Colossians - All I Need Is Christ!

The speaker expresses gratitude for the Scripture and music choices made without their input, as it always aligns perfectly with the message. They introduce the book of Colossians, stating that it is relevant to the current scientific, practical, ecumenical, and authority-lacking age. They highlight that Colossians addresses the scientific age by affirming that Jesus Christ created all things. It also addresses the practical age by assuring that following Christ can bring change and meaning. The speaker mentions that Colossians speaks to the ecumenical age, emphasizing that unity is only possible under Jesus Christ. They also touch on the age of no authority, stating that Christ is the ultimate authority. The speaker mentions that Colossians addresses the age of no absolutes, affirming that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God and the embodiment of absolute truth. They discuss the age of broken relationships and how Colossians provides guidance for restoring and maintaining r Thank you for the Scripture this morning, Brother Morris, and thank you for that special Brother Eric. And it is good when you get there, especially from my vantage point. You don't necessarily see it, but how God and the Holy Spirit just takes and pulls everything together. You know, a lot of churches spend a lot of hours planning and making their stuff work. And here at Kentucky, I did not tell Brother Morris what Scripture to read. I didn't tell Brother Eric what song to sing this morning. I didn't tell Brother Phillip what songs to pick out. But it seems like every single week, the Holy Spirit just ties everything together and fits perfectly with the message that we're going to look at today. So if you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. We finally finished our study of Philippians, and so I decided what better place to go than to the book of Colossians. And so hopefully we will be in the Colossians from now until about Christmastime. But Colossians is a book that I am falling in love with the more that I read it and the more that I study it. And I encourage you this week, if you have time, multiple times even, it's only four short chapters. It won't take you probably 30 minutes to read through it, but I would encourage you to get an overview and read through all of Colossians this week so you can kind of get more out of this study as we go through it. But of course, the first question that's always asked is why Colossians? Why study the book of Colossians? And you know, if I look at our day and time today and I look at our society today, we live in a scientific age, right? I mean, more discoveries are happening every single day. It seems like we have this super huge battle between science and Christianity today. And you can't kind of be neutral. You gotta be on one side or the other. And if you're really for science, then you can't believe in the Bible. And if you believe in the Bible, you really can't believe in science. And I think the Bible teaches us some science. I think the Bible confirms some science. But you know, when you look at Colossians, Colossians deals with the scientific age. As a matter of fact, in verse 16, it says, for by Him, Jesus Christ, were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And so, man, we live in a scientific age. And so I believe Colossians is perfect in this scientific age. But you know what? We also live in a practical age. You know, we have people all the time asking, we want things to be practical. We want things to be easy and laid out for us. And people are always asking, does Christ really work? Does following Jesus Christ, does going to church, does being a believer, does it really, really work? Does Christ have the power to really change someone's life? Can Christ really make a difference? And as we studied in Philippians, you know, is peace really obtainable? Can Christ actually give us joy in this wicked world? Does Christ give the meaning of life? And in Colossians, He takes care of this practical age because He says in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. If Jesus Christ could not do it, then guess what? Nobody can do it. But we can trust Jesus Christ. We also live in an ecumenical age. What I mean by ecumenical is everybody seems to be pushing toward this one church, this one big super church idea that we can all get along, we can all worship Jesus Christ and everything else, but the question that I want to ask you this morning is can there really be true unity without true doctrine? If we really stick to the Bible, can we agree and get along with everybody? Can we really merge everybody and all the different religions that are out there and bring them together based upon our culture and our social standings? Well, guess what? Colossians deals with that in verse 18 of chapter 1. He says that He is the head of the body, the church, which is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things, He might have preeminence. And so it starts with Jesus Christ. We can't come together unless we're all under Jesus Christ. But if we're all under Jesus Christ, we can come together. But the problem is is not everyone is following Jesus Christ. We also live in an age of no authority. We see that every single day. We see campuses right now with young people taking over campuses and not recognizing authority or anything else. And even young people, there seems to be no recognition, no looking at authority anymore. And Colossians 2 and verse 6 says, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. He