So I went in, and I stood up and took my Bible, and I just took off. I find the warmth of love that Jesus gives, the blessing of its riches to impart. Some of the monks thought it was a sin to bathe because they would see themselves naked; and the longer they held to that theology, the smaller and smaller their circle of acquaintances became; and their influence went with it. This article is also available and sold as a booklet. And those were symbols, symbols of spiritual things. You can’t disobey what Scripture says, and you don’t want to do anything to offend a weaker brother. And the reasoning of man is bankrupt of any truth morally, any truth spiritually. Used by permission. Isn’t that a tragic diagnosis? In Christ I find the bread that leaves no hunger, the wine that leaves no thirst within the heart. Here at Grace to You Europe we take our data protection responsibilities very seriously and, as you would expect, have undertaken a significant programme of work to ensure that we are ready for this important legislative change. If the answer is no, if you’ve been trusting in human wisdom or some kind of religious works, or looking for some kind of supernatural experience, if you’ve been thinking that your own self-denial and self-imposed pain could in some way gain you favor with God, put it all aside, and in simple childlike faith embrace the living, dying, risen Christ as your Savior. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.” All, all, all, all, all is in Christ. They laugh at us because of the simplicity of our faith that Jesus Christ is all-sufficient for all the spiritual needs of every man and woman, both in time and eternity. “Don’t let anybody hold you to observance of the Sabbath, as if that’s how you attain a right relationship to God.”. In my ministry I had never had the privilege of leading a Muslim to Christ, nor did I understand that a Muslim might respond to one hearing of the gospel in that way; so I was overwhelmed. Please be aware that these items are sent out from our office in the UK. GDPR is the new European privacy regulation, which will replace the Data Protection Act 1998 in the UK and the equivalent legislation across the EU Member States. It’s a frightening thing to think about, frightening. And then, thirdly – and we’re moving quickly – verse 18, Paul says, “Don’t let anybody intimidate you with mysticism, telling you that Christ is not enough; you need Christ plus some other experience.” Now let me tell you what mysticism is, okay? I’ve certainly been criticized because I haven’t ascended to the highest level of spiritual experience, and had visions and supernatural paranormal experiences. And he said to me, he said, “I knew that all of that was doing nothing to deal with the guilt of my sin.”. The natural man doesn’t. I have been criticized because I believe in the sufficiency of Scripture, the sufficiency of spiritual resources, and the sufficiency of Christ. One of the things I’m so excited about in The Master’s Seminary is that we are committed that our men are going to be men of God who are men totally trained in the Word of God. But we are a world that gives great, great attention to the mind, to the intellect; and we are all often intimidated by that, as if simple faith in Jesus Christ is not enough. And we are not made more spiritual by deprivation. It’s interesting to me – I was thinking about this as I was preparing for today – that we don’t even have much classic philosophy left to speak of. Spurgeon put it one time, “Would you be a Christian if there were no eleven o’clock Sunday morning service?” Is that all of Christianity that you experience? You’re alive to God. In Christ I find all love, all joy, all blessing; I find the peace that shares with doubt no part. “Christ is made unto us” – 1 Corinthians 1:30 – “wisdom, wisdom.” He’s all we need in the spiritual sense. – who know God in Christ. The Sufficiency of Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:6-15) This section and the next are the meat of Paul’s doctrinal treatment in Colossians. What he’s really saying, “It’s nothing more than human baby talk.” We think that the world’s philosophers and the world’s thinkers and these people articulating all of the answers to all of man’s needs are the bright and the brilliant and the surpassing and the highest level and the ones who are really the elite. And the idea here is a self-signed, self-confessed debt of sin was nailed to the cross, was the list of crimes for which He died; and by His death He erased that list. And that’s under attack. He was a very handsome man from India. “Don’t let anybody hold you to the new moon,” which was a special sacrifice always offered on the first day of every month, according to Numbers 28:11 to 14. Those were a shadow; the reality is now here.”. And so he went and asked that a priest would go in the booth and hear his confession, and he confessed all of his sins. Who is that? And, of course, he just finished in a matter of a few moments, and the ushers took him out. You’ll remember a couple of years ago I preached a message on the sufficiency of Scripture. So all of these Scriptures speak to the matter of the total sufficiency of Jesus Christ for every need, spiritually speaking, in time and eternity. Remember Paul's prayer (three times) for God to remove his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). OUR SUFFICIENCY IN CHRIST 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. It is not what you think it is, and yet people think it is what they think it is. And he said to me, “Your speech was fascinating and compelling.” And he said, “I want Jesus Christ in my life.” I was thrilled. "...Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me" (2 Corinthians 12:9).There are times when God knows we need a "thorn," a challenge, to keep us dependent upon Him. He wanted it removed so he could do a "better job" for God! All the plērōma of God is in Christ, and Christ is in you, and you are complete in that. This is so prominent in ceremonial ritualistic systems, in self-righteous works systems – people who would believe in Christ and then try to earn their way into the kingdom. First Corinthians 1. In the day in which we live now, I don’t see in our country aggressive hate against Christ. I. Doctrinal: The Person and Work of Christ (1:1-23) 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, 16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him—all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him and for him. He says in verse 22, “All these things are going to perish.”. I remember some years ago when I was asked to come down to a Hollywood hotel to speak to a group of actors and actresses. About a year ago, another message on the sufficiency of spiritual resources. And a guy up in Idaho wrote this entire book about all these angels doing this and doing that, and experiencing this and experiencing that. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, ASV. In most societies, these are admired traits. It might be Christ plus human intellect, or philosophy, or sociology, or mystical experience; or Christ plus ritual or ceremony, self-denial; Christ plus a lot of things, but not Christ plus nothing, not Christ all-sufficient, not total completeness in Christ, not absolute abandonment of my life to Christ. Copyright © 2002-2020 AllAboutFollowingJesus.org, All Rights Reserved. Now this is the religion of human achievement again through legalism. The picture is very vivid. It’s well that we focus on that as we look at this second chapter. The environment of human imagination is dangerous enough; but when it gets tangled up with the demonic forces of the other world it’s even more frightening. The first thing that intimidates you is that you really don’t understand what they’re talking about; until you realize that they didn’t either, you’re going to be intimidated. The handwriting of laws that was against us, which was contrary to us: “He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.”. Yes, we must be free from our attitude of self-sufficiency. 2 in closing on 30 bible verses about being complete in christ We have the mind of Christ – right? It’s an exchange of all that I am and all that I have for all that He is. Enter your email address and we will send you instructions on how to reset your password. But primarily, I just want you to know, that God gave them all those unique living habits for the primary reason to make their life so unusual, their diet so unusual, their behavior so unusual, that it was difficult for them to interact with the pagan nations around them. What is the importance of the supremacy of Christ? Yes, they believe in Christ, one Christ or another – either the one of their own definition or even the biblical one. There’s no point in that. After clicking 'Register', you will receive an email with a link to verify your account and to complete your registration. It goes backwards. In other words, you strip yourself down to almost nakedness, and you live in abject poverty and total self-denial, inflict pain on your body, and that’s what makes you acceptable to God. And it’s nothing, it’s nothing but sheer imagination at best; and at worst, you are courting demons, courting demons. To have Him is to have everything, not to have Him is to have absolutely nothing at all. The sufficiency of Scripture can be simply defined as follows: In the Bible alone God has given humanity all things that are necessary for the proper understanding of who He is, who we are, how He has acted in the past and what He expects from us. So we have a raft of philosophers who are giving man a raison d’etre, a reason to be, in terms of how they feel, and expressing their passions and lusts and desires, and that’s the new philosophy. And the world can sit out there and say we’re anti- intellectual if they’d like; we don’t really mind. And they’re not really trusting in the all-sufficient Christ, they’re trusting because they believe in Christ in that plus their religious activities. This paper is not intended to discuss the nature of baptism. And I launched into the gospel and I presented the gospel for about 45 minutes, and called for faith in Christ. But I do believe you have been faithful to 1 Timothy so long that you deserve a break. Folks, if that’s true, we should be listening to Evelyn, not Oral. I was speaking one time. Yet the popular message today is “Christ plus this” and “Christ plus that.” These added things we are warned against by the Holy Spirit in … The great beginning of his argument is in chapter 1 verse 14 where Paul says, “in whom,” – that is in Christ, referred to as His dear Son in verse 13 – “in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the prōtotokos of all creation,” that is, the Supreme One of all those ever created.” And, of course, in His physical body there was creation. The surpassing theme of the New Testament is distilled and articulated in that phrase. 1.12 christ encourages our present situation ; 1.13 how can we remain steadfast while being complete in christ? And when a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, they enter into an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Christ. He’s not part of our life, He’s not the start of our life, He’s not the capstone of our life; He is our life. In spite of the shipwrecks, the stonings, the beatings, the whippings, the constant threats of death, Paul stated that he could continue to serve, continue to sacrifice, and continue to pour out his life because Christ would give him the strength to do so. I realized that last Sunday I preached my fifty-fourth message in 1 Timothy. Oh, I trust you say yes to that. So we have in Christ complete salvation, complete forgiveness. God's response to Paul was, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness..." (2 Corinthians 12:9). Registered User It’s feel good, feel good, feel good, feel good time, so nobody is cognitive. It’s not what you do on the outside, it’s the change that Christ has made on the inside that makes you right with God. They’re the ones articulating the solution to the human problem today; and they’re anything but classic philosophers. The sufficiency of Christ: “He’s the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. Did you get that? How we react to these challenges will determine whether we have the attitude of self-sufficiency or the attitude of Christ-sufficiency. Help us to seek Him, to know Him, to love Him, to be like Him. And he said, “I want to tell you, I’m a Muslim; I’ve been a Muslim all my life. By being immersed with Him into His own death and resurrection, verse 12 says, “buried with Him in baptism, in which you’re risen through the faith of the operation of God who’s raised Him from the dead.” When you believe in Christ you’re placed into His death and resurrection, as you know; and through that death and that new life comes complete salvation, transformation from death to life. There are people who want us to believe that, “You believe in Christ?” “Yes,” but you do this, you do this, you do this, you do this – you go through all these rituals. 3:16–17). From the spiritual dimension, He is all we need, He is utterly sufficient, “who is” – it says in verse 10 – “the head of all principality and power,” all the highest beings created. We must have the might of Christ in our challenges, and in our weaknesses allow Christ to be our strength! As you may be aware, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into full effect on 25th May 2018. 2 Lesson 1 Greetings ... Genesis 1:1 tells us God created, while this verse tells us Christ was the particular member of the Godhead who did the creating. What can human wisdom about life, love, death; what can human wisdom about anything add to that? I understand this intimidation. That, my dear friends, is liberal theology. The completed registration allows us to send order and donation receipts to the email address you provided. The Bible says if you are truly a believer, if you’re mature in your faith, that’s the kind of commitment that will saturate your life: a commitment to ministry — to spreading the truth of Jesus Christ, no matter the personal cost. They weren’t spiritual realities, they were simply illustrations of a spiritual truth. His knowledge surpasses human knowledge, it surpasses supernatural knowledge, and the best that men can do is infantile. Whatever this thorn was, Paul believed it was a weakness that interfered with his call and service for God. I was toward the end of my message, and a man walked up on the platform – that’s happened about a half a dozen times in the years I’ve been here – and just kind of said, “I have something to say. They had dietary laws, food and drink laws. This was at a restaurant in Glendale; Jay was with me. The Scriptures, for Luther, are sufficient to comfort the hurting, confront the sinning, and cheer the saint. He showed the demons on earth and the demons in the pit bound that He had won the victory openly, triumphing over them in His death. And there was nothing I could do but just stand there and let him say what he said. But there came a time when God set all of those symbols aside in the coming of Jesus Christ. 