COLOSSIANS 2 I WILL WALK IN JESUS2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Colossians 2 I Will Walk In Jesus

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. So Colossians chapter 2, looking at first of all verses 6 through 10, here's what it says. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. Here as we continue on in Colossians chapter 2, we're continuing to

Focus on and consider the completeness that we have in Jesus. How complete we are. The standing that we have as a result of our faith in Jesus Christ and all that he does for us, all that he provides for us. And Paul here is addressing the false doctrine that is found in Colossae at this time where they were seeking to divert people from

from Jesus, but not in a way that was a complete, you know, let's leave Jesus behind and, you know, chase after something different, but let's add on to your belief in Jesus and your faith in Jesus. And there's some greater things that you can experience

if you know the things that you need to know. Or if you practice these rituals and habits and follow these rules and guidelines, then you'll be able to experience more of God. And then you'll be able to have a more spiritual life and achieve better understanding of the things of God. And so there was this, not rejection of Jesus, but in addition to Jesus, here's all these other things.

And the Apostle Paul, in addressing that in this letter to the church at Colossae, has been calling them back to remember all that they have in Christ, how complete they are, and how he fulfills every need that we have. Well, as we continue on now in chapter 2 this evening, I've titled the message tonight, I Will Walk in Jesus.

I will walk in Jesus. The past couple of weeks, we looked at all that we have in Christ. And tonight we're encouraged to now knowing what we have now, now to move forward and to stay in connection to Jesus.

Now there's going to be, you know, some application, some doctrine. It's all intertwined here as Paul is addressing these things. But really focusing on this ongoing, this moving forward, and this close and tight relationship with Jesus and reliance upon Jesus. And so we're going to start here in verses 6 and 7 for point number 1, and that is, I will progress in Jesus. Here's something we need to be reminded of and encouraged in by the Apostle Paul, and

if there's going to be any maturity, any growth, any progress in your spiritual life, it's going to be, well, in Jesus or through Jesus as a result of your connection to Jesus. Paul starts here in verse six saying, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. You therefore have received Christ Jesus. And as you have received,

In the same manner that you receive Jesus, Paul says that's the way that you should approach going forward. And so he's calling us to kind of think back a little bit. How did you receive Christ Jesus?

Did you receive Christ Jesus by some secret knowledge that someone had to reveal to you? Did you receive Christ Jesus by achieving some great feat of spiritual strength or some strict regulation or laws or rules? No. Going back to the beginning, you received Christ Jesus by faith. You heard the gospel and you believed that message.

And it's really calling us back to chapter one here of the book of Colossians that Paul was reminding them about the gospel that they had first heard through Epaphras. And remember that Paul had not been to Colossae. And so he wasn't the one who preached the gospel there. And so there in chapter one, he takes some time to validate the gospel message that they heard. I know the message that you heard. I know Epaphras. He's a good guy. And he preaches the same gospel.

Back in Colossians chapter one, verse five, he talks about the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of truth, of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit. This is the message that you believe, the gospel message that you heard and received from Epaphras is the same gospel that's going through all the world and producing fruit and

And so taking them back to that in the same way as you received Christ Jesus in that way, believing that gospel message, receiving what God has done for you through Jesus Christ, Paul's calling all of this to their memory to say, now going forward, you need to know that's how you walk in him.

Now continue in the gospel. You've believed it. You received it. You heard it. Now continue in the gospel message because that's the same way that we progress. And the same way that you have believed unto salvation, that is the way that you progress and grow and mature in the Christian life. The Christian life is lived the same way it began. Christians advance the same way we start. We move forward. We mature in

by following the same path that we started on. It's not you start here at Jesus, and then from there you move on to other things, other truths, other knowledge, other information, other practices, other rituals, other things. No, no. The whole Christian life, God's design is, well, it's all in Christ.

