Colossians Lesson 11 Week 2

Good morning. So I was told that the love-offering funds won't get released unless I finish the questions. So thanks for those who contributed. So if anyone was counting last week, I know we had a great discussion, but through the discussion, I think we sort of covered most questions, but kind of out of order, and I guess that's a no-no. Right, Mike? So, I think we left off at question five. So, I assume everyone did them. If not, you can go to Randy's class. So, question five.

What was the content of the false teaching? We touched on it last week, but... Well, they were reverting to the law. Reverting to the law, okay. Part of it. Philosophy of the world. They didn't believe in Christ the deity. Right. Why? They were Jewish. They were looking for a savior. They were Jewish. They were looking for a savior. They weren't looking.

Okay. That's part of it. Yeah. Let's read the verses again. Colossians 2, 8-10. Anyone? Colossians 2, 8-10. The answer is in verse 8. There's a phrase in there. Pick it up. The content of the false teaching was? Philosophy. Tradition of men. Elementary principles of the world. So, traditions of men.

So, does anyone remember last week we went over the source, which was question four, the source of the secular intrusion? I had Judaism before, right? That was an answer. What else was going on in Colossae? Gnostics. Okay. What else? It's only been a week. Did I not make an impact? Yes. Okay.

Physically, where was the Silk Road network? Looking to China. Asia, right? We talked last week how there were stout Christians over there, right? In China. Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism. I love that word. According to the tradition of men, you have a little of Judaism, you have a little of Gnosticism, you have a little of Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism. You have all that mixed together.

And what was happening is the false teachers there were putting their own Christian terminology on it. So if you put, like we talked last week, if we're walking in lockstep, arms locked, and then somebody starts to veer a little bit, We're not all together, right? So it's possible to be deceived by philosophy and empty deception, right? And to go off the course even just a little bit. Now, if it's blatant psychology, or if it's blatantly against Christianity, it's pretty obvious, right?

But what if it's not? What if we throw in some Christian terminology? Right? Makes it sound good. Makes it sound good, which makes it possible to be taken captive, right? Kidnapped. Talked about being kidnapped last week by philosophy. So it's possible, but it's possible that it's so subtle that we don't even realize we're veering off course.

That's what was happening and that's what Paul is warning against. So the content of the false teaching was according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world. Elementary principles of the world was a Gnostic thing. Gnosticism was all about gaining knowledge so that you could reach that higher level of spirituality. And the higher the level you went, the more secret writings, secret knowledge you were able to attain.

So in order to do that, you have to increase somehow And if you don't believe that Jesus Christ is completely holy, we talked about Gnosticism where the physical was evil and God was holy, but Jesus Christ, because he came as a man, wasn't quite God. So if you believe that Jesus Christ is great, but he's not God. Therefore Jesus Christ, in their minds, Jesus Christ had one more rung on the ladder to increase, so you're going to add something. They needed Jesus, they knew that. The Gnostics was like, yeah, Jesus Christ, follow him. Great. But he's not enough.

And it's easier for us to be according to the tradition of men. One example I was thinking of, that we have the tendency to fall into, or we have the possibility of falling into, is if you ever make somebody mad, specifically your spouse, and if you both at least have somewhat of an understanding of grace, all you have to do is go to them, maybe do a little confession, maybe do some apologizing, and you're cool. What do we sometimes do? We make our spouse mad.

We upset him in some way. Do I have to admit what I do? Really? Well, she's in the back, so I guess I'll have to. What I sometimes do is I'll know I've made her mad in some way. It's totally my fault. It's my fault that I've made her mad in some way. So what I'll do is instead of just going to her because I I know it's shocking, but I can be a little prideful.

Just a little bit. So what I do is then I end up, I might do the dishes two nights in a row. Hoping that she notices, right? I might make the bed. Once a year. But what am I trying to do? Right. I'm trying to gain favor, right? All I have to do is go to her. I was wrong. Please forgive me. But what about with the Lord Jesus Christ? What do we do? Well, if I go to church more, or if I pray more, what am I doing?

