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In Christ we find all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and if we are rooted in Christ, then no one will delude us with plausible arguments. We have been reading through Colossians chapter 2 verses 6 through 23 this week, and today we're going to do our five-point summary of what we have read, so that we might know further that Christ is preeminent, and we are completely satisfied in our Savior when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. The Loch Ness Monster is a Scotland myth that's been around for over 100 years. There were people around Loch Ness who claimed to see the monster, and they would tell legends of the monster, but there was no proof of its existence until a photo was submitted to the Daily Mail in 1934.
It is referred to now as the Surgeon's Photograph, and you probably know the picture I'm talking about, if you know anything about the Loch Ness Monster. It's that black and white photo. It's kind of blurry.
You see the little dinosaur-looking head coming up out of the water, and that picture really made the myth take off. For 60 years, Loch Ness was flooded with tourists, no pun intended, people looking for the monster.
More stories about sightings emerged, and there were other strange photographs that came out of that as well, but in 1994, a man named Christian Sperling confessed to the whole thing being a hoax. Sperling's father-in-law, Marmaduke Weatherall, had staged the Surgeon's Photograph by attaching a fake monster head to a toy submarine, and the whole thing was concocted to get back at his employer, a newspaper called the Daily Mail, whom he previously worked for, and they accused him of some inflammatory remarks and things like that.
Weatherall had Dr. Wilson submit the photograph because it would give a little bit more credibility coming from a respectable name. So that's the story of where the Surgeon's Photograph came from. Everything that hived up the Loch Ness Monster myth had now been exposed, so end of the myth, right?
Case closed. There's no Loch Ness Monster. Everybody go home now, right? Of course not. What happened then was people became more scrutinizing of Sperling's confession than they were of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster.
Cryptozoologists called Sperling's confession the hoax, but the Loch Ness Monster was real, and surely you understand why, right? The very fact that there are cryptozoologists in the world, they will defend their right to exist and fool people and make money off of it.
Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience involving the search for animals whose existence has not yet been proven due to the lack of evidence. Things like werewolves and vampires, the New Jersey Devil, the jackalope, Koopa Chabra.
Okay, not to be confused with La Cucaracha. That's—I always get the terms mixed up. Anyway, I'm sure there are businesses and tourist attractions around Loch Ness who also regarded Sperling's confession as a hoax, although they were probably charlatans because they wanted the tourists buying the Loch Ness stuff.
The BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel, they have all banked off of this as well because they've had their specials with titles of things like The Hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. But yeah, the whole Loch Ness thing was completely fabricated.
We know who did it, and yet people continue to believe that there could be a plesiosaur at the bottom of Scotland's famous lake, which by this point would be over 100 years old, if it did exist. When false ideas are exposed in this world, generally the response is to blame something else.
No, no, no, you're the hoax. Or Christianity comes up against any of these false ideas in the world, and then Christianity becomes the target. Oh, yeah, well, Jesus was made up, and he didn't really exist either, is what some of those skeptics will say.
There are false ideas in this world, things even more ridiculous than the Loch Ness Monster that people will stake their lives on, harming themselves and others. People think they need the lottery to be happy, or they need porn or alcohol in order to be fulfilled, or they need their daily horoscope to cope with the day.
That Darwinian evolution is the origin of life, that children in the womb are not really alive, that love and meaning and truth are just the result of chemical processes in the brain, but in the scheme of this accidental universe, they have no real lasting value.
They will build their entire philosophies around those ideas and get defensive when you present to them something like the truth of Jesus Christ. No, no, no, the Bible is what's made up, not my idea. And all of those things, they will continue to cling to, things that are rooted not in Christ, but in humanism and worldliness.
Despite being able to show them how their ideas are completely false and unfulfilling and made up, people will go right on believing the myth instead of the truth. The Bible tells us that false teaching is a judgment of God.
We read in 2 Thessalonians 2, 11 and 12, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
If we hold fast to Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, as he says of himself in John 14, 6, then we will be saved. But clinging to these worldly myths that are rooted in the world and not Christ will lead to our destruction and we will perish.