We grow in our knowledge of him. We grow in our walk with him. We grow in our relationship with him. Everything that God has for us is found in Jesus Christ. So he says, as you have received, well, continue in that manner. Continue believing God by faith in Jesus Christ for the rest of your Christian life. He goes on to say in verse seven, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.

so that you, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. And so he calls us to be walking in Christ, to be rooted and built up in Christ, to be established in the faith, just as you've been taught, and then abounding in it. And again, all of this goes back to the person of Jesus Christ. The way that we walk is with Jesus. The way to be rooted, to have a solid foundation,

Well, it's to dig in to Jesus. And the way to be built up, the way to be growing is in Christ. It's knowing him and walking with him. To be established in the faith so that you have a solid faith, that you're not shaken, that you're not moved. That faith that you've been taught, it's in Jesus. And so abound in that faith. Abound in your trust in Jesus. Abound in your faith in Jesus with thanksgiving.

This coming week, we get to practice that, right? We get to be thinking about what we are thankful for and feast together with our families and with one another and enjoy the work that God is doing in our lives and reflecting on what he has done with thanksgiving. And as we are rooted in Christ and built up in Christ and walking with Christ and established in the faith, this is going to be one of the results. It's thanksgiving.

Because everything that we have from God, everything that God wants to do in our lives, everything comes through Jesus Christ and his work in us. The commentator F.B. Meyer says, the first act of the Christian life is to receive Christ. And every moment afterward, we must continue receiving him. The act must become an attitude. Breathe in the love and power of Jesus.

Take deep breaths. Then we shall be rooted in him in secret and built up in him in our outward walk and behavior. Our quiet personal lives will be rooted and connected to Jesus. And that will overflow, will be built up in that external walk and behavior as we progress in Jesus. And so Paul wants us to remember. He calls the Colossians to remember. As you have received that gift,

is how you are to walk. I will progress in Jesus. Well, moving on to verses 8 through 10, it gives us point number two for this evening, and that is, in Jesus, I am complete. In Jesus, I am complete. This is a passage we've looked at a couple times as we've talked about this, because it kind of forms the central theme and understanding of the book of Colossians. That is, well, I'm complete in Jesus.

Verse 8 says, Here, Paul issues a warning. There's something you need to watch out for. We have everything that we need in Christ. We need to walk in Christ. But there's also some dangers to pay attention to. Some dangers to look out for.

And he's calling us to be alert, to be aware of these dangers because, well, he doesn't want us to be cheated. The idea here is that you and I could be robbed. We have this incredible treasure in Christ. We have everything that God has for us that can be found in Christ. We have this huge multitude of things that God wants to do in our lives, and it's all found in Christ, but it's not

ours for sure. It's available to us for sure, but that doesn't mean that we live in it. That doesn't mean that we experience all the benefits of being in Christ. And there is that capacity for us to be robbed, to be cheated by being diverted away from Jesus Christ. And so Paul here says, beware lest anyone cheat you. And the methods by which we might be cheated is philosophy.

Now, this is not a slight against, you know, all things that might go under that word philosophy. It's not a slight against education or that kind of thing. But philosophy and empty deceit is what Paul is talking about here. This combination of the search for wisdom, the word philosophy, it means to love wisdom.

And some people in the concept, in the idea of loving wisdom, chase after things that really are not wisdom at all. And there can be a foolishness in the pursuit of wisdom because it's pursuing things that are empty and deceitful. And so there is the danger for us to be robbed of all that we have in Christ by pursuing philosophy and empty deceit.

And the key elements that make this empty and, you know, a poor pursuit is it's according to the tradition of men. There's a lot of things that men teach, and I'm not talking about gender, humanity, right? Humans, we teach a lot of traditions. We believe a lot of things. We're convinced of a lot of things. We can hold fast to lots of things that we want everybody to believe and

What was happening in Colossae was the doctrine that was being brought to them was not the doctrine of God. It wasn't according to what God has said. It was according to the tradition of men. It was things that man made up and it sounded good. And it seemed like it was the love of wisdom. It was true philosophy, but it was really empty deceit. Paul goes on to say it's according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.

You see, the core of this teaching that they were hearing was something that was not according to Christ. It was according to this world. It was according to basic things, traditions of men, all which end up being empty deceit. That is, they promise great things. They promise all this fullness. They promise all this maturity, all this, you know, glorious experience, but

but they turn out to be empty because they're not according to Christ. He goes on to say in verse 9 and 10, You see, in Christ, we have the full deity, the full nature of God.

Because Jesus is God. And so the fullness dwells in him bodily. He is the incarnation. God became man. Still triune, still distinct, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, but he is fully God. Completely and totally. And so he being in us makes us complete. There's nothing that we can be lacking. He says you are complete in him because he's the head of all principality and power.

If the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus and Jesus dwells in you, Paul's point is, you have everything that you need. And there's these empty promises of all this greatness that other doctrines, other teachings, other philosophies, other ideas, the basic principles of this world, they can persuade you to pursue these things, but they're empty and they cannot fulfill the promises. But Jesus...

He can fulfill the promises. You are complete in him. The idea of complete is fully furnished. You have everything that you need in Jesus. I know I've shared this verse a lot over the past few weeks, but it's one worth repeating. It's Peter's word in saying that we have everything that we need for life and for godliness through the knowledge of him. Everything that you need in this life. You have situations that you face and decisions to make. You have

emotions to deal with and stress to handle. You have things happening in your head, things happening in your heart, things happening in your body, things happening in your home, things happening in your relationships, things happening in your workplace. Like you have a lot of stuff going on in life, right? And what you need is all found through the knowledge of him for life and for godliness. Yes, for spiritual things, for growing in the Lord, for knowing the Lord, all the spiritual aspect of what we need. It's found in Jesus as well.

And so in Jesus, I am complete. I have everything that I need. I have everything that I could ever wish for or want or hope for. Now the little catch to this is, well, that doesn't mean that I get everything that I want in the time that I want it, right? And so I may not feel complete. I may not feel like I have everything that I need in all those situations of life and the need for godliness. And I may not feel complete, right?

And so I can be in a position where I'm tempted because here are these other doctrines, these other ideas, these other paths that are promising. Hey, you can have victory over that sin chasing this way, going this path, take this detour. And it's tempting perhaps because, well, I don't feel like I have victory right now. It doesn't seem to be working. I don't seem to be complete in Jesus.

I'm really wrestling with this, you know, relationship and it's difficult and I don't feel like I have the answers and I'm praying about it and I'm reading the Bible and I don't. And so I'm tempted to follow the empty deceit because it doesn't seem so empty and what I have right now seems empty. And that's what Paul is saying is, look, we need to come back and remember the truth.

There's a lot of lies. There's a lot of false doctrine. There's a lot of false teaching. The truth is, in Jesus, I am complete, fully furnished. You know, it's like if you were going to prepare your Thanksgiving meal next week and you look in the fridge and you realize, all I have is hot dogs. It's not a complete meal, right? But if you look in the fridge and you have everything that you need,

And I'm no chef, so I don't know the ingredients that you need, but they're in there. And then you look in the cupboards and oh, there's the, you know, box of stuffing. That's the only one I know. Okay, so you have everything. It's fully furnished. You have the complete meal, right? You may not always feel that way, but in Jesus, you need to know beyond what you can see, beyond what you can feel, beyond what you think, you need to know that you're complete in him. He will give you everything that you need. And when you need, when you lack,

We need to run to him, to walk in him, to go back to him, to seek him. And we will find in him what it is that we need. He will direct us and lead us to all that is good for us. Well, let's move on to verses 11 through 15 for point number three this evening. And that is, in Jesus, I have every spiritual advantage. Here, Paul's going to address a few of the different teachings that were happening there in Colossae.