I've just subjected myself to a law-based system. I'm trying to gain favor that I already have. All I have to do is go to my wife and we can have fellowship again. Instead of coming to her or trying my own way to get back to her. It's easy to fall into that with the Lord Jesus Christ. So, tradition of men. I added my own little twist to it. And that's all it took. That's all it took to make that path to fellowship not a direct line. And that's what was happening here.

They thought that they knew they needed Christ, but they needed a little of this and a little of that. And that little of this and little of that was partially Judaism, partially Gnosticism, Hinduism, whatever it was that they needed to get to that next level. All right, question six. Why is all of this kind of knowledge and teaching deficient for the Christian? And we're referring back to, according to the tradition of man, elementary principles of the world. deficient for the Christian. It is not after Christ. Not after Christ. It corrupts the truth too. It corrupts the truth.

Worldly? Worldly. There are two key terms in 8 and 9 and 10 that show opposites. Yes, exactly. Right? Why is it deficient? Because it's empty. It's what? It's empty. Why is it empty? Sorry? Christ isn't in it. Christ isn't in it? Right. Because Christ is... It's in 9. Verse 9. Courtney's got it. In Him all the fullness. Fullness. Right. Everything else is empty. Why? Because all the fullness is in Christ. But we don't just... Yes, Roy?

I was just thinking, one of the traditions of men is that I need God, and if you're going to tell me about God, I've already learned the Hindus, I've already learned the Gnostics, I've already learned the Gnostics. And I just add, you know, Christ, he's, okay, he's on my God's shelf too. Rather than he is the one true and living God, he is absolutely God. We don't teach that enough, that there is no other God but the Lord Jesus. Yeah, and I would take that a step further, and in verse 10, what does it say about us? We have been made complete in Him. We have been made complete. Alright, if you remember last week we talked about what that word complete is.

Alright, who said, who said, Rory did you say? Pleroma. Pleroma. You remember that word? I know this is kind of out of order, but when you pray, you pray to God through Christ, you pray to Christ, you pray to God, where do you go? I pray to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. by way of the Spirit. So in essence you're praying to the two divisions of the Godhead, two parts of the Godhead? Well the example I see, even Jesus Christ himself when he was a man prayed to God the Father.

Yes he did, I know. I see the example. That's what I do because I don't want to offend anyone. I was actually going to, you don't want to make one of them mad, right? I was actually in a conversation a few months ago about exactly this and the guy who was arguing for praying to the Holy Spirit. I gave him at least a couple of examples where I don't see anybody doing that. I see the Spirit being the vehicle.

Romans 8.26 for example. where he's editing our prayers, groaning's too deep for words.

Anyway, it's an interesting question, and I'll try to get five different answers. So, verse 10. I agree with you, Roy, absolutely, that God the Father just happens to be, can be, just another God on the shelf. you know, like Buddhists or Hindus or whatever. But we don't just... it's not that God the Father, all the fullness is in Jesus Christ in bodily form, right? Verse 9.

It's not just that. So we're not just here trusting and we're not told to believe in the Godhead that is all fullness, right? He didn't stop there. He didn't just put all fullness in Jesus Christ in bodily form. What did He do in verse 10? He made us fullness because we're in Him.

Right? That takes it at least a couple of steps farther. Right? So how does that change the mentality? How do you think that changes our mentality? There's nothing for us to do. There's nothing extra for us to do, right? Other than believe. But we're not believing in someone who has all the fullness. He made us fullness. Does that change anything for us? It does for me. It brings me up to His level. Right?

If you remember back in Colossians 1.12, it talks about He qualified us for the inheritance. Right? Qualified. to make sufficient, to bring to his level.

That's what he did for us. So we're not these little subjects walking around looking up at a king. We're at his level. So we're not just here to obey as subjects. We're here to walk in that fullness. We are completing him and we are completing him by his work on the cross.

