Baptism
Colossians 2:11-12
Dr. Ken Rathbun

Has anybody got any prayer request, or is life going so well? You have nothing to thank the Lord for or to trust him for.

Oh, yes, you do have a pastor. Hey, can you just tell me when are you going to have, like, an installation service for him? Because I want to be here. Okay.

Can you do it before May 16? Because I got to leave. We're going to Brazil. I'm going to teach in Brazil.

Okay, that's fine. The church is where the people are located. So you could have a church service of Northridge Baptist church in the middle of the Amazon.

You'd be the only one speaking English, but it still would be. So anyway. Well, praise the Lord for that.

I have worked with Jordan for a long time in the youth group. I've seen him in good times and in trying times, and he has stood the test of time. He and Jenny are very much looking forward to this.

I didn't find out about this, I think, until last Friday. No, maybe a week ago. I can't remember when.

But anyway, somebody rolled down their. Huh. Okay.

So it was sometime during this week. I was walking home. I was walking home and Pastor Capon rolled the window down and said, hey, how's it going? And I said, fine.

And then did you hear about Northridge? And I said, no, that's great. That is so wonderful. I am just so very much pleased for that.

So that's really mean. The gospel is ready to be shared here. I mean, in this town or in this area of the town, there's a lot of immigrant groups coming in, and you could just share the gospel with lots of people that never even heard of Christ.

It's just like, you have an awesome mission field right here, and that is good. All right, so we have a praise. Anybody else have anything else that they want to share? Okay, well, let's just praise the Lord for that.

Judy has some type of cancer. We don't know which one yet. Happy on Thursday.

Yeah. My throat. They found a map, white throat.

And they did a. But anyway, we'll do the pet scan, where the cancer is going from and what kind of cancer came out. All right.

So, all right, let's remember. Okay. Where does he live? What's his name? Kent.

Kent. All right. Well, let's pray for that, too.

Okay? Yes. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Father, I just pray that you would help us.

Thank you for the encouragement and spirit here at Northridge Baptist Church. And thank you that you are the great God we serve and we can look forward to what you're going to do here, even through the ministry, working through Jordan and Jenny and Hines. And, Father, I just pray that you would bless them as they are coming here and that you would help him to grow into this role and to thrive in this role.

Thank you that you worked out so many things that just were part of their hopes and desires. And thank you that you've given him the call of the pastorate. And we pray that you would help him in that role and in the.

The area that you called him to here at Highland Park. Father, I pray that you would help this Linza Cole Kent, and especially with this unidentified cancer that he perhaps is afflicted with even right now. So, Father, I pray these things that you would work these things out according to your will.

In Jesus name. Amen. Well, I'll tell you what, you can pray for strength for me because I'm just not quite at my best.

But I do like the deep voice. If I could keep that and get the energy back, I think I'd be all right. But you know what? It's not up to us, is it? So I'm going to kind of get out of the way.

But anyway, so it's Colossians two. This is one of my favorite passages and it's a favorite passage of mine because it's so looked upon by so many to say, oh, we don't want to go there because it's kind of embarrassing. It talks about baptism and circumcision and that's how people justify infant baptism in many different.

The Lutherans use that passage and so do the Presbyterians and others do as well to justify infant baptism. Okay, so here is a reminder of what the verse says in him. You were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

I just want to point out there what kind of circumcision that we're talking about. Does this have a pointer? It's okay. That's all right.

I can point to it anyway. But it's a circumcision. But what kind of circumcision is.

It's the one made without. So that should help us onto something here. And then buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised ways.

I'm talking like Isabel now, you are raised with him through faith in the working of God. That's really key here because that can't be a baby, because a baby can't have faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. So those are some important or salient points to the whole thing.

And so infant baptism, I think you would say, and no, it's not scriptural, and it's not like those people who are doing it are wicked, but they're not catching the full picture of what God wants. Let's see. I think I have two nephews and a niece who have been infant baptized.