also tells us there in verse 10 that you are complete in Him, which is the head, the authority of all principalities and powers. In Colossians 3 and verse 3, it says, For you are dead, and your life is heeded with Christ in God. You go down to verse 12 of that chapter and he says, Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering. And so, man, we have an answer to this no authority rule. But we also live in an age of no absolutes. Everything is relative. If you don't understand my situation, or you don't know what I'm going through, and we have no absolute truth anymore. Truth is now relative to individuals however they want it. And we live in this world where the religion of man and the human mind has absolutely no rules, no absolutes. All we are basing life on is experiences. People will walk into church today, and they'll walk out of church today, and they will determine whether or not that service was good not because on the truth that was delivered, but on the experience that they had. And that's what we see in our society today. Well, guess what? If God's truth is not binding, then there cannot be a true God. There cannot be a true church. And Colossians 1 and verse 15 tells us that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of every creation. In chapter 2 verse 9, it says that in Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. But you know, we also live in a world today of broken relationships. Man, we see families being torn apart. We see the divorce rate not going up anymore. You know why the divorce rate's not going up anymore? It's finally kind of plateaued because now nobody's getting married. We're just jacking up and living with each other. But yet, the breakups are happening even faster in that than they are in marriage, but they can't go under the statistics of marriage and divorce because they've never legally been married. And man, we have so many broken relationships. I talked to one of my prisoners this week that of course, because of his actions and because of his life and some choices that he's made in life, his family has walked away from him. He's in prison. He's coming to our cabby class. He said, I've been praying for these years that I've been in prison to begin to have a relationship with my family. And just last week out of the blue, he told me that his daughter ended up writing him. And they wrote back. And this week, as a matter of fact, I think today, she is actually supposed to come and visit with him in visitation. But man, we have so many broken relationships. But he's given all the credit to Jesus Christ for fixing that relationship. When you get over to the end of chapter 2 and chapter 3, Paul deals with all of these relationships. He deals with marriage. He deals with children. He deals with fathers. He deals with servants. He deals with employees. He deals with employers. And so we see all of these relationships on what they are and how they work. Folks, we are a people of relationships. If you work in any type of a business or whatever, you've got to deal with people. There's not too many jobs that you can have that you don't have to deal with people and build relationships. And lastly, we live in an eschatological age. What do we mean by eschatological? This is looking at the future. This is looking at endings. We've looked all summer long at Jesus Christ coming back. Brother Eric sang about it a while ago, which is our hope of our faith. That's what grounds us. That's what keeps us going. And Colossians even speaks about our destiny. It speaks about our future. He says in Colossians 1, verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. In light of a coming kingdom. He says in verse 13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. That's about our future. That's about what's going to happen and what's going to take place in chapter 3 and verse 4. It says when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. And so when we look at the book of Colossians, and this is what I love about Colossians, Colossians is about Jesus Christ. We've studied the book of Ephesians. If you remember, we went through Ephesians and Ephesians teaches us the fact that it focuses on the body of Jesus Christ. Colossians, on the other hand, focuses on the head of the church, Jesus Christ. In Ephesians, we learned about the body and the church, but now we're focusing on Christ Himself. In Philippians that we just finished, we found out that joy comes through having the mind of Christ. In other words, what we mean by that is having a single mindset to be submitted to the mind of Christ, to think like Christ, to act like Christ. And then that leads us to that spiritual mind. But Colossians, on the other hand, shows us that God's Word is not just to provide us with information for the mind, but it's also to bring about personal transformation in the body. And so man, God doesn't just want your mind. He wants your body. And that's why Isaiah this morning was perfect because hearing they wasn't hearing, seeing they wasn't seeing, and God says you're getting this into your mind, but it's not getting into your body. It's not getting into your actions. And man, we have so many people today that read the Word of God, that pray, that go to church, but somehow or another, it's not transforming them. It's not getting from here to where it needs to be. And so we need people, men and women and boys and girls that will stand up and say, Here am I, Lord. Send me. And so when we look at the book of Colossians, it's all about Christ. It's all about Christ, the Creator, the