Colossians chapter 1. I'm sorry, Colossians chapter 2. I'm going to be looking at verses 8 to 10 this morning. And as I'm beginning to preach this morning, I would really covet your prayers. Because I have one of the worst head colds I've ever had in my life. So I'm going to try to do everything that I can to get through this well. But prayer would be appreciated. Colossians 2, verses 8-10. I'm going to start by reading those verses this morning. So follow along with me, please, if you would, in your copy of the Scripture. Paul writes, "...see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And in Him, you have been made complete. And He is the head over all rule and authority. Father God, this morning as we come to Your Word now, we pray that You would help us. That You would give us a singularity of devotion, of attention to this, Your Word. which strengthens us, which instructs us, which protects us. Father, we pray that you would help us this morning to benefit from the Apostle Paul's words as he uses the shepherd's staff to protect his sheep from the wolves. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One of the things that is so striking about the book of Colossians is how similar their situation is to ours. And just like there were many competing philosophies to Christianity then, so there are also today. In fact, that very word philosophy is an interesting word. It's comprised of two Greek words. One is philo, which means a lover or one who loves. The other is sophia, which means wisdom. So taken together, philosophy or a philosopher is one who loves or a lover of wisdom. Oddly enough, most of those who call themselves philosophers reject the wisdom of God. They do. Man's philosophies by themselves never produce true wisdom. Only God has that. And so for someone to be a true philosopher, they must be one who loves God or one who loves wisdom. But from the time just after Adam and Eve sinned, way back in Genesis 3, Man has denied that there even is a God, and they've sought after their own wisdom. In fact, Romans 1.20 tells us that God has revealed Himself through creation, and man has rejected that revelation of God. So this makes man without excuse. Humanity has collectively denied the existence of God. In Romans 1.21 it tells us that the speculation of humanity's foolish heart was darkened, and then in Romans 1.22 it says this, professing to be wise, they became fools. Man has rejected the wisdom of God, and we have sought our own. And we're like the people described in 2 Timothy 3, verse 7, where Paul writes to Timothy that they were always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's the lifelong pursuit of the philosopher. To always be learning. And it was that way in Paul's day also. In Acts 17.21, it tells us that the philosophers at the Areopagus in Athens always spent their lives doing nothing else but telling or learning some new thing, some new idea, searching for what they thought were the deepest truths that their minds could dream up, searching for what sounded deep or sounded impressive to them. They always wanted something new, some new philosophy to put their arms around, to wrap their minds around, to try to sink to the depths of it. And in response to their so-called wisdom, we conclude with Solomon that this is vanity. We testify together with the psalmist that he is altogether true in Psalm 14, verse 1, where it says, "...the fool has said in his heart, there is no God, they are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds." The heart apart from God is void of His wisdom, and it is foolish. Interestingly enough, nearly all well-known philosophers throughout time have an unbiblical view of God or have been atheists. They've relied on the philosophy on the mind of man. And since they have rejected God and His wisdom, the only starting point that they have for philosophy is themselves. And so there is little in their writings and in their thought but emptiness and hopelessness and death. Because when you start with futility, the place that you end up with is futility. Friedrich Nietzsche was considered one of the brightest philosophers and among the first people who proclaimed in the last century that God was dead. Interestingly enough, Nietzsche could not live under the weight of his own philosophy. He spent the last 11 years of his life insane due to an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. And that hopelessness was brought on by his own philosophy of a godless existence. And by the way, it was Nietzsche who said that Christianity was a religion for the weak, driven mad by his own philosophy. And while the trajectory of his life showed the foolishness of his philosophy, many people today still see him as brilliant. And since he rejected God, Scripture considers him a fool. Jean-Paul Sartre, a 20th century philosopher, wrote this in one of his novels about human existence. This is the dialogue, or rather the monologue, that one of the main characters in one of his novels had. Quote, we were a heap of existences, uncomfortable, embarrassed at ourselves. We hadn't the slightest reason to be there, none of us. Each one confused, vaguely alarmed, and felt superfluous in relation to the others. And I myself, I too was superfluous. I dream vaguely of killing myself to wipe out at least one superfluous existence, but even my death would have been superfluous. Hopelessness, death, despair is all that a philosopher can offer apart from God's wisdom. And so things in our day aren't so very different from what the church faced in Paul's day. They had the same kind of philosophical attacks from people who rejected God's wisdom. They dreamt up their own philosophies of life, their own philosophies of existence, and their own philosophies of God, and any of that apart from Scripture, any of that apart from God is foolish. And so in the wake of all that was happening at the Colossian church, Paul wanted to shield them from this kind of uselessness, this kind of futility, this kind of spiritual seduction that the false teachers at Colossae were trying to spread. And so in our text today, Paul shows us the best way to do that. And notice as we read through this, as we go through the text, Paul doesn't go into great detail to describe the opponent's theology or the opponent's philosophy. Rather, he presents them with the deep, rich truths of who Christ is and the depth of God's wisdom. And he presents them with the hope that we have in Christ. We've been seeing that over the past chapter and a half of the book of Colossians. Because the best way to be protected from error, the best way to be protected from heresy, is to know the truth. So that when you see error, you'll know it. Not because you're an expert in error, but because you're an expert in the truth. And so in Colossians 2, verses 8-10, Paul gives us two ways to be protected from error and spiritual seduction. And so we need to know, number one, here's your outline, number one, the captivity of philosophy, and second, we need to know the superiority of Christ. Let's look first at verse 8, the captivity of philosophy. Paul writes, See to it That no one takes you captive through philosophy, an empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Paul begins in verse 8 with the words, see to it. That's a warning. It's really an imperative command. Paul's saying, look out, watch out, wake up. There's danger here. And if you're not careful, it will hurt you. And the Greek word here simply means to look or to see, but whenever this is an imperative, it becomes a warning. It's a warning. And it's Paul and his discernment calling their attention to some threat, to some danger. And up until now as we've been going through the book of Colossians, we've seen that Paul has been preparing. He's beginning to build his case. He's been refuting the false teachers indirectly. He's been using their terminology really against them. He's been asserting the primacy and the glories of Christ. But now in v. 8, Paul begins this direct assault, this refutation, upon the Colossian false teachers. And his warning is simple. And he tells them, there is danger in what you're facing. And so he says, see to it. Look out. Now understand, Paul is warning them against false teachers as we've been saying. And he's acting here like a shepherd protecting his flock from wolves. Chapter 1, verse 13, we saw that Paul said that God has rescued us from Satan's domain, and while it's true that once we're saved we can never go back to that domain, our thinking can definitely be led astray. No, Satan cannot have us back. He wants to confuse, he wants to deceive our thinking so that we will become useless for God. And Paul doesn't want them to go back to thinking the way they did before they were saved. He doesn't want their minds confused. He doesn't want them trapped in the philosophies of men. Now you must understand that false teachers always want to harm the flock, They always want to, and I'm borrowing biblical terminology here, rip and tear. They always want to destroy and devour. And they always want to do all of that for their own personal gain. This is not an honest, innocent mistake about doctrine. This is an intentional effort to destroy Christ's church and to do harm to His people. And false teachers are always this way. because that's how the New Testament always presents them. Matthew 7, verse 15, Jesus said, Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Beloved, Jesus didn't describe these people as wolves because they have your best interests at heart. The wolves are not concerned about the sheep, other than to kill them. to rip them, to tear them apart, to do them harm. Wolves show up when they're hungry. They're looking for a meal. And you're it. You're it. In Acts 20, verses 29-31, Paul told the elders at the Ephesian church, I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to drive away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert. This thread is real. It's not hypothetical. It's real, and it's still going on today. Philippians 3.2 tells us that they will bite at you like a dog. In 2 Peter 3.17 it says, if you don't look out, they will carry you away into their own errors. Their desire is to draw you away from Christ to follow them. And they whisper seductively to you. Yes, Jesus is good, but they have a better depth of knowledge than you do or that you can get from Scripture. And if you really want to understand the deep things of God, you need more than just Scripture. You need their knowledge. You need their understanding. So just follow them. Beloved, this morning, if anyone tells you that you need more than Scripture, beware. If anyone tells you they have superior knowledge of God, beware. There are so many so-called Christian superstars today who claim they have special visions from God, who claim they have revelation that has not been given in Scripture, who claim they have superior knowledge of God because, and I'm not joking here, they claim and they portray that He is their spiritual Lover. And they claim a better understanding of God because they have material success. And you can also, if you just follow them. Those are all false teachers. Anyone who points you to someone rather than Scripture is a deceiver. Do not believe them. And when they point you away from Scripture, they will probably point you to themselves. And for a generous donation, They can usually give you the superior knowledge they have. And the more generous your contribution, the more of their wisdom they'll impart to you. They want to bite, they want to devour, they want to destroy. They want to tear apart Christ's church for their own gain and their own popularity. And in many places in Christianity today, they're succeeding. Well, in verse 8, Paul says, they will take you captive. Look at it again. See to it that no one takes you captive. That phrase translates to a single Greek word. It's only used one time