Please open in your Bibles to the Book of Colossians, or the Epistle to the Colossians from the Apostle Paul. We're looking at Chapter 2 this evening. We're looking at Colossians Chapter 2. Verses 8 through 10 tonight. Here now God's holy and inspired word. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Let's ask God once again for His blessing upon His Word. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, whenever we live in a world that is so resistant to You, when we live in a world that is so enraged by who you are and the condemnation that they're under because of their own sin. We experience many attempts of the world to deceive our thinking, to trick us into thinking that we ought to be angry with you as well, that we ought to fear you as well. We face many false philosophies, our God. We face many deceitful schemes from the enemy. trying to lead us away from the truth. Father, we thank You and we praise You that You have given us a rule to direct us how we might glorify and enjoy You. We thank You that You protect our minds and our hearts through Your Word, through the truth, that You lead us into all truth by the work of Your Spirit. Lord God, we know Your Word is truth. And we pray, along with Christ Jesus, that you would sanctify us by your truth. And we thank you for the promise of your Holy Spirit, which guards us. And we pray, Lord God, that you would open our eyes to see wonderful things from your law this evening. And we pray that you would use this jar of clay for your glory's sake. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, last week when I was here, we looked at Colossians chapter 2 verses 3 through 7. And we saw that that was the heart of the matter for the Apostle Paul. The necessity of having the truth guard your minds and guide your lives. Well, this evening we're going to look at chapter 2 verses 8 through 10. In chapter 2, verse 8, and to the end of the chapter, Paul is going to deal with some of the erroneous teachings that the Colossian believers were being confronted with, the teaching they were being invited to accept. He'll lay out the false teachings and then provide the antidote to such teachings as he moves through the chapter. Verses 8-10 really serve as an overall summary of these false teachings and the antidote that's required to combat these teachings. The main point the Apostle Paul is trying to communicate to the Colossians before he dives into the details of these false teachings is this. The Colossians have all they need for salvation in Jesus Christ. And anything which suggests otherwise is empty deceit. And the Colossians have everything they need for salvation in Jesus Christ. And anything which suggests otherwise is empty deceit. And so it's my hope this evening as well that you will remember you have all you need in Christ. However, before we get to that point, we need to see that Paul has a warning for us. And we must be on guard against the assaults from this world. And look at verse 8. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. Verse 8, Paul warns against the real and present threat. Paul begins his sentence by telling the Colossians to see. It's actually command by the Apostle Paul. He's saying, you see. You look, look out. And this word in the Greek fundamentally means to see, to observe. But the way Paul uses it here, and it's also used this way in many portions of the scriptures, it's used as a warning as well. It's used to connote watching out, or being aware, or beware, as we have it here in the New King James. And Jesus uses this word when he says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Mark 8, 15. Be on your guard against it, Jesus says. Beware of the leaven. And that's what Paul is telling the Colossians here. This isn't a casual heads up for the Colossians. Oh, you might run into some false teachers out there someday. That's not what Paul's communicating. Paul is really sounding an alarm here. He's sounding forth a warning. There's danger. They need to be made aware. Many of you have fire alarms or smoke detectors in your home, I'd imagine. We have one in our home, and it goes off from time to time, and I must confess it's usually whenever I'm cooking something in the kitchen. And what's interesting about smoke alarms is that they let forth a very loud noise. Ours sends out this piercing noise. And ours actually says the words, fire, fire. And so you hear this piercing sound, fire, fire, and then piercing sound again. The intention behind the piercing noise and this yelling out of fire is to get our attention, to wake us up if we're sleeping in bed and there's a fire in the house. We need to take care of it. We need to be called to action to respond to the danger that we're confronted with. This smoke detector isn't going to speak to us softly. It's not going to try and carefully get our attention. It's not going to say, excuse me, sir. But I think there might be a fire in your kitchen. I just thought you would like to know. It doesn't speak to us that way. No, it's piercing sound. Fire, fire, piercing sound. The dog is going crazy. The house is in an uproar. My wife and I are jumping to action because something's wrong. There's danger. It needs to be taken care of. That's what Paul is saying here. Something is wrong. There's danger. The Colossians need to be made aware. What's wrong, Paul? What's the danger? Look at what he says. Beware lest anyone cheat you. The ESV says that no one takes you captive. Paul uses a metaphor here to warn the Colossians about the work of the enemy. Satan, who is the god of this world, as Paul calls him in 2 Corinthians, works in and through this world to try and rob and steal and take captive believers to make them prisoners of war, to make them part of his labor camp, as it were. That's what Paul intends with this imagery. He wants the idea of being captive to resonate in the Colossians' minds, this idea of being carried away in chains by the enemies. He wants it to be in their minds, to impress upon them the seriousness of this matter. And you and I need to be impressed with the seriousness of this matter as well. We need to heed the warning to beware. You see, Satan is not happy. His house has been robbed. He's been plundered of his goods by Jesus Christ. I read Matthew 12, 22-29, Jesus has plundered the strong man's house. Jesus has released you from the bondage you were in to Satan. But the devil wants you back. And so does the world. But praise God, they will never get you back. Because you're securely held in the hand of Jesus, your Savior. But Paul says, beware. He says, beware, do not be taken captive. And though your salvation is secure, Satan working through the world can so pervert and twist your thinking, taking a captive that he immobilizes you. He puts you in a dungeon, as it were, making you ineffective in the battle, taking you out of the field of battle where you could be advancing the kingdom of God. He takes you captive. How is it that Satan does this? How does the world do this? It tries to capture you through false philosophies. Look with me again at verse 8. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. The first thing that needs to be understood about this passage whenever we consider it is that Paul isn't condemning philosophy in general. Philosophy fundamentally means a love of wisdom. It's the endeavor of philosophy to come to a knowledge of the truth through the use of reason. This in and of itself is not bad or evil. Man's ability to use reason and logic is an ability given to him by God himself, and is in fact one of the ways in which man is created in the image of God. He thinks logically, he thinks rationally, and so he's made his creatures to do likewise. That's how we come to know and understand God. Our reason informed by the Word of God is how we come to know Him and how we come to know the world around us. And this is what we would call a Christian philosophy. What Paul condemns here and warns against here, however, is a philosophy which he describes as empty or vain deceit. It's philosophy, it's reason not informed by the Word of God, but informed by fallen man's view of things. Fallen man's ideas generated from his twisted and corrupt heart. The danger of this kind of philosophy is that it can replace the true Christian philosophy in the mind of believers. This is what renders a believer captive to the world's way of thinking. This is what happened to the church in Galatia. Oh foolish Galatians, Paul says in Galatians chapter 3. Who has bewitched you? When you think of the word bewitched, you think of someone casting a spell on someone else's mind to get them to think and do something other than what they would do already. Something other than what they would think or what they would believe. Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect in the flesh? The Galatians had received the gospel They had placed their faith in Jesus Christ by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And yet these other teachers came with their other philosophies and began to convince the Galatians that their salvation was not complete. They needed to supplement it with their own works. And so the Galatians were taken captive by philosophy, by empty deceit. This was the same danger that threatened the Colossians. There were men who were trying to get the Colossians to replace or at least supplement what they believed with another teaching about how man is saved or has a right relationship with God. And this is what the world and even our own hearts attempts to do to you and me. To replace what we believe with a different philosophy. To replace what we believe about how we are made right with God with some other way. Paul goes on to describe these false philosophies in more detail at the end of this verse. He tells us that these philosophies come from man and they do not come from Christ. Look at verse 8 again. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Paul shows that these philosophies that are being presented to the Colossians are really replacement philosophies whenever he says that they're not according to Christ, but that they are instead philosophies which flow from the traditions of men and the basic principles of the world. These philosophies are the attempts of fallen men to respond to their awareness that God exists, to respond to their awareness that they are accountable to God. You see, every person knows that God exists. Every person knows that he or she is guilty before God. And man in his fallen state will always attempt to contrive ways to smooth over that relationship with God. He'll try to invent ways to justify themselves before God Himself, in the hope that they can gain peace with Him. But the problem is, a depraved heart and mind will never contrive what is in agreement with the Gospel. A depraved heart and mind will never contrive what is in agreement with the Gospel. Calvin gets to the point when he says, whatever is hatched in man's brain is not in accordance with Christ, who has been appointed to us by the Father as our soul teacher. The basic problem with man's philosophies And the reason Paul calls them empty deceit is because they come from man and not from Christ. And because they come from man, they're always going to appeal to the heart of man, which is why the danger of being taken captive is so real. These philosophies are attractive to the heart. They're attractive to man's desire for self-justification. F.F. Bruce points out that the deceivers the Colossians faced were not trying to inculcate a godless or immoral way of life. The error of such teaching would have been readily exposed. No, their teaching, as Bruce says, was rather a blend of the highest elements of religion known to Judaism and paganism. It sounded good. It appealed to the natural religious instincts, but there was nothing in it for Christians. And the reality is, brothers and sisters, that there is nothing new under the sun. And you and I face philosophies which appeal to our own natural religious instincts. And they're not just around us either, but they come from within us. And we can easily see how deceitful philosophy has entered into the Church of Rome and transforming the gospel into a gospel of works. And we can even see how false teachers like N.T. Wright have tried to delude Reformed churches by presenting very much the same thing, a salvation or maintaining a salvation by works. But perhaps what we're not so willing to acknowledge is how quickly you and I surrender the truth of the Gospel to our own heart's desire for self-justification. Tell me, how often do you live as if you do not have peace with God? How often do you live as you have to earn your peace with Him, as you have to earn God's favor? Have we taken ourselves captive? Have we bewitched ourselves? Have we allowed our hearts to deceive us? Have we forgotten the philosophy of Christ? Paul is eager that we do not forget. Paul teaches us that deceitful philosophies come from man and not from Christ. But God Himself has come in Jesus to give us the truth. See what Paul says in verse 9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. For sure, one of the reasons Paul wrote this verse was to defend the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ against Gnostic-type teachers who would deny it. You see, there were teachers during that day who believed, their worldview was that God was most pure, most holy, blameless, without sin, and we would affirm such a God. But they also believed that the world, the material world, physical things, that it was evil, it was corrupt, and was in fact created by a lesser and foolish God. And it would be very inappropriate for this great and holy and pure God to mix himself or to join together with himself that which is evil and corrupt and broken like this mortal world. And so they would either deny the deity of Jesus or they would deny the humanity of Jesus. And Paul would write words like these. Early church fathers would turn to verses like these to point out that no, Jesus is God incarnate. The fullness of the Godhead dwells in him in bodily form. Even though this is the case, I don't think this is Paul's primary purpose for writing what he does here. But instead, Paul desires to remind the Colossians that despite what philosophy is presented to their minds, no matter how good it may sound, no matter how much it resonates with their own heart, God Himself has come into the world through Jesus. God Himself has delivered to mankind in person, not a philosophy of man's contrivance, but a divine philosophy, a philosophy of Christ. God Himself has come and has spoken clearly and definitively about how one might have peace with Him. And He came bodily that He might accomplish that peace through the blood of His cross. You see, every philosophy of man places the burden of salvation upon man's shoulders. And man attempts to earn or merit salvation through his own efforts. And Paul calls such philosophy empty. Because it really is. Man cannot earn anything. Man cannot gain anything in his own efforts. But the philosophy of Christ that God Himself delivered is that God Himself has come and taken the burden of salvation upon His own shoulders. He has earned peace for you through His life, death, and resurrection from the dead. And this is a glorious philosophy. This is the philosophy of Christ. This is the philosophy that Paul gives to the churches and gives to you and me. And if God who was in Christ bodily has spoken it, then it's perfect. And if God who was in Christ bodily accomplished it, then it was perfect. If God has accomplished your salvation, if God has granted you your salvation, you're in need of nothing else. What else could you possibly do? What else could you possibly need to add to your salvation if God himself is the one who did it for you? Every philosophy of this world in your heart has to offer you, will leave you wanting. But in Christ you have everything. In Christ you have everything you will ever need. And we see that Paul comes to this conclusion in verse 10. And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Paul here provides the antidote that the Colossians need to resist the poison of these false teachings that's brought against them. He provides the antidote to prevent them from being taken captive. And it's simply the truth of the Gospel. Remembering who they are in Jesus Christ. They have been filled up in Him, or better translated as we have it here, complete in Him. There's nothing else they need to pacify the wrath of God. Jesus is their atoning sacrifice. Christ has done it all. There's nothing else they need to gain access to the heavenly glory, to the presence of God Himself. They have been declared righteous through the life perfectly lived for them by Christ. In Him they are complete. They lack nothing necessary for salvation because they have everything they need in Christ. And the Colossians can have confidence in this. You and I can have confidence in this because this is Jesus whom Paul is talking about here. This is the preeminent one of whom he wrote back in chapter 1. He's the head of all principality and power. That's what Paul was trying to bring to the Colossians' minds again when he uses this phrase, head of all principality and power. He talked about him back in chapter 1, about how he is the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, the redeemer of all things. This is the Jesus who has saved you. And if it's Jesus in whom and by whom all things were created, if it's Jesus in whom and by whom all things are sustained, And it's in Jesus that you can be sure that you will be saved to the uttermost. You see, this is the antidote. This is the solution Paul provides for the Colossians. This is the solution he provides for you and me to resist the temptations and philosophies of this world that we're not taken captive. Paul knows that when one sees Jesus for who he really is and what he's accomplished, When one sees and is reminded of the perfectly sufficient gospel of Jesus Christ, the philosophy of Christ, and one can readily see the vanity and emptiness of all other philosophies, all other religion, even the deceptions of our own heart, we can see that they are empty when we see the glory and beauty of the gospel. And this is why, brothers and sisters, you and I need to preach the Gospel to ourselves every single day. We need to be constantly reminded of its truth. This gets us back to letting the truth guard our minds like we talked about last week. Because the philosophies of this world in our own hearts continually, they continually try to trick us into thinking we need to make ourselves right with God. We need to remember that we've already been made right with God. If we forget the Gospel, if we're not reminded of it, we'll become bewitched, just like the Galatians. Forgetting that Christ is sufficient. We'll be taken captive and put in the labor camp of salvation by works. And we'll spend all of our time and all of our energy trying to earn our peace with God. Instead of using all of our time and all of our energy praising and blessing God for the peace that He's already earned for us. Beware, Paul says, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. According to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete. You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Guard yourselves against the deception of this world. Guard yourselves against the deception of your own hearts by reminding yourselves of the gospel daily, reminding yourselves that in Jesus, you have everything you will ever need. In Jesus, you will have everything you ever need. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing for us such a sufficient salvation, such a complete salvation, one that needs no supplement, one that needs no help from us. We thank you that we can rest securely in the work and the redemption accomplished for us by Christ. Lord, protect us from this world that would have us think otherwise. Protect us from the religions and the philosophies of this world that would help us or that would cause us to think that Jesus and what He has done is somehow deficient. Protect us from our own hearts that constantly wants to bring us back to a salvation by works. Protect us from ourselves, we pray. Speak to us Your truth through the Spirit and through Your Word. Remind us of the Gospel, that Jesus' perfect life, death, and resurrection from the dead has secured for us everlasting life, and that we can stand before You forever and all eternity. knowing that He has done it and not we ourselves. We thank you for your truth. May it guard our minds. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.