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read some meditation that A.W. Tozer had written on John 3.16
and he ended his meditation or one of the sections of his meditation
by saying that Jesus Christ is the one who knows you the best.
Jesus Christ knows the very worst about you, and yet Jesus Christ
is the one who loves you the best. Somehow that really encouraged
me this morning, and that's why we gather here this morning,
because our Lord knew us in the midst of our sin, even as John
tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I guess that's Paul. But while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. and we gather this morning to
rejoice in that glorious fact. So this morning we're going to
be continuing in Colossians, but before we start let's go
to the Lord in prayer. Father it is with great wonder
and awe that we Consider the fact that you have forgiven us
and restored us and given us a place in your kingdom and before
your throne. Not even merely as slaves, but
as friends and as sons. Father, that is glorious beyond
imagination. And it is even more glorious
when we look at the price at which you paid to make that happen,
that you were willing to give up even your own son. You were
willing to let him become a curse, to become your enemy, to bear
the full weight of our sins, so that we could be reconciled
with you. Father, there aren't words for
us to describe how great that is. But Father, we rejoice in
that and we give you the glory. You are a great God. You are full of love and compassion
and mercy and grace. Father, you are also full of
judgment and wrath. You will not allow your law to
go unnoticed and broken. And so Father, we rejoice in
all that you are. And Fathers, we come to your
word this morning. We want to have a deeper taste, a greater
appreciation for all that you have done for us. So Fathers,
we turn to look at your word. I pray that you would open our
eyes to help us to see Christ more, that we would rejoice more
in all that he has done for us, that we would love him more because
of what he has done. And Father, I pray that the result
of our seeing and our loving would be a walk of obedience
before Christ, that He would be our Lord, not because we're
in bondage, but because we love, that we are not in drudgery,
but rejoicing to be His servants. So Father, we pray that Your
Spirit would be in our midst towards that end. Father, that
Your Spirit would enliven our hearts, that we would have a
joy in hearing Your Word this morning and enlighten our hearts.
Give us an understanding of Your Word as we study it together
this morning. Father, I pray that You would empower me through
Your Spirit, that it would be the work of Christ pouring through
me and not merely myself speaking these words. Through Your Spirit,
You would guard my words to make them things that are only true
and glorifying of Christ, and things that are helpful to build
up those who are here in the knowledge and delight of Christ. So Father, we rest this time
in your hands. I pray that our meditation will be an act of
worship this morning. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So this morning we're starting
our second section of Colossians. We're going to be looking at
Colossians 2 verses 8 through 16. But before I start, I want
to go back and remember what Colossians is about and how Colossians
is organized. So we have quite a few visitors
here this week, so this will be the quick run up to where
we've been and for the rest of you, a good review. We'll start
with our purpose statement for Colossians. I kind of wrote out
a brief statement about where we're going to be heading in
Colossians. So, Colossians calls us to see how truly glorious
Jesus is, and to root all of our hope in Him, knowing that
He is true wisdom to meet our every need. This will prevent
us from instead pursuing the hopes and the purposes of this
world and being captured by worldly wisdom. And so we've already
finished the first part which was really trying to show us
how truly glorious Jesus is and to encourage us to root all of
our hope and trust in him. And now we're going to be moving
into the second section which deals with the second half of
that that will turn us away from the hopes and purposes of this
world being captured by worldly wisdom. So, also a review. We've
organized Colossians into four parts. The first part, which
was approximately Chapter 1, was rooted in the Gospel. That's
what we finished last week. Where we're going to start this
week is refusing worldly wisdom, which is approximately Chapter
2. Then in chapter 3 we're going
to see that we need to be renewed in Christ. And then in chapter
4 we'll see that this is relational truth as Paul speaks to multiple
individuals in the church in Colossae. And so, last week we
finished the first section of Colossians, and that contained
the foundational truths that make up this book. The Colossians
are complete in Christ, and the Colossians must be rooted in
Christ. So in the first verses we saw
Paul's prayer. Paul reminded them that their
hope was in the Gospel, and he wants them to continue placing
all of their hope in the Gospel. In the next verses, we saw Paul's
song. Not only is he rooted in the gospel, he is rooted in glory. He sings about the glories of
Christ, who he is and what he has done for us. And then he
calls the Colossians, continue finding your hope here. Be stable
and steadfast, not shifting from this hope. And then last week
we saw Paul's purpose, and that was to see everyone rooted in
Christ. Paul serves the Gospel to see
everyone mature in Christ, to see Christ built up in them,
the hope of glory. And so Paul commands them, be
rooted in Christ. Continue where you had started.
