(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, amen, Colossians chapter number two. So I titled the sermon this evening, Izzens, Izzens. And that's because last week when we overviewed chapter one before we got into it, kind of gave a breakdown of the book and its purposes. I talked about the significance of chapter one and the importance of understanding it, because Paul's laying a foundation for us. And he wants us to understand some doctrines, or some false doctrines rather, that had crept in to the Colossian churches. And what you're gonna find today is that these things are not just confined to Paul's day. These false doctrines, or these isms, are not just for this time period. These things have gone on, advanced, mutated, and are still alive, and unfortunately well today in a lot of churches, and just throughout the world in general. And so just to name the isms real quick, it's gonna be humanism. Okay, you're gonna have humanism, legalism, mysticism, and asceticism. And just give you a quick overview. So humanism is basically the chief one of them all. It's what I like to call, and what I was taught many years ago, as human achievement. Basically, all of man's problems, everything that goes on in the world, man has to absolutely be the designer of the solution for man's problems. Okay, that's basically the center of humanism. Legalism's very similar. Okay, legalism is basically strict adherence to rules and ordinances over the heart of God. And just a quick example of that would be if you were to compare King Saul versus King David. Okay, you remember the whole story with King Saul as he was starting to get more and more disobedient to God, when he got called out for it by the prophet Samuel, what did he say? He's like, well, hold on, you know Samuel, I followed this just like you said. Okay, and it was all about following the rules. I did follow part of it, or I did, yeah, this should account for something, okay? Whereas David broke a lot of rules. Okay, David had some women issues. David had a lot of issues. David was, as the Bible says, he was a bloody man. David took things to the extreme. However, he was a man after God's own heart. Okay, so a vast difference there between David and Saul. And so, another story might be the prodigal son, okay? And we talked about that not too long ago, but we'll get into it, okay, what legalism is. It's basically exalting ordinances, rules over God. That's what that is. Mysticism's pretty easy. It's straight junk, okay? It's Eastern thought. It's this idea that you can have a supernatural experience to gain knowledge, okay? Catholicism, Pentecostalism, a lot of these other isms that are out there today, kind of, I would group them in to mysticism. And asceticism is basically depriving yourself. It's an extreme depriving yourself of any kind of joy or pleasure. On an extreme example of that, you could look to monks, like Shaolin monks or different monks in religions. They would be the extreme version of what asceticism is. And you can tell by Paul's counter emphasis, and I said this last week, that these ideologies had begun to creep their way into this church. So the title of the sermon this evening is Izzums, Colossians chapter number two. And just to give you the main point here and the importance of what Paul's trying to get across, look down at verse number four, Colossians chapter two, verse number four. So Paul says this, he says, And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Okay, look at that word there in verse four, beguile. What does that mean? That means to deceive, that means to trick. So Paul's objective here is to make sure that these people here remain steadfast in truth so that they cannot be tricked or beguiled. Okay, and then he's gonna list the isms. Now look at verse number 18. So he says, let no man, and here's that word again, beguile you of your reward and a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. So anytime you see a word like that that's not always used, but you see it a couple of times in the chapter, you wanna pay attention to that. So that's Paul's point. That is what he wants to get across to the believers at the churches in Colossae, but also to us, okay? We need to be a people that are on guard, that hold the word of God as the final authority in all matters of faith and practice. Now keep your place there in Colossians chapter number two, obviously, but go back if you would, go to Ephesians chapter number four, Ephesians chapter number four. So you've got in these epistles, you've got Ephesians, the Philippians, Colossians, okay? Paul wrote these all relatively close together, and a lot of the same doctrines and concepts are taught in these epistles, and there's a reason for that, so that we could cross reference thing and get a deeper meaning to what he's trying to say, and also so we can kind of get some insight on how different problems face different types of churches as well. But again, verse four, we started reading, what did Paul say? You know, he says, my goal for you is that you would not be tricked or beguiled, okay? Well, what does that mean? Well, if you look at Ephesians four, look at verse number 11. So talking about Christ, Paul tells the Ephesians, and he says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, and why? Why did Christ give us these things? Well, verse 12 is very clear, for the perfecting of the saints. And what does that mean for the perfecting? Does that mean so that you could live a super perfect life, never sin, and earn your way to heaven? No, that's not what that's talking about. It's so that you can be complete, so that you can have a complete understanding of truth, and so that you won't be beguiled or tricked into false doctrine. So he says, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and here it is again, for the edifying of the body of Christ. What do I say almost every single week? What is the two-fold mission of the church? It is to edify the lost, okay, where do you find that? Look at the verse there, for the work of the ministry, that would be included in that. And what, for the edifying of the body of Christ. This is why God gave us pastors, this is why God gave us teachers, this is why God gave us prophets and all of these different things, evangelists, for the perfecting of the saints. And I bring that up because there's this other ism that's out there, and you can call it whatever you want, it's definitely an ism, which basically says that church is not necessary. You don't need to go to church. Wherever two or three are gathered, there he is in the midst, and that's true. But that doesn't mean that that's church. If two or three of us get together and say, you know what, we're gonna go get some coffee over here, or we're gonna go get some chocolate milkshakes or whatever it is. Yeah, we're all saved, Christ is in the midst, we're in fellowship, I agree, but that's not church. That