Truth from God's Side, Part 2
Mike Doyle · Jun 12, 2011
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Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492623746626

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. He read from Colossians chapter 2. And I actually, when I got to studying these verses, I thought I ought to back up a little bit and go all the way back up to verse 2. So I know it's not a habit around here, but reach in your pew and take out that book called the Bible. Turn to chapter 2 of Colossians. And we'll use that as a reference this morning. No overheads. Good job.

So Colossians chapter 2 verse 2 says Paul's praying for the Colossians and he says that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in true knowledge of God of God's mystery that is Christ himself. So what's the mystery? The mystery is Christ himself. And so this word understanding means to mentally put something together.

So it shows or requires that you kind of study a little bit and you look the information over and there's an assurance that goes with it as you put it together. The most important phrase I think in the New Testament is in Christ. It's used 164 times. 147 of them, I think, by the Apostle Paul. All of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge we're going to find out are in Christ. Now, the reason that he's going this way is that there's a problem, or a potential problem, with the people in Colossae. They were beginning to sort of entertain what he describes as philosophy. What can be wrong with adding a little philosophy on to Christianity? What's wrong with a little Jewish asceticism? How about some spiritual push-ups? That'll make things a little better.

And so what he's doing is he's going to talk about in these verses what it is. Is Christ enough or do I need to add some things to him or to the theology that I already know? And I've been reading a book by John Cross about a thing called syncretism and how missionaries find themselves in foreign lands. And I think Vern discovered a lot of this when he was with the psalmist last time that you teach the gospel and they accept it, but there's all this other stuff that comes with their culture.

And so they try to put it together. so they can feel comfortable with both, and that's the problem that's in Colossae. So, in verse 3 he says, talking about Christ, who is the mystery, and all a mystery is, is just something that has not been revealed before.

But in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in this person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Back in chapter 1, verse 19, Paul said, for it was the Father's good pleasure for all fullness to dwell in Him. So, you look at the person of Christ and you ask yourself, well, what is he talking about? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, his personhood, contain all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

All of them. Not some of them, not 85% of them, but all of them. And so, why are they hidden? I think they're hidden because they're hidden from all those who are outside of Christ because they wouldn't understand them. They wouldn't know what these treasures were. They're only for those who are spiritually alive, who are believers. So again, it points up the dilemma. Are you as a believer? Am I as a believer? going to look at Christ and view Him as the one who contains all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, or am I going to entertain some other ideas or some other outside source that would give me maybe some additions to Christ? In Christ is an awful lot of wealth. As a matter of fact, all wealth is in Him. There isn't any wealth outside of Him. It's impossible to have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge outside of Christ. It's just simply impossible. So it brings in another point here. And the other point is this. Is it enough for us just to know the facts? Think about that. I can study the Bible. I can read it. I can memorize it. I can get degrees. I can get recognition.

But what if I don't know the person of Christ in the process? Do I discover the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? I don't think you do. I think that acquaintance with Him is the secret to spiritual growth. You can know all the truths of the Bible and practically be ignorant of personal intimacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet on the other hand, the knowledge or personal intimacy with Christ is the basis for the believer's life. because it underlies the very relationship that we have with God. It underlies all our growth in grace. It underlies every fragment of any service that we have. There's nothing which comes within the compass of the life of the Christian which does not depend on the knowledge, intimate personal knowledge, of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's a quote from T. Austin Sparks. So Paul says in verse 4 then, I say this that that no one will delude you with a persuasive argument. So here's the warning. He's sending up the warning flag. He said, look, I don't want anything or anybody or any thought process to rob you or steal from you or delude you with a persuasive argument.

How would you accomplish it? will make everybody on this side of the bad guys. And you're going to persuade all of these Christians on this side that you've got something for them that's better than what they have. How would you do it? Well, the first thing you would do is try to undermine what they now believe with as persuasive a language as you could come up with. And you would do it with really good worldly viewpoints. False teachers always sound really good, and they're very aggressive and very persuasive. And believers who know their position in Christ can be susceptible to this kind of assault on their teaching because their intimacy with Christ isn't as great as it should be. Their knowledge is okay, but the intimacy isn't there.

So Paul says in 5, he says, So even so, though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit. I am rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith. What's interesting about this, and we were talking about this on Wednesday night, Paul seems to, in his epistles, always say to the people he's writing to, you're doing a really good job before I give you the instruction. In other words, he encourages them and tells them that they're doing really well. And then comes the instruction, which I think is really good. Their order and their steadfastness was great.

