Colossians Lesson 14 Week 2
Colossians · JD McCulley · Aug 31, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 34
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492643916924

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We've got some more questions to deal with, don't we? We're looking at Colossians 2, 20 through 23. So I thought I'd just go ahead and read that again. I like to just get our minds back in the text and then we'll jump right in. So Colossians 2, 20. You can read along with me if you like.

It says, if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with use, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men. These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

So just to kind of review a little bit, chapter 2, verses 16 through 23 are all covering this topic of religious performance. And so Paul is contrasting the life of the believer to what likely the Colossians, well evidently what the Colossians were dealing with in terms of this religious performance. And it came in a lot of different forms. Verses 16 and 17 talk about the legalistic challenges that they faced. with the law and just finding a little bit of encouragement just to go back to the law and to maybe lose sight of the new reality that they have in grace. And then verses 18 and 19 talked about false spirituality and looking to the wrong authority in terms of spirituality and worship.

And then we moved on to these verses, chapter 2, 20-23, And this has to do with asceticism. And remember we talked about asceticism being those things that are man-made decrees or taboos that are added to the Christian life in order to help control and modify behavior. So we talked about that a little bit.

Question one, who died with Christ? And we talked about These were the Colossian believers. If you, you as the Colossian believers. And so we are identified as also being the audience to which Paul was talking about as believers were a part of that. We talked about the if being that first class conditional which assumes the statement to be true. And so it's not a matter of question to whether or not these believers died with Christ. It's a matter of since they died with Christ, why do they keep doing these things?

So we talked about that with question one. We looked at question two and we asked if death was progressive in our life, and we wrote up on the board last week the difference between position and condition, and we talked about how oftentimes we silo an answer to a question, is this position or is this condition?

And it's important to recognize the two different perspectives, but to realize that each of those perspectives have an effect on the other. And so, it's not that we can just say, well, this is a positional thing that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with condition.

They all eventually work together to talk about the reality of the believer. And so, positionally, death is not progressive. It's a once-for-all thing. Conditionally, we continue to go back to death being applied in our life as we face the challenges of the flesh and the sin nature, and we'll talk about that more today.

And then question three, we didn't necessarily go into this one. We did talk about the elementary principles of the world. Do you remember what we used as a definition for elementary principles? I think someone had a clever hack. Altered behavior conditionally. So it's the ABCs, right? The ABCs of the world, the elementary principles, the rudiments, the basic functioning principles of this world is what Paul is talking about. Why do you keep going back to these things and develop rules around them? We didn't list five elementary principles of the world, so I thought we'd start there.

A lot of these questions we've touched on in some shape, form, or fashion. While we're only on question three, I think we'll be able to move through a great number of these together simply because they're kind of chained together. And answering one helps almost halfway answer the next one.

So in your study, what were some of the elementary principles or the basic ABCs of the world system that you wrote down? It's time to talk. Restrictions or requirements we place on ourselves? Give me an example. You mentioned it once. I need to spend at least an hour on my word a day. We did talk about that one last week a little bit, but it hits home in your own mind.

You've probably got your own set of requirements or regiments or restrictions that you've placed on yourself that can't necessarily be tracked back to a biblical authority, but you have operated as though it was biblical authority. Right? Okay. So, sometimes, do you find yourself sometimes creating a regiment that you know you can deal with, only to give yourself a really good pat on the back?

That's a good way to encourage... How about false encouragements? If you're setting up the element, if you're going along with these elementary principles of the world, you can surely modify it so that you're capable of it, right? I mean, sometimes, I mean, those are the things that we tell other people to do, right? We don't often tell people, well, you need to not touch or handle or taste that if we have a problem with that, but if we've got that down pat, it's really easy to tell everybody else to do it, right?

If you're doing quiet time, What's the first thing you start talking to a new believer about, or a struggling believer? Well, how's your quiet time, Bob? Today in my quiet time, I learned this. What did you learn? And it's not to say that those are not great conversations. They absolutely are. But when you start to place on the mind of the believer these regiments that perform that require some kind of a doing out of your own effort, now the focus is where? Self. See, and that's the really key to this whole elementary principles of the world. The world system focuses on what? Self and everything that is physical and worldly, right? It's got no concerns spiritually. There is no spiritual aspect to the elementary principles of the world.

