I'm going to be reading from Colossians 3 and verses 1 through 4. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Amen. Father, we thank You for this, Your Word, and we pray that as we look into the book of Colossians, that this would be a book that would really stir our hearts to be more Christ-centered. Bless us, we pray, with Your continued presence. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, Ligonier Ministries recently released another state of theology survey, and America didn't turn out too well in terms of what they believe, but you can kind of fine-tune the results. You can look at different ethnic groups, you can look at religious groups, and the evangelicals did not fare very well either. And I'm just going to give you some sample questions that show you. where the so-called evangelical church is at. Only 58% of evangelicals disagreed with this statement. God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. So that shows, even though these people claim to believe in the gospel and the inspiration of Scripture, infallibility of Scripture, they said, only 58% said that Christ really is the only way. That's an astounding statement. God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. And to me, this shows that postmodernism is at work in the Church of Jesus Christ. They personally believe the truth. but they are unwilling to deny the opposite and say the antithesis is false. That's the problem, okay? Only 37% disagreed with the following statement. Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. Now you might think, well maybe they didn't understand that question, but listen to this next question. 20% did not give a clear answer to the following. Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God. 20%. 11% strongly agreed that Jesus is not God. So it's not just the members of the Church of Colossae who were confused on this question. There are a lot of people today who are confused on that question. To the statement, the Holy Spirit is a force but is not a personal being, only 51% of evangelicals strongly disagreed. 6% somewhat disagreed. 7% were not sure. 8% somewhat agreed and 28% strongly agreed with that heretical statement. That's astounding. 32% said that they agreed with the statement, everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. Only 30% agreed that even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation. 5% disagreed that abortion is a sin. And only 85% strongly agreed that it is a sin. 11% strongly agree with this statement. Gender identity is a matter of choice. 13% agreed that religious belief is a matter of personal opinion. It is not about objective truth. Now, to me, this shows that the book of Colossians is as relevant today as it ever was. And it is super relevant to our postmodern skepticism, cultural relativism, immorality, mysticism, the occult, rejection of authority, and other issues that you see all around us in America today. But even within Christianity, it's relevant on several other levels. Do we have messianic congregations today that subject believers to unbiblical Talmudic traditions? Yes, we do. They're really no different than some of the people that Paul opposes in this letter. Do women and sometimes men dieters feel guilty about eating yummy food because they somehow think that the prohibitions, touch not, taste not, handle not, are regulations that really ought to govern our lives? Yes, I think there is dietary legalism everywhere. Are there believers who get their theology of angels and heaven and the afterlife from a source other than the Bible? Yes, that is definitely the case. There are books and movies about these people, you know, who supposedly have gone to heaven and back that have introduced all kinds of unbiblical doctrines into the church of Jesus Christ. After all, they've been there. They ought to know, right? And we think, well, I think if it contradicts the Bible, they obviously don't know. There's something weird going on. Christians today get a lot of their theology from mystics, the apocryphal writings, the Jewish Talmud, pagan philosophy, and even their own supposed private revelations. Are there Christians today who compartmentalize life up into the sacred and the secular like some Colossians did? And we'd have to say yes, that heresy has been around for centuries. Are there people today who deny Christ's lordship over all of life in a two kingdom kind of a way? Yes. Have Christians had their minds muddied on role relationships and marriage and other authority relationships? Yes, they have. So Colossians is an ultra, ultra relevant book to today. I know some people, they say, well, I just can't relate to the things that are going on in Colossians. That's so weird that people actually believe that. Well, we've got a weird culture today. And Colossians is very relevant as you're trying to interact with it. Thankfully, the structure of this book is super simple. You've got two chapters of doctrine, then you've got two chapters of application, sort of like Romans and Ephesians. The theme of the book is also pretty simple. It can be summarized in one sentence. Here it is. No part of human existence should remain untouched by the gospel reign of Jesus. So in chapters 1 through 2, Paul shows what a Christ-centered theology looks like because the Colossians have been mixing Christ together with some other things and it wasn't working out too well. And then in chapter 3 through 4, Paul shows what a Christ-centered ethics should look like. And