Their faith in Christ was good. So what was the problem? The problem was the fact that they weren't walking like they should have. They were entertaining these other ideas and thoughts that were coming to them from outside sources. And you could say they were admitting into their minds enticing words. So let's think about it for a minute. Do we have that problem today? Do we have people assaulting us with enticing words?

Now, all you people that are Republicans, I'm sure that the conservative viewpoint is spiritual and scriptural, right? Oh, I'm sorry. The liberals are the same way. How about if you're from a different denomination and you believe that you've bought into Reformed theology? What's the problem with any and all of that? It's man-centered and it's man-conceived and it has not found its origin in Christ in which dwells all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

So Paul says to them, okay, let's do this. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him." How did you receive him? Simple. Got the information about who he was and what he did and believed it. That's it. It was really simple. And so, how they were to walk is an imperative. This is not a suggestion. This is a command. Verne would put it, a logical imperative. And it's present tense, which means we're doing it now, and it's active voice, which means you do it.

So by faith alone in the person of Christ is where all the treasures are. They should walk in him, abiding as they had begun. You should continue just like you have begun. And then he says, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, Overflowing with gratitude.

Now, a couple of interesting things. If you look at the phrases here, the first phrase is having been firmly rooted. That means they were fixed in him to start with. That's a perfect tense, which means that it was done in the past. It has abiding results.

It's going on right now. And all by the way, it's passive voice. And passive voice is important here. Because it means all of the action is being done to you. You're not doing anything but receiving the action. So you're having been firmly rooted with something that was done to you. Then it says, and now being built up for continual growth.

That's present tense. That's what's going on right now. Guess what voice? Same voice. It's being done to you. You're the receiver of the action. You're not the doer of it. established in your faith. Passive voice. You're being confirmed right now by something outside of you.

Now, what's interesting about that is this rooting and grounding and being established is all something that the Spirit of God has taken on because of the treasures in Christ to firmly settle you down in that. in those treasures and in that wisdom, in Christ. To create in you this intimacy with the person of Christ and you become established in him. There's a result of that. And the result is really simple. Overflowing with gratitude. Rejoicing.

That's the reaction that you get from being rooted, built up and being established. So it's interesting, under the grace principle, it's God acting towards us with unmerited and unlimited favor to establish us and to build us up, and we respond. We respond how? In this verse we respond with gratitude. So if you've got a little question about your gratitude, where should you go? You should look back and say, you know what?

I probably need to spend a little more time in the Word of God and allow the Spirit of God to firmly build me up, to settle me down, to grow me in Christ. A growing knowledge of one's position in the Lord Jesus Christ and all the treasures that will result in receiving and abiding in Him in the unlimited unmerited grace, causing a lifestyle that is consistent with our position.

And I think everybody here understands the difference between position and condition. We have a position that's in Christ Jesus that cannot ever be touched by how you behave and how you act. It results in being a Christ-centered person and able to see things from Christ's side of the ledger. It's a very close work. It's a very persuasive work by the Spirit of God.

Anything other than that will steal away from you this intimacy with Christ. So he says in verse 8, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy or empty deception according to the traditions of men. The traditions of men can be anything that is not of Christ. According to the elementary principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Well, do you see the distinction there? There's an absolute line of demarcation between the traditions of men and the elementary principles of the world and Christ himself.

There is no melding. So there are two means whereby a believer can be captivated. He can be persuaded through philosophy. I wish Craig Case was still up here. He's got the best definition of philosophy because he studied it in school. I wish I could remember. I'd ask him right now if he was sitting there. So false teaching that enters into the believer's sphere of influence is usually designed to deceive you and to put you under some sort of legal obligation or to rob you of the glory that you have and the intimacy that you have with Christ.

So the traditions of men, what is that? I think it's human viewpoint about everything. And what is the number one tool that the world has created to teach you the human viewpoint? What do you think it is? It's the boob tube. The television set, you turn it on and what comes through it? The philosophy of men, all the time. It never stops. And so does your radio. It comes at you all the time. And sometimes it sounds really reasonable and really good. Some literature, same way.

Wow, this is just such a great book. What's the problem? It's man's viewpoint. The elementary principles of the worldview refers to a viewpoint who seek to understand the world apart from Christ. Boy, do we live in a world like that today? Do we ever? And it's not according to Christ. Can you view the world from being in Christ? Absolutely. And it's a different perspective.

The Colossians were beginning to just let these two snares come into their life. They had reasoning minds and they had certain aesthetic mortifications of the body were the appeal to them. The one is in connection with philosophy, the other has its root in Judaism. How much of contemporary Christianity has its roots in Judaism?

