As mentioned last week, there is no outline attached because the outline last week is continued this week. I completed I. last week. This message picks up at II. of the message The Teaching of the World System Versus God's Teaching – II.

The education of the world system takes teaching that is not for Christian practice and adapts it so that it provides a substitute for "in Christ" truth. There appears to be some good in it but in reality it is diversionary. Verse 16 tells the Christian not to permit men to judge him or her by misapplied teaching. Illustrations of this are mentioned in the context. Those trained by the education of the world system in the realm of religion judge the true Christian concerning what he does or doesn't do. This involves eating and drinking. Some teach this as eating or drinking those things that are prohibited by the Mosaic Law and which produced uncleanness under the Law. Each word has an ending that describes an action. Because of this these refer to asceticism rather than abstinence. Some say that limitations on eating and drinking bring one close to God. They view starvation as a form of sanctification. The third element involves duty to categories of practice. These involve specific requirements of the Mosaic Law. The verses in the Torah are listed in the notes. This involves the annual pilgrimage feasts of Israel required by the Law. All male Israelites were required to go to Jerusalem three times a year for these festivals. The new moons involved monthly ceremonies and sacrifices under the Law. Sabbaths were the Saturday weekly day of cessation from labor required by the Law. Paul identifies these things as mere shadows of things that are about to be coming. The things had not arrived when Paul wrote his letter to the Colossian church. They make no difference now for the Christian now or in the future.

Colossians 2:18, 19 admonishes the believer not to let anyone make an umpires decision against him. This is a person that has a desire by a false humility to have extensive devotion to angels, external objects. "Intruding" has the idea of entering into, investigating or scrutinizing minutely. The careful investigation of things seen leads him to nothing. Rather he is puffed up with pride with no object. He has been inflated with pride, blown up with pride by the mind of his flesh. "Vainly" is a noun that means there is no object or target in reality for all of this. This word is found in 1 Corinthians 15:2 of believing in vain having no content of object of faith. 2:19 describes what this does to the believer's function in the Body of Christ. One who is like this does not hold the Head of the Body with strength. No relationship in the Body which is supplied and joined together by the Head can produce spiritual growth. The education of the world system has won.

III. directly deals with the fact that believers died together with Christ. "Since it is a fact that you died together with Christ from the elements of the world system . . ." "Rudiments" are the elements, building blocks, ABCs, rudimentary components, first principles or elementary teachings and practices. These are the things upon which the world system and its educational principles are founded. When one lives in his or her position in Christ, there is no reason to permit these elements to indoctrinate him or her. "Why as living in the world system are you dogmatized for yourself by its dogma." "Subject to ordinances" comes from a word from which our English word dogma comes. It means to "prescribe as an ordinance, to permit laws to be imposed on oneself, to submit to statutes or to bind oneself by ordinances." Paul goes on to illustrate these in the next verse. The education of the world system draws a believer into sets of teachings and their subsets that manipulate one's life in a manner that is independent from God. It attempts to replace God's provisions in Christ (especially positional truth) with its own standards. It makes those standards appealing, orderly and tantalizing for the Christian. Too often Christians accept these subjective standards instead of the clear revelation of Scripture.

IV. will be the pivot point of next Sunday's message. We have no Afternoon service on Resurrection Sunday so I will not be sending out an email for this coming Sunday. The Theological Forum on Contemporary Issues begins Wednesday morning at Family Baptist Church in Tigard. I managed to complete my paper and am working on the accompanying visual presentation. The three days of the Forum are always filled with great fellowship and blessing. It is just a little taste of heaven's fellowship.

May resurrection joy fill your hearts. Psalm 118:24 prophesied the resurrection day as a day of rejoicing. "This is the day the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." When Jesus met the disciples sent by the two Marys after His resurrection, He greeted them, "Rejoice!" (Matt. 28:9 Gk.) He lives! He is risen!

Resurrected in the Resurrected One,

DKS