Firmly in Christ - Colossians 2:1-5

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August 8, 2021 - Morning Service Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, CA Firmly in Christ - Colossians 2:1-5

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All right, good morning. Welcome to Faith Bible Church, and it's great to see all of you here.
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Welcome to those that are tuning in remotely, and we know that there's many folks, some that have illnesses and various ailments that don't allow them to be here, and our prayers are with you, and pray for healing and for God's speed in helping you through a difficult time, because we do serve a merciful
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God. In announcements, we had our first Sunday school this morning,
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Dell Sunday School, at 9 .30, and if you missed it this week, there's always next week and the following week, and then every week thereafter, so join us at 9 .30
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Sunday mornings. And last Sunday, we also had our first—it's nice to say first—first prayer meeting at six o 'clock in the evening.
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There will be another one this evening, and so please join us for that. It was a good time of fellowship and just gathering to pray with one another.
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Somebody mentioned that we don't take offerings anymore. Well, we don't pass the plate, but we still need the
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Lord's offerings to exist as a church. There is a box at the back of the church in the foyer that you can use, so we aren't passing around that plate, but we do still need to trust in the
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Lord for funds to continue the mission and the purpose of our church, so that's in the foyer just as a reminder.
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Okay, and I think that's all I have in the way of announcements, unless anybody else has anything they want to add.
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No? Okay, well, as we prepare for our worship service, I want to read from Revelation 5, starting at verse 8, where John is calling on his people.
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They're in really a dire strait, and he's telling them to forget their struggles and to picture themselves in a heavenly choir, surrounded by angels.
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And this should be, it's a great picture for us, and as we get to the end of that passage, just imagine in your mind you being in that choir and us being in heaven, and that this is just kind of a mere shadow of what it's going to be like in heaven, but you're practicing, you're preparing.
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We're preparing for the day that we are all going to be in glory with God, so you can just listen in.
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Revelation 5, 8, Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the
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Lamb, each having a harp and a gold and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our
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God, and we shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and a number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands and thousands, saying with a loud voice,
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Worthy is a Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
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And every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
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I heard saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the
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Lamb forever and ever. Then the four living creatures said, Amen.
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For the twenty -four elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever.
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That's the God that we serve. Praise God. Let's pray together. Lord God, we do thank you that you have gathered us this morning, that we can worship you even in our limited way.
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Father, I pray that our hearts would be full of the Holy Spirit, that we would be waiting in anticipation for what you would show us, what we can learn, how we might honor you and worship you,
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Father, in a great way. God, we ask for your blessing this morning on the folks that aren't here, that you would heal them, that you would care for them as only you can,
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Father, but that we would be good hearers today, Father, that you would be pleased with our offerings of sacrifice and praise and that we just would appreciate and look forward to hearing the word and the message that you would give
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Pastor Ilgen liberty as he expresses what is on his heart, which you placed there, and that we would be good hearers,
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Father. So thank you for this day. Thank you for the privilege of serving you in this way, that you might be honored again and that you would be glorified in everything that we do.
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We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Please turn to Colossians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5.
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Colossians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. For I want you to know what a great conflict
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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 riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the
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Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
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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.
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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we thank you that you have revealed to us the mystery of God, which is
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Christ. God, we thank you that all wisdom and knowledge are found in you.
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And Father, we pray that we would treasure Christ as such. And Father, we pray that your
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Holy Spirit would work in all of our hearts to shape us to become more like your son
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Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen. In the history of the church, one of the most common threads of false teaching is salvation through works.
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Now, this does not mean that the false teachers proclaim that we're saved only through works, but they teach that Christ's work on the cross is not enough and we must do our part.
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For example, the Catholics believe that a person is saved only after baptism.
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That's how they receive the saving grace of Lord Jesus Christ. That's why they baptize their infants so early on, lest they die before baptism.
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And absent is the account of the thief on the cross, the right side of Jesus who confessed
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Jesus is Lord and Jesus promised that he would be saved.
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And he had no chance of getting baptized because he was crucified. And this view of salvation through works is problematic because when we add our part, our works to salvation, it diminishes
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Christ's work for our salvation. In the evangelical church, the temptation to place the significance, to place significance on our works still lingers.
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Many celebrity pastors are jumping in the bandwagon of the social justice gospel.
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They view that social justice must be there, though social justice work must be done by the church in order to do the gospel work.
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As if the gospel is incomplete without our effort of social justice, it completely distorts the complete atoning work of Jesus on the cross.
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If Jesus' work on the cross depends on our social justice effort, we would all still be condemned to hell because we would fail that.
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Luther's second verse to his hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, summarizes this really well.
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Did we in our own strength confide? Our striving would be losing. We're not the right men on our side, the men of God's own choosing.
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Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabbath, his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle.
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It is not up to our strivings. It is not up to our works. It is not up to our strength, but our dependence is on God's solution,
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Jesus. Today, Paul begins to attack the
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Colossian heresy directly, and the solution Paul gives to us is still the same,
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Jesus. And that leads to my main point. We guard against the false teaching together as a church by holding onto the true knowledge,
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Christ. We guard against false teaching together by holding onto the true knowledge,
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Christ. First, what do we do as the church?
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That leads to my first point. We must be united in the correct knowledge of God in Christ.
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We must be united in the correct knowledge of God in Christ. So after generally describing
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Paul's toil for the gospel last week, he narrows it down to his specific struggle for the
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Colossian church and other churches around who have not seen him in person.
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Verse two, I mean verse one, for I want you to know what a great conflict
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I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.
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Because Paul is imprisoned, he has been prevented from visiting the church in Colossae and churches around, and that's modern day
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Turkey. Yet, as the apostle to the Gentiles, he is actively struggling for the church.
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Paul is personally involved against the false teaching in Colossae.
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We can only imagine what kind of intercessory prayer Paul is lifting up to God for the sake of these churches around.
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And one recent event that illustrates this well is when the
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Canadian government arrested the faithful Canadian pastors who proclaimed the gospel in person during the pandemic.
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Churches around the world interceded for them. Although most of us have never visited
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Alberta, right? Many churches, many pastors, many congregants prayed for these pastors that they may continue to spread the gospel, that they may find justice, and that God would still use them mightily to spread the gospel wherever they are.
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Similarly, Paul, who has never seen these people, is actively and continuously toiling for them so that they would hold fast to the correct faith.
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What was Paul toiling for? The main purpose of Paul's suffering was, verse two, that their hearts may be encouraged.
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The heart in Hebrew culture, in the Hebrew culture, signify the core of the inner being.
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It was the center of the person's will, his desires, his emotions, and his thoughts.
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The purpose of Paul's struggle for the church is that our hearts may be encouraged, that our hearts may be strengthened.
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What does that look like? First, our hearts are encouraged when they are knit together in love.
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This is a bodily metaphor. This makes sense because twice in the first chapter,
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Paul described the church as the body of Christ. The same word is used in Ephesians 4 .16,
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which Jim read today, and it unpacks the concept of being knit together, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
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Our hearts are encouraged, our hearts are strengthened when the church gathers and functions as the body of Christ.
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And what keeps us together? Love. Of course, this is love for Christ, but it is also love for one another.
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The encouragement of our hearts amidst false teaching, trials, comes from our unity in love.
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This is a beautiful metaphor. Everyone in the church is to be intertwined and working together in love, to use another metaphor, like every thread in a tapestry.
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That's the type of unity that encourages us. And in that unity, we strive to know and be fully assured in Jesus.
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And many of you have experienced this already at this church. There is a difference between hanging out with your
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Christian brothers and sisters, and then hanging out with your non -Christian friends and family.
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It's important to do both, but you know there's a deeper connection with your
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Christian brothers and sisters. Why is that? First, this shows that Christianity is not a solo religion.
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One of the most common tips that you hear from celebrities is meditation, transcendental meditation.
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I don't know how effective it is, but it's something you do for yourself and by yourself.
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It's not communal. Here, Paul says
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Christianity is about community. It is not about you.
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It's about others. The Bible is full of one another commands here.
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Love one another. Honor one another above yourselves. Build up one another.
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And nowhere are we told to love yourself. In fact, by our sinful, selfish nature, that is our default mode.
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We care about, we care way too much about ourselves already. Instead, we're commanded to love
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God and love others. And whatever we do, we say, or we think, we place
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God's best for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Love is naturally self -sacrificial.
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Love does not draw attention to itself, the person who does the loving.
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It may be costly at times. Loving will hurt at times.
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But love is what binds the body of Christ together.
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Hence, on Sunday mornings, we are commanded to come gather physically as a church, as the body of Christ.
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And I understand that there are some of you who cannot physically be in person due to illnesses or family situations.
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And in that case, please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like some of us to visit you, pray for you and pray with you.
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However, there are also those who have neglected to meet together on the
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Lord's day because the online service became more convenient.