again, it was because the Colossians were adding to Christ different things in their day-to-day living, and he wanted them to have the supremacy of Christ in all that they did. Even the introduction is Christ-centered in the way that it is written. Let me just quickly summarize that introduction. They have a status, in verses 1 through 2, as saints. that have been separated from the world to God by Christ, and the apostle Paul is bringing the revelation of Christ as an apostle of Christ, and he's committing them to being separated from the world and listening to Jesus. In verses three through eight, Paul gives thanks for what God has already done in them. Now, I find this very encouraging. To me it shows that Paul is not a perfectionist. What a messed up church and yet Paul is so thankful for what God has done in them. And I think it's kind of a clue as to how we ought to treat fellow believers who are messed up in similar ways. We can at least be thankful for what God has started in their lives and pray that God would continue that good work in them. But in the last part of the introduction, verses 9 through 14, he offers up a prayer that God would help these Colossians to keep pressing into their upward calling, to be walking worthy of their calling. He's concerned that they've been living inconsistently. They've got Jesus in some parts of their lives, but they've got the world that's been introduced, and so Paul is praying that God would pour out in a powerful way his wisdom, his grace, his power, patience, everything else that is needed from Christ's atonement. He knows that apart from Christ, his preaching is not going to accomplish a thing in their lives, and so he prays. Well, we can learn from that as well. If the Apostle Paul knew that his preaching is not going to be powerful apart from God's grace, we should be in prayer as well. Now I find it interesting that his prayer ties together kingdom and redemption in a way that demolishes the gap theory of the dispensationalists. Verse 13, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins. So Paul weaves kingdom and gospel together. He does not say that the kingdom is postponed for 2,000 years as dispensationalists have claimed. Those Colossians had already been ushered into his kingdom right then and there. And so the age of the gospel is the age of the kingdom. And I won't spend any more time on the introduction, but it really immediately focuses us upon the fact Christ is sufficient. He's sufficient for everything that we need. Now, in verses 15 through 23, Paul gives a magnificent theology of Christ's supremacy overall. And it's not a theoretical supremacy, because Paul says that Jesus will redeem all things that he is supreme over. He will reconcile those things. There is no square inch of the universe that Jesus does not declare his lordship over, and therefore there is no square inch of the universe that he's not going to, at some point, apply his redemption to. These Colossians had apparently treated Jesus as not being sufficient. So they had gone to pagan philosophy for wisdom. Sounds familiar. And they had gone to Jewish legalism for practical advice. And they'd gone to mystical experiences for comfort. And they'd gone to other things for sanctification. Little did they realize that by doing this, they were diminishing Christ. They were diminishing Christ. And I'm going to read most of this first section, because it sets the tone for the rest of the book. The section demolishes all the problems that we looked at earlier in the introduction. Verse 15 says first, He is the image of the invisible God. Now the image of the invisible God has been rendered in some versions as the visible expression of God. Or as Hebrews 1, three words, that the exact representation of God. In other words, Jesus is God made visible. Jesus told his disciples, he who has seen me has seen the Father. That's John 14, 9. Jesus needs no further power or abilities to accomplish his desire to subdue all things to himself. He's willing, he is able, he is God made visible. The second thing that verse 15 calls Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. Now you need to understand what this means because JWs and other heretics have tried to use this to say Jesus is the first created being. But there are hints here that Paul is not even using the term firstborn as the one who was born first, but he's using it in the more common metaphorical sense And one of the hints is he's first born over something, not first born of or from something. That would seem to point to the figurative use. By the way, the New Testament most of the time uses the figurative use. What was the figurative use of this term? Well, it represented a person who was preeminent over the things or over the people that he was first born over. For example, in Psalm 89, verse 27, God says of David that God would make him the firstborn by making him the highest over the kings of the earth. Now, everybody acknowledges David was not born first. in any sense of the term, he was not born first, but because he had been exalted as the highest over all of the kings, he was said to be the firstborn. So if you're firstborn over the kings, you're exalted over all the kings. Now here, Jesus is not just exalted over kings, he's exalted over all creation, meaning that there's nothing in creation he's not exalted over. But it also means he will inherit the creation and the rest of the chapter makes that clear. We're going to get into the some of the