It's all physical, about doing, about tasting, about touching, about handling. You better not be drinking that stuff, or only drink, you know, you can only drink these things, you can't drink those things, and you better not be eating that. Those are all physical, self-focused, worldly thinking. Now, does the Bible talk about food and drink and diet and things of that nature, it touches on those things, but it doesn't create the same kinds of restrictions that Paul talks about in verse 21. So why are you going so far as to say, don't do all of these things as well? And what did he say about those elementary principles of the world?

Where were they destined? Why? You died to them. You died to them, but where are they headed? Far. Fire. They're physical, worldly principles, right? They don't have spiritual, eternal implications. And so anytime you engage in worldly, rudimentary, elementary ABCs of this world, you're spending all your time and energy on something that is going to perish. And the contrast is the spiritual principles of the world, and that's a biblical authority and not a worldly authority. So that's where we, which are worldly, the ABCs, this is the flesh's protocol, right? the worldly ABCs, and then you've got the authority, the biblical authority in Christ, and the operating system there is grace, it's not law. And so, some of the big categories that I saw in the book of Colossians, so just kind of limiting what are five different elementary principles of the law. I came up with five or six, just even based on Colossians. We talked about legalism.

Right? And examples of that are, hey, you have to do a quiet time every single day and it has to be so long. Or you have to be praying and you need to have your eyes closed. Have you ever had that one? That was hard for my kids to understand. Turns out it's a lot better when they do close their eyes, but they're not required to. It's just a lot easier to focus when your eyes are closed. Right? And how do we know when their eyes are open?

And it's always weird when you're doing this and they're doing this back at you. I think it was Milo was at your house staying with you this week and they opened their eyes during a prayer and caught him eating peas face down in his plate. That's probably a good thing. No, it isn't. You never do that during prayer, ever. So legalism can have its effects all the way down to the family prayer. Yeah, Russell. Can you feed the dog under the table? Keep your eyes closed. Keep your eyes closed and as long as the dog is under the table, I think it's probably okay. Another one we see in the book of Colossians is mysticism. What are some examples of elementary principles of the world that are based on mysticism?

What does that mean? Was that the one where it was believed that beings other than Christ could mediate for them? Is that part of mysticism? Yeah, I think so. And so, in the Greek culture, and the fact that it had been mixed with a lot of animism and other types of belief systems, a lot of believers felt like we need a little more than Christ, and so we've got to have someone in between Christ and us, and maybe we'll lean on these angels and we'll come up with angels for certain things. Where has that found its full, complete teaching in today's religious landscape? In what belief system?

Again, not to pick, but these are things that are not biblical, and so when you get a system of unbelief that organizes itself and sells candles and sells idols and sells jewelry in order to help bring a sense of opportunity to connect with something higher than yourself, we have certain angels that we have names for and we hold it. You see different types of attitudes toward physical jewelry that represent angelic mediation for you before God. And so you set up candles and you might pray to a certain angel.

Catholicism obviously struggles with mysticism in many ways. Maybe you have struggled in that way. But yeah, that's definitely an issue that the Colossians had as well. And it wasn't full on like what we see in Catholicism today, but it had those principles associated with it. We need this angel to help us out with this problem. And when we have a different problem, we'll have a different mediating angel to help us with that problem.

It was mystical. What are some forms of mystical elementary principles of the world that Christians deal with? I'm not talking about when it's taken full on like Catholicism, but what are some mystical things that slide right into the fundamental churches or the conservative churches? Would meditation be part of that? That's a tough one. If we go full on meditation, like with our fingers together? With our legs crossed, we'd still do that.

How about we look at our teachers versus Christ? You know, we begin to say, I'm of Paul, or I'm of Peter, or I'm of Billy Graham, or I'm of I think that would tie into another one, maybe less mystical, but definitely still an elementary principle of the world, and it might fall into kind of the false worship. And so it's a little bit more focused on the human side of things, but mysticism always looks at what is not seen, right? Unlike materialism, it acknowledges that there's some kind of unknown, unseen factor out there, and so We appeal to what is unknown or not seen.

