We entitled that message holding fast to Christ and this message is holding fast to Christ part two Because this is a continuation of the same argument that the Apostle was making an Encouragement that he gives to us, but before we begin I know Marcel already prayed for us, but can we pray again and can you pray for me? I just feel very weak today I don't have the strength to proclaim the word to you so please pray for me and Let us hear from God that his word would be the power Today, right? All right. Let's pray father. Thank you for your word Thank you for your gospel Thank you for the salvation that is in Jesus Thank you for for giving us the fullness of God in Christ and delivering us from the power of sin and the devil. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit. Now, speak to us through Your Word this morning through my weak and feeble tongue that we might behold Christ and hold fast to Him. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Are you struggling with sin today? Do you feel like you're spiritually dry? Do you feel like you're lacking the fullness of life in Christ? Do you feel like the sin nature is so powerful and you don't know how to stop indulging sin? Then the Lord has something for you today in His Word. The Lord has a Word for us as the Apostle addresses how we are to walk holding fast to Jesus. God has given us clear guidance in his word that we would hold fast to Jesus Christ and find that he alone is able to satisfy our every desire, our every need to deliver us from every sin and to give us the full spiritual life. I want to show you today that only by holding fast to Christ can you overcome the powerful desires of sin. I want to show you today that only by holding fast to Christ can you have the fullness of the Christian life. I want to show you today that only by holding fast to Christ can you grow and change into His image. As we continue through Colossians, we find that the Apostle Paul is a bit repetitive. You know, we sometimes don't like repetition. Or at least when you're preparing to preach the messages, you're like, I just preached that last time. But we need repetition, don't we? We forget so quickly, don't we? Well, the passage today is a further exposition of the same theme that we covered last time when we were in Colossians. And last time when we looked at verses 8 through 15, we saw that we were warned with the Colossians against being taken captive by false teachers, false teaching, that is based on what he describes as an empty and deceitful philosophy, which has its source in human tradition, which has its source from the demonic realm. And that we are in danger, if we don't hold fast to Christ, of being led astray by false teaching and being taken captive as prisoners. And he characterizes this false teaching as not being according to Christ, that it's empty and deceitful because it can't deliver what it promises. And we considered what the false teachers might have been teaching in Colossae, and Paul goes into further detail here in our passage today. But as we talked about last time, this false teaching was a form of legalism. that expressed itself in various forms. And it was a holding to a way of trying to overcome the desires of the flesh by strictly adhering to some portions of the law, the Old Testament law, by doing strict observance of abstaining from foods and various things and disciplining the body so that you could get a vision from angels was what this false teaching was. And it was a form of legalism. It took away the Christian freedom in Christ, and making Christ the center, keeping Christ as supreme. This teaching was dangerous because it did not keep Christ as the only power of God to overcome sin and the devil. Now, the term legalism can be thrown around very casually, can't it? And we sometimes use it as a label for people we think are too conservative for our liking. And that's not what legalism is. Legalism, though it's not a biblical term, it expresses a biblical idea that is always condemned. Right? We just read from Galatians this morning. Paul gets on the Galatians pretty hard, doesn't he? Because there were teachers there who were teaching that you needed the law to be sanctified. That you had to keep it, you had to be under the law, you had to observe it as if you were in the old covenant still. And as if the fullness of Christ had not already come. And it did not recognize the role of the Holy Spirit. Legalism is always a threat to Christianity because it subverts the lordship of Jesus Christ. And it must be taken seriously. We must be cautious and wise to not use the term legalism flippantly. Now remember last time, and we'll review this a little bit, we tried to define what legalism is. I addressed a few things that we as a church can struggle with in this area. And we define legalism in two ways. It can display itself in two different ways. The first way that we can fall into legalism is by holding up a standard that's in God's Word, such as commands of conduct that are for Christians. We'll see them in Colossians chapter 3, such as abstaining from sexual immorality, telling the truth, caring for the needs of the saints, many different things that are part of the Christian life, are characteristics of holiness. But then we take those things and we try to fulfill them in our own strength. We use those rules and we try to conform to them externally. and never really dealing with the heart. That's a form of legalism, and this form of legalism always produces self-righteousness. And it comes in many forms. It can