So, I mean, it's not like never heard of anybody doing that. And I think they're all horrible, but they're ruining a picture here. They're ruining a picture here in Colossians chapter two.

And the baptism. Infant baptism displays a stronger reliance on theology and tradition than on God's word. I'm just wrapping up.

I think tomorrow is the last day of this particular class, although I got a couple of students that need a little bit of extra time to finish it. I'm teaching a class on the history, theology and practice of baptism. It's just probably my favorite class.

It's in the seminary and it's an online class. But I love that class. I just went and redid all the videos last summer so I could acquaint myself with it.

It's a really good thing. Where you see infant baptism starting fairly, it was over here and over here and over here, over here. But they justified it over here doing this.

They justified it here because of this. They just. They had different reasons for practicing it.

What does that tell you? That tells you that it was basically a practice in search of a theology. That is, we already practice it. Now let's find out a reason to do it.

And that really didn't come till about 400 years after Christ in the time of Augustine. So you had people practicing it here and here. But the truth is, and they want to say, oh, well, this gives evidence of infant baptism because these people are practicing baptizing infants.

But if you look what's going on there and you read the tombstone inscriptions, they're not really tombstones because they are buried in the catacombs. But there's usually some writing there where they would place the body. And the truth is they baptized anybody who was about to die.

The reason is even in the Didache or some of the early documents, they would say, we go down into the waters of baptism and we come up with our sins forgiven. They got something wrong, didn't they? They thought, well, this is kind of going to forgive us of our sins. And it came to the idea that was prevalent, that baptism only forgive the sins up to the time of your baptism.

Then afterwards, you're on your own, you don't want to sin anymore. Or eventually the other sacraments that the catholic church would eventually incorporate, those would come along, and those are the ones that can help you get back into the state of grace, confession and taking the mass and all of that stuff. So there were reasons why people would tend to put off baptism.

Why would you want to put off baptism? Because you want to go as long as you can. Then you wouldn't be in jeopardy of having, okay, you have lived till you're like 65, and then you realize you're getting really sick. Well, now's the time to be baptized.

The thing is that, and you have preachers, very famous preachers like John Chrysostom and others of the Cappadocian fathers, preaching to people saying, get off your seats and get baptized. Now, the reason why they're doing that, they're not telling the congregants to baptize their babies. They're telling the congregants to get themselves baptized.

Why? Because you'd have to be baptized and join the church before you could partake of the Lord's supper. So you have people who have been in church for years, decades, but they didn't ever get baptized because they're trying to wait as long as they can. And that, that isn't what obviously the New Testament ever intended at all.

And back to the tombstone ideas you'd see. Oh, see, this is evidence of infant baptism. Well, the child, unfortunately, would pass away was 18 months old.

This one's two years old. This one's three years old. This one's 35 years old.

This one's 69 years old. This one's five years old. And they're taking that and say, okay, well, they're basically emergency baptisms.

There are clinical baptisms. That is, they're trying to, before they die, we'll get their sins forgiven, and then they pass off. And you can read that this person was beloved daughter of so and so and so and so contracted a disease and was made a Christian.

That was a euphemism for being baptized, was made a Christian, and then passed out of this life 3 hours later or something like that. That's what you'll read there. And that's what they're doing.

So they started doing this. Well, they have to have a reason for doing it, and that's what would come later. Infant baptism creates an unbiblical church, unsaved people as members, because baptism was your entrance into church.

And in our case we see that too. I mean, when a believer, someone who is actually believing in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, comes and wants to be known as a follower of Christ, identified with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, I want to be a follower of Christ. Then they get baptized, and now they can partake the Lord's supper and be a member of the church.

And I don't think you have the idea of a Christian in the New Testament who wasn't baptized would be just foreign. When they got saved, they got baptized. That was the thing, because they wanted to be known as a follower of Christ.

And this passage here is really helpful for this. So it was never in God's intention for the church. Is this such a strange thing, especially for us who are used to it, that people need to be saved before they're members of the church? That's before.

