Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to Colossians chapter 2. Continuing our study in the book of Colossians, picking up where we left off a couple of weeks ago, and we come now this morning to Colossians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10, the next distinct section here in the book of Colossians. We're told that identity theft is a major problem in our world today. I was reading not too long ago and there was a statistic that I found to be surprising. I don't know how they figure these things out, but evidently every 14 seconds someone's identity is stolen. And most of the time, that identity theft involves some sort of financial harm that goes along with it. And usually, there is an effort to open a line of credit or to access bank accounts or investment accounts and such things as that. And most people are thinking, you know, of the danger In certain neighborhoods, maybe if you were there at the wrong time, when it was a little dark, maybe somebody would come up to you and rob you at gunpoint and take the things that you have. It's actually much, much more likely that you would be robbed by having your identity stolen and by having some of your accounts accessed. So, that's in the physical world. But do you know there's a danger of identity theft in the spiritual world as well? And many times we think about our enemy, Satan, and we think of some kind of a full-on assault of the enemy, some kind of a demonic attack where he's going to razzmatazz with all kinds of power and we're going to be just overwhelmed with his incredible ability and power and conniving and this sort of thing. And the truth is that usually Satan tends to attack much more quietly, much more subtly, usually in the way that we are least expecting. Colossians 2, 8, 9, and 10 talks a little bit about the danger of this identity theft. I want you to look there with me. Beginning in verse number 8, he says, Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. After the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Now, as we've indicated through the last several weeks, as we've been studying the book of Colossians, there was a group of false teachers that was in this area of Colossae that was really impacting a lot of the churches in that area by bringing in false doctrine. This was the beginning of what later became known as the sect of Gnosticism. It was a group that taught that there was a secret knowledge that was necessary. Oh sure, you know about the Old Testament, and you know about Christ, but hey, there's some secret things that you haven't found out yet, and if you don't have these secret things, then you're not yet complete. And this was swaying the minds of some of the believers and some who were interested in the gospel, but not yet believers. And it was affecting them and impacting them. And this is one of the main reasons that the epistle to the church at Colossae was written, was to warn them about this error and to point them back to the foundation, point them back to that which is the most important, which is Christ. Now you'll notice in verse 8 that there is a very strong warning. And I want you to consider with me first of all this morning, you and I must be alert to spiritual robbery. He uses the word beware. Beware is a strong word. It is an exclamation. It is something. He's trying to get their attention. He's not subtly whispering to them, hey, you ought to watch out for some things. I mean, if you could picture this word as a person saying it, it would be like somebody standing there, stop, look out, beware. He's trying to get them to pay attention right now. Beware. I want you to pay attention. Be alert. Beware lest any man spoil you. The word spoil that is used here means to rob or to plunder. It's the idea of a conquering army that has overcome a city and they go through that city now that the defenders have been taken away and they go through the houses and the streets and the shops and they take whatever they want and whatever they lay their hands on, they carry that away and that is the spoils of war. He says here, beware lest any man spoil you. There is something that you could stand to lose, something that you must watch out for, something that you must protect, something that you must pay attention to. Now the truth is this morning that we don't usually think about the spiritual danger that exists all around us. Most of us are oblivious to spiritual danger. We are not walking carefully, or as the scripture says, circumspectly. We're not carefully analyzing the terrain in front of us in our life's path. We're not really expecting an attack of the enemy to overtake us. Especially if you've been saved for any length of time, you have a tendency like I have a tendency to think, hey, I know the truth. I'm protected. I'm walking in the spirit. I'm sure that nothing like that could ever happen to me. I'm sure the enemy could not sneak up on me. and we underestimate our enemy. I mean, I know the Bible says we are not ignorant of his devices, but the truth is we may not be ignorant of his devices, but we do dismiss his devices. In fact, we tend to see the danger of the enemy's attack in someone else's life much more clearly than we do in our own life. We tend to think of ourselves as being above spiritual danger, as out of the way of spiritual attack. I mean, we're thinking about the enemy attacking us through discouragement or through some kind of a terrible trial that he would bring upon us. But what Paul is warning them about is something much more insidious. He says, beware lest any man spoil you. Now how would someone spoil us? He lists several things to watch out for. First of all, he uses the word philosophy. Philosophy. And of course, at that time in the ancient world, this region of Asia Minor would have been impacted by the Greek philosophical systems that were then becoming very popular as a way of framing and understanding the circumstances of life. And you should understand that philosophy from a humanistic standpoint or from a man-centered standpoint or perspective, philosophy is simply man trying to figure out life apart from God's truth. It's