in Scripture, and it's never used in secular writings until many years after this. Probably the simplest translation of this word is to kidnap. It will kidnap you. It literally meant to carry off another person as a prize, or as a captive of war. And Paul says, don't let any false teacher carry you off as their captive of war. I think that terminology paints a really vivid picture of what they do. Although they try to paint themselves as part of the church, they are really at war with it. And it's absolutely unthinkable to Paul that a Christian saved out of the world would be seduced again to believing its philosophy. And the idea here is don't let God's enemies infiltrate His church and kidnap you as a prisoner of war. These are spiritual predators he's talking about. And just like wolves in the wild, they look for the weak. They look for the easily influenced. They look for someone who can be seduced. Someone who can be lulled into a full sense of security to try to pick them off. They're predators. They are hunting. And their target is you. And there's nothing more grievous to the heart of the pastor, nothing more grievous to the heart of an elder in the church, than for one of the flock to be picked off, to be kidnapped, to be led into error and doubt the deity of Christ, the sufficiency of His Word, and the efficacy of His atonement. And even today, many believers are led astray by someone claiming to have a higher knowledge of God. And they will invariably claim to have gotten that through some experience outside of Scripture, through some ecstatic vision, through some mystical New Age teaching mixed together with Christianity, or some emotional high. In the past, that's been mostly done by men. But in today's world, we even see women authors in mainline denominations claiming to have spiritual intercourse with God. They speak of Him in their books as their lover. How twisted. How perverse. These women have enormous followings in the Christian community. And their writings have just enough truth to make them look credible, but the path they are taking you down is a place that you don't want to go. And there are some other popular authors even beginning to back them up and give them credibility. And they write about things in their book not even fit to be mentioned by Christians. And then we wonder why Christians today are watching and reading deviant, wicked things like Fifty Shades of Grey. You cannot believe the number of Christians that are reading that book. These are the kinds of demented and demonic ideas that they use to take people captive. And they aren't just confused people making innocent mistakes. They're predators looking for prey. And they're hunting you. How do they do this? How will they take you captive? What's their method? I mean, you say, well, listen, I've been in the church for years. I know doctrine fairly well. I'm immune to it. No, you're not. Nobody is. What's their method? Again, look at verse 8. See to it, there's the warning, that no one takes you captive, no one kidnaps you, no one carries you away as a prisoner of war. See to it that no one takes you captive. How? Through philosophy and empty deception. Paul says they'll use philosophy, they'll use empty deception. As we mentioned earlier, at the most basic level, this means one who loves wisdom. That's who these people claim to be. That's what a philosopher is. But if we're talking about God's wisdom, if we're talking about scripture, one who loves those things is good. But if we're talking about man's wisdom, if we're talking about the ideas that come from the human mind, that come from the sinful, depraved mind of man, those things are empty and they are hollow and they are opposed to God. Romans 121 tells us that all of humanity is futile in their speculations. And that's speculations about humanity, speculations about our origin, about our worldview, about who God is. And the unsaved mind of man is futile, it is wicked, it is sick more than anything else. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? So the philosophy Paul speaks of here is the wisdom of man. We know that because of what comes next in verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception. How? According to the tradition of men. According to the tradition of men. That phrase empty deception there in the first part of verse 8 is not something different from philosophy. The construction in the original shows that empty deception defines philosophy. In other words, we could rightly translate this philosophy, even, or philosophy, which is empty deception. And so in this context, philosophy refers to more than a purely academic setting. This term was often used by people to refer to different religious groups. And they did this because each religious group was defined by what it believes. It was defined by its doctrine. And each group had its own philosophy, it had its own quote-unquote wisdom, it had its own worldview. And in support of that, Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote, there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. Notice he said philosophical sects. Then he's going to name them, the followers of the first of whom are the Pharisees, the second are the Sadducees, and a third sect who pretends to be a severe discipline are called the Essenes. Those were religious groups. And so when Paul talks about philosophy that is empty deception, he is speaking of a religious system here. In other words, he's referring to the false teachers at Colossae. And so this opposing system of thought, this opposing system of religious philosophy, these false teachers' beliefs, Paul says, they are empty deception. Just because they have a little bit of Christianity thrown in with them, a few Bible verses combined with human philosophy doesn't suddenly make them okay. And they believed that their thought was the pinnacle of brilliance. Paul says it's empty. It is deception. It's empty. That means it has no substance. It's