be hard to put our finger on, but whatever displaces the centrality of Jesus Christ and the power of God to overcome sin and the devil, in anything else other than the death and the resurrection of Jesus and depending on the power of the Holy Spirit is a form of our own self-righteousness, isn't it? And that's a form of legalism. And that's very much some of the ways that the Galatians were struggling. A second way that legalism is expressed is by erecting specific requirements of conduct beyond what is taught in Scripture and making adherence to them a measure by which we evaluate ourselves or other people of whether or not they are a Christian or whether or not they are a mature Christian. And we can set up all sorts of things, can't we? In Colossae, back 2,000 years ago, it was things like abstaining from certain food and drink, as we'll see in the passage today, but trying to get visionary experiences from angels. Maybe these aren't things that we're struggling with, but anything that we can put in that category, that we set as a standard, that determines whether or not you are a Christian, whether you're qualified, whether you're mature, is a form of legalism that we must be cautious of. We must note that legalism is an attitude of the heart, isn't it? It's not just an external thing, it's a view of the heart that you have to do something to please God and make Him happy with you. And it's not dependent upon the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Now, another way we can fall into error, right, is the opposite of legalism called license, right? And that's the attitude that, well, since the grace of God abounds all the more when I sin, why not sin all the more? Right? Paul says in Romans, what? By no means. God forbid it. that we would live that way. How can we, who died with Christ, still live in sin any longer, right? Now sometimes we can approach a passage like we're looking at Colossians today, which goes after legalism, and then take that as an excuse to be lazy in our sanctification. And we must not be lazy. We must look to Christ. And we must know that we are called to holiness. It says in first Peter you as he is holy you also be holy in all your conduct, right? holiness is the goal and it's the holiness that only comes through the righteousness of Jesus Christ and We'll really get into so today. We're gonna focus more on the negative Paul has some warnings for us some things that we need to be cautious of and And the next time we're in our Colossians, we'll focus more on the positive. How, as a believer with the Holy Spirit, who has died with Christ and risen with Him, how do we actively overcome sin? How do we walk the way of righteousness? How do we live holy lives? How do we put sin to death? We'll deal with that next time. We'll touch it a little bit today. But the focus today is a few warnings for us to be cautious. That we would not be led astray and taken captive by any form. false teaching that would diminish the centrality of Jesus Christ. The first thing we see, let's look at, well let's read, we haven't read the passage yet, let's stand and read God's Word. Colossians chapter 2 starting in verse 16. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used. According to human precepts and teachings, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." This is God's Word. You may be seated. The first warning the Apostle Paul has for us today is to beware of mere external conformity. He said, don't let anyone pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. See, whoever these false teachers were in Colossae, they were advocating for strict dietary practices and following certain religious calendar And they probably were mixing some kind of pagan elements in there as well as the law. And that they were using, that they were viewing these abstaining from food and drink and observing certain things as a means to get into visionary experiences from angels. And that they would be able to do these things and then they would have the power to overcome the flesh and the devil. Remember from Colossians 2, 8 through 15, we saw that if we are in Christ, then we have died with Him and we have risen with Him. And that all our sins, how much of our sins? All our sins have been forgiven, have been nailed to the cross, have been set aside by the work of Christ. And so the power of sin is defeated in Christ. The power of the devil, whose power is to accuse us, has been taken away because our sin has been nailed to the cross, right? So, the power of the devil has been rendered powerless. So, Jesus has defeated the power of sin and the power of Satan. And if you are in Christ, then you are free from the power of sin and the power of Satan, right? Now we are in danger of forgetting that perspective and trying to figure out ways to overcome our sinful desires that isn't by faith in the work of Christ. See, as the Colossians were experiencing, there were teachers who were telling them if they did certain things, if they performed certain practices or had certain disciplines, then they would be able to overcome the desires of the flesh. But Paul tells us that these external observances are just a misapplication of God's Word, a misapplication of the law. See, they were picking and choosing. what you had to obey, some parts of the Torah. But Paul says in verse 17, these are a shadow of the things to come. But the substance belongs to Christ. You see, if we look at the law, the Old Testament law, and say this is something that we need to do to gain righteousness, to gain favor with