man trying to figure out, okay, how do I make sense of the questions that I have? Like, who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? How do I make sense out of those questions? But of course, they don't wanna take into account God's truth because they've already divorced themselves from God's truth. So they're trying to figure out this perspective from their own wisdom, their own experience, what they've heard from other people, their own rationale or reason. And he says, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy. All around us, men are trying to figure out life apart from God. Isn't it incredible? They want to say, there is no God. I refuse His truth. I don't agree with His law. I don't like these tenets of Christianity. But every person still has to make sense out of life. This is actually really helpful to understand because when you talk with people, they're going to have a philosophical system by which they are living. They may not have spelled it out or defined it very clearly. They may not have written it out or thought through it real clearly, but there are things that they live their life by, principles that they live their life by, and those principles came from somewhere. Now that's the world, but remember he's writing to believers and he says, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy. Do you know God's people can be impacted by the philosophies of the world? You say, where do we see these philosophies of the world? Well, they're all around us. They're represented by the entertainment industry. You do know that the entertainment industry is teaching, don't you? It's not just about entertaining you and making you feel good and putting on a nice show. They're actually trying to teach something. So you ought to think when you watch a movie or you take in some form of entertainment up to and including the news that you watch. What are they trying to teach? What is it that they're trying to communicate? What is the philosophy that is behind this? It's good for believers to really consider the philosophies that are being presented to us. There of course are different preferences for the types of news and entertainment and things that people have, but it doesn't matter whether it's from the right wing or the left wing or somewhere solidly in the middle, there's a philosophy. And you better pay attention to that philosophy. Now this philosophy that can sway Christians is often marked by speculation about things that are not specified in Scripture. A lot of times this philosophy centers around discussing things that are not clear in the scriptures or are not spoken about at all in the scriptures and all kinds of conjecture that can take place and guessing. A lot of the philosophies that impact Christians are on the fringes of Bible doctrine, kind of playing off the things that we know are true. And then let's take this a little farther. What are the ramifications of this? Be careful. about this kind of philosophy. Be careful about any kind of philosophy that you sense is leading you apart from the clear statement of Scripture. Philosophy. We hear it all the time. Now, you know, the Bible is good for some things, but there's other things that the Bible just can't help us with. Be careful, be careful about those kind of statements. So he says, watch out that you don't get robbed, that you're not plundered by philosophy. But then the second thing that he mentions is vain deceit. Literally, this means empty lies, empty lies. He says, be careful that you don't get robbed by vain deceit. And you think about so much of what the world regards as wisdom. So much of the self-help genre, so much of the investing and financial wisdom that is offered, so much of the wisdom that is offered about life and how to organize a family and how to deal with the emotional needs of the people around you, so much of this is actually completely apart from the clear statement of Scripture. It's just empty speculation. It's vain deceit. Think about the world and all of the pompous lies that this world tells. It's all around us, brethren. The world tells us, hey, live like you're going to be here forever, except you're not. You're here for a very short time. Hey, live as if God doesn't exist. except he does. Hey, live as if you're just an animal, except you're not. You see, so much vain deceit that's around us, and I realize that as believers, we know, okay, those things are not true, but sometimes we are more moved by these empty lies than we like to admit. Sometimes we are swayed by the philosophy of the world, by the lies that Satan tells. and he gets our attention. The tempter in the garden said, yea, hath God said? And then later he went on to challenge the statement of God and he deceived Eve. Now the scripture tells us that Adam was not deceived. He knew exactly what he was doing, but Eve was deceived. Be careful of the deceit that exists in this world that would sway you away from Christ. So there's philosophy, there's vain deceit. Then he mentions in verse eight, after the tradition of men. So this philosophy and this vain deceit will be after the traditions of men. What is tradition? Well, tradition isn't necessarily wrong in and of itself. You probably have traditions in your family, traditions in your culture, things that you're familiar with doing that you do a certain way. We have traditions in this church things that we do a certain way. They're not necessarily scriptural. They don't have to be done that way, but that's how we do them. Things like, you know, we have a piano and an organ and they accompany us during the music. And that would be kind of like tradition. We sit on comfortable seats. You know, I've been places where they don't sit on comfortable seats during the services. And maybe that would be a help to all of us if we sat on less comfortable seats. We'd stay awake better, all right? But we have traditions that we follow. Traditions in and of themselves are not a bad thing. They're not necessarily negative. But you understand that many of the Jewish teachers who were following after the Apostle Paul and trying to influence the people who were new