And to us, why would you have an unsaved member of the church? Well, when they're babies and they're baptized, they're members of the church. And I guess the idea is that you hope, or the people would hope that the person would catch the real thing later in life and doesn't always happen that way. Yes.

Before I came to save Christian, I was known to confirmation. Oh yeah, I'm glad you mentioned confirmation. We haven't got very far on this, but confirmation is a made up ceremony that has taken much more attention and energy for the life of certain denominations than baptism ever does.

Oh, we'll just go do baptism in the. Oh, it's time for confirmation. You didn't get baptized yet.

Okay, let's go in the pastor's office, we'll do the baptism real quick, then you can come out and participate in the confirmation ceremony worth in front of everybody else. Baptism isn't even that big a deal, and yet that's what's incorporated into the scriptures and confirmation never was. What's confirmation do? Confirmation tries to take the place of or perform the same idea that baptism is supposed to do.

Baptism is I want to be a member of, a follower of Christ and become a member of the church. And so they needed some. Okay, so you baptize a kid as a baby, you can't do that later.

So what do we do? How do we have some way to let them say that they want to do this? Because we all did this without their permission anyway. Well, that's what confirmation is supposed to do. So you learn a bunch of stuff.

Do you learn the catechism and stuff? Methodist church. Okay. Anyway, so it was never God's intention for a church to have saved and have unsaved people in there.

Infant baptism diminishes justification by faith, because if something magical is going on in some way happening, that's what we call a sacramental view. I mean, we have ordinances, we don't have sacraments. I like the term sacrament to describe other people's views.

Not my view, but that's exactly what they do. They're thinking something actually is happening so that the infant is placed in a state of grace or put into the covenant of some kind. But the covenant goes back to something that has nothing to do with what they're wanting it to be.

Infant baptism destroys the truth of baptism by following and identifying with Christ. The public profession of faith. This is the public profession of faith.

I mean, there isn't any other way to, I mean, it's pretty public. That's why when you have a baptism, you want as many people there as you can. Baptism is a great time to preach the gospel, especially because not what a baptism does, but what it doesn't do.

It doesn't save you. You need to know that. But it actually shows that you're picturing something with Romans six, you're picturing the death of Christ.

You're picturing that you're going to be dead to your sins too. Then infant baptism gives a false sense of security, of salvation too. Okay, there's a couple more there.

Infant baptism turns the ordinance of baptism into a sacrament. And infant baptism violates the regulative principle, which doesn't really mean much to us. But in some religious traditions, they would say, if the Bible, like Luther would say, if the Bible doesn't say you can't do it, you can do it.

It doesn't say you can't have candles, doesn't say you can't have incense. So we can do it. Well, others would say, no, if the Bible doesn't say we must do it, then we shouldn't do it.

So anything like vestments, know, the hats or whatever they do, we shouldn't do that. Well, so if you're going to use that principle, which is what the reformed people say they go by, where in the Bible does it show that we're supposed to baptize children? Now, they can get there through their theology, but you can't get it there through a biblical defense of that because you don't have any clear indication of an infant baptism, any clear command to baptize infants. You don't have any of that stuff.

Okay, I think I went wrong. Okay. Physical circumcision.

Okay. So the analogy, again must be water baptism and physical circumcision. If they're going to link this to Genesis 17, then it has to be water baptism and physical circumcision because you have some writers say, well, obviously here in one Corinthians or Colossians two, you don't really have anything here about an actual circumcision.

So it's actually a spiritualized thing. Well, if it's spiritualized, then this isn't going to work, because in Genesis 17, I think, is the right of baptism. Sorry, the right of circumcision that Moses.

Sorry. That Abraham practiced on all the members of his household. So that's what the analogy has to be.

If you're going to say anything other than a physical circumcision, then Colossians is not your passage to use because that's what they're talking about. All right, so that's the ground rules there and then here. This is a significant passage because it's the only passage in the New Testament that mentions both of these ideas in the same time.