God, we fail to see that they were a shadow of what was to come. From the Old Testament perspective, they were a shadow of the things to come. And their substance is Christ. So they were there, there were food requirements, there was a calendar, there were all sorts of things. They were all, what Paul calls in Romans, holy and righteous and good. The law is God's holy law. It's not sinful, it's not defunct, it's not have any errors, it's not a failure of the function of the law. The failure was that God's people couldn't keep the law in their own strength, right? God's people cannot keep the law without faith. And the law was meant to point to the person and work of Jesus Christ. I mean, Pastor Matt went through the feast, right? All of them point to who? Jesus. All of the sacrifices point to who? Jesus, all of the law points to Jesus. That means all of the food laws, all the restrictions, all of it are meant to point to Jesus. They were a shadow of what was to come. And so, anytime we would put ourselves under regulations that were part of the time of promise, the time of the Old Testament, we fail to recognize that we live in the time of fullness. We live in the time of fulfillment. We live in the time when all of those promises have been fulfilled in Christ. And so, we must not fall into this view that we need to externally conform to the law. Now, who here would say there is anything in the Ten Commandments that we as Christians would not want to uphold? Right? It's God's basic holiness. It's Righteousness 101, the Ten Commandments, right? But you can't look at the Ten Commandments and say, okay, so I'm not supposed to lie, I'm not supposed to commit adultery, I'm not supposed to steal, and so I'm gonna figure out ways that I will not do these things externally. Except Jesus comes and says what? If you even look at a woman with lust in your heart, you are guilty of adultery. Jesus says that even if you get angry with someone, you are guilty of murder. Right? Jesus came and the Pharisees had all sorts, they wanted to uphold the law, but they didn't just have the law, right? They set up boundaries, so that you wouldn't even get close to breaking the law. Right? And we do the same thing. We set up all sorts of things. Well, I'm not supposed to do that, so I'm going to have this here, and I'm going to do this. And what it ends up being, in the end, is external conformity, and we're not dealing with the root issue, which is our heart of sin. Right? The law was always meant to get to the heart. Jesus wasn't bringing a new law. He was saying, this is what the law meant. And you're just making it a form of external obedience. And we are always in danger of falling into this perspective, looking at what righteousness is and thinking if we can just conform ourselves that people will think we're righteous. Maybe we even think we're fooling God and we're fooling ourselves. But we're not trusting, we're not resting in the righteousness of Christ. Listen, we need to beware of those. Any teacher that would come to you and set up external standards to assess Christian maturity or a true conversion. Paul tells us here not to let anyone pass judgment on us. in regard to these things. We must not heed negative assessments of those who would assess our Christian maturity in regard to secondary issues, right? We could do this with all sorts of things. It could be your views on certain theological positions. It could be We could think of all sorts of things. It could be food, as we mentioned last time. It could be what kind of movies you might watch, which we should be holy, right? But we must not set up secondary issues as an evaluation of Christian maturity. And if we do face those types of judgments, we must not heed them. Because we must recognize that it is only the righteousness of Jesus that frees us from the power of sin. So beware of any teaching or teacher who would set up standards beyond God's Word. Set up ways of attaining righteousness that does not keep Jesus Christ at the center. Be aware that you don't be one of those people, that you don't evaluate yourselves or others based on personal preferences and convictions. Let us not heed the commandments of men. Remember in Mark, Jesus encountered the Pharisees and they asked him a question and he rebuked them. Mark 7, he said, you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. Right? We can have our convictions, our standards, and force them on others. Now, we should have convictions, right? But we have to understand the freedom of the Christian conscience, okay? So, what is a temptation to you may require you to not do something or go somewhere that is not a temptation or a sin to someone else, and you shouldn't evaluate them and judge them because they have freedom in Christ. Okay? So, If you struggle with envy and jealousy and you decide that you shouldn't have a Facebook account, you shouldn't have a Facebook account. And if you got one, you would be in sin, because to you, it's a matter of conscience, right? If you struggle with lust, then you probably shouldn't go to the beach, right? But is it wrong to go to the beach? No. But see, what happens is, we want to set up forms of external rules, external things to observe, which we can control. Which, by controlling them, then we can determine whether or not we are a Christian, or whether we're mature, or someone else is mature. Beware of focusing on mere external conformity. External conformity does not require faith. External conformity has no power to overcome the desires of the flesh External conformity does not change the heart External conformity does not walk in the reality of the work of Christ If you look down at verse 20 he says If you if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world Why is if you were still alive in the world you submit to regulations? I? do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to all things that perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings. These indeed have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." You see, having all these externals, don't taste, don't touch, don't do these things, just focusing on that, setting up these rules, does not have any power, Paul says, to overcome the desires of the flesh. It doesn't have the power to conquer sin. He already told us last time, in the previous passage, where the power to conquer sin comes from. Where does it come from? Christ. It comes by faith, trusting by faith, that I had died to the power of sin and the devil, and that I live by faith in the Son of God. I have been crucified with Christ. He lives in me, and I in Him. I have been crucified with Christ. Therefore, I walk in the newness of life. I have died with Christ. Therefore, I don't have to sin, even though the desire is there to do it. Rules of external conformity can never overcome the power of the flesh. It can never overcome and it's not powerful enough. It's like, have you ever done construction at your house? You find that having the right tools is really important, right? Like trying to do a job with the wrong tool can either make it completely impossible or take 10 hours longer than it should. Like imagine you have to tear up your driveway and pour new concrete, right? The best tool for that is like a bobcat or a jackhammer. But you're going to use a little 16-ounce hammer. How long do you think it's going to take you to break up your driveway? All right. That's what it's like when we try to set up external forms of conformity to overcome the power of the flesh. You can only overcome sin by holding fast to Jesus Christ. Beware of trying to overcome sin by sheer willpower. Trying to become holy by willpower never works. Listen, every sin that you overcome, that you defeat by sheer willpower is replaced by seven devils of self-righteousness. Hold fast to Jesus. He is the only power of God to overcome the desires of the flesh. Trying to do anything else, it's like going on a fad diet. You might get some results right away, but once you start eating again, you would gain an extra 20 pounds. Right? You need to hold fast to Jesus. Hold fast to Him. He's the only power to overcome sin. Beware of mere external conformity. The second thing, Beware of spiritual, I'm going to put quotation marks, spiritual experiences. Verse 18, let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head. What do I mean by spiritual experiences? I put them in quotes because we all need to have a spiritual experience. Meaning, we need the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, right? That's a spiritual experience. Any work that the Holy Spirit does in us, when you came to Christ, it was an experience, right? And it's forever changed your life. And we have defining moments in the Christian life that we could call spiritual experiences. But what I'm talking about is not experiences that come from the Holy Spirit. Because when the Holy Spirit does something in our lives, He always has as His goal the revelation of Jesus Christ, right? The Holy Spirit magnifies Jesus, makes Him central. He always declares the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus. So the experience that comes from the Holy Spirit always has Jesus in mind, always has to do with him and the holiness that is found in Christ, the power that comes from Christ, death and resurrection. But spiritual experiences, on the other hand, are those experiences that pretty much every false teacher emphasizes, right? That sometimes there are things that we seek, thinking that if we just have this supernatural experience, it'll be the answer to all my problems and I'll be able to overcome this sin. Listen, those kinds of spiritual experiences, the kinds of spiritual experiences like Joseph Smith had, and various false teachers, are experiences that don't have Christ at the center, but instead inflate the pride and lead us away from Christ. Paul tells us to not allow anyone to disqualify us, to disqualify our genuine Christian faith by insisting upon delighting in dramatic experiences for spiritual fullness. See, as we said, the false teachers of Colossae were insisting that if you wanted to have power over sin, if you wanted to experience the fullness of the spiritual life, then you needed to have visions from angels. You needed to prepare yourself by discipline of the body so that you could get visions. And then you would be revealed special knowledge that would give you power to overcome the desires of the flesh. The worship of angels here is probably these visions that they were looking for. And the phrase, going on in detail about visions, is a hard one to understand. And so, if you have different translations here, they all probably have different wording, because it's really hard to understand exactly what the phrase is. But what it probably means is that they delighted in going into detail about what they saw. And that's why he says next, but they're puffed up. They're without reason, they're puffed up in their mind, their fleshly mind, he says. That phrase, sensuous mind, is quite literally the mind of his flesh. So what Paul's saying is these visions that they're delighting in, and delight to go in detail about, all they really do is puff up the pride of self-righteousness. And that the source of those visions and all the delighting words that they're proclaiming is the mind of their flesh. So they claim to be spiritual, they claim to be getting these things from God, but really the source is their own fleshly mind. Their own mind dominated by the power of the sinful nature. Such a person who delights in these spiritual experiences they have are proud and boastful. Listen, claiming Christian maturity based on a spiritual experience that you had does nothing more than inflate your pride. Often these spiritual experiences are not shared by others, right? It's just for you. And so then you have to share this knowledge to others and claim that you have access to special knowledge that no one else has. This is how every cult gets started, isn't it? Now, you're like, well, I don't listen to crazy people. Listen, we are all in danger of falling prey to false teaching. It happens every single day. The internet, the TV is filled with it, okay? I've had friends and family who have fallen prey to false teaching. And oftentimes, it is based on these kinds of spiritual experiences. claiming to have some kind of special knowledge about how we should follow the Lord, how we should do this or that. And it's very dangerous. Beware of those who lead by their claim to some kind of special knowledge that no one else has. Beware of those who lead by the strength of their charismatic personality. and not the power of God that comes from the gospel, right? What did the apostle Paul tell the Corinthians? They had all these super apostles, these people filled with charisma. And he said, I did not come with lofty speech. I did not come with a form of speech that was meant to woo you with my form. I came with a powerful message. I came with the power of God, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Romans 1.16, the gospel is the power of God for salvation, right? It's the gospel that we proclaim. It's not the cult of personality. It's not finding for ourselves the perfect Bible teacher who seems to have it all just right and has this wonderful way about him. No, no, no. If someone is not proclaiming to you the Word of God in all sincerity, have nothing to do with them. Not listen to them. They have nothing to offer you, and they will only disqualify you and lead you from Christ. They won't keep Him at the center. Beware of those who claim to have uncovered secret things in Scripture. Beware of those who claim to have received deeper spiritual knowledge. It may be hard to see because they could say the name of Jesus, but if you get down to it, He is not the center. He is not exalted. He is not supreme and sufficient. Beware of such people. It is evidence that they are proud and promote their own agenda. And also you be careful to not be led astray by your own desires. and the thoughts of your own heart. The revelation that comes from the Holy Spirit is always based upon the Word of God, right? When the Holy Spirit reveals something to you, it is through the Word of God. He has not only inspired Scripture, He illuminates it to us. He speaks to us through the Word, okay? So be careful. I've been here, I was young in the faith. I remember sitting on my floor in my bedroom and feeling like God was so distant and asking the Lord, please, Lord, speak to me. Tell me something. Where are you? I can't hear your voice. And I had Psalm 25 open right in front of me, and God's like, duh. Mike, open your eyes. My word that I have spoken is right there in front of you. Read it. Take up and read. And he spoke to me through Psalm 25, and he told me, if anyone wants to know the fear of God, he must be If anybody wants to know his way, he must fear God. I wouldn't have come up with that in my own spiritual experience. Who promotes humility and the fear of the Lord in their own hearts? But see, when we seek spiritual experiences, all we're asking for is the desires of our own heart. It comes from the source of our own fleshly mind, our own sensual desires. But we have to hold fast to Christ. You want to know the power of God to overcome sin and the devil? It is trusting by faith in Christ. Hold fast to Him. Our last point, hold fast to Christ and you will grow. Hold fast to Him and you will grow. Look at verse 19. As he described these false teachers promoting these visions they had, he says, but, and not, they're not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. As we already said, every false teacher, teaching, false thought that we have does not have at its core the centrality of Jesus Christ, right? Every kind of external conformity that we try to hold to, every form of spiritual experience that we try to have, that it's not holding fast to the head. It's not holding fast to Christ. Paul's already mentioned Jesus as the head twice in Colossians 1.18. He said that Christ is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. This metaphor of Christ being the head means that he has all authority over the body. And then in chapter 2, 10, we saw that he says that we have been filled in Christ who is the head of all rule and authority. So he has all authority over his church and he has all authority over the spiritual realm. Where all these false teachers were claiming to be getting their visionary experiences. No, no. Christ is the head and he has all authority. And Paul also shows us here that Christ being the head not only means that he has all authority, but that he provides