1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:05,960 Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives. 2 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:09,040 The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist 3 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:13,040 Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us 4 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:16,079 or contact us at My Liberty Baptist dot. 5 00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:18,960 Org or just. Look us up on Facebook and now 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,840 we hope that this message from God's Word will be a blessing to 7 00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:30,000 you. Colossians chapter #2 And we'll 8 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:34,840 be in verses one through 7 of Colossians 2. 9 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:37,600 So if you're there, we'll begin our reading. 10 00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:44,000 Colossians 2, verse one. For I would that you knew what 11 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:50,720 great conflict I had for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as 12 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:56,240 many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts 13 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:59,960 might be comforted being knit together in love. 14 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:05,080 And unto the full riches I'm sorry unto all riches, of the 15 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:08,640 full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the 16 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:13,440 mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom 17 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:17,840 are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 18 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:23,440 And notice what he says next. Under whom are all the treasures 19 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,200 of wisdom and knowledge? Notice it says there are hid. 20 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,160 It seems perhaps like maybe not an important point, but it it's 21 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:32,800 really important. And you'll see that as we get 22 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:37,200 into the the lesson. They are hid in him in whom 23 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,280 would be Jesus Christ. And this I say, lest any man 24 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:46,480 should beguile you with enticing words. 25 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:51,080 For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the 26 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:57,760 Spirit, join and beholding your order and the steadfastness of 27 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:03,840 your faith in Christ. Now verses 6 and seven really 28 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:10,120 represent what I would say is the core climax of the letter. 29 00:02:10,120 --> 00:02:12,520 This is the whole point. This is everything he's trying 30 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:18,480 to get across and he does it in 2 verses here verse verse 6. 31 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:22,360 Verse 7 would really be probably the most important statements in 32 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:24,760 the whole letter. So notice what he says. 33 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:31,040 As he have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk 34 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:37,240 in him, rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith 35 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:42,320 as you have been taught, abounding therein with 36 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:44,880 Thanksgiving. So the the title of the lesson 37 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:50,800 this morning is Spiritual Growth from the Christian School of 38 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:53,400 Thought. Spiritual growth from the 39 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:57,360 Christian School of thought. Probably many of you have just 40 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:00,160 seen, just driving around, I noticed as we were coming here, 41 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:05,080 many different entities, religious entities, different 42 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:10,120 groups that are trying to teach people theology or religion, 43 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,280 truth about God, right? There are many different groups 44 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:17,680 that are out there and they all have their own spin on things. 45 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:19,680 They all have their own message to deliver, right? 46 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,360 And they're trying to reach you. They're trying to get that 47 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:27,920 message to you. And here in Colossae there was 48 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,520 those individuals who were going around, they were trying to 49 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:37,400 spread a message. And it was, it was somewhat 50 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:41,360 similar in the way it sounded to the Christian message which 51 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:44,080 these believers at Colossae had received. 52 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,400 And so they, they got duped into listening to these so-called 53 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:53,400 teachers and it began to steer them away from that belief that 54 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:56,280 they had placed in Jesus Christ the true doctrine of 55 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,600 Christianity. And so they, they were coming 56 00:03:59,600 --> 00:04:02,120 from two different schools of thought, right? 57 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,440 You've heard of that term, I'm sure a school of thought. 58 00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:08,360 It's a common expression that signifies a particular way of 59 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:11,800 thinking about something, right? You have a, you have a perhaps a 60 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:14,440 school of thought over here that you would say if you're a 61 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:18,640 Democrat, you'd have a particular school of thought 62 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:20,800 about things, wouldn't you? It's amazing. 63 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:22,800 You mentioned you mentioned something about politics and 64 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:24,200 everyone. He wakes up all of a sudden, 65 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:26,000 right? And then you see, maybe the 66 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:28,440 Republicans would have a different school of thought than 67 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:30,200 the Democrats. I think we could agree on that, 68 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:31,680 right? We probably live in the most 69 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:34,040 divided time in our country's history. 70 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:38,080 I mean, so much division and polarity in our culture today, 71 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:40,040 two different schools of thought. 72 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,560 I'm not here to talk to you about politics today. 73 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:45,120 I'm simply here to illustrate the point that there are 74 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,720 different schools of thought and we want to make sure that our 75 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:51,320 school of thought is coming from the truth of God's Word, right? 76 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:53,600 From the revelation that God has given. 77 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:57,160 And, and most of the time people will make that claim, but the 78 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,600 problem comes down to how they interpret Scripture, right? 79 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:03,960 There's different ways of coming and approaching the Scripture as 80 00:05:03,960 --> 00:05:07,240 independent Baptist. We interpret God's word as it is 81 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:11,720 literally grammatically using the context, defining the words 82 00:05:11,840 --> 00:05:14,800 so that we could see exactly what God's word is to us. 83 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:19,120 And So what I believe this passage is dealing with as we, 84 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:22,480 as we study it, and we'll have to talk about the letter and the 85 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,160 context and everything that was going on there in Colossae, 86 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:31,000 We'll see the, the apostle Paul, who certainly wrote under divine 87 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:35,920 inspiration of God, his school of thought concerning Christian 88 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,560 growth. And, and it, and I think we'll 89 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:42,160 see as we get into this that Christian growth is not about 90 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:47,400 adding more, but it's actually about going deeper. 