Colossians 2:16-23

is that better? Yeah. All right. So again, quote from john Calvin, the pastor must have two voices, one for gathering the sheet and another for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves and the scripture supplies him with the means of doing both. Uh, in this letter to the colossians, we see paul doing just that. He’s using scripture to comfort the believers in colossi while simultaneously exposing the wolves and the thieves who seek to destroy this young church. In fact, um, in chapter two verse eight, we see the chief concern that paul wants to address in this letter. We see him warning the colossians against coming under the influence of these false teachers, who prided themselves on being wise philosophers and being deeply spiritual. And yet in all of their spiritual endeavors, they were departing from christ, which makes them wolves and thieves. And so paul comforts the sheep, he calls them to christ. And in chapter two verse 16, he begins the passage with the conjunctivitis adverb therefore, and you have to ask the question, what is it there for? Well, it’s there to show a cause and effect. And the cause and effect. Is this true gospel teaching and preaching faithfulness to the word of God keeps us in christ and false teaching will lead us away from christ. So he goes through all the chapter to unpacking very, very clearly, drawing attention to these false teachers. Their approach, their strategy to help the colossians to develop the discernment, to know what is true, who to believe, Who to trust. So. Chapter two is a very important chapter and verse 23 of this chapter, he tosses out a phrase self made religion and by that he simply means any form of spirituality or religion that did not originate with God. It is man made, it is of the devil, it is not of christ, it is self made religion. And so the title this morning is say no to self made religion. We just came off a midterm election. There are all these different things you have to vote on people trying to get your vote to say yes to this no to that. Well here paul is saying to the colossians, you need to say no to self made religion. And we’ll see here from this passage that paul, his argument against these false teachers and how to discern who these false teachers were and who the true representatives of the faith are. We see him making his argument come clear into the light in this chapter, but I wanna kinda, before we read the passage, I want to show you how he’s been building this argument. He’s been building this case against these false teachers. He’s been building a case to show that the reason why he’s writing this letter is to help them to see the truth to know who to trust. And he’s been building a very strong and compelling case, beginning in verse three and four, when he celebrates the colossians chapter one, verse three and four, he celebrates their faith in christ and that just may seem like ball is being nice, that kind of occurred, so to speak. But no, he wants them to understand the false teaching is taking them away from christ. He wants to celebrate faith in christ, not the departure from christ. And then in chapter one verse seven, he reminds them that they learned this faith, that they heard the gospel preached through a path chris who was beloved a faithful minister of christ again, in contrast to the false teachers. and then in Chapter 1: verse 23, he talks about the the suffering, the affliction that he was experiencing and what the Gospel Ministers experience as the world pours out its hatred on these faithful ministers who are who are preaching christ, right! These false teachers, pulling out hatred on these guys, preaching christ. And then in verse 28 of chapter one, he reminds them that it’s christ that we proclaim its christ, that we want you to mature in. Again, he is making a very clear case that they’re teaching this false teaching isn’t establishing you in christ as he is seeking to do as a path has been endeavoring to do Again. Chapter two, we we see him saying very clearly drawing attention to these false teachers that they are trying to delude you with plausible arguments, But in verse seven of Chapter two says, you are to be rooted and built up in Christ and then in verse eight, that’s the key. This is the reason why he has written this letter to warn the colosseum Church not to be taken captive by these false teachers and their philosophy, their empty to see according to human tradition, elemental spirits of the world. So by the time we get the chapter two, verse 20 paul’s argument best summed up in the statement if with christ, you died, why this, why that faithful teaching helps us to see christ more clearly, false teaching distracts us away from christ. This is the main point this morning that if a teaching is of christ, it will keep us in him and whatever is not of him will lead us away from him. Verses 16 through 18 will see that the false teachers condemn and verses 18 and 19 will see the false teachers bearing a deceptive fruit. And then in verses 20 through 23, we’ll see that false teaching is powerless in the areas that really matter to God. One last thing I