This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to the last day of our study through Colossians 2 in Daily
Drive Time Devotions, Day 5. We've been talking about truth, Jesus Christ, and
how that's the answer to every false teaching. When you understand who Jesus
really is, that He's God in human flesh, that He's the only way to salvation.

When you understand who Jesus really is, you have the answer to every false
teaching, every false teaching. When you look at false teachings, I'm not
talking about teachings of other religions. Teachings of other religions don't
say anything about Christ or say very little about Him.

I'm talking about false teachings, teachings that present themselves to be
Christian, but when you look at them, they're really not. Here's something you
can always see about a false teaching. They'll deny who Jesus really is.

They'll either deny that He's really man, or they'll deny that He's really God.
Sometimes they'll deny both. And Paul has been confronting these false teachers
by saying, "When you have Jesus, you have enough.

You don't need any more than Jesus Christ. " So listen to what he has to say
about this in verses 20 to 23, "Since you died with Christ to the basic
principles of this world, why, as though you still belong to it, do you submit
to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch.

These are all destined to perish with the use, because they're based on human
commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom
with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, their harsh treatment of
the body, but they lack value in restraining sensual indulgence. " Paul goes
from what to watch out for, we talked about that yesterday, to the more personal
here.

He confronts this and says, "Why are you allowing people to get you into their
trap? Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why are
you still falling for this stuff? " That's what he's saying.

Why do you need to fall for this stuff? You don't need it in your life. And he
just goes through a list of reasons, five of them really, of why you don't need
to submit to this world's rules, to this different philosophy, to this false
teaching.

What are the five things? Let me tell them to you and then we'll go over them.
You died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, to this world's way
of thinking, to this world's way of doing things, to the false teachings of this
world.

You see, the Gnostics had a teaching that we talked about a little earlier in
this week, but I want to focus on it for a moment now, when we talk about the
basic principles of this world. It affected, this false teaching affected the
way they looked at Jesus deeply. It meant, for them, that Jesus couldn't have
been God walking this earth in human flesh.

Their false teaching was that all matter is evil. Their created thing is tainted
by evil to the extent that God can't even get close to it. He can't touch it in
any way.

He can't relate to it in any way. Now, there is evil in this world, but their
idea that all matter is evil to the extent that God couldn't even be in contact
with it is not a teaching in the Bible. In fact, the Bible teaches instead that
everything that God created is good.

You remember that in the book of Genesis. And then that there was a fall where
we fell away from God, but God is returning us to him through Christ. That's
what it's all about.

In fact, the Bible teaches in Romans chapter eight that God someday is going to
take this whole world and is going to recreate it. The whole creation groans and
suffers the pains of childbirth, but someday it's going to all be redeemed.
Someday your human body, there's not the picture in the Bible that it is evil.

The picture in the Bible is that it has fallen, but that someday because of
Christ, it is going to be a resurrected body. God's going to redeem it. So the
teaching of the Bible is not matter is evil and God can't be in contact with it.

It's that God created everything good, we have fallen, and God is redeeming it.
That's a very, very different picture. This picture that the Gnostics had
affected the way they looked at Jesus.

They believed Jesus couldn't have been God or that somehow he wasn't in contact
with this earth while he was here. Even the weird teachings like his feet
floated like a half an inch above the ground everywhere he walked and he really
didn't touch people and they had all kinds of weird teachings about this. But
the truth of the matter is it meant Jesus couldn't be in contact with us.

And this false teaching that matter is evil affected the way they looked at
themselves. If the body is evil, and that's how they saw themselves, there's one
of two conclusions. It doesn't matter what I do with my body because it's
already evil, it's already lost, so what does it matter?

It's just like a coke can where the coke's already drunk. What do I do with it?
What does it matter?

It's recycled and there's a way of thinking. It doesn't matter what I do with my
body. Or the other way of thinking was I've got to keep myself as much as
possible from any contact with this material world.

I'm already evil enough, I can't become any more evil. Two ways of thinking. One
was hedonism, doesn't matter what I do with my body.

The other was asceticism. Oh, I better watch out from doing anything to be in
contact with this world. For them it was either no one's perfect so why should I
even try, or I'll try to be good enough to deserve God's favor, and both of
those are false teachings.

They're still around today. As I said those just now, you probably recognize
that kind of teaching is still around today. Why?

Because it appeals to our pride. It makes me feel like I'm doing something about
my spirituality, but it's not a teaching of the Bible. So why do you submit to
the world's rules, Paul says?

You died with Christ to the principles of this world. You're a new creation.
You're a citizen of a different place, of a different country, heaven, and
because you're a new creation you can live in a new way.

That stuff does not have to even enter your mind, he's saying, because you've
got Jesus Christ. Now Paul walks through this even more. Why should I not submit
to the world's rules, to these false teaching ways of thinking, these additions
to Jesus Christ?

Well he says these ways of thinking are destined to perish with the use, and he
focuses here on do not handle, taste, or touch. Now obviously when it comes to
our diet, there's certain things I should eat or not eat to be physically
healthy. Paul's talking not about our physical diet here, he's talking about our
spiritual diet, and they were teaching if you'd only eat this, if you'd only not
eat that, it will spiritually enhance your life in incredible ways.

I know in the Old Testament certain foods were considered clean and others
unclean, but they're focusing on spiritually clean and unclean here, and saying
if you'll only do this, then you will become spiritually closer to God. And Paul
just says in very obvious terms, wait a minute, these things aren't going to
last. These foods are either going to rot or be digested, to be blunt.

So why in the world are you thinking that that can make you more spiritual
instead of Jesus Christ who is from forever to forever? It's ridiculous to even
think that way, he's saying. They're destined to perish with the use.

Paul continues in this argument to talk about why in the world do you let the
world's way of thinking get a hold of you. He says these things are based on
human commands and teachings, just things that people have thought up. Whenever
you hear somebody say, hey, this is my idea of how you should be spiritual, the
first thing you and I should say is, where is it in the Bible?

Show me from God's word, or is it just some human command and teaching? You see,
human commands and teaching, depending on who's teaching them, they can sound
incredibly great sometimes. They can sound awful sometimes if it's from a bad
teacher, but there are teachers who can make anything sound good.

The fact that a teacher can make it sound good doesn't make it good. They're
based, Paul says, on human commands and teachings. Check it by God's word.

He says number four, why should I not submit to these things? They only have the
appearance of wisdom. That's an important point.

There are a lot of things in this life that have the appearance of wisdom, and
in fact he gives some illustrations here. He talks about self-imposed worship,
false humility, harsh treatment of the body. Somebody who treats their body very
harshly does things because of some religion that they're involved in, where
they sit in a certain position for eight, 10 hours, maybe in a day.

People look at that and say, wow, how spiritual. Paul looks at that and says,
how silly. It only has the appearance of wisdom.

Why would somebody do that? Again, it's human pride. We want to do something
about our spirituality.

We don't want to say, I can't do anything. I am at the mercy of God. I need
Jesus Christ.

They only have the appearance of wisdom. And in the end, Paul says, oh, and by
the way, they don't even work. These things lack any value in restraining
sensual indulgence.

This whole idea that if I'll only eat this, I'll only do this, I'll keep this
list of human rules, and somehow it will help me with the temptation in my life,
it's not going to work. What does work is the freedom that Jesus Christ gives.
What does work is the fellowship of other believers.

What does work is the truth of the word of God. Those are things that work. But
anything that's based on what I do in order to lessen the temptation in my life,
it's not going to work.

What does work is what Jesus did. That's what defeats the temptation in my life.
Now somebody on our research team asked a very important question.

They said, well, wait a minute. If these lack value in restraining sensual
indulgence, what does have value? And it's those things that we just talked
about.

It's the fellowship of other believers. It's your daily fellowship with Jesus
Christ. It's the truth of the word of God.

That's where the power is in your daily life. I love these verses because Paul
just simply says, look, here's the way the world thinks. Here's why this just
doesn't work.

Jesus Christ is so much greater than anything that this world could offer. Why
would you submit to any of these world's rules, to any of these smaller ways of
trying to attain spirituality on your own power? Now, that's not to say there
aren't things we do in our lives to grow, have a daily quiet time, pray, talk to
God.

But we do those based on our relationship with Christ, not apart from our
relationship with Christ. We do those in dependence on Him, not depending on
ourselves. So let's depend on Him right now for this day.

Lord, we've talked a lot this week about the truth and about false teaching. And
when we talk about the truth, it's you. Jesus, you are the truth.

You're the way, the truth and the life. And so today, we pray that you give us
the strength to focus on you, to live the truth in our life by living out our
relationship with you in connection with you. Looking at the truth in your word,
letting that truth filter its way into our heart and into our actions and then
giving you praise for what you did.

God, thank you. Thank you that you're a part of our daily life, that you're not
apart from us, but you're a part of our daily life. As we ask you, as we trust
you, we recognize that.

And so today, we pray as we live in fellowship, relationship with you, that
you'd fill our hearts with joy, whatever the circumstances. Some of us are
facing tough circumstances today. Whatever the circumstances, Lord, fill our
hearts with joy today.

We pray this, Lord, in your name. Amen. Well, join us next week.

We're going to be studying Colossians chapter three together. I was talking to
my wife about this chapter this morning and she said Colossians three is one of
her favorite chapters in the Bible, mine too. Don't miss Colossians chapter
three this next week.