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Some weeks ago, we began working
our way through the book of Colossians, and we've actually kind of stepped
away from it for several weeks now. But the Lord's directed
our thoughts back here to the book of Colossians. The second
chapter is where we'll be reading from today. If you have your
Bibles and want to follow along, as always, I encourage you to
do that. God's Word is such that it has an impact when we read
it, when we think about it, And if a preacher can, at a minimum,
bring to the attention of God's people something God has said
in His Word, then it will be a time well spent. Whether he
has much to say, eloquence, or ability, or entertaining, and
any of those things that go along with what the world looks upon
as good speaking, it really is set aside next to the importance
of bringing before people what God has said. So we're going
to read from Colossians again today in the second chapter.
We covered the first three verses of this the last time we spoke
in this book. Chapter 2, verse 2 and 3, Paul
spoke of Christ being the one in whom all treasures of wisdom
and knowledge are to be found. The one in whom all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge are to be found. If you want to have
knowledge, if you want to be wise, If you want to have understanding
in life, if you want to know what life is all about, if you
want to know the answers to all of the deep questions that man
has been asking himself and one another since time began, if
you want to know any of those answers, you are going to have
to know Jesus Christ. He is wisdom. He is understanding. If you want
to know these things today, you're going to have to know The world
points us to many other places for wisdom and instruction. The
world points us to people that are called experts in various
fields of study, and I'm grateful that people apply themselves
to learning, to discovery of the world that God has given
to us. But there is one source of wisdom and instruction and
understanding, and that source is God in Christ. Nothing apart
from Him will lead you to any sort of understanding about life. If you're confused about life,
it's because you're confused about Christ. If you are missing
something in your life, it's because you're missing something
of Christ. It is that specific in His Word. God does tell us this specifically,
and He told us that in the first couple of verses here of these
few verses of chapter two that we spoke on last time. But to
find understanding and wisdom in life is to find Christ. To
grow as a Christian is to grow in your understanding and awareness
of Christ. It's not to go to church a thousand
times in your life. It's not to tithe every time
you walk into the doors. Those are good things. But Christian
maturity, growth as a child of God, is defined in your growth
of your understanding and your relationship with Jesus Christ,
the person, the Son of God. Anything else, any other way,
any other thing that you describe as growth, it's a delusion. It's
a delusion. Because there's one way that
the Bible talks about growth, and it's growing in Christ. It's
one way that the Bible talks about having life, and that is
to know Christ. We have these lies for a temporary
time. When I was younger, and it's
amazing how we begin to redefine old age. As a young boy, 30 was
old. When I was 20, 40 was old. 30,
60 was old. Now that number keeps rising. We think life is just going to
go on and on and on. And the psalmist says it this
way, God, teach us to number our days so that we might apply
our hearts to wisdom. Well, we just said that wisdom
is Christ. Teach us to number our days, Lord, so that we might
apply our hearts to Christ. We might apply our lives, our
hearts, our desire would be this one singular thing, that Christ
be glorified in my life. Nothing else. So Paul told us
that in these first couple of verses. We want to move on today.
And if I had a title, it's a bit of a lengthy one. I don't always
even use the title. Most of the time I do. I usually
try to be shorter. But I want you to be thinking
about this as we walk through it. It's defending against delusion
in the Christian life. Defending against delusion in
the Christian life. I don't want to be guilty of
being as one who simply points out all the problems with Christianity
in our culture today. I've done that. I've been there
and I don't want to do that today. I think there are problems that
need to be identified. But I believe one of the most
fundamental is that many, I'm afraid, are deluded. They're
living in a sort of delusion, a delusional Christianity that
is separate from Christ. It's a life, as the Pharisees
might have lived, we might apply it that way or compare it to
them, living a life of self-righteousness rather than a life that's made
righteous in Christ and dependent upon Him. Paul says to them,
beginning in verse 4, and we're just going to read through the
7th verse today. It's as far as I believe we can hope to get.
He says to them, and this I say, what we just referenced, that
Christ is all knowledge and all wisdom. Paul then goes on and
says, And I say this, this I say, lest any man should beguile you
with enticing words. For though I be absent in the
flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding
your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in
him. rooted and built up in him, and
established in the faith as he had been taught, abounding therein
with thanksgiving." The delusion of the Christian
life, defending against this delusion. We want to start today,
first of all, there is a delusion in enticing words, as the King
James Translation puts it. I want to read the ESV version
of this. I have, and have shared with
you before, a great tool that I like to use that graphically
demonstrates the difference between versions of the Bible. And as
that difference gets bigger, the colors and the graph gets
whiter on the page. And as they get more similar,
they get narrower and the colors become very similar and the same.