want to say before I read the passage and pray for us. There are some themes that he touches on again in this chapter. He’s been touching on them in chapter one and then he revisit them in the passage that I’m about to read to you, one of them being body. There’s a reference to the body that’s a reference to christ body to the individual body, but also implied is the church seven times throughout chapter two, paul has made reference to the body, and then he makes again a reference to the elemental spirits that being the worldly and occult and demonic spirits. And then again a few times he references human precepts, teachings and philosophies and arguments. Wisdom and knowledge is something that he references again and then dying with christ or alive with christ or being buried with christ. These are themes that paul is intentionally revisited to unpack in the passage that we are about to read this morning. So without further ado, let me read the passage and then I’ll pray and unpack what all this means for us. This is Colossians. Chapter two verse 16 through 23, it says therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason, by sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. If with christ, you died to the elemental spirits of the world. Why as if you were still alive in the world do you submit to regulations do not handle. Do not taste, do not touch referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings, These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and promoting self made religion and asceticism and severity to the body. But they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. That is the word of God Father, thank you for your word. It is authoritative. It is infallible, is the only rule of faith that you’ve given us, that we may know how to live a life pleasing to you acceptable to you in every way. God I pray that this morning through this teaching, you would sharpen are the sermon by way of your word and your spirit, that we might be able to distinguish between that which is of the world and of the flesh might cling to christ grow in him and glorify you as a result of it. My greatest in christ’s name. Amen. Right. So again, chapter two very important chapter in the letter to the Colossians. It’s a very dense chapter. Being honest with you, a pretty difficult chapter to teach. Not because of the things that are in it, but because of the density of the chapter itself and there’s some things in there that by way of cultural context we’re kind of separated from and it’s hard to kind of really get a grasp on what it said and what it’s meant. But the closing passage that I just read to you really does bring some clarity to what paul is after in this Chapter and why he has written this letter. And that is to expose these false teachers, to expose false teaching, to help the church grow in discernment, to know how to distinguish that which is true and that which is false. And so one of the first things we see and this is in passes, uh, in verse 16 as well as in verse 18, we see that false teaching. Yeah, batteries are dying, it’s flashing on me. Um, I can use a handheld if there’s one good No, there it is, mike, I’m holding turn that one off. So, as I was saying, The false teachers condemn verse 16, Paul says therefore let no one pass judgment on you. And then in verse 18 he says, let let no one disqualify you. So these lost teachers, they were condemning the believers there because the believers were not following a religion or a set of religious rules and values that were like their own. And so paul is saying to this church again, he’s got two voices, one to call the sheet, one to scare off the wolves. He’s saying to the sheet, don’t be condemned by these guys when you choose christ rather than their weirdness, don’t be condemned. Don’t feel condemned. Don’t let them pass judgment on you in such a way that it discourages your faith in christ is what he’s saying to them. So false teachers when you do not comply. When you do not walk in line as they would have you to walk in line according to themselves, not according to christ, they will condemn you for it with christians. We ought to know the difference between condemnation and conviction. That’s very important because both terms are in the bible and both terms are judicial in nature. Both terms have to do with the feeling of guilt, but they have radically different ends. Condemnation seeks to establish the fact that you are reprehensible, worthless, useless, of no use deserving the worse and the severe form of judgment and punishment. And so when someone comes under condemnation, they feel like there is no value, no love, no acceptance, no way to be forgiven. That is condemnation. Satan likes condemnation when you sin. He wants to heat condemnation on you to discourage you. Turning to christ. So we as christians, we need to know the difference between the two conviction. On the other hand, it wants to convince you of the truth. It is to give you a compelling reason of the truth, so that your hearts would turn to the truth, receive the truth, cling to the truth and be forgiven to walk faithfully in it. It’s