That song we just sang, Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery, has really become one of my favorite songs we sing and even to listen to. Just a truly beautiful song. If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to open up to Colossians chapter 2. We’ll be, as your bulletin says, we’ll be looking at just one verse this evening. But just for context, I’m going to actually read chapter 2, verses 1 through 12.

Usually when I preach, I’m in the book of James, but this was a sermon that I had some short notice on. It was one I’d preached before. When I preached it the first time, it was a little shorter, but don’t worry, I added to it, so it’s longer now. I know some of you were concerned when I said it was shorter, but I added about two and a half pages to it, so we’re good to go.

So, Colossians chapter two, looking at verses, I’m gonna read verses one through 12. Please follow along as I read. Reading what the apostle, The Apostle Paul wrote through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and in him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority. And in him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands and the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this time this evening, that we can gather together as a body, as the local body of Fellowship Baptist Church, and understand this passage. That we can have the ability to preach from your word, and I pray that you open up our hearts and minds this evening, and we allow you to work on them as we listen to your word, and I pray that the Holy Spirit speaks through me as I preach this evening. In Jesus’ name, amen.

There are many things in life that grasp our attention, or sort of take our attention. This can be, these are things that are constantly going through our minds. There are things we’re constantly thinking about, whatever it might be. Things that we’re focusing on all the time. Something that grasps or captures our attention is something that we’re probably focused on completely. If our attention is captured by something, odds are we’re not being distracted by anything else. That which captures our attention.

I’ll never forget summer of, I think it was June of 2024, Carrie and I went to Switzerland for a week. My family was over there, so we went and spent a week with them in Switzerland. And if you know anything about Switzerland, it’s home to the Swiss Alps, which are some of the most beautiful and majestic mountains on planet Earth. Now, no, I have not seen every mountain on planet Earth, but these ones are beautiful. But I remember we flew into Zurich, one of the big cities, and as we were driving out of the city, and I was looking at the landscape, and we were getting farther from the city, the terrain started getting higher and higher, to the point where once we were out of the city, you were surrounded by these amazing mountains, beautiful mountains, unlike anything I had ever seen that just captured my attention.

I couldn’t pull my gaze away. They were beautiful. I remember that first day, my family, we went to this one particular mountain, And we did this sort of what’s called a mountain coaster, where you sit down and it’s a little roller coaster, if you want to say, that’s built on the side of a mountain. And I’ll never forget just sitting down, going down this little coaster, going at, it wasn’t that fast, but at a decent speed, but just also being amazed at the mountains around me and how they had captured my attention. I couldn’t look anywhere else but at these mountains. And there’s so many other things in life that capture our attention even beyond mountains.

The things that go on in our lives or whatever it might be. But that idea of being taken captive by something is something if we all think about, is something we can all relate to. But when we come to this passage today in Colossians chapter 2 verse 8, we see that we as Christians must be taken captive by Christ. We must be taken captive by Christ. Now a little bit of context on this book as a whole.

It’s the book of Colossians, which this was a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a church in the city of Colossae, which would have been in what’s now modern day western Turkey. Now Paul planted about 14 churches in his ministry, but this one was not one of them actually. So he planted about 14 churches, but the church here in Colossae was not one of those. Which is an interesting reminder, as I was studying and I thought about this, it shows that Paul isn’t just focused on the churches he planted.

He isn’t just focused on, you know, what he put maybe sweat and blood into. He’s focused on the Christian churches in general. and their health, and that they’re doing well. And it’s a reminder for us that we need to just not only pray for our churches, but pray for all like-minded, healthy churches, that they do well. And even churches that we may know of that aren’t healthy, we should pray that they become healthy. And I think that’s something that’s interesting when we study Paul.

