Look No Further Than Jesus

All right, we are continuing in our study of Colossians, and I was thinking of it was

pretty relevant reading this passage because Judah has been doing this thing recently.

It's pretty new where he keeps repeating the same word over and over to try to add emphasis

to what he's saying.

And so the other day he was telling me he really, really, really, really, really, really,

really, really, really, really, really wanted to watch TV.

And then immediately after that he was very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very hungry.

And so I've had to address this with him, and I have to tell him first and foremost,

you've got to stop because that's annoying.

So don't do that.

But secondly, all these words don't actually add anything to what you're saying.

So if you want to watch TV, you can just say, I want to watch TV, and that's sufficient.

Or if you're hungry, you just say, I'm hungry, and that's sufficient to communicate your

meaning.

But for a five-year-old, it's very hard to understand that adding to something doesn't

necessarily make something better.

And to be fair, that was also hard for the Colossians to understand as well, because

they were battling the temptation of adding to Jesus.

You see, you have to remember the situation.

The Colossians loved Jesus ever since Apaphryus first came to Colossae, and he shared the

Gospel with them, and he started the church there in Colossae.

And the more they learned about Jesus, they loved Jesus.

But as we talked about a few weeks ago, there were these false teachers who had come into

the Colossian church and into the city of Colossae, and they were trying to corrupt

the Christians with all sorts of heresies and false teachings.

And one of the ways they did that was by trying to convince the Colossians that something

more than Jesus was needed to obtain salvation and a right standing with God.

And so what they were basically saying is that if you don't have these other things,

if you just have Jesus, then you are incomplete.

And if there's something I know about humans, we desire completeness.

Do we not?

We hate when things are left incomplete.

For example, nobody move, nobody do anything.

How badly do you want to add those last two knocks, right?

Well, you're not allowed to, because that serves the purpose of what I'm saying.

We desire completeness, and we don't like being incomplete, and this is especially true

of our spiritual lives.

When it comes to our relationship with God, we don't want to lack anything.

We want the fullness of God's love.

We want the fullness of God's approval.

We want the fullness of God's acceptance.

I think more than anything, what we really want is to know before we die that when we

die, we're going to get to be with God forever, right?

We want the fullness of the assurance of salvation.

And the question that every Christian has to deal with is, well, how do we actually

get these things?

That's what the question, the Colossians were dealing with when Paul was addressing

them.

So they started questioning things.

They started saying, well, how can we get these things?

Maybe we need Jesus plus philosophy.

Or maybe we need Jesus plus human traditions.

Or maybe we need Jesus plus spiritualism and mysticism and all these kind of things.

And as you can imagine, the danger is with the word plus.

Because any time we start entertaining a plus, it means that we're actually doubting

the sufficiency of Jesus.

We are saying that you need something other than Jesus to obtain all of these things.

And Paul is addressing the Colossians in this passage and reminding them that that's not

true.

Notice he says in verse 10, you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and

authority.

Now, that phrase filled in him in Greek, it means been made complete.

So Paul says you have been made complete in Christ.

You lack nothing because of Christ.

He has filled you completely.

And so listen, here's the point that Paul's making in this passage.

He's saying we don't need to add anything to Jesus because we are complete in him.

We don't need to add anything to Jesus because we are complete in him.

You do not need a Jesus plus fill in the blank.

You just need Jesus.

And so the question that I want us to consider together this morning is, well, how are we

complete in Jesus?

It's one thing to say it, but it's another thing to ask how we are actually complete

in Jesus.

And I want you to see what Paul says here.

So notice what he says in verse 8.

He says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according

to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to

Christ.

So Paul starts here, as you can see with a warning, he says, see to it.

And actually in the Greek, it's beware.

So see to it, beware, beware of what?

Well, beware that no one takes you captive.

Now if you look in your translation, you might have something else.

That phrase takes you captive.

Your translation might say, make sure no one cheats you or it could say take you captive.

Actually neither one of these is really strong enough to convey what's being communicated

here in the Greek because this phrase in Greek actually means to kidnap and to take hostage.

And so Paul is literally saying that these false teachers are spiritual human traffickers.

To make sure they don't kidnap your faith, make sure they don't take it hostage, you

need to be on your guard against what they are spewing.

And we need to address something here because Paul says see to it that no one takes you

captive by philosophy.

And a lot of people have looked at these verses and they've said, we don't need as Christians

to have anything to do with philosophy because Paul's condemning it.

But that's not actually what Paul's doing.

Paul is not condemning philosophy in general.

He is not condemning the academic study of philosophy.

We know this for many reasons, but one is if you look at how Paul engaged with people,

especially in the book of Acts, he often engaged in philosophical conversations and used philosophical

ideas to converse with people.

So he wasn't condemning philosophy in general.

He's condemning a very specific philosophy.

I want to show that to you and I think I can do it by showing you a slide.

So here's a slide for you to look at and you're like, oh my goodness pastor, why would you

show us that?

I can't read Greek.

That's okay.

You don't have to.

I've circled and underlined the important words for you, right?

So the underlined word is the Greek word philosophias, which is where we get philosophy.

But the really important word is that circled word.

You might say, why is that important pastor?

It's important because it's not in your translation.

It's been left out of your translation.

Next slide please.

It is the Greek word, the, as you can tell by my beautiful handwriting in Microsoft

paint.

So it's the Greek word, the, you might say, why is it important?

It's because Paul is saying beware of the philosophy, not philosophy in general.

When you add a the, it means that you have a very particular philosophy in mind, which

is what Paul has in mind here.

And he's going to go on in these verses to describe the type of philosophy that he is

warning Christians against.

And he says it has a few characteristics.

First and foremost, he says that it is empty.

Notice this is empty and deceitful.

And this is really going to start contrasting with what he's been saying about Jesus and

the gospel.

So Paul says this new philosophy that you're encountering, it's deceitful.

But remember what he said in Colossians one five, he said of this you have heard before

in the word of truth, the gospel.

So notice the contrast here, this new philosophy, it's deceitful.

It'll lead you astray.

But the gospel is the word of truth.

He also says this philosophy is empty.

And this is opposed to Christ as well, because in verses nine and 10, he says in him, the

whole what fullness.

So the philosophy is empty, but the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily in him.

And you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

So this is what he's doing.

He's saying, here's this particular philosophy.

Here's some characteristics it has.

These are the general ones.

It's empty, it's deceitful.

And now he's going to go on to really describe the ways that it manifests itself in the world.

And the first way is through human traditions.

Notice what he says there.

He says that this philosophy is according to human traditions and not according to Christ.

So what he has in mind here is a lot of religious stuff, a lot of traditions that have been

passed down that people were still trying to practice.

And I want to just say that few things will hijack a person's faith like human traditions

or traditions in general.

Now I do want to be clear.

Traditions are not bad.

Everybody hear me say that because I don't want to get the email tomorrow saying pastor,

you said something bad about my tradition.

No, no, no.

Traditions are not bad in and of themselves.

Traditions can be good and helpful.

But here's the problem with traditions.

Traditions become a problem when we elevate them to the status of a necessity.

Traditions become a problem when we elevate them to the status of God's word.

And we say that you must do these things, these traditions in order to be a Christian.

When you start talking like that, that's when tradition becomes a problem.

Because I mean, Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for that very thing.

In Matthew chapter 15, the Bible says this, then the Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

from Jerusalem.

And they said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

For they do not wash their hands when they eat.

Now, Paul's, Jesus has just fed the 5,000.

He's done a miracle that only God can do.

Everybody should have seen this and said, clearly this is God in the flesh.

And the religious leaders hear about it.

And their first response is, yeah, but he didn't wash his hands first.

So let's just make sure we have that in mind.

Jesus answered them.

And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

For God commanded, honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must

surely die.

But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from

me is given to God, he need not honor his father.

So listen, for the sake of your tradition, you've made void the word of God.

You see, this is the big danger with traditions.

When you start saying that they are a necessity and you have to do these things in order to

be saved.

And here's my warning for you this morning.

Okay.

There are only two logical outcomes when you start going this route, because this is what

leads to legalism.

If you elevate a tradition to this standard, you're going down the route of legalism, basically

saying, I need to do these things in order to be saved.

And I need to do these things in order to have God's approval.

There are only two possible options with legalism.

Legalism will either damn you to your pride or it will damn you to despair.

Those are the only two options.

They can do nothing for your status with God.

They can do nothing for your salvation.