is not church. God clearly gave us these things to perfect the saints. Meaning what? Meaning we need to learn and come to completion in our knowledge of all matters of truth so that we don't get tricked. That's the big idea there. And he even says that in verse 13. He says, to we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Sounds like a lot. Again, go back to Colossians chapter two. What is he saying there? He's basically saying that God has given us these things to perfect the body of Christ, to have us be complete. He's not talking about salvation. He's not saying you have to follow these protocols to be saved. Salvation is a free gift. I'm gonna go over this, what I always go over very frequently. We're gonna go through these isms a little bit tonight in this chapter, but don't let that confuse you. At the end of the day, like I always say, there are only two religions. There's the religion of what? Human achievement, which says what? Says that you have to do something, that you have to work your way to heaven. And their central message is probation. Meaning, you go to a church that preaches, you have to turn from your sins to be saved or something of that nature. Guess what? The pastor and the congregation become your parole officers and you are not saved until the end of your life when you've proven that you've done good. Okay, what's the other religion? The other religion is divine accomplishment, meaning that God was manifest in the flesh, lived a perfect life, did what you and I cannot do, and what? Died on the cross for our sins, for the sins of the entire world. He accomplished what we could not. What's the word for that religion? Done, okay? Human achievers stress do. What are you doing? What can you do? Divine accomplishment says what has already been done. And we know that that's what Jesus Christ did on the cross. And of course, the gospel of divine accomplishment is salvation, meaning Jesus died on the cross, paid the price for your sins. We accept the word of God, we receive the word of God, you're saved forever. There's nothing that you can do to keep your salvation because there was nothing that you could do to earn it. And so keep that in mind as we go through this chapter because we don't wanna get bogged down on too many of these isms. And of course, the application for all of these is always the same. It's the word of God. What does the Bible say? You know, today, it's pushed very heavily and it's often said to us, well, you guys are divisive. How dare you call out the Catholics? How dare you call out the Pentecostals? How dare you call out these people? Don't you understand what you're doing? You're trying to rip people apart and it's like, no, we're not. Okay, I mean, is that what you'd say Paul's doing? You know, the same people that accuse us of that, they would go up to Paul after writing Colossians and say, you know, that's pretty divisive. That's pretty divisive what you said about the mysticism and about the legalism and about the Jews and about all these things. You think Paul would stand for that? Absolutely not. Okay, again, like I said this morning, God doesn't change. You know, but we're supposed to act today like he has because most of Christianity has changed. The worse the world gets, the more the world goes towards the left, guess what? The more churches go towards the left and then the more they hate us because they are of the world and we're gonna have to do something on that here pretty soon. So again, chapter one is primarily trying to get across the point that Christ is superior. Okay, just that statement alone gets a lot of people upset. But Jesus Christ is superior, he is supreme. Chapter number two is gonna tell you that Christianity is superior and it has to be because we know that Christ is superior. He is supreme. And just to kind of recap before we get going into this chapter, there's about eight, about seven or eight different things that we talked about last week. You don't have to turn anywhere. I'm just gonna read these to you. So in chapter number one, beginning at verse number 14, we learned what? We learned that Jesus Christ is the ultimate debt giver or forgiver, that he died for the sins of the entire world, past, present and future. Verse 15 talks about how he is the image or the manifestation of God. Okay, well, what do we know about Jesus according to John chapter number one? Well, that he is the word. Okay, he is the word. Jesus Christ is the word. We have the preserved word of God today. That is what we go to. That is supreme. That is what we live by. We don't live by, well, I've got a feeling. Or we don't live by, hey, you know, I was praying at home and God gave me this revelation. Okay, that's not how we live. We live according to what has been preserved and written for us today. That is what we believe. Chapter number 15, last week we learned that Jesus is the first born, obviously because he's from everlasting. And so what does that mean? Well, that means he has the privilege of being labeled as the one that created everything. All things were created by him. So he's the creator of all. Let's see here in verse number 17, we learned that he's the sustainer of all things. Again, I said this last week, the only reason people can have their breath, the only reason somebody is allowed to even wake up today is because he said that that was okay. But yet what do you have today? You have so many people today that want nothing to do with God. You know, it used to be like back in the day, people would be like, well, if I could see some evidence, I'd believe in God. Now what you're finding more and more is that people are saying, even if I sought evidence for him, I still wouldn't worship him and I still wouldn't believe on him. So we have a heart condition and a heart problem in today's America, in today's country. We also learned in verse 18 that he's the head of the body. He is the head of the church. And then of course it also says that he was the first among the resurrected. And so when you take all of those things and you think about all of these things, the only conclusion that you can come to is that Jesus Christ is superior. You know, a long time ago I had a guy say, you know, that's a pretty bigoted statement that you made there. And that's not very, you know, that's not very equal for you to say something like that. I'm like, that's exactly why I said it. That's the point, that's exactly why I said it. He said, I don't think you're being, you know, very honest towards all the other religions and things in the world. I'm like, of course not. The Bible's not, okay? Does anybody in here think that the Bible is like, well, you know, you should give respect unto all the other religions and ways and false gods? No, God hates idolatry, God hates these things because they're the creation and doctrines of devils is what they are, that's what the Bible teaches. So chapter