Sustainer of the universe. Christ, the one true Head of the one true church. His own body. Christ is the all-sufficient Savior, the Source of unity. Christ is the only authority. The image of the invisible God. The preeminent One in the universe. The embodiment of the divine fullness. The Source of all knowledge and all wisdom. Christ can change your life miraculously and totally. Christ can give you love, joy, peace, and even forgiveness in your life. Christ can give you a new capacity for living life to the fullest. Christ is the Source of true love and understanding. Christ builds families. Christ builds marriages. And Christ builds friendships. Christ is the beginning. And Christ is the end. The climax. The coming King. The One in which heaven and history revolves. And so Colossians is about Jesus Christ. And so I'm so excited and filled with joy as we go through this and we look and Paul uses Colossians just like he did in Ephesians and just like he did in Philippians. Chapters 1 and 2, he's going to give us a lot of doctrine. As a matter of fact, Colossians 1 has been called the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The teachings about Christ. And there's so much and it is so rich that is there. And he gives us two chapters of doctrine. And then he comes to chapter 3 and he says now that we know that Christ is the authority, that Christ is the Creator, that Christ is the Sustainer, and Christ is the One that's coming again, here's how we are to live. Here's how this ought to affect your life. So we're going to deal with doctrine. And then we're going to deal with duty. And so hopefully, you will make the effort to be here and to be a part of this. So we come to Colossians 1 and verse 1. And it says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. And so, like all of Paul's letters, he starts out with the same basic stuff. He gives us who is the author, who's writing this letter. It's Paul himself. He gives us who the recipients are. But he also mentions usually, as he does here as he did in Philippians, he mentions a companion that is traveling with him. And so as we look at these things this morning, it's very obvious the very first word is Paul. And they didn't sign letters like we do. Sometimes on Sunday morning, I think when I read a thank you card or whatever, I think at the end of it, man, I need to remember to say who this is from before I read it. Because you read this whole thank you deal, and people are spending the whole time not listening to the thank you, but what? Trying to figure out who wrote that. Well, Paul simplified that for us. He just put it right there at the very beginning. I am the author, Paul. I am the one that has written this. We know a lot about the Apostle Paul, and so we're not going to get into that today, but I want you to notice how Paul refers to himself. He refers to himself in two things. He says, first of all, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and second of all, by the will of God. And so the first thing Paul deals with is his call from God. Every one of us has to have a call from God. There is a time in your life that the Holy Spirit will draw you to Jesus Christ. There is a time in your life that the Holy Spirit will confront you as a sinner and you have to make a decision. Am I going to trust and accept Jesus Christ? Or am I going to reject Jesus Christ? And here in the life of Paul, we see the call of God. And he says that not only is it the call, but he also shows where God is going to use him. God does not just save us for salvation. God saves us for service. And when you are saved, He has a purpose. He has a plan for you. And so he calls the Apostle Paul, and when he is saved, he makes him an apostle. Now what in the world is an apostle? I drove by the other day and saw a new church that I hadn't seen before and it said it was an apostolic church. And I was like, you know, we still have these today that still believe that there's apostles that are living today. I want you to understand that there are no more apostles today. In order to be an apostle, there was three things that had to happen. Number one, you had to be sent by the authority of Jesus Christ. And these apostles had the ability because they were sent with the authority of Jesus Christ to perform miracles. And so that was one of the things that's approved that they were in authority of Jesus Christ. Not only were they sent by Jesus Christ, but they had to speak accordingly for Christ. And so the apostles had the ability to write Scripture. It's the reason that we have Paul and his writings. We have John who was an apostle of Jesus Christ that wrote the Gospel of John. 1st, 2nd, 3rd John in Revelation. We have Peter who was an apostle of Jesus Christ that wrote 1 Peter, 2 Peter. And so we have these apostles that have written the Word of God. And number three is they had to start churches for God. They had to start churches. That was their commission was to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. But they had that authority of Jesus Christ. And when you look at the book of Acts, if you remember that Judas betrayed Jesus Christ. He defected. He never was saved. He never was one of them. And so they come to Acts 1. At the end of it, they're waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. They're studying Scripture. They're looking at Scripture. And they said, hey, wait a minute. There's supposed to be 12 of us. And so in that room, they said we need to appoint a 12th person to be an apostle so that we can have the numbers. They went back to