Keep your life in the Gospel. So as we continue on this morning,
we're going to start the second section of Colossians, which
was refusing worldly wisdom. So having called the Colossians
to see that everything they could ever possibly need is in Christ,
and then he commands them to place all their hope in Christ,
now Paul is going to warn the Colossians. He's going to share
his concerns about the church with them. And Paul has some
concerns. He's seeing some dangers that Epaphras has communicated
back to them. And Paul's concern is that they
have forgotten that they are complete in Christ. Because of
that, they're ready to turn and pursue other things in addition
to Christ. They're going to start adding
on things on the side. Now, it doesn't appear that the
Colossians are denying any core truths about Christ. They aren't changing the message
about Christ. It doesn't have the same tone
as perhaps Galatians or even parts of Philippians does, where
Paul reacts very harshly to a false gospel. But it does appear that
they're just adding things on. They're adding things in that
were in addition to Christ. They're embracing the wisdoms
of this world to bring them to completion, as though the wisdom
of this world could add something to them. And so Paul warns them
against this. They're complete in Christ. Pursuing
other things is to pursue nothing, to pursue emptiness. It's worthless
and vain. And so in this section, we'll
see several things. First, Paul's going to give a
warning to the Colossians. He's going to give them a reason
to heed the warning. He's going to give them some
practical examples of how to apply this warning in their lives,
and then he's going to give them a theological foundation. Why
and how do we live these things out in light of Christ? And so
this week we're going to look at Paul's warning, and he's going
to argue with them. Do you want captivity or Christ? That'll be the verses we're looking
at this morning, 2.8-15. Then next week we're going to look
at Paul's example, the examples of how to apply this warning,
the root and the fruit of your activities. That'll be Colossians
2, 6 through 19. And then when we return to Colossians
in April, we'll look at Paul's theology. Are you dead or are
you alive? That'll be the end of Colossians
2 and into Colossians 3. So let's read Colossians 2. We'll
do 2, 8 through 15 this morning. Again, you can follow along in
your Bibles or I have the text up here on the screen. So, Colossians
2 verse 8. See to it that no one takes you
captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of this world and not according
to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and
authority. And Him also you are circumcised
with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body
of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried
with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him
through faith in the powerful working of God. And you who are
dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our
trespasses by cancelling the record of death that stood against
us. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed
the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, having
triumphed over them in him." So as we look at this passage
this morning, our proposition, our main point is going to be
that the world is trying to capture you, but you've already been
captured by Christ. The world's trying to capture
you, but you've already been captured by Christ. And then
I played around with this sermon a lot. This sermon was going
to cover more verses. Then I decided I was covering
too much, so it was going to cover less. It's going to be a little
bit shorter sermon this morning. Some of you might rejoice in
that. But we'll do two points this morning. The first, we'll
look at the first half, a sober exhortation. The world is trying
to capture you. And we'll look at verse 8. And
then we'll look at a glorious motivation. But Christ has already
captured you in Colossians 2, 9 through 15. So let's look at
the first point. A sober exhortation. And so the
main warning of Colossians takes only one verse in chapter 2.
He says this plainly. See to it that no one takes you
captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of this world, and not according
to Christ. It's a short command, but this
is what Paul is really concerned about. This is why he's writing
this letter to the church. He's saying, this is a danger
that is about to happen to you. He's worried the Colossians have
been captured by other ideas, that they've been made to serve
other masters. And Paul doesn't want to see
his brothers and sisters in Christ carried off as slaves. So after
building a foundation of their hope in Christ, a foundation
that he wants them to run back to, a foundation to run to for
safety, he then brings his solemn warning. Don't be captured. Don't be captured. And as we
look at this warning, I want to consider three things about
the command here in verse 8. We're going to kind of tear this
apart a little bit. Three things. First, we'll look
at vigilance. We'll look at consequence. And we'll look at discrimination.
So we'll start with vigilance. Paul's warning is a call for
us to be vigilant. So Paul starts with the words,
see to it. See to it. We might translate
this, watch out, or beware, or take heed, or maybe more in the
vernacular, heads up. Something's coming at you. The
warning here isn't a call to passivity. Paul wants us to take
action on this warning, to listen to this warning, and then actively
watch out for these things. He's saying, this is an active
danger going on right now. So the wrong way to walk out
of church this morning is to file this warning away in the
back of your mind to be thought about later, maybe not to be
thought about at all. Paul sees a clear and a present
danger, and he wants us to watch out. He says, look out, something's
coming. It's almost like if any of you
play golf, a golfer yelling four on the golf course. You'd expect
everyone to kind of look around and make sure they weren't about
to get beamed in the back of the head by a ball or a sailor. This
is something I'm a little more familiar with, a sailor calling
jibing as they're crossing through the wind. It'd only be the foolish
sailor who heard the call jibing and didn't watch out for the
boom because they're going to end up with a headache and more
than likely in the water. And so, as we listen to Paul's
warning this morning, we really need to be prepared to measure
our lives against this warning. This is something that Paul wants
us to take an active step in looking into. We should go home
this afternoon and through this week and make a concerted and
honest effort to determine if we've allowed philosophy and
empty deceit a place in our lives. Now, we'll talk about how we
do that more in a few minutes. We haven't described what that
means yet. But let's start with determining to do that. We determine
to put effort in. We're going to see to it as we
go on. We need to go and take areas
of our lives, especially major things that guide our thoughts
and our day-to-day actions, things that others might say guide our
life, and really evaluate them against Paul's warning. We need
to take our life and set it next to Paul's warning and say, Am
I in danger of these things Paul's talking about? Is this thing
that's directing my life, is this thing that's fueling my
passion, that's consuming my thoughts, is it rooted in Christ
or is it rooted in something else? And this requires a passionate
desire to hear and obey. And it also requires what I'd
call some brutal honesty. We need to be able to look at
our lives and be honest with ourselves. Can we look and be
honest about what we find in our lives? Are we willing to
see what is there and make the changes that are necessary? Or
will we look at our lives with blinders and find everything
is well? Paul says, no. Be vigilant. See to it. Don't hear and ignore this warning.
Hear and take action. So first, Paul's warning is a
call for us to be vigilant. But then next we will consider
the consequence. Paul's warning is earnest because
there's a real danger involved. And so Paul continues. He says,
see to it that no one takes you captive. There's an enemy out
there that's trying to capture you. There's an enemy army coming
after you. And so perhaps the best illustration
isn't the golf course or the sailing ship. The best illustration
perhaps is the battlefield, that there's an army lined up and
the commander's yelling, watch out, they're coming. You'd expect
them all to get ready right then. The one who didn't get ready
for the enemy to show up is a foolish soldier. He's calling out to
his troops, watch out. Paul's literally saying that
philosophy and empty deceit can capture your souls. The word
here in Greek means that you've been plundered, you've been carried
off as spoil. that you're about to be carried
off into the world. If you allow these things free
reign in your life, you're going to look up one day and find that
you're no longer of Christ because you've been captured by something
else and been carried off. And we shouldn't dismiss this
warning as something that could never happen to us. It's easy
to hear these things and say, whoa, Paul's talking about those
who are about to be carried off from Christ, think, that's not
going to apply to me. I'm a Christian. I'm not going
to have that happen to me. But remember, Paul is writing
to those whom he's rejoiced to see the firmness of their faith.
That's actually the last thing he said. I rejoice to see the
firmness of your faith. He has thanked God that the gospel
came to them. He thanked God that the gospel
bore fruit in them. He saw their faith in the love
that they had for all the saints. He's writing to those who in
every respect look like believers, who are believers, who found
hope in Christ. And Paul is saying to those believers,
watch out. If you allow worldly wisdom a
place in your life, it will overwhelm you and carry you off. You'll
be captured. You'll be in bondage to this
world. And so this calls us to really
consider what things are ruling our lives. What things are directing
us? Have we been captured by something? If Paul is writing to those who
knew and obeyed the gospel but are still in danger of being
captured, we have to consider whether we've been captured by
a worldly pattern, a worldly guide. Are there things that
rule over me? Ideas and principles that demand
my allegiance? Are there things in this world
that I cannot do, rules that I cannot be free from? Now, all
those questions that I just asked, yes answers aren't necessarily
a problem. In fact, as I ask those questions, are there things
that rule over me, ideas and principles that demand my allegiance?
You better answer yes to those. We must answer yes because Christ
ought to rule over us. Our Lord does demand our allegiance.
We are duty-bound and love-bound to obey his command. But the
danger comes when those things that rule our life aren't vitally
connected to Christ. Although we're starting to tread
into our next point. How do we tell the difference between these
things? But we really ought to consider and identify what things
are ruling over me. What rules lead my life? What
organizes my life and demands my obedience? Have I been captured
by anything? And if so, what? What have I
been captured by? There's a real danger involved
here. And then third, we'll see discrimination. Discrimination. If Paul is warning us of a real
and present danger, We need to figure out what it is. And that
really is the question. That's the question of the whole
book of Colossians. And it's somewhat of a hard question because
Colossians isn't so clear about it. How do we tell if we're in
danger of being captured by something? So first we need to say this
is an infinitely important question. If there's a danger that might
capture us, we need to identify what it is. But also this is
a challenging question. With the vagueness of Colossians,
the amount of thinking that we're going to need to put into this
question, there's a chance that a spirit of judgment or licentiousness
can creep in as we try to answer this question. We can be too
harsh with others and say, you've been captured. Because we like
to be harsh with others or we can be too easy with ourselves.
There's no way I've been captured by worldly philosophy. And so
we need to answer this question carefully and correctly. We need to answer it with honesty
and with love. And so how do we tell the difference
between good things, things that are pulling us towards Christ,
and things that might capture us? What's the way that we're
going to discriminate between these two things? This morning
I'm going to try to answer that question by looking at what Paul
describes the danger as, and what Paul describes the danger
as opposite to. So we'll look at a positive and
then the opposite of the danger. So let's start with, first, how
does Paul describe the danger? So Paul uses four phrases to
describe the danger to the Colossians. He says, see to it that no one
takes you captive by philosophy and impetus seat. according to
human traditions, according to the elemental spirits of the
world. So philosophy is a Greek term. It literally means love of wisdom.
And it refers to sets of carefully
crafted arguments. The Greeks were well known for
this. They had long philosophical systems. They had lots of great
arguments about why this was true or why that was true. Not
necessarily grounded in any sort of reality, but they loved the
argument of it. And so it's a Greek term out
of that. And Paul's saying, don't get
captured by the arguments of this world. The world will carefully
craft arguments to entice you and entrap you. Plausible arguments,
like we talked about last week. Plausible arguments that you
might at first want to listen to. But don't imbibe every argument. When you hear a reason that you
should do something, instead when you hear a carefully crafted
argument, dissect it. Determine its motivation and
its intent, its source and its purpose. And then determine whether
you should listen to it or reject it. We need to pay attention.
There are really good arguments that still have no grounding
in any sort of truth. Paul wants us to be mature enough
in Christ that we will, as he says in Ephesians 4.14, we will
no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown
here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning
and craftiness of men and their deceitful scheming. There will
be deceitful schemes. Men will come up with cunning
arguments. And we need to say, just a second, I don't need to
obey every argument I hear. I need to think about the basis
of this argument. What are these people really
calling to? And so philosophy doesn't really describe what
the danger is, but how the danger comes. The danger is in the cunning
arguments of the world that will sway and capture us if we aren't
firm in our faith in Christ. So that's the first description.
We can be captured by philosophy, these carefully crafted arguments.
But then next Paul calls the danger empty deceit. Empty deceit. I think this is the flip side
of the description philosophy. These things may be carefully
crafted arguments and at surface level they may appear to have
sound wisdom embedded in them. And that's part of the problem.
They might appear to be sound wisdom. They may be alluring
and enticing. They might even sound godly. But at their heart they're full
of emptiness and deceit. And because the arguments are
empty and deceptive at their core, they're actually calling
us to embrace emptiness. To embrace that which is opposite
of the fullness of Christ. Opposite to the goodness of God.
They entice us to trade the fullness of God for a lie of this world. And they deceive us so that we
can't even see that the trade's been made. We think that we're
grasping on to something good, but there's nothing there and
we can't see it. We're blinded to the emptiness
that we just embraced. And so it's philosophy, but also
empty deceit. You're going to be captured,
you can be captured by that sort of thing. But then third, Paul
says the danger is according to human tradition. It's philosophy
and empty deceit that are according to human tradition. So every
argument has to be rooted somewhere. And Paul says that the arguments
that are endangering the Colossians church are rooted in human traditions. We might say in cultural customs,
in age-old practices. The lives of this world are often
based in culture and tradition instead of being grounded in
Christ. And so we need to consider, is this argument, is this thing
that I'm following, this passion that I'm pursuing, is that something
that belongs to my culture, to the traditions that I grew up
with, or is that part of Christ? And is what I'm doing just the
way things have always been done, or are they explicitly and clearly
rooted in Christ? And then fourth, Paul says that the danger is according
to the elemental spirits of this world. And so one root was human
tradition. The way things have always been
done, there's safety in age-old traditions. But another root
for the argument is elemental principles of this world, the
way the world is organized, the way that the world is motivated
and directed. Now there's some disagreement
on exactly what this phrase means, and you might see it if you're
looking in different translations. We'll call this the elements
of the world. Some will call this the elementary principles
of this world. The ESV, which I'm using, calls
it the elementary spirits of the world. There's disagreement
on whether Paul is simply referring to the order of things in this
world, the way the world orders itself, or to the demonic spirits
that are behind the order of this world. But I don't think
it matters too much right now which Paul's talking about. It
doesn't make much difference to how we apply this passage,
whether Paul's talking about the way the world is ordered
or the spirits that are behind the way the world is ordered.
Paul's saying that that's what motivates these sorts of arguments. The things that motivate the
world are opposite the things that ought to motivate a Christian,
because the world isn't motivated by Christ at all. It's motivated
by other loves and other joys. And the arguments of this world
will always be motivated by worldly motivations. Perhaps even behind
that to have demonic forces pushing these things into this world.
And so we need to consider what motivates this argument. What's
its driving force and its purpose? Is it Christ? Or is it something
else? So these things are philosophy.
They're carefully crafted arguments that are nonetheless empty deceit.
They're based on the way things have always been done in history
and they're based on the elemental traditions, the principles of
this world, the way the world orders itself. And so we get
a little bit of an idea of what Paul's talking about by looking
at the positive description of these things. But I think we
only get so far that way. I think there's still maybe perhaps
a lot of areas where we wouldn't understand exactly what Paul
is aiming at. And I think we get a lot more
understanding from looking at what is opposite of this danger. And so Paul says that they're
according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits
of this world, but they're not according to Christ. And I think
that's the most important phrase in this command. Do not get captured
by things that are not according to Christ. Paul is saying they
will be carefully crafted arguments that are deceitful at the heart
anyway, that they'll be based on human tradition. They'll be
based on the way the world is organized. But the main thing
is they're not according to Christ. However we might describe the
dangers, at their core they aren't rooted in Christ. They aren't
driving their desires from Christ. These philosophies that may capture
us are careful sets of arguments that don't start with Christ.
Or more accurately, don't start with Christ as He's revealed
in Scripture. In fact, a lot of carefully crafted
arguments start with Christ. They just don't start with Christ
as He's revealed in the Word of God to us. And then because
they start there, they're plausible arguments, but they're twisted
and they become emptiness and nothingness by the end. And that's
a test that we can take to all parts of our lives. How is this
idea rooted in Christ? This argument that I'm listening
to and considering, how is it drawing me closer to Christ?
Or is it simply trying to make my life better? Is the pattern
or rule that I'm following, is that something that's necessary
for following Christ? Or is that something I'm just
doing for me to make myself better? Are these things really rooted
in Christ? Or are they rooted in something else? And that's
something that I can't look into all of your lives and tell. That's
something that you have to look at your own life in some brutal
honesty and say, Why am I doing these things? What's the motivation?
What's the driving force behind these things? Is it Christ or
something else? And so that's the ultimate test.
That's where Paul's driving at with this. How is this pursuit,
this passion, this driving force, this devotion, how is it rooted
in Christ? The philosophies of this world
will always be rooted in something else. Whether it's the customs
and the traditions of this world or the orders that the world
has developed for itself. But the wisdom of the church
must always be rooted in Christ. And so that's what we need to
determine. How is this rooted in Christ? Is it according to
Christ or am I listening to the world? That's the discrimination.
Is it according to Christ? Is it flowing out of Christ and
leading back to Christ? So kids, as always, I've got
some kids questions on the back of the bulletin. So for this
week, our first question is, what does Paul warn them against?
The answer's simple. He warns them against being captured
by worldly philosophies. Being captured by worldly philosophies. That brings us to our second
point, though. There's a sober exhortation, don't be captured,
but there's also a glorious motivation. And so the bulk of our text this
morning is intimately connected to the warning of verse eight,
but it isn't really part of the warning. He says, these things
are not according to Christ. And he says, for in Him, for
in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you
have been filled with Him who is the head of all rule and authority.
In Him also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ. having been buried with him in baptism, which were
also raised with him through faith in the powerful working
of God, who raised him from the dead. And you who were dead in
your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive
together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling
the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands.
This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the
rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing
over them in him. So that's the bulk of our passage
this morning. It's connected to the command.
See to it. But it's not really part of the
warning. Instead, it's more like motivation. Motivation on why
we should embrace Paul's warning. In fact, the first word of verse
nine could be translated because. It says, for in him. We could
say that these things are not according to Christ because in
him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily. So we're to see
to it that we're not captured by these things because all fullness
belongs to Christ. And as we read the rest of this
paragraph, I think we need to hear it as both a positive and
a negative motivation. Why would we do these things?
Because they're of Christ. And at first, it's a positive
motivation. We're supposed to look at all
that Christ has done for us, rejoice, and grasp onto that.
This is what Christ is. That should motivate us to run
after Christ. But then I think there's also
a negative motivation. Paul's saying, all fullness belongs
to Christ. Outside of Christ is nothing.
If you're not chasing after Christ, then you're chasing after nothing
and emptiness. And so Paul's going to uphold
how great Christ is and how much he has done for the Colossians.
I like how one commentary put it. It says, as we study these
three sections, which is something about this section in Colossians,
He says, we shall discover two themes which thread their way
through the whole paragraph. Sometimes interwoven, sometimes
separate. There are two things. First,
united with Christ, believers now share all that He has won.
United with Christ, believers share all that He has won. And
second, in Christ, believers now have all that can be theirs
in this world. So Paul wants them to see, you
share everything that Christ has done. Run after that. But at the same time, in Christ
you have everything you can have in this world. Why would you
run after something else? And so as we look at these next
seven verses, I want to see five glorious truths that Paul upholds
about the Colossians' life in Christ. How do you participate
in the glorious wisdom of Christ? So, it's going to be statements
about the Colossians and about us. First, we see that we are
completely filled in Christ. You are completely filled in
Christ. We'll look at verses 9 and 10. And so Paul enters verse 9 with
the because. Because in Him is all fullness. And the first thing he describes
is that all fullness belongs to Christ. For in Him the whole
fullness of deity dwells bodily. And so Paul is contrasting what
the world has to offer with what Christ has to offer. He starts
with the incarnation. Christ is God incarnate. Literally all that God possesses
dwells in Christ. And if Christ is God incarnate,
holy and completely God in human flesh, then what else could add
to Christ? There's nothing else that could
add to Christ. All the fullness of God dwells in Him. Everything
that could ever possibly be dwells in Him. And so what else could
add to Him? The answer is nothing. Nothing
could add to Christ. The emptiness of this world's
arguments is literally nothing compared to the fullness of Christ. The world may offer fullness,
but it's mere deception, empty deceit, nothingness. Christ is
infinitely full of deity. To Him belongs all things. All
fullness dwells in Christ. That's one gloriously practical
application of the Incarnation. Sometimes we wonder, why is the
Incarnation really important? There's lots of reasons, but
here's one. Because if Christ is God incarnate, God in human
flesh, then everything belongs to Him. Everything belongs to
Christ. Everything is in Christ. There
is nothing else. If you run after Christ, you're
running after everything. And so Paul follows up with verse
10, all fullness belongs to Christ. And then he says, you have been
filled with Christ. You have been filled with Christ.