to turn you away from error. So we see in this passage, the false teachers judging condemning in a way in which people couldn’t be forgiven, they maybe had to pay penance or something to get back into good graces, but we see paul, aiming for conviction, going after conviction, if christ, if you have died with christ, why this? He wants him to see the truth and to turn to christ, that’s not the goal of the false teachers and the false teachers in this setting, they were condemning the people for not being like them in three different categories. The first one had to do with strict adherence to dietary regulations, who says they were passing judgment on people regarding food and drink. Now this is a mixture of old testament, dietary laws, there’s also a concern during that day for christians as well as jews about purchasing meat in the marketplace, meat that may have been sacrificed to an idol that is now being sold in the marketplace, but there’s also a looking back to the prophet Daniel and the three Hebrew youth, my shadow have been to go and their refusal to eat the king’s food, but to only eat vegetables. So there’s a mixture of all three things and these false teachers are saying, unless you embrace this way, you’re not really about it, you’re not really after God, you’re not really following God. And so they condemned them in the category of dietary regulations. Secondly, they condemned them based on a strict and particular observance of jewish holidays and traditions, the jewish calendar year, right, he says with regard to festival or new moon or sabbath, festival being, you know, the Passover, the feast of Booths, the feast of Tabernacles as it relates to a new moon. That that had to do with the harvest and celebrating of that or the first or the beginning of the month and giving thanksgiving to God. That was a command to the old testament. Saints, That was a commandment to Israel, but not to the church. And then as it relates to the sabbath, believe it or not in old testament Israel. There were, there were different types of sabbath and it’s related to the festival. There were special sabbath, right? There’s the regular sabbath, the weekly sabbath, but there were special sabbath. And so they were looking at the church and said unless you kept these things, unless you kept them like we’re keeping them, you really have no part in God. But Paul in Verse 17 says that those things were a shadow. They were a shadow of the things to come. The substance belongs to christ. In other words, he’s saying everything that God gave to you. Old testament Israel in the form of these dietary codes, the calendar year, the special holidays and festivals that was like GPS pointing to a destination and christ is the destination and once we get to christ, we no longer need that. And yet these false teachers not clinging to christ lost sight of who christ is is only committed to these things and the third area that they condemned the people in had to do with the absence of mystical religious experience in the life of these young believers. This had to do with paul calls it worship of angels that they were worshiping angels, that they were claiming to have these visions and experiencing angels again, this may be a reference to what daniel experience in Babylon, them claiming to have a similar experience. Either way, there was, there’s an indication here based on the language paul uses, that they are worshiping them. That implies these guys were asking angels for guidance and protection. Where do you see that in the bible? We don’t. We see the angels at different times were sent in commission to protect God’s people, but we do not see God commanding us to pray to angels for protection. So Verse 16 and 18, the false teachers are condemning passing judgment right, disqualifying these young believers. And paul says, don’t come under their condemnation. Just don’t come under their condemnation. In fact, paul is clearly trying to call them back to christ Crisis, the substance the substance belongs to Christ crisis. The head. These guys in their pursuit of these things. They’ve lost sight of the head, not holding faster. The head that’s verse 19 of which the whole body is nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments. All teachers are condemning paul is calling them back to christ. He’s making them aware of this. He’s after conviction of all teachers. Not only condemn, but they bear deceptive fruit. They appear to have some discipline in keeping with these old testament traditions, and festivals. They appear to have some discipline and keeping the calendar days. They appear to have some discipline with regard to their diets. And if you were a young believer, looking at what these guys are doing and how they are living, you might be tempted to say with all of that discipline and all of that religious vigor that they seem to display, that maybe I should listen to them, maybe I should follow them right? But paul is saying that this is deceptive fruit. Why do we say that? Why do we know that he is calling this deceptive fruit? Well, crisis, the substance they missed him. Christ is the head. They have not held