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The online service is less awkward for you. The online service suits your schedule better.
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It is also true that there are preachers on YouTube who teach much better than I do, whose sermons will get your tears to roll down your cheeks every time.
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However, this does not change the biblical view that the church is a gathering of God's people as a community.
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We, as the body of Christ, must gather consistently. You and your laptop in your bedroom do not constitute a community.
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Second, Paul describes what it looks like. Our church is supposed to look intimate.
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We're not just friends that schedule to see each other on Sunday mornings, but our lives must be knit together.
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We must be selfless with our time and resources for each other.
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And this is something I've seen a lot at Faith Bible Church, and we do it really well.
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We have been. When someone is unwell or at the hospital, you all find different ways to visit, different ways to be helpful.
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Knit together in love also means we can't be satisfied with superficial conversations where we're just barely scratching the surface.
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We ought to intentionally pursue one another, ask to meet up regularly, to read the
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Bible, or even to evangelize together. Keep each other accountable on how you're growing in faith.
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Share your struggles and sins with those whom you trust so they may help you and pray with you.
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That's what discipleship is, and it characterizes a healthy church, and the church need to continue doing that.
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Then Paul shows the goals of our hearts being encouraged. First, attaining to all riches of all of the full assurance of understanding.
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Our goal as the church is to attain all riches of the full assurance of understanding.
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The heretics claim that there are deeper knowledge and understanding aside from Christ, and this probably shook many new believers as they're wondering, what more do we need after Christ, after learning about Christ?
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However, Paul reassures them the church can attain all the riches of the full assurance of understanding.
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All the riches mean the death of wisdom from Christ is comprehensive.
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Christ is not lacking, but is completely fulfilling. God lavishes us with the clearest revelation and understanding of Christ, and this is not just some partial understanding like you found a piece of a puzzle, but Christ is the full set.
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Next, the full assurance signifies the certainty of understanding.
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There is no hint of doubt in what we know of Christ. Compared to the false hidden knowledge of the
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Colossian heretics, the understanding that comes from Christ is firm and unshakable.
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The certainty, this certainty, is important because the false teachers often plant doubts in the church to get the believers to look away from Christ, to search elsewhere.
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However, Paul tells us here that there is the utmost certainty in Christ.
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We can be fully assured in Christ. What does this certainty look like?
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If you ever go skydiving, whether it is your first time or the hundredth time, when you jump out of that plane, you pull the string for the parachute to open.
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Why? Why? Because you are certain that it will open.
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It does not matter whether you jump off the plane with your teeth chattering and your knees shaking, or whether you do a backflip.
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You only jumped out because you were fully assured that the parachute will save you.
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No one in the right mind would jump out if they weren't fully certain of that parachute.
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In a similar yet greater way, we can be fully assured of our understanding of Christ.
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We can be fully certain in what Christ promises us. He alone is fully sufficient.
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There's no knowledge or wisdom you're lacking from Christ. Lastly, our hearts are encouraged when the goal of the church is the knowledge of the mystery of God.
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Knowledge in the ancient Hebrew culture signifies more than just knowing some facts, like knowing that the earth is round or the earth revolves around the sun.
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Knowledge is inherently relational. Knowledge is personal.
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It completely affects how we live. The knowledge affects every part of our lives, the knowledge of Christ, the mystery of God.
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It affects us emotionally. It affects us socially. It affects us even physically.
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And for those of you who missed last week, the mystery of God is the revealed redemptive plan in Christ.
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We covered this in depth last week, so I will cover it more concisely today.
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All throughout the Old Testament, it remained a mystery how the
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God of the Jews will fulfill the promise given to Israel that he will reign over all nations.
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The global worship of the Lord. How could the
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God of Israel, a rather small country compared to the world, bless all the families of the world through Abraham?
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Moreover, as Gentiles, we were separated from this
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God. Only the Jews were considered the true people of God in the ancient times.
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We Gentiles were outside of God's family, and it seemed like a mystery as to how we would belong to him.
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Then Christ, God himself, entered the world, and he dealt with the only problem that was separating us from God.
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Sin. Sin was the great chasm that divided us from God. Sin was the stain that we could not wash away ourselves.
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In fact, we were completely satisfied in our sins. We had no problem committing evil thoughts, evil speech, evil actions against each other, and ultimately against God.
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This was a huge problem because, as Harold read today, God is infinitely holy.
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If you even try to imagine Revelation 5, he's surrounded by holy, holy, super holy beings.
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You would wonder, how can we even approach the throne room? But what did
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Revelation 5 say? The Lamb who was slain was in the center. It was only through him that we could approach the holy, holy, holy
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God. He cannot stand sin, because he is completely good and pure.
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But God, in his loving kindness, knew that there was one righteous being who could solve that problem.
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His only begotten son, Jesus. That's why God the Son became human.
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He lived a perfect, sinless life on your behalf, and bore our sins fully on the cross, and faced the full wrath of God that we deserved, so that we would be forgiven and adopted into his family.
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And on the third day, Christ rose from the dead, which is the foretaste of the great resurrection for all who believe in him.
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Christ is the revealed mystery of God. Only through Christ does
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God redeem the whole world, not just Israel, but the Gentiles also.
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Only through Christ are we brought into his family. The alienated people outside of God's community finally become his people in Christ, and he is the mystery, not some
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Colossian heresy. And this is why
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Paul claims that in Christ is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
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The word hidden means secured. In Christ, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are securely stored.
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Christ is the impenetrable vault. There is nothing else you need to know or search in order to be accepted by God other than your faith in Christ alone.
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You don't need to be in a secret society, climb up the ranks. There is no list of to -do lists before going to heaven.
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When you're by the heavenly gate and an angel asks you why you deserve to enter the gate, what do you say?
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Do you speak of your church attendance? How many hours you prayed on earth?
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How many years you served as a pastor? No, it's only because Christ faced the wrath of God on your behalf that you stand in righteousness before God.
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There's no other answer. There is no other plea. It's only because of Christ who died for me.
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Christ is the answer to this mystery. He is the answer to God's great redemptive plan to unite sinners to himself, to unite sinners from all over the world to himself.
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Paul rightly proclaims that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ alone.
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Now, why must we see Christ as the source of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge?
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Because we must be on guard against every false teaching. We must be on guard against every false teaching.
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It is precisely knowing Christ is the source of all wisdom and understanding we have any chance against false teaching.
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Paul says in verse four, now this I say, what he said previously, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
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While Paul indirectly attacked the false teaching in the previous chapter.
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Here, Paul is starting to directly attack the Colossian heresy.
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The reason why Paul proclaims Christ is the source of all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge is to attack the false teachers who are teaching that the church needs to seek elsewhere to grow in faith.
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According to Paul, such an insufficient view of Christ is deceitful.
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He warns the church that deceits are not obvious here.
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The false teachers deceive, in fact, persuasively, convincingly.
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False teachers use eloquence and seemingly believable arguments to push their false views.
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This is important for the church today because many Christians implicitly believe that false teachers are noticeable.
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They're obvious. Maybe they have horns growing out of their heads or fangs, or maybe their teaching would be utterly false that the church would automatically reject them.
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Or we assume the false teachers to be vicious, mean. However, this is not how the
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Bible describes the false teachers. First, false teachers look very similar to the rest of the church.
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Here is what Jesus tells us about the false teachers in Matthew 7, 15. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
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False teachers in sheep's clothing means they are outwardly almost indistinguishable from the true sheep.
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False teachers may seem generous. False teachers could pray with you.
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False teachers often attend Bible studies and they all have answers, but inwardly they want to destroy the church.
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They want to manipulate the flock, use them for their benefit, for their power, for their reputation.
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False teachers are more often than not those you would want to have lunch with because they're so pleasant.
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They could be some of the nicest people, but their intentions are satanic.
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Second, false teaching is difficult to discern for many believers.
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If it were so easily discernible, Paul would not have to warn the church in the first place.
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False teachers are intelligent, they have strong arguments, and they know the Bible well.
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That's why Paul says they deceive through persuasive words. They're not dumb.
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They can formulate strong arguments. They're persuasive. Look at the father of all false teachers,
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Satan himself. He persuasively twisted God's Word for Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve, before they sinned, before their minds were tainted with sin.
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Satan persuasively twisted God's Word and they rebelled against God.
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And this is why we must not put our guards down. We must not stray from viewing
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Christ as the ultimate and complete source of wisdom. Finally, just how he started this chapter,
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Paul reminds the church that he is on their side. Verse five, for though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
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Paul's encouraging comment here shows that the church has not drank the
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Kool -Aid. The false teachers have not yet taken over the church.
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Although Paul cannot be there physically, he wants the church to know that he is on their side spiritually, because Christ indwells in both
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Paul and the church. Paul can root for them, even though he is far away.
