1 Corinthians 18.30 says, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. 1 Corinthians 1.18-30, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen. And the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence. but of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I don't see the presenter, I think it's missing. So if you turn that on. Oh, jalapeno poppers. Once again, happy Father's Day. That's a picture of what's at home, I think, right? That the children have made for me. That is bacon. If you're afraid of pork, I understand. But that's bacon and barbecue sauce. Anyway, let's go to the next slide. That's a treasure to me and that's a representation of treasure because the title of the sermon today is All the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge. It's a line drawn from the text that we can find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in God. We'll start right here with the dudes at the door. I found lots of great pictures of missionaries from Colts in the doorway, but I couldn't tell if they were free to use, so I had to use the silhouette picture here. So this will represent all the different kinds of people that will come to your door. When I lived in Park Shadows over on Litchfield Road, which is an apartment complex. It's actually old Navy base housing from when Goodyear Airport was a Navy pilot training base. But it was a neat place to live. We really enjoyed it there. My kids have a lot of good memories of living there. It was an apartment, but they were single floor duplex kind of things with, you had your own backyard and we had a playhouse back there and a swing set. So a lot of good memories growing up there. But one thing is it was a concentrated population there along Litchfield Road. where Jason and I, we went through there. We were the dudes at the door. We went through the apartment complex, witnessing to people. And I got all kinds of different people. We got the Mormons, they came to our door. I remember conversation with them and asking them if, you know, they wanted me to read their book. And I said, great, you read my book and I'll read your book. And they said, no, we can't do that. So I said, I won't read your book then. And, And we had Jehovah's Witnesses come through there and talk and say all these things that sounded like they were Christians when they're not, until you press them a little bit. We had people from the Baha'i faith. I'd never heard of Baha'i before, but there was a guy that came to our door who was with Baha'i. He had something to say. I remember even someone came from one of the Baptist churches in the area and knocked on our door and started to share the gospel, and I just let him go for a while. And I was like eating it up, and I was like, that is wonderful. And I said, that's exactly what I believe. And they're like, really? So it was really a fun time that we had together there at the door. But the dudes at the door is a sort of a way to represent to us that there's all of this cultic activity out there. He's not asleep. He's not inactive. There is all kinds of lies of the devil that are not only permeating our culture but that are constructed into actual sort of religious beliefs and organizations that are massive and wealthy and pushing their beliefs forward worldwide and coming to our doors and our neighborhoods. And we must be people committed to the truth of God's Word when these people come to the door. Because they know what you're going to say, Christian. They have classes in what you're going to say and how you're going to challenge them and they have a ready answer. And if you do not watch it, you could fall into their deceptions. Now, I only say this because the biggest missions field for the Mormon Church is the Southern Baptist Church. They get more converts from the Southern Baptist Church than they do from any other mission field that they have. And it's simply because Christians don't know what they believe and why they believe what they believe and how to defend what they believe, to think clearly on it. So we've talked about in the last few weeks going deep. And we've talked about in that following Paul's pattern that he would purpose and pray and produce, which is a great Father's Day message right there. Fathers, in your homes you need to purpose to disciple your children and you need to pray. for God to accomplish those purposes in your home, which means that you need to know what those purposes are in your home, don't you? And that's your own private prayer time to come up with the purposes. And then you need to be praying for God to act in the ways that only He can act. But in that, you need to produce, which means that you don't just pray and then leave your children to the Lord. God has called you to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And so you have to at that point step up and begin to work with the Lord in the things that you're praying that he will do. Last week we looked at the rich and glorious mystery revealed. And that mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And that is, of course, speaking of the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. And salvation is kind of a big word and it's used in different ways in the Bible. And the reason I say it's a big word is because it refers to so many things. I've heard it described as like a file drawer with different files in it. But one thing that salvation is, is justification before God, right? Jesus Christ died on the cross that we might be justified before God, okay? Salvation also includes sanctification in the Bible. There is sanctification is in one sense, in a very real sense, a big part of salvation because salvation is something that has been accomplished, is being accomplished, and will be accomplished in the Bible in the ways it is referred to. And so sanctification is really an ongoing part of salvation that you are being saved. You have been saved and you are being saved, you are being redeemed. So, if you think about your life, if you've walked with the Lord for a while, you can see that you have been redeemed, in justification you stand before God perfect, and that God is redeeming you from all sorts of ways of life, all sorts of destructive paths and ways of thinking and habits of life. Bill, I know that you had a transformation where you were redeemed from something that was a stronghold in your life when you were first saved, you've told me about. And I've heard that in many places, but even if it's over time where God has shown you and helped you to put to death the deeds of the flesh, you are being saved in that. And then, of course, there's glorification where when Christ is revealed, when