Psalms and told where it said that an apostle would be given to replace the spot that Judas was in. And so as they prayed about it and as they looked, they gave three qualifications in order to be a replacement into this apostle. They had to be a personal disciple during the ministry of Jesus Christ. And so they had to have an encounter with Jesus Christ. They had to have some one-on-one time as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Number two, they had to be an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And number three, they had to be called by Jesus Christ Himself personally. And when we look at the apostle Paul, that happened in Acts 9. On the road to Damascus, Jesus Christ Himself stopped Paul on the road. And as He stopped him on the road, we saw that Paul conformed to the will of God. He was blinded with his own vision of His glory and was told to go preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. And so therefore, he was sent by Jesus Christ. He was an apostle of Jesus Christ because he saw the resurrected Christ. This was after the resurrection. And so he had all of the qualifications. He had everything that was there. And Jesus Christ appointed him. But notice what it also says. It also says not only was he an apostle, but it says it was by the will of God. And so this is talking about the conformity to God. Not only are we called, not only are we saved, but then God also says you're called. He says I have a job for you. And some Christians will follow through with what God wants them to do, and some will not. But the sanctification is totally different from your salvation. God has a plan and God has a purpose for you. And so the conformity. Why did Paul end up being an apostle of Jesus Christ? Because it was the will of God. It was the call upon his life. You go back into Hebrews 9 and verse 6. And it says, And he trembling and astonished, this is Paul, saying, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. You skip down to verse 15. And then the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, talking to Ananias, and said, For he is a chosen vessel, referring to Paul, unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, that sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes that had been scales, and he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway, he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. Not only was Paul called by God, and Paul was conformed to God, he couldn't do anything he did, especially all of the suffering that he did without Jesus Christ in his life. And so when you look at this confirmation, he also had a companion for God. And so he had a call of God. He conformed to the will of God. And then he sought out a companion. Folks, we all need companions. We can't do this alone. Folks, I cannot pastor alone. I am so very glad that God has put men in my life and men here at Kentucky that I can talk to, that I can share, that I can give my burdens that are willing to help, that are willing to be there, that are willing to get in the trench and pray in this spiritual battle that we are going through. When you look at Paul, the first companions that he had was the men that was with him. They didn't know what was going on, but they heard the voice and what happened. When Paul all of a sudden was blinded, they took him to Damascus. They took him where he needed to go. So he had the men that were with him. And then we also know that God raised up Ananias to go and find Saul and to take him and to open up his eyes and to pass on the gift of the Holy Spirit unto him that is there. And so he had many companions that was a part of his ministry. But specifically, here in our passage of Scripture this morning, he mentions Timothy. Timothy, our brother. Timothy was a son in the faith. Paul calls him four times in 1 and 2 Timothy, his son in the faith. We also find that he says in 1 Timothy 2, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. And so he was his son in the faith. In other words, he was an endeared child. He was very close to the heart of Paul. Here in our text this morning and in five other places in the New Testament, Paul calls Timothy his brother. He says there in verse 1, Timothy, our brother. Timothy was also described by Paul as a fellow worker in the book of Romans and 1 Thessalonians. We saw in Philippians 1 that Paul referred to Timothy as a bondservant of his. And then we also see in 1 Corinthians that he was a beloved and faithful child in the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 16, we find that he was a co-equal in the Lord's work. Paul looked at him as being a companion of equal value and equal service. Remember what Paul said to Timothy in the book of Philippians. Do you remember when he wrote to the Philippians? He said, I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. And this is what he said, for I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. Timothy was a companion of Paul when he started 2 Corinthians. When he started the book of Philippians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Timothy was also one of three individuals that we have saved in Scripture today. A personal letter that was written to them that is now placed into our Scripture that is there. The other two being Titus and Philemon that Paul had wrote to. But his last recorded letter that we have in our Bible today was written to Timothy. Challenging him to keep on keeping on. If you read 2 Timothy, the letter to him there, Paul tells him two things that he needs to do. Teach the Word of God. Teach the Word of God. People need to know what the Bible says. But then he also told him to preach the Word of God and to do it with boldness. See, there's a difference between teaching and preaching. Teaching helps us to understand the Scriptures. Preaching, it helps us to know the Scriptures, to be drawn to the Scriptures. Preaching, every one of us should be sharing the things that Jesus Christ has done in our life. And so now we know a little bit about the writer. We know a little bit about his companion. And so this morning, what I want us to look at, he said there, you know the proof of Him, for He has served with me in the Gospel that is there. And so now I want you to notice the recipients. Who was Paul writing to? And this is really critical that we understand this today. In verse 2, he says, "...to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." Well, as you begin to study and look up the name Colossae and the city of Colossae, you find out that guess what? There's no other place in the New Testament that it talks about Colossae. So I had to do some research outside of the Bible to find out about Colossae. And when you look at your biblical maps in the back of your book, you will find that Colossae was in a little bitty valley there. We've all heard of the church at Laodicea. Why is it important? Because Jesus Christ had a letter sent directly to the church at Laodicea warning them about their lukewarm condition. And so Colossae was right below Laodicea, right beside Laodicea. It's also about 100 miles, I believe, 120 miles east of Ephesus where Paul wrote the book of Ephesus. When we study the book of Colossae, to my knowledge, and to the book of Acts and the history of all of the places that the Apostle Paul went, the Apostle Paul never did ever go to the church at Colossae. And it brings it out here in this letter to Colossians. And so it was situated near the Lycus River at the foot of Mount Cadmus. The elevation there at Colossae was about 8,435 feet. It was 11 miles from Laodicea and 15 miles from Hierapolis. Some recent discoveries that they have found in the ruins of Colossae is this ancient site in 1835 has been discovered by W.J. Hamilton. And surveys, as they began to excavate, gave the experience that they had in Necropolis, a theater on the south bank of the Lycus River, and a necropolis in the remains of the other ancient buildings on the north bank. And so that's some of the discoveries that they have found in the church at Colossae, which also proves to us that the place of Colossae was a real place. There was a real church there that Paul had wrote to. And so their call. Notice the same thing that we saw with Paul. You have a call. You have a confirmation. And then you have a companion. Notice what we notice with the church at Colossae. He says first of all, he recognizes their calling. He says in v. 2, to the saints. To the saints. What does it mean to be a saint? That word literally means to be holy. To be holy. But when you study that word and you look at that word in the original Greek language, you go back and you study, and you even go back all the way to the Old Testament, and there is absolutely nothing ethical or moral that is attached to holiness. Actually, when you keep going further back to the root to find out where did this word come from, and you go back all the way to the Old Testament, and it literally just means one that is set apart. One that is a separated one. And it has become to have the moral and the ethical connotations to it because why? Because the church is the church of who? Of God. And God is holy, so the church has to have ethical and moral responsibilities. And so, God said you are to be holy. You are to be separated from Him. And when we separate ourselves from Him, then the moral and the ethical begins to happen. And that's where we get this word saints from. And so He said the people at Colossians were separated. How were they separated? They were separated in their call of salvation when they said yes to Jesus Christ. We speak of the Bible so many times as being a holy book. And when you look at this holy book, there's nothing moral or ethical about these pages. They're just paper. It's just a book. It's just there. And I've seen people that have treated it disrespectfully and thrown it around. But really, morally and ethically, it's just another book. But the problem is what? What separates this book? See, this book is not only just a book, but it's God's Word. And so that puts that moral and ethical part into the holiness that is there. When we come to the Lord's Supper, you know, I always have kids and stuff that talk about it. Sometimes we talk about taking this bread and we say that this bread is holy. There's nothing different with the bread that we take for the Lord's Supper that is any different from any bread that we eat at home or anywhere else. It's just bread. But what happens? That bread that we observe at the Lord's Supper has been separated to be taken for God. And it's to be holy. And so the moral and the ethical implications comes. And so, he says here that these saints, these believers, and the problem is when you are a saint or a believer comes the second part. You're either going to follow Jesus Christ or you're going to walk away from Jesus Christ. Salvation is the beginning. But then you have a choice. Am I going to follow Him or am I not? Brother Morris preached in our Sunday School class this morning about faith. Trusting and obeying. And sometimes we trust God for our salvation, but then we won't trust Him for