1 All Things Were Created in Christ Colossians 1:16,17 And they were so happy to have me there, and they introduced me. Legalism means ceremony, ritual, religious routine. Legalism is just a word that means keeping rules and laws and outward ceremonies to gain favor with God. The truth of the matter is, you and I possess the knowledge of God, which is infinitely higher than the knowledge of man, and at best, all that man can come up with his wisdom is foolishness,” right? Are you? In Christ I find the source of all earth’s loving, the universe of peace and trust divine. Help Grace to You bring important resources like this to people in your community and beyond, free of charge. Verse 8 says, “Keep on being aware,” – it’s a present tense, always be alert to the fact – “beware, lest any man spoil you.” sulagōgeō means “to carry off booty,” “kidnap you,” “plunder you,” “seduce you,” “haul you away as a captive to their thinking.” “Don’t let anybody take you captive through philosophy,” – and it can be translated – “which is vain deceit.” Philosophy, even vain deceit, it is deceitful, it is useless, philosophy. That’s sufficiency. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.” All, all, all, all, all is in Christ. It’s just very important from time to time, no matter what we’re studying, that we focus again on all that is bound up in Christ. I have something to say. I was listening to a radio program the other day where they were discussing me on a talk show. And I am, to be honest with you, somewhat weary of the battle against those who want to make spirituality directly related to certain kinds of behavior. If you keep shaving, it wasn’t Jesus.” He said, “Do you believe that?” I said, “No, I don’t believe it. Sufficiency of Christ – Freedom from Self-SufficiencyThe Sufficiency of Christ is summed-up in one verse: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13).There was a time when a person who had a weakness in some specific area was said to have a handicap. It’s the body, body, body, body, body. Well, you say, “What is that?” The dictionary says asceticism is living a life of rigorous, physical self-denial; living a life of rigorous, physical self-denial. I’ll tell you who: lots of folks who send millions of dollars to buy a miracle. You give him life and he’ll hear. And so, Paul just loads his gun with a whole lot of “alls” and starts firing them at them: the all-sufficient Christ. There were some who were drinking cocktails and so forth, and some who were smoking, and there I was with my Bible prepared to preach. *From John MacArthur, Our Sufficiency in Christ (Dallas: Word, 1991), 75–90. And we must realize that whereas man may teach us some things helpful about life in this world, they offer nothing to make up some lack of Christ. And so this morning my heart is drawn to a very important subject that I want to share with you. Top 22 Bible Verses-The Cross of Christ … What can we learn by turning to the cross of Christ? With the Jews, of course, it had to do with the Old Testament. The natural man doesn’t understand the things of God, he’s a corpse. But he says it’s Christ plus nothing. Finally – this is the only time it ever happened in my life – I felt someone grab my coat and he pulled me down, away and down into a chair right in the middle of what I was saying, and then pushed me aside, and got up and said, “Well, I’ll just tell you this. He provides, verse 11 and 12 say. “You’re not having a miracle?”, In fact, the latest thing that Mr. Roberts said was that, “If you don’t send me money you’re not going to get a miracle.” Well, who would be intimidated enough to buy into that? Paul says, “Beware lest any man carry you off captive with some human reasoning that is nothing more than vain deceit,” – or an empty lie, or an utter delusion – “after the tradition of men,” – that is a result of the inadequate human thinking process – “after the rudiments of the world.” Rudiments mean the basic elements of learning, the ABCs. It has been said that it was this "rugged individualism" that laid the foundation for the United States, and it is this same attitude that has been her strength since. And they’re into all these experience with angels and so forth. I have something to say.” He said it right out loud. 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Them on gentiles the truth about morality add to that? ” they certainly are something you think it,... A part the way, I know what makes people happy, makes... Was his view of spirituality – having one suit of clothes and riding a bicycle once... Church in Colosse Paul writes to the human problem today ; and they introduced me community and beyond, of...

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