And so you can just at a glance see how different each verse
is from one version to another. And that river was wide on this
verse four. very different uses of English
words that were used in translating this verse for. I think the King
James has it right. I think the ESV has it right.
I think the ASV has it right. The NASV, many of these have
it right, but they use different words because the Greek is driving
at a very specific and unique meaning. The ESV says it this
way, I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible
arguments. Read that again, Paul says, I
say this, I say that Christ is wisdom, Christ is understanding
so that for the purpose of that you may not be deluded. That
you may understand that no one may delude you with plausible
arguments. enticing words and plausible
arguments. The original Greek is this. It's
plausible, but false speech resulting from the use of well-constructed
probable arguments. This is a philosophy of religion
rather than a powerful religion in the person of Christ. Plausible
arguments, things that might sound right, few if any, fail
to come to Christ in salvation because they are convinced via
an argument that does not make sense to them. Few, if any, in
the Christian life fall away from their walk with the Lord
based upon arguments that don't make sense to them. And Paul
is saying, I am telling you this about Christ so that you might
have a defense against these plausible arguments that are
out there. Because most fall away from the
Christian life. Most don't do that. Few fall away from the Christian
life by means of thoughts or arguments or preaching or reasoning
that does not seem on the surface to make sense. You ever found
yourself a distance from God and you realized that it was
because of decisions you made in your life that at the moment
seem to make a lot of sense. I have to go this path. This
is the only path that seems to make sense to me. So I have to
go down this road, and this road is going to take me away from
God's people. It's going to take me away from
my ability to have time in my life to read God's Word and to
pray. It's going to take me away, and
these things seem to make sense. They're plausible arguments.
Paul says, I am telling you this and reminding you who Christ
is so that you will have a defense, so that you will not be beguiled
with enticing words, so that you will not be deluded with
probable, plausible arguments. There is a whole line of theological
study that's called philosophical theology. And it rests, its ultimate
reality is its man's ability to reason. It's a dangerous theology
because our minds are fallen. Our hearts are fallen. Jeremiah
said our hearts are desperately wicked. Who can even know them?
The psalmist in 139 says, God, open my heart and demonstrate
and display it to me because I don't really even know what's
there. So you show me what wickedness is there. We get away from the
very fundamental truth that life is Christ. Wisdom, understanding,
meaning, purpose, everything. All these things that we long
for. Joy, love, hope, peace, understanding. It's all Christ.
It's Jesus Christ. He is the preeminent one, as
we've studied. He is the central one in the
eyes of the Father himself. Christ is all in all. When we
get to heaven, it's not going to be us having a bunch of family
reunions in our mansions across the hilltop. It's going to be
all of us worshiping and honoring and praising joyfully the Son
of God, the light of the city, the one who came and became our
sacrifice, who promised and that in the Old Testament, all those
people looked for and looked toward in that day that He hung
on the cross. As we look back to that day,
it's all Christ. Whether you're looking forward
to Him, back to Him in time, in eternity, It doesn't really
make any difference. It's all Christ. You find yourself
a distance from him, though I bet you've fallen to a plausible
argument. Makes a lot of sense in your
mind. But when you come down to it, it's not a decision that
was made with Christ as the true center of your life. Satan is
a master at delusion by means of plausible arguments. He is
a master at this. He will, in his deceptive, deceitful,
hateful way, convince you that there is a way that you must
live that somehow separates you from the one who is all-knowing,
the one that life is all about, that is Christ. And there are
many plausible arguments today that affect, I believe, us as
Christians, particularly in this culture. Want to know one of
them? God wants me to be happy, so whatever makes me happy, God
must be okay with. It's a plausible argument. It
sounds rational. I know that God wants me to be
happy. He says so in His Word. So whatever makes me happy, God
must be okay with. Indeed, if it makes me happy
and it's in my life, God must have provided it. probable, plausible
argument. The problem is it's misguided
because the central thing is our happiness is wrapped up in
what? I say this so that you'll not
be deluded. Christ is all. Christ is our
wisdom, our understanding. Life itself is Christ. And we have this plausible argument
that Satan whispers in our ear and he's got many different men
today with many different large organizations and lining their
pockets and flying their jets across the country, telling people
what they want to hear. God just wants you to be happy.