our life. We won't trust Him for our service. We want to do that, but then we trust Him again for our eternity. But God says you need to trust and obey Me through all from the start to the finish. And so He refers to them as saints. But then, on the same note, there's those that are at Colossae that have not chosen to follow Jesus Christ. And so when we get into the next word, it implies this. It talks about their confirmation. There are some that are faithful, and the opposite of that is that it means that there are some that are unfaithful. And so He is writing to those saints that are in the church. Some are faithful. Some are unfaithful. I'll just be honest. In Kentucky church, we have people that come to church on Sunday. Some are faithful and some are not faithful. Some, the only time they show up, the only time they read their Bible, the only time they pray is right here. But He says that there are these faithful brethren that He is referring to, which means that there's this adverse meaning. And so the faithful set them apart from the unfaithful saints. And so when we think about the unfaithful, we have to think about the contrast of being faithful. And this is why Paul is writing this letter. It's because of the unfaithfulness. And what has happened is if you go and you read all of the book of Colossians and you put the facts in, you will find out that Epaphras was actually the pastor of Colossae. And somewhere or another, he went according to Acts. He had gone and seen Paul in the area of Ephesus and stuff while Paul was ministering there. And Paul sent him back to his people in order to start a church in Colossae. As I mentioned, we don't have any record at all that Paul ever attended this church or was ever in this area. But he worked through Epaphras. You find out that actually, Epaphras has actually come to Paul while Paul was in prison at Rome. And he has brought him and talked with him about some of the things that are going on in Colossae and some of the problems. And so when you look at the book of Colossians, this conversation that they had with each other, Paul writes this letter, gives it to Epaphras, and says take this back to the church and read this from me. And so that's what we're getting. And so he's dealing with these unfaithful people. Epaphras is the pastor, as I mentioned, of Colossae. And Paul is going to deal with two major heresies in this passage of Scripture. First of all, it was coming from paganism. Everything around this area and stuff, the town of Colossae was predominantly a Gentile community. However, they said that there was about 100,000 Jews that was mingled in with the population that was there. And so in this region, there was tons of paganism. They worshipped these deities, these gods, such as Sibyl, Man, Isis, Zerippus, Helios, Selene, Artemis. All these different names they worshipped in these gods that were there. And they had plenty of them. When Paul went to Mars Hill, you remember? They had a god on Mars Hill at Ephesus for every single thing. And just in case they missed somebody, what did they do? They had a statue erected to the unknown god. And that's what Paul said. I don't know about all these other gods, but let me tell you about this unknown god. And he preached to them, Jesus Christ. And so Paul is warning them, don't go back into this paganism. Don't go back. Christ is sufficient. Christ is preeminent above all of these other things. And he tells us in Colossians 1 and verse 23, if you continue in the faith. In other words, that means that some of them were leaving the faith. They were going back to paganism. He said, grounded and settled. And be not moved away from the hope of what? The Gospel. The Gospel which you have heard and which was preached to every creature which was under heaven whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. And so how many today do we have people that are moving away from the hope of the Gospel? They're trying to find life on their own. They're trying to find joy and peace and satisfaction. Paul said in Colossians 2 and verse 6, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him. In other words, stay with Christ. If you have chose Christ, stay with Christ. In Colossians 3 and verse 2, he says, set your affections on things above. Not on things of earth. You see, the problem that they were having was this battle of Satan. Satan was coming in and the world and the flesh pulls us away. We like idolatry. We like worshiping things that we can see and touch, right? Amen? We all fight and deal with idolatry. We all have different gods that get our attention. And so we all deal with this and Satan knows this. And Satan is able to pull our mind. That's why Philippians, as we studied that, Paul said, get the mind of Christ. Put Satan out of that mind. Put Satan away. Think on things that are pure, that are lovely, that are honest, that are of good report. Because Satan will take and he will pull this that is there. And so we've seen the importance of having this spiritual mind. We know the Bible teaches us that Satan is disguised as an angel of light. And he is here pulling us to lust. Helping us. The lust of the body. The lust of false doctrine that is pulling our mind. Satan comes in and shows this false doctrine. And they become the real heartbeat of Paul's writing to this counteract, this false doctrine. And this false doctrine, let me give you a very, very simple. This false doctrine is basically known by two features. And we talked a little bit about them in Philippians. We don't know the brand name. We don't