Charge me to go.
Wonderful. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts to the book of Second Thessalonians. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for giving us a blessing of coming to your word. Thank You that Your mercies are new every morning. You woke us up today, God, you've blessed us with another day to bring You glory to praise you and rejoice in who you are. Please, Father, watch over us and teach us in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, so we are at second set. No no, we're at Colossus. We're at Colossians chapter two beginning of verse 11 Colossians chapter two beginning at verse 11. Here we go.
In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, Buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead and you being dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trash trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements as that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them. in it.
So let no one judge you in food or drink or in regard in regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you have your reward, taking delight in false humility, and worship of angels, introducing into those things which He has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head, from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God.
Therefore, if you died with Christ, from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations? Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle which all concern things which Paris with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. Well, we need to ask ourselves a, what is this about? Be what's the best verse to summarize this and see, what do we call the do in response to these words, right. So a What is this about? Well, Paul, in the previous chapter, as Nathan and I were discussing it is describing to us vagin philosophies, empty teachings that we're going to pull people away. We're trying to pull people away from God and from Christ. And now, we come to Paul saying that we have been knit together with Christ, that Jesus has disarmed the principalities and powers of the world, and that we ought not to be okay, or tricked into following these philosophies that are at the end of the day powerless because they deal with the fleshly beggarly things and so, we see in verses 11 through 15, that it is Jesus Christ in whom you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without answers as calling us back to what God was talking about in the Old Testament time and time again when he says he wasn't just desiring the circumcision of the flesh, but the circumcision of their hearts, that this was going to be a sign of the new covenant that they would have circumcised hearts is a picture of conversion. And so in he says, here, that by putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, right, not this outward sign but an inward reality, that our hearts are changed, that we're united to Christ. And he ties circumcision, the Old Testament sacrament, to show that you are part of the people of God, to show that you were engaged to be the Lord's to show that you were one of Jehovah's people.
And he ties that in verse 12, to baptism, Buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.
We are included in Christ's circumcision and baptism we are showing we had a sign and seal showing that we are indeed with Christ and Christ is in us. And so in his death, were with Him and in His resurrection. Were with him.
Now I've just as a side note, if baptism takes over circumcision, there has to be a question that as a good Presbyterian pastor, I have to ask, what does that mean for our children?
Well, I'll let you think about the implications of that. But I would say that our children likewise, as this is the good news, both for you and to your household. This is for children as well. And he says in verse 13, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made a live together with him having forgiven all your trespasses, right when we are when we realize that we are united to Christ.
When we have faith in Christ when our hearts have been changed, what is this mean? But that all of our sins are forgiven? Our trespasses are wiped away, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Do see the covenant of works was against us. Our condemnation was real our trespasses.
We're all sinners.
Every single one of us, no one does righteous no, not one, not one seeks after the Lord.
We're all have fallen short of his standard of glory. And so what is Jesus do? He takes all those, those just condemnations which we deserve and what did God do? He took it and he nailed it to the cross.
Our punishment was nailed like a deed of forgiveness through the hands of our Savior
all of our sins are forgiven.
trespass is gone.
This is why Christ is so important, right? It is Jesus, who we look to in his death and in his resurrection. And we find forgiveness and life and this is why he's telling them God has made a public spectacle of the principalities and other powers right. They cannot condemn you if Christ is for you who could be against you.
So he says like no one judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or new moons or Sabbath, which are shadow of things that come but the substance is Christ. If you go pick up the book of Hebrews, it will show you time and time again. All the festivals, all the sacrifices, all the annual feasts, were all meant to point to Jesus Christ, who is our high priest, who sits at the right hand of the of God the Father in heaven, and he ministers in a sanctuary not made by human hands.
He's our High Priest. He's our sacrifice. He all the Old Testament, ritual laws were fulfilled in Christ and point us to Christ.
And so we looked at Jesus, right? We look to Jesus in those things. So he says, Don't let people judge you about that stuff. If you believe in Jesus, you believe in what's far better.
says Let no one cheats you have your reward, taking delight and false humility in the worship of angels. Now we need to stop there real quick and ask what in the world is he talking about? So there's this philosophy going on around this time in certain Jewish circles and even it's crept into Christian circles, where people are having this false humility, right? Well, we don't want to break the third commandment using the Lord's name in vain. We don't want to, to you know, think of somehow that we could interchange with the most high God. So we we bow down to the angels. She said, That's idolatry. They don't do that. So that's false humility. Don't let them trick you out of your reward. Now, let me say this as well to anybody who has interacted with Jehovah's Witnesses who think that Jesus is just an angel. That Jesus is just Michael the archangel. Point them here.
We don't worship angels.
This is not Angel worship, that's false humility is idolatry. And so he says, Here, let no one cheats. You have your reward. Don't let anybody come to your door, knock on your door and just say Jesus is just an angel and they might seem humble and nice. No, don't let anybody cheat you out of that reward.
Introducing those things which He has not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, nor holding fast to the head who is the head?
The Divine One.
The exact image of God Jesus Christ Himself. We cling to Him, we worship Him. He is the head and He strengthens every part of the body. As our eyes are fixed on Jesus Christ. He strengthens our horizontal relationships, and he makes right our vertical relationships as we looked to others and we love others. That only happens in a deep, profound way when we look vertically to Christ when we love Jesus and so he says that's what brings the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why is the living in the world do you subject yourself to regulations?
What is Paul getting out here?
Are you a slave anymore?
To this World Christian?
Is the Spirit of Jesus Christ in you.
Then the question is, why would you go back?
To do not handle do not taste Do not touch these are the weak things. These are the elementary things these are the milk things and you ought to be eating solid food.
It's not about do not handle do not taste. Do not touch those things will not make you holy, that's cleaning the outside of the cup of Jesus came to clean the inside of the cup.
It's not good enough for you just to abstain from physically going out and committing adultery, but you need to even purify your eyes in your heart and your mind. And if we are united to Christ, the Spirit of Christ does these things in us. It's not a matter of do not handle do not taste, do not touch. There's an old saying you know, do not drink do not smoke and do not go with girls who do. It's not about that. It's not about not eating on kosher food. It's not about not touching dead bodies. It's not about all this stuff. What is it about? It's about being holy. It's about being united to Jesus Christ. It's about realizing that every one of us is sinners. And we need the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts for God to nail our trespasses to the cross. We need Jesus Christ.
It's not about annual sacrifices.
We have one sacrifice. Done for all he was crucified, buried and rose again on the third day.
It's not about going to a temple and making sacrifices. We have a high priest who ministers in heaven for us.
It's not about what type of clothes we wear, or what type of food we eat.
It's about Jesus Christ.
None of those things will make you holy.
But it's the spirit of Jesus Christ in us that drives us to true holiness, a love for God that changes the way we feel and think and praise and turns into a way that we love our neighbors as ourselves and brings with it the ethic of Jesus Christ that transforms all of our lives.
And so it says these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom. And self imposed religion, false humility, the neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgences of the flesh.
You can put all the stoicism you want all the strict self control you want, but until you abide in Jesus Christ, all of that is false humility.
Do you love Jesus Christ?
Are you united to him?
What's the best verse? to underline? I'm going to underline verse 11.
And I went under also underlined, verses 12 and 17. And then I would also underline verse 20. So in those three paragraphs, that's what I would underline what would you underline in your Bible? What do you think is getting at the heart of this passage? Well last seek calling What are you called to do?
Have you been trying to earn grace?
Have you been forgetting
that God has given you a new heart?
Maybe in your Christian life, you've fallen into this trap of thinking, Oh, I'll be holy. If I don't. If I just don't do X, or if I just don't do Y or if I just don't do Z Do you know what happens in my life?
I don't have a television. Right and why don't I have a television?
Well, because I don't want to waste my time on TV and I don't want the influences of the of the world. But you know the problem there's still YouTube
and I could get sucked into YouTube. There's still Netflix you get sucked into Netflix. There's Amazon Prime, you get sucked into Amazon Prime. There's still books in the library that are despicable.
It's not a matter of whether you have got a TV or don't have a TV it's a matter of do you love Jesus Christ.
I would still encourage you to have your mind fixed on Christ to go to his word to love him. But the problem isn't the TV the problem is our heart.
You might think oh, if I just stay away from the bar, I won't drink I know plenty of people who stay at home and get drunk all the time. The problem isn't the bar the problem is our hearts.
You might think of the person who struggles with oh if if my life was just perfect and I had all my routines and if people just listened to me then I wouldn't get mad.
Now the problem isn't the people the problem is the anger in your heart.
The problem is the pride that we have in our own hearts wanting things our way.
I'm gonna encourage you today to plead with God.
That he would not just clean the outside of the cup but he would clean the inside.
That you might go to Jesus Christ.
You might find holiness and forgiveness that's found in him and from him. And as you look to Jesus as you are united that Jesus, then I pray that you'll be strengthened.
Let's pray. Father, please work in my heart.
We're going to all of us who are together this morning listening to this work in our hearts together.
Strengthen us by your son.
Maybe fix our eyes on Jesus not just this morning but Lord throughout the day, please let us remember what you have done.
And may we walk before you God? We need your spirit. We need you to do this in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace that comes in Jesus Christ, may you have a full assurance that your high priest has laid down his own life for you and intercedes for you.
And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai