Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and 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.
Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations - "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," which all concern things which perish with the using - according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:18-23)
We have now come to a section of the book of Colossians where the Apostle Paul deals with the third of Satan's triple threats to the Christian and the church - the evil of man-made doctrines. How do man-made doctrines enter the church? How does Satan get his foot in the door? One of the principal ways he does this is by making Christians comfortable with the idea that it is alright to tamper with the Word of God. How has Satan done that in our time? That is the focus of today's message.