The one who has all fullness in him. All the fullness of God
dwells in Christ. And you've been filled with him.
You've been filled with the one who has all fullness. So nothing
you could ever do could possibly add to that. No work you do,
no wisdom you possess, no pattern that you follow can add to what
is already in you. If Christ is in you, you have
everything. Nothing can add to that. So instead
of looking to the world to somehow add to you, you should turn and
embrace all that Christ is in you. To find fullness, don't
listen to the world. Dive deeper in knowing Christ
and understanding and communing with Christ. And as though we
needed to add to this glorious truth, Paul continues a little
bit and he says, Christ not only possesses all things, he rules
over all things. In him all the fullness of God
dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head
of all rule and authority. He rules over all things. So
Paul finishes verse 10 by saying, he's the head of everything.
Every rule and authority. Christ is ruler over all creation. And these words actually kind
of push us towards the spiritual side of creation. He says that
even the spiritual forces that govern this world are subservient
to Christ. He rules over all things and
He dwells in you. If He dwells in you, then no
authority can bind you. There is no authority that can
place any rule on you. You need not bow to any other
rule. If Christ dwells in you, then worldly wisdom can't bind
you. The powers of this world are powerless against you. If
you're completely filled in Christ, you don't need anything else.
Why would you need anything else? If you're completely filled in
Christ, isn't listening to the world foolishness? You're going
to slap in the face of your Redeemer. I got you. But now I'm gonna
go look for something else. You're completely filled in Christ,
you don't need anything else. But then Paul continues, you're
completely cleansed in Christ. And so we enter verses 11, 11 and 12, going backwards, there
we go. Verses 11 and 12, in him you were also circumcised with
the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body
of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. And so, Colossians
2, 11-12, he's talking about circumcision and baptism, something
that kind of comes out of Lafayette the first time he's talked about
that in this book. But as you read through the New Testament,
it quickly becomes clear that circumcision was an oft-debated
topic of the early church. Is circumcision necessary for
the believer? Does circumcision add anything
to the believer? And circumcision becomes kind
of a unique case. Kind of something that everyone
had to debate about a little bit and figure out the answer
to in the New Testament. Because it was a debate about
the nature of Judaism. How did the Old Testament laws
apply to the New Testament believer? What are the natures of the two
covenants? The covenant of Moses and the covenant of Christ. And so there's something unique
about that debate. But as Paul brings it in here,
on the other hand, I think it becomes the ultimate representative
case. Can anything beyond knowing Christ
through the Gospel add something to the believer? Can anything
besides Christ add to the believer? Does something as spiritual sounding
as circumcision add anything to the believer? If circumcision
can't add anything to the believer, then assuredly nothing can add
something to the believer. This is a very spiritual sounding
thing, but Paul is going to say it doesn't add anything to you
if you are in Christ. If that doesn't, then how could
anything else ever add to you? And so Paul's answer to circumcision
is that you've already had a better circumcision, a removal of dead
flesh, a better cleansing, because Christ has circumcised your old
dead self and removed it from you. What was a picture has become
reality in you. You've had something better.
You've been completely cleansed by the baptism of Christ. Your
old self was cut off, completely removed in the circumcision of
Christ. You are completely part of God's people because Christ
dwells in you. Nothing can make you more cleansed.
Nothing can make you more holy. Nothing can make you more a member
of God's people because you're already filled with Christ. If
you're completely cleansed in Christ, why would you accept
the world's demands on you? If your dead flesh was cut off
in Christ, why do you listen to the world tell you, you need
to be better, you need to do this, you need to do that? That's
just foolishness. So, you are completely filled
in Christ, you're completely cleansed in Christ. And then
Paul works off that image of baptism. He says, you've been
circumcised, having been buried with Him in baptism. And then
he says, working off that baptism, he says, you are completely alive
in Christ. Moving into verse 12 and 13,
having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also
raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God,
who raised Him from the dead. And so, as Paul discusses baptism
in cleansing, he says, your old self died in baptism in Christ. But the story doesn't stop there.
That's the glory of the gospel. The story doesn't stop there.
Not only did your old self die in Christ, the same power that
rose Jesus from the dead has called you back to life again. And this is all the more glorious
because in your sin, in separation from God, you were completely
dead. But in Christ, God spoke life back into us. God didn't
merely destroy our sins. He called us to share in His
life. To partake in His being. And all of this is realized as
Christ lives in us. We are alive because Christ lives
in me. In Christ, you are filled with
the divine life. Christ, the source and creator
of all life, dwells in you. In Him you are completely alive. You know the meaning of life
to its fullest. In Him you have life and you
have it abundantly. Paul says it this way in Galatians
2.20, I've been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Christ,
the author and perfecter of all life, is living in me. I'm dead,
but have within me all life. But if you're completely alive
in Christ, why would you return to this world to find life? When
you are part of this world and bonded to the elementary principles
or elementary spirits of this world, you are dead. And that's
all the world can offer you is death. And death can never bring
about life. For all the glamour and persuasiveness
of the world's arguments are nothing more than death. Because
they're not vitally connected to Christ. Anything that's not
vitally connected to Christ is death. If you're alive in Christ,
why be tempted by what the world has to offer you? If you were
dead but raised again in Christ, why would you look for more and
better life from the world? Again, it's foolishness. It would
be a rejection of Christ to turn and embrace the world. And then
fourth, we come to Colossians 2.13-14, we see that we're completely
forgiven in Christ. So as we enter verse 14, Paul
describes how those who are dead in trespasses had been made alive
in Christ. And so he said, and you who are
dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with him. How? Having forgiven us
all our trespasses. having forgiven us all our trespasses.