onto him. And then there is not a love for the body, which if we are knitted together in christ, we grow together in christ. There is a love for the body that these guys don’t have. They disqualify you, they judge you for not being like them. They’re bearing deceptive fruit furthermore, in their boasting about these visions, in their boasting about this asceticism. This way of living that looks deeply spiritual paul says that they have become puffed up without reason, by their sensuous minds. There’s no way to reason with them according to christ, to show them the error of their ways straying from christ. They’re so full of pride have become carnal is what he’s saying, you can’t get through to them. That’s an indication that the fruit that they are bearing, that they claim to be bearing in God’s name is actually deceptive fruit saying you need to look at these things, they’re not maintaining and remaining in christ and then look at the pride. The inability be reasoned with. It’s a deceptive fruit. Now, they may have pointed to, you know, all of the old testament examples that I referenced like, hey look, this is what Israel did in the old testament. These are the days that they celebrated. This is how they follow the mill. This is this is how they ate food. These are the things that they did that you also need to do. And if you’re a young belief over in the church in this day and age where you don’t have the complete canon of scripture, you don’t have this bible in front of you, the complete and total revelation of God given to you. You don’t have all of that. You’re waiting for a letter from paul, right? You don’t have that. You might be tempted to go that way even today in our day and age, we might be tempted by guys who get up and in the name of christ, get up and say some very wonky and weird things. We might be tempted to go along with them. How do we know who to trust and what to trust and who to believe? Well, this is what paul is saying. He’s pointing them back to christ, he’s pointing them back to the word of God. Does it keep you in him? Does it show you the depths and the riches of christ? That’s what he’s been talking about throughout this letter. In him is the fullness of the deity. Is this teaching take you that down that road? Or does it take you into some ambiguous mystical religious experience? Furthermore, I like that word. I’ve said it a few times notice we need to know the difference between descriptive events in the bible and prescriptive events in the bible descriptive being a description of what took place. Prescriptive being, Yeah, it’s a description of what took place. And it’s a command. We test you on this. Jacob had two wives. You guys know the name of his two wives, Rachel and leah. Right. That’s descriptive. Is that pre scripter though? It is not, it is descriptive. Right? Here’s one from the New Testament, John Lewis, John nine, Jesus Heals A Blind Man. He spits and dirt and makes mud and puts it on the blind man’s eye. Is that descriptive or prescriptive wrong? That is descriptive? Another situation where he, you know, puts his finger in his mouth and sticks it in the man’s ear. All of its descriptive, it’s not prescriptive, but if we don’t understand the difference between the two, someone can tell us, someone can put pressure on us. That if every blind man, you walk out of this door and see if you don’t look at some dirt spit in and shove it into. You don’t love that man and you don’t love God and you don’t have faith. Some false teaching works. These guys are prideful, can’t be reasoned with. So they go on in great detail about their visions. The guy who wrote this letter to them paul, he wrote a letter to the to the church in Corinth and he said he had seen some visions, but he he was not allowed to talk about it. In fact, God even allowed a messenger of satan to torment him to keep him humble based on what he saw. That’s completely opposite of what these guys are after. So false teachers, they condemn and they bear deceptive fruit. The third thing is that false teaching is powerless in the areas that really matter to God. It’s powerless in the areas that really matter to God. Paul says that the false teaching, he summarizes it. In verse 21 of chapter two, where he says, they emphasize do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, But then he drops the hammer on him actually, he drives the nail into the coffin in verse 23, when he says, these have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but but they are of no value. They are powerless in stopping the indulgence of the flesh, the things that matter the most to God, they are powerless towards those things. That being holiness and the obedience of faith. You’re powerless in those things. Why? Because they take you away from christ? They lead you away from christ. A lot of impressive communicators in the church today, in the world today are supposedly in the church today. How many times we grieve and our hearts are broken. It scandal after scandal after scandal. That’s because in the areas that matter, the most false teaching is powerless. It’s powerless. It’s unable to present you mature in