void of substance. The word literally means to be void of intellectual, moral, or spiritual value. Paul says their philosophy, their worldview, their understanding of who Christ is has no value. None. Their ideas are bankrupt. Their philosophy is useless. It only has value to them because they use it to deceive you. Paul says it's deceptive. And it's deceptive because it promises one thing, but it delivers something else. And what it promises is salvation. What it promises is wisdom. What it promises is happiness and enlightenment. And that's what the false teachers today promise also, isn't it? That's what they've always promised. People, this is nothing new. And their ideas have just enough truth and just enough Scripture to seem plausible. Just enough truth and just enough Scripture to seem correct. And they bring confusion. and they promise the world, and they appeal to the flesh, and to your sense of entitlement. And they're deceptive because they promise so much, including salvation, and in the end all they can deliver is hell. Any other theory, any other idea, any other philosophy besides the Gospel will not save anyone. There is no other Gospel. There is only one. Paul says that in Galatians 1, verses 8 and 9. He uses very strong words here. Paul says, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be... strong word... accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a Gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. That word accursed is the Greek word anathema, and it means that which is devoted to destruction, that which is condemned, literally that which is damned. And what Paul is saying there is if someone perverts the Gospel into something else that is no longer the Gospel, Let that person go to hell. That's what he's saying. Why does he say it so strongly? Because they themselves are on their way there. If they believe a gospel other than the gospel of Scripture, they are on their way there and they're leading others there as well. All throughout history, false teachers have led people astray. They have promised them heaven and delivered only hell. If you think Paul's words are strong, or if you think Paul's words are harsh, he's simply echoing Jesus. Matthew 23, verse 15, Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and to the scribes. Matthew 23, verse 15, Jesus said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, You make him twice as much a son of hell as you yourselves. Jesus doesn't like false teachers, does he? There is one gospel, and the false teachers at Colossae didn't have it. And Paul was doing everything he could to protect the church there from their philosophy. Beloved, the false teachers today don't have it either. That's why they're called false teachers. And we live in a day when it seems like there's no one who's willing to say that somebody else is a false teacher because we're afraid we're going to offend someone. We need to call man's philosophy what it is, what Paul calls it, empty deception. It promises wisdom, it promises success, it promises a deeper knowledge, it promises salvation, and the only thing it delivers is confusion and hell. And to help us understand this, Paul gives us two sources for the empty deception and for this philosophy. Look again at verse 8, starting at the beginning. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to, here's the sources, the tradition of men and according to the elementary principles of the world. So the first source is man's tradition. And the second is the elementary principles of the world. Man's tradition is just that. Tradition belonging to or having its source in men. This literally means that which has been handed down. It's the traditions of teachings. Now, when this is faithful teaching of Scripture that Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 2 too, that's a good thing. But when it's the philosophies or the empty speculation of men that we saw earlier, it's just error perpetuated. And you must understand that just because something has been handed down through the years from one generation to the next doesn't automatically make it right. It doesn't make it true. Because often tradition does nothing more than perpetuate error. And to be clear, that's what these people were used to. The Jews had done this very thing. They devised their own customs, their own traditions, and their own rituals, and they gave those customs, traditions, and rituals equal value to Scripture. And eventually they could no longer distinguish between what God had said and their traditions. And they compounded that with a faulty interpretation of the law, and they handed that faulty interpretation and those traditions down through the ages, and they refer to this collectively as the, quote, traditions of the elders. And they accused Jesus' disciples of not obeying those traditions. In Mark 7, verse 5, it says, The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands? Here's Jesus' response, verses 8 and 9 of Mark 7. Jesus said, Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the traditions of men. You're experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. In many cases, beloved tradition is just the ignorance of men handed down through the ages from one generation to the next. And often each successive generation will add to or tweak the philosophy to fit their times. And that's one place where this empty deceptionist philosophy comes from. The second Paul says is the elementary principles of the world. The elementary principles of the world. That's from the Greek word stoikia, and it literally means a basic element or a rudimentary principle of a religious or an intellectual system. It's like the building blocks, the ABCs of what the world believes to be true. It's the rudimentary principles of religion that the world, not the church, the world follows. And for them, the elementary building blocks are either faith in Christ plus my own good works, or keeping the sacraments, or