He comes again, we will be like Him. So salvation has its part, and at the core of salvation is faith, amen? Maybe not the core. The core of salvation is the sacrifice of Christ. But at the core of our part in salvation is faith. And faith is a lot of things, right? We think of faith as trust, right? Trust in the Lord and all your heart, lean on your understanding. We trust God. We believe him, we believe his word. But faith is a settled sort of certainty. Okay, when I say I have faith in God, I have a settled certainty that what God has said is true. that God is not in any way a liar. I have a settled certainty that God has saved me, that Jesus Christ's sacrifice was for my sin, and that I am redeemed in Him. So faith is a strong thing. It's not just a weak sort of trust or a weak sort of belief. It's a settled certainty. And that faith rests on the past. My faith rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ and I look back to that beginning of walking in that faith in the past. But that faith also has a settled certainty that is hoping in the future. Biblical hope is a very important subject in the Bible. Christians are described as those that are hoping for the return of Christ, and they're waiting and hoping for His return. And that's not a I hope so hope, it's a settled certainty, it's a faith-filled hope in the future. So, if you ask me how I'm doing, I'm seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places. I couldn't be doing any better. And I have hope for tomorrow because God is saving me. I have hope that my tomorrow is gonna be different than my today. It may have more pain, it may have more trouble, but God is changing me. And I have a settled certainty that He is going to conform me to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ, because He's promised to. And I have a settled certainty that my home is in heaven, that my future is with Him, that my destiny is to be with Him, walking with Him as my Father in the new heavens, in the new earth. Faith, resting on the past but hoping the future. Colossians 121 to review says this, and you who once were alienated in 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." In Ephesians, Paul tells us that that God has given us helps in that. He gave some to be apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up or the edifying of the body. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we should no longer be children tossed and to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. That we should no longer be children. Now I assume he's speaking to adults or at least a mixed crowd that has a lot of adults in it. But he's talking about that we should no longer be spiritual children, babes. And what happens to babes is that they're tossed to and fro and they're carried about with every wind of doctrine. They're gullible. They can be tricked by men and by cunning and crafty people that are deceitfully plotting to deceive them. So Paul's saying that God himself has given these apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors, for all this equipping and for this building up, till the time when we've grown up. When we're perfected in Christ, that we would no longer be like little children, but we are vulnerable. We are vulnerable. Of course, the environment that we live in in the church is not a place of cunning craftiness and trickery and deceitfulness, but it's a place that's an environment of love. It's an environment of truth. We don't speak the truth in cunning craftiness or trickery. We speak the truth in love. so that we may all grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. When Colossians, the first half of the letter is sort of foundational understanding. Really, that's packed really strongly into chapter one, where he's exalting Christ and telling us of his preeminence, along with some other things that are important, but I won't recover. Colossians 15 17 says he's he that is Christ is the image of the invisible God the firstborn over all creation 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 and you understand those are those are buzzwords When you see Paul talking about thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, a lot of times he'll have the word angels in there, he does in Romans. Angels, principalities, and powers. When he starts talking about these things grouped together like this, he's talking about these things that are in their ideology, in their cultural ideas of these lesser deity-like things that are in charge of regions or progressive fears, spheres between us and God. They would call them principalities and powers. They would have different ranks. The idea is these ranks of things, whatever ranks of spiritual beings there are, they were created by Christ. Whether they're visible or invisible, they were created by Christ. Whether they're authorities that are over things, they were created by Christ. All things were created through Him and for Him. He's before all things and in Him all things consist or hold together. So Paul hammers down that point that Christ is preeminent over the creation, over what's happened in the past in creation. and what's happening presently, Christ is preeminent over it. He is the first over all of it. In Colossians 1.8, he's the head of the body, the church, that's us. And he is that because he's the beginning. He's the firstborn from the dead. The church is the new creation. We are the new community, the new people of God, the new humanity. We are the beginning of that population of the new creation. We're the ecclesia, the fellowship of the saints, the holy ones. And Jesus is the beginning. He is the progenitor of the new creation. He is the firstborn from the dead and that in all things he may have the preeminence. So he is preeminent over as it were, the old creation, and He is preeminent over the new creation. He is preeminent, He is first over the past, and He is first over the future hope. Colossians 119 says, 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. And we say hallelujah, amen. All of that is to say that Christ has reconciled all things to the Father. It's done. It's finished work. So for us, for the Colossians, we need to hold on to the hope of the gospel that we heard and don't be moved away from it. That's the first half of the letter. It moves into chapter two, continuing that theme as a foundation for the second half of the letter, which is wisdom or skill for living. So if you think about Paul's prayer, he prays for spiritual understanding and for wisdom. And he gives spiritual understanding to us in his letter, and now he's gonna give wisdom or skill for living as the letter kind of slowly moves on into its