Please take your Bibles and open to Colossians chapter 2. We're looking at verses 8 through 15 this morning. Colossians chapter 2 verses 8 through 15. 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. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. Father God, what a glorious subject we come to this morning to speak of your son, the wonderful God that he is, and the wonderful things he has done. Open it to our minds this morning, Father, and drive it home to our hearts. for we ask it in Christ's name, amen. My family and I went down to the city Friday to see the Mets play. And it was an interesting day. My boys had heard that if you get there really early, you can watch batting practice and maybe get a couple of balls or autographs or things. So that meant getting to the stadium two and a half hours before the game. But we also wanted to spend some time there in Flushing and Chinatown and get some Chinese food that kids don't normally get, but that they like a lot. So we went down even earlier and walked around the city a little bit. And as always is the case, you see a lot of interesting things down there. And you come across some amazing deals as you're walking down past the shops. For instance, right there in front of this little shop was a gentleman in a folding chair, and next to him a card table. And on this card table were all of these really nice-looking watches. Nice and shiny, and new watches, and wouldn't you know it, they're Rolexes. At least that's what the man was selling the watches would have you believe. And the price? Well, you rarely find deals like this, let me tell you. Rolex watches, $30. I still don't know how he can offer such a deal. Volume, that's what it is. It's not entirely true. We all know how he can offer such a deal. It's because it's not really a deal at all. If you ever run into this guy, let me give you a tip. They're not really Rolexes. You weren't sure about that. They may be Rolexes. or Rodexes, but they're not Rolexes. They're imitations, and he and a hundred other guys are doing the same thing, and they want you to think they're Rolexes, or they're counting on you being vain enough that even though you know they're not Rolexes, you still want to wear it on your wrist to have other people think that it's a Rolex. But any way you cut it, it's a fake. It's not the real deal. Compared to the real thing, it's trash. In Colossians chapter 2, verses 8 through 15, Paul is warning us about trash that looks like treasure. It's not only watch salesmen you need to look out for. It's also religious salesmen. You need to watch out for those trying to sell you something that may sound good, but is really worthless. It's that which has at its core, and as its result, death. See, believing trash is a much more serious issue than simply wearing trash on your wrist. Buy a fake watch and you lose a few dollars. Buy into a false belief system and you lose your eternal soul. It's a much more serious issue. The Colossians had religious salesmen in their midst. And Paul needed to warn them of the danger that they were in. You see, the fakes are always attractive. They always look shiny and new and good. If they didn't, no one would pay them any attention. They have to. You know something else? The fake always seems like a good deal. You always seem like this is a good thing to do. Even religious faiths. Send me $100 and God will give you back $10,000. All you have to do is name it and claim it and you'll receive it. The blessings are already yours. You just need to tell God to give it to you. Now if all that's true, why does this guy need you to send him $100? That's what I could never figure out. He should be giving somebody else $100 and getting his $10,000, and then he'd be set. It sounds easy. There's no talk of sacrifice. There's no talk of obedience. There's no talk of self-denial. Just say it, and it's yours. Give a little, get a lot. Sounds good, but it's a lie. It sounds like this is a source of treasure, but it's just trash. Those who were endangering the Colossian church were probably not quite so blatant about it. They were attacking the church not through greed, but through its pride. Specifically, through pride in its intellectual standing. Let's look at the trash they were selling in verse 8 of Colossians chapter 2. 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. What on earth is Paul talking about here? We must understand first that Paul is not putting down philosophy. That's not what he's doing. Philosophy simply means the love of wisdom, and wisdom is a good thing. In Paul's day, everything that had to do with theories about God and the world and how we are to live lives was considered philosophy. Paul would have been considered a philosopher in his day. by the Greeks as well as the Jews. And in that sense, both Judaism and Christianity are philosophical, because they make claims about the nature of reality, for instance, about the value system that people are to live by. So what was Paul warning against? The trash he was warning against was a dangerous philosophy, which Paul described with several characteristics. The first thing he says about this philosophy is that it is deceptive. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception. It sounded great, just like the watches looked great, but it was deceptive. And these teachers were coming into Colossae with something that sounded good but was deceitful. There was no substance to it. Paul says it was empty. It sounded learned, but it said nothing. You read examples of this all the time, and you hear people on television speaking like this all the time. They use these great big words, but by the time they're done, they haven't said a thing. They filled up time, and they filled up space. In Edwin Newman's book, Strictly Speaking, subtitled Will America Be the Death of English, he cites an unintentionally humorous example of this. It was written by folks in Hampshire College in Massachusetts. concerning plans for the future of their college. And this is what they wrote. That social structure should optimally be the consonant-patterned expression of culture, that higher education is enmeshed in a congeries of social and political change, that the field of the humanities suffers from a sure fit of leeching as blood drawn out