really juicy stuff here. Look at verses 16 through 18. For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. Now there is absolutely no way I could do justice to this magnificent paragraph. But it's obvious as you read that there is no possibility of any square inch of this universe of heaven or earth being neutral. Everything was given to Jesus. Now I'm going to just emphasize four points out of these three verses. A lot more stuff, but just look at four points. First, Jesus is the creator of all things. There is nothing created that Jesus did not create, which simple logic tells you he's not a created being. He is the creator God. Second, all things were created for him. He owns them. They must serve him. And in that phrase, Paul is giving a Christ-centered perspective to the entire universe. Third, he is before all things, and this speaks to his preexistence as God from eternity past. Before any thing came into existence, he was already there. In any beginning to have been begun, he was already there, which means that he's not dependent upon anything. But fourth, everything is dependent upon Jesus because everything is held together by him. Or as the New King James translates it, in him, all things consist. Let me read how Douglas Moo exegetes that verse. Without him, Electrons would not continue to circle nuclei. Gravity would cease to work. The planets would not stay in their orbits. Paul wants them to understand that things make sense only when Christ is kept at the center. Then in verses 18 through 20, Paul indicates that everything in this universe that he's just outlined that's been made by Christ, made for Christ, that he upholds by the word of his power, every bit is going to be redeemed. Now this is such a correction to pietism and gnosticism of modern Christianity that just says the only thing that's important is the invisible, and they don't apply redemption to work and to politics and to the planet. But no, he's gonna redeem those kinds of things, even thrones and dominions. In verse 18, Paul says that Jesus started this process of making all things new by redeeming the church. So he's got to start somewhere. He's redeeming a people to himself. And then verse 19 says that this process of redemption and reconciliation will not stop until all things are reconciled to Christ. Everything that's out of order will be put back into order. Verses 18 through 19. And he is the head of the body, the church, who was the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell. and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross." Now again, there's a boatload of subject material in there, but I just want to, in terms of supremacy, point out five bullet points for you. First, verse 18 says that Jesus is the head of the church. He has supremacy over everything inside of the church. Now, older Presbyterians would speak of this as the regulative principle of government, that we as officers have no authority except for the authority that Christ has explicitly delegated to us in the Bible. And we are not to speak anything except for what he's authorized us to speak. He is the head. He's the only head. Second, That verse says that Jesus's body is also the beginning of the new creation by being the firstborn from the dead. So as the first to be raised from the dead, he gains the preeminence over even death itself and he is the owner and the head of everything that represents the new creation. Now another way of saying it is that his resurrection of an old creation body into a new creation body is the beginning of every aspect of the old creation being turned into a new creation. Third, verse 18 ends by saying that in light of what's already been said, Jesus has to have the first place in everything. Nothing can be more important than Him and nothing in this universe can be excluded from the claims of Jesus. As Abraham Kuyper worded it, There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine. And I say, Amen. Amen. Fourth, verse 19 says that the fullness of the Father dwells in Jesus, so there's no reason that Jesus would be insufficient. Okay? He overflows with God's aseity. He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. And then fifth, verse 20 declares that the Father has willed to reconcile all things to Himself. So it's going to be a slam dunk. The whole Trinity is going to guarantee that all things will be reconciled. Now, let's just think about how extensive this redemption is because there's a lot of evangelicals who doubt it. They just look around them and they say, how on earth could all of this be changed into a gospel world? How could this happen? But let's take a look at what God has promised here. The things that will be redeemed in verse 20 are exactly the same things that were created by Jesus in verse 16. Was there anything excluded from his creation and creative power? No. Verse 16 again, for by him all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him. Now, through the fall, fall of Adam into sin, Satan sought to capture all things to himself. They were made by Christ and for Christ, Satan wanted them. And we find in Job 1 and Job 2 that Satan was able to enter into even heaven and defile that place with his wicked presence. That's really astonishing because even heaven needed to be purged and cleansed by Christ's atonement. It had to be redeemed. Passages like 1 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18 indicate that there were demons in heaven. And that's why Revelation 12 says that Michael the archangel had to engage in war with Satan and all of his demons. And he cast Satan and his demons, billions of those demons out of heaven and onto the earth. It was a part of the cleansing, the redeeming of even heaven itself. So it's very literally everything in heaven and on earth had to be cleansed by his blood. Planet Earth must also be progressively redeemed and many prophecies indicate that as the gospel pervasively covers the earth, long life, health, taming of animals, other reversals of the curse are going to be noticed. Now I want you to notice again the language of verse 20. Redemption will be very extensive. and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross." You cannot get more comprehensive than that. The universe that Adam lost is the universe that Jesus will redeem. And once all sin and all sinners are cast out of this universe, It will be a universe in which only righteousness dwells. Jesus will be successful. Now let's go to the next point. Verses 21 through 23 make it clear that all of this redemption begins by restoring what was alienated and turning enemies into allies. Even the Colossians had once been at enmity with God. So it's not a theoretical redemption. It's actually changing things. These Colossians were at enmity with God. They had been brought into the new creation that Jesus was making. Let's begin reading at verse 21. And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight, if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister." Now that last clause is the segway into the next section. the supremacy of Christ in Paul's ministry. And really, this logically follows. If every kind of thing in this universe that was made by Christ will be redeemed by Christ and will be reconciled to Christ, it of necessity means that an ambassador of Christ must never, ever allow any neutrality. He must never allow for any part of this universe to remain at enmity with Christ. And modern evangelical preaching must come into conformity with the preaching of Paul. Modern politics needs to come into conformity with the preaching of Paul. You know, political pluralism is what a lot of Christians hold to. No, that is completely contrary to what Paul is preaching here. The last clause of verse 23 already said that the gospel had been preached to every creature under heaven, or as some versions render it, Paul preached a gospel that pertains to the whole creation under heaven. Either way that you translate it, Paul's gospel was not a truncated gospel. When your gospel is Christ-centered, it evaporates everything pietistic, individualistic, and truncated. It makes it a gospel that is as broad as Christ's interests. And how broad are Christ's interests? We've already read. They're universal. Now, of course, this is why Paul will later say in chapters 3 through 4 that the gospel has to apply to everything in our lives. It's a universal gospel, right? And Paul is astonished that these people would go to the wisdom of the world for anything. He's astonished that these people would trust the world for anything. He's astonished that their marriages look more like the old creation than having characteristics of the new creation that Christ has purchased. Even how we do our jobs should flow from this comprehensive good news. Now another implication is that Paul can't preach whatever he wants to preach. He's an ambassador. Verse 25 says he has to preach as a stewardship trust, and he has to preach the word of God and the word of God alone. And this word is not a meager provision. Verse 27 says it makes known the riches of God's plan, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So again, he's talking about a Christ-centered preaching that he has got. So, Paul strives to be a preacher to present everyone mature in Christ Jesus by the almighty power of God working through him. So his preaching is not just empty words. It's accompanied by the power of God. Chapter 2, verse 3 says that this Christ-centered message is adequate, since in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. You don't need to go anywhere else. So all of these references to the supremacy of Christ in Paul's preaching really should impact our preaching today. Modern preaching scandalously truncates the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, in the next section, chapter two, verse four, through verse 23, Paul outlines what disastrous things can happen when theology is not Christ-centered and when Christ does not have supremacy in our theology. And again, I won't have time to delve into every issue that he argues against, but let me point out just a few key issues. First, verses four through seven show that if we're not rooted and grounded and abounding in the resources that Christ has given to us, we're gonna be easily, so easily deceived by nice sounding arguments of persuasive men. So he's basically saying in there, if you have not experienced in a real tangible way the real thing, you won't be able to recognize and reject the counterfeit. Second, verses 8-10 say that if you don't see yourself as a complete in Jesus who is the head over everything, and if you don't get your presuppositions from Jesus, well you can unwittingly adopt, quote, the basic principles of the world. Now that phrase, basic principles, is a translation of the Greek word stoicheia, which is the word for axioms or presuppositions. So he's saying, if you do not get your presuppositions from Christ, you're automatically going to begin to be subject to the presuppositions of the world. And if you are immersing your kids In government education, they're going to be imbibing all kinds of presuppositions, and it's going to be extremely difficult for them to not be deceived by the world's worldview. Extremely difficult. Let me read verses 8 through 10. 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." Now, there are huge implications for education, for apologetics, hermeneutics, science, philosophy, you name it. God wants us to derive our presuppositions or axioms from Christ, from the Bible. And if we do not, he says, we're going to so easily be cheated by philosophy, empty deceits, traditions of men, and the wisdom of the world. So every presupposition we hold must come from Christ. Really, this whole section is presuppositionalism on steroids. If you want to study that doctrine, read this chapter. It's amazing. Third, verses 11 through 15 show us that if you don't see your baptism in the Spirit as being a definitive break with Adam and with the old creation, you're not going to see or recognize that you have power, you've got authority over demons. And it makes sense. Why would you have authority? Unless you have tasted the powers of the age to come, you're not going to have the power over the demonic. But when you see step by step that Christ's resurrection, ascension, and session to the right hand of the God ushers us into resurrection power, ascension victory, and kingly authority over the demonic, then it's not about us. Demons have no option but to flee from Christ in us. In ourselves, we're no match for demons, but resourced with the Christ-centered resources of the new creation, demons are no match for us. We need not fear them. And again, it all flows from being Christ-centered. Fourth, verses 16 through 23 deal with legalism of some unknown Jewish group. There's actually four or five theories out there. One theory says, boy, this is weird. They don't know how to reconcile it. Obviously, there's Jewish stuff going on. So maybe there were Pharisees. Maybe there were Greek philosophers there. I don't think that's the case. But there's another theory that says that these teachings, these doctrines, very much resemble the doctrines of the Essenes. Others say maybe it was the Ebionites. Well, we don't know a whole lot about what the Ebionites believed. But the last theory, and this is the one that I hold to, is that it was a Jewish pre-Gnostic group that would later produce the apocalyptic writings that they had dug up at the Nag Hammadi stash. And so I favor this. This past week, I was reading some of the Gnostic-like views that these Jewish mystical sects had, very, very similar to what's going on in this book, including worship of angels as intermediaries between Christ and us. Very, very bizarre. Now, the Judaizers had successfully gotten the Colossian Gentiles to get circumcised, to observe Jewish festivals, to study Jewish secret knowledge about heavenly places, to think of their ascetic practices as somehow gaining God's favor and status. And we don't have exactly those groups. But I find it fascinating that similar errors have arisen in our own generation. And I'm just going to give you four quite different examples so that you can see that even this, the weirdest section in Colossians, applies right now very much, right here in Omaha. First, and you might be surprised by this one, all forms of Messianic Judaism violate at least some tenets of Colossians chapter 2. Now some of the messianic congregations are fairly orthodox. I'm not going to paint all of them with a broad brush, but even the best of the messianic congregations violate at least some principles here. For example, the only errors that the better, the best of those messianic congregations have are they refuse to treat Sunday as a Sabbath. They eat only kosher food, and they believe that failure to do so is sin. Third, they celebrate all the feast days. Fourth, some of them optionally encourage Gentiles to become Jews by getting circumcised, going through an unbiblical ceremony. Now, the better ones don't mandate it, but they do encourage it. But Colossians, I would say, speaks even against this milder sort of Jewish messianic Christianity. But there are some forms of Messianic Judaism that you need to be aware of that are right here in Omaha called the Hebrew Roots Movement. They embrace the very Phariseeism that Jesus opposed with all of his heart. Their rhetoric may sound fine. For example, you'll hear this if you talk with them. I know a lot of these people. They'll say, hey, Jesus was a Jew, and if we want to imitate Jesus, which we're commanded to do, We need to imitate Jesus in his Jewish customs, which means you're going to be doing exactly like we do. Now, the logic sounds fairly fine. If you're imitating Jesus, you're going to follow his customs. But rather than looking to the Bible for those Jewish customs, they're looking to the demonic Talmud for those customs. And I'm sorry, but Jesus did not wear a Jewish yarmulk in worship. And I can prove it beyond any shadow of a doubt. He did not wear a kippah, a kashketh, a tzitzit, or any other kind of modern Jewish garb. Those are all things that came into existence in the Middle Ages. They have nothing to do with biblical garb. At least some Messianic congregations absolutely require that Gentiles get circumcised. And you might wonder, well, as an option I could see it, but how could they require that you get circumcised? Well, there's a couple arguments that they