Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Martinsville, Indiana, where our team is about ready to commence our first week of the Cola Clash for the summer. We’ve got a great team.
God is working here at Martinsville Baptist Tabernacle. He’s doing much in the church and through the church. In fact, the church is busting at the seams, and we’re just thrilled to be able to join them to reach young people with the gospel yet again here in this place.
Well, you know, what I want to talk to you about here today is the fruit of a study I’ve personally been working through in the book of Colossians. And I just want to focus on just a couple of things here briefly. This will not be a long session here today.
I want you, if you have your Bible, look with me in Colossians chapter 2. And I want us to take a look at just a couple of things here. Last time I did a podcast, we talked about Colossians 2 verse 7.
And I want to kind of continue from verse 8 and onward here. And I may not be able to hit every verse, but there’s something here I’ve personally been stirred about here recently. What he says in verse 8 here is he says, Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.
Before I go on any further, what he’s saying here is this. Okay, you’ve got something incredible in Jesus. That’s really what he’s been telling them earlier in the book.
He’s been telling them, listen, Jesus is the whole purpose and the sum total of what the universe is all about. You have that creator and sustainer of the universe in you. Christ in you is the hope of glory that you have.
And in chapter 2, he says, listen, I have a conflict in my heart for you there in Colossae and for the folks not too far away from you guys in Laodicea. I want you, in essence, he says, to experience everything you’ve got in Jesus. We looked at verses 6 and 7.
So listen, just like you started in him, continue in him. Let God grow your faith because in the growth of faith is where you are going to experience all that you have in Jesus. But in verse 80 says, but beware, watch out.
Because there are patterns of thinking out there that will cause you to miss the incredible wealth that you have in Jesus. He points out a number of things here. He says philosophy and vain deceit.
In essence, vain and deceptive philosophies is what that’s talking about, the tradition of men, the rudiments of this world. There’s a lot that could be said about that. But what he says at the end of verse 8 is the point.
Beware lest these people spoil you to pursue these other things and not Christ. You know, young person, what are you seeking in your life? Because I will tell you, the decisions that you make throughout your day, They reveal a whole lot more about what you want than what you say you want.
Listen, you subscribe to the Thee Generation podcast. Maybe you’ve even signed the pledge, which, by the way, if you haven’t done that, I’d encourage you to log on to thegeneration.org slash pledge and just put it down in writing that I want to live a life of total surrender and total dependence. But listen, as someone I once heard many years ago say, talk is cheap.
You may say that you want to experience all that you have in Jesus, but your decisions may contradict what you say. Listen, what we choose to pursue reveals what we want to pursue. And his burden for the Colossians here is, listen, don’t you realize all that you have in Jesus?
In fact, look at the next verse, verse 9. says, for in him, in Jesus dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily or in human form. In other words, Jesus is everything that God is.
He offers everything that God has. And in verse 10, he connects it to the readers and to us. He says, and ye are complete.
You’re filled. You have everything you need in him who is the head of all principality and power. And as he continues on here in the chapter, he gives just a number of different, kind of like a bulleted list of what our position in Jesus, our union with Jesus, what we have in Jesus, what it actually, what the perks are, what the cataloged blessings that we have in him.
He said he’s the head of all principality and power, we have one who has authority over the enemy. He says we have the circumcision, which is the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh. And what he’s saying here is, in essence, we’re not talking about a physical surgery here.
We’re talking about a spiritual reality that he has done something to the old man that is in you. He severed him from you. He said, in Jesus, we have resurrection power.
We have life. We’ve been risen from the dead. We have the resurrection life of Jesus.
Verse 14, we have forgiveness from the sins that would have been held against us. They were nailed to the cross, and Jesus suffered in our place for those sins. He says in verse 15, he spoiled principalities and powers, again highlighting the fact that we, in Jesus, have victory over the enemy.
And we could go on and on and on talking about the amazing potential power, blessing, privilege that we have in Jesus. And yet, it is entirely possible for us to miss out on many of those blessings. Now, some of those things we will have, we will experience regardless of our response to Jesus.
But he is burdened that they not just experience those things, but they experience everything. He says in verse 18, let no man beguile you of your reward. And he gives a couple of different things that could beguile you.
Self-ascepticism, self-deprivation, they don’t get you the blessing. Listen, trying to seek an entrance into God through alternate means, like perhaps even angels, that doesn’t get you blessing. trying to, through curiosity, find answers to things the Bible doesn’t give answers to through conjecture and just thinking out loud, so to speak.
That doesn’t give you blessing. He says, listen, don’t go down this wrong trail. He says the problem in verse 19 is not holding the head that is Jesus.
Jesus is the solution. And in fact, in verse 20 and following, he says, listen, rules aren’t even what gives the blessing. He says, why are you subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not?
He says these things, verse 23, they might look good, but ultimately they are not where the spiritual blessings come from. Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying throw out rules.
I am not saying that we should not obey the Bible. I’m not saying that at all. If you’ve listened to this podcast enough, I think you know that if you have a heart of surrender to Jesus.
You’re going to want to do what he says, period, end of story. But you’ve got to recognize just keeping a list of rules is not equal to experiencing the treasures that you have in Jesus. That’s why in chapter 3, verse 1, he says, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.
You know what the things are that are above? They are the treasures that we have in Jesus. They are the life, liberty.
They are the victory, the joy, the very life of Jesus himself. Those are the things that he’s challenging us to seek. Verse 2, set your affection on things above and not on the things of the earth, on the earth.
You know, I said earlier, what you seek will reveal what you want. And here he’s getting back to that crux of the matter. Listen, what do you want anyway?
Are you willing to be satisfied with a form of godliness without the actual life of godliness that is Jesus? Are you willing to settle for a counterfeit Christianity that might look good, but in essence doesn’t change your heart and doesn’t change your life like really?
Listen, I want you to know, young person, you might conform on the outside, But I want you to know the only real source of victory, the only real power source that can enable you to live in freedom and liberty, the life of total surrender and total dependence is Jesus. He is the life that we need. I’ve just been challenged here not to settle for things that will spoil the incredible treasures.
that I have in him. I know that you’re subscribed to this podcast because that’s what you want. Listen, the reason why you surrender to him, the reason why you count on him is because you want to experience all that he has for you.
And my challenge to you young people is this. Don’t miss out. Don’t miss out.
Listen, seek Jesus. Seek his will. Seek his blessings.
Seek his power. Seek his face. his life, his love.
And as you seek him, as the Bible says, you’ll find, if you’ll search for him with all of your heart, total surrender, total dependence, because Jesus is all that we need.
