R1651 Introduction to Colossians Pt.2

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilson on this edition of The Encouraging Word. The Encouraging Word As we open God's Word together, Dr. Don is about to tell us about the eternal concepts. Literally, that we each can have something eternal to say, eternal to live, and eternal to look forward to. All that's on the way as we study God's Word together, and while we do so, you need to know we're available for you. We'd love to pray with you and for you anytime on our prayer line at 866-899-WORD.

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Now, today's teaching with Dr. Don. The Encouraging Word God told him that he, God, had something eternal, non-negotiable to say to these people, to the church, designed to strengthen them. This was the anchor that would hold them despite the storms.

Just a word about them. The church at Colossae had not yet succumbed to the world around them, and I'm going to tell you what they were facing. They were under threat. They were surrounded by paganism. Their world was very troubled, and these were faithful and holy.

By the way, I'm not even going to get into that today. Holy? Which one of us, if I was to ask all of us today worshiping, whichever one of you is holy right now, would you please stand?

None of us would want to stand. That designation comes because of what he's about to say concerning the all-sufficiency of Christ and the indwelling presence of Christ. It is because of him. He's the anchor.

He's the one. You take him out of the equation. Church, you're going to be anything but holy.

You're going to look like the world that you're living in. You take Jesus out of it. Take God out of it. Church, you take God out of it.

And we're going to discuss that. If you pay lip service to God, like you dust him off just on a Sunday morning, and your behavior does not mirror what it means to trust in God, you will be rendered unholy and unfaithful, which is where? That's all around us. The world is not only unholy, but unfaithful. That's what sin does. Sin separates people from a holy and a righteous God.

I'm going to be talking about these things for several weeks. So this church at Colossae, they were facing serious challenges. They were coming to church on Sunday morning and Wednesday and whenever it might be, and the people were bringing with them the raging wildfires that were going on into the world. They came and sat, they prayed together, studied God's Word together, and they were dealing at the same time with pain, with agony, with unbelievable ugliness, with bad behavior. And most of all, with a world that was increasingly saying, are you kidding me? Jesus? The church at Colossae was being squeezed and they hadn't yet succumbed.

I'm saying this is a don statement. I wouldn't be surprised if word had gotten to Paul that there were churches falling like dominoes all across this region. They were succumbing left and right because the devil infiltrated them. And it'll come through one person in this congregation. One, it'll take one of you.

He will lick his chops. It never happens through a pew. Pews don't give you trouble. Pews never threaten God.

It's always people. And people's biggest problem is we always know better than God. And we're living in a world today where we've set up a monument to our own glory. And the world wants the church to mirror the world instead of the church wanting the world to mirror the Lord Jesus. And essentially at Colossae, in their world now, I'm going into their world, you had this collision between multiple anti-Christian philosophies. It became known as the Colossae heresy. That's what it was known as. And the church faced the danger, but they hadn't yet fallen to it. They faced the danger of being pulled into it. If a fire starts in your house, don't go and waft around it. Put it out.

If your children are dabbling in, stop them. If you're part of the one foot club, you have one foot in the world and one foot in God's kingdom, take your foot out of the world. That's what Paul is about to say to them. You know, in chapter 1, verse 23. Verse 23, we will read, we'll get there, if you continue in your faith, established and firm, you will not be moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

Did you hear what he said there? If you continue in your faith, you will not be moved from all the joy and the promise, the blessing that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, because he's all sufficient. So what about the Colossian heresy? So just to try and help us understand that briefly. There were really two worlds that were colliding in this town.

Watch me now, okay? I'll try and explain it very simply. On the one hand, there was Greek philosophy, rank paganism. It was all based on knowledge and philosophy. Greek philosophers believed that the gospel of Jesus was just far too simplistic. I mean, get a life.

Give your heart to Jesus and you'll be forgiven and go to heaven. How stupidly simplistic. The Greeks, they were over-thinkers, they were philosophers. They had superior knowledge.

So you can go and read about that. For example, in 1 Corinthians is replete with the challenges presented by this brand of paganism. Like, is there anything more ridiculous than being a Christian? And they found any reason to brand Christians to associate Christians. They just looked around. The filmmaker Michael Moore just this week said, you know, he equated the behavior of the Taliban to conservative Christians in America. Give me a break. It's like groping at something to bring down Christians. That's what the Greeks did. They belittled.

When their kids went to school, it was like... I mean, have you lost your mind? Are you in church on Sunday?

You realize you could be at the beach right now? Worship your gods, man. So you can summarize Greek philosophy in three denials, and I'm just giving this to you. First of all, they denied the humanity of Christ. They denied the humanity of Christ, you know. How could a perfect God take up human matter which was overtly evil?

Can't happen. So they denied the humanity of Christ. In other words, Jesus could never have taken on flesh, and that whole thing about becoming sin for us even though he knew no sin, that's just gobbledy-gobbledy nonsense. Secondly, they denied the deity of Christ.

It's one thing to deny the humanity of Christ, but secondly, they denied the deity of Christ, and to deny the deity of Christ literally meant there is no way that God ever could become man. Remember, they had plenty of gods. They made statues of them. They had temples erected to them everywhere. Their brand of worship was a Mardi Gras brand of worship.

It was lived today because tomorrow you die. And thirdly, they denied the sufficiency of Christ. What is the sufficiency of Christ?

It's the sufficiency of Christ for salvation. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. Please don't go away. He'll be back with the rest of today's message in just a moment, but we want to remind you that you can hear today's message, again, maybe share it with a friend as well, from our website, TEWOnline.org. We have both audio and video on demand. You can also sign up for the daily podcast that's available at TEWOnline.org. And again, we believe that one of the great ways to start our day is in God's Word, and Dr. Don has the email version of his daily devotion available to sign up on our website right now at TEWOnline.org, an inspiration focused from God's Word and a launch today, some application about how we apply God's Word as well.

You can sign up today online at TEWOnline.org for the daily devotion. Now, let's dive back into God's Word together with Dr. Don Wilton. Look at chapter 1, verse 28. This is what Paul says in verse 28 in the first chapter. We proclaim Him, admonishing and everyone, teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. That's the all-sufficiency of Christ for salvation. You do not add anything or anyone to Jesus.

He is the One. He is God's Son, the only begotten of the Father. We are complete in Christ.

Well, Greek philosophical paganism denied Christ's humanity, denied the deity of Christ, denied the all-sufficiency of Christ, and it was all around them. There were people out there saying, listen, man, excuse me, guys, you don't mean that God is going to limit. I mean, He just loves everyone. You know, as long as you're sincere. You ever heard anybody say that?

As long as you do good. I can't stand these Christian religions that say Jesus is the only one. Who said you can have a corner on the market? Are you telling me that my way to worship, you know, God made the trees and the flowers and the birds and bees.

If I want to worship an owl and I believe that that's the way to get to God, who are you to tell me I've got to add Jesus into this? So you got the Greeks. But on the other hand, you had the Jews.

I'm just presenting to you two groups. There were many Jews and Judaism at its heartbeat insisted on a number of things. You take, for example, ceremonialism.

Or how about ritualism, particularly circumcision of young males that was written into the religious framework of the Jewish people. It was part of the old covenant. But it was a denial of the new covenant. God, in times past, spoke through the prophets. But now, in these last days, he has spoken to us through his son.

That didn't matter. So when you have ceremonialism and ritualism and asceticism, if you don't know what asceticism is, it's varying brands of self-denial, dietary laws. You cannot eat this and you cannot eat that. It even can be boiled down to laws and regulations related to Sabbath worship that associate not walking, not talking, not touching, not doing, and all the rituals with it, that that is the means by which you gain access to a righteous God, not through Jesus. These worlds collided at Colossi.

And I haven't even begun to preach my message. So the result was that these people were becoming increasingly mixed up and confused. Can you understand that? I can understand that. Being mixed up and confused is not criminal.

It happens. I don't find anywhere in Colossians where Paul was scolding the people. You are not sinning against God because you're dealing with all of these things.

Everybody is. And what God wants to do is He wants to give to you His truth. He wants to show you how to be strong in Him. And that's what the book of Colossians is. It's about being strong in the Lord. You mean this is my Christian faith? This is what it means to be a Christian? If you gave me an overriding theme about Colossians, it would be on the all-sufficiency of Christ.

Love that chorus that we would sing, put your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Paul was wanting these people to look into the face of Jesus, to trust Him. Don't say you trust Him and then police Him. Don't say you trust God and then spend half your waking hour questioning Him, which is very easy to do. And there is nothing sinful about questions.

I'm smiling because if you could see me, you'd say, I get into these studies and I start asking myself more questions. I'd say, why? Why? What?

How? How am I going to explain this? And many times I say, Lord, okay, I'm going to make a deal with you. I'm just going to skip over that verse. I don't want to talk about that. You know, I don't want to talk about that because I know if I talk about that, somebody out there is going to be mad with me because you're not supposed to talk about it. I'm going to tell you something, folks. If God says it, I'm going to talk about it. That's what I mean.

That's not a like, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, well, you know, me, big chief, you, just listen. I, you know, I'm going to, I'm telling you, I'm going to get... That's not what he's talking about, saying turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Trust Him. He's all sufficient. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It's about Jesus. So what am I encouraging you to do? Beginning right now, beginning right now. Number one, I'm asking you, please give your heart to Jesus.

Just that's the starting point. Trust Jesus by faith. We are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves, not of works, because if it was of works, you and I would have a serious competition going on. Now I've had 15 years of seminary studies, I deserve to have the front row seat in heaven, right? See, God says we're saved by grace through faith. It's not even governed by whether or not we're in church on Sunday.

Now, how's that or how do you do? Am I telling you not to come? That's not what I said. But coming to church doesn't save you. Jesus does. I'm asking you to give your heart to Jesus. Secondly, I'm inviting you to trust Him.

I'm inviting us. Guys, let's trust God. Thirdly, let's really study Him. Let's keep this up.

We've done a jolly good job for many years. Get in a group where you can study and ask a lot more questions. Keep asking those questions. And ask them of God. I want you to have confidence. I want you to be strong.

I'm asking God to make us all like Paul. We're living in a day and age. Keep your eyes open.

Be aware of this. Parents, look at me. Not a good idea if you've got children and you don't keep your eyes on them.

You got a teenager right now and come any day, you say, listen, man, go play in the traffic. Just let me know whenever you get back, you are asking for trouble. Did I say they're getting into trouble? I didn't say that.

Do you trust your child? Of course you do. Keep your eyes on them. Be engaged. Church, be engaged. This is God's church and we are church strong because Christ makes us that way. And what encouragement from knowing that we can be strong together because God made us that way. I pray that you hear that and you are comforted to know that you are plugged into not just your church or my church, not church membership, but the body of Christ. As Dr. Don would remind us, you can stand in a garage and not be a car.

Maybe you are like me. I spent too many years going to church but not becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. Today could be the day that you reevaluate who you are as you strive to be a Christ follower.

You've heard Dr. Donny has been preaching these last few minutes. Now open your heart to what he wants to share as he steps into the studio right now. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. If you've prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey. Perhaps moments ago you prayed along with Dr. Wilton to give your life to Jesus. Perhaps for the first time maybe to rededicate your life and to begin a fresh and new start today following Jesus. Either way, we would love to be a part of your next steps, a part of growing and encouraging you in your journey.

Dr. Wilton has some wonderful resources he wants you to have if you've given your life to Jesus Christ today or rededicated your life to Christ. Just call us at 866-899-WORD and we'll send these out to you right away. Again, the phone number is 866-899-9673 and it's available 24 hours a day. We'd love to be a part of encouraging you anytime when you need prayer. That's 866-899-9673 but we're also available online at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org where you'll find great resources like this. Right now you may be driving in your car or sitting in the comforts of your own home. Perhaps you may be at work or listening to us in a prison cell. Wherever you are, I have an encouraging word for you today and that word is God is in control. He is sovereign over the universe. His plan for your life remains intact and He has not changed.

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