Lots of it. I mean, I came out of Catholicism and you walk in a Catholic church and it's set up like the temple. I mean, everything that they do is designed for an aesthetic reaction. And I run into believers all the time who say to me, Oh, I just love the vestments or whatever it is.

The problem is, is that it's not according to Christ. So these believers were told that these new thoughts and ways can be brought alongside Christ. What's the problem with that? Doesn't sound too bad. Can't you take something you learned in school or some book you read or some conversation you've entered into with really intelligent people and say, you know, that's a great idea. We ought to bring that into our thinking in the church.

The problem is that sooner or later it's going to frustrate your intimacy with Christ. It's going to change what you believe and it's going to change what your focus is. And when it does that, what do you suffer? You suffer intimacy. You suffer from grasping and growing in the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. True believers can be seriously damaged by this, and they can lose a really important aspect of their Christian life. You know what it is? It's delighting in Christ. They may have the doctrine down, but they're going to lose the delight.

They're going to lose the wonderfulness of having intimacy with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder when Paul says, rooted and built up in him, having been firmly rooted, that gratitude is the result. Because gratitude or rejoicing only comes from intimacy with the Lord Jesus.

Now, verse 9. Paul is going to lay out to these Colossians why Christ is so important to them. So he starts in 9, he says, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. So he gives two reasons here. He's going to give two reasons why they should not let themselves be robbed by philosophy and asceticism. The first reason is In him dwells the fullness of deity and bodily form.

Can you get any more wonderful view of who the Lord Jesus Christ is? This truth which is so simple about Christ himself. Every believer ought to know this. This is not some doctrine or some information that's too difficult to explain. How tough is it to understand that in Christ Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead? in bodily form. That's not hard to understand. So there's nothing like it. And there alone is all truth. The Lord Jesus said when he was here, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I'm truth. I don't possess the truth. I am the thing truth. And if you know me, you know the truth.

So we know God now. And how do we know God now? If you said, well, I want to get to know God. That's what I'm going to do this month. I'm going to get to know God. How would you do it? Well, let's see. I'm going to study my Bible. I'm going to talk to all these guys that I think are spiritual. I might, you know, just start investigating. Well, you're not going to get to know God by reasoning. And you can search and search and search and you're not going to find him out.

Now, you may discover in his creation that he's that he's God and that he's creator and that he's powerful. But I'm talking about intimacy with the God of the universe. We only know him by being in Christ and as a living person who once lived here in a bodily form, who still is in a body in the heavenlies. And we know from God and from the Word that the person of Christ in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

All of it. Not just some of it, all of it. And not merely just in his spirit, but really bodily. And not only that, when he went to heaven on the day that he assumed up there, what happened to him? God the Father responded to his prayer in John 17 and he glorified him, which means that he manifested through the human being Son of God, Jesus Christ in a body, all of the attributes of God.

He's self-existent. He's infinite. He's spiritual. He has all knowledge, all power, and he's everywhere. He's absolutely the uncaused cause. He's immutable, which means he cannot change. He's the same all the time. He's absolutely faithful, totally dependable. He's absolute truth. His veracity is unquestioned. He's holy. He's absolutely righteous. And he's absolutely just. And then a really cool thing. He's love itself. He demonstrates mercy and kindness. And he demonstrates grace and generosity. And then you find out he's sovereign among all of these things. This is who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

So as you get to know him, these are his attributes. Why would you entertain any other ideas or thoughts? Seems to me like you probably wouldn't. If you want to know the only true God, then the issue is get acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you do it.

So the fullness of the Godhead never dwelt in the Father bodily, never dwelt in the Spirit bodily. Bodily is important because one of the problems with philosophy in this time which let the philosophy that was coming into Colossae ended up being not as what is now known as Gnosticism and Contemporary Gnosticism is Mormonism and that there's a there's a hierarchy of God up here and human beings down here And there's these level of spiritual beings that are somewhere in here and Jesus was one of these he was way up there, but he was one of these so Paul uses the term bodily and to say that in Christ, in a human being who is God, is all the fullness of Godhead. And that's why he framed and phrased it that way. Second reason why you shouldn't entertain philosophy and asceticism is verse 10.

He says that in him you have been made complete. and he is the head over all rule and all authority. You have been made complete. So you don't want philosophy even if it contains something good. Why would you want it? This word complete, maybe the best way to describe that is if we have some engineers in the audience, you conceive of something in your mind certain way and you plan it out and you build it and there it is in front of you and it's exactly like you designed it to be. You could say it's complete. It's perfect. Your being in Christ means that you're perfect.

You are exactly as God has designed you to be. There's nothing to be added to you and nothing to be taken away. No modification. No test drive. You're perfect. And when you find out that you've been made complete in Him, there isn't anything in philosophy that you would entertain to be added to who you already are.

So what we want then is rather than to entertain other ideas, what we want is to enjoy Christ better and to walk more according to Him. Not to glean other things from man as if they could enrich Christ, because they can't. Man fallen away is far away from God and he's under the power of the devil. And his mind is darkened and he cannot contribute to the fullness of Christ. It's impossible for him to do that. So if you look at philosophical principles and at their root, they start in death. They don't start in life. And so if they start in death, what can they only produce? Death. Then he says in verse 11, and in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."

We talk a lot about the identification truths here, and we teach them a lot, and we find out that in all of Paul's epistles they show up. Well, here they are again. And this being made complete in Christ he's going to demonstrate how that happened and he uses the term circumcision because he's talking to those who would, well I'm not going to entertain philosophy but maybe some of this Jewish asceticism, some of the stuff they do, the spiritual push-ups, maybe I ought to do some of those and God would find me more pleasing than he already finds me. Well, this is in contrast with physical circumcision. It's the putting off of the body of the flesh. The true meaning makes it a complete thing. It's not a question of sins, but it's a question of the whole flesh sin nature itself. It's called circumcision made without hands. Well, how did that happen?

Let's turn for I'm going to read one more verse and then we'll turn to some other scriptures. Verse 12 says, Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

Those two verses are the heart of the identification truth. Now flip over to Romans chapter 6 and go to verse 2. And while you do that, I'm going to get a drink. Romans chapter 6 verse 2 says, don't you know that when you were baptized, you were baptized what?

Into Christ's death. Now the word baptized means to be put in, placed in, never to be taken out of. This has nothing to do with water. This has to do with the work of the Holy Spirit. And in Colossians, there's a definite article in front of both times he uses the word baptism. You know why? because he's talking about a specific event.

And the specific event is this Roman 6.2 event where you were baptized into Christ's death. Why did you go in at that point? Why wouldn't he say, well, you were baptized into Christ's Sermon on the Mount or Christ's birth. Why death?

Well, God has a situation here. If He's going to make you complete in Christ, then He's going to have to do something about your identification with the flesh and the sin nature. How's He going to do that? Well, the mechanics are right there in Romans 6. He puts you into Christ at the point at which Christ is dying. Death means separation. Christ has been made sin for us. My sin nature and your sin nature is placed on Him. When He dies or separates, what's He separate from? Sin. your sin and my sin."

So, he can say, not only were you baptized into Christ's death, you were buried with him. Burial is a really cool thing because it's the last act that any human being ever goes through and it's the sign that we're done. Then it says, as he was raised to newness of life, so were you. Now you're identified with the Lord Jesus Christ and his work of the cross and you're raised with him. to newness of life. That's circumcision made without hands. That's what it is.

So as you study Romans 6, 2 through 6, 6 says, knowing this, that my old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin, the whole totality of sin itself might be put out of business, that I would no longer serve sin. Paul understands in Colossians That the only part of the human being that entertains philosophy or aesthetics is the sin nature. The old man loves that stuff and that's what appeals to him.

But if you have been crucified, buried and resurrected with Christ, then why would you mess with it? You wouldn't if you find that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Let's see. Romans 6.5 says, For if ye have been united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that the body of sin might be undone away, is not as good a term as put out of business or rendered inactive, so that we should no longer serve sin. And then 7 says, For he who has died is freed from sin. If you're going to be complete in Christ, you have to be freed from sin. Don't you think that makes sense? If you still are united and attached to your sin nature, you cannot be complete in Christ.

I mean, that's not a difficult subject to understand. It's real basic. But, back to position. My position in the Word of God says that I was crucified, buried, and resurrected. I'm now seated in Christ in the heavenlies. I'm no longer associated or united to my sin nature. I'm complete in Him. He's now my life. Do I need anything other than Him? No, I don't. Because everything outside of Him, I've been separated from. Make sense? Hope so.

So, Paul says, Why is living any longer in sin just not the norm for the believer? I could say to you, well, why should you not live in sin anymore? Or you say to me, well, you know, I can't overcome sin. And you say, it's just normal for me to sin. No, it's not. No, it's not. Because if you understand your position, as you have begun in Christ Jesus, you walk by faith in the principles that he has laid out for you, you do not have to sin. Oh yeah, Mike, that's great, but I'm still sinning. Yeah, we are. Why are we? Because I don't think we've grown enough yet. The great thing about the identification truths is that it presents the possibility that I would sin less.