In the same way, we can talk to the Father in the name of Christ, which means everything that He is, all of His works, including the Pleroma Messiah, that He has for the Father, we have for the Father. Isn't that neat? Yeah, absolutely. And does anyone remember what that Pleroma word meant to the Gnostics? In the same vein of this prayer, right? The Gnostics would have prayed to who? You remember? Evil, man evil, or physical world evil, God holy. So who was the link? They had these different emanations, right? Angels, right? We see in 2.19, I think, one of the verses talks about worship of angels, right? That was one of their emanations.

The linking, the next hierarchy up. to God, the Father, whereas Jesus was one wrong lover, right? So their prayer mentality wasn't directly to God. Because they didn't have the secret knowledge or secret spirituality, that next level. They had to go to the next guy, right? You talked about Catholicism last week, right? You go to the next guy up.

Whereas us, we've been made fullness, right? That complete linkage, the complete line of emanations between God and man is that word Pleroma. And we've been made that so that we have a direct line. There's no A to B to C to D to get to E. It's A to E. All of that is fullness. And we are in Him. So we can go directly to Him. Right? Right. Yes. A couple of things in these versions, which you know, this is beginning a good section from our identification. We're starting to do a bunch of identifications, which, you know, these are the I think it's some questions on.

These are those verses, how do you explain if you don't understand identification and in him, the in him's here and there would be a whole series of them and we've been crucified placed in him, in him, in him. Again that's that link that gets us there. You can't, if you understand the identification, what we call the identification groups, this really You can't explain these verses without that. Because we're in Him, we're made complete. How did you get there? And it'll go on in some of these other ones.

The other part which is, I didn't realize, kind of the importance of this, about fully man and fully God. And Nick brought it up. He had a co-worker who said just Christ was a man. you know, perfect man or you know, kind of whatever his deal was. And he said, you know, he's just a perfect man, the perfect sacrifice, but not God. What? And this verse came up, you know, in him. bodily, in bodily form. So I can't remember if you brought that up to him or not, but how you refute that Christ was not fully man and fully God is right here.

It's awfully hard to say he was just a perfect man, the perfect sacrifice for us. So these verses are critical and again getting to what this passage is getting to also, the deity of Christ. Again, the link with the Gnostics and all the different things that go in here, but again, this is an important verse for those who say Christ was just a perfect man. Yeah, and he's building the case, like you said, in the next four or five verses, identification, and then he's going to say, therefore, why would you go back to that?

When we were studying the Holy Spirit, we talked about that you don't pray to the Holy Spirit. Where does... I mean, it's almost... I have this feeling when you pray, you know, to the Father, to Jesus Christ. But the Holy Spirit, how do you communicate? with the Holy Spirit? I think he does it. He bears witness with our spirit. Romans 8, 27? 26? The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God. It might be 25. And then the next verse is, I'm paraphrasing, that He more or less edits our prayers with groanings too deep for words. That's the Holy Spirit.

But we don't ever talk to Him. I think we're communing with Him all the time. In what way? In what way? On a spirit level. We are talking to him. I think it's important to understand what the role of the Holy Spirit is. His job is to point to Christ. His job is to teach us of Christ. That's his only job. Well, his other job is to convict the world of sin and to restore us back to fellowship when we sin. But he's a deflector. He always deflects us to Christ. He's never going to take center stage, because that's not his role. Now, we're not devaluing the Holy Spirit here in any way, but we are going to make a law about it.

You pray to the God. Pray to God, the Father. Well, I think the main thing that she might be going at is when you talk to the Holy Spirit, If you do it visibly, it's thank you, Holy Spirit, for showing me Christ. It's more of a thank you for your functions being real to me personally. It's intimacy. We're intimates of all three. Yeah, that's a good point. Thank you, Mike. It's a different role, yes. Jesus said he'd send a comforter, Holy Spirit. I was just going to add, I mean, first of all, we're talking about one God.