christ. It’s unable to help you to explore the fullness of the depth of the wisdom that is christ. It is unable, as Chapter 3: verse one says to help you to put on Christ. But we’re gonna be getting into next week. It’s powerless in the areas that really matter, holiness and obedience of faith. It’s powerless to keep you to help people to grow and mature in christ. Thinking about this in the context of this whole chapter Colossians 2 2 verse two, where it says, but their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery which is christ, The false teaching is powerless to lead us in that direction. So any time we have a question about a teaching anytime we’re have a question about some practice that someone is trying to encourage us to engage in some kind of religious practice? There’s some questions that we can ask to help us to discern what is of God and what is of man, what is self made religion, what is going to keep us in christ and what will lead us away from christ? There’s some questions we need to ask and I’ve written them down for you. This isn’t a comprehensive list or maybe some other questions we want to add to this leader. Um there may be some questions that you think of, that would be good, but the first one is this we want to ask is it biblical? Where do we find this teaching in the bible? Is the question we wanna ask, Where in the bible, where is it, is it biblical, or is it made up? Is it man made? And then if it is in the bible, we want to make sure that we have an understanding of that which is prescriptive and that which is descriptive, we wanna make sure that we understand what is an imperative, a command of God and what is not, We want to be clear that we know those things before we will entertain some new teaching. Secondly, as we consider the teaching, we wanna ask, how should we understand it in christ? Now that he has come, christ has come? The substance belongs to christ. How should we understand this teaching? In light of jesus christ, having come and died on the cross and have been buried and raised from the dead. How should we understand this teaching in light of him? Thirdly, as we consider the teaching, we want to ask, does it help me to love christ and his church better? That’s what Paul is getting at? And verses 16 through 19, the outcome of it is that they lose Christ, they lose the head and then they’re not unified. There’s no unity, There’s no love. They’re not held together in him because of this false teaching. So does it help me to love christ in the church batter? That’s important. And look loving the church better? Doesn’t mean that we we ignored that the church has spots and wrinkles as a reference to Ephesians? Yeah, we’ve got spots and wrinkles, but loving the church better wants us to pursue greater holiness and faithfulness in christ as a church together. That’s important. And the fourth question is, does it help me or challenge me towards greater faithfulness and fruitfulness in my own life and my walk with christ In my own life? Does it help me? Does it accomplish what Paul said in Chapter one verse 28, bringing me to maturity in Christ. Will it lead me in that will it assist me in that will help me to move forward in that again, Church Washington, Chapter two Very important chapter in this letter, paul names the false believers, not by name and other in other letters in the bible false teachers are named and the false teaching is named here. We know that it’s the colosseum heresy, some kind of mixture of jewish and ambiguous spiritual experiences that has come together, that has come together to lead the people away from christ. And so we see this is a very important chapter and I think for us understanding that anything that we want to put christ’s name on, anything that we want to say is the teaching of christ we need to be looking for in terms of it, calling us a faithfulness in him. It keeping us in him, it not leading us away from him, that’s our commitment, that’s our commitment as a church, that’s our commitment and our community groups and our discipleship groups, that’s our commitment from our instruction to parents with young Children. It is to put christ before them, it is to help them to grow up in christ. It is to help them to treasure christ. That’s a heart. That’s why we’ve got gathered this morning, Sorry, I got some bands on my teeth. They’re messing with me, let me pray for us, father. I’m reminded of the high priestly prayer that jesus prayed, his desire was for us to be one in him to be sanctified by the truth, that we would have love for one another and that the whole world would know that we were sent by him, that we were of him and that we belong to you. The God. Would you help us to be faithful to you? To be faithful to the words of scripture, that we might become, that reality that we might become, as paul said, the hope of glory for this dark world, the people who are bound in sin and in darkness would see a church unified in christ, sanctified by the truth of christ, loving one another and proclaiming christ and be drawn to that good news. So called. Would you help us towards that end? I pray in jesus name and then