But Paul most likely wrote this letter in what would have been the early 60s, early AD 60s, and this would have been a period of decline for the city of Colossae. It was at one point kind of a bustling, sort of big city, but at this point actually it was in decline and actually had become almost sort of a backwater city. It was, the glory it once had, had gone. It was a backwater city, but it was still an important city because Turkey, as it’s often called, Eurasia, because Turkey links Europe and Asia. So this city would have been one that had a lot of the West and the East, Western and Eastern influences in it. A lot of people probably would have been traveling through it. And in light of those different influences from the East and West, they would have gotten a lot of influence from different cultures and religions and different cults, really.

And Paul seems to be writing to Christians who are facing false teaching. When you read the letter and even some of what I read in chapter 2, you see that he’s probably writing to people who are facing false teaching, teaching that does not accord to the Scriptures. And this false teaching that he’s addressing seems to be somewhat of a blend of mystic Judaism.

And there would have been elements of sort of a proto-Gnosticism and elements of a strict Judaism. Now Gnosticism is actually something I’m going to talk about later in the sermon. But just to go ahead and introduce it, Gnosticism basically taught that there was a secret knowledge that people needed to know. And that was how they could attain salvation. And they also taught, basically, that the body was evil and anything physical was evil. So it seems like these false teachers were teaching a form of that, but they were also teaching a form of almost strict Judaism, so sort of a hybrid of sorts.

And Paul is writing to address this. And we actually, in chapter 2, verses 2 through 4, I’m going to read those again, he writes this. And this gives us an idea of what he is addressing. that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself.” So remember I said that these Gnostics, or these Proto-Gnostics, if you want to call them, taught that to be saved and have true salvation and true release from this physical bondage we are in, you had to possess this secret knowledge called the Gnosis. You had to possess it. But what Paul says here in verse two is that this knowledge of God’s mystery is Christ, is Jesus Christ.

Verse three he says, and he’s talking about Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So he’s saying, hey, this teaching you’re being taught is not true. All the teachings of wisdom and knowledge, it’s in Christ, whom you’ve heard about. Verse four, I say that so no one will delude you with persuasive argument. He’s saying, hey, Christ is the source of true knowledge and wisdom. I’m telling you this so you won’t be persuaded otherwise. So we see from those three verses, and even other verses, kind of what he’s combating a little bit. And the knowledge of Christ is enough. There’s not some secret knowledge you have to possess.

Handley Mule, who was a British Anglican theologian and pastor, argues that these false teachers were minimizing Christ. So he’s saying that they just weren’t teaching a false doctrine, but one of the things they were doing was they were minimizing the importance of Christ in somebody’s life. And this theologian wrote this, he says that Christ, or he writes he, meaning Christ, might in some sense preside over the difficult processes of religion, but he was not salvation. He was something, he was some great thing, but he was very far indeed from all. So what he’s saying there, he’s talking about what these false teachers would have been saying. Hey, Christ is important, he’s good to know, but he’s not most important, he’s not everything.

Those are some of the things Paul seems to have been combating. So he sets out to rebuke this teaching, this false teaching. And in chapter one, he’s just reminded these Christians, these members of this church, that Jesus is God, he is divine, and how fundamental this is for the Christian message. In fact, chapter one, verses 13 through 23, is probably one of the most robust expositions of Christ’s divinity. In fact, the next time you happen to have a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness, because Jehovah’s Witness is one of their main claims, is that Jesus is not God.

In fact, they often go, they look at John 1.1, and their translations will say he was a God, but he’s not God. But I often wonder what they do with Colossians chapter one, and even Colossians chapter two, because if you’re paying attention, in Colossians chapter two, there’s still verses that show the importance and talk about the divinity of Christ. So the next time you have a conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness, Take them to Colossians 1 and 2 and see what they have to say about that. In the two verses above verse eight, Paul has just finished talking about how Christ is to be our root. He’s the anchor of our faith.

Verse six, Paul writes, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Verse seven, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. And that verse, verse seven, is very important because we’re talking tonight about how we are to be taken captive by Christ. He’s who should capture our attention in life. And for Him to capture our attention, we must be rooted in Him. He must be the anchor of our faith. And if Christ is indeed the anchor of our faith, then we should be taken captive by Him. I have one point this morning, it’s just my main point in general, which is to be taken captive by Christ.

And simply put, to be taken captive by Christ, we cannot be taken captive by the world. And that’s kind of what Paul starts off with in verse 8. He doesn’t say be taken captive by Christ. He says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception. If we are to be taken captive by Christ, to follow and honor Christ, we cannot be following and honoring the world.

Now it’s interesting he uses the word captive, because when you think of the word captive or being captured, it’s usually in the sense of being not in a good sense. You can picture someone being led away in handcuffs, or they’re captured and they cannot escape. But that’s the word he chooses to use here. And I think that’s significant. It’s to show that we should be captured by Christ. We should be taken captive by Christ.

And this serves as a reminder And as I said, Paul in this letter seems to be combating false teaching. What we see here is a reminder that this false teaching is real. It wasn’t just some, this wasn’t just a false claims that he were, or these claims that Paul had heard people were saying. It wasn’t just hearsay, these were actual heresies that he was addressing. And it’s a reminder that we see this even in our age today. Now it may not be the exact same things that Paul is talking about in this letter, but there is always things contrary to the truth, there are always heresies around, and we always must be ready to fight and guard against them.

The word world here, it says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world. World here, simply put, refers to anything that is opposed to God. And that can mean the wickedness of man and even the spiritual evil forces of the world, Satan and his demons. So world refers to everything that is opposed to God.

Paul commands them to not be taken captive by worldly teaching. No one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception. They are to guard against false teaching. That’s what we see when we read this. He wants them to be prepared for it. You need to be ready for it. I picture sort of an army that’s being, armies, if it’s a good army, is always training and always being prepared so that they can defend and they’re prepared for battle. So he’s saying, see to it that no one takes you captive. Be prepared. Guard against it. Be ready.

And Paul is showing what these philosophies, and we see here kind of what these philosophies and teachings do. And as we look through, even through the writings of Scripture as a whole, we see where philosophies and teachings and empty deceit that are opposed to Scripture, where they lead.

He says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. So he doesn’t lay out specifically what these teachings, these traditions of man, what they provide or what they don’t provide. But by reading this verse, we can understand and look to see how they don’t actually satisfy. These philosophies, these empty deceits, they seem attractive and appealing, but in the end, They lead away from Christ. They don’t lead to Christ, they lead away from him. They lead to lives of sadness and pain.

Now, he mentions philosophy there. Now, philosophy is not all bad. There’s Christian philosophers, and there’s a lot of interesting things in philosophy that are helpful. But philosophy that’s separated from the Bible is bad. See, everything in life, from philosophy to science to whatever it is, cannot be separated from the scriptures. So human philosophy that’s separated from the Bible is wrong. Because it’s teaching something that’s not in the scriptures. These teachings of empty deceit and empty philosophy and these human traditions, they promise happiness, wealth, and purpose, but they never deliver on it.

Some of you may be aware of this, but there’s been a lot of interesting statistics thrown out over the past year about the Generation Z or Gen Z, which Generation Z are those born from 1997 through 2012, which You know, we hear a lot about Gen Z millennials. Sometimes we have to be careful that we don’t put too much identity or stock into those categories, but they are sometimes helpful categories. But one thing that’s been interesting about Gen Z is there’s been a lot of information put out lately and a lot of statistics that show that those who are part of the Gen Z culture or group are having more of an interest in religious things or church. There’s been an uptick in Gen Z going to churches.

And one of the things that As they interview these teenagers and college age individuals, one of the things they find is that these kids and these teenagers and some of them adults are saying they were dissatisfied with these traditions, I use the word traditions, but really the empty deceit and philosophy that the world was giving out.

These young people were starving for meaning in a world that only offers subjectivism. So you have people my age, really, my age and younger, who are looking at the world around them and saying, hey, the world’s saying, hey, you can do what you want, you can be whatever you want, and they find that dissatisfying. They’re realizing, hey, this isn’t enough. This isn’t helpful.