All this week, we've been looking at Colossians 2, 6 -23, the instruction that is to be rooted and built up in Christ, established in the faith so that no one takes us captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
We come back to that passage again today so that we can draw from this five points, reviewing everything that we've looked at over the course of the week. So in our Bibles, Colossians 2, 6 -23, and let's open up here with prayer.
Dear God, I pray that as we have studied these things this week, and as we review everything that we've looked at over the course of the week, that our hearts will be encouraged, that we will be knit together in love, that we will reach all of the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, and whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
And may we store up these things and be rooted in these things so that no one may dilute us with plausible arguments. Help us to rejoice in the goodness that has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus and find our faith firm in Him.
Make this possible by your Spirit, showing us these things today from your word. And we pray and ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Colossians 2, starting in verse 6, therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. For in Him, in Christ Jesus, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
And you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority. In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised Him from the dead.
And you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to its regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings.
These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. So going back to the beginning of this section in Colossians chapter two, starting in verse six, and we are going to draw out five points to review what we have read over the course of the week.
And point number one is this, be thankful to God for his wisdom so that no one may delude you with worldly wisdom. All right, be thankful for God's wisdom so no one deludes you with worldly wisdom. And we have in verse six, it said, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
When we are thankful for the knowledge that God has given to us through his son, Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Again, as we read back in verse three, then we will not desire any of these other kinds of worldly wisdom, thinking that something else in the world will give us fulfillment that we do not have in Christ.
We are to be completely fulfilled in Christ. We are to find the greatest value in the wisdom and knowledge that comes from God. And then everything that we learn in the world rolls up into praise to God.
There are things that you will have to learn in the world that for the most part will appear to be secular knowledge. You know, maybe the things that you have to learn in order to do your job in a proper way.
It's not that those things are not godly just because they didn't come out of the Bible. It's that all of that knowledge and wisdom that you learn about in this world, you know, comes from God. All of it comes from God.
So anything that you learn and know is able to roll up into praise to God. God, thank you for giving me the ability to do this task and giving me the knowledge to know how to do it. But there are things in this world that are going to try to draw us away from godly things, and people will tell us this is what you need to truly get by in this world.
Darwinism is one of those things. There was that debate, I guess last year it was, between Bill Nye and Ken Ham, where the subject of the debate was can a person be a young earth creationist and still be able to survive in the scientific community?
And of course, Bill Nye took the position that no, you have to believe the universe is millions and billions of years old if you want to have any success in science. A person simply cannot succeed in science without those things.
And I think Ken Ham did a very excellent job in showing, oh yeah, there are scientists that have been very successful in the scientific field by believing in a very young earth. So there are those people who are going to say, no, you got to believe this way in order to be successful at anything.
And Darwinism is just one of those things in our society that if you don't understand Darwinism, you know, how can you even survive? Before Charles Darwin devised Darwinian evolution, ancient civilizations for thousands of years have believed that humans came out of animals.
Darwin was the first to take the idea that was unquestionably pagan and gave it a scientific explanation. Those who are secular enough to believe Darwinism still believe like the pagans did that people and animals are spiritually connected.
It's the same belief held for thousands of years just in a different package. Ecclesiastes 1, 9 through 10 says this, what has been is what will be and what has been done is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said, see, this is new. It is already been in the ages before us. So any worldly wisdom, none of it's new, despite somebody want to be able to say, I've got the knowledge that you need to have in order to succeed at life.
It's probably something that's been wrong for a long time, just put in a new package. So point number one, as we summarize these things from Colossians chapter two, be thankful to God for his wisdom so that no one may delude you with worldly wisdom.
Here's point number two, be submissive to Christ's authority so that you are not persuaded by any worldly authority. Going on in verse eight, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition and according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.
For in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. There are those out there who tout themselves as experts. They're claiming that you have to listen to what they have to say because they have all the knowledge is their authority rooted in Christ or is it rooted in worldliness?