But what kind of idea is it talking about? It uses the word circumcision. Yes, it does, but it's talking about a different kind of circumcision, a circumcision made without hands. And so we have to understand how that works.

So the promises of the Abrahamic covenant, we want to say that our covenants that we believe in the scriptures have Bible verses with them. You can turn to that Bible reference and it says, yep, this is the covenant God made with Abraham. And it was to bless Abraham, to make his name great and to make him a great nation, to give him and his descendants the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession.

Keep that in mind now as you look in the News. And then to establish a relationship with Abraham's descendants, to bless the nations through Abraham's seed. And you see it there, most particularly in chapter 17, verses 21.

All right. But I think there's some misapplication here of the analogy. Okay, let's not worry about that.

I think this is talking about a spiritual understanding of circumcision because it's not made with hands. And you look at the context of Colossians too. This is really the key.

The problem that Paul is writing to the people in Colosse is that Christ was really not enough for them. They got into all kinds of beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy. This is just a few verses away through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

For in him all the fullness of the Godhead, so in him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily. So when you have Christ, you have everything you need, because Christ was really God. You don't need the worship of angels or these vain philosophies that they had out there.

And ye are complete in him. Is this really so clear? Yeah, it is. You're complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power, loyalty.

So what he's saying here is that you need to have loyalty and dedication to God, especially through the saving work of his son Christ. When you have Christ, I mean, they're looking for other things, they're adding stuff to it. Anytime you add to what God has, you water it down, it's diluting it.

Make sure I'm going the wrong way. So is this just a novelty view that, by the way, in the notes there, it's not a sacramental passage? That's what the CAtholics and the Lutherans and the Presbyterians would say. How are you putting this into a sacramental passage? How are you making this something about the Lord's supper or baptism, when really it's just talking about what you're getting away from.

You're going after the traditions of men and not sticking with Christ. Christ is not quite good enough because we need these other things. Could be Gnosticism, could be other things going on in there.

But anyway, here is our passage again. And those two phrases are really key to understanding that this is not talking about a physical circumcision, because it's a circumcision made without hands, and it's through the faith of the operation of God. So the person, if they don't have any faith, it's not going to do anything for them.

And you being dead in your sins, in the uncircumcised decision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses. I think that's really good too, because you don't have to be circumcised or any of those other things. So faith is involved.

That's what I want to say there. And then here's some examples of physical, sorry, spiritual circumcision. I'm going to look from back here because I think it's just a little easier, but it doesn't matter.

So anyway. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into land which thy fathers possess. This is Deuteronomy 35 through seven.

And thou shalt possess it, and he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart. Now wait a minute.

How is God going to circumcise anything? Physically? That's just not going to happen. And the heart of thy seed, that is your progeny to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God shall put all these curses upon thine enemies, and all them that hate thee are on them that hate thee, which persecute thee.

And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord. So there be loyal to God and do all his commandments. What shall I command you this day? So the idea there is to be dedicated to God, to be loyal to God, and blessings will come, especially under the new Old Testament economy dispensation.

This is definitely not a physical circumcision. He's going to circumcise the heart. How many people would survive someone cutting out part of their heart, even getting to the heart? You're going to kill them.

So, especially in the Old Testament. I'm glad I wasn't in there when I needed a kidney surgery or whatever it was. No, it was a kidney stone.

Anyway, chapter ten, verses 15 through 617. And it talks about only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them. Even you, above all people, as it is this day, circumcise, therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff necked.

Wow, that's pretty stark language, isn't it? Why is he talking like that? That doesn't make any sense. I used an idiom this morning in the church service that I think all of you would understand, that it's not literal. But if it doesn't have a literal understanding behind it doesn't make any sense because I mentioned this morning that if all of a sudden there's a curve-ball in your life that you didn't see coming, and now our faith in the Lord, it might be shaken or something like that.

What am I talking about? Did someone throw something at you? No, I'm talking about something unexpected that came and it's hard for you to deal with. And the same thing must be true here, too. What is God trying to teach if there's these idioms all over the place, and the idea of circumcising your heart is one of those, and it's picturing something that is done physically, yes, but it also is supposed to result in the same thing.

That is devotion to God. The Lord, your God is a God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible, which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward. And there it's more.

It's dedication, yes, but it's also purification, too, and repentance and submission and humility, because they were stiff necked against God. If they were going to continue in that, that's not going to be a good thing. Jeremiah four, circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskin of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury come forth like fire and burn, that none can quench it because of the evil of your doings.

Again, here you have circumcise the foreskins of your heart. I mean, that's talking about not something that you can actually physically do, but he's talking about the theme you're getting here in all of these passages, both in the Pentateuch and in the prophets, is purification and dedication to God. LeviticuS says that thou shalt confess their iniquity and the iniquity of thy fathers with their trespass, which they have trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary to me.

If you're going to be humble and submissive and repentance about that, and that also I have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies. If their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham. Will I remember, and I will remember the land here.

If you would have said to a Jewish person, you know so and so, that would be very offensive to them in that day. Probably today, too, probably. But that was an identity of them.

He's throwing this around in very stark terms. Their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they accept the punishment of their iniquity. Jeremiah here's an example of spiritual circumcision in the distinction between physical and spiritual circumcision.

In the same passage, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab. And all that are in the uttermost corners, utmost corners that dwell in the wilderness.

For all these nations are uncircumcised. And everybody would say that, yeah. Egypt, Moab.

Sorry. Edom, Ammon, Moab. All these nations are uncircumcised.

And all the House of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. Now, everybody knew they were circumcised physically, but now he's still talking about this heart distinction, clear distinction between spiritual and physical circumcision. And the theme is, repent.

Be dedicated to God. Come back to God. Really, God's begging you.

All right. And then Ezekiel again he mentions the uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in the flesh. There you go again.

And very stark terms there in verse 44, verse nine. The loss, saith the Lord God, no stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in the flesh shall enter my sanctuary. So does the Bible recognize this sort of dual understanding with the idiom? Yes, I think it does.

And the idea there is to respect God's holiness and repent submission to his will. Jeremiah six. Not only does he talk about the heart, but he also talks about the ears.

Their ears uncircumcised. That it wasn't dedicated. They wouldn't listen to me.

That they may hear. Who shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold, their ears uncircumcised. And they cannot hearken.

They will not listen to me. Behold, the word of the Lord is unto them of reproach. They have no delight in it.

Therefore, I am full of fury. The Lord, boy, he's going to really get on them for that. But here's that idea of bringing the ear under the same analogy of uncircumcision.

And then it's in the New Testament, too. And this is Stephen's speech just before he gets martyred. And he's condemning the Jewish people for their stiff necked and uncircumcised and heart and ears.

You always do resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did. So do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? He's just laying into them really hard.

Well, he just gave them the truth. But anyway, he's using it, and so is Romans 22. Sorry, two, verse 27 through 29.

And then he who is physically uncircumcised, I just read this in my devotions not too long ago, but keeps the law, will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision and break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly. Nor is circumcision outwardly and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly.

And circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit, not the letter. His praise is not from men, but from God. So he's not saying, hey, you do all these outward things.

You're keeping the law outwardly, yet your heart isn't there. He's like, I want you to do the outward things of the law as a reflection of what's in your heart. The motivation is important.

I want you to do it because you want to, not because you have to. Okay. And then here we are in our own passage, and this just makes sense, in whom you're circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.

So is there anywhere else that the Bible talks about a non literal circumcision? Yes, it does, quite a lot. And because of what God has done for you, be dedicated to him. And that is actually pictured in baptism.

And so the analogy works well. So if you who are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, those of you who are really dedicated to me in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism. So he's saying, be dedicated to me.

