“Some years ago I entered the playroom
of our home one evening and found my two boys at work on a large puzzle which
had been given to one of the members of the family at Christmas. It was a finely made puzzle, on three-ply wood,
beautifully cut, and among its hundreds of pieces a score or more were designed
in the shape of common things. The
little sister, three-years-old, too young to match the intricately cut edges of
the pieces, had been allowed to pick out those pieces which resembled articles
she knew and arrange them in rows at the edge of the table. She was eager to show me what she had done. Here was a piece in the shape of a clover leaf;
here was an apple, a wheelbarrow, the letter S, etc. To her mind, those and the other shaped
pieces were the most important things in the puzzle. To see them, and to identify something that
was in her world, made it all very interesting.
To her older brothers, however, the shape of individual pieces was
merely incidental. They knew that the
violin would become part of the cloud, that the umbrella would be lost in the
pattern of a lady’s dress, and that the other figures would melt into the
flower garden and trees.
“This illustration is almost perfect
for the student of the Word of God. The
unfortunate person who takes some text by itself and attempts to build a
doctrine of it will be in utter confusion before he has gone very far. Only with this wrong type of Bible reading
can anyone ever come to the absurd conclusion so often expressed, ‘You can
prove anything by the Bible.’
“When, however, the shape of the
individual verse is fitted into the whole divine plan of the revelation of God,
the full-rounded, external purpose begins to be seen; and the whole of the Word
of God becomes something so stupendous, so eternal, so mightily divine, that
every rising doubt is checked immediately.
There comes, then, knowledge of the finality of God’s revelation which
becomes as much a part of the believer as his breathing, or his sense of being
alive…
“The proper method of Bible study,
then, is analogous to the putting together of the puzzle. For any given doctrinal subject, read the
entire volume, selecting every verse that bears on the truth under study. Put all of these passages together, and the
synthesis of the result is the true Bible doctrine on the question with which
you are concerned. A verse from Moses,
and one from Ezekiel, and one from Paul, put side by side, each illuminating
the others, fit into the perfect pattern of the whole design and give the whole
light which God has been pleased to reveal on that particular theme…This is why
the Lord says that one of the first principles of Bible Study is that no Scripture
is of ‘private interpretation’ (II Peter 1:20).
The exegesis of the Greek shows that this verse should not be
interpreted to restrict the right of the private individual to read and
understand the Bible for himself.”
Rather, in seeking to understand the truth, one verse taken
alone should to be avoided. As Barnhouse
says later, the task of the interpreter is to come to a text and place the full
weight of the remaining word of God like a pyramid on it.
That’s what we will seek to do this Sunday morning in a
message entitled, “Satan’s Waterloo.” (It’s
the first of a two-part message.) Here
in Colossians 2:6-15 Paul declares the full import of the Cross of Christ for
the Christian. We will be focusing our
attention on verses 13-14(a) where Paul says, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of
your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our
trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its
legal demands.” As we will see this is the ground on which Paul declares
the truth of verse 15, “He disarmed the
rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in
him.” In other words, through the
Cross of Christ, God has defeated Satan once and for all. The Cross is Satan’s Waterloo!
Typically when I preach, I like to exposit more than a verse
and a half, but not this Sunday. What
Paul declares here is so profoundly important to our understanding of the
invisible war and Satan’s defeat that we will dig deeply into what Paul is
saying here by looking at several other Old and New Testament texts. Each of these three texts, taken together, positions
us well to appreciate the full impact of verse 15.
Last week I heard from a couple of people that they are
wearied by the questions typically offered for preparation purposes each
Sunday. Let me know if you find the
questions useful or not. This week
instead of questions, I would suggest that you read the following texts in
addition to Colossians 2:6-15:
II Corinthians 5:15-21; Galatians 2:1-14; Deuteronomy
21:22-23; and Isaiah 53.
Also check out the Battle of Waterloo on the internet and
the “Saving Private Ryan” storyline.
And come ready to DIG IN!
See you Sunday!