And it's a plausible argument because the Word of God does
say God longs for your happiness. But your happiness It's going
to be completely tied. Your true and lasting eternal
happiness is tied to your knowledge and understanding of who Jesus
is. And you're giving your life for Him. And losing your life
for Him is when you find it. But isn't that a plausible argument?
God just wants me to be happy. So here's the plausible argument. Whatever makes me happy, God
must be okay with. This one makes a lot of sense
to us today because of the influence of our marketing culture. I saw
a commercial the other day, said a car should be judged by one
thing. And before I'd ever even saw
the commercial, I knew what they were going to say. It says, how
it makes you feel. Forget mileage, forget safety,
forget all these other more practical things. The most important thing
about a car, according to the people making the commercial,
is how it makes you feel. And I believe we are all slaves
to our emotions so much today. Life and the most important thing
that we judge life by is how it makes us feel rather than
what. I say this so that no one delude
you. Christ is all wisdom. Christ is understanding. Christ
is the all in all. How about another plausible argument?
I was not saved by works, so works don't have anything to
do with my Christian life. It's a plausible argument. It's
wrong, but it sure sounds good. We read Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and
we don't read verse 10. 2, 8, 9, that very famous set
of Scriptures. We are saved by faith, not of
ourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. And we stop there. And we don't
read verse 10, which says, we were saved unto good works. No, of course we were not saved
because of our works. No man could ever merit the mercy
and the grace of God, or it's not mercy and grace. Yet, Because
we were not saved by works does not mean that works and life
and a life obedient to God is not what the Christian life is.
Plausible argument though, I wasn't saved by works and so works just
doesn't have anything to do with my life. We could go on and on. My spouse is not the person God
wants them to be, so God will understand if I divorce them.
After all, I'm divorcing them so that I might find a godly
husband or wife. Plausible arguments. Plausible
arguments, they tend toward the delusion in the Christian life,
and it often takes this shape. The end justifies the means. Plausible arguments, Satan wraps
these things up and you believing that the end. Is worth the means,
but the problem is when we say things like that, we are saying
that in order to obey God's word, we have to do something contrary
to God's word. And that doesn't make any sense.
That's a plausible argument, but it's a false one. It's not
true. It's a lie. And again, of course,
when we say things like that, we see flaws in the thinking,
right? Most go something like this, in order to get to this
good end that God even talks about in his word, I have to
take steps that maybe they don't exactly align with his word,
but I'm going to have to do that in order to be obedient to his
word. Does anybody see the logical flaw in that thinking? But Satan
has for a long time, by the way, been working so that we don't
think logically. We just listen to what we're
told and the most important thing is how things make you feel.
plausible arguments, you know, the persuasive power of these
plausible arguments. Do you know what really gives
them the strength that they have? Because when we when we identify
them, if you put them on a whiteboard and you say, all right, you're
telling me that in order to obey God, I have to disobey God, that
all of a sudden makes a lot of sense. And we go, no, that can't
be. But do you know why persuasive and plausible arguments know
where their persuasive power really exists? We want them to
be true. We want these plausible arguments
that really drive us away from Christ. We want them to be true. We want it to be true that we
can do what we want, that God only wants us happy in the way
that we define that happiness. We want these arguments to be
true, but wanting them to be true does not make them true.
Wanting these things to be true does not make them true. One
of the results, I believe, of the fall and our sinful condition
is that we can make sense of sin. We can rationalize sin. When you really think about it,
that doesn't make any sense in the world. That we have an ability
to rationalize sin speaks not of our sanity, it speaks of our
insanity. Because sin is what? It is rebellion
against God. It's rebellion against the king. It is as if we think that we
can get away with this somehow. I posted this on Facebook, but
it just kept with me and I taught it. a couple of times now, but
this idea of God's eternity and how He sees all of time equally
vividly. Every detail of every day that
has ever passed, God sees it every moment for all the billions
of people that have lived He sees every second, every microsecond,
every nanosecond. God sees it from beginning to
end. He sees, as I said, the day that
Israel was marching around Jericho and the walls fell. He sees the
day that David killed Goliath. He sees the day that Moses was
there helping and guiding the children across the Red Sea.
He sees us now and He sees them all the same, equally in vivid
understanding and complete precision. And He sees every day from now
until the time that He says, Son, go back. I've had enough.