Let's read verses 11 through 15. It says, And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him

Having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Paul goes through a few different doctrines here, a few different things that

you might look at as a spiritual advantage, or at least the false teachers there around Colossae, they were describing these advantages that the people could have. If you follow us, if you get our information, if you get our doctrine, there's some advantages you could have. And the doctrine that was going on, it's kind of hard to pin down exactly because all we know about it is just whatever is inferred here in the book of Colossians. But it's a mixture of a variety of different things

Jewish legalism is one of those things, but also there's some mysticism that is involved as you read through these things. We'll kind of touch on that a little bit. There's Gnosticism, which is you have to have this extra special information. Only the elite get this and you can have a higher degree of spirituality, a higher plane of relationship with God and all of that through this knowledge that we can provide.

There were these spiritual advantages that were being pitched to the Colossians. And Paul here is walking through them. There's a lot of depth here we're not going to get into, but he's walking through them kind of briefly, just saying all of that that you need is found in Christ. So the first thing he addresses is the issue of circumcision. He says in verse 11, in him,

And so Paul here highlights the issue or the practice of circumcision. And this was something that, of course, was a part of Judaism. It was a part of God's covenant with Abraham and commanded to apply to all of Abraham's descendants. And so Paul here highlights the issue or the practice of circumcision.

but it was a covenant that was specifically with the Jewish people. It was practiced as a part of converting to Judaism before Christ, but after Christ, well, those things were changed by the Lord. Those things no longer applied. And in fact, even when God had established circumcision, although it was an outward expression, that it wasn't really the outward expression that

That was so important, but it was meant to signify something more. Now, it seems that these false teachers around Colossae were teaching circumcision and calling people and, hey, if you really want to know God, if you really, you know, want to move forward, then, well, you need to practice the laws of Judaism, which is usually, you know, symbolized by this first initial act, and then all the rest of the laws will follow as well.

And so Paul, in response to that, is saying, no, what you need is a circumcision that is made without hands. In Romans chapter 2, Paul says, That real circumcision is not about hands.

The physical, it's about the heart. It's about a cutting away of our sinful practices, our sinful behavior, a cutting away of the flesh. And so if you're circumcised, but you don't cut away the flesh, well, externally, you know, that may have happened. But internally, what it's supposed to signify never happened. So that doesn't change anything.

Now in Christ, what Paul is saying is, look, you already have everything that you need in Christ. Now you can't add to that by some physical outward external practice or holding to laws and rules and regulations cannot add to your access to God and what you have in Christ. In a similar way, he goes on to address baptism. Verse 12, buried with him in baptism in which you

And so here Paul talking about baptism in a similar way. It's an external thing that is meaningless if it isn't combined with the thing that it's supposed to signify. Baptism doesn't save you.

But what baptism signifies is that you were raised with him through faith in the working of God. You were raised with Christ. It's an identification with Christ that you were dead in your trespasses. That's the, you know, going back under the water, being immersed, but then you were made alive together. There's this bringing up and there's this resurrection that took place.

Spiritually speaking, that's symbolized by the practice of baptism. And so these things picture what we already have. And so baptism itself doesn't advance you spiritually. Baptism represents the spiritual advancement that you have already because of what has taken place by believing in Jesus. Pastor Warren Wiersbe points out that the Greek here is very expressive about

He talks about it being co-buried, co-raised, and co-made alive. That baptism speaks of this burial and resurrection, but it also speaks of identification, that we are joined with Jesus. And so he died upon the cross for us and was buried. And in a spiritual sense, we were buried with him. And our sinful nature and our sins and all that we ever did wrong is all buried with him.

But then as Jesus was resurrected into glory in a similar way, we are resurrected with Christ. He's the first fruits of the resurrection. And we are part of that. We are made alive just as he was. And so we're joined together with Jesus. And we have life. We have all of this because of Jesus. And so we have eternal life because Jesus has eternal life.

We have the promise of eternity and the hope of heaven because Jesus will be in eternity, in heaven for eternity. We're connected to Jesus permanently. And that's what baptism represents and signifies for us. Well, he goes on in verse 14 to talk about the law. He says, "'Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.'"

The law is good if you use it lawfully, Paul told Timothy, but the lawful way to use the law was to bring you to Christ, not as a means of advancing yourself spiritually, not as a means of advancing, you know, your position before God, or it was a means of helping you recognize you don't measure up. And so there's this handwriting of requirements against us because we can't measure up.

to the law. We can't measure up to what is required to be perfect before God. And so we were bound by this, held captive to it, but Jesus removed it, nailed it to the cross. The requirements of the law, all of our failures to keep the law, all of, you know, the charges that could be brought against us because of our crimes against God, nailed to the cross, wiped out, completely removed and

Again, it's all by faith in Christ. And then we have victory in verse 15, having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. You want to have victory, spiritual battles? You want to have the teeth removed of those spiritual forces that would come against you? Yeah, Jesus did that already. He disarmed principalities and powers. He removed their ability to really inflict harm.

It's often been described as Satan being like a dog that can bark, but his teeth are all gone. He has no bite, just bark. He just make you scared and intimidated by his loud bark and try to threaten you that way. But as Paul says in Romans, if God is for us, who can be against us? Principalities and powers are disarmed. He made a public spectacle of them at the cross.

He made a public spectacle. It's for once and for all, it's known. Their power is not what they claim to be. It's all deception and facade. We have victory in Christ. And so whatever spiritual advantage that might be presented to you, if it's found in something else, like, okay, if you want to have victory, here's the way to have victory. Follow this diet. Don't do this on this day of the week.

Make sure you read this verse this many times. Make sure you practice this thing or listen to this message or follow this or get to know that or you get the idea, right? Like you want to have victory, it's found in Christ. He's the one who's disarmed principalities and powers. You want to be free from the handwriting of requirements against you, free from guilt and that burden that looms over you, that's found in Christ, right?

It's not found in some other avenue, some other way. You want to experience that resurrected life? It's found in Christ. You want to experience the cutting away the flesh? It's found in Christ. The point is, every spiritual advantage that could be had, it's found in Jesus. It's not found in some philosophy and some wisdom that has not yet, you know, only some people know or it hasn't been revealed yet. It's all found in Christ. So going back to verse 6.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. You have every spiritual advantage. You're complete in him. You have everything that you need. You start the way that you finish. You grow the way that you started. And so verses 16 through 19 now give us point number four. I will grow by holding fast to Jesus. I will grow. I will develop. I will mature. I will be strengthened.

not through some other philosophy or doctrine or teaching or understanding, but by holding fast to Jesus. Verse 16 through 19 says this. So let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Here as Paul goes on, he says...

Don't let anyone judge you in food or in drink. And so again, here we're kind of getting some insights into the false doctrine that was going on. There was some judgments being applied in regards to what you ate and what you drank. Probably in connection to the laws of Judaism.

There was the clean and the unclean, and so that's a strong possibility. But there also could have been mixed in some other ideas and thoughts and concepts about what you should eat or drink. Along with that, he says, the festivals or the new moons or the Sabbaths. Don't let anybody judge you about those either. Probably the Jewish feasts. Sabbath days, of course, were the Saturdays. How you handle those days, how you behave yourself on those days. He says, don't let anybody judge you about those things.

Now, to me, that raises an interesting question. How is it that you let nobody judge you? Does that mean I go to Richard and I say, Richard, stop judging me. Cisco, stop judging me. I go around, I make sure nobody judges me. What does he mean? Let no one judge you. How can you control the judgments that other people make? Well, the idea here is to not give their opinion weight. Don't let anybody else's opinion of you

Change your approach to Jesus. Don't let what other people say and their ideas and their thoughts change what God has established for you. And this can be a challenge because, well, we can be subject to peer pressure just like, you know, teenagers, right? We all think about peer pressure in that context, right? But it goes beyond that. And what people think about us sometimes can be really persuasive, right?

and really forceful in our lives. But Paul says, don't let anybody else's opinion of you change your approach to Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul says, Think about what Paul says there.