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Paul is praying for them, even though he's far away. Paul wants them to know that they're still on the same team.
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And he hopes one day to see their good order and steadfastness of their faith in Christ.
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The good order signifies the proper manner of living as Christians.
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Their good order is the proper and orderly behavior which is expected of Christians according to scripture.
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It may be rare to see good order outside the church when buildings are burning down and they're labeled as peaceful protests, but the church, according to Paul, looks different from the world.
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Even if the world is in chaos, the church remains in good order.
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Good order does not make someone a Christian, but it is a sign and assurance that he is.
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This means we hold to views that align with the Bible, even if the world harshly mocks it or attacks it.
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This means we live lives of purity that is often foreign to the world.
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We honor marriage as a sacred covenant union between a man and a woman.
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We refrain from any jokes or words that mock God. We avoid living in hypocrisy, living like pagans
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Monday through Saturday, but freshen up on Sundays as Christians.
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Next, the steadfastness of their faith in Christ shows their resolve.
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The church trusts in Christ. Despite the rise in false teaching, the church is depending on Christ.
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Jesus is the anchor of our faith, immovable and stable, and on what other ground can we find such stability and firm foundation if not
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Christ alone? Now, the
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Colossian heresy had to struggle with rituals and secret wisdom, and they were tempted by that as early believers.
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And you may smirk at these ancient folks for believing in secret rituals or secret knowledge to bring them closer to God, but I would say we're no different.
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Nowadays, we are flooded with information regarding how to live correctly or how to have the best life now.
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You may be familiar with some articles like the key to happiness or the secret to happy marriage.
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We're also entrapped in the plausible arguments to live according to those articles.
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Many of the tips are however selfish and self -indulgent.
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You must treat yourself. You have to think about yourself, love yourself, yet it doesn't really change us.
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It has no power to make us right with God. You don't feel closer to God from doing any of that.
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We become just more selfish and more isolated than ever before.
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And those secret wisdom provide justification and an excuse for us to indulge ourselves even more.
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Are you hungering for death in your life? Do you believe somewhere out there someone has it figured out?
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We live in a generation where information is always available, and we have access to different cultures more so than anyone else in history, yet we still feel empty inside.
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This should tell us that the world isn't the source of true wisdom or knowledge.
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Only Christ is big enough to overflow any emptiness that we have in our hearts.
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He is the only treasure trove of wisdom that actually changes us and brings satisfaction beyond imagination.
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He alone provides new life through his death on the cross.
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He provides a new relationship with God purchased through his blood.
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Don't seek for any other treasures in garbage cans because the only treasure is found in Christ.
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Securely stored in heaven. Gaze at Christ as the ultimate source.
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Remind yourself what he has done for you. Spend time with him in prayer and in his word.
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For the last 2 ,000 years, every false teacher tried to get the church to look away from Christ.
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But we fight against their schemes by holding fast onto him.
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Let us pray. Father, we pray that you would protect us from the daily temptation to look away from Christ in whatever we do, whatever we think, and whatever we say.
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Father, we pray that your spirit would always highlight Christ wherever we go and whomever we're with so that we may live in a manner pleasing and in a manner worthy of your son.
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Father, we pray that you would deliver us from any evil that is trying to manipulate us, that is trying to get us to look elsewhere other than Christ.
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In Jesus' name, amen. All of you, if you would in your hearts pray for her as well.
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You don't have to pray my words, but just let's lift her up before the Lord. This is a time of growth, a time of new beginnings, new things in life.
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Some of it's scary, some of it's absolutely exciting. So let's pray together.
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Lord God, we thank you, Father, for Johanna and the sweet spirit that she is. Father, what a blessing she has been to this church, to her family.
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God, we pray for as she goes south to college, Lord, that you would give her wisdom as she engages in different communities and different friendships and school.
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Father, that you would give her wisdom, that you would guard her heart, Father, because there's so many temptations and so many wiles of the devil are all around us.
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But Father, I know you can care for her like only you can, Lord. And so we pray for good friends, that she would grow in her faith and knowledge of her
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Savior, Jesus Christ. And Lord, be a comfort to her parents and to her sister,
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Father, as they're kind of left behind, seeing from afar all the things that Johanna is going to be going through.
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Father, I just praise you for the work that you're doing in her life, that you would watch over her,
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God, and just may you be the gladness in her heart,
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Lord, as she goes forward. So thank you for her and bless her and protect her, we pray in Jesus' name.