There are some human authorities out there that we should obey, not because it is a human institution, but because it has been ordained by God. For example, first Peter two, 13 through 17, where it says, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
For this is the will of God. All right. It's not that that human institution was established according to humanism, but it was established by the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Verse 16, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. In John Bunyan's famous work, A Pilgrim's Progress, after Christian escapes from the slew of despond, he comes across a man named worldly wise man.
Worldly tries to convince Christian that the reason why his way is so cumbersome is because he's listening to the words in his book, which of course is the Bible. Worldly tries to direct Christian to the advice of Mr. Legality and one whose name is civility.
In other words, worldly wisdom will try to point us to peace by means of doing good deeds and just being polite to one another away from the Bible. Just do things the way that, you know, you can do them on your own and you'll be fine.
But as Christian tries to go to Mr. Legality's house, he actually feels his burden get heavier upon him. He also encounters flashes of fire and is stricken with fear. This is the way of a person who tries to attain righteousness according to worldly standards.
They take on a burden that they cannot bear and they will always be in fear of God's judgment, wondering if they've done enough or have been good enough to earn his favor. We cannot earn God's favor this way.
It is only through Christ placing our trust in Christ Jesus. In him, there is no fear because as it says in 1 John, perfect love casts out fear and fear has to do with punishment. This is why Jesus said, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That's in Matthew chapter 11. We still must obey the commands of Christ as we read in 1 John 5 3 for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome for it is in Christ that we've been set free.
We are free to obey and do so in a way that is pleasing to God because of the work that Christ did, not because of what we do. There is joy when we submit to the authority of Christ, which leads to eternal life.
But to try and listen to listen to and follow the authority of the world, that's burdensome and it leads to death. So again, point number two, be submissive to Christ's authority so that you are not persuaded by any worldly authority.
Here's point number three. Be holy as God is holy so that you are not conformed to the pattern of this world. Romans 12, one and two, where it says to us, present yourselves as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the Lord.
This is your spiritual act of worship. Worship is not just attending church. It's not just doing Bible study like we are doing now. It's not just knowing the words to your favorite praise songs. Worship is what you do with your body all the time, whether you are at work or at play, whether you are with family or you are with strangers, whether you are hanging out with other Christians or you are witnessing to the lost and unbeliever.
In all of these ways, we are to submit ourselves as holy and pleasing sacrifices to the Lord. And this is worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world. Verse two goes on to say, but be transformed by renewing your mind and then you will see God's good, pleasing and perfect will.
First Peter 1, 14 through 16 tells us this as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, the sin that you followed along with before you came to Christ. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.
Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. In Colossians 2, 11, we read in him. Also, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead and you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh.
God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
So we are to be holy as God is holy, circumcised, cut off from the world and united with Christ so that we are not conformed to the pattern of this world. That's point number three. Here's point number four.
Be established in the faith so that no one can disqualify you. All right, as we go on to read, therefore, since we are cut off from the world and united with Christ, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.
We are to be established in the faith, knowing that there are things that we can do that are perfectly acceptable and pleasing to God that roll up into praise as worship, and we don't need anybody to tell us.
You better not do that or God's not going to be happy with you. We need to be fully convinced of these things. Hebrews 5, 12 through 14 says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again.
The basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child, but solid food is for the mature for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
So if we are rooted in Christ, if we are established in the faith abounding in Thanksgiving, we grow in maturity, then nobody is going to lead us astray by any of these worldly precepts. No one will disqualify us for anything that we do because we are firmly established in Christ Jesus.
So that's point number four. Point number five is this. Be heavenly minded so that you do not submit to human regulations. And as Paul goes on to talk about, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive to the world, do you submit to regulations?
Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings. These indeed have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism in severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
So a person tells you, don't do this, don't taste that, don't touch this. And those are the things that you need to follow in order to find pleasure in God. But though they have an appearance of wisdom, yeah, it makes sense.
I'm not supposed to do that. And that's what's pleasing to God. Our pursuit is supposed to be Christ. We're supposed to be completely headlong toward Christ Jesus not tiptoeing lines and around boundaries and going, OK, I can go this close to the line, but as long as I don't cross it, then I'm still pleasing to the Lord.