one, very clear, Christ is supreme. He is the word of God, that is why we in this church hover so much around what the Bible says, because that is the ultimate authority which goes in the face of the first ism we're gonna talk about, which is humanism. So let's get into the chapter now, not very long. So let's get started here. Verse number one, he says, for I would have, I'm sorry, he says, for I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. So again, unlike Philippians, which we went over a few weeks ago, Paul did not start or found this church. He didn't have as personal of a relationship, but you can see he deeply cares for it. He has a great care for this church. And of course, Revelation chapter three tells you the unfortunate news about the church in Laodicea. It became Luke one. So just something to kind of think about as you're going through this. But he says that he has a great conflict for the saints at Laodicea and at Laodicea, meaning he's understanding that these doctrines are starting to creep into both places. Now look at verse number two. He says, that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. Okay, so I mean, that's a lot to say right there, but what is his intention with that statement? What is he trying to say? Well, he's trying to say that he wants the believers, okay, and you see the word love there and that's where our enemies will, oh, so you gotta love everything and everyone and just be at peace. It's like, no, because he's about to rip some face here on some false doctrine. He's basically saying within the confines of church, we need to have full assurance and understanding, okay? Where do we get that? Well, we get that from the Bible. We get that from the word of God. We get that from Jesus Christ, who is what? He is supreme. And that's what you learn in chapter number one. So he says, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. Now what's the mystery of God? Well, the mystery of God is salvation. The mystery of God, according to Ephesians chapter two, I alluded to this last week, was a mystery even to the angels. Okay, and the Bible says in that chapter that God uses the church, he uses the New Testament to basically reveal God's manifold wisdom is what it says. Okay, the gospel is a mystery. The Trinity is a mystery. There's a lot of different mysteries and things that are hard to explain in the Bible. And he says, hey, but I want you guys to have full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ, okay? And the only way that you can decode or understand these mysteries is by studying the Bible, studying the word of God, okay? Verse number three, he says, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, okay? So in who? In Christ, in God, or hid what? All the treasures of wisdom. Look, okay, this one is kind of funny. You know, sometimes you might read a proverb and you know, that proverb can have many different applications, okay? And one way to spot a babe in Christ, and I have nothing against babes in Christ, we love to have babes in Christ, but it's when they come up and they're like, well, that doesn't mean that. It actually means this, this, and this, and it's like, well, yeah, it means that too, okay? But God's word is infinite, okay? And it has, it's obvious it's first application, but it also has sometimes secondary applications, third, and I mean, it could be applied in multiple situations, okay? But the fact of the matter and the thing that we need to realize is that it's true, okay? We believe it by faith because it says right here, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It's our job to read these things and to wring them out and extract them for whatever situation we're facing. You know, the Bible says that we are to try the spirits and we talk about that a lot. We talk about that all the time. How do you do that? Well, you do that by digging in the word of God, reading things multiple times, taking your time and really trying to understand what it's trying to get across to you, okay? So we need to understand that in the word of God are treasures, hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Okay, it's not just one application. Sometimes people come up to you and they're like, well, no, my preacher said it was like this. It's like, well, yeah, that's right too. It's not saying different things. There's just a wide, deep, vast treasure of wisdom in the Bible. Look at verse four, he says, and this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. And so that's right where we started. So he's telling them this. He's trying to make sure that they understand the importance of having assurance, being settled in truth, okay? There's no way you're gonna have discernment and be able to tell what is good, prove what is acceptable or not acceptable unto God without the Bible. It's just not gonna happen. You're not gonna be able to do it, okay? And so that's what he wants us to understand so that we don't get tricked, so that we don't get beguiled with enticing words. Enticing words are words that sound like they have promise, okay? A lot of times when people go bad inside of church, they will use enticing words, and they will say things that sound like there's promise behind them to pull people away onto their side, okay? And it always ends in destruction, and that's how you know that they're using enticing words, just like the things that he's about to tell you, okay? About these isms. They are false, and you're gonna clearly see that. Look at verse five, he says, For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. So they have a good thing going on here. He's commending them for being steadfast in their faith. So they're looking at what they've been taught, okay? And they're holding onto that. But obviously you can tell by what he's about to get into here, there are people that are starting to come in with these false ideologies, and they're trying to break this up. They're trying to prevent this from happening. The devil's worst nightmare is a church like this that believes the word of God, that's actually out there doing it and taking a stand on things. It doesn't like that because that does damage to his agenda, okay? And Paul's gonna get into this. Look at verse six. He says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. And this is where a lot of people go wrong, okay? We go out and we get people saved, and a lot of times, and we're always thankful. Praise God that they're saved. But most people, unfortunately, after they get saved, they don't continue to walk, okay? They're still saved. They're still gonna go to heaven, okay? But they're gonna lose rewards. They're gonna miss out on opportunities. They're gonna miss out on so much wisdom and knowledge that they could have had if they had been in the Bible, been in the word of God, and applying these things in their lives. And so he doesn't want that to happen to them. So that's why he mentions both, okay? Salvation, and then he's saying, hey, but also what I want you guys to remember and to do is to walk in him, okay? Walk in Christ. Look at verse seven. Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, okay? So again, rooted. The only way you get rooted, again, is by the foundational things in the Bible. And then he says, so rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving, okay? So again, I talked last week about, in chapter one, this guy, Epaphras, and it's implied there, it seems he had a lot to do with their teaching. Maybe he founded the church. It doesn't explicitly say that, but I think it's safe to say he definitely had a lot to do with this church, and he taught them correctly. He taught them right. Now keep in mind, these guys didn't have the full New Testament either. So they're going off of literally what they had been taught, now what Paul is writing them, and what's the message? What's the idea? Well, the idea is that they would be thankful for what they have and that they would keep these truths and keep abounding, keep applying, keep digging in that treasure, which is the word of God, and applying these things to their lives so they get more people saved and what? Edify themselves. Verse number eight. So he says, now beware, okay, beware, be cautious, be on the lookout, beware, lest any man, okay, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. What are the rudiments? What does that word mean? That means basics, okay, and it means basics. It means we don't wanna go and start arguing with people over what they view or the basic things of how the world was founded and just really getting stuck on the intricate details of that, okay. We wanna be focused on Christ, okay. He says, again, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy, okay, through philosophy and vain deceit. What does vain deceit mean? Well, that's empty deception. Now, there's all kinds of philosophers out there. There were philosophers back in Paul's day and a lot of them did acknowledge a god, okay. You go read Acts chapter 19 when Paul went to Mars Hill and he started looking at all their idols and he called out the one that said to the unknown god, okay, so you can understand there how somebody that's maybe philosophy-driven could come into a church and start saying things that make sense, start agreeing with, you know, different things in the world and kinda get you on their side but then lead you down the road of man. That's what a philosopher does and this right here is what we're gonna call humanism. It's what most people attribute this passage to to humanism or human achievement which basically states that it's man's job to solve all of man's problems. Hey, I'm telling you right now, that is modern day Christianity, okay. I'm sorry but that's what it is, okay. People often will ask us, well, why do you think there's so many Bible versions out there? What's the whole deal with that? The whole deal with that is it goes right back to these people here, okay. It's man thinking that only man can solve man's problems and so what man does is says, well, it's not good enough that we just have one preserved version in our language. We need to have multiple so that we can point people back to us, back to man. You see, the King James Bible, what that does is it points to God because it screams preservation. It screams the fact that God has the ability and the power to preserve his truth. It's so easy. You know, these philosophers will wanna sit here and talk about logic, right. You know, logic and knowledge, that's the foremost of their thought, logic and knowledge but they never think to even answer the question, if God could just speak all this into existence, which the Bible says he did, why couldn't he preserve his truth, okay. That is so basic to me and so simple but yet most people today reject that, they don't agree with that and the reason why and this hurts is because it puts man down here and God up here, okay. That's what it does. It puts man down here and God up here. Anytime you go to a church and the preacher's like, well, in the original languages, well, this version says this and this version says this and when we add them together, we get this over here, okay. Anytime you hear that, that guy is your Pope. He is your Pope. He is part of the religion of human achievement. You need to have him to tell you truth as opposed to just being a saved, born again Bible believing Christian that has the word of God, has the Holy Ghost inside. And you can read this and just learn from yourself. The Bible says you have no need that man teach you. Now that doesn't mean you don't need church but what that means is you can take the word of God by yourself and you can learn truth. Anything that I'm telling you, you can figure out on your own because you're saved and you have the Holy Ghost inside of you, okay. And this is what Paul is trying to warn them about. Watch out for these people that are very philosophical, that speak very eloquently and they have all these ideas and they may sound religious but in the end, their ideas are vain. They are deceitful. They will lead you down the wrong path. What does he do right after this statement here? Well, look at verse number nine. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. Bodily. So Paul basically just gives you kind of a quick summary of what a humanist might believe, okay. And then he points you right back to Christ. Says that remember, Jesus Christ fully man, fully God. That's the idea. That's what he wants us to see. Now if you want a quick example of what a humanist or a secular humanist would be today, it would be Bill Nye the Science Guy. Okay, Bill Nye the Science Guy declares himself a secular humanist. And of course there's others. I don't care to remember their names right now. You could go online and you can look up the Humanist Manifesto and there's all these different points. I think what I read last week was like 15 or something like that. And it's all modern Christianity in my opinion. It's all pointing right back to man. That's what it does. You know, I mean, don't you think something strange is going on today in Christianity? Like we're sitting here pointing to the power of God. Hey, God's preserved his word. Hey, it's for you. You could take it home. You can read it. You can extract truth. You know, it empowers you as opposed to saying you need me to interpret the original languages for you. The same thing that Catholics do. It's what the Mormons do. It's what they all do, okay? That's how we know that they're vain. They're false. They're liars, okay? It's just a good tip for us to remember. And that's what Paul's saying here in verse nine. For in him, meaning in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. Go read 1 John chapter five about the Trinity, okay? On your own time. But look at verse number 10. He says, and ye are complete in him. So we're complete or perfect in Christ, okay? Meaning we haven't made ourselves perfect but we're perfect in him because he's the one that paid the price. He gave us salvation for free. He created a new person inside of us and that new person inside of us is perfect, is righteous. So he says, verse 10, and ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power. What does that mean? We'll answer that here in a moment. Just keep that in mind. He is the head of all principality and power. That means he's the head of everything. Spiritual, like we talked about last week, visible or invisible. Okay, look at verse 11. So that's just a basic quick overview of the first ism which is humanism. It's just basically man can solve all of man's problems. Now look at verse 11. He says, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Okay, so what is he alluding to here? Now he's not coming out and saying, I know there's people in your church like, you know, that are going around saying you have to be circumcised to be saved. They dealt with that in Acts 15. Paul deals with that in the churches in Galatia but somebody's probably bringing this to them. Okay, because he uses this word here, circumcised. So what does verse 11 mean? What is he trying to emphasize? Look at it again. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. So let me ask you a question. Just by reading this here, what do you think is more important? Physical circumcision or the spiritual circumcision? Well, it's the spiritual circumcision. Salvation, okay, the fact that a person hears the word of God, they receive the word of God, they're born again, okay, God gives you a new heart, a new person. That's a spiritual circumcision, okay? But you have people running around today, you had people running around back then trying to elevate physical circumcision and saying if you don't do this you're not saved or if you don't do this you're not as spiritual or you don't care about your kids and things like that. Okay, absolute garbage. That is not true, it's not anywhere in the Bible or in the New Testament especially. Look at the rest of the verse. He says, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, verse 12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. Now again, I bring this up a lot. People see that word baptize in my sea, you gotta be baptized with water, you're not saved. It's not talking about water baptism. Baptize means to be placed into, okay? Go read Romans chapter six, it means to be placed into something, okay? And what he's saying here is that you guys, he already told them they're saved, okay? Verse six, right? As ye have therefore received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. He's already talking to them, he's already acknowledged the fact that they're born again, they're saved. So what is he saying here? He's saying remember that you're placed in him, you're in the body of Christ, you're baptized in him. And then he says, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God. Now here's a question, have we raised from the dead yet? Well no, we're still alive, we haven't died yet, okay? So when you read into that and you kinda look at that, what he's really saying and what he's calling out here is eternal security. Because you are, because he is the first of the resurrection, you will rise again, okay? That's what he means and that's what he's trying to allude to there, that it's a guarantee, it's a promise, you're in him, you will raise from the dead, you will be resurrected and given a new body in the future. So that's what he's trying to say there. And then he says, the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead, okay? Look at verse 13, it says, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you, all trespasses. And that word all there means all. Now let me just kinda give you guys my illustration that I like to use. I've been using this out solely for the last year. Go to Psalm chapter 103 real quick. Psalm chapter 103. You don't have to use this, just something I had written down a long time ago in my notes that a preacher said and I thought it was great. And I like to use this because I think it really comforts people out solely, I think it kinda helps them because a lot of people have this question and they say, well it says forgives you of all your trespasses, but that's just up until the moment you get saved. Then you have to live perfectly. That's false doctrine, that's probation. That's not good news, that's not salvation. Psalm chapter 103. Let's see here, let's go over to verse 12, yeah. Sorry I got this small print here. Okay, so verse number 12, he says, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Now who's ever heard me talk about this? A lot of you have been with me, also when you've probably heard me use this, and I use this illustration here of exactly what he says. He says as far as the east is from the west. So the idea is, let's pretend that I get on a plane and I start flying east. How far is it gonna be, how long is it gonna take, rather, until I start going west? You don't know. You have to actually turn around and go the other direction. So east and west are infinite. They're just infinitely apart, you just don't know. Okay, there's no way to measure that. What happens if you go from the south pole, let's say to the north pole? Okay, that's measurable. So in other words, that's a finite distance, that's measurable, that's not infinite, okay. So if you were to go to the south pole and you can measure, let's say you got on a submarine, just don't bash me on this, okay, just hypothetically, just play along, okay. Let's say you're on a submarine, okay, you got a nuclear powered submarine and you're down there in the south pole waters, okay. They know how long it's gonna take them and how much resources they're gonna have to use to be able to make it up to the north pole. They know which path to take and all of that stuff, okay. The reason why I believe it doesn't say that he's forgiven us all of our sins as far as the north is from the south is because that's measurable, that's not infinite. Says east to west because there's no telling that difference, meaning he's taken all of our trespasses and he's done away with them, okay. He's paid the debt for every sin that you've ever done, are doing or will do. Now that doesn't mean that you should just take that, you know, like Paul said, he said, you know, God forbid, you know, should I just keep on doing and acting, you know, foolish and stuff? No, because it still messes with your life, it still interferes with your fellowship with God, okay. And so just something that I like to bring up really quickly, go back to Colossians chapter number two. Verse 13, one more time, he says, and you being dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, okay, that means in an unsaved state, that is what he's talking about. Hath he quickened