How do you show that? Be baptized. And that same dedication that you're talking about, circumcision, not with hands, is a circumcision that he wants you to have buried with him in baptism, wherein you are also raised with him through faith in the operation of God. So you got to have all of that to have the understanding that Paul is wanting in this passage.

This passage is one of being dedicated to God, and that is manifested when someone gets saved and is baptized. I want to be known as a Christ follower. I want to be known as someone who follows the Lord.

And notice, too, there's some parallels between this and Romans chapter six when it says, I don't have my Bible in front of me. Someone want to read verses three and four of Romans chapter six. I left my Bible on the stand and you could read verse five, too.

Yeah, go ahead. Five and six. Three, four, and five.

It's all good. Or do you not know that many of us have were baptized into Christ? Jesus were baptized, therefore we're buried with him. All right? So just as Christ really physically died, we should live that way to be dead to our sins.

That is, once we're dead to sins, sins can't have any control on us. And that is expressed in your baptism. That second part of the baptism, I think, is water baptism there anyway.

And that is clearly alluded to. Or there's a parallel there in verse eleven, putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. One thing that Martin Luther had right is that baptism is death.

Baptism means we're dead to our sins. Now, that doesn't happen, that we're going to live sinlessly, perfect. And nobody's saying that.

However, I think we should have more wins than we have losses. We should be resisting sin and having victories more than we have defeats. And that's hard, but it is important that way.

Okay, so spiritual am I thinking is a legitimate spiritual circumstances and a little bit legitimate interpretation of Rome of Colossians two, because the passage says it made not with hands and best corresponds with the context and the thrust of the passage. Baptism is an act of dedication to God, picturing the death, burial and resurrection that leads to a new life, a life of dedication to God, which means putting away the sins of the flesh. And that's something that we work on the rest of our lives.

So I think that. Why does Paul mention baptism in Colossians too? Well, because it's the one thing that pictures what he's trying to get the Colossian believers to do is to just trust in Christ alone, be completely dedicated to him. Don't take all of these other things that are around that are enticing you and where you think you have answers for your life's questions, actually, those are not worthy.

Okay, here's an example of acts 15 where circumcision is necessary for either salvation or for sanctification. And they put it down and say, no, that's not right. That's not at all.

Peter spoke that God had saved the gentiles. We shouldn't require of them what we can't keep ourselves. And James spoke, God has saved the gentiles.

It was prophesied of old that we should not require the law or circumcision of them. Just those issues that they mentioned there that are reported to Jews. But why couldn't they just say, hey, you don't have to have circumcision because baptism replaced it.

It doesn't say that because it's not true. Baptism hasn't replaced circumcision because he's not talking about a physical circumcision in the first place. Okay.

Some of these other things are, I think, important too, in other passages as well. Talking about the spiritual seed of Abraham is based on a faith experience. And that's the one thing that they can't come up with is how do you get faith in the picture? And this has been a problem ever since the reformation.

So when they rejected catholic baptism, that's no good. We're going to do our own baptism. But if you were baptized as a Catholic, then God will recognize it too, so you don't baptize.

Again, one thing they say there's no such opportunity for second baptism except you see it in acts 19. But anyway, they seem to ignore that. That's teaching, that's not baptism.

Well, it says he baptized them, so anyway. But here in those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And there's different understandings of the phrase seeds of Abraham.

But it's obviously here what he's talking about, those who have faith. And if faith is absent, you've got a problem. And so that's true with Martin Luther.

It was really tough for him. It was really tough for him because he says, what faith is he talking about? Is he talking about the church's faith? Is he talking about the parents faith? Is he talking about the sponsor who brought the baby for baptism? Is it their faith or is it the baby's faith? Somehow they've never really come to a good understanding of that. In fact, they think of, they would say baptism is the sacrament of faith, but it's strangely absent.