First of all, he says, it's a small thing that I should be judged by you. You want to judge me? Go right ahead. It doesn't matter to me. You want to have your opinions and have your ideas about what I should be doing and what I shouldn't be doing? And no problem. It's a small thing. Throw it before any human court. I don't care. It's a small thing. It's a little thing. He says, in fact, I don't even judge myself.

It's not a small thing because, hey, I know I'm good, right? I know I'm right. I know. No, no, I'm not judging myself, Paul says. I know of nothing against myself, but that doesn't make me justified. That doesn't make me right before God. Just because I'm convinced I'm right doesn't mean that I'm right, right? That's, I remember Pastor David Hawking, back when I was in Bible college, he was teaching through the book of Romans and he would say, of course I think I'm right.

If I didn't think I was right, I would change my mind, right? Like, yeah, that makes sense. I'm always going to think I'm right. But I have to learn, even though I know of nothing against myself and I think I'm right, I think I'm good, I'm not justified by this. So it's not just what other people would judge of me, it's what I would judge of me. And I might think I'm really great because I follow this and I keep that. And I would be wrong.

I might think I'm extra holy. I might think that, you know, I have special access to God. I could come to all kinds of wrong conclusions about myself. I'm not justified by what I think about myself. He who judges me is the Lord, Paul says. And so what I need to do is not come to my own conclusions, not listen to what everybody else says. I need to go to Jesus and let him tell me, this is what I should do. This is what I should not do.

This is where I need to make some changes. This is where I need to press on and carry on the course that he has set before me. Let no one judge you, not even yourself. You go to the Lord and let him judge you. Let him be the deciding factor for what you do, when you do it, and why you do it. In Romans chapter 14, Paul challenges us on the other side, not us being judged, but us doing the judging. He says, who are you to judge another servant?

Judgment is one of the things that is, whether we like it or not, and whether the truth of it is real or not, it's perceived that we as Christians are very, very judgy. We do this a lot. We're judging people.

I don't think they should be, you know, watching that movie. I don't think they should be doing that or behaving that way. I don't think they should. And there's a judgment that is not a judgment of a person's heart because it's a judgment of actions based upon the scriptures. And when there's a clear violation of the scriptures, that changes it from judging to something else. It's a different thing, but we can be very critical of people and have very strong opinions about what others should be doing and

When really they should let no one judge them. And they should think little of your opinion and my opinion. Now if we come to them with the opinion of God and the clear scriptures, the clear teaching of God, that's a different thing. But our opinion of people shouldn't matter very little. And sometimes we're really convinced that our opinion of people should be, you know, really well received and taken to heart and paid attention to. Let no one judge you.

Now he talks about these different areas that judgment was happening in, food and drink, festivals, new moons or Sabbath. He goes on in verse 17. He says, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substances of Christ. So looking back at the Levitical law, there was all these rules and regulations. They were instituted by God. They were good for the purpose for which God intended them. And that was to be a shadow of the things to come. But Paul is saying the substance is here.

The substance is Christ. So you don't need the shadow any longer. You have the real thing. And so you can practice those things. You cannot practice those things. That doesn't give you a spiritual advantage. It doesn't move you up the ladder closer to God one way or the other. Because you have Christ, you have the fulfillment of those things. And those things are all lesser compared to Christ. Verse 18, let no one cheat you of your reward.

Taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. Again, he says, let no one cheat you. You see, there's the danger that you could be robbed. If you let other people judge you and you let other people's opinions of you move you away from Christ, you're going to be robbed of what Christ has for you.