second half. So resting on the foundation of the completed work, the infinite reach, the exclusive mediation, the amazing closeness of Christ in you, the hope of glory. Resting on the foundation of foundational understanding, wisdom is going to be given for living. Intensely practical skill for living. And it's gonna begin here in Colossians chapter two. So I'm gonna give a brief outline. of Colossians chapter 2, verses 1, and we're going to go on into 3, 4. First we're going to see a reiteration, that's a big word, he's going to say again, reiteration of the apostle's purpose. And then he's going to follow that with two commands or imperatives for a pleasing walk. How to please God in your walk. And he's going to give us two main ideas. Okay? And then third, he's going to give us exhortations or warnings against three vain philosophies with explanations of their deficiencies compared with Christ and calls to a distinctly Christian steadfastness in the face of these deceptive traditions of men. These things look good, but they're unable to do the job that they should do. So, I had to have a sword today, since I've had a sword the last two weeks, and this is not the best sword to do the job. This sword is just made out of wood, and it could really sting you good. I think maybe if it held up on the strike, you might be able to break a small bone with it. But it's not going to do the job that a sword is designed to do. And these vain philosophies are much like this sword. They're not able to cut through the confusion. They're not able to accomplish what they promise. They're vain philosophies. Though they look good, they're useless. I don't have any popcorn today. Some of you have asked. If you'd stand together with me, turn in your Bibles to Colossians 1, verse 24 is where we begin. We're going to read through 2 into chapter 3 to verse 4. Colossians 1, 24 through chapter 2 into verse 3, verse 4. Chapter three, verse four, rather. The word of the Lord. I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you. to fulfill the word of God. The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end, I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love and attaining to all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you've been taught. abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone treat 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. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. and you being dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 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. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why? As though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. 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. The word of the Lord. Father, we thank you for your word, and we ask that you would teach us now from your word, Lord. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. You may be seated. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 through 5, we see the purpose of Paul. Paul has a purpose and the first thing he wants to do is encourage their hearts. And he wants to encourage their hearts to live as a love community. He's thinking of a camaraderie between them. The idea that God puts us in churches is because, well I don't know because, but the idea that God puts us in churches communicates to us that we're in this together. Do you get that? You get all that one another commandment and all the stuff about loving one another and Jesus, when he sent out his guys, he sent them out in twos or threes. He didn't send them out alone. He wants us to understand that his bride is a multiplicity of people, that we are in this together. that he gives people to the church for the equipping of the saints for the ministry, and that we operate and we grow up together into the Lord. This is crucial, and this is something that some people lose, because in the church, because it's community, there's pain, and there's offense, and there's all the things that you run into with people. And some people eventually will separate themselves from the church. I cannot count the number of people that I've talked to in my lifetime, both young and old, that have said, well, I believe in Christianity. I believe in the Christian doctrines. I just don't believe in the organized church. And they're like on their own, all alone. They're expecting to live their Christian life and conduct their own discipleship walk and grow up in the Lord all by themselves. This is not the plan that we see in the Word of God. The Word of God knows nothing of people that are not attached somewhere to a Christian body. that are not part of some church body somewhere, or even for Paul, he's associated with so many that are all working together and praying for him and caring for him, and in whom he is reliant upon even in his ministry. So Paul wants to encourage them to live as a love community. He says, I want you to know how great a conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and all that have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love. Being knit together in love. The second thing in his purpose is that He wants them to understand that they're a privileged community, a privileged community. He goes on to say that he wants them to be attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding. That's a lot of words, isn't it? What's a full assurance of understanding? Well, simply what it means is that I know that I know that I know. Okay? In other words, I don't just think I understand, I know I understand. And I don't just know I understand, but I know that I know that I understand. Okay? Well, that sounds a little confusing maybe, but think about it when the dudes come to the door. Oh no. I know that I know the truth. There is no question that I know the God of the universe, that I belong to him, that his spirit is in me, crying out, Abba Father, you have nothing to offer me because I know that I have all the riches already. So he wants him to have a full assurance of understanding. to the knowledge of the mystery of God, to the hidden thing of God, because these people in their time would come to the door and say, well, you do know some stuff, but there's something that's hidden from you that you don't know. We have some secrets that you need to know. It's okay, what you've got is part of what we've got, but we've got some more, and you need to know these secrets. There's some secrets that you folks don't know, but he wants them to have a full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery, the hidden things of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In other words, Christian brother, Christian sister, what