I think angels are a big one for us as believers. We may not hang jewelry around our neck with the names of them, but I've heard many times people talk about the angels looking out for them. What are angels? Let's define the term. They're created beings. Are they the creator? No. They were created by God to do what? Minister, bidding, servants. What was the most beautiful, most intelligent angel of all?

And where was his position in relationship to the Lord in the beginning? says he was a covering angel. He was right there and he was an anointed cherub. And that word anointed, covered, I define anointed often times as set apart for. We also use the word sanctification, it's similar. But he was anointed. He was anointed and set apart for a task.

Each angel that God created was set apart for a certain task and they apparently had Like the armed forces has the army and the navy and the marines and the army. Apparently there were that same type of organization in the hosts of the heavenly angelic realm where you had cherubim and seraphim. different angels had different priorities in relationship to doing God's bidding and serving him.

We also realize in many instances that angels are messengers. And so mysticism kind of takes this perspective in the church, I think, and looks at the messenger and starts to focus on the messenger instead of the one who sent the message. or the one who's doing God's bidding, maybe you have a very intelligent and more powerful being doing something on behalf of us, protecting us in a car accident or whatnot. Maybe that is the case. But where does our thankfulness and appreciation go in a situation like that?

Does it go to the one who was created to do that job, or does it go to the one who's sent? It's the creator versus the creature. It goes back to, in fact, I think every single one of the elementary principles of the world is going to be challenging us to take our eyes off the Creator and look at something in the created realm. And worldly principles do appeal to mysticism. Every single movie we watch today, every single kids movie, has some kind of a theme and a plot, a fate, and Destiny, and you've got Transformers with its Rubik's Cube box that determines the way that the world's going to run, and you've got Star Wars, and that's always a good example, but almost any new movie or old movie that you watch has some kind of spiritual component that has to do with fate, or destiny. You get what I'm saying. There's something in place of God. It's an impersonal force instead of a personal creator.

The elementary principles of the world constantly have us, Romans 1.18, trading the truth for a lie, getting out of the creator focus and into the created focus. And so we have asceticism, you know, the food and the things and the touching and the physical behaviors that we try to put on ourselves. We call those the taboos. In chapter 2, verse 8, we have philosophy. Empty deception.

Traditions of men. Those are some pretty big ones. Regarding Catholicism, I think as important as the whole idea of saints that can help you, and you're going to have a name that's related to this saint, and praying to Mary and all that. I mean, that's an instructive type of thing. Again, we love those people. So, from a worldly authority, it's always going to push you back to focusing on something that's created. Right? Maybe it's you. Maybe it's what you're touching or handling or looking at or whatnot.

But from a biblical authority, or from a biblical perspective, it's always based on the Creator. It's interesting that Paul talks about, in Colossians, the Creator, doesn't he? In previous verses, he sets the complete and total final authority of Christ, who you are in, he said it a number of times, and he says that he created all things for himself, and he is the authority. And he relates that authority to the creation. The creation event in the Bible sets the stage for all other perspectives.

And so that Romans 1.18, that trading the truth for a lie, is exactly what your flesh wants to do. It's ready and willing to bargain all day. Just give me something that's created, and I'll be glad to take that and run with it. And then I'm going to yell at you about it, over and over and over. That's what the flesh is doing.

It's looking for the created world to worship. I was thinking too, with mysticism, what Mike was talking about when he was researching the spiritual formation and the possibility of prayer. It's to raise yourself to a different level, empty yourself, and it's that creeping in of the kind of the Greek philosophy of, you know, I'll empty myself and then I'll raise myself to a different, you know, spiritual level by that. And I think that's, you know, today that's the equivalent for us of the mysticism or what's creeping in and taking our focus away from...

That's right. You know, we've got the... What Courtney's talking about is there's movements called the spiritual formation and contemplative prayer where you just think about your belly button all day. You know, there's nothing new under the sun. Where does this come from? Empty oneself? Where do we hear that in other systems of belief? Would that be the Buddhism kind of thing? You're exactly right. There's definitely a Buddhist slant to that. There's a Hinduist slant to that. Anybody ever heard of Nirvana? Not the band? What's the goal of Nirvana?

Oblivion, I think. Oblivion? I love how you say things sometimes. Oblivion, I think? I don't know, maybe. Well, I know it's a mindless, just sort of zoned out... Why is that a bad thing for believers? To zone out? And you're zoning out on, you know...

Things you get filled with whatever the devil wants your brain to be filled with. Uh-oh. That's scary. So can you empty your brain and the devil come in and fill you up? I suppose you can. You think? I think so, yeah. What does anyone else? This is too much. Whatever. If you don't, they could if you didn't have the protection of the Holy Spirit. Ah, okay. So are we neutral bodies that can be taken over? We're not. We're not. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. I don't think it can happen. I don't think it can happen either.

And that's okay to not know that, but now you do. Okay? So, this is a lot to think about. You're right, Vonna, it's deep stuff. Has anybody ever heard of this man that's, you know, these books that I've read. In fact, I went to the church out in Cherry Hill, and they had an all-day seminar. You went to another church? That was before I came here.

Okay. But Elwood or El something, I don't remember. Don't run. Don't run, Hubbard. No. But he says that in every movie, Christ is in that movie, if you look hard enough. Well, you know what? Do you look hard enough at every movie and find it? I do. I try. Sometimes it's pretty hard, but... Here's what I can say about every movie. You don't even have to look, and you can see the worldly authority and the world system in every movie. Of course.

So, do we use, is it worthwhile, and I've heard this happen a lot, is it worthwhile to take a movie that was made on a worldly philosophy and try to find spiritual meaning in that? What in the world do we need that for? Do we? I mean, we like our analogies. They're useful. They're helpful.

And I know I could use Braveheart to teach you just about every... That's exactly what I mean here. Because Braveheart's awesome. At the end, he's yelling for freedom, and that's like Christ who's yelling for us on the cross. Do you need that analogy to understand what Christ did on the cross? No, of course not.

And what is an analogy? Just work with me through this. What's an analogy? For something that means something else. So, that's right. It's painting a picture of relationship to something that you're trying to communicate, right? And that analogy could be a good one or a bad one. And what it's trying to picture could be true or false. So I could give you an analogy of, you know, trying to achieve nirvana. It's a lot like going to sleep. But it's not. But it looks like it.

But that doesn't really help you understand truth because achieving nirvana is not biblical authority anyway. So when we're talking about analogies and trying to find meaning in the worldly artistic scene, because that seems to be the common place we go, I often ask myself, What in the world do I need an analogy when I've got the true authentic thing sitting right here in front of me?

I've got two friends, husband and wife that are Buddhists and they're sweet people and I heard an interesting thing by Alistair Begg where he said that he sat like on a plane and talked to this Buddhist gal for about an hour, and at the very end he said, you know, I actually believe that all the meditation you do and all that really makes you feel better. But he says it won't save you. That's the bottom line.

Is it a good idea to slow down and, you know, let your mind kind of not focus on all the stresses of the day If you do that, are you meditating? See, a lot of the things that we find in other religions, again, there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing new under the sun, and so this idea of nirvana or Buddhist meditation, I mean, there's a biblical meditation, by the way. I like the word because it's biblical. You've got to define it, though. And today's meditation has been taken over by the Eastern concept, and that's not what meditation means. There is a biblical meditation, and it does not mean to empty yourself and achieve oneness with something greater than yourself. The analogy of nirvana... I'm going into an analogy, but this is the one that they use.

It's actually in their writings. is like the drop of water that falls into the ocean and becomes one with all it is, and it just is amalgamated into a shoreless ocean. So you are nothing. You have no individual personality. You have no individual destination. It's all about you being amalgamated into the oneness. And the more you spend time meditating, the greater degree of oneness you achieve with the nothingness that is out there.

And we laugh, but that is their peace, right? That is what gives them a sense of peace. And so there's yoga. Does it have physical implications that are helpful for people in mobility? Yep. but it has spiritual principles too. So let's take yoga and make it Christian. Let's take Braveheart and make it Christian. Let's take anything and everything in the world and elementary principles and let's make it Christian.

What I'm saying is we don't have time for that because it takes us enough time just to go through what the word says and to think and understand that. All of those things are a replacement. for the Word of God and beholding Him through His Word. They all take our mind off of Christ.

And if you're engaged in it, then just hear me say that I have also watched movies and tried to look for things, and music is another one. I'm constantly, oh, he could be talking about Christ there. I like this song a lot more now. We're always looking for things to represent our view of truth.

But at the end of the day, each of those people have an authority. Don't think of them as neutral. There's no neutrality in art. There's no neutrality in a movie. There's no neutrality in a song. There is some kind of philosophy that that person is thinking about when they're writing. And if they're writing it to be vague, that doesn't mean that they're neutral. There is no such thing as neutrality. you're either for him or against him. There's no in-between. There's no gray area.

I use the example for neutrality. If I were to ask my now wife, but before we were married, if I were to ask her, will you marry me? And she said, let me think about it. Is she being neutral? She's saying no until she says yes. And that's the same thing that we do with Christ. You share Christ with somebody and they say, I like what you're saying. Let me think about it. Are they all of a sudden in the neutral gray zone and now we're like, ooh, they're, no. They're saying no until they say yes, I do believe that that death was my substitutionary death on the cross and that that resurrection was my life in Him.

So there's no neutrality from the authority of these artists. So to try to switch that around just seems wasteful at the end of the day. So you're going to do what you want to do with that, but I've come to see that the Book of Colossians is all about where our mind belongs. And where does it belong? In Christ. And that's where we are. So does that mean don't watch TV? Does that mean don't watch movies or listen to music? It doesn't mean that. It means just don't be deceived into thinking that that is a replacement for Christ.

Okay, I left one church because they said they were giving you things that you should ask forgiveness for. Yoga was one of them. If you do yoga, then ask for freedom. That's what this verse is all about. Taboos, right? Me giving you more rules. Now I can tell you the source and the ideology behind yoga, but for me to sit there and tell you don't stretch like that, it's a taboo, it's asceticism. We're under grace, folks. But grace doesn't mean that you wash things away and you get neutral about it all. It means that, nope, there's a final authority and it's clear. And I'm standing on that. Resting, rather. I'm resting on the final authority of God's Word. I will not be shaken about the truthfulness of it.

But in terms of how that gets carried out in our churches and in our daily quiet times in life, Watch out for all the rules that come alongside and force grace out of being grace and force it into mysticism and legalism and asceticism and philosophy and deception and traditions of men.

So question four, how shall those whose relationship to the world has been broken by their dying be still living as though they didn't die? Let's say it, somebody help me say that in a different way. You were broken to this, you know, let's cross it out.

How come you're still listening to the fleshly ABCs? You're living as though you didn't die to this. What does die mean? Death. You're separated from this worldly authority, the ABCs are the elementary rudiments of the world, and yet you're still living to them. How in the world is that possible?

To use a word that Paul likes, they're not reckoning on what they... the fact that they did die to all these human ordinances and all the things we've been talking about. I reckon you're right. What does reckon mean? It's an accounting term, isn't it? A what? An accounting term. An accounting term. And how do you reckon in accounting? Well, if you're reckoning on that scripture, you're believing Reconciling the account? Reckoning it? What's some other words that we could say for reckoning? And where in the world do we get reckoning from? It's in our Bible. Oh good. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6.

Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans 6. Romans Please. You don't have to. It's not a rule. Let me read verse 10 and 11 and 12 just to kind of get... I'm a big context guy. I hate just doing the one verses. Why don't I do three? Verse 10.

For the death that he died, who's he? For the death that Christ died, Christ died to sin once for all. He was separated from sin once for all. But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves, and that word consider is the word what? Reckon. So consider is another good way of saying it.

Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God and Christ Jesus. So looking up here, what are you to consider yourself dead to? Does that mean you're not really dead and you're just kind of like, well, let's consider it as if it were so? I think that's what a lot of Christians do. I'll consider it. But in this case, it's a very strong term here, and that is to reckon yourselves or consider yourselves dead to this. Does this have any authority in your life? We've used the term deposed monarch a lot. Is this a deposed monarch?

And it's separated from you, it has no authority, but your body, your flesh, still likes to hear from this guy every once in a while. And if in your spirit, you take your eyes off trusting the Lord for fellowship, you can find yourself in fellowship with the flesh and its worldly authority.

Verse 12 says, therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust. And then it goes on about presenting the members of your body to this authority. So we're not talking about this whole concept of one nature where you died with Christ and all of a sudden now this is annihilated and removed completely. It is still present, but it has no authority whatsoever. And it is tied to your flesh.

It is destined to perish, just as the same in verse 21, Colossians 2.21, that they do not touch, and do not handle, and taste, and so forth. Those are destined. So is the flesh destined. So are the worldly ABCs, the elementary principles. It's all destined to perish. It's not eternal. It's days are numbered. But, you want to play with it? The believer can play with it.

Paul talks about what happens in that situation and he calls himself a wretched man. What is he talking about? How can Paul be a believer and call himself a wretched man? Because he acknowledges he is sinner first. What does wretched man mean? Sinner first? Zechariah said, when I want to do good, I do. And when I don't do good, I don't.

That's the verse. I think we all run into that. Yeah, we do. You've got a wretched man, don't you? I sure do. Oh, wretched gal that I am. Oh, wretched man. What he's acknowledging is the presence of this thing. And he's calling it what it is. It's wretched.

But thanks be to God, Right? That this is not my reality. Last week, Monique asked about, or said something about the real world. And I'm not talking about the TV show. I don't know if any of you even remember that show. It's like the first reality show there was. What is our real world? Is it what we're walking in? Is this the real world? our citizenships in heaven. So does our citizenship determine our reality?

It just brings to me something that I still have to laugh about. When I was a young kid, my twins and my older sister, 11 years older than I, we were on the bus. It was after 1030 in the evening. And we had been attending a church service And we were on the bus and my sister said, just think, people in the world are just going out and the people around us just looked at us.

Oh yeah, we're kooks. I get that. Well, the world shouldn't understand us. But our real world is the spiritual reality that the Bible tells us. And your reckoning of that is true, brings you closer to fellowship with that real world. But the more time you spend with the ABCs of this world, the more you waste away opportunities of fellowship and intimacy with Christ. Notice I'm not talking about the rewards, although there are rewards for the time that you walk with the Lord. There's very specific ones, and they should be motivators, because the Bible talks about them.

But where it really boils down to is you're missing out on the thing that the Lord wants the most, and that is time with Him, and knowing Him. When I was a kid, we all had a fast on Thursdays, breakfast and lunch. Growing up, I found that horribly difficult. I don't know if that helped me spiritually or not, because I was sure looking forward to supper. Things like that, really, I don't think benefit you spiritually. No. Now, the old man was crucified, but the sin nature is still present within your flesh, and that's what we call the flesh.

What is the place? Where do we place him? or place that sin nature, where do we reckon it? He belongs where he was crucified. And that authority needs to go right back where the Bible said that it is for the believer, and that is a place of death. Meaning it's a place of separation. The whole flesh and the sin nature should be kept in a place of death. separated from you. That's why Paul said he preached the cross rather than his own wisdom and philosophies and asceticism and what else. If we do not reckon the sin nature to a place of death, then you're going to be listening to that deposed monarch far too often. But its place is at the cross, where you were separated from it. And your life is in the resurrection in Christ. In the seeding. In the ascension. That's your real world.

So, question five. How does man try to control sin? Don't do. In this verse, it's about not doing things. Tasting and touching and so forth. We've talked about a lot of them already. Man tries to control sin with worldly elementary principles of the world. Mysticism, legalism, false deceptions, traditions of men, on and on and on. Nothing new under the sun. They're just meant to try to corral sin. Do we corral sin? Is that our job as believers, to corral our own sin and help others corral their sin? Shackle them to the pew? So question six, how does God intend for man's sin nature to be controlled?

I think we've already said it. I think that's a cheap question. It belongs in the next lesson. Because they tell you about how in the next three or four questions. You know what, I'm going to skip that question and tell him my key was off base. But let's just do a little preview. That's okay. How does God intend for man's sin nature to be controlled? How do we control these fleshy things?

You know, there's nothing else that needs to be said than that. If you're adding to it, you're getting anti-biblical. And you say, I don't know what that means. Go home. I suggest, as an opportunity for you, not a command, go home and read Romans 6, 7, and 8, all the way through.

It'll paint this picture very, very clearly. I almost was going to read those three chapters in class today, just because it brings it all together. And that reckoning is right there at the beginning. But there's all this context that precedes it and all this context that comes after. And it's just a wonderful reminder of the story that took place to change this authority for us and where we stand in relationship to that.

So, question number seven, what are five errors involved in attempting spirituality by legalistic practices? Five errors involved in attempting spirituality by legalistic practices. I didn't have one main one. Okay. And I think it covers the subject. It's focus on self. I think that that's probably all-encompassing, very much so. That's why I didn't hear it. It's a focus on self. We attempt to be spiritually greater by focusing on ourselves. We're working on ourselves. Spend time with you. Get out a little bit. Work on the you. Self-reflection. Self-improvement.

It contradicts God's method of dealing with the sin nature, doesn't it? Where should our focus be if we're dealing with the sin nature in God's way? Where is our focus? On Christ and what He did. That's right, what He did and what He has given us. Wouldn't you say that, too, that if you're attempting spirituality by all of these other methods, you're really perverting the Word of God because you have right in front of you in your Bible what is perfect. God's Word.

It seems like it's a perversion. It's a perversion, and what you're really saying, and I say this is a straight shot kind of talk about it, is that I know better than God. That's just not enough. I can tweak this, I know better, we can modify this a little bit, make it more acceptable to this group of people that I want to bring together, whatever the case is.

The Christian life is an expression, not a suppression. I like that statement. It came from Macaulay. Chester Macaulay. It's an expression of what? You? Is your Christian life an expression of you? No, God. It's an expression of Christ's life, isn't it?

We're not suppressing our sin nature. It goes to the cross. There's no more suppression than that. It's dead. You reckon it is so? Christ expresses himself through you and he does the living. Jim? Yep. And one of the errors, wouldn't it be that denying that I'm not good enough to please God. I can make myself better. Yeah.

But where's the focus? There's a lot of judging in that. I judge there's no way. You know, when God's already made his judgment and his provision. When somebody says, I'm not good enough, it's like, well, you're good enough to say that. That means you know a lot more than God does. You're well on your way. It's an authority thing, isn't it? Did you say it's kind of self-sacrification? It is. Absolutely.

So why are the commands, do not touch, do not taste, going to perish? It's really easy. They're going to perish. Why? Because they're physical. of the world, not of God. They're of the worldly authority. And where is this world headed? It's headed to a new creation, right? Even the creation groans out for that day. Alright, our time is out. We have two more questions. I don't know that it'll take very long next week to go through those, so we'll probably have a really slick handoff right in the beginning there. We'll cover questions 9 and 10 next week.

Lord, we thank you for your truth. We thank you that we do not have to have analogies or legalistic practices or mystical efforts to try to understand who you are and what you did. You made yourself very clear. Lord, it's our job to behold that in your Word. And Lord, as we do that and we think about this relationship of the sin nature to our lives and our behavior and so forth, I pray that Father, as a body, that we would be those that would find ourselves focusing much less on ourself, but on you. And Lord, that we might consider and reckon the place of the sin nature as being dead, as the truth of your word explains it. And that we might find ourselves believing in that and resting in the truth of that. We love you and we thank you for this morning. It's your name we pray. Amen.