together? So again, when it comes to being saved, when it comes to being born again, who is the one that is responsible for that? Who is the one that gives that? Is it you or God? Again, it is God, look at what it says very closely. Hath he quickened together? Hath he, meaning Christ, Christ hath quickened together, you and him with him and says, having forgiven you all trespasses. All means all, okay, you're forgiven for all your sins, they are all canceled is what he is implying there, okay. Why is he bringing all this up? Because what's coming into the church again is legalism, this idea that you have to follow this, do this, keep doing this. Again, it's human achievement, and it points to do, what are you doing? What have you accomplished today to make sure that you're gonna get to heaven, okay. That is false doctrine. Look at verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and it took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. That is a reference to the law, okay. You go read through the 10 commandments, okay, and I would submit to you that everybody in here has broken those, but you know how many commandments are in the Bible? Does anybody know? So I know it's over 600, I always get the number wrong, but it's over 600 in the Old Testament, it's over 130, I believe, in the New Testament, depending on how you slice it. There's a lot of commandments in the Bible, there's no way you're keeping them all, okay, and Paul's basically saying that, hey, look at verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. The law is against us. We don't measure up, and we cannot measure up. That's the whole reason Jesus had to come and live that perfect life and die is because we couldn't do it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life, not temporary life, but everlasting life, okay. Verse 14, blotting out the handwriting. Okay, so when you get these Ray Comfort types and they're just going around really hashing the law, you know, you realize you violated six out of seven commandments already since talking to me? Okay, that's a rude way to talk to people. It's like, guess what, Ray, do you realize you've violated all of them, okay? It says right here that those Jesus, he did away, he nailed it to his cross. So what does that mean? It means we don't follow the law for salvation. Now, is there application in the law? Is there wisdom in the law? Absolutely, okay, but that's a subject for another day. Look at verse number 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. Keep your place there and go to Ephesians one more time, Ephesians chapter number six. Why is he bringing this up at this point? Right in the middle of humanism, legalism, mysticism, and asceticism. I'll tell you why. Because these principalities and powers are responsible for those false doctrines. Look at what it says right here, Ephesians six verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Okay, it's not just humanity that we have this problem with, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So though obviously that's true, okay, but what you and I have got to understand is the fact that Jesus died on the cross, became the satisfaction, or the biblical word, the propitiation for our sins. The mere fact that he did that proves that he defeated the principalities. He spoiled these principalities and powers. They have no power over you. They have no power. We've talked about this several times. The devil does not have direct access to you unless God says that it's okay. Remember the devil had to ask permission. He had to be given permission to attack Joe. It's not like he has this freestanding will like he could just go up to you at any time and do whatever he wants. We are safe in Christ. Okay, so again, verse 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Okay, now how did he do that? The moment that he resurrected from the dead and walked out of that tomb and started appearing unto the disciples and being seen of them and seen of other people, okay? At that moment, I wish you could get a glimpse into the spiritual world because I'm sure it was crazy. And you know, and obviously it still is, but I'm sure people were like, what in the world is going on? You know, you read Matthew chapter four, when the devil's trying to tempt Christ, it's clear that he does not have a great understanding of the Bible or of the word of God. Yeah, there's things that he knows. There's passages that he knows, especially by this time in 2023, but honestly, they had no idea. Okay, so these principalities and powers, after they're seeing the resurrected Christ, they're like, we're in deep trouble. We need to shift gears. So they go into overdrive now, and what are they pushing? They're pushing false doctrine. They're pushing the isms of the world. They're trying to make you think that there's millions and thousands of all these different choices that are out there when there's only two. Okay, that's it. There's only two. There's human achievement, divine accomplishment. We don't wanna over-complicate this. There's only two. There's either probation, which is false doctrine, or there's salvation. That's it. It's as simple as that. Look at verse 16. It says, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moon or of the Sabbath days. And again, you have this on a large scale today. Okay, you've got the seventh day Adventists. You knock on their door. Well, what day do you go to church? The first thing they'll say to you, what day do you go to church, huh? And they've got this haughty spirit about them, don't they? What day do you go to church? Oh, look, we had this seventh day Adventist lady. She flipped out on us and wanted to fight us. This is absolutely crazy. And the reason why is because I looked at her and I said, do you really think that I'm gonna go to hell because I go to church on Sunday and Wednesdays? And she said, yes. And I said, that is not anywhere in the Bible. I said, the Sabbath is Jesus Christ and we're in him. We're always on the Sabbath. Oh boy, she came unglued and it was interesting, okay? Very interesting. But what do you do? When you can't refute the messenger, what do you do? You try to lynch him, you try to murder him. That's what these people do. They have nothing because they are not rooted. They are not settled and grounded in the truth, okay? They have been taken captive by these false doctrines. So he says again in verse 16, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or the new moon or of the Sabbath days. We don't let these people tell us that what we're doing and because we go to church on Sunday or we go Wednesday or we sometimes come on Tuesday or whatever, we don't let them bully us. We have permission from the Bible to stand up and say, no, what we are doing is correct. If that offends you, oh well. Oh, oh well, but did you die? No, you didn't. Have a nice day, okay? Look, I'm gonna try to be arrogant. I'm just telling you where do we get truth from? From the Bible, from the word of God. It's very simple. You know, and of course, you know, I always say this. Everybody in here has different diets. It's all good, okay? But this is one we've dealt with here in this church on multiple levels, okay? If you adopt a diet, hey, be sensitive towards your brother and sister in Christ, okay? Don't be like, hey, you eating beef? Is that sugar I saw you eating? Okay, no man, that's, that tears people apart, okay? Keep your diet to yourself, all right? Let's just do that, okay? Look, I'm gonna stop right there. Verse 17, which, okay, look at what he says. Which, so all these things that he just mentioned, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. So all of these things that they observed and did observe in the Old Testament, like the Sabbath and things, obviously there's still wisdom in that for us today. You need time off. You need rest, okay? We need to understand why they had certain laws that they did, okay? Those there were a teaching aid, according to Hebrews, of things to come. They were to teach the Hebrews and eventually us about the things to come. That's literally what he's saying here, which are a shadow of things to come. He says on the contrary, though, right? He says, but the body is of Christ. So the church is of Christ, meaning Jesus is the source of all of this, which you see today. So let's move on. So we've got humanism, we've got the legalism here. Look at verse 18. He's gonna introduce mysticism, this Eastern thought that's creeping in here. Verse 18, he says, let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. I like how Paul says that. Remember, Paul told you at the beginning of the chapter here that he hasn't been with them presently. And so he knows that these people saying, okay, I got this idea from an angel. Gabriel told me this. Michael the archangel told me this. He's like, he hasn't seen any of that. He just boldly says this. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen. Hey, look, there's books out there, and I hope this doesn't offend anybody, but it is what it is. There are books out there written by people that claim to have gone to hell for like 10 minutes or 30 minutes, something like that. There's a book, I read it a long time ago. I can't remember the title, but it was somebody who went to heaven for like a certain amount of minutes. And you know, I'm reading a book here, and I'm like, it sounds like she's got more revelation than the apostle Paul got. It's like, no, you know, I point to this verse here now that I'm more mature and aware, and I just simply say things which he or she hath not seen. Okay, that's the idea here. He wants us to know, hey, what you have written, what you've been told, that's what we have. Look, we've got from Genesis to Revelation. I like to say we've got from eternity past, eternity present, eternity future, okay? We don't wanna start delving off into this mysticism, this extra revelation, okay? That's what all these other organizations do. I mean, think about the Mormon Church, for example. The Mormon Church, perfect example of this. They used to teach back in the day that black people were black because they had the mark of Cain. They changed their tune on that later on. Now, if you talk to an honest Mormon, and there are some around here, they will tell you, they will tell you that their quorum of 12 apostles and their president, Russell Nelson, basically speaks truth. What he says is gospel. What he says goes over the Bible, okay? What he says is over the Bible. That's exactly what the Catholics teach. Hey, the Seventh-day headquarters over here on Curtis, that's what they teach, okay? The Jehovah Witnesses, the Watchtower Society, that's what they teach. Again, you see where this all goes? It's human achievement. But going back to this whole worshiping of angels thing, if you look at the definition of mysticism, it's gonna tell you that it's basically a philosophy of Eastern thought that basically says you can experience pursuits of knowledge and supernaturally. On some levels, you can maybe get into this transitive state of consciousness and receive extra information from the universe or whatever. Now, some people take it to a whole nother level and start taking things like drugs, like DMT, and start saying, oh, I was in this transitive state and I saw this and this Green Martian taught me this. It was many years ago I picked up this book at Barnes and Nobles and it was called Tenth Planet Jiu-Jitsu, and it's a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu book. In there, the founder of Tenth Planet Jiu-Jitsu, a guy by the name of Eddie Bravo, he had said that the whole concept for Tenth Planet Jiu-Jitsu came from him being tripped out on drugs and seeing this elaborate being come to him and taught him all these different chokes and submissions and stuff. I put that down, I was like, I'm sticking with wrestling, man. This is weak, I can't do it. I just, no. I don't care how good he is at that. I don't want any part of that, man, no thank you. But that's an example of mysticism. And you can find traces of that today in a lot of different churches. When they start claiming, hey, Pastor So-and-So was on his bed this morning and received a word, received a message. And of course, what is that message typically? That you need to write him a check. That's typically what that's about, okay? It's false, okay? But again, what about the Catholic Church? Promoting all these different angels. Oh, we're gonna pray to Mary, we're gonna pray to this saint, pray to that saint. They've got all these statues and things of angels, okay? That leads to vanity, it's unbiblical, it's not right. Christ needs to be exalted. But again, in these organizations, it's not Christ that's being lifted up, it is man, okay? The pope, the bishop, the quorum of 12 apostles, the watchtower society, okay? Whatever it is, the seventh day headquarters, okay? It's always man. And Paul's just trying to really hammer the point home. No, it is Christ that is supreme, chapter one. It is Christianity that is supreme, chapter number two. People don't like that, okay? They say, oh, you're a Christian nationalist, you're a hate preacher for saying something like that. Well, look, go read the book of Revelation, okay? What's gonna be the religion during the millennium? It's gonna be Jesus Christ, okay? You think you're gonna get away with your pride month in June, in the millennium? Good luck with that, okay? It's not gonna happen. I've said it a million times and I'm gonna keep saying it, okay? It is his way or the highway. That's just the way that it is. And people have this idea, you know? Well, I know he blew him up in Genesis 19 and I know he's willing to go down to 11 tribes in Judges 19, but somehow today it's okay. Like Jesus came along and changed God. I was like, hold on, God the Father. You