It will either damn you to your pride or damn you to your despair.

And you see clear examples of that in scripture.

Let me think about the rich young ruler.

You remember him?

Very nice young gentleman, wealthy, very religious.

And he comes to Jesus and he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Now already he's thinking legalistically, right?

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says, well, hey, why do you call me good when no one is good but God trying

to get him to think in terms of biblically Jesus is God and the flesh?

That's what he's trying to get him to do.

And Jesus says, well, you know the commandments.

Go and do them.

And do you remember the rich young ruler's response?

He says, well, hey, guess what?

I've already done all that stuff.

You want me to go do all the commandments?

I've been doing this since I was a kid.

So notice what Jesus says.

Jesus says no one is good but God alone.

Do we all agree?

That's what Jesus says.

And four seconds later, this guy goes, and so am I.

I'm good too.

I've already been doing all this stuff.

And so he elevates himself to the level of God.

And as soon as Jesus goes after his heart, what does the man do?

He walks away.

Because when approval with God and eternal life was about a checklist, he was on board.

I can do that.

You give me a checklist, I can do a checklist.

But as soon as it was about the heart, he couldn't do it.

He walked away.

And so legalism damned him to his pride.

He thought that he was able to earn God's approval and earn eternal life.

And I think there are many people like the rich young ruler today who are convinced that

they are saved and that God loves them and that God is pleased with them and that they're

going to heaven because of all the religious stuff they do.

That's their assurance of salvation.

I remember having a conversation with one of my family members.

I'm not going to tell you which one, but it's not one that goes here.

So don't be looking around at them, okay?

But I had a conversation with one of my family members and we were talking about salvation

and I was asking him about salvation.

And he said to me, Alex, you don't have to worry about me because me and God were good.

I pray, I try to read my Bible.

I was baptized when I was a kid.

I take care of my family.

I try to help other people.

I'm getting my life together.

So you don't have to worry about me because me and God were good.

Now I listen to him say this and the most obvious thing that stuck out to me, and maybe it sticks

out to you.

Is there anything missing from all his reasons?

Jesus.

He was just telling me all the reasons.

Well, I don't need to worry about his salvation and his standing with God and not once did

he mention Jesus.

And the problem is there is no way to be good with God apart from Christ.

That is the only way we have salvation.

That's the only way we can be good with God.

Salvation has nothing to do with what you do.

It has everything to do with what Jesus has done.

And so if you don't have Christ, you have no salvation.

You have no assurance.

And this is the danger of legalism.

It gives us this big head, this false assurance, and it deceives us into thinking that we can

do what only Jesus can do.

And so legalism, it'll damn you to your pride.

And if it doesn't, I guarantee it'll damn you to your despair.

And I've told you all before about my battle with legalism early on in my faith.

The Lord had saved me and I've been a Christian for maybe two months.

And I was on fire for the Lord, always reading the Bible.

And so I got a notebook one day and I said, here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to go through the Word and I'm going to make a list.

I wish I still had this so I could show you.

And I said, I'm going to make a list of everything God requires me to be and everything God requires

me to do.

And I'm going to start checking those things off one by one because I thought if I could

just get through that list, then when it came time for me to die, I could have assurance

that I was going to get to be with God because I would get through my list.

And as you know, the first thing on my list was humility.

And I tried and tried.

I did a pretty good job.

No one understood that joke.

Okay.

I was real good at humility.

So, but no, I was trying and trying and I thought, I'm going to get through this.

I'm going to get through this.

And I realized one day, if I ever got to a point where I thought I could check off humility,

that would be a clear indicator that I didn't need to check off humility.

And so I remember being so depressed because I just kept looking back at that list.

And it was this reminder, you're not these things.

Here's what God says to be.

Here's what God says to do.

And you can't do it.

And there might be some of you in here this morning who say, well, I can pastor.

That's the pride of legalism.

And there's others of you in here this morning who say, I'm right there with you.

There's no way I can do it.

And so I remember I was given to despair because I thought there's no way I will ever be what

God calls me to be.

And there's never going to be a time when I can do everything He calls me to do in my

own power.

And I want you to understand, church, this is what legalism does.

Legalism puts demands on people that not even God himself puts on people.

And it happens in all sorts of ways today.