It's time. He sees every day from the beginning
to the end, from the first second that ticked off the clock to
the last second that ticks off the clock. God sees it. And we
justify rebellion against this God. It's insane. It speaks of our fallen nature,
our sinful nature, our carnal mind. God, His greatness is beyond
our ability to completely understand. His power is beyond anything
we can possibly fathom. He simply spoke, light be and
light was in the Hebrews, how it reads. It didn't didn't tax
him to do this. We've spent a couple of summers
now, a week or so in Montana and those mountains that are
as magnificent as they can be in those rivers. And I think
of the creating power of God and he was not taxed in the doing
it. And we justify sin because of
plausible arguments that seem to make sense, and many times
they make sense because we want them to make sense, because we
want to consume the decision on our own lives and in our own
lives and do what we want to do. It's rebellion. It's rebellion. In the early days of the church,
there were many challenges to the simplicity of the gospel
of Christ. If you ever find yourself wondering
or feeling as though it's going to be really complicated, I'm
in a really complicated situation to follow God. If you ever feel
like that, I'm going to propose to you that you've forgotten
that this really isn't complicated. You may want it to be complicated
because that gives you opportunity to do something in your life
that says it was just really complicated. No, it's not. Give
your life to Christ. That's it. It's not complicated.
The psalmist says that His Word is able to make even the simple
wise, because it's not complicated. He says, I'm not the author of
confusion. You do not need a PhD from a seminary to know what
I'm telling you. That's a wonderful thing to do if you've got the
time and the ability and the resources to do it, to expand
your knowledge of the Word of God. But that is not what you
need. This Bible is clear, simple. God tells us that even children
can know it. Or He wouldn't have told the
Hebrews in Deuteronomy, to teach their children these things every
day. So that means that children can understand it. And yes, children,
you're on the hook to understand it. God has spoken it, and it's
simple. In the early days of the church,
there were these constant challenges to the simplicity of the gospel.
These plausible arguments that ran contrary to the clear and
easy, simple teaching of the Word of God. And it came from
a couple of different directions, if we might put them into two
categories. One was from the Jewish religion of the day. These
religious traditions that man wanted to follow. Oh, you want
to be saved? That's fine. Jesus is the Son of God? That's
fine, but you've got to be circumcised. You've got to observe the law
of Moses. You can't eat this kind of meat. You've got to go
down this path of tradition, which was not at all what the
apostles had been teaching. It's not what Christ taught.
All of those things were things that were looking forward to
him. And in his fulfillment of those
things, they became unnecessary. But the Jewish circles, they
struggled with this Jewish tradition they begin to add as a requirement
to salvation. So that's one direction that
a challenge to the simplicity of the gospel came. Another challenge
came from what we might just call the pagan world, which really
was wrapped up in a primary fundamental belief that is referred to as
Gnosticism. You can't really know God. You
can't really know him. The only way you know him is
if you're one that has been especially enlightened. If you're one, you
can't really know him apart from being a person who's just been
especially enlightened your mind or, you know, some Eastern religious
mindset, actually, this enlightenment that comes. But both of these
lines of plausible argument are with us today. They're still
with us today. This idea of tradition and And
the Jewish mindset of, well, if you want to be a follower
of Christ, then you have to obey these other additional rules.
These are often dressed up as deep theology. Deep understanding
of Scripture, when in reality, they're not. Or maybe there's
the claim on the other side, again, of unique individual enlightenment. Paul warns the church of these
dangers, these dangers that can deter, can distract, can prevent
in the first place of you coming to Christ. And so he tells them
what the defense is. Scripture never just identifies
a problem without giving you the solution. Often in work situations,
people have come to me with problems and that's that's necessary,
but it's what's the solution? Scripture does not give just
the problem, it tells us what the solution is and he gives
it to us in verse six. This is the solution. This is
the defense against these probable, plausible arguments. I shouldn't
say probable, but plausible. These things that seem to make
sense, but in the end they don't. This is the defense. As you have
therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, in verse six, so walk
ye in him. And you say, how is that the
defense? Very simply stated again to restate
what the scripture just said. So as you began as a Christian
is how you continue as one. There's no nirvana to be found. There's no second enlightening
to be found. There's maturity to be gained.
Yes, but that maturity is found. How? The same way you found it
in the first place. As you begin your Christian life
is how you continue it. So how did you begin? Well, there's
a hint here that we just read. You received Christ Jesus. What?
The Lord. We often think that that's just
a title and it is, but it's a title that means something. Christ
Jesus, the Lord, when and if you got saved, you came before
God and you confess that Jesus is your Lord. Yes, your savior. but also your Lord, your King,
your Prince, the One that you follow is not simply... Listen
carefully to this. I want you to listen carefully
and I want you to hopefully understand what I'm trying to say. That
day that you got saved, it was not merely about what you wanted
from God. It was about your response to
the commandment of God, which was repent and believe. It was
not just about what you wanted from God. That's like going to
a king and saying, I want this, and him giving it to you, and
you not understanding that he's your king. It's about coming
to him and saying, you are my king. It was not simply about
this when you got saved, that you needed that or that you desired. It was about what God was commanding
you to do, which was repent for your sin and have faith. Christ and that burden that you
felt was because you had been called to that repentance and
you had not yet done so. And that conviction and that
guilt will remain with you until you do. You can quiet it. You can busy yourself with your
life. You can keep your mind occupied with many different
things to not think about this. But the truth is the same. When
you dig down deep enough, it's there. And if you don't deal
with it in time, You will deal with it in eternity, your guilt
before God. A type of preaching won't fill
a lot of houses today and a lot of church places, but it's just
true. It's true what the Bible says. You never grow beyond this
relationship with God, by the way. As you began, continue. As you began, walk that way.
You never grow beyond this relationship with God and Christ. Your service
as a member of a church for 50 years does not advance you beyond
the position of being a servant to your Lord. It doesn't put you in some kind
of place equal to no longer be commended by Him. Indeed, the
longer you serve Him sincerely, you know what you discover? You
don't discover the longer you serve God how much you're worth. You discover how much He is worth. You discover more and more reasons
to get rid of more and more things in your life, more and more things
crucified to your flesh. You discover more reason to humbly
and willfully and joyfully submit more and more of your life to
this King. You don't come to a place where
God has served you for 50 years and now you owe me. That's not
how you began and it's not how you continue. And this is not a harsh service
that we're speaking of as Christians. Our Lord is. We come to know
this. He's kind. He's compassionate. He's benevolent. He's loving. He's guiding. He's
directing. And He chastises and corrects
when we need to be chastised and correct. How many times as
children were you corrected? And in the moment, maybe you
didn't understand it. But as life continued to go behind you
and you began to learn more and more and you look back and you
think, I am so thankful for that correction. It was those times
of correcting that guided, not those times of the absence of
such. But this service to God is not
a harsh service, by the way. And I think sometimes we need
to protect ourselves against giving that idea, that impression
to the world that being a Christian is somehow this great burden
that doesn't bring joy. It ought to have a smile on our
face when we're serving the Lord. When we're loving one another
the way that God has called us to, this is something that should
bring joy and lightness to our life and less complicated. Because why? We know the simplicity
of life, which is what? Jesus is knowledge. Christ is
wisdom. Christ is understanding. Christ
is life. Everything is about Him. Nothing
is about me. And all of a sudden, you are
liberated from yourself. Liberated from the distraction
of making life about you. This service to God is not a
service that we are bound to by chains, bound to it because
of the love that we have for Christ our Lord. Are you following God because
you feel chained to him? Or are you following Him because
you can't get enough of Him? This is, by the way, why you
can't compel or force Christianity. We've got people of the Muslim
faith trying to compel their faith. And I will tell you this,
there have been people under the banner of Christianity through
history that have tried to do the same thing. But you can't
force this. You can't compel it. It must
be offered from a joyful heart that fully and freely submits
to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I think God gives me
sentences, and so this is probably not as profound to you as it
was to me, but I'll just read it. No sword, no whip, no chain,
no prison, and no army has ever made a true Christian out of
anyone. When we came to Christ and we
were saved, we realized that He was offering us the freedom
and the freedom from sin and the deliverance from destruction
that we could not gain on our own. And we freely confessed
Him, Lord. We freely said, He is my Lord. And how do you grow in your Christian
walk? Just like you began. I've been saved now, can't do
the math quickly in my head, 32 years. The more I know of him, the more
I desire to serve him. And when I start going down paths
of plausible arguments that, yeah, you know what? We can't
really give our whole life to Christ. That's kind of unreasonable.
The scripture is just giving us poetic language there. No,
no, it's not. Forsake yourself. Take up your
cross. Follow the Lord. And how you
continue in your life is how you began. Salvation changes
the course of your life. Does it not? And so walk in Him,
as the scripture says. As you began, so walk. Salvation
changes the course of your life. Now, depending on how old you
were, when you were saved, there may be a greater or a lesser
outward observance of the change. But there was a change. Absolutely,
positively, by the word of God, there's a change. And this change
is we're walking to a different place. We are walking to the
city, as Abraham put it, whose builder and maker is God. Regardless,
you realize that your life was no longer your own. Inwardly,
you knew that you had walking to do and that walking was after
your Lord. Jesus Christ shared with you
before the 100 most influential people in Western history, the
Western civilization. And Jesus is number two. The
author was asked, why is he number two? And he said, because the
people that say they follow him don't do what he said. You realize he's your Lord, don't
call him your Lord. And walk after someone else,
be it you or some man. Walk after the Lord. That's how
you continue this. That's the defense against plausible
arguments, because plausible arguments, you know what they
typically do? They typically make life easier for you. They're
typically about making things easier for you, and we want them
to be true, and so we listen to them. Walk as you began, and I say
it a thousand times, say it again. entered into the promised land,
they crossed a river on dry ground. When they left Egypt, they crossed
a river on dry ground. It was a different river, but
it was the same process. As you continue your Christian
life is how you began it. And so then defenses get built
in verse seven. You become rooted. built up in
him. I pray, I want you to think about
your own condition of heart right now. And I'm coming to a close
today. But I want you to bear with me
just a moment longer. I want you to think about your
Christian life. I want you to think about your heart, your mind,
your everyday walk with the Lord. And I want you to get an excitement
perhaps, or I want you to get encouraged by the fact that this
verse can be true about you. You can be rooted and built up
in him, Christ, and established in the faith as you have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. There is a four
pillar defense that we read in this seventh verse, and I'll
not take long to talk about them. But first, you'll be rooted in
Christ. rooted in him. What's that mean? It's the source
of your strength, the source of your stability, the source
of your growth in Christ is your being rooted in him. And the
thing about roots, you can't see it. You can't see him. My
father-in-law used to tell a story about a young boy, I believe
it was, that drew a picture, and there was an IQ test, and
he drew a picture of a tree, and they realized he was a very
intelligent boy. Remember how old he was? He was very young.
Because most children, when you tell them to draw a tree, what
do they draw? They draw what you can see of a tree. They draw the
trunk and the branches and the leaves. This boy drew an intricate
root system under the tree. The thing about roots is you
can't see them. But if you're rooted in Christ,
if you're following Christ, if He is everything to you, you
are going to establish roots in Him. that the storms of life
can blow, the wind can blow, the storms can come, the rain
can pound, and it won't matter because the source of your strength
is Christ. The very foundation of your Christian
walk is Christ. Not merely a religious way of
life, Not merely a particular church, not merely some need
to be identified by others as a Christian. None of that. That's
not the roots, because I'm telling you, those things will not hold. Christ Himself holds you firm. He Himself is the root of your
Christian life, or you have no Christian life. He is the source
from which that trunk of the tree grows. He is the source
from which those leaves then provide shelter to others around
you. He is the root of everything.
This root, this fourfold pillar, first one is you are rooted in
Christ. The second one, you're built
up in Him. And the idea of that original Greek is there's something
that's built on top of something else. You are built on top of
those roots. You cannot see the foundation.
You cannot see my salvation that I experienced when I was 11 year
old boy in Southwest Missouri. You can't see that. But I sure
hope you can see some evidences that have grown beyond those
roots. I hope you can look at my life and say, you know what?
He's not perfect. And it wouldn't take you but
one day to figure that out if you followed me around. But you
see some evidence of the roots of Christ in my life. rooted
up in him, but not just rooted in him, built up. Once you're
rooted in Christ, you'll begin naturally to build up. It's just
natural, right? You ever think of a little boy
who wants to be taller and says, sir, make me taller. I want to
be taller. I want to be taller. Is any taller? No, it's like a Christian
wanting. I want to be more mature. I want to be more mature. And
none of that talk or thought or doing anything makes you any
more mature. What makes you more mature? Rooted in Christ, loving
Christ, following Christ, just letting him guide your life,
direct your life, and you're going to be built up in Him.
That's the second pillar of this defense that will be built up
against plausible arguments that will send you down the wrong
path in your life. You'll be built up in Him. Third,
you will be established in the faith. And the Greek word again
is the idea of adding strength, becoming even stronger in your
faith. As a moment ago, I'm 32 years.
I've been saved. I wonder if I'm how much stronger
I am in the faith. I hope some. But stronger in
the faith. Rooted, built up, established. This is why, by the way, young
people should heed and watch and thank God for older people
in their life that are living a Christian walk, because those
people are strong in the faith. They can give you right guidance.
Our culture, by the way, we'll put a toe on our soapbox, it
exalts youth and it just discards age and wisdom. We're more interested
in what Justin Bieber has to say than what a man of God preaching
behind a pulpit has to say. It's dangerous for our culture.
You'll be established in this faith and then the last pillar,
you'll be thankful. Thankfulness. Thankfulness is
not merely something you should do. It's a defense in your Christian
life. Thankfulness is. Because how
many of those plausible arguments that would send us down the wrong
path are at their root about something in our life that we
think we need? Some sense of covetousness, envy,
something we want. And that is the opposite of thankfulness. You'll be thankful. There's little
that provides a more ready and effective defense against sin
and rebellion against God than a heart of thankfulness to him.
Thankfulness drives out covetousness, envy, strife, discontentment,
all of which are ingredients Satan uses to tempt us to turn
from God. All of those things. Thankfulness. Are you rooted in Christ? Are
you being built up in him? Are you established and stronger
in the faith today than you were yesterday? Perhaps more importantly,
are you going to be tomorrow and six months from now and a
year from now when people around you need your strength that's
based in Christ? And this world needs people that
are rooted and built up and established in Christ and thankful to him. Remember how Paul described those
who were ungodly? He called them unthankful. A
lack of thankfulness in your life is an ugly thing, and I'll
raise my hand first. Too many times in my life I've
not simply been thankful, even in the midst of trial, because
James says we're to be thankful for those things, too. Count
them precious. So check your defenses today.
Check them. If I were to go around and I
were to ask you, how are they? How's the shape of the pillars
of defense in your life? Are you rooted in Christ? Is
he truly indeed your Lord? If he is, and that's an if, But
if he is, are you being built up in him daily? Are you striving
to serve him again, not by chains, but by love? Are you being more
and more established in this following of Christ? And the
answer to those questions is, does the fourth pillar exist
in your life? Are you thankful? Or is there
always something else? Always something else. God, you
know, when we're small, Lord, I'll serve you when I get out
of high school. This peer pressure is too much. I just, I'll serve
you when I get out of high school and I'm not worried about what
people think about me. Then you get into college. Lord, I'm just
too busy. Too much to do, too much responsibility.
You begin to get overwhelmed by life. The very time that you
should be most investing in your walk with the Lord is when you
get so distracted with the things of life. I'll serve you, Lord,
when I get that. Then, you know, Lord, I'll serve
you when I get married. I'll serve you when the kids are out
of the house. I'll serve you when I retire.
Always a delay. Always a delay. We wake up one
day and life is behind us. And I don't want to be discouraging
today because God given us life today. Don't let yesterday prevent
you from where you need to be today and tomorrow. But check
your defenses. How are they? How is your spiritual
wall around your heart? Remember the plausible arguments
as we close, we spoke of before, God just wants me to be happy.
So whatever makes me happy, he must be OK with. God just does
these things for me, so I must be okay in His sight. But the
defenses Paul speaks of here will help you identify those
threats and defend against them. Think of how many false paths,
and I'm going to close with these few things. Think of how many
false paths you would have avoided in your life if you were truly
rooted in Christ. Think of how many false paths
you would have avoided in your life if you were continually
being built up in Him. Think of how many false paths
you would have avoided in your life if you were more and more
established in Christ, seeing your life and the world the way
He does. And think of the many false paths
you would have avoided in your life if your thankfulness in
Christ was where it ought to have been. Know the dangers,
prepare the defenses, because the enemy has got plausible argument
after plausible argument to talk you out of serving God in your
life. And the end of that path is sorrow
and pain and separation. I'm begging you to give your
life to Christ, if you've not. And if you have, that you truly
make him every day your Lord. Let's have a song.
Defending Against Delusion
Series Colossians
| Sermon ID | 9171620974 |
| Duration | 45:49 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Colossians 2:4-7 |
| Language | English |
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