You're going to be robbed of all of those spiritual advantages. You're going to be robbed of things that God wants to do because you're now trusting in these other things and you've allowed their opinions to move you away from Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward. There's reward that God has for you. There's things in eternity that God wants to do for you. There's eternal reward that you could miss out on.

Well, if you start taking delight in false humility, and he goes on to list a couple of things that, again, this are probably what's happening with these false teachers in Colossae, the worship of angels. Now that may or may not be something that you're tempted by, but that was something that they were tempted by that was going on. And there was this worship of angels. And it seems like the doctrine was basically God was too holy for us to approach him directly. And so God created these other beings, angels, and,

to act as intermediaries so that we could come to God through these emanations of God, these angelic beings. And so it seemed humble to come to God through an angel because, well, I'm not holy enough to go to God directly. I need to go to this person, this priest, this angel, this mother, this

I need to go this route. And Paul calls it a false humility. It's a false humility. It's not a true humility. Because, well, in order to embrace that, you have to disregard what God says. God says, come to me directly by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And you say, no, no, I know better. Because I'm not that holy. I'm not that, I'm not good enough. And so I want to come to the Father, but I'm not going to go through Jesus. Because I can't, I'm not worthy.

No, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. So I'm going to go this way. I'm going to go through Zelda. And she's going to intercede to God for me because I'm not worthy. It's a false humility. Instead of saying, no, God, what you say, that's wrong. Here's what I say. And that's what I'm going to do.

Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, the person who worships through angels or saints now in heaven does not prove his humility for he is not submitting to the authority of God's word. Actually, he reveals a subtle kind of pride that substitutes man-made traditions for the word of God. When we put our traditions and our ways and what we say in place of God's word, that's not humility. That may seem humility like humility, but it's false humility.

And the reality is these who are doing this, these who are practicing this, these who are teaching this, Paul says in verse 19, they're not holding fast to the head. Who's the head of the body? It's Jesus. And so those who are trying to go to God a different way, trying to do things differently than what God has taught and what has been revealed through Jesus Christ, they've let go of the head. They're not holding fast to the head. They're not holding fast to Jesus.

And the problem with that is, well, he's the one whom the body is nourished and knit together. He's the one who provides everything that we need. And notice the knit together. I will grow by holding fast to Jesus is the point, right? Well, we have Jesus, the Savior, but we also have Jesus, the body of Christ as the head of the body of Christ. And there's this knit together and

And so you can understand this to be talking about not only our connection to the Lord, but our connection to one another as believers, that we need to hold fast to the head and be nourished and knit together with the believers that God has placed around us, with all the joints and the ligaments. And we will grow with the increase that comes from God. We will grow as he works in us and as he develops us.

We will grow by holding fast to him. And so walking with Jesus means that we will be looking at our progress and not trying to advance, not trying to move forward, not trying to be more complete in something else, but that we would look to Jesus for all of that. Because in Jesus, I'm complete. I have every spiritual advantage and I will grow by holding fast to him.

Well, finishing up in verses 20 through 23, we get the fifth point, and that is, I will subject myself to Jesus. In verse 20, it says, therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men.

These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Here, Paul continues to address some of that bad doctrine. Holding on to the good doctrine, he says, look, if you died with Christ, why then are you living according to the regulations of this world? You died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, so why are you now subjecting yourself to

to the regulations of this world. And again, it's do not touch, do not taste, do not handle. There's these laws, there's these rules, there's these regulations. And the idea is you do these things or you do not do these things, and then you will be more spiritual. Then you'll have, you know, better access to God. Then you'll have, you know, better insight and better relationship with God and all of that. Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle.

In addition to the legalism and the Gnosticism that seem to be part of this false doctrine, here there's some elements that Paul is addressing that seem to be, I'm going to butcher the word, but it's asceticism. And the idea is where you deny yourself, it's self-mortification in order to become more spiritual.

And so you do not, you withhold, you, and sometimes extremes, you know, they would punish themselves. They would beat themselves in order to try to be more spiritual, more holy. Pastor Warren Rimsby says, there are automatic connections between physical discipline and health.

But there is no connection between such discipline and holiness. You can look at behavior in your life and you can say, look, when I eat a pound of chocolate every day, you know, it affects my body. And there's some visible, you know, results from that.

There's some connections between our physical discipline. When I don't eat and I withhold myself from everything that I want, right? Well, then it also affects my body. It affects my health. And there can be those kinds of relationships established. But don't mistake that for a connection between discipline and holiness. It's not a moral issue. It's not an issue of spirituality. It's not an issue of relationship to God, right?

And so Paul says, look, those things, those are the basic things of the world. Why are you subjecting yourselves to those things when you died in Christ from those things? He says in verse 22, these things all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men. That perishes. It's not eternal. It has no eternal value. Why are you focused on that? It's similar to what Jesus challenged the religious leaders with in Matthew chapter 15.

I think he's actually addressing the disciples directly here. But he says, do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man. And they had this concept, they had this idea that we had to be very careful about what we eat and wash our hands a certain way, right? And it wasn't about cleanliness. It was about ritual. And Jesus makes the point that

The physical part of things, it really doesn't matter. It goes into the stomach and then nature takes its course. It's eliminated. But the things that come out of the mouth, that's what really defiles a person. He says, these are all things which concern, I'm sorry, this concerns things which perish with the using. And again, notice, according to the commandments and doctrines of men, this is man-made. People made this up.

This doctrine that you're believing, this idea that, you know, you can have a better relationship with God, you can have better access to God in these things. He says it's man-made. Warren Wisby says the important thing about any teaching is its origin. Did it come from God or from man? And this is something we always need to think about. This is something we always need to take it back to. Where did this come from? Because, well, it sounds good. Verse 23, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom.

Oh man, that sounds wise. Sounds really good. Self-imposed religion. I mean, yes, there's something that appeals to us about discipline and legalism and rigidness and all of that. False humility, neglect of the body. Sounds great. But did it come from God or did it come from man? Because if it came from man, he says it will have no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Seems like when you're struggling with the flesh, if you make some rules and laws and regulate your body and, you know, be determined and be disciplined, that it would help so that you don't indulge the flesh. But actually, all of that self-discipline, all of that, it doesn't actually have value against the indulgence of the flesh. Because it's following laws and rules that you make up. It's man-made. And what we have to do is we have to come back to subjecting ourselves to Jesus. What does he say? What does he want?

pursuing him, knowing him, walking with him. And so here at Colossians chapter two, I will walk in Jesus, progressing in him, remembering and knowing that I'm complete in him. I have every spiritual advantage. There's nothing that can be added to me apart from Jesus Christ. Everything that God has for me, it's found in Jesus. And if I want to grow, it's going to happen by holding fast to him. If I want to have victory,

if I want to, you know, overcome the indulgence of the flesh, the key is to subject myself to Jesus, to follow him, to submit to his regulations, his leading, his guiding, and what he says. In this, I will walk in Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. And there are these battles that happen in our minds and in our hearts. And we are tempted by various things

philosophies and doctrines and the self-imposed religion and withholding from things and making up laws and rules and regulations. It's all appealing to us and it seems to promise such greater things than we have in you. But Lord, I pray that you would help us not to be fooled by that empty deceit, but help us to remember, help us to come back to and cling to the reality, I am complete in you.

And Lord, if you lead me down a path of some things or certain things or withholding from things, Lord, then I will follow you. Lord, chasing those things on their own, apart from you, I'll end up bringing no value to me. Help me, Lord, to not get confused, to not get deceived. Help us, God, to hold fast to you, to believe you, and to surrender our lives to you fully and completely. Every thought, every concept, every decision, every pattern,

Lord, that we would be submitted to you and your plans for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.