by verbalism, explication of text, Alexandrian scholasticism, and the exquisite Precocities and pretentiousness of contemporary literary criticism, and it goes on and on and on. And you know what they're talking about? They're talking about people who use big words. They say, we shouldn't do that. Well, that's what the people who were coming into the Church of Colossae were doing. They sounded very intelligent, and they sounded very learned, and they sounded like they had all their stuff together, but it was deceptive. It was empty. They weren't communicating anything of substance. They could talk all day long, and when they were done talking, you had no better idea what they were saying than you did before they began talking. There are modern-day Gnostics, too. They're called Mormons, and they have a credo that describes, well, what the ancient Gnostics believed. They say, as God was, man is. As God is, man can become. That's something of what the ancient Gnostics taught as well. And the same teaching is here today. They believe that God was once a man, but because he had lived a virtuous life, he had evolved to higher and higher planes of higher and higher spiritual states, until finally he became the God of his own planet, and then the God of heaven. And millions of people believe this today. because they hear something that sounds good, and they hear something that to them sounds intellectual and credible, and they buy into it. Gordon Hall is one example of this. He's the sports equipment tycoon. He's the head of Nautilus. The Arizona Republic reports he is worth more than $100 million, he says, because it was his goal to be worth more than $100 million before the age of 33. Others say it's closer to 60 million. There are other goals. By the time he is 38, he will be a billionaire. By the time his earthly body expires and he is convinced he can live to be 120 years old, he will assume what he believes to be his just heavenly reward. Gordon Hall will be a god. We have always existed as intelligence, as spirits, he says. We are down here to gain a body. As man is, now God once was. And as God is now, man can become. If you believe it, then your genetic makeup is to be a god. And I believe it. That is why I believe I can do anything. My genetic makeup is to be a god. My god in heaven creates worlds and universes. I believe I can do anything, too. He's bought into this. There's no rational evidence to support anything that this guy believes, but he believes it with his whole heart. And that's how he is patterning his life. He's an intelligent man, but he's deceived. FF Bruce says of this brand of Gnosticism, the spiritual confidence tricksters against whom they are put on their guard did not inculcate a godless or immoral way of life. The error of such teaching would have been immediately obvious. Their teaching was rather a blend of the highest elements of natural religion known to Judaism and paganism. Their philosophy was empty deception. A lot of words, but in the end, it didn't mean anything. And it certainly wasn't true. It had no reality there. The second thing that Paul says about this false teaching that was coming into Colossae was that it was according to the tradition of men. The false teachers didn't present it that way, though. And you will find that any cultist who comes to your door will not present what he's teaching as a tradition of men either. The false teachers present their philosophy as having antiquity. It's very old, and it's dignified. It has some kind of revelational character. Today, cultists come to your door, and they will claim that they have some new revelation. They will hawk their false teaching as something that is ancient, but that has now newly been revealed to them. That's how the Mormons started. Joseph Smith claims to have dug up some stone tablets upstate in Elmira, and he couldn't understand what they read because they were written in what he called Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics. And so he took two stones and made glasses out of them, and looking through these stones, he got the interpretation of the tablets. Now, this wasn't new. He didn't want to come and say, this is something I just made up. This is brand new that I've just gotten. So he wanted to give it some antiquity. Now, this is ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, reformed hieroglyphics, by the way. And God has seen fit to reveal it anew to me and have me spread the message. There is, by the way, no such thing as reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics, but that's neither here nor there. And of course, the tablets aren't around anymore. They disintegrated soon after he was done. But that's what we all always come back to. There's always something old that has been lost, and now it's been refound. And just about every cult you want to look at will go through that same kind of cycle. And that's how the false teaching was presented in Paul's day. The Gnostics would come and say, this is the ancient truth, and we've got it. And if you want it, you've got to come to us, because we've got the secrets. Paul also says not only was it according to the tradition of men, not only was it empty deception, but it was demon-controlled. When Paul says that it was according to the elementary principles of the world, he's saying that it was demon-controlled, depending on the basic principles of the world rather than on Christ. The elementary principles, as Paul mentions, are demonic spirits. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of principalities and powers. And he's there speaking of the angelic realm, the demonic realm. And Paul was arguing that evil forces were in control of this false doctrine. They desired to bring the Colossians back into bondage that they knew before Christ. And once again, we see this true even today. You read the histories of the founders of these cultic groups and false religions, and you will always find some supernatural kind of demonic, occultic activity. Joseph Smith was involved in it. Muhammad was involved in it. When he got his revelation, supposedly, for the Koran, it came through demonic revelations. Read through the histories, and you see that's always a common denominator in false teaching. Satan is in the business of distributing falsehood and making it look like it might be true. And so false teachers don't come and give you something that you're not used to. They'll give you something that may look very close to biblical Christianity, but when you get down beneath the surface, you find that it's doctrines of demons. Paul also says this false teaching is enslaving. He says it can take you captive, and so he warns them not to be taken captive through it, not be carried off. To be taken captive means that you're carried off as prisoners led away by victorious armies. Paul says stay away, stay away from this stuff if you value your life. Cultic teaching asserts a death grip on those who fall for it, and very few come out of it. Now, how do we safeguard ourselves from falling for this deception? Paul makes it very plain when he says, don't be taken captive to the trash rather than the treasure. He makes the comparison. He makes the contrast. He says, see to it that no one takes you captive to philosophy and empty deception and all the rest of it, rather than according to Christ. Be captive to Christ. He's the treasure. Don't let yourself be captive to the trash, the emptiness, to the traditions of men, to the demonic doctrines. And so if Christ is that treasure, if Christ is the one we are to be captive to, then we need to find out something about him. And Paul does that for us in laying out a doctrine of Christ in the following verses. What is this treasure like? Verses 9 through 15, Paul tells us, In the treasure, which is Christ, first all of the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. See, this is the key difference between biblical Christianity and every false teaching which claims to be Christianity but isn't. It all comes down to who Jesus is. And Paul says, in Jesus, in him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. Jesus is not simply godlike. He is God. And that's the key. Anyone who comes and tells you that Jesus is anything less than God himself, get away from him, because he's telling you a lie. Come back with me to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, who is the Word? Well, the Word is Christ. Of course, come down to verse 14. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus, the one who came and took on flesh and dwelt among us, is the Word that is spoken of in verse 1, when John says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, why did He come? Well, come down with me to verse 18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. Jesus is the begotten God. And He came and took the form of human flesh so that we can see who the Father is. And Jesus said that throughout His ministry. You want to know who the Father is? Look at me. Someone comes to you and says, tell me what the Bible says about who God is and what He's like. Take them to the Gospels and say, here's Jesus. He's God, and He also shows us what God is like. Jesus is God. Philippians chapter 2, Paul makes the same argument from the incarnation of Christ. Philippians chapter 2, verse 5. have this attitude in yourself, which also was in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, and that's just Paul's way of saying, although he was God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He didn't need to grasp it. He was God. He was equal with God. For by him, all things were created. God's the creator. He emptied himself. Verse 7, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself to becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. For this reason, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. So at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, at Jesus. Every knee is going to bow. Now, don't I remember hearing something in the Old Testament somewhere about God being a jealous God and not sharing His glory with anyone else? But here in Philippians, we hear Jesus is going to rule, and before Him, every knee is going to bow. How can this be? How can God be a jealous God who will not share His glory, and yet every knee bow before Jesus? And the answer is simple. It's because Jesus is God. This is the key difference. Jehovah's Witnesses come to your door, and they will tell you, if you push them and try to get to what they really believe, that Jesus is not God. He is a lesser God. And he, in reality, is Michael, the archangel. Mormons will come to your door, and they will tell you that Jesus is just one God of many. And he's the God over this planet. And you know what else? Lucifer is his brother. You get pretty strange stuff. But the common denominator is that Jesus is not who he says he is. He is something less than holy God. Talk with someone who is into the new age, or Buddhism, or Hinduism, and Jesus will be another guru. And those lost years of Jesus, from the time he was found in the synagogue when he was 12 to the time he began his ministry, those lost years of Jesus, he was in India and Tibet and all of these other places with the gurus. Well, no, it's not true. He's not a guru. He is God himself. In him, all the fullness of deity dwells. Paul says something else about this man, Jesus, in Colossians chapter 2. He says that in Him, the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him, you have been made complete by this One who is head over all rule and all authority. You've been made complete by the One who is the head over everything in the universe. You have been given fullness in Christ. That's what complete means. He meets every need that you have. He gives you everything that you require to serve Him. wisdom, courage, strength, whatever you need, Jesus provides. So why would you want to go back, Paul is asking, to what bound you before? Why would you want to go back to something that made you incomplete when you have been made complete in God himself? If you are in Christ, if you are full in Him, if you are growing in that fullness, if you're overflowing with Him, then the philosophies of the false teachers and those of the world will have little appeal to you. If you are full of Him, how can you want anything else? Alexander McLaren said this, though all the earth were covered with helpers and lovers of my soul as the sand by the seashore innumerable, and all the heavens were sewn with faces of angels who cared for me and succored me, thick as the stars in the Milky Way, all could not do for me what I need. Yea, though all these were gathered into one mighty and loving creature, even he were no sufficient stay for one soul of man. We want more than creature help. We need the whole fullness of the Godhead to draw from. It is all there in Christ for each of us. Whosoever will, let him draw freely. Why should we leave the fountain of living waters to you out for ourselves with infinite pains, broken cisterns that can hold no water? All we need is Christ. Let us lift our eyes from the low earth and all creatures and behold no man anymore as Lord and helper, save Jesus only, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Jesus is all the fullness of God and in him we are full as well. Everything that we need is in Christ. Furthermore, more Paul says about this one in whom the fullness of deity dwells, that we have been buried with him. in baptism. Prior to that, we are circumcised with him, with a circumcision made without hands, verse 11, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. We were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in a removal of the body of the flesh of the circumcision of Christ. Paul's speaking about death. He's speaking in these verses about death, burial, and resurrection. Now, normally, circumcision doesn't refer to death, but rather to the physical act performed upon a male child eight days after birth. But here it provides a gruesome metaphor for the crucifixion. It's speaking of the circumcision of Christ. It's speaking of his death. His circumcision on the cross involved not the stripping away of a small piece of flesh, but rather the violent removal of an entire body in death. Believers being in him spiritually share in this death. Their sinful nature is cut away. They have died to their former way of life. That's why Paul says, we are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. We are spiritually identified, if we belong to Christ, with the death that Christ died on our behalf, with his circumcision. Paul doesn't stop there. He says also, we've been buried with him in baptism. Paul's emphasis here is that the Colossians really did participate in Christ's death. He reinforces the point by alluding to their baptism, their burial with Christ. When you are baptized, you are sent under the water, dead and buried, and then raised up with him once more. And the practical implications of this are immense. Come with me back to Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Paul says this of himself, and it is true of us as well, who have trusted in Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. You see how closely identified the people of God are with the Son of God in his death. We are buried with Christ. Because this is true, we no longer serve sin. Romans chapter 6 verses 6 and 7 gives us this rationale. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, there's that identification again, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. You see, those who have not been buried with Christ and identified in his crucifixion are still slaves to sin. They cannot help it. Everything they do, even if it looks good to us, is sin, because they do not do it for Christ. That's why Paul can say, no one does good. Not one. No one is righteous. Not one. Slaves to sin. When you were a slave, you can do nothing but serve your master. But we are identified with Christ and his crucifixion, and so we are no longer slaves to sin. We do not have to sin. We do, but we're not slaves. We can choose not to. We can choose to do good. We can choose to follow Christ. That's a tremendous implication. of what it means to be identified with Christ. The person we were before conversion was crucified with Christ. The body that had formerly been a vehicle for sin has been rendered inoperative. Here is the fullness which Christ has given us. We are free to live life to its fullest, free from the domination of sin. In a world that is always seeking the full life, believers are the only ones for whom it is possible because we're the only ones who can not sin. The only ones who are able not to sin. That's what it means by being identified with Christ in his resurrection. But Paul also speaks of his crucifixion. Paul also speaks of his resurrection. He says in verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. You see, this fullness that we have in Christ reaches its full blossom by virtue of the believer's participation in Christ's resurrection. And that resurrection isn't only future. That resurrection is now. When we became part of the body of Christ by the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit, We were baptized into the resurrection and ascension of the Lord. Ephesians chapter 2 says that we are even seated with Christ in the heavenly places. That's an amazing thing. We are seated with Christ, even now, in the heavenly places. Phillips Brooks. said the great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death, that is not the great thing, but that we are to be new here. Not so much that we are to live forever as that we are to and may live nobly now. The change impacts us now. It is not in the sky, by and by, all of that stuff. that's coming and it's a great promise that we're going to be with him forever. But we don't have to wait. We are raised to new life now. We are seated in the heavenlies with Christ now. That's what Paul means when he speaks about us being made complete in him. We are made full in him. Paul says also that in him, we have been delivered from bondage. what kind of bondage. Let's see this in verse 13 through 15. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. Paul says, first, we were dead. Now it's a spiritual state of every human being apart from Christ. Come back with me to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. Speaking to believers, he speaks of their past lives and says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Not sick, dead. Not just ill, not just enabled, dead. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14. speaks of the natural man prior to being regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. And Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 2.14, a natural man does not accept the things of the spirit, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. That is the condition of deadness. And every human being without Christ is in that condition. And everyone sitting here this morning was at one time in their lives in that condition, dead to God. But what happened? Just as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. But a few verses later, after describing what that means in the life of an individual who is dead in sin, says, but God. Those are great words. But God. And we're told the same thing here. You were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven all our transgressions. You see, dead people can't save themselves. They need to be made alive. If dead people cannot understand the things of the spirit, then how are they going to respond? when the gospel is presented to them. They can't, unless they are made alive. They can't even help. Christ has to do it all. You've all heard this illustration of the world as a vast sea, and it's filled with humanity, men and women who are drowning. There have been pictures painted of it. There have been songs written with this picture. And there's this vast sea, and there are people drowning in this sea, and Jesus comes along in a boat, and he's going to throw them a life ring. And if they can just reach out and grab that ring, Jesus will save them. There's a problem with that. And most of you have been listening to me preach long enough, you know when I say there's a problem, what I mean is it's not biblical. It's not biblical. You want the real picture? The world is a vast sea. And floating in this vast sea of the world are men and women who are already dead. They're not drowning. They're dead. And they can't reach out to grab a life ring. They're dead. Dead men do not reach out. Dead men do not grab. They don't need someone who's going to throw them a life preserver. They need someone who can give them life. That's how the scripture portrays it. We are dead in transgressions. We are dead in sins. But Christ made us alive. And it's only when he makes one alive and comes and says, you, chosen before the foundation of the world, you're mine, and I'm making you alive. It's only then, according to 1 Corinthians, that they can understand the gospel and believe. Jesus saves. Jesus gives life. That's what Christ does. He didn't die simply to make salvation possible. He doesn't come and say, well, here it is. You reach out if you can. I know you can't because you're dead. But if you can, you can reach out and I'll save you. No. He went to the cross not to make something possible, but to save people, actually save people. And he does that. He died for his people, and he saves them. And he's triumphed over the evil one in doing so. Paul says that you were dead, but he made you alive together with him. That certificate of debt which you owed to God because of your sin has been canceled out. And then in verse 15, this is just a great picture, when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he's talking about demons, Satan and his demons. He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. Now, how has he done that? Well, he's done it through you. Do you remember Job? First couple of chapters of Job, Satan comes before God, and God taunts Satan with Job. Have you considered my servant, Joe? He's the most righteous guy in all the earth. And God knew. God knew that he had done a work in the heart of Job. And Job had been regenerated. And Job belonged to God. And Job was going to stay faithful. Through troubles, yes. And there were times when Job might not have wanted to remain faithful, and times when he questioned God. But he did. And God knew that. And God holds Job up as a trophy before the face of Satan. And that's what he does with each one of you. Each one of you, you are the trophy that God holds up to the evil one. You are what God pushes in the face of Satan. And he says, could you do this? I didn't think so. You know, he used to be dead. I made him alive. You know, Satan, you can't make anybody alive. All you can do is kill, but I give life. And he holds us up. as trophies before the evil one. Having triumphed over them, he made a public display of them. And he does so by what he does in the lives of his people. He makes dead men live. And that's something that the enemy cannot do. That's something that only God can do. And that is his triumph. The evil one brought death and sin. And God has taken a fallen people and say, I'm going to save some of these. I'm going to make these dead people live. And in so doing, I am going to glorify myself. And I'm going to hold Satan up to ridicule, because all he can do is destroy. That is the treasure. That is something that no false teacher can offer. Every false teacher that comes, whether it be the ones who were there in Colossae or the ones that will come knocking on your door, will try to take this glorious Christ that Paul describes here and bring him down a few notches. They will try to make him more like us. God says, what I'm going to do is take you dead people and make you more like me. There's the difference. Don't buy into the trash. It may look good. It may sound good. It's not true. It will kill. And it's been killing for thousands of years. Christ is the treasure. And he is the treasure that brings life. And that's what people need to hear. Let's pray together. Oh, gracious God. We can never express to you the hearts of gratitude that we possess. Father, to understand our condition and to understand what you have done to change that and bringing us to new life through your son. If we understood all that was involved, we would be overwhelmed. Father, overwhelm us. Overwhelm us with your love and your grace and your mercy. Overwhelm us with what you have done on our behalf. Overwhelm us with your glory. And Father, it's our prayer this morning, if anyone is here and has not taken hold of the treasure, oh, Father, bring them to yourself. Reach out to their dead body and make them live. Reach out to their dead spirit and give them new life, make them a new creature in Christ. Father, you can do it, you and you alone. And we thank you that you have done it for so many of us here this morning. And you will continue to make dead people live until you come for your own. Glorify yourself in that way, Father. Now and always, in Christ's name we ask. Amen.