91 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:52,480 It's, and it's apparent to me that we live in a society, 92 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,000 especially with churches today, and I'm using that term quite 93 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:00,800 loosely, but churches have tried to adopt all different models 94 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:04,720 and ways of reaching people and getting people into the to just 95 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:06,640 to come to church, right? I mean, there was a time in our 96 00:06:06,640 --> 00:06:08,760 country's history when people just came to church. 97 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:10,440 You didn't have to pull their arm, you didn't have to twist 98 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:12,120 their arm. They just came, they just showed 99 00:06:12,120 --> 00:06:14,240 up. And that's not the society we 100 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:16,680 live in today, is it? I mean, there certainly is an 101 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:19,400 interest. But I mean, I just, I just 102 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:21,760 mentioned to some of the gentleman in the back, there was 103 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:23,480 a road race going on this morning. 104 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:26,160 We were stuck in traffic for probably 7 minutes. 105 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:28,480 And to me that seems like a long time, right? 106 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:30,440 I mean, we're, we're busy. We're trying to get from one 107 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:32,000 place to the next. And I'm here, I am trying to 108 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:34,760 preach and teach this morning. I'm like, come on, people, hurry 109 00:06:34,760 --> 00:06:37,400 up. I got to get to church and 110 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,800 they're doing it on a Sunday. There's a time in our history 111 00:06:40,800 --> 00:06:43,240 that wouldn't have happened. You couldn't even go to a 112 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:45,240 grocery store on Sunday. What? 113 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:47,840 That's not the case today, is it Because there's a different 114 00:06:47,840 --> 00:06:50,160 school of thought. Our society is more secular than 115 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:54,360 it's ever been. And so churches have tried to 116 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:58,160 make church more appealing to people. 117 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:02,080 And what they've actually done in the process is not have 118 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,400 church. So they do think try to get 119 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:07,560 people in the door. I was just, I just saw this 120 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:15,160 recently, Mario Church, the pastor is dressed up like Mario 121 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:18,000 from Nintendo. And they had hundreds of 122 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:19,560 thousands of people attending this. 123 00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:22,560 There's like 80,000 people at this mega church. 124 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:25,240 Well, that's not church, It's Mario and it's Nintendo. 125 00:07:25,240 --> 00:07:29,400 And they're trying to do that to get people to sit in the seats. 126 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:32,560 But just because you have people sitting in the seats doesn't 127 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:34,440 mean you're successful. It doesn't mean that you've 128 00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:36,840 accomplished anything. It just means you've changed the 129 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:39,080 way you're reaching people. And if you reach them with that, 130 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:41,240 then you're going to have to keep them with that. 131 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:47,880 And so this church at Colossae had been reached, but not with 132 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:49,920 the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 133 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:54,600 And, and, and I know that your church is, is about doing soul 134 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,800 winning and visitation and, and that you're open with preaching 135 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:00,320 the gospel to people and reaching people with the truth 136 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:03,400 of God's word. And, and you'll find that when 137 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:05,800 you try to go reaching people, they've already been reached by 138 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,080 something before you got there. They've been reached by 139 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:13,920 something and between social media, between the information 140 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:18,080 age, people have been reached with all types of messages that 141 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:21,480 simply are not true. They're not rooted in God's 142 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:24,120 word. And and what the Bible teaches 143 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:28,760 is that when you give in or give heed to false teaching, it 144 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:32,360 doesn't improve your life. A big surprise, right? 145 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:34,799 When you when you give in to false teaching, it doesn't 146 00:08:34,799 --> 00:08:38,360 improve your life, but but it also it always rather has this, 147 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:43,919 this conclusion, destruction and ruin. 148 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:48,960 And these believers, I'm not going to say they had, they had 149 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:52,000 wholesale bought into it, but they were, they were really 150 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,160 entertaining some of these different ideas about Christian 151 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:58,360 growth. And, and what they were, what 152 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:01,280 they were trying to tell these believers, these false teachers 153 00:09:01,280 --> 00:09:07,040 is what I'm going to refer to them as, was this theology that 154 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:12,960 was based on kind of like a the theology, the theologic word 155 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:15,720 would be syncretism, where you kind of mix in a little bit of 156 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:18,120 this and mix in a little bit of this and then mix in a little 157 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:20,440 bit of this. And what you end up with is kind 158 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:23,520 of like a monstrosity, right? It's got a little bit of 159 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:27,280 everything. And so this, this theological 160 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:31,880 recipe that they had concocted was causing them to doubt that 161 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:36,320 Jesus Christ was all that they needed, that they needed to do 162 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:40,480 works, or that they needed to add to their salvation to make 163 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:44,520 them like elite Christians. Well, there's no such thing as 164 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:46,640 elite Christians. There's just sinners saved by 165 00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:49,240 grace. And you have all that you need 166 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:51,160 in Christ to live the Christian life. 167 00:09:51,240 --> 00:09:53,400 Amen. He's all that you need, and 168 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:57,440 God's word is all that you need. And so we'll see when we, when 169 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:01,720 we read this that he's, he's talking about this great 170 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:05,240 conflict that he had for them, this great conflict. 171 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:08,400 And, and there is a conflict that's going on for your 172 00:10:08,400 --> 00:10:11,800 spiritual well-being. Even this morning, there's a 173 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,680 conflict going on. Sometimes you may be aware of 174 00:10:14,680 --> 00:10:18,000 it, sometimes you may have an awareness that this conflict is 175 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,200 going on. But I would say most of the time 176 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:26,200 we're probably not as aware and we could be even oblivious to 177 00:10:26,200 --> 00:10:28,240 the conflict that's going on around us. 178 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:32,840 And it is a conflict of, of who's going to be your greatest 179 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:38,520 influence. And so Paul the apostle wrote to 180 00:10:38,520 --> 00:10:41,360 the to the church here. He actually had never visited 181 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:44,040 this church. He had never preached to them 182 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:46,680 personally. It was likely started by this 183 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:49,480 man Epaphras. And we'll, we'll get into that 184 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:51,720 just in a little bit. But he had never personally 185 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:59,320 visited them and and Colossi was in their society as a as a town 186 00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:03,800 you would say, or a village had dwindled quite significantly in 187 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:07,960 significance and and status from what they were previously. 188 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:11,920 And so it was, it was on this strategic location where the 189 00:11:11,920 --> 00:11:15,920 East and the West would meet. And so all you, all you, you 190 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:19,160 could imagine traveling, right? There's ideas and, and 191 00:11:19,160 --> 00:11:21,600 philosophies that would come from the East and ideas and 192 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:23,280 philosophies that would come from the West. 193 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:25,400 And there were those that were coming and they were traveling 194 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:28,120 through here and they really weren't going to Colossae. 195 00:11:28,120 --> 00:11:29,840 They were just stopping there on the way, right? 196 00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:32,240 You know, there's some towns and some places they're really not 197 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:34,200 that important. You know, it's kind of like 198 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:37,160 where I live in Connecticut. Every time I've I've talked to 199 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:39,600 people outside of the state say, oh, I've never been to 200 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:41,560 Connecticut. Well, you're either traveling 201 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:44,520 through get to New York or to get to Boston or go somewhere 202 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:47,880 else because, I mean, it's just no reason to stay unless you're, 203 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,120 you got to go through there to get somewhere right? 204 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:52,320 Now, what's kind of like what colossi was. 205 00:11:52,720 --> 00:11:56,560 And they had dwindled in their wealth and their economy. 206 00:11:56,560 --> 00:11:58,920 And so they really weren't that important anymore. 207 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,800 But nonetheless, these ideas, this influx of ideas had come 208 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:06,400 through and it had influenced them. 209 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:11,480 And there were three particular ideas or philosophies that had 210 00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:16,160 come through into this teaching that that the Colossians were 211 00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:19,400 buying into. And the first would be Judaism. 212 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:22,080 Judaism. You're familiar with Judaism, 213 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:24,320 right? The the idea that you needed to 214 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:28,240 practice the law to merit favor with God. 215 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:32,920 Judaism in and of itself wasn't necessarily wrong. 216 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:36,360 It was just always meant to lead to Jesus Christ. 217 00:12:36,760 --> 00:12:40,080 It was never meant to be perpetually practiced by people 218 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:43,320 because the true Jews are the ones that really knew the 219 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:47,480 message that was preached would understand that the law was 220 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,120 intended to show to us our need for a Savior. 221 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:52,720 Amen. You go through the 10 222 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:55,760 commandments and you realize I can't follow the 10 223 00:12:55,760 --> 00:12:58,560 commandments. Amen. 224 00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:02,400 Anyone here want to stand up and say I've followed them all? 225 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:04,880 Every day of my life, I follow the 10 commandments. 226 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:08,400 You say that and you are lying because you haven't. 227 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:10,320 We're all sinners. We've all fallen short of the 228 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:15,120 glory of God, and the law shows us that we are guilty before 229 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:17,200 God. Good morning. 230 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:19,080 Glad to have you in church this morning. 231 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:22,760 That's what it says. We're all guilty and we need a 232 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:26,800 Savior. So Judaism was influencing them 233 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:31,560 as there was this prevailing idea, particularly to Gentiles 234 00:13:31,560 --> 00:13:36,440 from the Jewish world, that if you're not a Jew, you're not as 235 00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:40,040 close to God as we are. And so you need to practice the 236 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,360 law, you need to be circumcised, you need to practice the ritual 237 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,600 washings, you need to be, you need to be part of the Sabbath 238 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:48,480 worship. And it's kind of like going back 239 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:51,160 into Judaism so that you could be a better Christian. 240 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:54,280 And if you're, if you're solid in the word of God, you would 241 00:13:54,280 --> 00:13:59,280 think, no, that doesn't make any sense because Christianity is, 242 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:02,640 is the final truth. It's the final revelation in 243 00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:04,080 Christ. We have all that we need. 244 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:09,840 He's our Savior, Amen. He's all that we need, and in 245 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:16,400 Him not through us, we know that we have the righteousness that 246 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:20,080 appeases. God's just demands. 247 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:23,440 So there's nothing you can do to make yourself more righteous. 248 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:25,480 If you have Christ, you are righteous. 249 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:28,160 You're perfectly righteous. There's no degrees of 250 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:30,640 righteousness, right? You're either righteous and 251 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:34,400 you've and you're pure before God or you're sinful and you're 252 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:36,480 defiled before God. There's only two categories. 253 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,520 There can be, and thus it makes no sense have to practice these 254 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:42,960 rituals and which by the way, have no spiritual significance. 255 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:46,080 They're just physical washings. And the circumcision, all of 256 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,640 those things were given to the Jews for that purpose, but they 257 00:14:48,640 --> 00:14:52,200 were never meant to be practiced after Jesus Christ. 258 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:56,520 And so they had Judaism, but then they also had another 259 00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:02,080 teaching, this teaching of Eastern mysticism and Hellenism. 260 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,960 What we would think of is probably like Greek philosophy. 261 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:09,280 And they were using these Greek philosophers like Plato and 262 00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:11,000 Aristotle. And then they were, they were 263 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,440 mixing that with the Judaism. And then they were also mixing 264 00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,880 it with a, with a new doctrine that was called Gnosticism. 265 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:20,040 You said, Brother Brett, I don't know what all these words mean. 266 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:22,880 And you may, you may not think about it in these theological 267 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:25,600 terms, but believe it or not, it has made its way into the 21st 268 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:28,400 century Gnosticism. You haven't, you haven't seen 269 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:31,360 that on your feed on social media or watched it on YouTube. 270 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:35,840 That was the ancient form. But it's this idea that we are 271 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:38,840 in the know. That's what Nos means. 272 00:15:38,840 --> 00:15:41,920 Nos means knowledge Gnosis. And the idea was that we are 273 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:44,320 Gnostics. We are, we are in the know. 274 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:47,000 We have knowledge that everyone else doesn't have. 275 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:50,600 And if you want to get it, you got to come through us, you see. 276 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:55,000 And, and really what I would say this was, was a cult teaching 277 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:59,320 that had followed what I would say is probably the, the most 278 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,480 common form that all cults follow. 