It's simple. Your trespasses were set aside. They were forgotten. They were
cancelled by the cross of Christ. We owed God fealty, worship,
obedience, and reverence. But instead we were rebels, refusing
his rule and scorning his glory. We had trespassed against our
God. and our king. And so we owed
a debt to God that could never be repaid, a record of debt that
stood against us, that would stand against us for all eternity,
condemning us to death and destruction and eternal separation from God.
It stood there as a bill of debt saying, he owes me, he will not
be freed until he pays me back. But, and this is the glorious
part of this paragraph, that record of death was set aside.
It was nailed to the cross of Christ. That record of death
needed to be cancelled somehow if we were ever to have life.
So it was nailed to the cross. There at the cross the debt was
paid for all of God's people. Forgiveness and reconciliation
was brought completely. There the record of debt was
set aside. Marked as paid. And not just
marked as paid and hidden away somewhere, but marked as paid
in view of the entire universe. The cross of Christ was where
that debt was nailed up and said, paid, crossed out. These don't
owe me anything anymore. No longer does any record stand
against the child of God. As Paul will say in Romans 8.1,
there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
The record of death was cancelled and was cancelled in view of
the universe at the cross of Christ. But if that's true, why
would you participate in the world's futile attempts to assage
and deny their guilt? If that's true, nothing else
can add to your forgiveness. You don't need to search anything
else. If that's true, no one has a record of debt that places
you in bondage. So you don't need to listen to
the world's arguments. In Christ you are completely
forgiven, washed, and set free. Which brings us to our last point.
You are completely victorious in Christ. Brings us to verse
15. It says, verse 15, he disarmed
the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing
over them in him. So verse 15 brings us back actually
to verse 8. The philosophies of this world
are according to the elemental spirits of this world. The principles
that this world operates under are founded on demonic wisdom
and powers. In 21st century America, that
might be something we don't think about very much. That there is
an enemy that opposes us. There are demonic forces in this
world. But Paul talks about that quite
often. He says, there are enemies everywhere. You have your enemy,
the devil. And then when he's talking about
other gods, he doesn't even say they don't exist. They aren't
the true God, the great God. They're demonic powers that enslave
people. And that's what this world operates
under. How much they want to reject that, they still operate
under the power of the elemental spirits of this world. The world
is bound to follow worldly philosophies. They are literally bound by them. They're captured by that philosophy
and that argument. They have to follow this fad
and that fad. They have to go from movement
to movement because the powers of darkness rule over them and
they have to follow those who lead them. But such powers have
no power over you anymore. Not because you've defeated them,
you have no power in their face, but because Christ has. At the
cross the record of dead was nailed up and marked cancelled,
but at the cross also Christ won a victory so complete and
so final that it not only defeated the rulers of this world, but
Paul says he paraded them around in open chain. It showed them
to be powerless in front of Him. Even in death, He destroyed them.
By dying, He destroyed them. And in His resurrection, He's
parading them around like a triumphant emperor parading his prisoners
around the Colosseum and through the Forum in Rome. And the one
who won that decisive and final victory, He is in you. Christ
is in you. The hope of glory. Literally,
the world and the powers thereof have been defeated, and you are
free. You are not in bondage to the things that the world
is in bondage to, that the world is bound to. So don't bow before
things that have been defeated so decisively, and finally, that
they've been held up to open shame. If you're free, why would
you return to bondage? If Christ is the victor, why
would you listen to your former captors? If you're free, the
wisdom of the world can make no demand on you. So if all this
is true of Christ, if all this is true of Christ and He's in
you, then the world has nothing to offer. Nothing outside of
Christ can add to you. The world is offering you bondage
and death and destruction. Christ is giving you freedom,
life, and everlasting treasure. If we can clearly see who Christ
is, and if we're truly communing with Christ, then the path lies
plain beneath our feet. We should be pursuing Christ,
not listening to the world. We should be knowing Christ more,
not searching for something else. We should be resting and reveling
in all that Christ is, not slapping the world's wisdom on our problems.
Christ has won the victory. Christ has set you free. And
Christ lives in you. What else do you need? And so
kids, here's your second question for the morning. Why should they
not be captured by the world? The answer is simple. Because
they've been freed by Christ. Because they've been freed by
Christ. And so as we finish, This is
Paul's main point. Don't get captured by the world
because you have so much more in Christ. Don't listen to the
arguments of this world. This world will argue all sorts
of things and they might sound enticing sometimes. But don't
listen to them because the one who has all wisdom dwells in
you. You need wisdom? Go to Him. Don't pursue the emptiness
of this world. The world will hold out its emptiness
like it's a great treasure. But don't pursue it because the
One who has all fullness dwells in you. Go to Him. Don't get
entangled in the traditions of this world because the One who
is risen from the dead in newness of life dwells in you. And don't
get entangled by the principles of this world because the One
who defeated them lives in you. The wealth that you have in Christ
is unfathomable, and there is no wealth that exists outside
of Christ. Trying to add to your life, to
supplement your faith with things other than Christ is a path to
nowhere. It's really a relinquishment of your treasure in Christ. To
no treasure go to Christ. Seeking anything else is letting
it pass through your hands. And so we go to our lives with
this question, is everything in my life according to Christ?
Not according to human tradition, not according to the elemental
spirits of this world, but according to Christ. Is this principle
that's guiding my life, helping me to rest in Christ? Or am I
reaching for something else? Is something else calling me
to hope in it? Are the regulations that I put
myself under helping me to enjoy Christ? Or am I just proving
myself? Is this passion that I'm pursuing
showing me that I have nothing in this world besides Christ?
Or is it distracting me from seeing Christ's glory? Is this
thing that's taking up my time, pushing me into Christ, pushing
me into the Word, and pushing me into prayer? Or is it preventing
me from finding time to commune with Christ? Is this distinctive
drawing me to love the body of Christ, the Church? Or is it
obstructing fellowship and isolating me from others? These are questions
we need to answer. We need to go this week and say,
are these things true of me? Have I founded something that
is not according to Christ? We need to answer with brutal
honesty, because there's always a danger that I've chosen to
pursue and follow something that's not according to Christ, something
that's more in line with the wisdom of this world. And we
need to be vigilant. But at the same time, make this
a joyful question. Make it a joyful question. This
is a chance to root out dead weight in your life, the weight
and sin which so easily entangle, and to take hold of Christ more.
There's no drudgery in this call to vigilance. Only the opportunity
to embrace more of who Christ is. So go out and take hold of
Him by faith. We set down things so that we
can take hold of more of Christ. Because whoever puts their trust
in Him will never be put to shame. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that Christ
has done all these things for us. Father, we had pursued emptiness. We had pursued the lies of sin.
We had become nothingness, death before you. But you filled us
with all the fullness of Christ. You deigned that your wisdom
and your glory, your being and your power would dwell within
men again. You fashioned the perfect man
and dwelt in him fully and perfectly in Christ. And now you have deigned
that he would dwell in us. Father, that's glorious. Father,
we were completely dead, and yet you have made us alive in
Christ. We were transgressors before your throne. We owed you
a debt that could not be paid, yet you have forgiven us in Christ.
Father, we had lost the battle. We had been captured. but you
have won the victory for us in Christ. Father, I pray that you
would show us how great and glorious those things are. Father, let
our awe for those things never wane, but let it grow more and
more every day, that they would be our driving force and passion,
that we would wake up in the morning so that we could see
more of what Christ has done for us, that we would go through
our day loving more of what Christ has done for us. Father, direct
us to that so fully and so completely that the wisdom of this world
can't grasp hold of us. Father, I do pray that you would
give us wisdom as we look at our lives. Father, I pray that
you would give us passion to find things in our lives that
are not according to Christ, and honesty to confess to ourselves
when this thing really isn't truly according to Christ. And
Father, I pray that you would give us joy in setting that aside
and pursuing the things of Christ more. Father, I pray that you
would send us out with your Spirit this morning towards that end,
that your Spirit would be our comforter and our convictor,
the one who shows us the things of Christ and calls us away from
all else. Father, we need your Spirit to
be in us for that to happen. It's not in us to do these things,
but we know that Christ has won them for us and your Spirit will
bring it to us. So in Christ's name we pray. Amen. So I'll open it up if any of
the men have any questions or comments or anything else they
brought this morning. Right, and so I would 100% agree
that things like Jehovah's Witnesses would be a philosophy that is
completely anti-deceit, and that would be something you could
be captured by and carried off. But I think there's also subtler
things that Paul's warning those that have the gospel. We would
look at some of these groups, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses,
and say they have lost so much of Christ that we can't even
affirm that they have the gospel anymore. So assuredly, they belong
to the world. But he's talking to people that
are in Christ, have the gospel, he's rejoiced in them, that know
the gospel, and say, you can still start to pull in things
from the world and say, I've got Christ, but I'm lacking something
here, so I'm gonna go to the world to find that. And so yeah,
I think exactly what you said is true. Yeah. Yeah. As we're studying
Christian history, to exact some sort of changes
and improvements in the situation. But the true reformers always
found that reformation only worked out. And that it was when they
desired to take the word of God and translate it into the tongue
of the common people that true reform worked out. Absolutely true. So excellent
examples of how the wisdom of Christ is what the church ought
to run to, because running after anything else is not going to
fix the church, it's going to mess it up more. Oh, I'll turn it over again.
Paul's Warning: Captivity or Christ
Series Colossians
| Sermon ID | 329171725524 |
| Duration | 53:54 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Colossians 2:8-15 |
| Language | English |
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