keeping ordinances, or keeping the law in order to be saved. It always involves works of some kind. It's every person's different view of God that they dream up rather than what Scripture authoritatively says. You'll run into this when you're sharing the gospel, and you share with them what Scripture says, and you'll hear people say, well, but my God wouldn't do that. It's New Age mysticism, or it's karma, or it's worship of Mother Earth and the planets and the stars, or any combination of those things mixed together with Christianity. In other words, it's everything other than what Scripture says. And by the way, you can't mix those. to opposing worldviews. They're completely at odds with each other. And when the false teachers of Colossians looked at their system and their way of salvation, they saw complexity, and they saw brilliance, and they saw wisdom, and they saw sophistication. Paul says, no, these are the elementary things. These are the basic things of the world. not the church, not of Scripture, but of the world. These are the basic things the unsaved world holds to. This is what the natural man who cannot comprehend real spiritual truth believes. And for the Colossians to go back to this would be like returning to kindergarten after they had earned their doctorate degree. It would be like to allow yourself to return to the same state of deception that you were in before you were saved, before you placed your faith and trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior, before you knew that Scripture was right. There's nothing of value there. There's only deception there. They will promise you the world through wise-sounding philosophical arguments but they can never deliver. Beloved, you face these same type of deceitful teachings today. I face these same type of deceitful teachings today. These are false teachings, philosophies, that will always exalt man and always diminish Christ. And regarding salvation, it's not Christ plus anything. It's faith in Christ alone that will save someone. Any system, any philosophy, any religion that does not give Christ all the honor is of the world, it is demonic, and it will not save, and it won't make you holy, and it definitely won't make you more like Christ. And even after salvation, we need to know that there are false teachers that will still try to take you captive. Because not everyone claiming to teach the Bible actually does so. And these systems will draw you away from Christ, and they will exalt man, and they will appeal to your flesh, and they will say, look what you can have, or look what you should have, or look what you should claim as your own. We'll have to be weary of any religious or any philosophical system that exalts man, any religious or philosophical system that weakens your trust in Christ alone as the all-sufficient Savior, any religion, any philosophical system that tells you it's all about you and your material success. Be weary of that. In any and all of those systems, you can hear the hiss of the serpent. And the question on his lips is, did God say? Did he really say? And he seeks to plant doubt in your mind. And He seeks to draw you away from simplicity of devotion to Christ. And He seeks to weaken your trust in His faithful, rock-solid Word. And He seeks to delude your mind with complex, philosophical-sounding arguments. And He seeks to make you ineffective for Christ. Beloved, that is the agony of deceit. That is the work of Satan. He is a predator, and He is hunting for you. And He does it through false teachers. Paul tells us they want to take you captive through all these things and lead you away from Christ. Guard your mind from this kind of deceit. Well that's the captivity of philosophy. Now in verses 9 and 10 we see the superiority of Christ. Second this morning, the superiority of Christ. Look at verse 9. Paul says, for in Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And in Him you have been made complete. And He is head over all rule and all authority. Verses 9 and 10 are really pretty familiar terminology for us. We saw this back in Colossians 1.19 where Paul says, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him. And Paul is really summarizing what he said earlier in 1.15-23. You'll remember that great section talking about the deity and the superiority of Christ. In verses 9 and 10, it's Paul's way of saying, remember Christ. Remember what I wrote back there. These two verses are probably the most direct definitive statement of Jesus' deity in the epistles. All the wisdom, all the attributes, all the power, all the sovereignty, all that makes God God is present in the person of Christ. He's calling them back to remember what He'd written in chapter 1. He is God just as the Father and the Holy Spirit are God. And the empty deceptive philosophy that the Colossian false teachers spread was that Jesus was not God. They had said that he was nothing more than a lesser emanation that came out from God and that he had parts of the divine essence, but that he lacked all the fullness of deity. And in fact, you remember from our study in Colossians 1, that was their phrase, the Colossian heretics phrase. They referred to the fullness. Rather than talking about deity or the attributes of God or the attributes of deity, they simply said, the fullness. So for them to teach that Christ was not the fullness of God was satanic philosophy. It was like Satan in Matthew 4, verses 3 and 6 saying to Jesus, if you are the Son of God. It's not part, but all of the fullness that dwells in Christ. the full measure of deity. All God's wisdom is in Him. Christ alone has the power to save because He bore the full wrath of the Father and only God could do that. He is the head over all rule and authority, Paul says. Head of the church. Creator of heaven and earth. Everything exists, we saw in Colossians 1, because of Him and for Him. That means for His glory. And then Paul makes the second direct attack on their demonic theology when he says that all this dwells in bodily form. Bodily form. See, the false teachers, and we've talked about this before, the false teachers there at Colossae believed that God couldn't exist in a physical body. They believed that all matter was evil. Therefore, a physical body was inherently evil. So therefore, God couldn't exist in a physical body. Therefore, Christ couldn't be God. That was their thinking. Never mind the fact that Genesis says that when God created, all He made was good. And here Paul says no. No, Christ Jesus exists in a physical body, and He does so perfectly, and He does so without sin. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him. And so Paul is telling these people that the false teachers were wrong, they were liars, they were deceivers. Their words are empty, they are hollow, they have no authority whatsoever. And in v. 10, Paul says, "...and in Him you have been made complete." Now v. 9 is a powerful statement about Christ. V. 10 is a powerful statement about you in Christ. And he says you are complete in Christ. Complete how? In every way. This is Paul's way of telling them that they didn't need what the false teachers were trying to sell them. You're going to see that more next week. See, when Adam sinned, what God had created as perfect and good and whole and complete became incomplete. And sin entered into our being and depravity horribly dominates every part of man and of mankind. And our minds, apart from Christ, are incomplete and corrupt. Our bodies are subject to weakness and illness and death. And we're spiritually dead because our sin separates us from God. And we're morally incomplete because we live outside of God's will for our lives. And our thoughts are incomplete because we don't know God's truth. But when you place your faith and trust in Christ, We were made complete because in Him we are complete. Christ is our completeness. He is our fullness. Scripture now says that the believer has the mind of Christ. And while we still live in a fallen fleshly body, even that will be glorified when Christ returns for us. We've been made alive spiritually because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. We can be complete morally as we live in obedience to Him. We can understand God's truth now because He has given His truth to us in Scripture, and the Holy Spirit opens our minds to understand it. Beloved, Scripture is nothing more than the revelation of Christ. In Him, you have God's truth. In Him, you have spiritual life. In Him, you have a sure eternity in Heaven forever with Him because where He is, there you will one day be. In Him, you have a blessed hope. In Him, you have full fellowship with God. In Him, you have knowledge of how to please Him. In Him, you have every need met. Because Christ is the fullness of God. He is your fullness, and He is all you need. John 1, verse 16, John writes, For of His, that's Christ, for of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. Out of His fullness, He makes you complete. We have all received grace upon grace. And the way John writes that, it means that we received an endless flow of grace of God supplying every need. It could be read grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. Never ending. That's what it means. He is all you need. He's your full supply of everything. Finally, in verse 10, Paul says, He is the head over all rule and authority. He is the head over all rule and authority. He is all the fullness of God. He is all the fullness of you. He is Lord over all. Not one of a series of lesser gods or emanations out from God, but God Himself. And after the time of His humility on earth, God exalted Christ once again to the highest place over everything. All rule, all might, all power, all authority are His. And they are unquestioned. And no one comes into Christ's presence that does not bow. No one. He is exalted over all by virtue of who He is. He's exalted overall by virtue of His attributes, the fact that He is full deity. He's exalted overall by the fact that the Father has placed Him above everything else. What does this mean that Christ is your fullness? Just what we've been saying. It means you don't need anything else. You don't need any other philosophy. You don't need any other wisdom. You don't need to be up on the latest fad. You don't need to perseverate over your salvation if you've placed your faith and trust in Christ. You don't need some other person with some higher wisdom. There is no higher wisdom than Christ. There is no salvation but the one that Christ has already secured for you. There is no latest fad in Christ because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is no wisdom other than His. There is no philosophy other than Christ because Christ is your philosophy. He is all, in all, and all you need is Christ. He's all you need. And we're going to see that even more next week in verses 11-15. Let's close in prayer. Father, this morning, as we consider what Paul has said, we pray that You would protect us. Protect us from ever giving in to the deception, the philosophy, the weakness of men. Protect us from holding to anything else, from believing anything else other than Your Word and Christ. Father, in just a few minutes we're going to be baptizing three individuals. And Lord, they have stepped forward. They have professed faith in You. They have said that Christ is my all in all. And we understand really that baptism is the beginning of public ministry. That's how You designed it to be. Baptism is when we step forward and we say, Christ is mine. I claim Him. And so Father, we thank you for the testimonies that we're going to hear in just a bit. We pray that you would help them, that you would help every one of us to hold true to those testimonies that we made when we were first saved and baptized. That we would recall, that we would remember that He is everything and all we need is Christ. And it's in His name we pray, amen.