nourishment for the body. That Christ, it is by holding fast to Christ as our head, as our authority, that we have the source of life and we grow in the image of Jesus Christ. It's only by holding fast to Jesus that we as a church grow in holiness. He said, it's from whom the whole body, so he's not, Paul's not an individualist. You know, he doesn't think of the Christian faith as me and God and, you know, my private relationship with God, right? Now, your faith, your walk with Jesus is very personal, isn't it? Right? It better be personal. It better be a transformation of heart, but it's not private. You are saved and you are brought into the body of Christ. So we are together joined to Jesus. And we are together growing up into Him who is the head. So Paul says a very similar thing in Ephesians chapter 4, if you want to turn there. Ephesians 4, sorry. Chapter 4, verse 11. He says this, and he's speaking of the church, he says, and Christ gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith. and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. You see, we are growing up into Christian maturity together, right? And it is only as we as a church hold fast to Jesus as the authority, the source of nourishment, the source of holding us together in unity, it's only as we hold fast to Him that we will grow, that we will overcome sin and the devil. It is only by holding fast to Jesus who has conquered sin and the devil, right? He is the source. Back to Colossians. He says that it's nourished and knit together through the joints and ligaments. Who are the joints and ligaments? We are. We are the joints and ligaments. He said the same thing in Ephesians. That as each part is working properly, as the joints and ligaments, so the various parts of the body that join it together, as it gets its source of life from the head, which is Christ, builds itself up in love. So, Christ is growing his church through his church through his body. We are his body and so Christ is equipping us, drawing us close to Him, nourishing us, taking care of us through His body only as we keep Him as the head. Right? If we try to conform ourselves or this church to holiness based on anything else other than holding fast to Jesus, we are doomed to failure. We together have to hold fast to Jesus. We have to trust Him by faith. And we must recognize that we can't do it by ourselves, can we? We need to be the body of Christ together, holding fast to the head. It's through the joints and ligaments, through one another, that Christ is growing up His body into maturity. So it says in Hebrews, don't neglect the gathering together of yourselves. Not just here on Sunday, we need to be here together, together corporately to worship, but let us be encouraging one another. Let us be, as it says in Ephesians, as long as it's called today, exhorting one another that there might not be a root of bitterness and sin that takes hold. If you think your brother or your sister is struggling with sin, call them. Encourage them. Be the hands of Jesus. Be His encouragement. Be His exhortation. He works through us to grow up the body. And when you give those encouragements, when you give those rebukes, hold fast to Christ and exalt Him as the only head of the church. When you're helping your brother and sister out of sin, do not try to help them conform to external standards. Do not tell them they need some kind of a static experience. Tell them what they need is more faith in Christ, more faith in Jesus. Now, next time we get in Colossians, we're going to talk about what that looks like. But as we close, just a hint. It means every moment of every day, every temptation that comes your way, every lie, every falsehood, every difficulty that you face. It means holding fast to Christ by faith when the rubber hits the road. Okay? Not in the abstract. But when the temptation comes to say, by faith, I trust that I have died with Christ and risen with Him, and that I don't have to sin. It's by faith that I will not believe the devil's lies, because even though I feel his lies are true, I'm looking to Jesus by faith. You have to walk by faith. Exercise your faith. It's not an abstract concept. It's a reality that you live by every day. Faith is expressed by the choices that you make. When you live by faith, you are going to be holding fast to Jesus and therefore being conformed into his image and you will know it and everyone else will know it and it won't exalt your pride because you will know that the power that you had to overcome sin did not come from you but it came from Jesus and so you exalt him and you give him the glory if there's one thing that we have seen in Colossians over and over again is Jesus Christ gets all the glory he is supreme he is sufficient he alone And so let none of us exalt ourselves. And let us listen to no teacher who would exalt themselves. But let us hold fast to Jesus. Be on guard, saints. Because he prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And you are God's people, and so Satan wants you. He wants to take you captive. Hold fast to Christ. He is our only hope. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Help us to walk by faith and to not try to take what we think is the easier route and not walking by faith and trying to control everything and do things in our own strength. Give us your strength. We need your strength. Help us to walk by faith and hold fast to Jesus. Strengthen your saints today. that we would be wise and discerning and holding fast to Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen.