The Protection Against False Teaching

I think we're going to start today by the reading from verses 1 through 8. And next week I think I have 9 and 10 if I recall correctly. So who would like to read that this morning? Who has an open Bible that can speak loudly enough to read 1 through 8?

For I would that ye know great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and into all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the Spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

So now we are ready to study 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The title that Roger has given us this week is what Macaulay had used. Protection against false teachers. There is a hint of this in verse 4 that was covered previously. Actually Bob, it is my bad because I slid them down. You should teach today. It seemed to be kind of appropriate but it wasn't entirely appropriate. Now I know Andrew should be teaching this morning. Let's turn to the book. Would you please turn to the book of judges. Judge ourselves in terms of inappropriate behavior. It's all meant for us, but it's not all about us or for us. All right. So whatever. The title now is incorrect.

Why am I going to say what I'm going to say? Which is what I was to say. I mean, this Church of Colossians is steeped in wisdom and knowledge. That was what was presented a week ago in verse 4, and I thus say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. So, I mean, the concept here of false teachers really is being established early on in chapter 2. Now, to move on, everybody open the judges' notes.

Alright, as we approach today, as you therefore receive Christ Jesus, the Lord shall walk in him. So, what's it there for? For what preceded. And what preceded? I wish we didn't get taught. Roger, would you like to close in prayer? Boy, this is Holly Hill's Bible Church. What precedes it? That's kind of a brain dead answer, dear. So what's it there for? I mean, what preceded this? What's the text say?

Hold steadfast. Well, it's kind of conclusive of the first four verses, which has established the Church of Colossae is fairly mature. They're steeped with wisdom and knowledge. Don't we all wish that we are steeped in wisdom and knowledge? So that's why it's therefore to kind of conclude to move on to kind of the next message that Paul wants to transmit.

So, how did we receive, notice aorist active indicative tense, I think the verb tense is here in today's lesson are very important, so we are going to look at this. So, we received, we had a role in that, right? So, how did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? Yeah, thank you, okay. Right, so by faith, so as was, we are saved. Remember the three tenses of salvation? I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. So by faith, so it was, we must walk, present active imperative, by faith. There's no kind of, if you feel like it, walk by faith. We're being told to walk by faith. How are we doing walking by faith? So that's again different verb tense.

Irrespective, it happened once, we were saved at one point in time and it's we that participate in that salvation. We could get into a discussion the rest of the morning about what gives us enough faith to be saved. That came up in our Bible study last night in our home. Where is that faith coming from that allows us to make a decision to come to salvation at the time we were transformed or conformed or changed our current status to a new status being accepted in the beloved. But the faith is one that continues to be received and we are to walk in that constant faith going forward.

And interestingly enough, this is Paul's only utterance of Christ Jesus the Lord. If you turn to the first chapter, which Margaret read, by imperative, nevertheless, he uses Jesus Christ the Lord there, but Christ Jesus the Lord is the only time he uses that in that direction. Is that significant? Constable thinks it might be. So I'm going to quote him here.

Christ Jesus the Lord counteracts three false conceptions. of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are his deity, Christ, that Judaism denied, his humanity, Jesus, that the docetists, which by the way, the docetists take the position that Christ was a phantom and he never existed. I mean it's just kind of something that was historically poorly documented and really not true. So it isn't that interesting. And his sovereignty, Lord that many varieties of false teaching denied. So I mean it gets you kind of into MacArthur's theology.

I mean what do you think of when you think of Christ Jesus the Lord? Does it say he's our Lord? I mean what are your thoughts about that? Kingship, salvation, is that what we're all about here? Okay, what then is Christ Jesus the Lord, what about his sovereignty?

Roger, are you going to say something? Well, I think it kind of personalizes it. Since I'm studying for Abraham, he interacted with God and he called him Lord. When you call somebody Lord, you're saying that you're admitted to your position beneath that.

Okay, Christ Jesus the Lord here is not our Lord. I guess you could conceptualize that maybe our Lord is an appropriate application. I think of Lordship salvation as being wrong teaching. This is not kingdom age stuff. But Christ Jesus is the Lord. He's part of the Triune God, right? And so I think that really is what's the exception that Constable is trying to deal with in terms of the the three false conceptions of Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus the Lord.

Anyway, let's go on. So walk again, present act of imperative in him, do it. We don't have any other options now. Even though that's an imperative, we don't always walk by faith, do we? In fact, how do we walk by faith, even if it is by faith? How do we continue to do that? Let's look at the verb first.

What does walk or paralombano mean? Well, lombano in the Greek means to appropriate and literally this is to personally appropriate this life to ourselves and it's all about being in him. So this is identification truth as well stated as it possibly can be. So walking in him is a new life. It's not about him, it's not like him, it's not some sort of an imitation. This is a new life by faith to walk.

Well isn't it still just reckoning who we already are? I mean, who we are. If you're a believer, that's really who you are. And if you're not recognizing your position, which I think a lot of Christians have a hard time doing. This came up last night, what if in fact we don't walk by faith? What's the world system? Think of Christianity in general. What's the non-believing world? Think of Christianity in general. We're judging the world. How about hypocrisy? Is that kind of a view of the world system?

Many of us who were saved as adults, I'd be one that thought that the church was really full of hypocrisy. I was not interested. But how do we get around this when we don't walk by faith and we fall short? You admit your shortcoming. I think it's important. How do you deal with this? If the world perceives our hypocrisy from their perspective, what's the role of the believer in dealing with this? I see two responses to that. One is we need to be actively and zealously involved in asking people to forgive us. And that's secondly an open door to explain at least some theological doctrine and foundation from which we all exist.

What's that? How might we explain to an unbelieving world about our existing faults and mistakes from their perspective? We've got a quiet class. We still have us in nature. All right, so you know... Adam's still around. Exactly, and it's a good way to share the gospel with people. So this might go something like this, and the Bible is always worth quoting, and the Bible may not be well received by an unbelieving world, but he hath made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So that verse theologically opens the door to say we're righteous before God because of him. but our sin nature is only condemned and still exists. And so we've fallen short from your perspective because in fact we still carry this nature although we are perfectly righteous and wholly present with the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's a good way to kind of open up a door if there's questions being asked. So it's happened several times of recent in my experience. Other thoughts about that? So the imperatives to walk in him I think when we're in a situation where we're being tried and there's all kinds of stresses in our life, this is an intellectual process and that fails us. I think, gee, I'm in Christ, I'm positioned to the right hand. It's not that. Something goes beyond simply intellectualizing our position. It's experiential and it is by faith and believing what God's revealed that we're new creations in Christ Jesus and by faith letting that work out in Mark.

Have you ever heard of anybody describing in Christ concept as Christ being your environment? Are you asking me, have I? Yeah, I just recently read some stuff. Okay, can you share that with us? It was just that in relating that you talked about If you're in Christ, then Christ is your environment. Christ is our environment. That was kind of a different way of looking at it.

And maybe you can think through that with us a little bit. So what does that mean? That he's in the trees? No, I mean, he's... No, I just was thinking on your point. too much to grasp, I mean, it's too nebulous, it sounds, but, you know, because Christ is a person in an environment.

And scripture is a lot more precise and it says that we're in this living union. It's a lot different than peace and environment. If I'm in union with someone, there's a totally different situation, you know, closest we have maybe are relatives or parents or siblings or whatever. But when God declares that we're in him, that's an incredible statement which goes way beyond just an environment. Environment seems so wishy-washy to me, I don't know.

One of the concepts I think in physics is that when we look at the atom, there's this unknown force holding us together and we learn in Colossians that it is Christ himself holding us together. But that's a physical relationship that he's holding us together that in that sense physically we're in him but so is the unbeliever in that regard. But there's a relationship that's way beyond this physical that we have in Christ that's in this vaccine. Well it's a positional relationship, right?

Right. Which doesn't exist physically. We're talking about spiritual. This is a position that we... If we think of dimensions rather than physics, and he is outside of time in dimension, and he's coming out environment that we have of four dimensions, man, that is really personal. Because in order for him to reveal himself that way, he's given us this written word, right, by himself, that focuses us on him rather than the atom or the environment or All right, good.

Continuing then, 1 John 2.6, he who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. Again, that walk is not being like him or patterning our experience like him, we can never do that, but that new life that we have does really indicate a life that is not of ourselves but of the Lord and to God be the glory. Keep in mind the glory of the Lord is being reflected in our daily walk.

We fall short But that's what we're called to by faith. This is something you work on. This is something by faith that increasingly performs within us in a way that is difficult to explain to the unbelieving world. So how does this happen? How do we walk in faith? I'm asking a question that there may not be a simple answer. presence of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and resting in his provision through the Holy Spirit making the world clear to us.

Yeah, you know the concept here is the three verb tenses of being saved. I was saved, I'm being saved, I will be saved. Remember we're buried with him with baptism unto death but resurrected with him in newness of life. So that's positional truth. And our faith is in our position. And as that faith in our position increasingly is present in our lives, our condition increasingly is molded by that trust in how the position translates to our condition. So I think it happens by faith in terms of positional truths where that identification continues to take place.

And keep in mind, we're not performing metrics of performance here. This is a life. It's not something we put a yardstick to. Every step is on the truths that is revealed. And I'm walking one step at a time on those truths. Is that what's being revealed here? I'm not sure. Walking by faith is one step at a time.

That's an interesting application. That's good, I think. Alright, let's move on to verse 7, "...and rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." Now here's where verb tense I think is relevant. We're going to spend a little time here. Isn't it great to be rooted?

Perfect passive. Perfect tense means what? Something happened previously that has ongoing and continuing activity. Build up present passive, perfect passive, present passive in him and also establish present passive in all faith, in the faith. Isn't it great to see all those passives? I'm serious. There's nothing active here.

An interesting metaphor, this is referring to the building up. Isn't this kind of an interesting metaphor? Rooted in build up, it's kind of like you're building a building. And that building, if you turn to Ephesians 2.20, which we'll not do, that's the church, basically. And we're the church. This is the church. Alright, let's continue this.

Ephesians 3.17, that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love.

And John 15.5, I'm the vine, you're the branches, we know this well. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. So this kind of issue of being rooted and built up is really the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. Identification.

How important is the passive tense here? And Roger alluded to that a minute ago. So what are your thoughts about this? Well it again is resting in the Lord. I mean we're totally resting that He's going to do that work in us. Are we robots then? We just sit and wait for God to passively act within us? No, I mean remember we're called by faith, right? Actually it kind of goes back to what Scott was pointing out.

If we're walking by faith, That's our job, is to do the walking, to interact with His Word, interact with Him. And as a result of that interaction with Him, we get rooted and built up and established. So our part is to interact with Him by the Word, and His job is to give the Holy Spirit to build us up. And back to verb tenses, this walking by faith is present active imperative. That means now, it means we're responsible to engender the faith and ultimately we're told to do it.

This is not something that we have a choice to do or not to do. We're told as new creations in Christ Jesus to walk by faith, but then that experience is God's work within our life. That's so critically important. Yes, Patty? And like what you're saying, as we take in the Word, which is the way that God teaches us through faith, but as we take in the Word, it's the resting on what He says is true about us. I think He works those truths out in our lives, you know, because we have to be in the Word. I mean, maybe that's the active part. I'm not saying it in a legal way, but if you're not in the Word, to hear what he says. Exactly, that's where we find Christ in the word of God, right? You learn more about him, Roy? I was thinking of Ephesians 4, where we're told that each part of Christ's body contributes to the growth and to the immaturity, the likeness, the maturity of Christ, and so he's gifted a certain you know, are taught and we are built up by that.

Because it's the work of the Holy Spirit that does that. But He does it through men and women that know Him and are gifted to do it. And it's based on the Word, don't get me wrong. But that's what the text says. And that's one of those steps we're taking, right? That we're believing the Word that we are being established with. It's not by faith but in the faith. What do you make of this? Is it by the faith or in the faith? You don't have to answer that, I'm going to partly answer it for you with what Wiest has said here.

In a sense, in the faith, established in the faith. It would seem that the preposition might be better interpreted by the faith rather than in the faith, although maybe we're picking at too many straws here. So Weiss says in the faith is te pestei, which Lightfoot says is derived or dative meaning of the instrument, and which is in modern grammar is called the instrumental case. Again, kind of detailed here, but I'm going to go on. He translates, by your faith, making faith the instrument by which they were being established. And Alford expositors to Muir and take this as a dative of reference, and Alford saying that there is no question of instrumental of means in this passage, thus the conclusion of all this. is that translation would be constantly being established with reference to your faith.

So in a sense, I think by the faith is really a much better interpretation of the section. A lot of language here, but just to pull one sentence, that may have been shortcoming. So anyway, maybe it's arguing, but prepositions in the Word of God are kind of important at times, rather than in, for, or by. I think it really relates to how we apply that faith. So it's by the faith, ultimately, that that this whole issue of allowing that faith to be passively experienced in us to grow us and root us and build us up according to his foundation.

And note, as you have been taught, is aorist passive, is consistent with the theme of the protection against false teaching. I mean, again, you've been taught this. And so again, trying to live up to the title, which is the wrong title, is the concept that false teaching was around them. And we'll go back to verse four, if you recall, that kind of told them that there might be false teachers surrounding them.

And the fact that they were well founded in wisdom and knowledge was important. According to the grace of God which is given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, again this metaphor if you will of a building, and another builds upon it but let each one take heed how he builds upon it and that's by faith.

That's the demonstration of that new life in Christ Jesus that exists within each and every one of us. and we are abounding present active in it with thanksgiving and now that is something we are experiencing and we are experiencing this we are playing this role of actively abounding in it with thanksgiving and why is this important do you think? abounding in it with thanksgiving? about overflowing with more than we expect exceeding everything we can think about. It's all we can do is say thank you. The American standard has overflown with gratitude. Okay, so how does that abound within us?

I think that's that thankfulness at all times. Keep in mind grace has Thanksgiving wrapped into the definition of grace. I think those are almost one and the same in terms of our response to God's grace is kind of an abounding thankfulness for that gift God has given us. So the basis of all this is God's great and unending grace. So that's the reason for us being proactively grateful and thankful for this new life. He's continuing to root us in and build us up over time.

So in Acts it says, Now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. similar principles as given here in Colossians 2.7 that were stated in the book of Acts by Paul.

Alright, let's turn then to verse 8. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to the tradition of men and according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. Beware. Present active imperative. Do it. Watch out. We're told we need to be in a position of actively beware. Lest anyone cheat or spoil you. Think of how many ways this occurs. How many ways does this occur? We just experienced it a major way. We'll come to that in a minute. Well, we're constantly being bombarded, aren't we, by how wrong this life in Christ is and how Christianity is flawed in so many ways. Philosophy, this is the only New Testament use of this term. Philosophy is really interpreted loosely as the love of wisdom. It's seeking wisdom and ultimately it's really not even a religious term. It's used mostly for world system stuff.

Tom? I think a perfect example of that is you go to your college graduation or whatever it is, it's a special And to think of this as something that, well, maybe sometimes you go overboard and think, boy, this is a big deal, and yet the Lord's being let out, left out of it. It's kind of like your Yeah, you ate so many courses or you did pretty good in something like you thought you were going to fall flat on your face and then you just glory in self instead of the Lord who gave you the ability to pick up on this and take it as useful but not ultimately true. Abiding in Christ is what's ultimately aboundingly true. And you get led off base. In terms of the other definition of applied knowledge, wisdom, in terms of our position in Christ, it's applying our knowledge of our positional truths into our conditional truths.

Do you have another comment, Tom? No. Oh, okay. I thought you had. So, Weiss says Bishop Lightfoot, he often quotes Lightfoot, remarks on the fact of philosophy by which the Greeks expressed the highest effort of the intellect and virtue, their expression for the highest moral excellence, are each used but once by Paul, saying that the Gospel had deposed the terms inadequate to the higher standard, whether of knowledge or practice which it had introduced.

So again, philosophy really mostly is a world system term. It's not used within biblical context. So we'll just leave it at that. I mean if you look at the book of Solomon, in a sense there's a lot of wisdom there and the Lord had that to be included in the scripture for reasons, but nevertheless you could study the book of Proverbs and not find Christ there sometimes in terms of the applied principles that God has put forth in terms of the practical day-to-day applications. So I'm going to show you some pictures. This is the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, which Margaret and I have seen.

This is the set of Hindu temples in Java, which we visited a couple of weeks ago. And this is a Buddhist temple also in Java that relates to a philosophy. By the way, we were embargoed with Muslim prayers over loudspeakers, even at 4 a.m. that awakened you at night. So our trip to Indonesia, I would say at least half of it was in Muslim country. And then we had about maybe another 20 to 30% in Hindu country, shown in the middle. And then the last part was a Catholic island in Indonesia that ultimately was where the Komodo dragons were.

All that aside, in the Hindu religion, they have 30 million gods. 30 million gods. So it's interesting that they have three main gods, Brahma, the god of creation, Vishnu, the god who's the protector, and Shiva, who's the ultimately destroyer. So those are the three main gods. They all have wives who have names, but 30 million gods? The reason I show this picture of the temple is that there's a series of steps at 10 levels of Buddhism and the concept there is we all need to get rid of our inner desires and our inner desires really is the flesh I mean in a sense if you want to build this into a religion and as you get up to the seventh and eighth and ninth level this gets a little bit more difficult to get up to those levels in this temple if you go all the way up to the top when you're at the tenth level you're a Buddha So to become a Buddha means all your self-desires are left behind. I think it's interesting that in the Hindu religion there are three main gods, all that could potentially represent God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

It's interesting how all these gods, of course in the Muslim faith we know what that's sourced from, but this is all kind of vain philosophy is what it is. 30 million gods? Talk about idols in the Old Testament and the Jewish faith. Look at these examples of what exists today.

Of course the Hindu believes you are reincarnated in an animal and the cow is the most sacred beast of them all. When we were in India a couple of years ago, we are going back again this year for the ADA that I am part of. Anyway, you see these cows in the street and cars pulling around them. They get in the road of pedestrians and cars. I'd rather you hit the pedestrians than the cows. You're arrested if you hit a cow, but if you hit a person, they just put that person over there on the side. It's not a big deal. And you know, you're jumping through a cow dung all the time.

But keep in mind, in context, beware lest anyone cheat or spoil you. I mean, it's all around us. And I think in a society in which we live, in the Western world, it's the foolishness of the Gospel. The Gentile world makes work crazy. And particularly in science, I mean, I'm thought to be out in the bleachers someplace. So Paul has not dismissed all wisdom, but that which leads to vain deceit according to the teaching of men and the principles of the world is what we're talking about here. And in Acts, then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him and some said, what does this bubbler want to say? And others said, he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. I mean, in a sense, it's all about us. And many sections in the New Testament deal with false teaching and the world system and how it can impact us as believers.

Beware. It's all around you. Now with all the electronics and social media and all that stuff, it's like ratcheted up to just such a different level. You can be blasted on the internet for even talking about crazy things. The thing is, it's all anonymous. They don't have to come forward and say who they are. They can just blast you. You know, I was uplifted. This is kind of tangential, a little bit of a rabbit trail, but you know, something we should pray about, you know, the state of... Alabama, wasn't it?

And now Missouri on Friday, they voted also very strict anti-abortion laws. And this could end up being wrong. We talk about a false philosophy that killing babies in the womb is somehow a woman's right. No. That's such an important and strong issue for us as believers. We have to stand strong on this issue. I think what's happening in the South and Missouri is kind of Southern, but it's a little bit more Midwestern than it is Southern. I think this is a momentum. We ought to play the role in ways it's going to be ultimately done under. I don't think it's ever going to happen, though.

This is world system kind of wisdom and philosophy. Beware. Beware what's happening in this world around us. So-called empty deception. Paul's teaching of the time includes Gnosticism, which is a disastrous mix of legalism, asceticism, and mysticism with Christianity, and that was happening in the Colossae. And I think that's particularly what Paul is warning against here, is Gnosticism. This imbalance of things of the Lord in part, as in Jewish context and other contexts within it, and some mysticism within Christianity. But that is really wrong teaching, and I think Paul is cautioning the reader about that.

How about some more current examples, and I just kind of shared one in terms of the wisdom of the world, Neo, woman's choice is to kill her unborn baby. I mean it's just disastrous. I hope you all agree, but I think as believers we can have no other position on that one.

And not according to Christ, Ephesians 4.20.

This verse impacted me in a major, major way when I was studying Ephesians at South Sheridan Baptist. And we were talking about that part of Ephesians 4 where you alluded to Ephesians 4 before, but that part of Ephesians 4 is dealing with the old man. You know, the sinful nature of the old man. We could go back and look at that, but the reason that Paul gave that they ultimately were falling back into sin and the ways of the old man or the sin nature because they had not so learned Christ.

Patti, back to your point, we meet Christ in the Word of God. And the doctrine which we aspire and live by at this church, which is what we believe is truly biblical doctrine, is we have a new life to learn and experience by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because you have not so learned Christ, and when you have not so learned Christ, these deceptions and vain deceptions of the world system start to impact us, sometimes subconsciously, in the way we go about doing things. We need to learn Christ. Notice, it's Christ, not his teachings or his life. It's Christ that we need to learn.

2 Corinthians 3.18 reflects that glory of the Lord that is portrayed in each and every one of us, but we all with unveiled face beholding as a mirror in the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. That's learning Christ.

And being in Christ is all about abiding, and we've seen a couple of verses reflecting on that here in today's lesson. And just a verse to reflect on that, and this is verse 3, as we read earlier this morning, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And again, the church at Colossae was felt to be demonstrating that in their day-to-day walks. So other thoughts about today, what we covered today? So let's read the text again to conclude then.

Oh Bob, I have a comment on your notice of Christ not teaching or his life. That just reminds me that, and I was talking about that last week, his life and his teachings. His going around with the Capernaum all around the Sea of Galilee and they never get beyond that. And what do you think, what's the impact of that teaching?

We need to do more good things like he did, right? But keep in mind the world system can look at people who live good lives who are not believers and say look, we all know about that, we can be The world system could be very judgmental about what they believe is good things happening from people who are not saved.

We are not to be judgmental, although at times we really want to be in terms of the behavior of those around us, but that's not our role. Our role is to grow in grace and truth. So, let's again read the verses and we'll conclude in prayer. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him. being rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you've been taught, as we've been taught, as we're all being taught here, abounding therein with thanksgiving, always being thankful for the grace that God's given us to be growing in this grace in the new life in which he's partaken us.

And beware lest any man spoil you or cheat you through vain philosophies and vain deceit. after the tradition of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. So let's pause just for a second. What are the traditions of men? One of the things that Satan did when he tempted Eve was, you can be as God. and knowing good and evil was a description of that, but the temptation was you're going to have the ability to be like Him, like God. He's accessible by you as an individual.

That's the lie of the world, is that there's no distinction between our Creator and the creation. In the Bible we are told God created, but the world says whatever the philosophy or thinking is, there is no distinction between the creation and the parts.

They are all the same. A plant is like a human, is like a baby, is like whatever. And so to discard an abortion of a baby is just a chance thing. It happens and we just get rid of it. And so there are two things. in the world. And the other thing is the origin is all by chance.

Whereas the scripture says he is the author of all things, he is sovereign. Good, and to build on that thought just a second, think about the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ by Satan in the wilderness. How about that as traditions of man? What was Christ tempted with? Power. The world system is all based on power and pride and things that really are not of the Lord Jesus Christ for sure.

And just one other thing about guarding ourselves, Peter said he was a witness of his glory, yet we have our own pre-testimony and that's the scriptures. So even Peter who saw Christ transfigured on his own, Okay, let me remind us all and challenge us all to learn Christ.

That's really our task by faith. I'll really build us up in the faith, getting us rooted and built up as challenged by these verses here. Let's close in prayer. Andrew, would you close us in prayer, please? Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this study today in Colossians and just all the things we're learning and to grow in the grace and knowledge of your Son. Be with us this week as we go about our life and as we do our walk this week.