Just focus yourself entirely on Christ Jesus so that you're not submissive to human regulations. You are heavenly minded. You're hidden with Christ in God, which is what we're going to be talking about next week as we go on in Colossians 3.
In Romans 14, 20 through 23, we read this, Do not for the sake of food destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
So let us grow in maturity in Christ Jesus, and we will be established in the faith and be able to protect ourselves from the guilt that would come about by anybody who would try to accuse us of doing something that is only according to human precepts and teachings and not according to Christ.
So going back through our five points again here. Number one, be thankful to God for his wisdom so no one may delude you with worldly wisdom. Point number two, be submissive to Christ's authority so that you are not persuaded by any worldly authority.
Point number three, be holy as God is holy so that you are not conformed to the pattern of this world. Point number four, be established in the faith so no one can disqualify you. And point number five, be heavenly minded so that you do not submit to human regulations.
Our great God continue to show us these things as we have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Help us to walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith and abounding in thanksgiving. We are thankful to you for all things.
We are completely satisfied in our Lord Jesus Christ and want for nothing else except for what Christ can give to us. For in him we have all things. We are grateful to our God for the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord in whose name we pray.
Amen. There's a myth that Moses had a stutter. Yeah, the same Moses that led Israel out of Egypt and wrote the first five books of the Bible. That myth has been perpetuated by what appears on this poster and the various forms of it floating around on the internet.
But the myth comes from a misunderstanding regarding words Moses said about himself. When God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh, let my people go, Moses said he couldn't do it because he was ineloquent, slow of speech, had uncircumcised lips.
But Moses was just making excuses because he didn't want to do it. Oh Lord, please send someone else. And how did God respond? By getting angry at him for his whining. So God let Moses' brother Aaron be his mouthpiece and eventually, Moses did address Pharaoh and the Israelites himself.
One of the ways that we can interpret the Old Testament is by how the New Testament writers interpret it. For example, the speech of Stephen in Acts 7 reveals things about Moses upheld by Jewish tradition, like how old he was when he killed an Egyptian.
He was 40. And how old he was when God appeared to him in the burning bush. He was 80. Yeah, that's much older than he looks here, here, and here. Stephen also says that even before Moses was called, he was well-educated, mighty in words and in deeds.
He was one of the greatest orators Israel ever had. Moses didn't have a stutter. He was just making excuses to the point that God rebuked him. Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind?
Is it not I, the Lord? Now, therefore, go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak. Indeed, Moses spoke the very words of God, clearly, when we understand the text. I don't have a question to take related to that video.
Just seemed like a good what video to play. Hey, I want to remind you, encourage you once again, as we are halfway through our study of Colossians here, we still have chapters three and four to go. Four will go a little bit faster because it's not as content heavy.
But anyway, I still want to encourage you to be reading through the book of Colossians at least once per week, all four chapters, because you keep these things fresh in your mind and you keep it all in context as we go through what's called exposition or exegetical preaching and kind of going through it a piece at a time.
Sometimes it's easy to lose the context or the full body of the message that Paul is meaning to share with the Colossians. So as you read all of these things together, it helps to keep those things fresh in your mind.
And also you're kind of reading ahead as to what we're going to get to. And maybe it won't make as much sense to you at first. But then as we go through it, then your eyes start to be opened and your heart receiving to the words that the spirit is communicating to you in new and fresh ways.
And so encouraging you to do that once again, that's been my challenge as we have studied through the book of Colossians that we might know Christ as preeminent. The word that Paul uses in Colossians 1 18 and know that we are fully satisfied in our savior.
Thank you so much for listening to the broadcast. We'll get into chapter three next week. Let's once again conclude in prayer. Our wonderful heavenly father, we thank you for an opportunity such as this and through this medium, such as the Internet that we might be able to use this to learn God's word and apply these things to our hearts, our lives and everything that we do, everything that we put our hands to.
May it be in glory and in worship to you. May we learn more about what this means as we study this book together.
And pray and ask this in Jesus name. Amen. This has been When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com.
If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again next week as we grow together in God's word when we understand the text.