And so our minds start to get a little bit limited when we divide it into these different roles. But I think our conversation with the Holy Spirit is something that we're all really well aware of in that our flesh is constantly pulling and tugging and leading us and luring us out, as James talks about, luring us out and our flesh is attempting to bait us right into the temptation of sin. The conversation that the Holy Spirit is having with you is reminding you of the Word, reminding you of the truth, reminding you of how you beheld Christ in the Word, the mirror. And so when your flesh begins to battle and say, no, I think I really do want to get out there and take part in that little whatever it is, whatever you think your temptation is, week, yesterday, today, this morning, that conversation and challenge in your heart is one where the Holy Spirit is convicting you and your flesh is at battle. And so, how often does that happen in our lives? It happens on a regular basis, but it's the Spirit's voice that is convicting you and leading you and telling you back to the Word and who you know Christ to be as you beheld Him in the Word. So it's a very common and regular for the walking believer conversation to have. And so that battle that we talk about and the resting in faith is one where you've had a conversation with the Holy Spirit. And again, we're talking about one God. And the Spirit controls us, right? Walk by the Spirit?

Last Monday I was taking one of the trips I like to in the mountains. I was south of Fair Play on Highway 285 and going pretty fast and all of a sudden there's a big truck coming toward me and all of a sudden there's a car passing the truck right in front of me and I just automatically shout Jesus and thank God there was enough enough shoulder for me to swing over, and I have the presence of mind to do that. And then I say, thank you, Lord.

Did you do it in the right order? I hope so, otherwise it didn't count. Hey, it worked whenever. Whatever it was, it worked, right? Make sure you write down the formula for us. I just think we should go over those that you paraphrased in the Romans, in 26 and 27.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should. But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches the hearts Knows what the mind of the spirit is because he intercedes for the Saints and the key part according to the will of God And that's the order. I mean he we pray the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and then he's the one who takes it according to the will of God. And that's where the spirit's job is to convince and convict. And that's what he's doing with us. And he's taking our prayers and interceding. I don't know how you paraphrased it. Edited.

So in that scenario God is ignorant about what I'm praying for and he needs the Holy Spirit to translate? I don't think so. I don't think so either. The one that's ignorant in that transaction is me. Can you read the part where it says, we do not understand? Is that what the term is? For we do not know how to... We do not know. That word there is... We don't. We don't. But that word there is oida, which means fully understand. It's not that we're ignorant. We just don't fully get. So we have... I'm inferring from that that we have a clue. Well, we have a clue, but we don't understand.

But we don't fully understand so he has to be there. We don't understand the fullness of God's will for us. It isn't that God doesn't understand and he doesn't need a translator from English to whatever God speak is. I'm the one that's in the dark here and needs the understanding from God to me about what my father's will is regarding whatever the circumstances.

That's the last part of the verse. He intercedes according to the will of God. to give us the will of God or what he wants. That's his function. Jesus said he'd send us a helper. That's the whole ministry of the Spirit. Helping us, not helping God. Yeah, absolutely. So we're kind of segwaying into seven.

Is Christ everything to us or do we need a little from our or others' own experiences? My question would be, why do we sometimes think we need to add anything? Could it be we don't see enough evidence of Him in our lives? Maybe our spiritual growth isn't happening as fast as we would like to? Do you think it's our humanness? Do I think it's our humanness that... that we think we need to add?

For me personally, I think sometimes it's, you know, I haven't experienced anything spiritual in the last couple of weeks. What's going on? Maybe I need to... What are you talking about? You've been in Colorado for a month. Weeks prior to getting here. Higher altitude, higher spiritual level. Anybody else experience anything like that? We think you might need to add. And I'm not talking about adding something big, like if you're a Catholic, you owe the Mass more. I'm not talking about anything like making huge changes. I'm talking about the subtle things.

Isn't it all part of the empty deception that we are not only indoctrinated, but self-thinking allows us to think that we've got to help God? I think it is. And I'm glad Paul used that word, take captive, which literally means kidnap, because I know I don't purposefully do anything, I don't think I do, do anything to speed God along or do anything to contribute to my spiritual growth, but I'm sure I do. And I'm sure it's in the subtlest way.

We don't understand his timing. Yeah, absolutely. He's working from eternity and to eternity. Why should we care about the timing involved? We do, though. You know what I mean? It's all about me. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's all about Bruce. Don't follow his example. Anybody have any examples that you want to share with us? Just subtle ways, right?