And of course that's a problem. Any questions here? I don't think I'm going to go any further than this, but anybody have any thoughts on this? This is a great passage and we should not feel embarrassed about it because it mentions circumcision. We should say, this is an awesome passage to be dedicated to God and resist those temptations that the Colossian believers had.

And this comes up in our lives all the time. Someone was just saying, oh, so and so was suffering great depression and so they're going to go to some psychiatric care like, hey, I'm not saying this to minimize anybody's condition, but you're not going to get real help from a secular understanding of anthropology of how humans are made. And that could be very detrimental.

I think in some cases, especially when they're using drugs and all the rest of us, because what they're trying to do is make the person feel better. And what does the Bible want us to do? To repent and be better through the atoning work of Jesus Christ in our lives. So this comes up all the time, and we have to realize, we have to have a strong filter here.

This is for being dedicated to God and not dedicated to other things. Okay. I hope you'd look at this passage and say, this is awesome.

Yes. Question. I know you know the answer to this question.

Okay. Yeah. But it just means someone who is really dedicated to God.

That's what all of those passages in the Old Testament where you see the circumcision of the heart, the exhortation is to be dedicated to God, to come back to God. Don't be swayed by the pagans around. Be loyal to God.

Be loyal to God, not to be loyal to other things out there. And you'll be surprised to see how many people are so loyal to either secular psychology or psychology that's mixed with Christianity or things like that. Yeah, I think so.

Well, I mean, your sanctification is in a very bad place if you're being led astray, to follow like the pagan worship or whatever like that. Or when we put something else in the place of God in our lives, we're not being dedicated to God. Yeah.

And I think baptism is a reminder of that. I said I was going to follow Christ, so it means to be loyal and not have other things out there. Yeah.

Circumcision is cutting out all the simple things. Yeah, you could use that analogy. Yeah, I think that's good.

And read chapters one and two of Colossians and see where the problems are. Why have you so easily. Well, that's in Galatians, too, but gone away from the faith.

But they were being tempted and tried. Let me grab my Bible here with all kinds of stuff that were ungodly and that was not what God wants us to do, obviously. Let me just go over here and read.

That's. Yeah. He says, now this I say to you that anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.

You know, when a doctor's up there calling the psychologist or psychiatrist, saying, oh, well, this is really a serious thing, even with the gender issues that people are being led astray by and things like that. Well, God didn't create me like I should. I need to be something else.

These persuasive words they use, it's their right. We should butcher these children and stuff for though I am absent in the flesh. I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and steadfast in the faith.

As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. There's the sanctification rooted and built up in him and established in this faith as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ, for in him dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily, and you are complete in him you don't need anymore who is the head of all principality and power.

Then it goes into our verse, and then. Want to see how far? I want to. Okay, verse 16.

So let no one judge you in food or in drink or in regarding the festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are just a substance of things, but the substance, shadow of things to come, but the substance is Christ. Let no one cheat you out of your war, out of your reward, taking delight in false humility and the worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. So what he's saying here, he's not holding to the head, not holding fast to Christ.

They're getting away from all of these things because they want these good sounding philosophies. Oh, well, you know, no one would do that anymore. That's just terrible.

We don't do that. Well, actually, if the Bible commands it. That's so old fashioned to think that you're only born into one gender or there's only two genders or something like that.

This is a real problem we're facing, I think, in today's society, but it could be a lot of other things as well, in just about every area, so. Good point. All right, well, is it okay if I let you out a little early? Is that okay? All right, let's close in prayer.

Thank you, Father. We just thank you for your word, and it doesn't come back and return void. And thank you that you have given us this scripture to understand and to know and to love.

Thank you for the exhortation. We have to continue to follow you no matter what. And, Father, I pray that you would help us to live that in our lives so that people could see that, that actually we are living our baptism.

Now, that is, we pledged when we were baptized that we want to be followers of Christ. That we're still doing that. And, Father, we pray that you would give us the motivation, the proper motivation, that we do it because we love you, not because of what other people think.

And for this, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.