know, that's pretty extreme, okay? We need to be more inclusive now in the New Testament. No, no, that is not true. That is so not true. That is mysticism, that is mysticism. That is a different Jesus. That is a different Bible. That is a different religion. And again, I told you some of these things are hard to take, but this is the word of God. Look at verse 19. It says, and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together and creaseth with the increase of God. What does that mean? You read that, you're like, what? What in the heck? What's the head? What does it mean? And not holding the head. Who's the head of the body? He already told you, it is Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? According to John chapter one, it is the word of God. The Bible says that all things were made by him. He spoke this into existence. Genesis chapter one, guess who was there? Jesus Christ. Genesis chapter eight and nine during the flood, guess who was there? Jesus Christ. Who was there during the founding of the nation of Israel? Jesus Christ. He is the same today, he's the same yesterday, he's the same forever. And so he is the head of the body and we are to hold the head of the body. Why would he say that if it's not possible? Because it is possible, it's the word of God. He says, and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment. So we are basically the bands, we're the joints. He's the head. How do we get nourished? It's through Christ, it's through the Bible, it is through the word of God. So that's basically again, so he gives the ism and then he points to Christ. He gives the ism, he points to Christ. He gives the ism, he points to Christ. Look at here, last one, which is asceticism. Verse number 20, he says this, wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances? What I think he's definitely alluding to here is this idea that you need to deprave yourself of all enjoyment, things like that. Now look, the Bible does talk about we need to die to self. We need to be sanctified. We do need to be separate from the world. Not to stay saved, but to be an example. To have a good testimony and to basically say, hey, no, things are supposed to be different. We don't agree with the way that the world is going and so we wanna be separate. That is clear. But people take these things and they find a way to elevate man and to elevate the flesh and so what do they do? They come in and start spouting off rules. Well, if you go to this store, for example, if you go to Fred Myers versus WinCo, you're probably not saved. I know that's silly and that's extreme, but there's weird things out there. People say, well, if you walk down the video game aisle, then that means that you've sinned and they just start getting really weird about things. And it's just like, hold on for a second, man. Can you prove that from the Bible? Can you prove that statement? And so that's what Paul's alluding to here. The rudiments of the world, why as though, or yeah, why as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances? Look what he says in verse 21. Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish with the using. So remember, we are in the world, but we are not of the world. It's okay to use the world as long as you don't allow the world to use you, okay? That's the problem. It's not a problem if you can afford the big boat and the big house and all that stuff. That's great, but just make sure that those things don't have you, okay? So what does he say next in verse 22? Again, he says, which all are to perish with the using. After what? The commandments and doctrines of men, okay? So that's the idea with asceticism is it exalts depraving yourself of things instead of really understanding the heart of God, okay? Understanding what is being asked of us, what we are supposed to do. So what happens with these types of people is they start coming in and say, oh, okay, well, you know, if you don't have X number of songs before the service, okay, that's a problem. If you don't use a minimum of 30 Bible verses in your sermon, that's a problem. If you don't do X, Y, and Z, that's a problem, okay? And again, they can never prove any of these things. You know, I like to point people that say stuff like that. Well, what do you think about the sermon that Stephen preached? Okay, he basically summarized the whole Old Testament. He didn't whip out a scroll and go to the exact verse. Are you saying that the sermon that he preached right before he was stoned to death was bad? You know what I mean? You gotta think about these things, okay? Again, and it's kinda like legalism. Again, we don't have a problem with like monk type people coming in here and, you know, being like, you know, we have to really beat ourselves up. That's pretty extreme. It does happen, and it's just kinda silly. We all kinda know about that, but what I would say with asceticism, how it creeps in is basically by people coming in and just saying, you know, well, when I was at my old church, you know, they had this and this, and you should really have this instrument because you don't have somebody that plays the flute, and you don't have a guitar player that you're somehow not as spiritual, okay? That's a doctrine and a commandment of men, and we do what we can do here and what God has given us, and we're content. It is what it is. Again, so what does he do now? Points back to Christ, verse 23. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will, worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh? In just one second here, go over to chapter number three. We'll revisit this again next week, but he says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. So again, you know, that's the pattern for chapter two. It's the ism points back to Christ. It's the ism points back to Christ. That's what we do, okay? No matter what ism somebody's a part of, okay, that you're trying to help, your job, my job, is to point them to Christ, point them to the Bible, to the word of God. What does it say? What does it teach? That is how we help people. That is how we teach people. There's no other way. You know, I understand people have all their feelings and this and that, but look, what does the word of God say? The Bible is superior, okay? Christ is supreme. Christianity is supreme. The Bible is to be exalted. That is what we are to live by, and that is how we defeat these other isms out there anyways. So we're gonna stop it right there. We'll get into chapter number three next week. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for allowing us to be able to fellowship with one another and to be able to meet here. Just pray that you would help us to remember these things, Lord, the fact that we are to point people to you and you alone are able to help and correct them. I just pray you bless the fellowship after the service. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.