give. There's some more radical groups that just throw out Paul's epistles, but most of them don't. Most of them simply say that Paul was opposing circumcision in order to get saved. Sure, sure, we're opposed to getting circumcised in order to get saved. But once you are saved, in order to be a member of the church, you have to get circumcised. And they have other arguments. For example, many of these messianic Jewish congregations believe it's a sin not to keep all of the Jewish festivals. And since you can't keep Passover without getting circumcised, according to Exodus 12, that's pretty clear, right? Gentiles are excluded from their communion until they're willing to get circumcised. Now, they ignore the fact that their Passover celebrations look nothing like the biblical Passover celebration. I mean, where in the Bible can you find a roasted egg at the Passover? You can't. Where in the Bible can you find the hidden piece of matzo bread called afikomen? You can't. Or the bowl of salt water representing the tears of the Jews in Egypt, or the extra seat for Elijah. I mean, these are all traditions that came during the Middle Ages. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the Bible. They are added to the law, and yet they say, no, this is the law of God. You need to submit to it. How do they interpret verse 16? Verse 16 says, let no one judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths. Well, they turn it around, they say, oh, Paul means don't let anybody judge us for keeping these festivals. That's what Paul is saying. He's enforcing the festivals. Don't let anybody say otherwise. That's the way that they turn it around. Many of these messianic congregations have bought into kabbalistic mysticism. which has the Bible mixed with occult, so you've got some of the doctrines of demons in these churches. Many of them have been immersed in Kabbalistic Jewish numerology. Some, like Sid Roth, have introduced Jewish occult practices, such as reverencing the star of Ramphan. At least some have introduced a whole host of Talmudic requirements and traditions. A huge number of these congregations have been raising money and working together with a group of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, raising money to build a new temple in Jerusalem so that 100% of the Old Testament ceremonial laws can be kept. They're hoping to resurrect the sacrifice of animals in a temple in Jerusalem. I mean, this is just blasphemy. It's heresy. Colossians would say that such evangelical groups have failed to understand the new creation that Jesus is making, or the finished work of redemption. Verse 17 says that those ceremonies, those ceremonial ceremonies, were the shadow that was being cast by Christ the substance. If you're still preoccupied with the shadow, you don't have the Messiah. You've rejected the Messiah. Verse 14 is even clearer, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. The ceremonial law was wiped out. Contrary to verse 3, they're going outside of Christ's revelation to find wisdom and knowledge. Contrary to verse 8, they're picking up traditions of men and presuppositions that do not come from the Bible at all. We cannot go back to the ceremonial law without making a mockery of what Christ has done. We can for sure not go to the man-made traditions of the Pharisees, the Christ-hating Pharisees, without incurring the wrath and the woes of Christ in Matthew. So there is a direct application of almost every word of this chapter to the modern Messianic Judaism, especially the more radical forms of the Hebrew roots movement. Now the second and third examples I'm going to give flow from a faulty hermeneutics that is not 100% rooted in Christ's scriptures. A lot of evangelicals have started interpreting the Bible through the lens of the first century culture rather than interpreting first century culture through the lens of the Bible. Paul was not embracing the culture. He was rebuking the culture. And yet these people say, you can't understand Paul. Actually, they say, you can't understand any of the scripture unless you read it through the lens of apocalyptic literature, which I will remind you is Gnostic through and through. So this is their hermeneutical key. This is their interpretive key for understanding the Bible. You go to these unbelieving Gnostic Jewish literatures. And a lot of full preterists, by the way, have fallen into this camp. But it's not just full preterists. There are other even Reformed people that some of you guys read, some of you know, that you just need to be aware of. They're using extra-biblical hermeneutics. It's not hermeneutics coming from the Bible. Now, this comes out in many evangelical interpretations of Genesis 1. Using hermeneutical principles of those Gnostics and their key to interpretation, Modern teachers have been saying, hey, Genesis 1 is apocalyptic literature. And the only way you're going to be able to understand what Genesis 1 means is if you immerse yourself in the Gnostic, well, they don't call it Gnostic because that would clue people in, but in this Jewish apocalyptic literature. This is apocalyptic literature. Now let's go to the rules of interpreting apocalyptic literature. And what's the conclusion they come to? Well, if you really understand it, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the creation of the world in six days. That's just apocalyptic language to say God set up the Mosaic economy. all the ceremonial law, and then in 1 Peter, some of these people will say he does away with that when the world is dissolved. So anyway, it really is bizarre. In verses 2 and following, Paul insists that the Colossians do not need anything other than the wisdom of Christ provided in the Bible to have a faithful worldview. He explicitly says that Christ has all wisdom and knowledge and we don't need to go anywhere else for it. That's verse three. He explicitly says in verse eight, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men, according to the presupposition 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." Get that? You are complete in him. Okay, enough said on that. But some of you are reading some of this literature. I want to be as clear as I can. My third example is also related to the second issue of hermeneutics. Paul warns Colossians in verses 16 through 19 not to let people cheat them through a number of doctrines, including the doctrine of angels. We call that angelology, the doctrine of angels. The Colossians were getting their ideas about angels from extra biblical sources, specifically the Jewish Gnostic apocalyptic writings. Now strangely, today you've got evangelicals who are getting their doctrine of angels from exactly the same Gnostic Jewish literature. For example, I own some books, evangelical books, claim to be this is the biblical doctrine of angels and demons. And they come up with hundreds of names for these angels and demons. They're not in the Bible. Where do they get these names from? Well, it's a mix of Bible, the writings of Jewish Kabbalah writers, the Talmud, apocalyptic writings, and the purported visions and meetings that charismatic, respected leaders have had with an angel. So here's what happens. There's some angel visitation, supposedly, to a charismatic leader. The angel tells him what his name is. Wow, the name lines up with what's in the apocalyptic literature of these Jews. Ergo, they begin going to these Jewish literature and say, well, the rest of the names must be true as well. That's the kind of thing that is going on. We have to always be on guard for what cannot be backed up by the Bible. Let me pick on movies. Some of you watch Bible movies. I've quit watching Bible movies because they introduce so many false things that you begin to wonder in your head, now was that in the Bible, was that in the movie? And it can really be a subtle way of changing the story, the storyline of the scripture. Okay, the fourth example is asceticism and harsh treatment of the body. Paul addresses that in verses 20 through 23. You know, there were a lot of church fathers that felt guilt over enjoying food, sleep, or sex. But asceticism is not just an ancient phenomenon. Undue fasting, Undue forcing of our bodies to sleep less, you know, three to four hours max a night, and other ascetic practices are very, very common in our circles. I know some theologians, I won't name their names, you can talk to me about it privately, but They will say, you're actually in sin if you sleep more than four to five hours a night. I'm thinking, where do you get that from? Well, that's what they do. They keep their bodies down to that level. I actually was sucked into this ascetic lifestyle when I was in college. fasting for three to four weeks at a time, then I would eat meagerly for a month, then I would fast for a long time again, and then eat meagerly, because I thought this was a demonstration of holiness. And it was really hard on my body. I tried very hard. I was sleeping four hours a night, trying to get it down to three hours a night, because What a waste of time. What ungodliness to sleep for eight hours. That's awful. So OK. But I never was able to get below four hours a night. But this was ruining my body. And Paul would say I was sinning against my body. There are other ascetic things that I entered into. Now, here's the point. You guys probably are not tempted to be ascetic like that, at least in principle, right? But your dieting might subtly edge over into that, especially if you're feeling guilt over enjoying food. I want you to notice that all such things are useless, according to Paul. Verse 21 asks why they were following the regulations of do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. Verse 23 says, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom and self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. You get that? They are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. They were hurting and putting to death the wrong thing. They were treating their bodies as the enemy. You know, stapling your stomach is not going to be a solution to gluttony, according to Paul here. It might help in other health ways, but the real enemy to the sin, if there's a sin involved, is not material things. The real enemy here is called the flesh, which is the old sin nature. And Paul's solution for ethics is to be 100% Christ-centered. And we'll try to fly through the rest of the book here. This is chapters 3 through 4. The foundation for Christ-centered living is given in chapter 3, verses 1 through 17. I'll just read the first four verses here. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Now, this has been so grossly misinterpreted by a lot of people. Jesus is not telling us to be so heavenly-minded that we are of no earthly good. Quite the opposite. He said, if you're seeking Christ in the way that I'm telling you to seek Christ, It will transform your personal walk, that's verses 5 through 17. It will transform your home, verses 18 through 21. Your workplace, verse 22 through chapter 4, verse 1. Your prayer life, chapter 4, verses 2 through 3. Your time management, verse 5. Your communication, verse 6. In other words, this is a practical, life-transforming thing He's calling us to do in verses 1 through 4. Christ is our life. Everything must come from Him. So basically, we're saying, Paul is saying, pray, Thy kingdom come to earth. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, invade my life. I'm seeking from you everything I need to live as a husband ought to live, to live as a wife or as a child ought to live." That's what he's telling us to do. Now, I'm not going to take the time to exegete all of these passages, but very briefly, Chapter 3 verses 1 through 4, the verses I just read, show that Christ is the source of our life. We must pray for all of our resources from him. Verses 5 through 9 show that our union with Christ demands that we put off our old identity with Adam. If we're in the new covenant, if we're in the new creation, then we need to put off all of the things that Adam and the old creation ruined. Verses 10 through 17 deals with how to put on our new identity with Christ. Very literally, if you need tender mercies because you are so tempted to yank the head off of that person that's talking to you, you're just so frustrated with them, you want tender mercies, where do you go? You go to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, Lord, I have failed over and over with this person. Please give me your tender mercies. If you need loving kindness, Christ overflows in loving kindness to those who seek it from Him. So all of these graces flow from Christ in verses 1 through 4. Now in the rest of verse 12, Paul says we're to look for Christ for what? Humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these, put on love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So it sounds very similar to Ephesians, doesn't it? And similar to some things in Philippians. He's basically saying Christ is our bank account, and you're already resourced with everything you need to live down here on earth, but you need to be writing checks on your spiritual bank account and signing them in Jesus' name, not in your own name. Now, if you meditate deeply on those verses, you will see your personal sanctification is not toughing it out, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. It is seeking our new life in heaven from Christ, and by faith, putting on Christ's graces moment by moment. We can't be sanctified without Jesus, because Jesus said, without Him, you can do nothing. This Christ-centered life should impact the way we live at home. Verse 18. Wives, submit to your own husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. How do we do those things? Only in Christ, as is fitting in the Lord. If we're united to Christ, verses 22 and following say it should affect how we treat our employees and how we treat our employers. A bond slave might be doing only menial tasks, but verses 23 through 24 say, hey, if you're doing it in a Christ-centered way, Christ receives your menial tasks, cleaning the latrine, whatever it may be, as a loving service to Him. Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ." So a janitor serves the Lord just as much as I serve the Lord. That's basically what he's saying. I remember working as a janitor up in a hospital up in Canada one time, and there were certain, I was extremely busy. I mean, you had to fly to go through this, and it was, there were certain rooms that you knew had not been touched during the day. They were clean, but my contract called me to mop the floors with my sterilizing solution and move all of the furniture every day, and my fellow employees said, Phil, don't do those rooms. They're clean. You just mopped them yesterday, they're clean. But because I was doing this as unto the Lord, I felt, no, I'm going to do it because I'm pleasing the Lord. I'm serving Him ultimately. So I would be sweeping along, move a trash can, huh, there's a piece of paper under there. Moving under other furniture, huh, another piece of paper. Come to find out, my boss later told me she was the one who put all of those pieces of paper there to test me, and because I had passed the test, she promoted me. But here's the thing, that reward came because I was serving the Lord Christ, but even if your boss doesn't notice, you can find great satisfaction in knowing God does, and He's going to bless you. He will prosper you. So I think you get the point. I'll just skim through the rest of the outline. It shows how to be Christ-centered in our prayer, our witness, our time management, and our speech. Chapter 4, verses 10 through 17, Paul closes out the letter with very warm greetings and interactions with individual people. I think even this conclusion has a lot of lessons that we can learn on how we should interact with each other. It has some beautiful lessons. But let me end this sermon by repeating my summary statement. no part of human existence should remain untouched by the gospel reign of Jesus. May our lives become more and more Christ-centered. Amen. Father, I thank you for this letter. Difficult as this letter sometimes is to understand, I thank you for the foundations that it gives to us in life. And I pray that it would have an influence all over the church of this world, that you would cause Christians to recognize the supremacy of Christ in absolutely everything that they do. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.