Abraham, when he promised a son. to pass on his legacy. He had to wait 25 years, so finally, you know, he said, well, his wife Sarah said, well, let's help God out on this. So you take my wife, you know, you take my servant Hagar, and I have a baby by her. I'm not sure I could wait 25 years, 25 weeks, 25 minutes. That's a great example, thank you.

Yeah, Brown, I think this also a lot of times takes us through to, I guess, who's the one who thinks we need to add a little bit? It's the old man. It's the old man who wants to stick to the law, to the works, to all those different things. And I think a lot of times we're taken through this. It's awfully hard, I think, as a believer. to see the old nature a lot of times.

It's so ingrained in our culture and all these different things. We kid about, if I go over to your house and immediately what's yours? Well, I'll have you over to my house. Or what is our job? And we talk about works and all the different things. Everything is based on works and the law basis here. And a lot of times, I think it's the Spirit identifying that old nature in us.

That's who's the one who wants to add that little bit or that little tweak. You know, Christ just quite isn't enough because I've got to help him. You know, I need to memorize five verses this week because that's really going to make me, you know, make God smile at me just a little bit more.

And that's the old man speaking. And that's where I think a lot of this is. He's working that out to identify the old man. And your dependency on Christ or your dependency on the old man. And he takes us through that a lot. And it's a hard process, I think. I think it's a harder process to identify what the old man is doing in our life. In our everyday condition.

Than to look at who, you know, in Christ. Because we're so... in this world so much pushed into the worldly fleshly that I think it's the Holy Spirit convincing us, convicting us of we are complete in Christ. What about this? What about family pressures of, like for example, I see another fellow believer's family acting more Christian. or being at every church function. It means nothing. But then you start to feel a little pressure because everybody else around you is doing it. Should I get my family? Should I urge them along? Should I push them along a little bit? It could be one of the subtle ways.

Right? Now I'm starting to think, oh, now I need to have more family devotion time, and I need to spur on my child's spiritual growth so that they'll not complain when we go to church all the time, kind of a thing. Isn't that like trying to work your way into heaven? Yeah, I mean, it's adding a little of this, a little of that, right? And those are subtle ways. Those aren't obvious ways, are they? I fall into that sometimes. I mean, I have some legal friends. And, you know, wow, your kids are They're doing this, and wow, maybe I need to spur it on a little bit.

So is that because you don't really believe these verses? Yeah, absolutely. I think it's you don't fully, you might 99%, but you don't fully 100% believe that not only is He fullness, but we are in Him. That we don't need anything extra. My thought is, the question says, is Christ everything? That's the real question here.

Is He everything? Is He the center and focus of everything that I am? Has He won my heart over? Do I walk with Him on a moment-by-moment basis? Has the Holy Spirit done His job in revealing Christ to me? Has He become the most valuable thing to me, superseding everything else in my life?

That's the real question. And I think all of Paul's epistles point to that one issue. How important is Christ to you personally? One of the reasons he's a human being is because he's knowable by us. And the Spirit of God, you know when you dance around with the Holy Spirit, you're missing the real issue. Who is Christ? The whole issue is Christ. There is no other issue.

And so all of the questions you have about gee how do I raise my kids and should I show up at functions and all that kind of thing. All has to do with your intimacy with Christ and going where he would have you go and do what he would have you do with no strain.

So you know when Paul says in Philippians that he would know him, this intimate personal fellowship, you know we can I use this example a lot. I could come to this class and no one had ever met Donna and I could spend three hours talking about how great she is and everybody would walk out with all the information but none of them ever met Donna.

We get to meet this person, the second person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life for me and we get to walk with him and live in him and that's the issue. And when he is that to us, nothing else interferes. Lord Jesus when he left said, I'm going to send a comforter and he's going to take the things of mine and give them unto you.

That's personal. It is, absolutely. He is dwelling in us right now. Each one of us in this room is showing us Christ intimately so that we can know him like God walks in the room. the Holy Spirit walking Christ in front of us. Right. Yeah, absolutely.