you have in the faith, what you have in the word is everything. There is no one in this world, there is no one in creation that has more than you have. There is no one that can offer you a little bump up to your Christianity from something outside of what you have in your relationship with the Lord and the Word of God. And if they tell you there is, they are straight out handing you a wooden sword. They are lying. They might have something that looks good, but it doesn't do what it says it will do. It's in God and Jesus Christ in whom we're hitting all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. How far did I get? A privileged community, assured of understanding, knowing that they know the source of wisdom and knowledge of the Father and of Christ. It's in Him that dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." And verse 10 of Colossians 2, you are complete in Him. He's gonna say that in just a few verses, you're complete in Him. He's the head of all principality and power. You don't need something connected with one of these lower things that have been created. He's above them. So you go into the store, right, and you've got a problem with something, or actually now it's usually online, right? And you call and the person's no help to you, right? So what do you do? Let me talk to your supervisor, right? You keep moving up till you get somebody that's got what it takes to do something about it. And Paul's saying, look, you have access to the top, the president of the company, the owner. What are you doing thinking you should mess around with the employees that don't even know what to do with you, the ones that don't have any help for you? Wow, that's really dark. Who is that? All right. In 1 Timothy, Paul tells Timothy, chapter four, verse one, now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. And he's telling Timothy that these times come and even mentioned some of the things that he's gonna deal with the Colossians on. The apostle wants to help protect them and encourage their hearts to live as a persevering community. And one of his greatest protections for them. is to tell them that there is no deficiency in Christ. There is no deficiency in their Christianity. They have no need to look elsewhere. He goes on in verse four to say, Now this I say, that lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words, with high-sounding arguments, some translations say, with persuasive words. For though I'm absent in the flesh, I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and your steadfastness of your faith. He says, I'm saying these things, I don't want anyone to trick you, to deceive you with really slick, good-looking arguments. Because if you start looking outside of God for the answers to life's ultimate questions, for ultimate reality, you're gonna find only empty deceit. You'll find persuasive, high-sounding words, but man's philosophers have never been able to come up with the answers. Give you a couple of quick examples. If they're here. Socrates pondering the, to him, unsolvable problems relating to possible future rewards and punishment. He said, it may be, Plato, that the deity can forgive sins, but I do not see how. He sees the problem, and so many people today can define problems really well, but they can't see the answer. But he sees that God would need to forgive sins, but he's like, I can't see how. Plato himself yearned for a divine word, which is the word logos in Greek, which would come with authority and make everything plain. Well, that word had already spoken to Israel in Israel's history, and that word did come. But from Plato, and the rationalists and the empiricists and the skeptics from Descartes and Locke, from Plato to Kant and from Kant to the last of the moderns, one system has overturned another so that the history of philosophy is a story of contradiction and discarded hypotheses. They were unable to unravel the knots or solve the problems that the revelation of God in the holy scriptures makes plain. Now Paul knows enough Greek philosophy to quote it. He quotes it in a couple of his letters. But he doesn't see it as anything but a wooden sword. He wants them to be a privileged community, to understand they're a privileged community. He wants them to be a persevering community. He wants to protect them from this idea that there's something that needs to be added. Now, go ahead to the next slide. The next section, I thought, two keys to the fruitful, God-pleasing walk. So I started getting props, and I was like, okay, they're not gonna be able to see my keys, right? I mean, you guys, it's not really, you can't really see those, so I thought, okay, I'll get a bigger key, right? And then it's two keys, and I don't know, maybe you guys can't see this in the cave, so I got a really big key. Okay, so I could have two keys, and then I was supposed to have a fruit here. I forgot, I was gonna have an apple. So I could eat like the guy does in biology 101, you know, since I didn't bring popcorn. Two keys to the fruitful, and then I'm like, oh, that's, it's a, okay, what do keys have to do with walking, right? Maybe you're going somewhere, but you don't really need keys to walk, right? What do you need to walk? Well, how about, I know, Two shoes. The two shoes that will help you on your journey. Well, that could work, right? If you only have one shoe, you kind of go in circles, right? Because one leg's longer than the other. So this is not as exciting. It's more boring than two keys. But what I finally came to was road awareness for staying out of the ditches. Because that's more like my real life, right? I drive. I don't walk so much. But I guess walking is important. All the roads in Oregon are like this because they get so much rain in the area that we're at. There's not just a road, but there's big drainage ditches by either side of the road. It's all eroded out. I don't know if they started out with those ditches, probably not as deep, but there's these big deep, and you're nodding your head because you've been up there, you've seen those ditches, man. When they talk about running off into the ditch, they're talking about a major car accident. Okay, if you run into those ditches, you're not just like, oh, I'm gonna have to get help to push the car back on the road. It's gonna be, I'm gonna have to get help to turn the car back over on its wheels. That's the way the ditches are there. So how do you stay out of the ditches? Well, I've seen some people go into the ditches there. And your awareness, that's how you stay out of the ditches. You gotta stay aware. It's one of the biggest hazards is people that aren't aware of what's going on in the road. So they end up in the ditches. So I'm gonna follow that theme, road awareness, for staying out of the ditches. Since the Apostle Paul is using walking as a metaphor and cautioning against false ways, we'll think of those false ways as false paths or ditches beside the road. So he starts out with a positive. Okay, a positive. Walking Christ. Pretty simple, walk in Christ. It's verse six and seven, he says this, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, how did you receive Christ Jesus? By grace through faith, right? Someone preached the word, all right? You were told the truth, you were interacting with the truth, and you received Christ Jesus by grace, by the grace of God, through faith. Okay, so he's saying, you know how that started out? That's how you should walk. So walk in him. What's he saying? Keep on keeping on, right? The way you started, keep going that way. It's a pretty mundane message, really. Just keep going the way you're going, the way you started out. Okay? Someone said, hey, this is the truth. Let's read it together, right? Let me tell you some things from it. Okay, keep being told things from the truth, right? Keep getting discipled, right? Keep going the way you started out in Christ. You don't need to go, now I need to read about Buddha to grow on my walk. No, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, he uses all those terms there together, so walk in him. Pretty simple. He says, rooted, you need to be rooted. That's the idea of right, rooted. The big trees gotta have some big roots. So put down roots into it. And built up, he has the idea of going deep, and then the idea of going high, right? We had the underwater scene and the cloud scene, same idea. Go deep and go high. Rooted and built up, where? In him, you're walking in him. You are being rooted and built up in him. You getting the focus? The focus is in Christ. He just spent all of chapter one telling us who Christ is. And he's awesome. So now he starts out chapter two, go there, go there, stay there, stay on that. keep being rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith. Established is a fun word, I gotta talk about that for a minute. Am I skipping slides, Paul? I can't remember. Better look at my notes. Okay, there it is. I'm not even gonna try to produce the Greek word, you'd just laugh, because it's a funny sounding word. But that word established means to increase in inner strength, with the implication of greater firmness of character or attitude. Okay, to receive more inner strength, to be strengthened in one's heart overall, just to generalize, being established in the faith means becoming stronger in your faith. So does he want them to go learn about other religions? Does he want them to go learn about other gods, about this other truth, right, to add to this truth? No. He's saying get rooted in Christ, get built up in Christ, get stronger in your faith, stay right there. He says it's the Christian faith that you were taught. Okay, as you were taught, he says. As you have been taught. And then he wants you to abound in it. Okay, more descriptions of abound, overflow, be filled up, overflowing in it. You know, I think as Christians we get to a sort of a good enough Christianity, right? Yeah, this is good enough for me, I'll stay right here. And he says, no, grow in your faith that you were taught, abound in it, keep going. Keep going. And be thankful for it. The main thing about Christianity, Oswald Chambers says in his utmost for his highest, here he is. He says the main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. So he's saying get into, grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. He says that's all that God asks us to look after. And it's the one thing that's continually being assaulted. He says, it's not a question of our equipment, but of our poverty. Not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts in us. Oswald Chambers. So Paul starts with this positive exhortation, and then the second part of it, of road awareness for staying out of the ditches, the positive is walk in Christ, and the second one is, A negative. This is more exciting. Get the sword out again. Not that one though. Beware of bandits. Beware of bandits. He wants us to walk in Christ and he wants them and us to beware of bandits. He says, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit. Now, that word cheat is, you gotta pick a word when you're doing a word for word translation. But the idea there of cheat is really, if you look, it might say literally in your notes, literally plunder or take captive. It's a more, it's not so much sitting at a table playing cards and someone cheating, okay? It's really a war situation. It's like you're on the road and someone comes to plunder you or take you captive. He says, keep your eyes open, beware. Beware lest anyone cheat you or plunder you or take you captive through philosophy and empty deceit. So the weapons are gonna come with our philosophy. A love of wisdom, that's a good thing, right? A love of wisdom. Except they're high-sounding words that are of no use. They're gonna come to you with a deceit that's empty. It's deceitful, it sounds convincing, but there's nothing there. It's according to man's traditions. It's according to worldly presuppositions. It's according to all the isms and asms and spasms out there. But the main part that he says is that it's not according to Christ. Remember what he's been saying? Walk in Christ, root into Christ, be built up in Christ, grow in your faith in Christ. He's saying watch out for these guys that'll come to you with these philosophies and these deceits that are all based on tradition, but they're not according to Christ. Remember he's told us in Colossians 2, 9 and 10 that the full deity is embodied in Christ and that we're complete in him. So there's the two. exhortations that he gives that are really at the heart of what follows. Now he's gonna give examples. Jason often points out some examples from our culture, right? The sexual revolution and what it's done or feminism. And examples from their surrounding world are helpful here for them and also for us. So the apostle brings up three examples of philosophies or deceptive human traditions that they might encounter or were encountering that Colossian heresy, if you will. And he brings this up in a way that as he talks about them, he also demonstrates to them how the faithful, that's those who are fully assured in their understanding, in other words, they got chapter one, how they walk according to truth. He points that out. So. We're gonna talk about three false paths or ditches to avoid. There's the word philosophy because I must have had a slide. Give me