know what to call this yet at this time. We now know now we have names for it. But when Paul was writing this letter, these false doctrines were just coming up in the church. They were in their infancy form, but yet Paul and Epaphras was looking at this and he's saying, man, this doctrine is going to be a problem for Jesus Christ. And it was causing people to fall away. It was causing people to be led away. And it included this false philosophy. It included philosophy. If you remember, the philosophy was huge to the Greeks. The knowledge. All of the thinkers. Aristotle and Stoic and all of these great thinkers. Plato. All of them come out of great culture. And so everything was about philosophy. Everything was about thinking. And so what was beginning to happen was this idea was coming up that Christ plus knowledge equals salvation. In other words, Christ is not good enough. You have to know some things about Christ. And if we're careful, even I've heard missionary Baptist preachers and I probably myself have come pretty close to adding this knowledge to salvation. The Bible doesn't say that you have to have any knowledge. All you have to know is that Jesus Christ died for your sins, believe on Him, and call upon His name and thou shalt be saved. That's what the Bible says. But then we like to add things. Well, you need to know about His sacrifice. You need to know about His cross. You need to know all of these different things that are there in order to have salvation. And so Paul deals this in Colossians 2 and verse 8. He says, "...Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit." The Greeks loved their knowledge. They gloated over their knowledge. They thought that because of their knowledge they were higher than everybody else. And that the more difficult something was to understand, the better you was. And so, man, they liked to confuse things. They liked to use big, fancy words. They liked this idea of philosophy. And the heretics were coming into the church and they were saying the simplicity of the Gospel is not adequate. Listen, if the simplicity of the Gospel is not adequate, if Jesus Christ is not enough, they say you have to elaborate knowledge in addition to having Him. Christ plus knowledge equals salvation. They even claimed special visions. They let no man beguile you of your reward and voluntary humility in worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. They were even coming up with, God has given me a special message. You ever heard preachers say that? You ever heard anybody say, God spoke to me and told me this? If it didn't come out of the Word of God, God didn't speak to you. And so we need to be careful how we say things. I know that God impresses upon my heart. God leads me. God drives me. But it always is through His Word. It's never apart from that. But they would say, hey, look, I get weary when a preacher says, let me show you something that's discovered that nobody's ever seen before. Because Solomon said there's nothing new under the sun. And so, we need to be careful. And that's what these people were doing. Now, we have the big fancy term and we know what to call it now. We call it Gnosticism. Gnostic means to know. And so this knowledge comes alongside of Jesus Christ in order to have salvation. And so, this is superior knowledge. Jesus wasn't adequate. You see, Jesus, they believe, was one of these emanations. Jesus was like one of these gods. Because God was here, but what God did didn't work out because man failed in the Garden of Eden, right? And so God, because things didn't work out, has created all these other gods that are not full, that are not fully God, but they're deities that we worship that have had babies, that have got with this. You go study Greek mythology sometime at the mess-up that they had in the belief on all of these gods. And so what they were believing, the Gnostics believed that Jesus Christ was just another one of these gods. He was just somebody that was just like Atlas or just like Hercules or just like these other gods that we have heard of. But we know that's not true. And Paul deals with that because they had this idea that God was good. God was the Spirit. And then all of a sudden when He put everything into matter, that's when things went bad. And so anything that is matter is evil. And Jesus Christ, when He put on flesh, that means that Jesus Christ had to be what? Evil. But we know that's not true. We know in the studying about Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ never wants sin. There was nothing evil. No guile ever came out of His mouth. But this is what they thought. And this is what they were teaching. And this is what is coming into the church. And that's why Paul says in Colossians 1 and verse 22, in the body of His flesh, Jesus Christ was 100% flesh. And He died to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Christ's matter did this. So not all matter is evil because Christ was not. He also tells us in Colossians 2 and verse 9, for in Him dwelled all the fullness of the Godhead. And then notice the word that He added there. Bodily. Everything that God the Father is, everything that God the Spirit is, Jesus Christ is. Everything that they have. The only difference between God the Father and God the Spirit is Jesus Christ is in the flesh. He became matter and dwelt above us. And so this is this Jesus plus knowledge. In Colossians 2.18, He says, let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility. And then He said, in worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which you have