Look at Colossians 2.16 and 17.

It says, This is after the identification passage, right? Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. That's exactly what we're talking about, right? That mere shadow, the shadow there is a word for a dim sketch, okay?

So the best example I've heard of this is more along the lines of what you said about getting to know Donna. But how about this? How about your college-aged child comes home from college for Christmas time, right? And you're hanging out, and then you're like, no, I'm going to go in the bedroom. I'm going to look at a picture of that child and hang out there. Why? You've got the real thing in the next room.

Right? So what are we fooling around with? Food, drink, respect to festival, new moon, right? What are we doing with all these traditions of men? We have the real thing. We're in him. What are we doing messing around with anything other than him? Those are experiences. Sorry? Those are experiences. And we're experience-oriented people. Which he actually deals with in verse... 18? Taking his stand on visions has to do with experiences. So he deals with that in the next verse.

But these things, these rituals, they give us an experience. And it's a substitute for Christ. It may be a substitute, it may not be a substitute, but it's an addition. It's a not believing he's everything. Like the question says. So what are we doing messing around with anything other than Christ himself? Because we don't believe it.

8. Why does verse 9 point out that all the fullness is in Christ bodily? We've said it a couple of times so you should all get this.

9. Does a believer need to be a scholar in order to apprehend all fullness? Maybe not a scholar, but a believer needs to be somewhat intelligent. All of you are above that, so I'm not talking about any of you. Courtney? Are you putting me in the level here? Where do you want me? What do I want? That you're rating me. No, you don't. You know, faith is the issue. But you still have to have knowledge of who you believe or what you believe. So there is some knowledge required. You can't just believe. You have to have knowledge of the object of your faith. So there is some, but as far as that, it's the faith that a child can understand.

Versus, you know, the simple Matthew or whatever. You don't need to be a scholar. So you don't need to be a scholar or even mildly intelligent. You're saying you need to have some knowledge? You have to have knowledge of the object of your faith. Doesn't it say to apprehend rather than comprehend? There must be a little difference because in Him we have been made complete so we can apprehend it. We don't have to know everything. It's not up to us to know. It's the Holy Spirit who will indwell us and fill us with that completeness. So let's talk about this knowing or knowledge.

Look at verse 7. What does verse 7 say? The latter part of the verse. As you have been taught. Overflowing with gratitude. Overflowing with gratitude. Just as you have been taught or instructed. So there is that component. Right? So what specifically do we need to be taught? Or what is Paul talking about? Just as you have been taught. Specifically. That Christ died for us and rose again and that we can have salvation. We have to believe that He is the Son of God. More than that, though.

Because I'm thinking, what about people that are a little bit demented and are in special classes? Just a special class? No, God helps everybody. He made it easy to understand for people that maybe don't know every word and where it's located. I was thinking about Doris's granddaughter who had the Bible upside down and was as happy as a lark in church and had faith and you know it just it was the most wonderful thing for me to see so I think he didn't make it difficult for people you just have to believe and so I think he will put somebody in your life that will tell you about Christ Because everybody will know him. That's what the Bible says, right? He goes to everybody?

No, no, no. I was just thinking of the verse we were talking about where we are epistles. I'm trying to remember where that is. But specifically, so look at the phrase before, just as you have been taught or instructed. What is that? Established in faith. In the faith? Does your version say the faith? Your faith? It's not your faith. It's the faith. Right. Does that change it? Oh yeah. Yeah, it does, absolutely. So what does the faith mean? There's only one. There's only one? Really? That's right. In Christ. Sounds specific to me. So what is the faith? Christ. Christ? A little more.

It's like she said, you have to believe. in what you have been taught. She said it right at the beginning of what she was saying. It's acting on what you have been taught and changing your lifestyle to conform to that. Is that specific teaching just Christ? I'll give you an example of what I mean by that.

I have a buddy who has been going down this more philosophical path. And he told me several years ago, he said, you know, if Christ is the center, and you believe in Christ, all the other stuff that's in scripture, it's just kind of, it's not very important. It's kind of mysterious, we can't really know.

