First, Pray. Then, Plan

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, dear radio friends. How in the world are you? You’re doing alright? Oh, I’m fine, thank you. It’s just feeling great. Praise the Lord. No complaints. So glad to be back with you. What a privilege it is to have fellowship with you, my precious friends, by way of radio, day-by-day, opening up the Word of God. It’s a luxury, really. It’s such a privilege. It’s such a joy. Thanks for being there. And I’m thankful for the kindness of those many people whose ministry of radio makes it possible for me to broadcast to you. We’re looking at Colossians the second chapter. I noticed that there are three occasions on which Paul says, “Now, watch out lest any man… ” Well, in verse 8, he says, “Beware lest any man spoil you.” In verse 16 of Chapter 2, he said, “Let no man judge you.” And then in 2:18, he says, “Let no man beguile you.” And I thought we would just think about that sequence for a moment and as we go on through the chapter.

We’ve already sort of plowed through that verse 8 and the verses that follow. He says, “Beware lest any man spoil you.” That word “spoil” is used in the Bible like an army comes in and uses up the enemy taking whatever loot and booty is left. Spoil, they spoil the enemy. So he says, someone will take from you that which is of value in your life, that is the idea. Don’t let somebody take from you that which is of value in your life. Spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit. Philosophy says, “I can reason my way up to God.” The Christian faith says we start with God. In the beginning, God. There’s the difference. Philosophy has its place, as I told you when we were talking about it. I was a philosophy major in Wheaton college, back in my salad days and it was good for me because I was taught the various realities of human philosophy from within a Christian context, and that was good for me.

So philosophy itself isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good thing, but the world’s philosophy is the idea of starting with you and reasoning on up to reality and eternity and God. And that, of course, had its beginning in Satan’s own thinking, “I will be like the Most High.” And he projected that fallacy in the Garden of Eden. He said, “When you disobey God, ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” See, the idea that doing something, thinking something on your own is going to make you equal with God. Well, nothing could be farther from the truth. So he says, “Don’t let people take away from you that which is precious, the faith that you have in God, through philosophy.” And when he says, philosophy, he means the attempt to detour around God’s revelation and to think your way and reason your way through without reference to God. Today, we call it secular humanism. That’s the term we’ve applied to it today, where people say you don’t need God, you don’t need the idea of God’s absolute truth, and his absolute commands, you don’t need that, you can get along fine without it. Secular humanism. It’s the devil’s ploy. It’s his plan and he hasn’t changed it for 6000 years, and he just isn’t about to change it anymore.

So he says, “Don’t let anybody take away from you the blessing of your salvation by inducing you to try to make it without God.” You can’t do it, and that’s the idea there, all right? Then he said, “Vain deceit.” What will deceive you vainly? The tradition of man, “everybody is doing it,” that will deceive you, end you up disappointed and embittered. If you live your life on the basis of what people are doing and saying only, you’re gonna end up disillusioned and embittered. The rudiments of the world, “Me first, success is the only thing, you only go around once, live it up,” that’s the rudiments of the world, and that again takes from you that which is most precious. “In Christ,” he said, “Dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead body, and bodily and ye are complete in him.” All you’ll ever need is in the Lord Jesus. Start with him. And then by faith, take from Him all that you need. Paul said in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” And even in moments when he realized his weakness, he said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God allows you to be weak in some places so that he can prove that he’s strong on your behalf. Remember, beloved, wherever you feel in your life system that you’re weak, that is an opportunity for you to experience the almighty-ness of God on your behalf. Wherever you find a snag, a problem, a challenge, a difficulty, even a heartbreak, that is God’s opportunity to reveal Himself in power and blessing to your life. The very next time you’re upset, take just a moment to look heavenward and say, “Dear Father, this is a chance for You to work.” You will be amazed and delighted, I promise you, at what happens. Your own attitude will change. That’s the first thing. And because it changes and faith begins to work, God is enabled to step into your life. You see, God created you with the ability to say no to Him through unbelief.

The gospel writer said of our Lord Jesus, “He could not there do many mighty works among them and He marveled,” it says, “because of their unbelief.” You put handcuffs, so to speak, upon the wrists of deity when you do not believe Him and do not depend upon Him. God is not allowed then by his own nature and by yours to work in your life. But when you do trust him and when you do turn things over to him, and when, as I said a moment ago, you strike a snag, you look up and say, “Father, this is a chance for you to show how wonderful you are,” then faith takes hold and God is able to work. Do you follow that? Try it out for yourself today. Don’t let anybody take the sweetness of your Christian life away by losing that dependence upon your blessed Lord.

Start with God. Start your reasoning with God. Start your planning with God. First pray, then plan. Start your decisions with God. Live your whole life with that heavenward look that depends upon Him not upon yourself. “We walk by faith,” said Paul, “Not by sight.” All right.

Now that’s the first thing. And we went through some of those verses. So I’m not again going to go through them with you except to say that what will guard you against being spoiled, verse 8, is to realize that everything is in Christ. “Ye are complete in Christ.” He’s the head of all principality and power. Principality is stated authority, power is exercised authority. In Him, you’re separated. God has His mark on you, verse 11,” And in Him, you have the resurrection life that goes beyond human potential,” verse 12, “He’s quickened together,” and in Verse 13, “In Him, you have forgiveness for all trespasses. In Him, you have a cancelling of all the old laws that were contrary to you,” it says, “He nailed that handwriting of ordinance to his cross.” It’s nailed to the cross, all of the record, all of the unpaid invoice, so to speak, of your and of my life is nailed to the cross, and it’ll never be taken down, all trespasses.

And then, victory over Satan and all of his hosts, verse 15, “He spoiled the principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly triumphing over them in his cross.” Oh, hang on to the sweetness of dependence on the Lord Jesus because everything, everything that is, is in Him. Small thought here, people sometimes speak with criticism and almost scorn over the idea of wearing a cross, for example, in your lapel or around your neck ladies, on a chain, and they say, “Oh well, the cross, it’s just a symbol and people don’t realize what it’s all about.” Well, I agree that that may be true for many, but just remember this, Paul says, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom I am crucified to the world and the world unto me,” and so on. And he says, “He triumphed over principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross,” Colossians 2:15. So that when you look at the cross, there in the nave of the church or when you wear a cross on your lapel or as a, as around your neck ladies, on a chain, you are actually saying, Jesus won the victory. Jesus nailed all of the record of my sins to the cross.

Jesus won the victory over sin and Satan, Jesus is alive today. And if it means that to you, beloved, then it is indeed a meaningful display of faith. Well now, that was Colossians 2:8, “Let no man spoil you.” Then you go on to 2:16 and he says, “Let no man judge you in meat or drink or in respect of a holy day or the new moon, or the Sabbath, which are a shadow, they’re just a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” Now, all of the Mosaic Law and all of the offerings and sacrifices that God gave to his ancient people during the centuries before Calvary, the Bible teaches us that these were types and pictures and shadows of that which was to come, our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s Passover lamb, to bear away the sin of the world. That’s what… That was the message of John the Baptist when he first saw the Lord Jesus. As our Savior began to initiate his public ministry, John the Baptist said to his followers, “Behold the Lamb of God. The Lamb, the Passover Lamb of God, that beareth away the sin of the world.”

And this was God’s plan, so that today our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ supersedes all of the customs and all of the sacrifices and all of the ordinances that were followed by God’s people faithfully through the centuries. This was a picture, it was a fore-shadowing, so to speak, of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, “Let no man judge you about these things because the body is of Christ, these are just a shadow,” said he, “of things to come. Meat or drink, holy days, the new moon, the Sabbath days, these are just a shadow,” said he, “of the things to come.” Now, how does that apply? Does that say, “Well, no, nobody’s gonna tell me what to do, I’ll just do as I please?” Oh, no. No, no. You take the whole truth of the Bible. You take the truth of all of the Word of God. Meat or drink, for example, Paul said, “If meat causeth my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world stands.” You, beloved, are responsible for your effect upon other people.

Dear Father, today, may we exercise that delightful freedom in Christ where we are completely committed to Him, Amen.

Until I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!