you this, we've got to know the fundamentals. There's fundamentals
in everything. Basketball, football, baseball,
you know, it's fundamentals. You've got to drill them fundamentals
over and over and over. Drill, dribble, dribble, dribble,
pass, pass, pass, get down the field, pass, pass, pass. You've
got to go through all these fundamentals, and there's some fundamentals
in everything you learn. The three R's, that's what we
learned in school. Three R's is an old-fashioned
thing now. But there's fundamentals in science,
fundamentals in math, two plus two equals one, one plus one
equals two. I done forgot mine. But there's
fundamentals in math. It's called general math. Then you go on to bigger things.
Fundamentals in building. If you're going to build something,
you've got to start with a plan. And the first thing you do is
you lay the foundation. That's the first thing. The first
thing's got to be, we've got to have a solid foundation. And
that's the same thing in religion. In true religion, we've got to
start with the first principles, the fundamentals. And you know
what the first fundamental thing is? What happened in the garden? The first Adam. How did we all
become sinners? How did we all become sinners?
How did we get so horribly lost? Where did this nature that we
have to soar against God, where did that come from? By one man,
sin entered the world. have passed for all men. Why?
Because all have sinned. And then there's the last Adam.
The Lord Jesus Christ. How can sin be put away? How
can sin, how can our natures be changed where we won't God
desire God? And our sins be put away. Our
rebellion be subdued. Our hearts be changed. Those
are fundamental things that you have to deal with. That's the
first principle. And you know, and I'll tell you
something else, the Bible starts with God. That's where we start.
We don't start with ourselves, we start where the Bible does.
With God. In the beginning, God. Paul always
started with God. It was God who chose him. Give
thanks unto God the Father. Got to start with God. That's
where the Bible starts with. And if we don't have the knowledge
of the first principles, We can never grow and increase in the
true knowledge of God. Now look back here at Colossians
2 as I quit. It says this, As ye have therefore
received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him. How do you receive
Him? As everything. As all you need by faith. Huh? And all. So you be rooted
in Him, built up in Him, established in the faith. And listen, as
you've been taught, somebody's got to teach you. And then when
you're taught, you abound in Christ, you abound in what He's
taught you, you abound in this gospel, abound in this faith
with thanksgiving. And then beware! Beware! Don't let nobody come to you
with philosophy. Vain deceit, that's what it is
after the tradition of men. Don't let nobody bring any traditions
after the elements of this world. And it don't have nothing to
do with Christ, for in Him, all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Don't let anybody ever take that away from you. That's
what it is to be rooted. And you're complete in Him, which
is the head of all principalities and powers, in whom you're circumcised
by Him. And this circumcision wasn't
done with hands. And it didn't put off the uncleanness
of the flesh, but it put off the body of sins. And who circumcised
you? Who put off these bodies of sin?
Christ did. And watch this, you're buried
with Him in baptism. You died with Him, wherein you're
also risen with Him. How? Through the faith of the
operation of God. God done this operation in you.
God brought this faith to you, just the same way God raised
Him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins,
And the uncircumcision of your flesh, watch this, this is that
faith of the operation of God. Has quickened you, given you
life together with Him. And this, I love this right here,
having forgiven you. How many of you are trespassers?
All of them. And oh beloved, here's the law.
Everybody wants it on their front lawn. Everybody wants it where
everybody can see it. But all those were against us. Our self-righteousness was against
us. The works of our hands was against us. Our marriage was
against us. Our Christ blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances was against us. All the law was written against
us, written down. He that took it out of the way,
and he nailed it to his cross. And He stripped, absolutely stripped
principalities and powers of all their authority, all their
power over us, triumphing over them in His cross. Now, that's what we got, that's what
we know. And that's what we want to grow. That's what we got to
be settled in, grounded in, established in.