And oh, by the way, who controls your sin nature? Up to you to control it. What do you think? It's God's job to control your sin nature. And oh, by the way, did he do it? Is he doing his job? Let's see. He separated you from it. It's no longer to have any dominion over you. You think he did his job? So what's left for you to do? Believe him. Just believe him. You don't have to fight sin. That's his job. You just believe him. So, on what scriptural truth does he control the sin nature? His ability to control the sin nature is based on that Romans 6 truth. And he does control it.

So, I hope you can understand this question. It's one of those ones that shows up in my weird mind once in a while. Do you have the freedom to plead with God to be given the power over a tendency to sin in which there's no control? Is the question okay? In other words, can I go to God and say, God, please give me the power to overcome sin?

Is that a legitimate question? Answer, no, it's not. Why not? We still have the tendency to sin, and that's in nature, don't we? Is your sin stronger than your ability to control it? Everybody ought to be doing this. So what's the logic here? Should I go to God and say to him, I want you to do something you've already done? No. What I want to do is believe him in that he has already done it. It would not become a child of God to be living in sin any longer. It doesn't fit with who he is. Why is it not necessary to live any longer in sin and to bear fruit of sin? Because I'm dead. That's why.

I've been separated from it. I'm now united to the resurrected, glorified Christ. I'm complete in Him. God has provided the possibility of deliverance from sin's power. How do you do it? You believe what He tells you. You judge the old sin nature for what it is, and you recognize you have no power over it, and you trust when God says, I've taken care of it. Since you're risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. We believers are dependent on God alone for deliverance by His Spirit. There it is, dependence. The necessity for sin is broken. The believers are free to move on another plane altogether.

We live and have our being in an entirely new creation in Christ Jesus, in which there dwells righteousness and no sin. And in the power of Christ in the new man, we have resurrected life. So the argument in this passage is based on our union with Christ. We are organically united to Him and we have His resurrected life.

So, if we've been baptized into Christ in His death, if in Christ Jesus dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're complete in Him, then what's the problem? The point is that either we're ignorant and we don't really understand fully what God has already done, or we do know it, and like a lot of things that we've learned that are gracious, they're just too good to believe. When God says to you, you're seated in Christ in the heavenlies, you say to Him, I am? Not from my eyeballs I'm not. How are you supposed to live? Believe Him. Just believe Him. Take Him at His word.

So, being in Christ, a fixed position that's permanent, and how did you get in there? You got in Christ by the work of the Spirit placing you in Him at His death. So now you're there, you're in Christ, how do you function in there? How do you find out what it's like to live there? How do you? The first place is by acquaintanceship with the Word of God, especially in Paul's epistles, because he lays it out clearly and precisely. The second thing is that you believe what you read.

And the third thing is that you take what you know and what you believe and you expect the Spirit of God to create this intimate personal fellowship with Christ Himself. so that he becomes more valuable to you than you are to yourself, and that you are to that sin nature and self-satisfaction. So, is this something a new principle that God has just developed? That if I'm a believer in Christ, then I'm going to act like Christ?

No, the principle was in Genesis. When he created birds, what did birds do? They flew. And when they procreated more birds, what did the birds do? They flew. And when he created Adam, and we all came from Adam, and Adam became a sinner, what did you do? You sinned. Like begets like. But now you're in Christ. So what begets what? Life begets life. No sin. New life in Christ does not sin.

And that's who you are. And that's who I am. So, the principle is not new, and God recognizes that a modification of you through a lost system would not help you be better because it wouldn't change who you are. But by recreating you in Christ, it changes who you are. You're a new creature in Christ.

So, with that all in place, If you just read down, and I'm going to do this, just read down through the rest of the verses in Colossians, watch how they fit together. When you were dead in your transgressions in the uncircumcision of your flesh, I remember those days, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to His cross.

I'm going to drop down to verse 18. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize in delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without the cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head. Holding fast to the head is beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Word. That's our responsibility is to behold His glory. And if you do, watch the rest of the verse. From whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and the ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, Did you? Yes, I did. Why, as if you're living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as don't handle, don't taste, don't touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with the use in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? Question mark. Why do you do that?

These are matters which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but of our no value against the fleshly indulgences. The only escape you and I have is union with Christ in His death, prayer, and resurrection, and a growing intimacy with Him day by day, moment by moment, in His Word. Knowing Him is the answer to everything. And what's cool about all of this is that this is the program that God has designed and has given us His Spirit to implement it.

We can just let Him do it. Pass a voice. Just let Him do it. So let's close. Dear Father, how we thank You for Your Word. How we thank You for Your Spirit. How we thank You for Your Son. As Paul said in Philippians 3.10, that we might know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, that we may attain to what he has apprehended us for. Father, we thank you for the grace we live under. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.