not seen, vainly put up by the flesh as mine. They were worshiping these immunations, these gods, these deities. And they were worshiping so much that they were even beginning to worship the angels. And this philosophy was being attacked. And it attacked this. It attacked the deity of Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ was not fully God. We have preachers. We have authors that are writing today that are claiming and writing that Jesus Christ is not God. If Jesus Christ was not fully God, and Jesus Christ was not fully man, you and I cannot have salvation today. And so it is very important that we believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. And that's the problem, the heresy of Gnosticism and this philosophy and knowledge. Jesus Christ is God. In Colossians 1.15, He goes on to say that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of every creature. He is the most preeminent one in creation. Jesus Christ didn't happen in Luke 2. Jesus Christ has always existed. He has always been a part of God. Colossians 1.17 says, Christ is in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1.28, that we may present every man what? Perfect in Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ can take you evil matter, you sinner, and He can make you perfect and complete in Him in a fleshly body. And so He can change us. And then He tells us in chapter 2 and verse 3 that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In chapter 2 verse 9, in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Chapter 2 verse 19, And not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. In other words, it just keeps saying over and over in the book of Colossians, Christ is God. Christ is sufficient. And you don't need anything else in your life. No greater claims have ever been made in any other epistle that are made in the epistle of Colossians for on Jesus Christ. Philosophy is not necessary to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be a deep thinker to find Jesus Christ. And so this is the heresy that was in the church. But the second one, and we've got to hurry really quick, is legalism. Legalism. The Judaistic ceremony. I mentioned that there were some Jews that was there. And basically what they taught was Christ plus works equals salvation. In other words, Paul confronts this, and we've already talked about this, so I'm not going to go into it today, but Paul says, in whom also you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. In other words, it's not the works. God does the work in your life. It's not what you do with your hands or with your body. And so we have these two heresies that Paul is going to confront. Christ plus knowledge equals salvation. And Christ plus works equals salvation. And both of these we are dealing with in our society today. Heresies that are out there. Folks, we need to understand that Christ does not need anything. It's Christ and Christ alone. Only Him. Colossians 2.9 Dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And listen to me. You are what? He says you are complete in Him. You are complete in Him. It's not because of knowledge. It's not because of what you do. It's because of Jesus Christ and what He did. And what He knows. And you can't have knowledge without Jesus Christ. And so isn't that beautiful? Isn't that a great thing to know that you are complete in Jesus Christ? You want to know God? Christ is the image of God. You want to know knowledge? In Christ are hidden all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You want to be accepted by God? Worship Christ, not the angels or the celestial intercessors. You want to fulfill God's will? Don't fool with the shadow. The substance is Christ. You want holiness? It doesn't come from abusing your body. It comes from setting your affections on Him. Christ is all and in all. That's the message of Colossians. And so then he leaves them with a commendation. And I want to tell you, look what he says. He says, Grace be unto you and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ. When we are confronted with all this mess and this heresy of philosophy, of works, of knowledge, and stuff that is going on, all of these mixtures of beliefs and different doctrines and different religions and everything else, life's two most important needs is boiled down in these two words. We need grace. We need God's unmerited favor. Grace to know that we are not perfect. We're still sinners, but guess what? We are chosen and loved. God didn't choose me because I was perfect. God chose me because He loved me. And He says I will make you perfect if you submit to Me. And then he says peace. Peace to know that no matter what we have, a relationship with the Father that loves us and will care for us if we seek Him. And you know as we stand here this morning, we need grace and peace. Jesus Christ is sufficient. As we stand and we have a verse of invitation this morning, is Jesus Christ sufficient for you? Are you adding anything to Jesus Christ to get through this life? If you are, you're going to be highly disappointed. Christ is enough. And so if we will just set our affections on Christ, if we will just put our mind on the mind of Christ, if we will think like Christ, if we will act like Christ, guess what? Your life will be successful. Your life will be filled with joy and you will be satisfied in all situations and all circumstances. You will be able to do as Paul did and rejoice. And again, I say rejoice in the Lord. Are you there this morning? Christ and Christ alone as we sing. What hymn?