So is he talking about, is the faith just Christ, Jesus? Learning about him? Yes. What does Paul mean by the faith? And I'm not talking about just about in here. What about his other epistles? Well, it all points to Christ. It all points to Christ, but specifically the faith. The set of teachings that Paul gave.

Right? So either you believe or you don't believe. Maybe you shouldn't say the faith. I think you have to distinguish between your own personal faith, whether you believe or not, and the whole positive faith, the information of all that's to be believed. Even an atheist has faith. But the object of that faith is. For example, 1 Timothy 6, 3-5.

This is Paul writing now, right? If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abuse of language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind, deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. What's his point? if anyone advocates a different doctrine.

Galatians 1.8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. So Paul is getting at something specific here. Paul is the administrator or the manager of the church age. He was given a specific set of instructions to give to us, the church. That's what I think he's talking about.

Just as you have been instructed, which doesn't, like we talked about last week, right? I read the couple of verses from that song, right? And the part of the song was referring back to Psalm 51, where David prays, please don't take your spirit from me. Is that part of the faith? No. Because it contradicts, right?

That's what I'm getting at. A specific set of instructions, as you have been taught. That's what you are to be, you have been rooted in, and are being established and being built up in. That, specifically. And when that happens, are you going to be taken captive? The more you're rooted and grounded, the less chance that has to take place, right? You're not going to be tossed around like the double-minded man in James 1? Anybody disagree with that?

Only from the standpoint of that all scripture is profitable. And so the faith includes the faith about Israel and about the Gentiles. And we need to know that all bodies of good We do, but I think his point here is he's talking about just as you have been taught the set of instructions that Paul gave. We were talking about that verse out of 2 Corinthians where Paul was telling the Corinthians about his credentials that all these false teachers had written credentials.

He said, I don't have any, but I have you because the truth is written on your hearts for all men to read. So you are an epistle of Christ. An epistle is a non-verbal communicator. So you have godly men and women who manifest the Lord Jesus Christ for other people to read. You know, Maloy used to say, you might be the only Bible anybody ever gets to read. Now that doesn't preclude the fact that you shouldn't learn how to read. But the point is, this is spiritual information taught to us by the Holy Spirit and he doesn't necessarily do it in English. The spiritual understanding, I think, equates with intimacy with Christ.

What is the teacher? We're talking about a specific set of instructions, but what is the teacher? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Anything else? The Holy Spirit uses the word. Titus 2, 11 and 12. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. So what's the teacher? Grace. Grace? How does that happen?

What's interesting, I looked at it last night. Grace, subject, appeared. The main verb instructing us is participle. Participle describes the main verb, appearing. So how has grace appeared? Or how is grace appearing? It's instructing us. Grace is the teacher. John 1 says that the Lord Jesus came and he was full of grace and truth. Back to him. Back to him. Yeah.

10. If I have all the fullness of Christ, what else do I need? List them in order. You didn't write anything? Is that what you're saying? Right. Good. Eleven, what should be the constant desire of every believer? Pray more. To know Christ and be continually being informed. To know Him. Period. To grow in the grace of Christ. Grow in grace. So if you have anything else, it's wrong. To know Him, right? I talked a little bit about Colossians 1, 9 through 12 last week, where Paul prays that the Colossi believers would know the will of God in order to please, so that they may please Him in every respect.

Bearing fruit, spreading out the word, strengthened with His might, and then giving thanks. know him. Paul, in 2 Peter verses 17 and 18 Similar warning, you therefore, beloved, knowing this before him, be on your guard, so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men, and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The key is grace and knowledge. and you stay away from unprincipled men. All the same warning that Paul is giving here about empty deceit and all that. Growing the grace and knowledge. Growing the grace and knowledge of the fact that you are fullness, you are complete in him.

What more do you need? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Awesome truths in there, Lord. We thank you so much for that. Thank you that we are fullness and that we do not have to add anything. We don't have to come up with anything else on our own. We just have to believe you and grow in grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.