There has to be something more than this. So you see a desire in this generation to go to church. Now I will say, these are helpful statistics for us to know because a lot of those in Gen Z are actually embracing Roman Catholicism. So whenever we hear these statistics we need to be mindful of that because we want people to come to what we say is the true church, the true gospel preaching centered church.

We see this once again talking about these empty deceptions, these philosophies that are according to the tradition of man. I think it’s interesting Paul says that. He says, see to it no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men. So he doesn’t just leave it at philosophy and empty deception. He says according to the tradition of men, meaning the teachings and philosophies and deceit that man peddles, that man teaches, that man produces. These aren’t the traditions and the teachings of God. These are the teachings and traditions of man. It’s important to understand that. And we see this even in our own day with empty philosophies and deceit found in the prosperity gospel movement.

I was recently, just this past week, I was sitting at my desk and I was watching a video on YouTube of, it was a video with Kenneth Copeland. who’s probably one of the more famous prosperity gospel preachers, writers, televangelists. And he was on a podcast with kind of a Christian influencer, and this Christian influencer was talking to Kenneth Copeland and saying, he asked Kenneth Copeland this question.

He said, well, how do you respond to people who are going through hard times? And you know, they have hope and they have faith, but they’re still going through the hard time. Things aren’t getting better for them. And Kenneth Copeland responded, you know, he had his Bible open in front of him, had this big leather American flag jacket on him, and he responded by saying, you have to have the right kind of hope.

And that’s what these prosperity gospel preachers and teachers peddle. They peddle the lie of, well, if you’re not getting what you want, if you’re not getting the prosperity that you want, it’s because your faith isn’t strong enough, your hope isn’t strong enough, or it’s not the right kind of hope or faith. They say that if you pay a certain amount of money, you can get this, you can be healed. And it peddles the lie, prosperity gospel peddles the lie that if you do all these things, then you will have a good life. And if for some reason you’re doing all these things and you’re having this faith, but you’re not getting what you want, it’s because you don’t have the right kind of faith.

And it’s heresy. It’s empty deceit. It’s worldly human tradition, human philosophy. And this is why we see, as we understand, why it’s empty to see. It does not give the true joy and peace that people are looking for. And the prosperity gospel is a perfect example of that. But human traditions as a whole, they don’t give the true peace and joy that people desire. The true peace and joy that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

And we see this actually in Genesis chapter 3, going back all the way to Genesis chapter 3, when the serpent is tempting Eve. We read this in Genesis 3, verse 6, the serpent has tempted Eve, and in verse 6 we see this. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate. She gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

This is how sin works. How sin works through these human traditions shows us, hey, this is desirable. This is good. This can make you wise. This can make you knowledgeable. Remember who Paul’s writing to? He’s writing to people who are having to battle these false teachers. These false teachers that are saying, hey, we know the secret knowledge. We’ve got this secret knowledge. Yeah, Christ is important, but there’s something else you need to know.

Paul’s saying, no. This is empty deceit. That’s an important word, empty. It doesn’t give you what you want. It doesn’t give us what we need. Paul is telling these Christians not to believe this false teaching that comes from human traditions. I already talked about that. They come, not from God, from humans. Human traditions. Now, it’s important to remember, traditions are not bad. I’m not up here to rail against traditions. I’m fine with tradition. Traditions are good.

But traditions, when they supersede the Bible, when they supersede the word of God, then we do have a problem. In fact, that’s one of the biggest problems with the Roman Catholic Church. is that for them, it’s not just the word of God is important, it’s what the church says, it’s what church tradition says. Tradition is great, but it’s not as great as the Bible. I remember I had a professor in seminary who would say, we like tradition, but it’s tradition with a capital T, not a capital, or a lowercase T, not a capital case T, because he said Catholics like capital case T tradition, we like lowercase T. False teaching comes from man, not from God.

Isaiah 29 verse 13 shows that the religion of Israel, the religion they were practicing, is actually false and comes from man. Isaiah 29 verse 13 says this, And the Lord said, Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me, And their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. So these people draw near with their mouth, and they honor with their lips, but what does God say? While their hearts are far from me.

And that’s actually a theme we see several times throughout the Old Testament. We even see it with King Saul in 1 Samuel, when he first becomes king, is his heart is not in worship. And we see here that these Israelites, their religion, what they were doing, was really just kind of what they wanted to do, based off their traditions, based off what they wanted. In these traditions of man, this religion of man really comes down to what we want to do.

God says this, but we want to do something else. We don’t learn to obey God from other people, we learn to obey God from God. We learn to obey from his word. Now God does put people in our lives to teach us from his word, like parents, pastors, and teachers. But when that parent, pastor, or teacher, whoever they might be, deviates from this book, deviates from the word of God, then we have a problem.

Pastor Ryan’s illustration this morning was perfect before he started his sermon about this gentleman who had this message prepared. The problem is this man’s message was from himself. It was literally a human tradition, or it was his own philosophy, which means it would have been empty deceit. It’s not from God, it was from himself.

If you will, you can keep your finger enclosed in chapter 2, but I want to invite everyone to turn to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4 verses 1 through 6 is a great beautiful passage, but helps us understand kind of how to distinguish false teachers and such. Remember that whenever someone starts teaching something that is not in the Bible, alarms should be going off. And that’s kind of what Paul is talking about here. So in 1st John chapter 4, starting in verse 1, John writes this, And when he says spirit, he’s talking about teachers or things of that nature.

Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the Spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.

You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you, Then he who’s in the world. They are from the world. Therefore they speak as of from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us. The one who is not from God does not listen to us.

By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. That’s an important passage. How can we know truth? How can we know what this person is saying is true? How can we know what this person is saying is not true? What does John says? By this you know the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. So we know the spirits are true if they’re confessing the truths of scripture.

If someone says, oh yeah, I believe in God, but I don’t think there’s a Trinity. That’s not true. That’s a problem. The Trinity is scriptural. It’s in the Bible. Someone says, yeah, Jesus was real. Yeah, sure, he was a guy who walked, but he wasn’t God. That’s not true. He was God.

I mentioned earlier in my introduction when I was talking about some of the circumstances as to why Paul wrote this letter. I mentioned something called Gnosticism. But Gnosticism as a false teaching, which is what we’ll call it, really arose in the second century, so the 100s.

And these Gnostics taught that salvation only came from secret knowledge that only they knew. and could only be found in their scriptures. You see, the Gnostics had their own set of scriptures. This Bible that we have here, it was different from their Bible. They had some of their own special books. And what’s interesting about heretical groups is that even the Catholics, some of them have similar books as us, but they always tend to put more emphasis on the books that they come up with themselves. And that’s what these Gnostics were doing, even Roman Catholics. The whole doctrine of purgatory is from extra-Jewish literature. The first book of Maccabees, which is not actually scripture. So these cult groups often put more emphasis on their own little books that they came up with.

And these Gnostics also believed that the God of the Old Testament was different than the one found in the New Testament. They said the Old Testament God, that was an evil one. But the New Testament God, well that’s the good one. So kind of the universe is between this good God and this bad God.

It’s kind of how they understand the world. And to be perfectly honest, that’s just sort of the tip of the iceberg with Gnosticism. It gets very weird and complicated from there, but that’s a helpful overview. But there was a second century theologian named Irenaeus. who recognized the dangers, and frankly, the wickedness of these teachings. And he sought to address it.

And one of the ways he addressed these false teachings, these human philosophies, these empty deceits, was that he demonstrated, Irenaeus I mean, demonstrated by careful argument from the Bible, that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same God. And that the creator of the universe is not some inferior God, but the Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ. Irenaeus also argued that salvation did not come through any secret knowledge, but through the life and death of Christ. Irenaeus interpreted Christ as the second Adam, who by his perfect obedience had reversed and canceled the disobedience of the first Adam. So this is what this guy Irenaeus did in his teachings and his writings.

It’s a reminder to us as Christians that when these false teachings, these teachings according to human traditions come along, we must address them. We can’t ignore them. We can’t let them slide by. Because when you ignore false teaching, often times it will grow. We have to address it. Whatever it might be. We have to address it. Now as we continue on in this verse.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world. Now my version says elementary principles of the world. Some versions may say elementary spirits or something of that nature, which I think is probably a more helpful translation of this verse to say elementary spirits. The world because probably what this means here is it’s talking about the evil spiritual forces in the world meaning Satan and his demons Satan his demons are the ones who are ultimately behind these empty deceits and philosophies any teaching not from God is false and is therefore of the devil the devil Satan is after all the father of all lies and It’s important to recognize this because we don’t want to fall into the trap of minimizing Satan and his demons and their power to tempt us.

Rightly so, we recognize that we don’t need Satan or his demons to sin. We can sin on our own. That’s not us bragging. It’s just recognition of our nature, our sin nature when we’re apart from Christ. But oftentimes we need to be careful that we don’t minimize if I want to use the word, significance of Satan in the world and his demons.

They are actively seeking to wreak havoc, to bring destruction in whatever form. 1 Peter 5, 8 is always a powerful verse when I read it. Peter writes, be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And that’s what he wants his demons to do too. He’s not just sitting by and figuring out what he wants to do. He’s actively working, and his demons are too, to devour people, to bring destruction, even amongst Christians. I read from Genesis 3, when he’s tempting Eve, that’s what they do, that’s what they want to do. And Peter says to be on alert of these elementary forces, these evil forces in the world.

And as I said, this idea of being taken captive by Christ starts, as verse 7 stated, by being rooted and built up in Christ. So if we’re going to be taken captive by Him, we need to be rooted in Him. We need to be in Christ. And being rooted and built up means we are in Christ and seeking to be more like Him.

And this gets to the idea, the theological concept, of being united with Christ. If we are saved and given our lives to Christ, we are united with Him. And Dr. Greg Allison, who’s a theologian, defines this idea of the union with Christ in this way, and I think this is a helpful definition. Dr. Greg Allison says this, he defines union with Christ as believers being identified with Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension which is actually something we just read a little bit about in Colossians 2. And God communicating all his blessings of salvation. Grace, regeneration, redemption, eternal life, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

Romans 6, verses 3, 4, and 5 say this, and this is a helpful passage in understanding this idea of union with Christ. to be baptized with him, to be crucified with him. Paul writes, For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” We’re united with Him in the likeness of His death. Because of that, we’re united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection. And the well-known theologian, Wayne Grudem, on this topic, the way he describes this idea of union with Christ is helpful.

When we’re talking about understanding what it means to be buried with Christ and raised with Christ, It doesn’t mean that we were obviously physically there with Christ when he died, when he was buried, and when he rose. What it means is that God thought of us dying with Christ, being raised with Christ, and ascending with Christ. God thought of us as dying with Christ, being raised with Christ, and ascending with Christ. And because of this, all the blessings of salvation can be given and applied to us.

And this also reminds us that if we’re united to Christ, we are in Christ, Christ is in us, It means that our identity is in Christ. It’s not in human traditions. It’s not in us. Our identity should not be in us. It is in Christ. And this is helpful to remember as we’re going through difficult times, whatever it might be. Oftentimes in today’s world, especially over the past five to 10 years, we’ve heard of people having identity crises, trying to figure out where their identity is. Well, as Christians, we need to recognize our identity is not in ourselves. It is in Christ. And Paul is telling these Christians, these individuals of this church, that what they have to do is be taken captive by Christ. Be taken captive by their Lord and Savior.

And this is good. I talked earlier, this idea of being taken captive is sort of being led away, but that’s what we want. We want this kind of capture. If there’s anybody we want to be captured by, it’s Jesus Christ. He is the one whom they should follow and love. And this being taken captive is not just a one-time occurrence. Yes, people are captured by Christ when they are saved, but Christians must continue to be captured by Him, must continue to follow and imitate Him. They should chase after Him all their life.

And a picture of what this being taken captive by Christ looks like is what Paul instructs these Christians to do in chapters 3, verses 5 through 17. We don’t have time to read it, but in there he talks about putting off things and putting on things. He gives a very clear picture of what it looks like to be a Christian, what it looks like to be taken captive by Christ. If you’re a Christian, if you’re following Christ, this is how you act. This is what you’ll look like. And as we look at this verse and just what we’ve been talking about and think about in our own lives, we need to remember that we must not be taken captive by the teachings and philosophies of the world. We were told on movies and TV and social media to think A certain way, a particular way.

We often hear a lot how on social media there’s misinformation, and that’s true. Often time I’ll be on social media and I’ll see this article title that’ll catch my eye. It’ll surprise me because I’m like, I haven’t heard that, and then I go and verify and see that it is misinformation. They’re just kind of doing click bait, trying to get someone’s attention.

So we’re surrounded by not just misinformation, but worldly teaching, teaching contrary to the gospel. We are told that the Bible is antiquated. That only certain parts of it are true. And not just that the Bible is antiquated, but sometimes all that’s in it is antiquated. that Jesus did not take the penalty for our sins, that we evolved, we weren’t created by a creator, but that we evolved from some lower life form, that women can be pastors, and the list goes on of things we are told that are not actually true.

And I mentioned earlier, when we were talking about that individual from church history, Irenaeus, how he addressed the heresies that were sprouting up in his day. We need to be ready to address these heresies. There are churches in Lakeland that peddle some of these lies. There are churches in Lakeland that have female pastors. There are probably churches in Lakeland that don’t believe and teach the whole Bible, that may say only this part’s true, but this part isn’t true. We have to be ready to address these issues. That doesn’t mean that Pastor Ryan or I or Pastor Pied are gonna come up here every Sunday and call out these churches.

What we need to do is share what the truth is. And we all have that responsibility to do that, to take a stand for the faith. We are told that we can do whatever we want with our bodies no matter what others say. Love whomever we want to love. Look at that inappropriate or sexual image. There’s the famous phrase, it’s okay to look but not to touch. Cheating on your taxes is not that bad. April 15th is close. Everyone’s favorite day of the year. But cheating on our taxes is not right.

Or we’re told that all religions lead to the same place. That’s a common one. But the problem with all these different things is that same-sex marriage and relationships are not biblical, or sleeping with someone before you’re married is not biblical. Pornography and looking at sexual images is not biblical. Lying and cheating, no matter the reasons, are not biblical. And despite what people say, no, not all religions lead to the same place.

John 14.6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father. But through me and everybody else? But through me and this holy book? No, but through me. It’s Jesus. Jesus Christ. Not these other philosophies or teachings. And being taken captive by Christ means saying no to all the above things. Those human traditions.

Our sinful flesh. Being taken captive by Christ means that we recognize we are sinners and that only Christ can take them away. That we must confess our sins and ask Christ to forgive us of our sins. Being taken by Christ ultimately means that our life belongs to Him. That’s a good way to think about it. What does it mean to be taken captive by Christ? It means we belong to Christ.

There’s so many things that take us captive, but Jesus Christ should be the main one. We must not cling to the empty deceits and philosophies of the world that originated with Satan. We must cling to Christ. We must cling to Christ every part of every day of our lives.

Because he is the only one who brings true peace and true joy. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you that we are able to read your word and study it this evening. And I pray that we are taken captive by Christ. And if we know your son, we continue to be taken captive for him, that we cling to him all our days. We’re not distracted or deluded by the empty philosophies of the world, but we focus on him. In Jesus’ name, amen.