another one, let's see what else I have. Oh, empty the seat, do I have another one? Not according to Christ, that's the last one, okay. And these philosophies are gonna be just like that. And there's two, nine and 10, which I spoke about. Give me one more. Staying out of the ditches, that was the reiteration. All right, we're all caught up. Three false paths or ditches to avoid. Colossians 2, 11 through 3, 4, this will finish out our passage. The first one is the path of ceremonial signs and ritual observances. It's a path that says you need to participate in these ceremonial signs and you need to do these ritual observances. In Philippians 3, Paul says, finding my brethren, rejoicing the Lord for me to write the same thing to you is not tedious, but for you it's safe. Then he goes on to say, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. This is the same beware of those on the path, right? He calls them the mutilation. For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. We are the circumcision, we worship God in the spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, we have no confidence in the flesh. These same things are going to be treated in Colossians. The mutilation that he's talking about are the Judaizers that want to tell them that, hey, you can't follow Christ unless you first enter into the Jewish covenant. You need to become Jewish and be circumcised and keep the festivals and the feasts to follow Christ. You've got part of it, but you need this to really do this like you're supposed to be doing it. Now, do we face that today? Yeah, there's a whole Jewish roots movement that's within the church, Christianity, within churchianity that you'll run across. And certainly, you know, we love things that are in the Jewish roots of my wife and my children. I'm not Jewish. But my wife is, and that makes my children Jewish, according to tradition. And it actually makes me a better Jew than she is, because I married a Jew. But I'm not actually Jewish. Paul calls these people dogs and evil workers. In Colossians 2.11 he says, in him, and we have a slide, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. Okay? He's like, you don't gotta worry about circumcision. You were circumcised in Christ, remember? We're gonna stay in Christ. And he's like, there, you're circumcised. And you're circumcised with a greater circumcision, a circumcision that's made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with him, now he's talking about how united we are with Christ. Buried with him in baptism in which you were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements. And this is beautiful, the handwriting requirements. That's a document that has the charges against you written on it. Okay, his handwriting requirements is how it's translated here, but it's translating a word for a document that is the charges against you in court. And he says he's taken that handwriting requirements, those charges against you that was against us, which was contrary to us, he's taken it out of the way, he's nailed it to the cross. Okay, and what's that do to the principalities and powers? Disarms them. makes them look like fools. He's made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So once again, the thinking is, why would you have anything to do with going to them? Why would you have anything to do with going to these lesser things when you have Him? Walk in Him, beware of these vain philosophies. There's no deficiency. Why would a Christian accept circumcision when he already has something greater and more full in Christ? Why would he observe feasts and Sabbaths clean and unclean when he possesses the very thing to which all those pointed? Why would the Christian live as if he's struggling to gain God's forgiveness, God's favor, God's approval, his own escape from judgment, as if the threat of hell still loomed over him when God has forgiven "'all at the cross and set him free "'from the vain pursuit of justification "'by keeping the works of the law.'" Why would you live like that? Don't live like that. If you struggle that, you have been taken captive by a vain philosophy. You're complete in him. "'So let no one judge you,' he goes on to say, "'in food or in drink. Okay, that's an imperative. Don't let them judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths. And here he's going through things that were important in the Mosaic law for the Jews to observe in their covenant with God. But he says they're a shadow of things to come. What does he mean a shadow of things to come? Well, he says the substances of Christ. So you've got a shadow cast on the wall or that cross over there, you see the shadow. Okay, but that's not the cross, that's a shadow. The substance is that cross, the thing that's casting the shadow. And he's saying all these things were types and shadows of Christ. Even the Sabbaths and the new moon festivals and all those things, they were shadows of what was to come. It's just you've got the real thing. You know, why would I be kissing a picture of my wife when she's sitting next to me? That would be stupid, wouldn't it? And that's what he's saying. Don't let someone tell you you should be keeping a Sabbath or celebrating this festival, that you have to do that, that you have to abstain from this food or that food to be clean. So those things all had their functions in shadowing what was to come, in communicating, but the substance is of Christ. So don't go off in that ditch. You have no deficiency. So that's a ditch and there's also other ditches today in that same area. Some people take this idea and they run against things that the New Testament would tell us we should be about. People come out against baptism. as a ceremonialism, or even church membership, or even having a church service. There's positions that people will hold that, well, we don't think that people should gather in church services. We think that's against what God's will is. But the biggest one is that people will throw out the whole law. Right, they'll say the law is fulfilled in Christ and we're throwing out the whole thing. And they can't see that what Paul focuses on when he's talking about pitching stuff is these shadow parts of the law, the things that are, we would call them, and the Bible doesn't call them this, but we would call them the ceremonial or even the civil laws for Israel in their time. And they wanna throw out the moral law as well, don't they? And we call that antinomianism. So you don't wanna run off in that ditch either. And most of those roads, they have a ditch on either side. So you can pull so hard against one ditch that you end up in the other, can't you? So we're talking about three false paths or ditches to avoid. The first one was the path of ceremonial signs and ritual observances. So now we'll look at number two. which is the path of mystical experiences and secrets. Mystical experiences and secrets. Colossians 2, 18 through 19. Let no one cheat you of your reward. Okay, we got some rewards coming, don't we? We've got a reward in heaven. We've got a reward here on earth that we get to walk with the Lord. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility. Now, I'll let you know that the word false is not in the text. It just says humility, okay, or humiliation. So this is a person that's taking delight in this humility, and it's a false humility, it's a humiliation, and the worship of angels. Now, here's where all the different commentaries go all over the place. Okay, is this a religious practice where they're worshiping angels? A few centuries later, there's an, and there's a Angeliki or something like that that's referred to that is a sort of cult of angel worship. There's the whole idea of those powers and principalities and worship to them and having secret words that you could offer to them and make your way through the spheres. But there's also the idea that what these people were doing was they were doing things that would put them in a state where they believed that they were having visions of heaven and that they were participating in the worship of angels. Both things are in the commentaries. But what he says is they're intruding into those things which they have not seen. And once again, textual variant, one says which they have seen, and one says which they have not seen. They're vainly puffed up. That doesn't sound very humble, does it? Puffed up by their fleshly mind. So they're in a state of pride over this thing that they think they've seen, the secrets that they think they have. and they're not holding fast to the head. Okay, once again, they've done what? They've moved away from Christ. They haven't stayed in him. They're not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God. So somehow or another, they have this system, this idea going on where they're going to participate in supernatural things and they're doing this through some method of humility or that's being described that way or something like that. Now, we can easily slip into sort of mysticism in our Christianity. That's probably not prone to that in this congregation, but there are plenty of congregations that are, that move into the sort of experientialism realm that is not connected to the head. Now, the other ditch would be to say that there is no experience, no experience of Christ. And so, even connected to the head, there can be an anti-supernaturalism in the other ditch. So we're pulling so hard against being those experientialist sort of people that we just become scholars. And we think this is God right here. Okay, not the word that became flesh, but we think this is God. We become biblio idolaters, and we know all about our Bible, but we don't know Him. We don't have any experience of Him, or walking with Him, or loving Him, or being loved by Him. In fact, we can become such anti-supernaturalists that we are more satisfied with the miracles in the Bible if someone can give us some sort of scientific explanation of how that happened. Have you ever experienced that? Oh, oh, I feel better about that. But then you get the ones where, okay, so the world stopped for how long and everything stayed put? I don't understand how that could happen. Well, of course you don't, it's supernatural. It's something only God could do. Well, I don't understand how that could work and then the physics of it, right. Okay, and the person is like, I'm not sure I can swallow that one. Well, then you don't swallow the miraculous. How about Jesus on the cross, God dying on a cross? So there can be even within our circles a sort of stodgy anti-supernaturalism, which would be the other ditch. Well, the third point. And I am really almost done, and I should be, because we had a nice time with the Father's Day tributes. But the last one is the path of radical self-denial or asceticism. It's a radical self-denial or an asceticism. And, you know, you picture the Catholic monks that would whip themselves, right? And yet you're smiling and laughing, but it seems funny, but they are dead serious about this, okay? They are trying to do something about their flesh. Colossians 2, 23 is the next slide. If you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as the living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. That'd be these things that arbitrarily you're supposed to avoid, right? Which all concern things which Paris would be using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. So somebody came up with some idea that avoiding this thing and this thing and this thing, you're gonna be more spiritual. You're gonna go to higher spiritual heights. But it's just some teaching that some man came up with. Says these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body or harsh treatment of the bodies, another translation of that word. Okay, so they have an appearance of being really effective, right? This is my knife. I had a better knife the first week. This is one of those butter spreading knives, you know? Like if you had to cut something with it, you'd be hammering on it, right? You're not gonna cut something with this knife. Maybe you could plunge the tip in and lever it and crack the thing open if you're lucky. But he's saying it's like this knife. These things have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, the harsh treatment of the body, but they're of no value. How much value? No, come on, little kids, two and under. No, I know you guys know how to say that. No value against the indulgence of the flesh. Now, in some senses, that kind of bums me out. I'd like to think that I can get control of this flesh, right? I'm called to self-control, fruit of the spirit, and I need to be synergistic in that work, obeying God. Here's Martin Luther on the subject. If ever a monk could get to heaven through monastic discipline, I was that monk. and yet my conscience would not give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, you didn't do that right. You weren't contrite enough. You left that out of your confession. The more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak, and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more I daily found it more uncertain, weaker, and more troubled. Well, the problem is that asceticism at its core is simply setting the flesh against the flesh. My fleshly self-discipline against my fleshly wicked desires. And guess who wins? One way or another, one way or another, sorry I'm reaching back into my ancestral past in the South. One way or another, the flesh is going to win that fight, because you just got the flesh against the flesh. Hebrews 13.9 says, do not be carried away with various and strange doctrines, for it's good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. There's another ditch. Denial of clear New Testament practices of fasting. How many people here fast? You don't really have to raise your hand. If I really said, raise your hand, be honest. It's not very many of us. Okay, fasting is not a New Testament practice? Yeah, all the time. They practice it. I mean, they're together, fasting and praying. Okay, it was something that was prominent enough in their church that it makes it into the scriptures. Probably all the time is a little extreme. Okay, but a denial of clear New Testament practices of fasting. How about love-motivated abstinence, right? I will never eat meat again if it hurts my brother. Paul says that, doesn't he, right? And he's like, I have the right to eat meat. Okay, but some people's like, hey, if you got a problem with that, that's your problem. You need to find your freedom that you have in Christ. No, that's another ditch. Okay, we're not to be ascetics, and we're not to be in this sort of radical self-denial to think that we're gonna grow spiritually. We do need to grow in love toward one another, and we need to be sensitive to another person's weakness. And then, of course, there's a whole discernment of profitable and unprofitable. You know, Paul says, everything's permitted to me, but not everything's helpful. Right? What's he calling you to there? Hey, think about it. That may be permitted to you, but is that going to be helpful? Is that going to help you along the way? Is that helping other people along the way? So that would be another ditch would be to reject all those sorts of things that the scripture teaches to make sure that you're not being ascetic. Even Paul himself says, I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, doesn't he? Lest when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified. So he practices self-discipline with his body. Well, Christ's preeminence means that the answer to ritualism is the spiritual reality we have in Christ. That the answer to idolatrous mysticism is the spiritual union with Christ, the head of the church. The answer to asceticism is our position in Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. Colossians 3, 1 through 4, that's a new slide. He finishes this up. If then, okay, remember he said you've been crucified or you've been buried with Christ in the previous passage. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. In other words, don't be focused on all of these false paths which are all focused on getting at things from here. You arise with Christ, seek those things which are above. Who is it? Where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind, and I love the King James Bible in this place, it says, set your affections. And the word has that in its domain. It's probably even a better representation of what that word is. Set your affections on things above. In other words, you have the ability to set your affections. What you're gonna love on. what you're gonna desire. And he says, put those right there. Take them off the temporal, put them on the eternal, put them on Christ, seated at the right hand of God, not on the things on the earth. For you died. You died. Remember when you got baptized? You died. He doesn't say it's kind of like you're dead or like it was a symbol of you dying. You died. That's what happens at salvation. That's what happens at redemption. I die. And my life is hidden with Christ in God. So my life in this world is gone. Over. I don't care for the good things or the bad things that happen to me. Whatever it is, it's gone. It's done. It's over. End. And my life, the only life that I really have, is now united with Christ, who is united with God. It's hidden. It's like those mysteries, right? It's a hidden thing, but God's pretty good, isn't he, at taking care of those hidden things. He's gonna reveal them someday. And he takes care of them until he's ready to reveal them. And your life is hidden, it's taken care of. It's with Christ, united to him in God. There's no better place to be. Verse four, when Christ, who is our life, appears. When's that? He's coming. It's on that day, right? On that day, when Christ returns, when Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." The good news is that if you belong to the Messiah, you already belong to the new creation. One of the main things Paul longs for us as Christians to know and to realize is what's already true of us in Christ. It may not feel like it. But learning to believe what doesn't at the moment feel true is an essential part of being a Christian, isn't it? That's what it means to walk by faith. It doesn't feel like that's true, but it is. And I have a settled assurance that it's true. We were raised with, united to Christ. We were raised with Christ, we're united with him. We're to seek heavenly things, we're to set our affections, they are not here. We died with Christ. Our lives are hidden with him in God. Christ is our life. We will be revealed with him in glory when he is revealed. And that's the truth. What should we say then? Romans 6. What should we say? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? And this is where Paul's gonna go next in chapter three. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." And John says in 1 John 3, 2, Beloved, now we are children of God. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, that's that day, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. So as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone treat 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. 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 and not on the earth. This is the will of God for us, as the Apostle prayed. going directly to the source of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, he prayed that you may be filled with all the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you for your grace, your mercy, and your loving kindness toward us. Seal these things, Lord, in us. Plant, protect, nurture the seeds, Lord, that we might grow in these understandings, Lord. that we might know and that we might practice, Lord, walking in you, complete in you, that we might beware of every vain philosophy that seeks to pull us away from the truth of the gospel, that we are complete in you, that your word has all that we need. You have spoken, Lord, we have heard, and we praise you in Jesus' name.