believers to come back to the Jewish law, they were really wrapped up in the traditions, in the things that you've got to do it this way and you've got to do it that way. and you've gotta make sure that you don't miss any parts of this. Hey, listen, before you pray, you've gotta wash your hands a certain way and a certain number of times, and you've gotta be careful how you say the name of God, and you need to do this, and you need to dress this way, and you need to make sure that all these things are a part of your life. And they were teaching these things really as a part of salvation. Listen, if you're gonna be right with God, you have to make sure that all of these outward things are right, because you can't be saved until these things are right. In other words, what they were teaching was a form of works salvation. They were saying you have to perform good enough for God to accept you, even though the gospel clearly says that we can never be accepted by God because of our performance. We can only be accepted because of Christ. Traditions, and here's where traditions really become problematic, is when traditions come into disagreement with the Word of God. And there, the traditions are being expected. And we're supposed to do things a certain way, but clearly those traditions are in contrast to the word of God. And this is something that we have to watch out for. We have to constantly be asking, hey, these traditions, are these in line with the scripture? Do they agree with the scripture? Or do they oppose the scripture? Because traditions can be a form of philosophy How many times have I talked with someone who told me, well, that, you know, the gospel, that sounds good, but if I were to believe the gospel, my family would reject me. Because they've worshipped this other way, and they've followed this other form of religion for so long, that if I believe the gospel, and I left that, they wouldn't even talk to me anymore. It would be like I was rejecting my family. And it's that way in a lot of places in the world, isn't it? traditions of men that keep people from Christ. Then he says, this philosophy and this vain deceit is promoted through the rudiments of the world. And I like that word, rudiments. It's a nice word. It just means the basic building blocks or the basic elements of the world. So when he's talking about the rudiments of the world, he's talking not about whatever they say the basic elements are of the physical world, fire, wind, water, earth. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the world's philosophical system and the basic elements that make up the world's philosophical system. Now, many of you are familiar with 1 John chapter 2. In fact, let's hold our place in Colossians 2, and let's go back to 1 John 2 real quickly, because in 1 John 2, the rudiments of the world, the basic building blocks of the world's philosophical system are spelled out for us, and we're warned to beware of this world. So in 1 John 2, direct your attention, if you would, to verse number 15. And the scripture here says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now you'll notice there in verse 16, he says, all that is in the world, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Now clearly, there's more in the world than the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But what he is emphasizing is that these three things are the basic building blocks or the rudiments of the world's system, the world's approach to life. Now think about that with me for just a minute. The lust of the flesh. What is the lust of the flesh? Well, it is the desires that please my natural man, my appetites, the things that make me happy. When I do this, I feel good. And doesn't the world teach us, whatever feels good, do that? Or they put it this way, just follow your heart, as if that's going to yield a good result. This is not good advice. This is not good counsel. Don't just follow your heart. Don't just do your passion. Don't just go after the thing that you want because your wanter is broken from the factory. Your wanter will lead you into destruction. But the world says you can have it your way. You can live it your way. You can have life the way that you want to have it. And I'm telling you that even Christian people, people who are believers, are impacted by the lust of the flesh that is all around us and the philosophy that tells us, hey, just whatever pleases your flesh, that's what you need to go after. the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes has to do, I believe, with covetousness, with the things that we desire in this life. And, you know, in the law, in Exodus chapter 20, there's a number of things in that tenth command that were warned not to covet or not to desire, but covetousness is really what drives this world, isn't it? Did you ever think about how the basis of covetousness is a lack of thankfulness? It's a dissatisfaction with the way things are or the things that I have. And so I'm driven through covetousness to get more or to seek a different situation, to go after different circumstances because surely that will make me happy. And that's what the world says. Listen, if you're not happy, then you can be happy by changing your circumstances, or by getting more money, or by getting a different job, or by changing families, or you fill in the blank. The world says this is how you could really be happy. But the world is lying to you. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. The pride of life is the arrogance that we have in our heart that makes us really see ourselves as much bigger than we are. I was reading in my devotions this last week about the life of King Saul, and I got to that section where he was rejected by God, and the prophet Samuel was rebuking him, and in his rebuke, he said something like this, when you were little in your own eyes, God chose you. But now you basically, you got too big for your britches. And God is gonna have to remove you. God is gonna have to take you aside. You know, this happens to us. The world is constantly affirming us or telling us. It's an interesting thing. The world affirms us in a negative way. even while they're tearing us down. Do you know that God affirms us in a way that is positive, but the world affirms us in a way that is a lie. The world affirms us by saying, hey, you can do it your own, you can follow your own path. You're smart enough to figure it out. You can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, the pride of life. But you know what happens to us before we get saved? almost always is people come to a place where they reckon with the fact that they cannot do anything in their own power. Certainly they must come to the place where they reckon with the fact that they cannot save themselves, that they cannot deliver themselves from their sin. This is a startling admission and a place that people find to be uncomfortable to come to. So go back to our text. He says, beware in verse 8. Beware lest any man spoil you in this way. Watch out for philosophies. Watch out for vain deceit, the traditions of men, the rudiments of the world. Can I add to this, beware in your own life. Parents, beware for your children. Beware of what you are allowing in your home. Beware of the influences that you are allowing to shape the thinking of those young people that God has given to you. Beware that you are not just letting them go through life without helping them to analyze the world system that is confronting them every day. And you say, oh, we have them in a protected environment. We keep them in our home and they're only ever at church. They're just not exposed to those things. That is absolutely ridiculous. They're exposed to those things every day. And you say, no, no, we're keeping them out. No, no. Those things are in their heart. You're going to have to help them to figure those things out. Beware so that they don't get robbed of the potential that they have to serve Christ. But we're thinking about ourselves. Beware, lest any man spoil you. Now, if I told you this morning Be careful. When you leave the service, I just got a text that there's someone in the parking lot with a gun looking, no, not really, looking to rob someone. Now that would be your response, right? Okay, where's the parking lot? I'm going the other way. Can we call the police? Can we take care of that? You would take caution, wouldn't you? You would be careful. You would beware. But when God says, beware, he means beware. He means there is something that is out there. There is an enemy that is trying to spoil you. This is how he's trying to spoil you. Now notice the end of verse eight, he says, and not after Christ. So the contrast to the philosophy of the world is Christ. is the antithesis to the world's philosophy and system. Remember what Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. But you notice that the world is made up of empty lies. The world is made up of vain deceit. So he says, be careful about these things because these things have the ability or the tendency to pull you away from Christ, to pull you away from the truth of the gospel. This is actually the major problem with these things and these things are designed by the enemy to pull you away from Christ. If you are unsaved, these things are designed to give you something which will be mildly satisfying, not as satisfying as Christ, but mildly satisfying so that you could pursue after that and feel like, okay, I have meaning in my life, I have answers for the questions that I have, and then you would never come to Christ. You would never be saved, and that is his goal. Or, as a believer, he's hoping to twist your thinking up enough that you are no longer effective as a Christian, that you are no longer living in the way that you ought to live, because though you are saved, you've got your thinking muddled by the world, and you're trying to live with one foot in both places, and it's not working too well. He says, beware of anything that starts to pull you away from Christ. Anything that supersedes Christ in importance is out of place. Christ is the first priority. So we understand that we must be alert to spiritual robbery. But second of all, here's another truth, you and I must cling to spiritual reality. So we're watching out for the robbery that could take place, and we are holding on to the spiritual reality which God has stated. Now there are two major components of spiritual reality which he mentions in verse 9 and 10. The first one pertains to the identity of Christ, and the second one pertains to the identity of the believer. So notice first of all, he says in verse 9, For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." You and I need to cling to the correct understanding of the doctrine of Christ. It is imperative that we know who Christ is and that we do not exchange the biblical doctrine of Christ for some other Christ. You know, the Apostle John said that there are even now many antichrists which are gone out into the world. And those antichrists are often counterfeit Christs. So they claim to be Christ or they claim to be like Christ and in reality they are different than Christ. So we have to really pay attention to the doctrine of Christ. In verse 9 we are told that Jesus is in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There's a lot that's wrapped up there in verse 9 in the doctrine of Christ. I'll just mention it quickly to you. understand that here he is speaking about the great mystery. The great mystery is that God became flesh and dwelt among us. God, who is a spirit, came into this world and took the form of a man and God became flesh. Literally, he is God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And of course, he came in that fashion in fulfillment of prophecies and for a very specific purpose. And that purpose is so that he could become the sacrifice for our sins. It's imperative that we understand that Jesus is God. We cannot say he's almost God. We cannot say that he eventually became God. We cannot say that he worked his way towards becoming God or that he's in the process of becoming God. No, he is God and he always has been God. He is the eternal son of God. He is the second person of the Godhead and he always has been and he always will be. We must confess that Jesus is God, but we must also understand that He was man. That He was fully man. That as a man, He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. So that He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Isn't that an interesting word? We like to say, no feelings. Get those feelings out of here. I wonder why it's in the Bible. And I wonder why Jesus is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Very interesting, all right? But we understand that Jesus was impacted. Jesus was affected by his life here. And because of that, he is our great high priest. He is the one who makes intercession to the father. God became flesh and dwelt among us. So you understand that He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The word Godhead that is used in verse 9 speaks of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and it says Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. There's a lot there to think about and to comprehend. But we must embrace and cling to the spiritual reality of who Christ is. Not only is He the fullness of the Godhead bodily, but we find also in verse 10, He is the head of all principality and power. And what that means simply is He is sovereign. He is the omnipotent God. He is over all. He has complete authority. When Jesus became a man, when the Son of God came into this world, He did not abdicate His position or His authority. He still maintained his position. You understand, we looked at Colossians chapter one, which says that he is before all things and by him all things consist, verse 17. That means they have their being, they're held together by him. When Jesus came to this earth as a man, he did not stop holding all those things together. In other words, he still was sovereign. Now, did he humble himself and become a man and serve? Yes, he did all of those things, but at the same time, he still is sovereign. He is over all. This morning we need to understand Christ is not some kind of a lesser figure of the Godhead. He is God. He is fully God and he is sovereign over all. So we must cling to the spiritual reality of Christ. One of the things that was being taught by the Gnostic teachers was an attack upon the nature of Christ. Generally, they would attack something about his humanity. And they would say, well, he wasn't really a man. He wasn't actually a man. He was just an apparition. He was just a spirit that looked like a man. But no, the scriptures are clear. He was a man, fully and yet fully God at the same time. And I've had people say to me before, how can that be possible? Well, I don't know that I can really explain it to you. I'll confess readily that I don't have the brain power to fully comprehend this. I just know what the Bible says and I say I don't necessarily understand it, but I believe it because this is what God says. So we must cling to the spiritual reality of Christ. But second of all, we also must cling to the spiritual reality, the identity of the believer. And this is what he says in verse 10, which is so helpful, and it's good to understand who Christ is at the outset, but now he says, and ye are complete in him. Now what's fascinating is the word complete that is used in verse 10, comes from the very same root word as the word fullness that is used in verse nine. It's the exact same word. So Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and then he says, and you are complete in him. In the Greek New Testament, it's a play on words. Christ is the fullness of everything and you have received that fullness and because of that you have everything that you need the word complete means completely furnished to have absolutely everything Not too long ago. We were in Florida and we rented a vacation house for a week and It was to be a fully furnished house which means that there were to be beds and Sheets, pillows, towels, washcloths, dishes, utensils to eat with. You get the picture. We were expecting the whole thing. And indeed, when we got there, there were beds, sheets, pillows, dishes, silverware, a fully furnished house. But one thing was missing. there was no coffee pot, and there was no kettle, and there was a broken Keurig machine. And we arrived, I'm telling you, the first thing that I did was go to the kitchen to find out where the coffee stuff was, and it wasn't there. And the first place that I went while they were unpacking the bags was to Walmart to get what I needed, because we had brought what we needed to make coffee, but we needed something to heat up the water. So, you know, for a fully furnished house, you have to have the stuff to make coffee. Now, I'm not saying that you need that to be a Christian. But understand this, as a believer, you will search in vain to find something that you are missing. Christ is all. He has provided everything that you could possibly need in this life. You don't need to go searching elsewhere and trying to find the answers for life in some sort of a program or some sort of an other place or in different relationships. You are complete in Him. The word also means to abound. It means to overflow. We have everything that we need in Christ. There is nothing to add to Christ for salvation and spiritual wholeness. In Christ we've been provided with everything that we need. Now we understand that the Word of God is complementary to that. We understand that the Spirit of God is complementary to that. We understand that the New Testament Church is complementary to that. These are all things that are provided to us through Christ. These are all things that we have access to because of the reality of Christ. And he says this, if you don't want to have your identity stolen, if you don't want to be robbed, you must cling to the truth of who you are in Christ. You are complete in Him. Beware of these systems that say to you, oh good, now that you're saved, in order to be fully saved, in order to keep your salvation, you must do this or you must do that. Well, that's the wrong direction. If they're not pointing you to Christ, Christ is the first priority, there's something that is wrong. The emphasis here in this passage is that our faith is first in a person, not a philosophy