It happens anytime someone says you need something in addition to Jesus in order to be a Christian.

And I've had it happen to me in many ways.

I've had people tell me that I'm not a true Christian because I never prayed the sinner's

prayer.

And there's a belief today that you cannot be a Christian unless you pray the sinner's

prayer.

When God saved me, I didn't even know that thing existed.

I was alone in my room with the Bible.

And the Holy Spirit convicted me.

But apparently I needed a set prayer in order to be saved.

I had a lady tell me that I was not a true Christian because I've never spoken in tongues.

And that one always gets me because I'm like, well, the Bible says that's a gift of the

Spirit and the Spirit doesn't give to everybody in the same way.

So what am I supposed to do about that?

If I can't force myself to speak in tongues, I guess I'm just never going to be a Christian.

But apparently in her mind, you needed to have Jesus plus tongues for salvation.

I had a guy tell me that I wasn't a true Christian because I didn't preach from the KJV.

That's a true story.

I had another person tell me that I wasn't a true Christian because I didn't believe

in his view of eschatology.

I've had all sorts of people tell me I'm not a true Christian.

And I've noticed that they rarely ever mentioned faith in Jesus alone.

You see, church, whenever we make salvation contingent on these things, what we're actually

doing is saying that Jesus is not enough, that he's not sufficient in and of himself,

that you need something more.

Here's the problem.

You see, when the Bible talks about the gospel, God puts a period after Jesus, but legalism

puts a comma and then adds a list and says, here's all the stuff you actually need to

do if you want to be saved.

And so Paul is addressing this here with this philosophy, according to human tradition

and not according to Christ.

And he's saying it is a Christless Christianity.

And his whole point is to remind us that Jesus has already done everything that needed to

be done for salvation.

That's his point here.

Jesus has already done everything that needed to be done for salvation.

Do you believe that this morning?

That when Jesus died on the cross and he said it is finished, he actually meant it.

That the work was done, that he had completed God's requirements.

It means that salvation is not Jesus plus anything.

Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scripture

alone, for the glory of God alone.

And I've said that to you so many times that you probably know it by now.

But maybe you haven't thought through the implications of what that actually means for

your life.

And so I want to just tell you this morning what it means.

It means that God will never love you any more or any less than he currently does.

Now some of you really like to hear that.

And for others of you who may be struggling with legalism, that's hard to hear.

God can certainly be more pleased with you than he is.

He can be less pleased with you than he currently is.

But God's love for you, if you were in Christ and you're standing with him, is completely

unchanging.

Which means that Jesus actually frees us from the pride of legalism.

Because on your best days, when you think you're doing great.

And you know those days, can we be honest?

You have those days where you're like, man, God must really love me today.

I haven't been given any temptation today.

I didn't lash out at anyone.

I didn't say anything I shouldn't have said.

Like I'm having a great day.

God must really love me today.

Listen, congratulations.

God does love you.

He's pleased with you.

He doesn't love you anymore on that day than he does on your worst day.

And that's actually an encouragement for us.

You know, it's amazing that we think this way about our children, but we can't seem

to think this way about God.

Because we had a situation a couple of weekends ago where I called Judah in a lie.

And since he's the preacher's son, he immediately owned up to it.

And he said, I'm so sorry.

Wow.

No believers in here.

Okay.

No, so immediately what he did, because he's a sinner at heart, like we all are, he doubled

down on the lie.

And he told another lie.

And another lie.

And another, and another, and another.

And he kept lying rather than just own up to it.

Was I disappointed with him?

Absolutely.

I was incredibly disappointed with him.

And I disciplined him.

But I didn't love him any less on that day.

And when he has his good days where he's doing everything we tell him to do, and he's perfectly

obeying and he doesn't get in any trouble, and he's doing chores and everything else,

I don't love him any more on those days.

I'm happy with him.

I'm pleased with him.

But it would be ridiculous to say that I loved him more or less because my love for my son,

listen to me, is not based on anything he does or does not do.

It's based on the fact that he is my child.

Now if we can understand that about our children and our relationship with them, why do we

struggle so much to believe that about God?

And to believe that when we mess up and we sin or we have a good day, that God's love

for us hasn't actually changed.

You see, one of the most comforting things I can tell you this morning is that God does

not love you any more on your best days and he doesn't love you any less on your worst

days.

And we might be more familiar with those, yes, our bad days when we have sinned and

we have given in a temptation and we did lash out at someone and we said something that

we can't take back, you need to know as a Christian that God's love for you has not

changed.

He's disappointed.

He will discipline as any good father would.

But God's love for you is unchanging because it's not based on the things you do or don't

do.

It's based on the fact that through faith in Jesus, you are a child of God now and for

all of eternity.

And that is unchanging.

And so Jesus actually frees us from the despair of legalism because when we were reminded

of how much we fall short of God's requirements and God's standard, we look back to Jesus

in the gospel and we say, but Jesus has already done everything that God requires of me.

And so we're free from that despair.

Everything that needed to be done for salvation has already been done by Christ.

The perfection that God requires that was achieved by Jesus.

The obedience that God requires that was achieved by Jesus.

The payment for our sin that our sin required was paid by Jesus.

The peace that needed to be made between us and God was made by Jesus and the blood of

his cross.

The reconciliation that needed to happen between us and God was brought about by Jesus.

Freedom from the bondage of sin was brought about through the victory of Jesus.

The promise of resurrection was insured by Jesus and his resurrection.

The eternal life that God has for his people is given through faith in Jesus.

Everything from start to finish has been done and secured and achieved by Jesus and Jesus

alone.

And as our hope church, Christ alone, not my works, not my religiosity, give me Jesus.

So you don't need to add anything to Jesus because he is sufficient and you are complete

in him.

So Paul warns us against human tradition.

Notice he also warns us in verse eight and says that this philosophy is also according

to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.

Now there's a bit of debate about this phrase elemental spirits because it's ambiguous

the way it's written in Greek.

In Greek it could refer to the most basic rudimentary teachings of something.

So you can think of it as the ABCs of something.

And if that's what Paul meant, then he was saying that this philosophy was operating

at a very basic level which would not have furthered or deepened their faith.

However, I don't believe that's what Paul had in mind here because you see the Colossians

were highly interested in mysticism and spirituality, which we're going to talk about in a few weeks.

But one of the ways this mysticism manifested itself was through the worship of what was

known as elemental spirits.

So at the time Paul was writing, people believed that the world was made up of basically four

basic elements, earth, water, fire, and air.

Those are the basic elements of all of creation.

And each element had a deity to go along with it.

And so these elements were said to have this deity and the Jewish people at the time believed

and I think rightly so, that these so-called deities were actually fallen angels.

Demons who were exercising power in a particular region.

I believe this is what Paul meant by elemental spirits.

These fallen angels, this demonic force that was present in the area at the time that people

were appeasing in various ways.

And that's what people would try to do.

They would try to appease these spirits, these demonic beings, in order to have a good life.

So at the time Paul was writing this, it was very common before you took any sort of voyage

over the water, you would offer a sacrifice to Poseidon or Neptune, whichever name you

want to call him.

But you'd offer a sacrifice to the God of water so that you'd have a safe trip over

the water.

And this was going on at the time in the ancient world.

It was also believed that the stars and planets weren't actually made of material, but they

were actually divine beings that influenced human destiny.

And so people would consult astrologers to try to determine how to live their life in

harmony with these spiritual powers.

And so what happened at the time was there was a blending together of all these practices.

The Christians at the time, they took the faith that had been passed down to them, and

then they took a little bit of Greek philosophy, and they took a little bit of Greek paganism,

and they took a little bit of mysticism, a little bit of spiritualism, and they mixed

it all together and you had this syncretistic faith that was not pure.

This is what Paul is addressing here.

And you might say, well, pastor, what's the big deal because we don't worship these false

gods?

We don't have anything to do with these elemental spirits anymore.

But here's what I want you to see.

That even though we don't practice these things in the same way the Colossians did, we are

still deeply involved in spiritualism and mysticism in very type of pagan ways today.

You can even have Christians today who do the exact same thing as the Colossians, and

they pick and choose a little bit of everything and they blend it into their faith.

I can show you a couple examples of this.

For instance, take a look at this picture.

It might be kind of hard to see.

You've probably seen porches painted this color, right?

Now, full disclosure, because my in-laws are looking at me.

My porches painted this color, but not for the reason I'm going to tell you.

Okay, so let's just be clear.

My porches originally painted that color when we did the remodel.

We were just matching it.

So it's not for this reason.

But this is a very particular shade of blue called Haint Blue.

And people paint their porches this color in order to prevent ghosts and demons from

entering their house.

You might say, well, what does that have to do with anything?

Because there's a belief that ghosts and demons cannot cross water.

And since this particular shade of blue looks like water, the belief is if you paint your

porch this color, you will not have ghosts or demons.

You might say, well, pastor, only the pagans are doing this.

Christians are doing this.

This is mysticism.

This is spiritualism.

And the same thing that the Colossians were guilty of here, we're just practicing it in

different ways.

I mean, there are still similarities too.

For instance, you have Christians who are still using astrology and horoscopes and zodiac

signs, believing that these things can determine your personality and your future and even

your compatibility with someone else.

This is exactly what the Colossians were doing too.

And we're laughing at them going, man, they were ridiculous.

Back then, we're doing the same thing today.

People are saying, well, you know, I'm just the way that I am because I'm a Capricorn.

It's like, well, no, maybe you're just not nice and you need to repent.

But we believe that these things have some sort of bearing on our lives.

This is the same type of mysticism.

You have Christians who put a dream catcher over their bed because they believe it can

ward off bad dreams.

You have Christians who are using crystals, believing that they have some sort of healing

power.

I would add in Christians praying the rosary or praying to Mary, praying to the saints.

I think one of the strangest ones I've ever seen is this, which you'll see here.

This is a practice called grave sucking or grave soaking.

This is a real thing and it comes straight out of Bethel church.

And Bethel church is teaching people that if you will go and lay down on or touch the grave

of a deceased Christian, you can actually absorb their anointing and their power.

And this is a real thing that people are going and doing.

They're searching out graves of famous Christians, godly men and women whom God used to do great

things and they are laying on them, touching them and performing this practice to try to

absorb something.

Do we see that we don't need to laugh at the people in the first century because we're

making the same mistakes today?

Do we see that?

You might not look the exact same, but the principle is the exact same.

What amazes me today is that our world, even though it's growing more secular, our world

has probably never been more interested in spirituality than they are right now.

But they practice spirituality apart from Christ.

They want the feeling, they want the spirituality, but they do not want Jesus.

So what is Paul's point in addressing this?

He's trying to tell us that spirituality without Christ is just empty superstition.

Spirituality without Christ is just empty superstition.

And I don't care what the spiritual practice is.

I don't care if it's you putting on a certain suit to come to church.

I don't care if you sit in a certain pew that you sit in every Sunday, or if it's you praying

a certain way, or you doing this, or you doing that.

Anytime there's a spirituality that is not rooted in Jesus Christ, it's just empty superstition.

That's all it is.

And the Bible is saying these things are empty.

They are nothing.

They can do nothing for you.

They can't build your faith.

They can't strengthen your bond with God.

They can't protect you or provide for you.

They can't help you grow closer to God.

And Paul's point is, and you don't need these things, because you've already got

them in Jesus.

You want deity and want God, you want spirituality, Paul says in verse 9, for in Him the whole

fullness of deity dwells bodily.

If you want someone to protect you and strengthen you and watch over you and provide for you,

you don't need to go and paint your porch blue, and you don't need to consult astrologers,

and you don't need to get crystals.

The Bible says here in verse 10, you have been filled in Him who is the head of all

rule and authority.

So you don't need to look for spirits and mysticism because Jesus rules over all.

He is over all things, and you are filled in Him.

So when you have Jesus, you lack nothing.

So the whole point of this is that we don't need to let these empty deceitful philosophies

hijack our faith and kidnap our faith.

We need to beware of them and watch out for them.

What we take captive by them is one preacher told me, keep your knees down and keep your

eyes on Jesus.

Not all these other things.

If you want to grow in your faith, if you want guidance, spiritual enlightenment, the

Bible is saying here, look no further than Jesus because they are in Him.

If you want salvation, the Bible says Isaiah 45, 22, look to me and be saved.

All you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.

If you want salvation, if you want right standing with God, if you want assurance of your faith,

look to Jesus and Jesus alone.

And most of all church, whatever you do, do not add anything to Jesus because He is sufficient

in all ways and you are complete in Him.

Amen.

Let's pray.