279 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:03,600 And it's used in mathematical terms. 280 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:09,440 They add, they add to divine revelation. 281 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:14,240 In other words, they say, yeah, God's word is not enough. 282 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:17,360 You need my teaching plus God's word. 283 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,280 Well, that's false teaching. We believe that this is the 284 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:24,160 final revelation of God. There's nothing to be added to 285 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:25,520 it. There's nothing to be subtracted 286 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:28,600 from it, right? And so they add to divine 287 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:33,200 revelation. Jehovah's Witnesses do this, all 288 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:35,960 of the publications of the of the Watchtower Society. 289 00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:37,400 You need to read these publications. 290 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:39,680 You need to listen to our teachers and you need to read 291 00:16:39,800 --> 00:16:43,760 our version of the Bible. Mormons do this. 292 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:47,600 Joseph Smith who had had an experience and said he saw these 293 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,680 golden plates. Of course, no one can verify 294 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:51,320 that it happened. And the ones that said it 295 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:54,480 happened ended up reneging on their testimony and saying it 296 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:57,800 was false. But some man has this experience 297 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:01,560 and in his mind he says, well, I've got a vision from God and 298 00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:04,359 it's it's going to correct Christianity for the past 1800 299 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:05,480 years. You should listen to me. 300 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:12,000 And so they add to divine revelation, but they also 301 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,680 subtract from the person of Jesus Christ. 302 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:17,200 They make him less than who he really is. 303 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:20,440 He is God manifest in the flesh. They said, no, no, no, he's not 304 00:17:20,440 --> 00:17:21,880 God. He's a good teacher. 305 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:24,760 He's like a rabbi. He came to teach us the Golden 306 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:26,640 Rule. And he, he's, you know, he's 307 00:17:26,839 --> 00:17:28,880 pretty high up there, but he's not God. 308 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,080 False teaching. And then they multiply the 309 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:37,840 requirements of salvation. They add, subtract, multiply. 310 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:39,520 They multiply the requirements of salvation. 311 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:40,960 No, you don't just need to be saved. 312 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:43,640 You also need to be circumcised or you need to be baptized or 313 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:45,440 you need to do it. Take a two year missions trip. 314 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:49,000 You need to take all these other steps and then maybe you'll be 315 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,440 saved. That's what cults do. 316 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:54,560 And you can imagine the burden that that places under people as 317 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,440 they're constantly working, as they're trying to hope that they 318 00:17:57,440 --> 00:17:59,840 can make it. If I do this, maybe I'll be 319 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:01,000 good. And if I do this, and then if I 320 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,520 do this, and then if I take communion enough times and then 321 00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:06,520 if I give enough times and it's you're always under this burden 322 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:10,520 and never able to truly spiritually grow, you see. 323 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:15,640 And then they divide the loyalties of their followers. 324 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:21,680 Oh, you, if you're not one of us, we, we, we don't have 325 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:25,360 anything to do with you. Now, I do want to be careful 326 00:18:25,360 --> 00:18:31,280 with this point because as biblical truth does mandate that 327 00:18:31,280 --> 00:18:34,720 we would be separated, it doesn't mandate that we would be 328 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,800 isolated. Did you catch that? 329 00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:40,480 There's a difference between separation. 330 00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:42,840 Separation means I'm not like the world. 331 00:18:42,840 --> 00:18:44,760 I'm not going to give in to the morality of the world. 332 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:47,400 I'm not going to give in to the unholiness of the world that is 333 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,120 against God. But isolation takes it a step 334 00:18:50,120 --> 00:18:53,160 further and says you're all dirty and unclean. 335 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:54,320 I don't want anything to do with you. 336 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:56,840 I'm just going to go on my own little island somewhere and 337 00:18:56,840 --> 00:18:59,480 separate from the world. Jesus didn't call us to 338 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:03,360 completely isolate ourselves. He taught us to go into all the 339 00:19:03,360 --> 00:19:05,960 world, didn't he? How are we going to go into all 340 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:09,160 the world if we're so worried in our own little watchtower 341 00:19:09,160 --> 00:19:11,640 somewhere, in a castle, hiding from the world? 342 00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:13,680 We can't do that. That's what cults do. 343 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:18,000 So you can imagine how, how destructive, how dangerous this 344 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,920 teaching was to these believers at Colossi and what he's saying 345 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:24,320 here, in this first verse here of Colossians chapter 2. 346 00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:28,840 I want you to know what great conflict I had for you and for 347 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:32,280 them at Laodicea. And for as many as have not seen 348 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,600 my face in the flesh. Paul had a burden for them. 349 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:40,560 And just just imagine, he had never met these people before. 350 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,440 He'd never visited them. He'd never seen their faces. 351 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:46,600 He didn't even know their names. But he knew there was a church 352 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:49,120 there and he knew also there was a church at Laodicea. 353 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:51,240 We're going to talk about them tonight. 354 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:55,360 And also as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. 355 00:19:55,360 --> 00:19:58,480 I believe there was also another church in Hierapolis, all that 356 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:01,680 were planted by this man Epaphras. 357 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:05,640 So if you'd like to, to turn with me, go to Colossians 1 and 358 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:10,080 verse #7 to to make the point here. 359 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:19,120 Colossians 1/7 what he says as he, as he also learned of 360 00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:21,880 Epaphras. So Epaphras was a teacher. 361 00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:24,960 They learned of Epaphras, which implies Epaphras was a teacher. 362 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:30,280 Our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of 363 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:32,960 Christ. OK, now chapter 4, verse 12, 364 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:38,280 still in Colossians, chapter 4, verse 12, as he is saluting the 365 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:44,720 brethren here, he says in verse 12A, Pafrus, who is one of you, 366 00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,920 a servant of Christ, saluteth you always laboring fervently 367 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:54,560 for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in 368 00:20:54,680 --> 00:21:00,040 all the will of God. I'll drop down to verse #16 and 369 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:04,160 I think this is important point that we'll revisit tonight. 370 00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,200 He says this in verse 16. And when this epistle is read 371 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:11,320 among you, 'cause that it be read also in the Church of the 372 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:15,960 Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from 373 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:19,000 Laodicea. So while we need to understand 374 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,560 what was going on in Colossae, it was never the intent of the 375 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:27,520 New Testament authors that their letters would only reach or only 376 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,160 circulate to that one church, but rather that they would 377 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,480 circulate through all the churches and for all of God's 378 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,120 people. Now, the letter to Laodicea 379 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,120 didn't make it into Scripture because it wasn't Scripture, 380 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:41,480 Amen. If it was, God would have 381 00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,880 preserved it for us because we believe God's preserved His word 382 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:49,120 and that it is without error and, and that we have access to 383 00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:50,720 it. We still have access to the 384 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,440 letter deck colossi. And that teaches us that God 385 00:21:53,440 --> 00:21:56,000 intended not just for the Colossians to hear it, but for 386 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,120 us to hear it. And while we're not dealing with 387 00:21:58,120 --> 00:22:00,800 Gnosticism and, and some of these problems, we do deal with 388 00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:03,640 other problems today. And, and the principles that we 389 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,640 see here about spiritual growth are really very simple. 390 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:10,440 And I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag too early in the 391 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:11,960 message because I don't want you to fall asleep. 392 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,040 But I'll tell you and give you just a little bit of a glimpse 393 00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:17,880 that the whole point he's trying to make is that if you want to 394 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:22,640 grow spiritually, you don't need to go outside of what you have. 395 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:25,800 You just need to go deeper with what you already have. 396 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:28,880 Amen. Doesn't that really change 397 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,160 everything? When we talk about church life 398 00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:33,840 and we talk about things in church about how, how there's 399 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:37,160 such an appeal to have more technology and there's an appeal 400 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:41,760 to make services more engaging and to, to really try to find 401 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:46,760 ways to entertain people, how does that make us different from 402 00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:48,840 anyone else? Are people not entertained 403 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,680 enough? I mean, the attention span of 404 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:54,800 most people today is, is on average far less than it ever 405 00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:56,840 used to be. I mean to just try to, and, and 406 00:22:56,840 --> 00:22:59,040 this is not the insulting one, but just try to get people to 407 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:01,480 sit in a 45 minute service to listen to preaching. 408 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:07,280 And it's just like what I mean, I'm not trying to be mean 409 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,760 spirited today, but that's a problem folks. 410 00:23:10,960 --> 00:23:13,520 We expect our children to sit in school for 8 hours a day and 411 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:16,480 learn, and adults can't sit in the church service for 45 412 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:17,560 minutes. I mean, I'm thankful for you 413 00:23:17,560 --> 00:23:18,760 all. You're awake this morning and 414 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:21,880 I've been trying to engage you the best I can. 415 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:24,680 But we don't need more entertainment. 416 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,080 We don't need more of the world's things. 417 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:30,640 We need more of God's Word in our lives, and that's how we 418 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:32,760 grow. You're not going to grow apart 419 00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:35,120 from God's Word and you're not going to grow apart from a 420 00:23:35,120 --> 00:23:37,160 relationship to the local church. 421 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:42,040 You see? So that's the conflict that's 422 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:45,760 going on because I have a great conflict for you and I, and I 423 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,120 would say to you this morning that there is a conflict going 424 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:51,160 on over your spiritual well-being. 425 00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:58,040 So these churches are there and, and, and Paul hasn't visited 426 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:01,600 them. And he's saying this is my, this 427 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:05,040 is my desire for you. This is my conflict for you. 428 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:08,760 And that the word conflict in Greek really basically has the 429 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,560 idea of agony. It's, it's like a it's like a 430 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,760 wrestling match that's that's face to face. 431 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:17,160 And he's like, this is really intense. 432 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,320 And this, this conflict that's going on is really heated. 433 00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:25,560 And, and this is my conflict for you is that you and all these 434 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:27,960 other believers in this region that have been affected by this 435 00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:31,480 teaching that their hearts might be comforted. 436 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,440 Aren't you glad that God wants you to be comforted? 437 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:38,680 You know what false teaching doesn't produce comfort. 438 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:43,040 It only produces conflict because you'll always be 439 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,560 wondering and they design it this way. 440 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,120 So to keep you coming, right, you got to keep doing the works 441 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:49,760 and you got to keep coming and you got to keep doing this. 442 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:51,600 Otherwise God won't accept you and otherwise you won't be 443 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,440 saved. So people, rather than motivated 444 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:59,360 by true genuine passion for Jesus and love for Jesus and 445 00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:02,440 assurance and confidence, they're motivated by fear and 446 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:03,840 they're motivated by the potential. 447 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,280 What if I do something wrong? Is God going to like ZAP me 448 00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:09,320 down? God's not going to ZAP you down 449 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:10,440 if you're a believer this morning. 450 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,040 And even if you're not a believer, if you're a visitor 451 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:16,040 this morning, God loves you. And God brought you here today 452 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,680 to hear his word, not because I'm teaching, I'm not anybody, 453 00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:20,440 but because it's God's word this morning. 454 00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:23,800 And he says I'm, I have a conflict because I want you to 455 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,560 be comforted. I want you to be comforted. 456 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:31,720 You know, I'm thankful for your pastor. 457 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:32,960 He's been a great blessing to me. 458 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:35,360 And I know that he has this part for you here at this church, 459 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:37,320 that he wants you to be comforted in your faith. 460 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,600 He wants you to know the truth and be grounded. 461 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,880 And any, I mean any pastor, any minister that's worth his salt 462 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,720 has the desire that people that are under his ministry would be 463 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,280 comforted. If they'd be built up, they'd be 464 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:53,480 edified in their faith, comforted. 465 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:56,400 Notice the next word, the next phrase. 466 00:25:56,400 --> 00:26:01,200 Rather being knit together in love, knit together in love. 467 00:26:02,280 --> 00:26:05,080 You know, there's a, there's a prevailing idea in Christianity 468 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:09,760 Today that you can grow spiritually on your own, and 469 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,840 that's just not in the Bible. I, I, I hate to tell you, but 470 00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:15,920 you, you, you won't be able to grow or reach your full 471 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:19,040 potential apart from God's work in your life through a local 472 00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:20,560 church. It's just not going to happen. 473 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,720 And he did not design Christianity to be practiced 474 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,400 individually, but corporately as a faith community. 475 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:30,440 It's so important. And, and I've, I've preached 476 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:32,760 this at the church where I come from and other churches I've 477 00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:37,640 seen where you just, you can tell when there's a church that 478 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,520 has that knit together in love going on. 479 00:26:41,080 --> 00:26:44,800 They pray for one another. They don't bicker, they don't 480 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:47,640 gossip. Those things are so destructive 481 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:51,240 in a church and they happen because people are in churches. 482 00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:54,520 Amen. I mean, people are sinners. 483 00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,200 And wherever you have people, you have problems. 484 00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:57,960 That's just the reality. And guess what? 485 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,000 There's people here at Liberty Baptist Church and there's 486 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,840 people where I come from a Grace Bible Baptist Church and I'm a 487 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:08,040 people, a person. And so I know my own problems 488 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:13,680 and my own sinful tendencies. And, and God's design is that we 489 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:17,440 would be knit together in love, that we would grow past our 490 00:27:17,440 --> 00:27:19,520 sinful tendencies, that we wouldn't just put it off and 491 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:25,000 say, well, no one's perfect. Well, we all know that, but 492 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:26,960 that's not an excuse not to grow. 493 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,280 Amen. But we're to be knit together in 494 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:35,120 love, which means you ought to be close with your church 495 00:27:35,120 --> 00:27:37,960 family. I think it's important that we 496 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,920 say church family because that's what it's supposed to be. 497 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:42,600 That's what God intended. And that's why we say, hey, 498 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:47,800 brother Rivero, hey brother Dan, brother Chuck, brother Dave. 499 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:50,200 There's nothing wrong with calling someone by their first 500 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:51,800 name without saying brother or sister in front of it. 501 00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:54,960 But the whole point is that we're we're brothers and sisters 502 00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:59,120 in Christ. We're a family through the blood 503 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:02,440 of Jesus Christ. We are blood relatives this 504 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:03,800 morning. Amen. 505 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,240 I I haven't met some of you just until today, but I know this. 506 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:09,360 For those of you that are saved and believe in Jesus Christ, 507 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,320 we're Blood Brothers. Praise God for that. 508 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,560 And notice that he says this and unto all riches. 509 00:28:21,360 --> 00:28:27,160 Notice the financial terms he's using here unto all riches of 510 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,880 the full assurance of understanding. 511 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:34,520 You get what he's saying there. That real treasure, the real 512 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,800 treasure of your Christian life, is having full assurance of 513 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,720 understanding. If you don't understand God's 514 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:44,600 plan for your life or the doctrine of God, then you'll 515 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:49,040 never have the true riches, because true riches come from 516 00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:51,160 understanding God's plan for your life. 517 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:57,000 It's in understanding the truth to the acknowledgement of the 518 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:02,040 mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, the 519 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:03,560 acknowledgement of the mystery of God. 520 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:05,240 Now, I'm going to touch on this briefly. 521 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:07,400 I don't want to get too bogged down in this because sometimes 522 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:09,600 preachers chase rabbits and they never kill the buck, right? 523 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,840 So we want to, we don't want to chase the rabbit and not kill 524 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,240 the buck, but we do need to chase this rabbit for just a 525 00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:15,720 little while. But we're going to make sure 526 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,400 that we chase them and then go off to the main idea. 527 00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:22,600 The mystery that he was talking about there was related to the 528 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:26,400 false teaching that was going on that was basically elevating 529 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:30,960 Jews above Gentiles, which basically promoted this idea 530 00:29:30,960 --> 00:29:35,120 that you had, you had elite people and you had common 531 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:37,840 people, right? I mean, you had like super 532 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:39,680 Christians. These are the best Christians 533 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:41,480 that there are. And then you have, well, I mean, 534 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,160 they, they come, but they're not like one of us. 535 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,080 The mystery that he's referring to was that because all 536 00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:54,800 believers are in Christ, we all have equal standing in Christ. 537 00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,520 There's there's no better and worse. 538 00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,000 We're all equal. The, the, the playing field is 539 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,360 level at the cross because in Jesus Christ, we all share the 540 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,360 same standing before God. Regardless of your wealth, 541 00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:08,960 regardless of your status, regardless of your family you 542 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,000 come from, regardless of the job that you have, regardless of 543 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,280 what street you live on, you're in Christ. 544 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:21,160 Jews and Gentiles in the same body, all worshipping God 545 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,880 together. That's the mystery. 546 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:29,920 But notice he says this in verse 3. 547 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,200 In whom? Now you have to use grammar to 548 00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:36,400 understand who he's referring to. 549 00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:42,560 The last word there was in verse #2 Christ Christ. 550 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:46,920 You see that in whom? OK, so he's Speaking of Christ 551 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:55,840 as the whom, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and 552 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:58,640 knowledge. Who, who has all the wisdom and 553 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:00,520 knowledge? It's hidden, Yes. 554 00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,480 And that's that word that the Gnostics were using, the idea 555 00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,160 that the that the the hidden teaching wasn't them. 556 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:15,200 It's not in them, it's in him. Jesus has all of the teachings. 557 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,360 He has all the wisdom and all the knowledge in him, but 558 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:22,680 they're hidden. If if you have a shallow walk 559 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:25,720 with God and you have a shallow surface level understanding of 560 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,400 the scriptures, you're never going to get to the full riches 561 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:31,840 you're never going to get, You're never going to mine the 562 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:34,880 wealth that's there because it's too shallow. 563 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:41,760 He's hidden them. Why would God allow someone 564 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:45,400 who's really not interested in understanding his truth or 565 00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:48,680 interested in knowing him and just have a shallow surface 566 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:52,000 level understanding of God? Why would he not? 567 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:54,760 Why would he just give that out so freely, right? 568 00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:00,200 In fact, this is one of the, I think one of the most, I don't 569 00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:02,320 know. It's a profound truth that Jesus 570 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:05,280 taught in parables, not to make things easier to understand for 571 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:11,440 people, but to conceal truth. Now that may maybe no one else 572 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:13,920 sees that as an important point, but I see that as an incredible 573 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:18,960 point that God taught in a way to conceal the truth because 574 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,160 here's what it did. It filtered through the motives 575 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:23,000 of the people that were coming to watch him. 576 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,320 Do you know that not everybody that came to the church services 577 00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,400 that Jesus had, I know there wasn't necessarily church 578 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:31,240 services then, but the people that came to hear Jesus, not all 579 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,360 of them came because they wanted to be believed in Jesus Christ. 580 00:32:34,360 --> 00:32:36,240 Some of them just wanted to be entertained. 581 00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:45,600 Some of them just wanted food. No, I'm a, I'm a Baptist, Amen. 582 00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:48,480 And Baptist love food. Amen. 583 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:50,680 And that's just, that's got to be one of the fundamentals of 584 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:52,680 the faith, right? I mean, you have, you have to 585 00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,080 love food if you're a Baptist. But that's not why we're 586 00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:59,200 supposed to come to church. Supposed to come to church 587 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:04,040 because we want to know Jesus more and we want to serve him. 588 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:09,200 And you know what he's saying? If you want to grow spiritually, 589 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:13,120 you don't need to add this way, You don't need to add this way. 590 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:15,560 You don't need this program and this program and this 591 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:17,400 entertainment system and this sound system. 592 00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,040 And I'm not saying all technology is bad. 593 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,960 I'm just simply saying it's not going to contribute to your 594 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,600 spiritual growth. But you know what will? 595 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:29,880 Going deeper in your walk with God and going deeper in your 596 00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,560 understanding of Jesus Christ and saying, Lord, I want to know 597 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,400 you more. I want to fellowship with you 598 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,480 more. And you know what you'll find 599 00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:43,680 you will never exhaust the treasures of wisdom and 600 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:46,520 knowledge in him. He'll never exhaust it. 601 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:51,480 So it's, it's not like, OK, you know, I remember as a kid, we 602 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:53,560 would, we would dig, right? So you're digging a hole to 603 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:55,440 China, right? You just keep digging a dig. 604 00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:56,880 Sooner or later you're going to hit a wall, right? 605 00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:58,480 You're not going to be able to go any further. 606 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:01,400 But that's not so with God. And that's not so with your 607 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:04,400 relationship with Jesus Christ. You keep digging and you'll keep 608 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:10,639 getting more treasure. So what does that mean for you 609 00:34:10,639 --> 00:34:14,880 this morning? Keep digging or start digging. 610 00:34:16,480 --> 00:34:18,800 That's the application. How do I do that? 611 00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:20,800 Well, we'll talk about that in a little bit because there's 612 00:34:21,239 --> 00:34:26,880 really two ways, two ways that we do this. 613 00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:33,520 He says this in verse 4 and this is really the reason why he's 614 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:36,840 writing to them. And he says, and this I say, I'm 615 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,840 telling you this, lest any man should beguile you with enticing 616 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:43,679 words. Just something I've learned is 617 00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:47,760 that false teachers are typically powerful orators. 618 00:34:48,639 --> 00:34:51,320 Typically speaking, it's not to say they all are and it's not to 619 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:55,880 say right preachers are all poor orators, but generally speaking 620 00:34:56,080 --> 00:35:00,840 they are successful because they have an ability to communicate 621 00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:04,920 right? I mean, Brother Dan and I took 622 00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,040 practice preaching at Heartland Baptist Bible College and 623 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,920 there's basically 2 ideas. You have the content of the 624 00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:11,560 message and then you have the delivery. 625 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,800 You know, if you're a really good in your delivery, God can 626 00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,640 really use that and God is for it, He designed it. 627 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:26,600 But if your content is false, there is no amount of good 628 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:28,600 delivery that can salvage that message. 629 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:33,160 Did I miss anyone there? Just because they sound 630 00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:37,280 impressive and just because they sound convincing doesn't mean 631 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:39,120 you should listen to what they're saying. 632 00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:42,040 That's why we bring our Bibles to church. 633 00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:44,520 I praise God that we bring our Bibles to church. 634 00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:46,800 Why? Because you can check out what 635 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:48,360 Brother Brett is saying this morning. 636 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:50,800 You have the word of God right in front of you. 637 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,920 And it's not so so we could have a skepticism towards preachers, 638 00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:57,760 but it's so we can know for sure before we appropriate some 639 00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,400 message to our life that it aligns with God's word. 640 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:03,880 And what they were doing is unlike the Bereans of 641 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,640 Thessalonica, they were just wholesale swallowing what these 642 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,640 teachers were saying, and it was derailing their faith. 643 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,240 And he says, for though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I 644 00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:19,200 with you in the Spirit, enjoying and beholding your order and the 645 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,600 steadfastness of your faith in Christ. 646 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,320 So I'm not with you there, but I'm with you in spirit. 647 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:28,120 And I know you have a good testimony. 648 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:32,040 This is a good church. And they were about to get off 649 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:34,440 track if they continued to give heed to this teaching. 650 00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:37,280 But Paul is saying you don't need any of that. 651 00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:43,360 Here's what you need as you have therefore received Christ Jesus 652 00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:49,800 the Lord. OK, as means like, right, as 653 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,280 means like in the same manner that you receive Christ Jesus as 654 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,000 Lord. Well, how do you receive Christ 655 00:36:55,000 --> 00:37:00,520 Jesus the Lord? Well, there's only one way we're 656 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:02,800 in agreement on that, right? There's only one way you can 657 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:04,680 receive them. There's no not multiple ways. 658 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:09,080 There's just one way, and it is in humility to believe on the 659 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:14,760 Lord Jesus Christ and receive. Receive. 660 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:19,880 It means to accept, right? I mean, the idea of the 661 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:22,560 illustration we often give as preachers is that it's a gift. 662 00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:26,160 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. 663 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:28,840 How do you receive a gift? Well, there's nothing you can do 664 00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:31,440 to earn it otherwise. It's not a gift anymore, right? 665 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:38,240 I've been privileged to have my birthday on the 21st of 666 00:37:38,240 --> 00:37:41,960 December, which is just a few days before Christmas, which 667 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:46,480 usually means one of two things. You get gypped on one of them or 668 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:50,440 you get double presents. And praise God, I usually got 669 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:54,800 double presents because I'm an only child and so my parents 670 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:57,000 said no one else to give stuff to but me, right? 671 00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,040 You know what I had to do to receive those gifts? 672 00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:04,240 Just sit, just take them. Thank my parents for the 673 00:38:04,240 --> 00:38:06,920 blessing they were to me or, or my uncles or whoever gave me 674 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:08,640 gifts. I didn't have to pay for it. 675 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:12,080 I wouldn't have been able to because I was just a kid. 676 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,680 By the way, there's no currency you possess that could merit 677 00:38:15,680 --> 00:38:18,760 salvation with God. You don't own a there's no 678 00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,440 currency that you have that God would see and say, well, this is 679 00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:22,800 this is it. I'll accept this. 680 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:24,920 He won't accept it. It says very clearly in 681 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:30,240 Ephesians chapter 2 that God will not let us earn salvation 682 00:38:30,240 --> 00:38:33,520 or merit salvation through our works, lest any man should 683 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:35,280 boast. If God let you work your way to 684 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,600 heaven, you'd spend all eternity talking about how good you are. 685 00:38:39,720 --> 00:38:42,840 You won't let us do that. We receive it by grace through 686 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:44,920 faith. So as you have therefore 687 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:48,000 received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. 688 00:38:49,240 --> 00:38:52,520 So how do I walk in Him? The idea of walking is a common 689 00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:53,960 illustration in Christian teaching. 690 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,760 It just means to take repeated steps in the truth, to take 691 00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,520 repeated steps in your walk with God. 692 00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:01,880 We call your walk with God, right? 693 00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:04,440 Which simply just means you're taking a journey with Christ, 694 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:10,520 You're going somewhere, and hopefully you're growing rooted 695 00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:17,000 and built up in him, in him. OK, how are you going to grow? 696 00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:18,840 You need to make sure your roots are in Christ. 697 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:23,760 So if you're saved this morning, then you don't need to get 698 00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:26,560 rooted. You're already rooted, you 699 00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:31,600 understand you had roots already in Christ now because He is the 700 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:35,200 source of all of your spiritual nourishment and He is the source 701 00:39:35,200 --> 00:39:37,640 of all your spiritual nutrients that you need to follow the 702 00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:40,160 illustration of a tree. Then the tree will just grow 703 00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:43,320 because it has the right roots and it gets built up and it's 704 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:45,840 become strong and it becomes sturdy. 705 00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:48,080 How sturdy are you in your Christian life? 706 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:53,240 Well, how deep are you rooted in Christ? 707 00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:56,040 You can't get more saved than you already are. 708 00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:58,640 You understand that. I'm not saying that, but in your 709 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:02,440 walk with God, or as he says here to soul walk with him, then 710 00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:06,720 you're you go deeper and by going deeper in Christ, he helps 711 00:40:06,720 --> 00:40:12,880 you to grow. So that tells me that we have 712 00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,720 reason not to read our Bibles less, but to read our Bibles 713 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:18,480 more. How about that? 714 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,920 Do you think you're going to grow by being in the word less 715 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:26,280 or being in church less or being under less preaching or having 716 00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:31,440 less prayer time? I mean I don't think every 717 00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,480 message should apply. Read your Bible and pray. 718 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:35,040 Read your Bible and pray. Read your Bible and pray. 719 00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:37,600 But this would certainly be 1. Read your Bible and pray. 720 00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:40,600 Because if you want to grow you need to read your Bible and 721 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:42,280 pray. And it wouldn't. 722 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:46,520 It wouldn't be as much a need to be stressed if believers did 723 00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,880 read their Bible and pray, but it's amazing how many that I've 724 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:53,800 seen that simply won't, they just won't commit themselves to 725 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,120 doing it. And it's no wonder that their 726 00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:01,880 Christian life is unstable. So, so here, here's the main 727 00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:03,880 truth to get across this morning. 728 00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:06,920 You have to receive the truth, right? 729 00:41:07,520 --> 00:41:11,120 You have to receive it. And then you have to resume in 730 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:14,160 Christian disciplines. And that's how you grow. 731 00:41:15,240 --> 00:41:17,840 That's the Christian School of thought on growth. 732 00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:20,640 You have all that you need in Jesus Christ. 733 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:24,280 Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of 734 00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:27,200 Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing 735 00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:30,680 to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us 736 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:35,280 know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org. 737 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:40,080 Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton, 738 00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,920 MA. May the Lord bless you as you 739 00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:44,080 grow in His Word.