or a principle. There is an experiential aspect to faith in Christ which we cannot divorce from the reality of who we are in Christ. Christianity is more than an intellectual exercise. It is a personal relationship with the living God and that is made possible through the person of Jesus Christ. Now the enemy would like to steal our identity and tempt us to forget that we are complete in Christ. But there is nothing that this world can offer that we need in addition to Christ. You say, well, I could use a little more money. Money is never going to do for you what Christ has already done. You say, well, I could use a little more prestige and position. Prestige and position will never provide for you what Christ has already provided. No matter what it is that you come up with, you're going to find if you follow the threads of that, it's going to go right back to the rudiments of the world and it's not of Christ. And it's drawing you away from Christ. And so as a believer, you need to say, okay, I'm satisfied, satisfied with Christ. He is enough. Now, how do I know Christ? I know him through his word. He is the living word. This is the written word. This speaks about him and helps us to walk with him, to come into relationship with him. This book, is what we need in order to grow in relationship with Him. But as a believer, you see, one of the things that you'll struggle with from time to time is especially when you fail, especially when you sin. You do sin, don't you still? After you're saved, you still struggle with sin. And the enemy will whisper in your ear, oh see, you sinned. So you can't possibly be right with God. You couldn't be His child. You can't possibly be right with Him. And He'll whisper that in your ear. And you say, what is the answer to that? Well, the answer to that is to make your calling and election sure. It is to make for absolute certain that your faith is in Christ and then to remind yourself, in Christ I am complete. My sins were nailed to the cross. My sins are covered under the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm already forgiven. Okay, I failed. I need to make that right with God and move on in fellowship. But that doesn't mean that I've lost my salvation. That doesn't mean that my relationship with God has been taken away. cling to spiritual reality, or people will put up these artificial targets of spiritual achievement and say, now for you to be a real Christian, you have to do this. You have to fulfill this pattern. You have to do this. Here's what the pattern is, Christ. Christ. We are to be like Christ. And I realize that's a lofty pattern. That's something to shoot after. But anything that is apart from that, anything that doesn't have to do with Christ, is just an arbitrary target off to the side, which will bring you nothing but frustration. You'll be trying to live up to some standard that someone has erected that does not come from God. You need to be pursuing after Christ. Don't lose your identity. Now the other thing that happens in this world is that we are swayed to begin emphasizing things other than Christ. And to really begin pursuing after these other things and not really thinking about where Christ fits into all of this. And we have to be careful. For instance, We could begin pursuing after holiness of life, of action, thought, dress, and conduct. And we could do that apart from Christ. that is very dangerous. We could do that in a sense where we're trying to satisfy what other people think or trying to live up to a standard of what someone else has said. But here's the thing, in holiness, the very first goal is to be like Christ. Now that'll give you plenty to work on for the rest of your life. Actually, those who feel that they have attained are giving it away. They have the wrong goal. They think, well, I've arrived. No, you haven't arrived because you aren't in heaven yet. So you're not exactly there. You haven't fully attained to the image of Christ. You see what I'm saying? So if we divorce Christ from the things that we're pursuing after, it won't be long till we're going off on a tangent. It won't be long till we're going off the wrong direction. We must keep Christ at the center of everything that we do. Everything that we believe, everything that we are striving after, it's all about Christ. And make no mistake about it, you, if you are a believer, are complete in Him. Now consider with me just for a moment the contrast to this. If you are not in Christ, if you have not obeyed the gospel, If you have not repented of your sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as the only one who can save, you are completely inadequate. You are incomplete in every way. You cannot possibly measure up to God's glorious standard and you will face the judgment of God. It is absolutely imperative that you understand this morning that you cannot just pretend to be a Christian and fake God out. You either have Christ or you do not. And if you do not have Christ, you do not have salvation. You do not have a relationship with God and there is no possible way that you will be accepted by God in eternity into heaven. The only way to be accepted by God is to be in Christ. And some people say, that is so unfair. That's just not right. Why would a loving God act like that? Oh, he is a loving God. Remember, you don't deserve salvation at all. You don't deserve any form of salvation or being right with God, but he has provided a way. and that way is Jesus Christ. You cannot come by any other way. This morning, if you have never obeyed the gospel, if you have never turned to Christ, if you have never grabbed the hold of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by faith and made it your own, then I beg you this morning, come to Christ because there is no salvation apart from him. You can only be complete in him. You will search in vain for completeness in this world. You will search in vain for full satisfaction from the riches that this world offers, from the lust that this world says you must satisfy, from the desires that you have. Those things will never satisfy you. You must have Christ. At all costs, get to Christ.